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May 30, 2007
Immigration reporting: How to advance it and make it original
By Susan Ferriss
Sacramento Bee
Immigration reporting has been around long enough for stories and themes to start sounding pretty stale. I covered immigration in the mid-1990s, then went to cover Latin America for almost nine years and followed it from that side — and in the U.S., at times. Now I’m back in California covering immigration again.
The basic story hasn’t changed, but the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center altered the framework and the national attitude. Immigration was once ignored almost completely by East Coast papers and national television. Now it’s acknowledged as an essential national story in nearly every state.
Here are some ways to get ahead of the pack and provide deeper, more cutting-edge stories on this subject:
— Remember that immigrants come from all over the world. How they arrived to the United States very often directly reflects foreign policy priorities. These individual or group stories make for good tales.
— Cover the way the immigration and visa system works. Few Americans understand the complexities and limits of the system.
— Cover immigration from American employers’ side of the story, especially when it comes to illegal immigration. How have they circumvented problems with the law, perhaps through subcontracting? Do businesses openly violate the law?
— Look for things that people seem to take for granted in your area and explain them. Puncture myths, look for answers. Listen to the platitudes and assumptions you hear, for instance: “Employers just want cheap labor.” “Immigrants are using up all our health services, and don’t pay taxes." Is it that simple? You can develop great stories from listening to what you hear people repeating because they listen to talk radio and other politically charged media.
— Look for strange bedfellows on immigration. Remember that there is at least one thing that Republican, conservative agribusiness interests and farm labor advocates and union people agree on: there should be a program to allow foreign workers to enter the country and perform farm work legally.
— Look for what the economy in one area means to the rest of the country. The United States is dependent on California for much of its fresh produce, for instance, so the fate of food growers and packers in this state is relevant to the rest of the nation. The meatpacking industries in the Southern states have similar importance. The businesses in Silicon Valley also rely heavily on foreign labor as they lead technology innovation.
— Look for hidden pockets of immigrant labor. Caring for the elderly is a growing occupation in the United States, and providers consider immigrants to be part of the backbone of the labor force in the future.
— Look for any special attempts by employers to incorporate people who are undocumented into communities. Wine grape growers in America’s premiere wine country, Napa, are actively raising money to fund health care policies for workers’ children.
— Look for why immigrants end up in a particular place, and probe the relocation of villagers who now send money home to families. Why did they leave? What’s happened to their home area economically? In today’s globalized economy, it’s not enough to explain migration by saying that people are poor. Stories are always more complicated than that.
When I was a correspondent in Mexico, I wanted to explore the dynamic behind Mexican migration. I reported on the ways in which economic policies pushed by the United States had, in fact, undermined some communities' own business options and prompted more migration.
Some resources for reporting on immigration
— Pew Institute for Hispanic Studies
— National Immigration Forum
— Migration Policy Institute
— Immigration Policy Issues Overview
— Office on Immigration Statistics
— Foreign-born Population Reports
— New America Media News
Don’t forget to consult the SPJ Rainbow Source Book and Diversity Tool Box for a treasure trove of great sources! You’ll find national experts on immigration there who will provide great analysis and direct you to great local sources, too.
The SPJ Rainbow Sourcebook is an online database of qualified experts on key news topics, with an emphasis on sources from populations historically underrepresented in the news: people of color, women, gays and lesbians, and people with disabilities. This valuable tool makes it easy for journalists to improve accuracy and quality by broadening the perspectives and voices in coverage.
The Diversity Toolbox provides a comprehensive set of links to journalism diversity resources and institutions. Accompanying essays offer principles and strategies for improving stories from conception on through to reporting and writing.
Your suggestions and comments welcome. Contact Sally Lehrman, your national diversity chair, at slehrman(at)bestwrit.com.
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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
E-mail
Bio (click to expand)
Ms. Pueng Vongs has two decades of experience in journalism. She is a online producer/editor for Bay Area News Group (MercuryNews.com, InsideBayArea/OaklandTribune.com and ContraCostaTimes.com), where she edits content for the web and leverages social media, multimedia, mapping and mobile tools. She has also worked in financial news at CBS.Marketwatch.com and Money magazine. Vongs’ stories have run in the Chicago Sun-Times, San Francisco Chronicle and NPR among other outlets.
She serves as the diversity chair for SPJ and has spent more than a decade reporting on minority communities, mainly at Pacific News Service/New America Media, the largest association of U.S. ethnic media.
Maria O. Alvarez, vice chair
Freelance journalist
San Francisco, Calif.
Bio (click to expand)
Maria Alvarez has over 15 years of professional experience in broadcast journalism working in different countries and the US. Since 2007, Maria has been working with media non-profits and helping them to understand and reach effectively the Hispanic community in the US. She enjoys being in touch with the community and is very passionate about issues affecting the Latino community.
Her academic degrees include a B.A. in Journalism from the Central University in Venezuela, and a M.A. in Communications from the Catholic University in Santiago, Chile. Once she moved to the US, Maria has continued her professional development. In 2008, she received a Certificate in Non-Profit Management at Cal State University in Oakland, CA. Maria loves traveling with her three year old son, especially to Latin America Countries. Her favorite and most frequent destination is Venezuela, her birthplace and where the majority of her family currently lives.
