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The coordinator must walk a fine line between guiding the process so that things proceed smoothly and allowing the reporters enough inde-pendence to make the project their own. To do this successfully, you should stay in the background but participate in daily activities as much as time and place permit. At this stage, the coordinator will: 1. Continue to facilitate communication within the team, mediate discussions: Ensure that discussions don't escalate into potentially divisive argu-ments. Generally keep the group inspired and enthusiastic about the series. 2. Apply the theoretical ideas discussed during the first week to real-life sce-narios that crop up during the reporting: For example, you might discuss how a reporter's plans to interview an professor who is also an ethnic minority would illustrate "mainstreaming." In general, this means showing each ethnic community in its fullness and complexity, rather than limiting them to certain categories, such as sports, crime, or en-tertainment. For instance, photos that show one group only as back-wards fundamentalists are misleading and play to stereotypes. (For more information on mainstreaming, turn to Page 36.) 3. Attend interviews with team members whenever possible to stay actively involved and to observe first hand how the interviews are panning out. Use this time to assess the reporters' interviewing techniques and to gauge the need for additional training. Step in to ask follow-up or additional questions if an interview is drawing to a close with crucial information or details still missing. Keep track of the information collected so the series can use it to maximum advantage. Attending interviews also demonstrates that you aren't afraid to wade into the daily fray of reporting. When the time comes to edit the stories, you'll have more authority to recommend changes if the reporters know that your suggestions come from observation in the field, instead of second guesses from a newsroom cubicle. 4. Constantly monitor overall progress on the project. Be willing to change strategy as needed once the team is in the field. Flexibility is key to surviving the next two weeks because some stories may not pan out, and others may arise as the reporters unearth new information. By meeting daily for debriefing, you can mediate problems as they arise and keep on top of the constantly changing dynamics, both among the journalists themselves and within the stories they are reporting.
1. For the reporters: An inter-ethnic team reinforces the cross-cultural aspect of the project by forcing reporters to work together in preparing and conducting interviews. This strategy also pays off when reporters sit down to write. They may find that one person has taken better notes or remembers a particular quote that the other has forgotten. One reporter may also recall what a source was wearing, what his apartment looked like, and what he ate for breakfast, all vibrant details that can add color to a story. By scouring each others' notes to fill in parts of the puzzle, the reporters learn to work together and rely on each other. This strengthens the journalistic and personal bonds be-tween them. Conversely, two reporters may recall an interview completely differ-ently. In that case, a reporter may be dispatched back to the source to clarify what he or she said in a way that satisfies everyone. 2. For gaining access to sources: A cross-cultural reporting team can gain access to places and people normally off limits to reporters from other ethnicities. For instance, ethnic, religious, cultural and language barriers might prevent a Macedonian reporter from gaining entree into the home of a rural Albanian family. However, in a Macedonian-Albanian reporting team, the Albanian reporter could make introductions, translate the discussions, and reassure the family about the purpose of their visit. It would also signal to the family that this is an unusual reporting team, to be trusted precisely because it is a hybrid. As the interview unfolds, the reporters may find themselves amazed at the entry they receive into the lives of people from a group whom they perhaps distrusted or never really considered as individuals before. They will also recognize the benefits of such a team and may want to incorporate such an approach into reporting future stories. 3. For the public: The stories, published with the box explaining the project, will put the public on notice that they are about to experience an unusual type of journalism. As readers learn that the team included journalists from their own ethnic background, they may be more will-ing to "trust" the stories instead of dismissing them as biased or filled with propaganda from "the other side." On the other hand, readers may perceive the ethnic journalists as selling out. The team has no way to control this possibility.
Help the reporters to find common ground among one another. Conflicts and arguments are bound to arise within the group; mediate immediately when they do. Don't let bad feelings fester. Be aware that disparate cultural mores among reporters can hinder communication. For in-stance, in former Communist countries, reporters may be reluctant to speak out after decades of being conditioned that the only safe way to behave was to agree with superiors and keep your mouth shut. In any country, including the United States, even enlightened, highly educated people may feel uncomfortable with frank discussions in an ethnically mixed setting. Likewise, certain traditional cultures consider it uncouth for women to act assertively, critique the comments of others, or offer opinions, es-pecially if those conflict with statements made by others in the group. In Macedonia, the most reticent member of the reporting team was a bright but very shy Turkish woman who felt uncomfortable asking pointed questions of sources, making follow-up phone calls, or disa-greeing with the opinions of other group members. Yet underneath her reticence, she clearly had strong opinions and ideas. In some places, it is extremely rude to criticize the opinions of others or voice strong opinions of one's own. Is this holding some of your team members back? In such cases, a reporter may sit quietly and agree outwardly with everything but be seething inside. If you sense this happening, draw out the reporter in question after the discussion. If her or she is reluctant to bring up the topic before the en-tire group, try bringing it up yourself at the next meeting. In general, appeal to the reporters' pride and sense of obligation about the project. Remind them that although they may not be fast friends, they have agreed to work together to reach consensus and will have to honor their obligation or else the project will fall apart.
