Reporting on Marginalized Communities

 Sydney Walters 

sw844317@ohio.edu 

Especially in recent times, articles and reporting on events surrounding marginalized communities have dominated social media and every single news site. Most of the time, this reporting occurs on events and movements that harm these marginalized communities and calls for reporting that doesn't perpetuate the harm but doesn't over sensationalize these events. Considering the events and movements that dominate this reporting aspect are susceptible, there needs to be a healthy balance on how these things are reported. 

Protests and BLM 

More recently, in the memory of journalists and the public is the reporting on the protests surrounding the Black Lives Matter movement during the summer of 2020, following right on the heels of early reporting on Covid, another sensitive topic in American journalism. The Council on Foreign Relations summarized the thoughts of Dr. Danielle Kilgo, professor of journalism, diversity, and inclusion at the Hubbard School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Minnesota, on the reporting of these racially surrounded events. Journalism tends to follow the status quo. Since this society is built on white supremacy, and these protests challenged the status quo, she saw a significant bias in the reporting, especially on moderate news sites. The reporting she spoke of focuses more on the obscure things protestors were doing and wearing and the damage they caused but doesn't outwardly express the grievances and issues the protestors had. In an era where non-diverse individuals dominate the newsroom, this implicit bias will always remain, and reporting will always follow the status quo of this society. That further emphasizes the need for a diverse newsroom. 

#MeToo Movement

The second marginalized community that has been in the news as of late is sexual assault survivors. In 2018, Truthdig explored how news organizations, specifically themselves, reported on sexual assaults as these were relatively new stories, especially in the magnitude they were occurring. Like the BLM movement, journalists were accused of using these movements as political tools to promote, if not a plan that went against the status quo. Still, hatred for political figures, especially considering the initial reports in the #MeToo movement were against politicians. Again, this calls for finding a balance in reporting and biases, especially in a field that is primarily dominated by left-winged beliefs. 

There must be action to report the truth, not skewed by politics, but also not sensationalized for clicks and views. Both groups discussed are fragile and need not be the center of a political movement or politicized newsroom, but need to see the facts and their stories reported for good.