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October 4, 2005
More about the A-word...
This morning's required reading comes from Cindi Ross Scoppe, associate editor of The State [emphasis added]:
But over time, I have come to see that conversation (which has been repeated with numerous other people in the years since) as an illustration of just how badly the public--and particularly those people we categorize as “conservatives”--misunderstand journalism and journalists.We journalists have our share of faults.
As a group, we tend to be arrogant and nomadic, which too often results in our being quite detached from our communities.
We are independent, fiercely competitive and suspicious of secrecy, and we tend to distrust and even disdain authority--characteristics that suit us well for digging out corruption but can make us act like petty children where none exists. (It also poses some interesting morale and management challenges inside newsrooms, but that’s another story, and one I don’t intend to write.)
And yes, as a group we do tend to be more socially and politically liberal than our communities. And yes, this does show up in our news coverage.
As nomadic outsiders, journalists build community among themselves. This leads to the group-think that takes over within any group of people with similar education, similar social status and similar worldviews.
This creates huge blind spots that influence and limit our thinking. The blind spot that causes the greatest disconnect these days, of course, relates to religious and social issues, which have become the new litmus test of ideology in our country. Case in point: The concept of a “born-again Christian” was foreign to the faith traditions in which most journalists grew up (if they grew up in any), and so official journalism is distrustful of anyone who calls himself one.
When news coverage comes across as tone-deaf to much of middle America, it’s largely due to these types of limitations. To get an idea of what I’m talking about, think of President Bush’s initial bumbling response to Hurricane Katrina, which grew out of his unfamiliarity with poverty rather than any animosity toward black people.
The news industry, of which journalism schools are a part, must do something to address the issue of arrogance (background: here, here, here, here, and here). Arrogance is the enemy of good (local/glocal) journalism; it is a parasite that thrives in the bodies of too many otherwise good journalists. Arrogance blinds journalists to the ironic state of being of the professional communicator misunderstood by the very public to whom he/she communicates (and with whom he/she will be in conversation). Arrogance blinds journalists to the language issues (here and here) that are central to this irony.
Posted by acline at October 4, 2005 8:05 AM | | Spotlight