Biases & Overlooked Communities in our Coverage

 

Hi Everyone! 

Biases hold a lot of taboo around it, but it isn’t something that should be avoided. As hard as we try, we all hold unconscious biases. What matters is the choices we make to acknowledge our unconscious biases & work to prevent them in our everyday life to broaden our understanding of the communities around us. 

In my more recent discussions with community leaders at USC, the impact of the journalist consistently came up. When it comes to organizations like the Native American Student Assembly (NASA) and the Student Assembly for Accessibility (SAA) journalism is an important part of their organizational expansion.

 

Both are new to USG and haven’t  coverage as other organizations. We shouldn’t only subject a single day of the year to covering orgs like NASA. It is within the same conversation of solely celebrating someone’s identity on a single day or month. What about the rest of the year? Do they disappear? No. They are always there.

I’m not saying pivot all stories to these communities. What I’m saying is that there are many stories to share as well. It’s great to see a story featuring SAA in the pipeline about Zoom’s accessibility, or lack thereof. I encourage everyone to think outside & beyond the world they know. 

Expansiveness of APASA

Building off of the expansiveness of APASA, also note that the Asian community doesn’t just include southeast Asians. South Asians, including Indians, Pakistanis, Bangladeshis, etc., are also part of the Asian community. So, when referring to the Asian population, it is important to acknowledge how large that population is and who we are including in that reporting. 

Editing

We have a lot of stories that have A LOT of reporters on them. In the editing process of these stories, I would like for editors to take note of what was added by each reporter because they are coming from different perspectives and backgrounds. 

When it comes to sensitive stories, this is where heavy oversight may be required. It is important to look over the copy and see what voices are present, which ones are overpowering the others, and edit accordingly.

I’d also like to encourage people to check back in with sources to ensure we are properly quoting. When speaking with the QuASA director, this was something he brought up when looking back at previous stories he’s been interviewed in. I know journalists are required to keep the sources out of the writing process, but when it comes to reporting on sensitive topics and diverse communities, it is okay to let them see the section where they are quoted. This helps avoid misquoting. It doesn’t jeopardize the article if it is for the sake of fact-checking. 

As always, keep up the good work! If you need help with any articles, definitely reach out! 

 

Best, 

Steven