Intersections: A realization and reaffirmation of journalism
Just before a recent trip, I found that I would be traveling near an area where refugees were being taken in, thanks to the generosity of local government officials.
I thought it would be an amazing reporting opportunity to meet and profile not just those who were settling into their new homes after years of limbo and war, but the people in the community who were welcoming new residents to an unfamiliar place with compassion and open minds.
Given that they were being resettled in a remote area that was only reachable by ferry, it was going to be challenging to get to the 50 or so families, but I was up for the adventure. My hopes were dashed, however, when I was told that the refugees did not want to speak to the media and were not welcoming any press attention. An appeal for their privacy had been made after they had raised concerns about how reporters had covered their arrival.
As a journalist, it is always disappointing when someone tells you that they don’t want to speak to you. When I received the news that the families I so desperately wanted to meet did not necessarily want to meet me, or any member of the press, despite the fact that I had explained that I, too, was once a refugee, that I approach my work with sensitivity and wanted to give them the opportunity to tell their stories, it hurt.
It hurt not only because I had lost a story, and the priceless experience of meeting people from different walks of life and having the privilege of being able to write about them, but because I knew that much of their decision had been made because of their prior interactions with the press, who are so hell-bent on getting “the story,” that they forget they are dealing with actual humans with lives, lives that might be put at risk because of the way a reporter approaches and writes about them.
This situation only highlighted something I had been thinking about for a long time, something that is always in the back of my mind when I’m out in the field reporting: How is journalism serving the public?
A few weeks ago, I watched in horror at the circus-like atmosphere that took place in San Bernardino, as reporters trampled across the apartment of the suspects involved in the mass shooting on Dec. 2, live on air. The only thing I could think of was that this display made doing the job the rest of us try so hard to remain true to infinitely harder.
I wondered how any of this was serving the public, how it was adding to conversations, leading to some sort of understanding, of context, instead of polarization, of painting the world in black and white when it was full of so many other colors.
Molly de Aguiar, program director for informed communities at the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, recently wrote on the website of the Harvard-based Neiman Journalism Lab that “2016 is the year that news organizations must understand that their sustainability depends on building real relationships with real people,” meaning that they must listen more, reach out more and collaborate more to build news “with the community, not for the community.”
Read the article here.
This declaration for 2016 resonated with me, someone who chose to pursue this career path because of the rewards it offered that were anything but monetary in nature.
Despite the disappointments with the wrong turns the journalism industry seems to take, despite knowing the severe, adverse impact these turns have had on the public, I still believe it is a noble calling. There is nothing else I would rather be doing.
There is no greater excuse in the world to meet people and experience life through the eyes of others than journalism.
My 2016 will, unfortunately, not be starting off with meeting refugees who are beginning a new phase in their lives in a remote corner of the world, but with something perhaps even more important: the firm commitment to fully recognize that journalism has the power to truly contribute to our communities if we respect the craft enough to let it happen.
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LIANA AGHAJANIAN is a Los Angeles-based journalist whose work has appeared in L.A. Weekly, Paste magazine, New America Media, Eurasianet and The Atlantic. She may be reached at liana.agh@gmail.com.