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On Oct. 6 at its National Convention in Seattle, the Society of
Professional Journalists passed a resolution urging members and fellow journalists
to take steps against racial profiling in their coverage of the war on terrorism
and to reaffirm their commitment to:
— Use language that is informative and not inflammatory;
— Portray Muslims, Arabs and Middle Eastern and South Asian Americans
in the richness of their diverse experiences;
— Seek truth through a variety of voices and perspectives that
help audiences understand the complexities of the events in Pennsylvania,
New York City and Washington, D.C.
Guidelines
Visual images
— Seek out people from a variety of ethnic and religious backgrounds
when photographing Americans mourning those lost in New York, Washington and
Pennsylvania.
— Seek out people from a variety of ethnic and religious backgrounds
when photographing rescue and other public service workers and military personnel.
— Do not represent Arab Americans and Muslims as monolithic groups.
Avoid conveying the impression that all Arab Americans and Muslims wear traditional
clothing.
— Use photos and features to demystify veils, turbans and other
cultural articles and customs.
Stories
— Seek out and include Arabs and Arab Americans, Muslims, South
Asians and men and women of Middle Eastern descent in all stories about the
war, not just those about Arab and Muslim communities or racial profiling.
— Cover the victims of harassment, murder and other hate crimes
as thoroughly as you cover the victims of overt terrorist attacks.
— Make an extra effort to include olive-complexioned and darker
men and women, Sikhs, Muslims and devout religious people of all types in
arts, business, society columns and all other news and feature coverage, not
just stories about the crisis.
— Seek out experts on military strategies, public safety, diplomacy,
economics and other pertinent topics who run the spectrum of race, class,
gender and geography.
— When writing about terrorism, remember to include white supremacist,
radical anti-abortionists and other groups with a history of such activity.
— Do not imply that kneeling on the floor praying, listening
to Arabic music or reciting from the Quran are peculiar activities.
— When describing Islam, keep in mind there are large populations
of Muslims around the world, including in Africa, Asia, Canada, Europe, India
and the United States. Distinguish between various Muslim states; do not lump
them together as in constructions such as "the fury of the Muslim world."
— Avoid using word combinations such as "Islamic terrorist"
or "Muslim extremist" that are misleading because they link whole
religions to criminal activity. Be specific: Alternate choices, depending
on context, include "Al Qaeda terrorists" or, to describe the broad
range of groups involved in Islamic politics, "political Islamists."
Do not use religious characterizations as shorthand when geographic, political,
socioeconomic or other distinctions might be more accurate.
— Avoid using terms such as "jihad" unless you are
certain of their precise meaning and include the context when they are used
in quotations. The basic meaning of "jihad" is to exert oneself
for the good of Islam and to better oneself.
— Consult the Library of Congress guide for transliteration of
Arabic names and Muslim or Arab words to the Roman alphabet. Use spellings
preferred by the American Muslim Council, including "Muhammad,"
"Quran," and "Makkah ," not "Mecca."
— Regularly seek out a variety of perspectives for your opinion
pieces. Check your coverage against the five Maynard Institute for Journalism
Education fault lines of race and ethnicity, class, geography, gender and
generation.
— Ask men and women from within targeted communities to review
your coverage and make suggestions.
Web resources on this topic
— Informational
Resources on Arab-Americans, the Arab World and Islam
— The Quran online (1
or 2)
— The South Asian Journalists Association provides a stylebook,
sources and a roundup of coverage for journalists.
— Newswatch is a site
dedicated to diversity in journalism, with commentary on media performance.
It is a project of the Center for Integration and Improvement of Journalism
of San Francisco State University and a collaboration between the Native American
Journalists Association, the National Association of Hispanic Journalists,
the National Association of Black Journalists, the Asian American Journalists
Association and the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association.
— Maynard Institute for
Journalism Education
— The Religion Newswriters Association maintains an extensive set of resources on religion and covering religion.
— The mission of the Anti-Defamation League is to combat anti-Semitism
andbigotry of all kinds. One section of its Web
site details how ADL leaders have responded to anti-Muslim and anti-Arab-American
violence.