Here are some ways to introduce these key issues: 1. Diversity: Use opportunities from real life to drive home the impor-tance of portraying members of ethnic and racial groups fairly and ac-curately. Discuss their verbal and visual portrayal in the local media. Does this tell the whole picture? Ask the reporters to define a stereo-type. Ask them what stereotypes exist about their own ethnic group. How do they feel when they see those stereotypes in print or on the air? Likewise, what are the hot-button issues in the various communi-ties? What kind of a job does the local media do in portraying these important issues? The discussion on diversity should include the dangers of ignoring an ethnic group in the media. This renders that group invisible. It per-petuates the belief that a group is outside the mainstream of life and that its perspectives do not matter. (For more on this topic, see "Racial Stereotyping and the Media," by M.L. Stein, in Editor & Publisher Aug. 6, 1994.) Ask the reporters if and when they plan to mention the race, religion, or ethnicity of people in the series. When are such distinctions needed, if ever, for the context of the story? How do their newspapers usually handle such identification with stories about crime? Politics? Human drama? You may want to hand out some guides that have been drawn up by American journalism groups. In its "Tips for Journalists," News Watch suggests that one way to determine whether race or ethnicity is a proper identification factor in a story is to ask whether the individual's race would be relevant if he or she were white. (For more information on this, see the Seattle Times Diversity Checklist in the appendix and News Watch's "Tips for Journalists." 2. Mainstreaming: This refers to the concept of including women and people of color and ensuring that the media represent fullness and complexities of their communities. Is coverage of some ethnic or racial communities limited to certain categories, such as sports, entertain-ment, or crime? How can this series expand that coverage? Main-streaming can be applied to photos as well as print coverage. Using an example from a local newspaper, show the reporters how to do a photo content analysis to see whether some groups are stereotyped or excluded from certain types of coverage. 3. Journalists and Social Responsibility: Initiate a discussion of the jour-nalists as citizen. What is a journalist's responsibility in a society driven by ethnic tension and how does that square with his or her pro-fessional responsibilities? Discuss the power of the media to influence events. Ask the team how reporters can incorporate social concerns into journalism. 4. Seeking Balance/Showing the Whole Picture: Stories usually aren't black and white, and there are often more than two sides to an issue. You may need to interview an official government spokesman, then mem-bers of the opposition party, then several "average citizens" who can illustrate the story, then an academic expert, then a union boss, and lastly a professional, such as a psychologist or doctor or health care expert, who can comment on the issue involved. Interviewing every-one involved in the debate, not only the ones who generate the most publicity, helps shade in the nuances. Likewise, you may need to gain group consensus about including in-flammatory statements. Ways to address this problem are to ask whether the statement is based on fact or rumor, whether it adds any-thing new or timely to the debate, and whether it can be verified by outside sources. 5. Avoid Loaded Language and Images: Steer clear of politically loaded language and imagery that will inflame public passions. This is not al-ways clear-cut, however. While some words are almost universally offensive, others are more ambiguous or may have evolved over time to be more or less offensive. For instance, the word Oriental, frequently used in the past in the United States, is now considered inappropriate in describing a person of Asian descent. To clarify such usage, many American newspapers have drawn up style books of words and phrases to avoid as offensive. (For more information, see "Project Zinger, A Critical Look at News Media Coverage of Asian Pacific Americans; excerpts from the Los Angeles Times Stylebook, and the Multicultural Management Program Dictionary of Cautionary Words and Phrases.) Symbols such as music, flags, and uniforms can also be provocative images in reporting. In Northern Ireland, an area torn by ethnic and sectarian violence, reporter Paul Connelly points out that even place names can take on dangerous significance. Catholics call Northern Ireland's second largest city Derry. Protestants call it Londonderry. People have been killed for using the wrong version. While this case is extreme, there may be less drastic examples locally. Can the reporters think of any? 6. Journalists and the Public: In his essay "Why Americans
Hate the Me-dia" (Atlantic Monthly, Feb. 1996), James Fallows
says that journalists must try harder to ask questions about how political
choices affect people's lives, instead of focusing on short-term political
strategies. Fallows says that "ordinary people" in town-hall
forums and radio call-in shows don't care about the short-term impact of
the political horse race; they want to know how politicians will provide
answers to national problems. Discuss whether these sentiments apply where
the team is working. Is the media trusted or reviled and why? How can they
improve this image and begin addressing real public concerns?
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