Authentic Voice: The Best Reporting on Race and Ethnicity by Arlene Notoro Morgan, Keith Woods, Alice Pifer

From the Publisher

The need for culturally sensitive, accurate, and well-crafted reporting on race and ethnicity is as important as ever. Selected from works honored in the " Let's Do It Better! Workshop on Journalism, Race, and Ethnicity" held at the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism, the television and newspaper stories in this collection are much-needed examples of excellence in reporting. The Authentic Voice is the most comprehensive multimedia tool to date on the coverage of race and ethnicity. The text, DVD, and website project is a unique resource, featuring interviews with leading journalists, including Ted Koppel, interactive discussion points, teaching tips and weblinks that are a must for journalism educators and professionals who want to improve their craft.

Product Details

• Table of Contents
• Read a Sample Chapter

Table of Contents

Read a Sample Chapter

THE AUTHENTIC VOICE

Columbia University Press

All right reserved.

ISBN: 0-231-13289-1

Preface

The stories in this book easily meet those demands. They also have
in common three other traits of first-class journalism: They provide
the sort of context that enhances understanding and increases
accuracy. They come alive with the three-dimensional voices of
ordinary people. Finally, they embrace the complexity that makes
human relations interesting.

These traits emerged as vital a few years ago when we set out to
determine what was unique about this kind of reporting. And while
all journalism should aspire to the combined completeness described
above, we learned something by studying the best stories about race
and ethnicity entered in the Let's Do It Better! workshop at the
Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. We found that the
most successful reporting about race and ethnicity delivered solid,
fundamental journalism and fused voice, context, and complexity into
one authentic piece.

To do that, the journalists honored through the years at Columbia
and featured in this book had to surmount the ignorance, fear, and
rampant clichés that uniquely sabotage reporting about race
relations and cultural difference. They demonstrate that, done well,
these stories can transform fear and ignorance into curiosity; turn
cliché-laden frames into opportunities for surprise and discovery.

Journalism students and professionals alike can use these case
studies to figure out how to access unfamiliar cultures or get
people to talk about one of society's most taboo topics. In
interviews and essays, reporters, producers, and editors explain how
to fine-tune language, substituting precision for euphemism. They
educate, provoke, and validate old reporting techniques and
introduce new ones. In fact, the stories, interviews, and Web links
are themselves a collective history lesson that will benefit readers
of this text whether or not they aspire to a career in journalism.

Since the attacks of September 11, 2001, journalists have been
doubly challenged to forge reports that are honest and clear about
the obstacles faced by new immigrants as well as under-covered
groups that have been here for generations. This project represents
a compilation of work that we believe will foster important
conversations in the classroom and newsroom, enrich the learning
experience, and inform professional development. Waiting in these
pages, for example, is a look at the shifting demographics of the
Midwest, which saw a huge influx of Somalis in Minnesota, and the
unfolding stories of Latino and Asian immigration in New Jersey,
Washington, D.C., and Atlanta. And while there are stunning history
lessons to be found in stories about land stolen from black people
or the federal government's gross mismanagement of money in Indian
Country, those stories are also strong examples of investigative
reporting.

We've divided the work into four categories-identity, equality,
untold stories, and cultural competence-that reflect the way news
organizations tend to frame coverage. Each section offers three or
four stories, along with a how-to essay by the producers, reporters,
or editors who presented the work at the Columbia workshop. We've
added a list of discussion points for each chapter, along with
research links and suggested readings. The DVD offers the entire
broadcast piece, interviews with the journalists that expand their
essays, and additional discussion questions pitched to those interviews. A
detailed DVD index directs the user to discussions of specific topics such
as ethics and handling stereotypes. The accompanying Website provides additional material, such as the remaining parts of series that
begin in the book, links to other pertinent Websites, a teacher's guide, an
assortment of other honored stories that supplement the DVD and
text, and blog space to continue the conversation beyond the formal
classroom discussion. From time to time, we will update the Website
with new stories to create a living resource for teachers and
students interested in finding fresh material that celebrates the
profession's best work.

Anyone who's ever offered a story up for praise knows that the act
invariably invites criticism. Pulitzer Prizes administrator Sig
Gissler, who founded the Let's Do It Better! workshop, once summed
up the challenge of honoring good work this way: "If you want to
paint a bull's eye on any piece of journalism, just call it
excellent." Prizes do not guarantee perfection. The beauty of the
stories chosen for this book is that each can teach powerfully
through excellence as well as through the occasional flaw. Use the
stories, then, not just to provide guidance on craft but also to
promote critical thinking. That, after all, may be the greatest
skill journalists can learn as they take on what is certainly one of
society's toughest topics, borrowing from the wisdom of those who
did it better.

(Continues...)

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Excerpted from THE AUTHENTIC VOICE
by Arlene Notoro Morgan Alice Irene Pifer Keith Woods
Copyright © 2006 by Columbia University Press.
Excerpted by permission.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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