Diversity Committee Members
George Daniels
Assistant Professor
University of Alabama
Box 870172
Tuscaloosa, AL 35487
(205) 348-8618
E-mail
Bio (click to expand)
George L. Daniels is an associate professor of journalism at the University of Alabama’s College of Communication and Information Sciences. He joined the UA faculty in 2003 after completing his master's and Ph.D. degrees at The University of Georgia’s Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication.
As a graduate student, Daniels participated in the University of Georgia’s SPJ Campus Chapter. But, his first experience with SPJ came when he received a scholarship from the Washington DC Chapter of what was then Sigma Delta Chi (SDX) in the early 1990s. In 2006, Daniels was a 2006 SPJ Diversity Leadership Fellow and 2007 Scripps Institute Fellow.
In addition to serving as co-adviser for the Univesity of Alabama SPJ Chapter, Daniels previously served as chair of the SPJ Journalism Education Commitee.
Certified in 2009 by the Journalism Education Association as a "Master Journalism Educator," Daniels teaches classes in media management and cross-media reporting and writing. Before moving into the academic arena, Daniels worked as a news producer at WTVR-TV in Richmond, Va., WLWT-TV in Cincinnati, Ohio and WXIA-TV in Atlanta. He is a cum laude graduate of Howard University in Washington, DC.
Bonnie Davis
Associate Professor Journalism
Virginia Commonwealth University
Holly Edgell
University of Missouri
Columbia, Mo.
Sandy Frost
Online Investigative Journalist
Newsvine.com
Tacoma, WA
Bio (click to expand)
Sandy Frost, Online Investigative Journalist. Publishes on Newsvine.com. Writing online since 2001. Professional experience includes daily news, daily copy editing, radio news, techincal writing and magazine writing. Nine years experience investigating issues of nonprofit compliance, transparency and accountability. Served term as director for Western Washington Pro Chapter. Instrumental in our chapter being awarded National Diversity award for 2008 as well as being named Best Pro Chapter in 2007 and 2008. Four SPJ awards. Author, "Shriners' Shame: The Dark Side of the World's Greatest Philanthropy."
Ray Hanania
The Media Oasis
Chicago, Ill.
Leo Laurence
Editor, San Diego News Service
Linda Jue
New Voices in Independent Journalism
San Francisco, Calif.
Bio (click to expand)
Linda Jue was president of SPJ-NorCal for two and a half years and vice president for three. She is director of New Voices in Independent Journalism, a national initiative dedicated to building a diverse pool of independent investigative journalists and public intellectuals who can bring the emerging perspectives of the country's changing demographics, as well as the next generation of youth, to public interest reporting. She is the former associate director and founding staff member of the Independent Press Association, where she directed several cutting-edge national journalism programs.
Before going to the IPA, she directed San Francisco State University's Community Press Consortium, the first professional training program20in the country for journalists working in the community and ethnic press. She was a member of the founding collaborative of New California Media, now called New America Media, and directed the judging for the first two years of the New California Media Awards.
Linda is a former associate of the Center for Investigative Reporting and a former editor at San Francisco Focus magazine. She also worked as the Northern California correspondent for C-SPAN. Her work has appeared in San Francisco Focus, Los Angeles Times Syndicate, Toronto Globe and Mail, GEO, MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour, PBS Frontline and other outlets. She was a longstanding member, board director and president of Media Alliance during its years as a professional journalism and media watchdog organization. Linda is well-known in national media reform and media diversity circles. She is also a contributing member of a Bay Area travel writing group that has published three collections of travel essays through Traveler’s Tales.
Linda has won two Thomas Moore Storke International Journalism Awards and a Maggie Certificate of Excellence for Feature Writing.
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
Santa Clara University
Montara, Calif.
slehrman(at)bestwrit.com
Bio (click to expand)
Sally Lehrman 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.
Aiesha D. Little
Associate Editor
Cincinnati Magazine
513/562-2772
E-mail
Bio (click to expand)
Aiesha D. Little is the associate editor for Cincinnati Magazine, a glossy city/regional publication covering Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky. Chief among her duties are writing features and departments, assigning and editing the calendar section, and managing the magazine's editorial internship program.
Little started her journalism career in newspapers before switching to magazines while pursuing a master's degree at Xavier University. Her daily news work has appeared in The Saginaw (MI) News, The Detroit News, and The Poughkeepsie (NY) Journal. After interning with both the special sections and editorial departments of Cincinnati Magazine, she headed to Chicago to work as the associate editor for EdTech Magazine, an education technology quarterly. She returned to Cincinnati Magazine as the associate editor in 2004.
Little's involvement in the Society of Professional Journalists goes back to her undergraduate years at Central Michigan University, where she served as the chair of her chapter's diversity committee. She is also a member of the National Association of Black Journalists and professional advisor to the University of Cincinnati Association of Black Journalists.
Ray Marcano
Dayton Daily News
Dayton, Ohio
Rebecca Tallent
University of Idaho
Moscow, Idaho
E-mail
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.
Georgiana Vines
Retired Associate Editor
Knoxville News Sentinel
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