Should journalists report on hate speech?

Hardika Singh

hs152416@ohio.edu

 

The primary purpose of a journalist's job is to bring awareness to issues. But in the cases of hate speech, it becomes difficult to determine whether to report or not. In a time when the number of hate crimes in the U.S. has reached the highest level in more than a decade, journalists must learn how to walk the fine line of reporting on hate speech without amplifying it. 

Speech that demeans on the basis of race, ethnicity, gender, religion, age, disability, or any other similar ground is hateful, according to Samuel Alito. Hate speech aims to bring harm to the members of a specific community. 

A few argue that a journalist should report on hate speech because it is an aspect of their job. If they do not, then they are molding the truth about just how hateful some people are and misleading a society about the hatefulness within it. This same viewpoint argues that instead of the journalist, the society should be given the power to decide whether the speech is truly hateful. 

Picture source: Fortune

All journalists have their own biases, no matter how hard they try to hide them from the public. Thus, the journalists should fulfill their duty of bringing awareness to a topic by reporting on even hate speech. This, however, should be done carefully, so as not to provide a platform and to avoid any potential violence. 

Journalists must answer the following questions to fully analyze hate speech before deciding to report on it: 

1) What is the news? Is a prominent person making hateful comments? Is somebody unexpectedly making comments? Is there a protest or a rally happening around hate speech? What makes the hate speech new to the reader? 

2) What is the context? Is there a history of hate speech from a speaker, a group or a rally? What information does the reader need to know to fully understand a story? What is the real issue?  

3) Are you reporting on all sides of a story? Did you cover all opposing views? Do you need to go into detail about the contents of the hate speech? 

Just because a journalist might still decide to report on hate speech does not mean they must quote the statements verbatim. Being sensitive to the vitriolic nature of hate speech, journalists should consider paraphrasing or alluding to main points of the original quotes without restating them word-for-word. Lastly, all journalists should still aim to prevent the glorification of hateful speech by minimizing harm, as dictated by the SPJ code of ethics.