Hate Needs to be Correctly Addressed in the Media

 Payton Szymczak 

ps692718@ohio.edu

notyap5968@gmail.com

White supremacy in America is not covered the way it should be to its full intensity. In the newsroom, word choice needs to be addressed when it comes to terror in America. Challenges are approached when it comes to journalists choosing the right words, and images featured in their work. 

Words and images used by journalists should be accurate. They have the responsibility to be showing truth to the public. In the article on Poynter, How journalists should handle racist words, images and violence in Charlottesville, the author states, "Bring context to the video and still photos you select. Your first duty is to explain what happened. Choose images that accurately reflect the events as they unfolded." The captions, narration, language, and word choice used should accurately display the images chosen, and the event behind the image. The article also explains how journalists should not assume that the audience reading the story already know and understand the content the journalist is displaying.  

Certain topics should be more common and intensified in the newsroom. For example, an article, White-supremacy threat demands its own beat reporters, on Columbia Journalism Review. discusses the issues regarding how the media covers white supremacy, and refers to the violent events in Charlottesville. The author states, "If more newsrooms covered white supremacy with the intensity it deserves, fewer white people might have been surprised by the events in Charlottesville...The media is preoccupied with race only when turmoil arises, such as in Ferguson and Baltimore, he argues, but over time race gets pushed down a newsroom's list of priorities." 

Making the white supremacy issue a priority in the newsroom can be an improvement. For example, the article, White-supremacy threat demands its own beat reporters, states, "By making the white supremacy beat a priority, newsrooms will cultivate reporters who grow in expertise, can avoid using PR-inspired descriptions such as "alt-right", and produces stories less superficial than some of the white nationalist coverage we've seen since the election." 

Image: The Parliament Magazine

Hate needs to be correctly displayed to the public in the media. In the article, What We Discovered During a Year of Documenting Hate, on ProPublica, the author discusses how hate crimes are poorly tracked in America. The media is in need of doing a better job accurately providing information about the hate occurring in America, so that people better understand the truth behind violent events.