Journalism Is Humanistic, Not Robotic
By:
Earl Bousquet
What will definitely not continue
indefinitely is the perpetuation of the myth of divorcing human sensitivities
from evidence and experiences of inhumanity.
Every now and then, a journalist on
assignment somewhere does something out of the ordinary that goes far beyond
the headlines. It’s hardly ever something taught at journalism school or
learned on the job; most times, it’s merely the result of natural human
instinct.
“If you're not careful, the newspapers will
have you hating the people who are being oppressed, and loving the people who
are doing the oppressing.” -Malcolm X
Such is the case with Russia Today
and the international broadcaster’s recent celebrated repatriation of stranded
orphans in Iraq, where they’d been taken by Chechen parents linked to the
former Islamic State group.
The RT team on a normal reporting
job located the helpless children in Baghdad and the station launched a
"Bring Them Home" campaign that has seen the first five children
already reunited with grandparents and relatives.
This has given hope to many more
families in Russia – and elsewhere – whose missing children are still stuck in
Iraq as a result of being stateless. However, the repatriation mission didn’t
happen by accident.
Someone in the team, faced with
these children, must have thought about whether the infants had relatives
somewhere, and how to reunite them; the idea of a special campaign certainly
went far beyond a good programming idea.
It’s worth noting here, the ongoing
relationship between the journalist on a reporting mission and the human
element within every person.
The bridge built by the Russian
broadcaster between Baghdad and Grozny for the stranded orphans indeed sheds
light on that infinite relationship between who we are and what we do.
“If you're not careful, the newspapers will
have you hating the people who are being oppressed, and loving the people who
are doing the oppressing.” -Malcolm X
At most journalism schools of
yesteryear, the reporter was schooled to go out of the way to be
"neutral" and "independent" and to "never take
sides" in any conflict they happened to be reporting; indeed, to even be
immune from "feeling sorry" about anything seen, heard or felt.
Unfortunately, in pursuit of such
neutrality, individual correspondents or teams covering events risk becoming
mechanical in their approach, devoid of any heart or sensitivity.
Yet, this robotic application, while
generating reports that suit tailored editorial vision, can only be borne by
the human inside each person for just so long until something pushes the
practitioner over the edge – like the sight of the traumatized infant orphans
in Baghdad, so alone and so far from home.
Journalists covering wars are known
to do some very human things – from taking greetings back home from dying soldiers,
to helping children escape the ravages of conflict.
A little girl airlifted out of
Vietnam to Australia in the dying days of the fight against the advancing
forces of Ho Chi Minh has grown up to be Cath Turner, a sterling correspondent
for the Al Jazeera news agency, who produced an amazing story of her personal
return to the land of her birth to locate her parents.
The fact is that in every case of a
media outlet or related institutional group, honoring a journalist or
photographer is based on him or her having done something on the job that went
far beyond the headlines.
The strictures of the prescribed
"neutral," "don’t take sides" and
"middle-of-the-road" straightjacket approach to how reporters and
photographers should behave on news assignments forces many of good mind to
stomach the bad, even if they puke while filtering the reportable from the
unpublishable.
“If you're not careful, the newspapers will
have you hating the people who are being oppressed, and loving the people who
are doing the oppressing.” -Malcolm X
In too many cases, the toughest
veterans have become overripe or overly seasoned in their ability to wear
pink-tinted goggles or resort to preferred forms of therapeutic distraction,
only "sticking to the story" according to a prescribed narrative that
leaves them staring without blinking.
Too few writers, on the other hand,
have opted to accept that walking in the middle of the road is always dangerous
and it is indeed safer to choose a side, to walk on the right side.
Fortunately, that ancient myth of
independence being neutrality is being shattered more often now than ever, as
more people everywhere realize that what matters most is not only what is
reported, but also what is not.
News has no ideology, events don’t
determine themselves – and no reporter can ever tell "the full
story."
Some reporters feel they can only
best cover issues and events if they can say and show exactly what they see and
hear, through the words and images they choose. Others counter that this will
never happen, as each media outlet has a mission that will allow it to
determine what truths to publish and allow, when and how.
“If you're not careful, the newspapers will
have you hating the people who are being oppressed, and loving the people who
are doing the oppressing. -Malcolm X
These differences will continue to
exist and coexist between those who see reporting as just another job and those
who treat it as a humanistic vocation.
What will definitely not continue
indefinitely, however, is the perpetuation of the myth of divorcing human
sensitivities from evidence and experiences of inhumanity when it flies in the
face and eyes of human beings, including journalists.
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