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MODULE 5 Questions Regarding Ethnicity

The following questions and answers are presented for your use in the discussion with the group. Focus the discussion around specific examples from the experiences of the participants. The answers provided below are to be considered a beginning and not the end. Allow the participants enough time to debate whether ethnic or racial identification was appropriate in the stories you are using as examples. The participants will raise issues that the leader must be prepared to actively engage, question or develop as they are made in order to assist the entire group to have a meaningful discussion. At the end of the discussion, the seminar leader should recap the conclusions of the group. The notes from these sessions should be preserved to continue to expand on the questions and answers on the issue of ethnicity and reporting in the region.

Question: When is race or ethnicity relevant?

Answer: Generally, race or ethnicity are not relevant in a story unless ethnicity is the factor that is at the core of the story. In stories involving politics, social action or social conditions, ethnicity is not automatically relevant. Writers should be careful not to let their word choices let the reader infer that ethnicity is an issue.

Example: In large cities, one ethnic group may own particular kinds of small stores or business establishments. Those stores often become targets of vandalism and hatred on the part of other groups. Even so, in reporting a specific vandalism, a reporter should not assume that it is ethnically motivated. At first blush, ethnicity may be key. However, a closer look and good sourcing in the neighborhood may indicate other causes of the violence, including interpersonal relationships among people who reside in a particular neighborhood. Under these circumstances, ethnicity is a minor factor and reporting should not lead the reader to believe that members of a different group are out to destroy or harm members of another group.

Question: Who Decides whether there is a racial or ethnic angle?

Answer: Journalists should not assume the burden of deciding whether an incident has ethnic or racial overtones. The facts of the story should present enough fodder for race or ethnic issues to lead the story framework. Often a government source will tell the journalist that race or ethnicity are elements of the story. Official statements can be tested by talking with representatives from the communities involved. Develop sources across racial and ethnic lines and at least there will always be multiple points of view on this question in your story if officials maintain that an incident or an issue has a racial or ethnic angle. Challenge the same officials with questions that probe "why?" they have determined there is an ethnic issue at play.

Example: Police label gang warfare as ethnic warfare. Once the reporter asks why, she finds the police have concluded the warfare is ethnic because one gang is from one ethnic group and another gang is from another ethnic group. But in fact, the warfare was triggered by a turf war over lucrative illegal drug trade on the streets of your city. The war had to do with territory based on economics vs. ethnic strife. Might there be an ethnic element in this story? Possibly. However, it is not necessarily the most important reason for the conflict and therefore caution should be used in determining what importance the reporter will ascribe to ethnic issues in his story.

Question: What should people be called?

Answer: One way to deal with this issue is to ask the source - the person you are quoting or referring to - how he or she prefers to be described and that can be accomplished by simply asking. However, it is the general rule that only where ethnicity of a source is relevant to the subject of the story should it be used in the story.

Remember, a picture tells more than a thousand words. Often the ethnic identity of sources can be communicated effectively through the use of pictures in newspapers and television. Where possible, why not show your source as the real person he or she is instead of indirectly characterizing her?

Question: What about immigrants?

Answer: The same rule applies. Avoid lumping all immigrants into classes. For example: Africans, Asians. The reader or viewer receives more information if you provide specific details about where the person is from. A person from America could be from Canada, the United States or Latin America. The reader learns nothing when we say that the person in the story is from Asia; more important to the story is the country that the person is from. Tell the reader the nation, state or the city where relevant. Africa is a large continent. Tell the reader what nation the person is from. The critical rule: Provide the reader or viewer with specific information.