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Diversity
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Diversity Committee
On both chapter and national levels, SPJ provides an open forum for the discussion of diversity issues in journalism. This committee's purpose is to promote a broader voice in newsrooms across the country and expand the depth and quality of news reports through better sourcing. Its ongoing project is the compilation of experts — primarily women, gays and lesbians, people of color and people with disabilities — through the Society's Diversity Source Book. The Society's relevance to its member is based on inclusiveness.
Diversity Committee Chair
Pueng Vongs
Bio (click to expand)
Pueng Vongs has more than 14 years experience as a journalist. She began her early career in financial journalism working for Money magazine and CBS.Marketwatch.com. She also reported from her native Thailand working for Bangkok-based Manager magazine and contributed articles to the Asian Wall Street Journal. Today she is an associate editor at Pacific News Service/New America Media in San Francisco, which produces original, youth and ethnic media content covering the nation’s growing ethnic communities. Her writing has appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle, Audubon magazine, Chicago Sun Times, Oakland Tribune, California magazine among others. She also works as an associate producer for the UpFront on KALW 91.7 FM in San Francisco. She has contributed radio pieces to KQEDâs Pacific Time and NPRâs the Travis Smiley Show. Among her SPJ posts Vongs serves as vice president for the Nor Cal board in 2006, was a member of the planning committee for the chapter’s multi-cultural writers conference, and was a national diversity leader fellow in 2005.
Diversity Committee Members
Robert Anthony
Editor, Stadium Circle Features
Marco Dominguez
Station manager, WIIH-Univision
Bio (click to expand)
Marco Dominguez is the station manager/anchor for WIIH-Univision for Indiana. He has been with WIIH since its inception in February 2003. Dominguez brings over twenty years of experience in the fields of television and radio to WIIH. In addition, he is one of the anchors for Community Link, a community show aired on Saturdays on WISH-TV. In 1980, Dominguez came to Indiana to study at Vincennes University and later at Butler University, where he received his Bachelor's Degree in Radio & Television Production. Soon after, Dominguez returned to Venezuela where he began his own production house and served as an advisor/director for Flamingo TV in Bonaire.
Dominguez returned to Indianapolis in 1993 to obtain his master's degree in Telecommunication Arts at Butler University. In December 1993, he received an offer from Butler University to be the Director of Productions for WTBU, the university's television station. He has become a pioneer in the field of bilingual communication, working in radio at WAJC 104.5 FM and television at WTBU.
Dominguez was nominated by the U.S. Small Business Administration as “Indiana Small Business Journalist of the Year” in 2004. He also is an active member of the community. Dominguez is involved in organizations such as the Indianapolis Press Club Foundation, National Association of Hispanic Journalists, Better Business Bureau, United Way Central Indiana Committee on Diversity, American Heart Association Board of Directors and many more. He is married to Morella Dominguez and has three children, Marcos Alfredo, Gabriel Jose, and Betania Morella.
Beth Haller
Associate Professor, Towson University
Web site
Bio (click to expand)
Beth Haller is associate professor of journalism at Towson University in Maryland. She has been researching media images of disability since 1991. Her media and disability research has subsequently been published in Disability Studies Quarterly, Disability & Society, Journalism Studies, Journal of Popular Film and Television, Research in Social Science and Disability, Journal of Comic Art, Journal of Magazine and New Media Research, Mass Comm Review, and Journalism History. She also has written a number of book chapters on the topic and has been a media research consultant for the NIDDR-funded Center for an Accessible Society in San Diego.
Haller has worked as a county government, health and environment, and general assignment reporter at the Amarillo (Texas) Globe-News, The Ruidoso (NM) News, and The Southern Illinoisan. She worked in the area of computer-assisted reporting at the San Jose (CA) Mercury-News in 1997 as an American Society of Newspaper Editors (ASNE) Fellow.
She has worked at Towson University since 1996, where she teaches Newswriting, Feature Writing, Media Law, News Reporting, and Magazine Publishing. She is the co-author of An Introduction to News Reporting: A Beginning Journalist's Guide (Allyn & Bacon, 2005).
