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Journalists interested in telling more of a community’s “truth” need to establish listening posts in the places that fall outside the routine of journalism. The skills for doing this are not new to the profession; just ask the police reporter. But t
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A thought-provoking and entertaining addition to diversity awareness training for all levels of your organization, this film follows the lives of three “Clown-Americans” and their families as they make poignant observations about life on the other side of
Note: The following article is based on a reflection exercise faculty members participated in at Poynter Institute’s Teaching Diversity Across the Curriculum conference last week in St. Petersburg, Fla. In small groups, we went to Listening Posts across the city, where we were instructed to observe a culture unlike our own. Dennis, Kym, Earnest and I went to Cho Lon Oriental Market and Mekong Vietnamese Restaurant on 34th Street.
If I were to use one word to describe what I saw and heard today, it would be juxtaposition. There was Trang brand coffee sitting next to the Café du Monde chicory coffee on the shelf in the Cho Lon Oriental Market. A TV showed the Vietnamese version of a telenovella, complete with Vietnamese subtitles, in the corner of Mekong Vietnamese Restaurant, right next door.
We saw something in the refrigerated section that intrigued us. It was something spiky, about the size of a spaghetti squash, in a mesh bag. Kym asked the proprietor what it was. The fruit was durian. It tastes wonderful, but it stinks, he warned us. He even told us of a hotel he went to that warned guests not to bring this fruit into the building. Kym was bold and bought some of the packaged stinky-fruit cookies on the shelf.
Do you want Edible Beef Blood? Try the frozen food section. Dried Black Fungus? That would be in aisle one next to the rice noodles. Pocky? Now, Pocky was something I’d heard of. That’s in the cookie and candy aisle.
Hello Kitty products sat next to Hello Panda items; none of my colleagues (including me) ever heard of Hello Panda.
In the restaurant, our friendly and helpful server had bleached blond spiky hair, pierced ears and multiple tattoos. Dennis and Earnest changed their initial orders based on our server’s recommendations after we started ordering. I tried the Hot and Sour Soup; it was sweet and spicy, and tasted quite a bit different from the soup of the same name at many Chinese restaurants. I think the lemongrass added a different flavor; I liked it a lot.
A couple came into Mekong with their toddler. “Would you like a high chair?” the server asked. “No, a booster seat would be fine,” was the reply. They ordered lunch. It came with scissors on the plate. As I got up to leave, I felt compelled to talk with them. “What kind of food did you order that needs scissors?” I asked. Both the husband and the wife laughed. “It’s to cut up the noodles for our son.” As I walked away from the table, I realized why they needed scissors. No knives are served with a meal in a Vietnamese (or any other Asian) restaurant.
Next time you’re in St. Petersburg, I’d definitely recommend stopping by Cho Lon Oriental Market and Mekong Vietnamese Restaurant on 34th Street. Take your time while you’re there and get to know the people. You’ll be glad you did.
Photo Credit: King of Fruits, originally uploaded to Flickr by Hanoi Mark
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So accurate it’s scary
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Looking to make small talk in the office? Tread carefully. Here are our lists of things not to say.
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Y?, the first and only site of its kind, gives you a way to ask people from other ethnic or cultural backgrounds the questions you’ve always been too embarrassed or uncomfortable to ask them. If you have the courage to ask, Y? will evaluate your question,
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For well over a decade, critical race theory—the school of thought that holds that race lies at the very nexus of American life—has roiled the legal academy. In recent years, however, the fundamental principles of the movement have influenced other ac
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Filmmaker Arturo Perez Torres follows in the footsteps of two friends traveling on an extraordinary and extremely dangerous journey from Central America to North America. On their journey they encounter gangs and vigilantes as well as border patrol. But t
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“The Bronze Screen” honors the past, illuminates the present, and opens a window to the future of Latinos in motion pictures. From silent movies to urban gang films, stereotypes of the Greaser, the Lazy Mexican, the Latin Lover and the Dark Lady are exami
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“I began this project because I only knew the name of one African American woman director when I started film school. And, even though I knew the name, Julie Dash, I had never seen any of her films, and had no idea why or how she became a filmmaker. I did
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This seminar is a capstone experience designed in conjunction with The National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, the University of Cincinnati Office of Community Engagement and the McMicken College of Arts & Sciences. Students in this seminar will stu
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This course is designed to teach you how to write compelling newspaper feature stories, including the extras that all 21st century journalists need to understand. You’ll learn how to report with all of your senses, gather critical information about your t
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Tips from Kelli Matthews
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Voices of Utah is an ongoing collaboration between undergraduate intermediate reporting classes and introductory Web design classes in the Department of Communication at the University of Utah. Striving for excellence in journalism, reporting students foc
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Featured Case Study
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The demonstration site for the Implicit Association Test. Click this button to learn more about implicit associations and try out some sample tasks.
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The Society of Professional Journalists has begun to compile a “Rainbow Rolodex” for editors and reporters to enrich news coverage by including voices of underrepresented communities. “This is going to be the real world phone book of expert sources,” said
At a Poynter Institute seminar kickoff today, about a dozen faculty members from Statesboro to San Luis Obispo and from Miami Beach to Toronto gathered to discuss “Teaching Diversity Across the Curriculum.” In Poynter’s words, “If tomorrow’s journalists are to report and write about a dynamic, increasingly diverse society, they’ll need guidance in the classroom. Whatever the course, there’s a place for teaching diversity — issues of race, ethnicity and gender — across the journalism curriculum.”
What do journalists stand for? Here are many of the ideas we brainstormed, in no particular order:
- Truth, justice & the American way
- Accuracy
- Ethics
- Fairness
- Completeness, over the long haul
- Honesty
- Self-awareness
- Integrity
- Mensch (a Yiddish term)
- Currency (being current)
- Relevance
- Accountability
- Power (as journalists, we have it and must use it wisely)
- Power of storytelling
- Understanding (by the journalist, of the people and their issues)
- Balance
- Principles
- Love of storytelling
- Love of writing
- Love of reading
- Transparency
- Empathy
Do you know an excellent story when you read one? What makes a story excellent? Here are some of our thoughts. Again, these are in no particular order:
- Transports you
- Universality
- Passion
- Rich characters that you care about (even if you don’t like them)
- It’s about people
- Tension à resolution
- Something new
- Gripping, through use of quotations and anecdotes
- Great words
- Anticipation
- Balance
- Visuals through wordcrafting
- Opens new vistas for us
- Structure
- Seamless scene setting
- Sense of time and place
- Compelling
- Imaginative / creative
- Permanence
- Discipline
Seminar leader Lillian Dunlap shared a formula with us, which I’ve graphically represented below.
Stay tuned for more as this weeklong seminar progresses.
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Weight of a Family’s Hopes
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Can the fledgling microblogging service become a social media powerhouse to rival giants like Facebook—or will it be gobbled up?
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A slur can be anything from an insinuation or critical remark to an insult. The following is a list of ethnic slurs that are, or have been, used as insinuations or allegations about members of a given ethnicity or to refer to them in a derogatory…
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(tags: diversity ethnic_slurs)
