Reporting Inequality: Tools and Methods for Covering Race and Ethnicity

315 Pages·2019·6.536 MB·English

by  Sally Lehrman, Venise Wagner

REPORTING INEQUALITY
Under increasingly intense newsroom demands, reporters often find it difficult to cover
the complexity of topics that deal with racial and social inequality. This path-breaking
book lays out simple, effective reporting strategies that equip journalists to investigate
disparity’srootcauses.
Chapters discuss how racially disparate outcomes in health, education, wealth/income,
housing, and the criminal justice system are often the result of inequity in opportunity and
also provide theoretical frameworks for understanding the roots of racial inequity.
Examples of model reporting from ProPublica, the Center for Public Integrity, and
the San Jose Mercury News showcase best practices in writing while emphasizing
community-basedreporting.Throughoutthebook,toolsandpracticaltechniquessuch
as the FaultLinesframework,theListeningPost,and theeditors’OpportunityIndexand
Upstream-DownstreamFrameworkallhelpjournalistsimprovetheirawarenessandcover-
ageofstructuralinequityatapracticallevel.
For students and journalists alike, Reporting Inequality is an ideal resource for under-
standinghowtocoverstructuresofinjusticewithbalanceandprecision.
Sally Lehrman is an award-winning reporter on medicine and science policy with an
emphasisonrace,gender,andsocialdiversity.HerbylinecreditsincludeScientificAmerican,
Nature, Health, the Boston Globe, the New York Times, Salon.com and The DNA Files,
three public radio series distributed by NPR. Honors include a Peabody Award, a
duPont-ColumbiaAward,andtheJSKFellowshipatStanfordUniversity.Shestartedand
leadstheTrustProject,aglobalnetworkofnewsroomsthatisaddressingthemisinforma-
tioncrisisthroughtransparency.
Venise Wagner is a professor of journalism at San Francisco State University, where
she has taught since 2001. She has a 12-year career as a reporter for several California
dailies, including the Orange County Register, the San Francisco Examiner and Chronicle.
She has covered border issues, religion and ethics, schools and education, urban issues,
andissuesintheSanFranciscoBayArea’svariousblackcommunities.
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REPORTING
INEQUALITY
Tools and Methods for Covering
Race and Ethnicity
Edited by Sally Lehrman and Venise Wagner
Firstpublished2019
byRoutledge
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andbyRoutledge
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RoutledgeisanimprintoftheTaylor&FrancisGroup,aninformabusiness
©2019Taylor&Francis
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authorsoftheeditorialmaterial,andoftheauthorsfortheirindividual
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Allrightsreserved.Nopartofthisbookmaybereprintedorreproduced
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registeredtrademarks,andareusedonlyforidentificationandexplanation
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ISBN:978-1-138-84987-7(hbk)
ISBN:978-1-138-84988-4(pbk)
ISBN:978-1-315-72512-3(ebk)
TypesetinBembo
bySwales&Willis,Exeter,Devon,UK
VisittheeResourceatwww.routledge.com/9781138849884
This book grew out of our strong friendship and deep
commitment. We dedicate our work to our sister and
brother of the heart, the late Dori J. Maynard and
Gregory Lewis, who led the way in idea and actions.
We stand on their broad shoulders.
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CONTENTS
ListofIllustrations x
Acknowledgments xi
NoteonTerminology xiii
Introduction 1
SallyLehrmanandVeniseWagner
PARTI
ANewFrameworkforCoveringRace 9
1 TheIndividualinContext 11
SallyLehrmanandVeniseWagner
2 StructuralandSystemicRacism 29
AldenLoury
3 TheAccumulationandDisaccumulationofOpportunity 46
MichaelK.Brown,MartinCarnoy,ElliotCurrie,
TroyDuster,DavidB.Oppenheimer,MajorieM.Shultz,and
DavidWellman
4 ExaminingImplicitRacialBiasinJournalism 66
SatiaA.Marotta,SimonHoward,andSamuelR.Sommers
viii Contents
5 TheColorblindConundrum 82
SallyLehrmanandVeniseWagner
PARTII
HowOpportunityWorks 103
6 ReportingtheStoryUpstream 105
SallyLehrmanandVeniseWagner
7 TheOpportunityIndex 126
SallyLehrmanandVeniseWagner
PARTIII
BestPractices 153
8 InterviewingacrossDifference 155
OmediOchieng
9 AvoidingStereotypesandStigma 162
SueEllenChristian
10 UsingFaultLinesinReporting 173
MarquitaS.Smith
11 BuildingRelationshipsinUnder-CoveredCommunities 184
KeithWoods
PARTIV
CaseStudies 197
12 CaseStudies:IntroductiontoCaseStudies 199
CaseStudyA:ReportingOpportunityinHealth 200
SallyLehrman
CaseStudyB:SometimesSchoolSegregationComesfrom
RaceNeutralPolicies 210
VeniseWagner
Contents ix
CaseStudyC:ExploringtheWealth/IncomeGap 218
JeffKellyLowenstein
CaseStudyD:WhenHousingSeparatesUs 224
NikoleHannah-Jones
CaseStudyE:GapsintheSocialSafetyNet 231
KarendeSá
CaseStudyF:ThePathtoLegalStatusIsn’tsoClearCut 238
SusanFerriss
Conclusion 246
SallyLehrmanandVeniseWagner
Bibliography 256
NotesonContributors 280
Index 287