Ray Hanania
Freelance columnist
Bio (click to expand)
Ray Hanania is a veteran Chicago political reporter and Middle East columnist. He covered Chicago City Hall from "Daley to Daley" and currently writes a political column for the Southwest News-Herald in Chicago. Hanania is Palestinian American. He writes a syndicated column analyzing Middle East issues for newspapers around the world including Israel's Yedioth Ahronoth, Palestine's Sharq alAwsaat, Saudi Arabia's Arab News, and newspapers in the United States including Newsday, the Orlando Sentinel, and regularly for the Chicago regional Arlington Heights Daily Herald, originally distributed by Creators Syndicate but that he self-syndicates today. He is two-time winner of the SPJ Chicago Headline Club's Peter Lisagor Award, a co-founder of the National Arab American Journalists Association, and the author of eight books including the humor book "I'm Glad I Look Like a Terrorist: Growing Up Arab in America." Hanania also performs Arab American standup comedy that lampoons his life and unusual marriage to his wife, Alison, who is Jewish.
Leo Laurence
Editor, San Diego News Service
Curtis Lawrence
Journalism Faculty, Columbia College Chicago
Bio (click to expand)
Curtis Lawrence joined the Columbia College Chicago faculty in 2004 after working for nearly 20 years as an urban affairs reporter. Since 1980 he has worked at six daily newspapers and at the Chicago Reporter, a monthly publication that focuses on issues of race and poverty. Most recently, Lawrence worked at the Chicago Sun-Times where he covered a number of urban issues, including extensive coverage of the Chicago Housing Authority’s plan to replace its high-rises with mixed-income housing.
Lawrence earned a master’s degree in journalism from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism and a bachelor’s degree in English Literature and Mass Communications from Augustana College in Rock Island, Ill.
Lawrence has been active with diversity issues for the past two years. He is involved with recruitment and retention issues at Columbia with a special focus on diversity. He and Nancy Day, the Journalism Department chair, were instrumental in securing a grant from the McCormick Tribune Foundation to direct an outreach and journalism education program for Chicago Public Schools students and teachers.
Sally Lehrman
Science and medical writer
Montara, Calif.
Work: 650/728-8211
slehrman(at)bestwrit.com
Bio (click to expand)
Sally Lehrman is a director at large for the SPJ National Board of Directors. Additionally, she is an award-winning reporter and writer for some of the top names in national print and broadcast media. Her byline credits include Scientific American, Nature, Health, the Washington Post, Salon.com and the DNA Files, distributed by NPR. She specializes in medical and science policy reporting, with an emphasis on genetics, race and sexuality. Distinguished honors include the 1995-96 John S. Knight Fellowship; a shared 2002 Peabody award, Peabody/Robert Wood Johnson Award for excellence in health and medical programming, and Columbia/Du Pont Silver Baton (for the DNA Files); and reporting and writing awards from SPJ, Case, and other organizations.
Besides SPJ, Lehrman is active in several organizations that promote diversity in the media. Her volunteer work in diversity has been recognized by the 2003 Wells Key, a 2002 SPJ President’s Award, the 1998 Howard Dubin Outstanding Pro Member Award and an award for service to the NorCal SPJ chapter. She is author of News in a New America, a fresh take on developing an inclusive U.S. news media, and is a USC Annenberg Institute for Justice and Journalism Expert Fellow. Lehrman also serves as SPJ’s Diversity Committee chairperson.
Andrea Lewis
Co-Host, The Morning Show, KPFA-FM
Bio (click to expand)
Andrea Lewis is a veteran journalist with over 20 years of experience as a writer, editor and broadcaster. She is currently co-host/producer of "The Morning Show," which airs on Pacifica Radio's flagship station KPFA in Berkeley. During her career, Lewis has worked in the editorial departments of HarperSanFrancisco (a division of HarperCollins Publishers), Pacific News Service and Mother Jones magazine, among others.
Lewis is a regular contributor to The Progressive magazine and The Progressive Media Project (where she is also a member of the advisory board). Her essays and articles have appeared in a number of publications including USA Today, The Miami Herald, The Baltimore Sun, Mother Jones magazine, and The Black Women’s Health Book. Andrea has also been a contributing writer for Snap.com, Gay.com., and other Internet sites.
Lewis’s media activism has included work with the National Radio Project, the Feminist Publishing Alliance, and Media Alliance, and she has received awards for her broadcast work from the National Federation of Community Broadcasters, and the California Teachers Association. A veteran performing artist, Andrea is a 20-year member of the Grammy-winning San Francisco Symphony Chorus.
Ray Marcano
Deputy Managing Editor, Dayton Daily News
Bio (click to expand)
Ray Marcano is Internet general manager at Cox Ohio Publishing. Marcano has held multiple editing positions with Cox Newspapersâ Dayton Daily News during the past 21 years, including a supervising role for multimedia as deputy managing editor. He has won several awards for his reporting work, and his editing positions include night city editor, sports editor, and metro editor. The New York native is a former national president of SPJ.
Mike McQueen
AP Bureau Chief, New Orleans
Bio (click to expand)
Mike McQueen has been a journalist for nearly 30 years for large news organizations. He now is assistant chief of bureau for the Associated Press’ operations in Louisiana and Mississippi. For Gannett, he was on the national reporting staff of USA Today and the regional reporting staff for Gannett News Service. For Knight-Ridder, he served as managing editor in Macon, Georgia, day city editor of The Miami Herald and a reporter for the Tallahassee Democrat. He has been on the journalism faculty at Florida International University and the University of Miami. He helped direct coverage for two Pulitzer Prize winning stories — Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and Hurricane Andrew in 1992. He is a graduate of Florida State and Florida Atlantic universities.
Tommy Valuckas
Waterbury Republican-American
Samaruddin Stewart
Senior Photography Editor, AOL News
Bio (click to expand)
Samaruddin "Sam" Stewart, Senior Photography Editor, is part of a team that edits and presents editorial photography on AOL News for millions of daily viewers. He earned both his B.A. in Journalism and his Masters of Mass Communication degrees from Arizona State University. Before embracing multimedia journalism, he worked for several newspapers in Arizona including the East Valley Tribune and the Arizona Republic.
Before joining AOL, Sam worked as a photography editor at Agence France-Presse in Washington D.C. In addition to editing photographs for AOL News, Sam occasionally photographs for AOL; coverage has included both the 2004 Republican and Democrat national conventions, the 2005 Bush Inauguration, immigration issues along the Arizona/Mexico border, Live 8 in Philadelphia, and the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans.
Sam also has interests in aviation travel and photography. His aviation experience includes documenting a 56-day around the world trip in 2001 which turned into a photographic book and a 25-day air race in New Zealand in 2004. Sam is in the initial phase of planning another adventure around the world via the Poles, presently scheduled for late 2007.
Sam lives in New York City and is an active member of the National Press Photographers’ Association, the White House News Photographers’ Association, and Society of Professional Journalists. Sam also has presented at SPJ's annual convention, NPPA's Northern Short Course in Photojournalism and has been a guest lecturer for the Department of Defense Armed Forces Information Service. In July 2006, Sam was awarded the SPJ Diversity Leadership Grant for 2006-2007.
Venise Wagner
Associate Department Chair, San Francisco State University
Bio (click to expand)
Venise Wagner is an assistant professor of journalism at San Francisco State University. She spent 12 years as a reporter for various California dailies, including the Hearst-owned San Francisco Examiner and San Francisco Chronicle. While at the Examiner, she covered Education and issues in the Bay Area's various black communities. She also was a religion and ethics reporter for The Orange County Register and The Modesto Bee. Her work has been published in Mother Jones, Parade and Hope magazine. Her interest in improving diversity in the news and giving voice to marginalized communities has led her toward the practice and instruction of public journalism. At San Francisco State, she developed a public journalism course that has sent students to the Bayview Hunters Point and the Mission districts and Oakland's San Antonio district to write about undercovered issues in those neighborhoods.
Wagner graduated with a bachelor's in chemistry from the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana and a master's in Latin American Students from the Monterey Institute of International Studies. She is currently working on a content analysis of the coverage of slave reparations in the mainstream print media. She is also working on an historical novel about the rise and fall of black colony in Southern California called Allensworth.
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