As journalists, we have a lot to take into consideration.
It’s not specifically the information, but more importantly it’s how we choose to handle the information that matters most.
Our voice, our writing has the possibility of influencing opinions far more than we may even realize at times. Simple words or phrases can trigger anything from a stereotype to a powerful emotion or image.
It was probably the biggest lesson I would learn this week. And it was a lesson I didn’t even think I needed to learn; but I did.
This week, I sat down with Olga Briseño, the creator and director of the Media, Democracy and Policy Initiative at the University of Arizona. I had originally scheduled a meeting with her in order to connect myself with possible interviews of people I might not otherwise have access. Olga is a fascinating woman, one I instantly had respect for the moment I entered the room. However, the people she has encountered and befriended not only stunned me, but really intimidated me. It made me question whether or not I was getting in way over my head.
From Pulitzer-prize winners to tragic childhood stories, the names and histories she discussed with me fully opened my eyes to the significant issues Latinos are dealing with in the media today.
You know, there are very few times I can recall here at the UA when a faculty or staff member sat down to spend almost an hour and a half with me – especially when they really had no reason to do so. Olga was not my professor, not my mentor. But even within the period of time we spent together it felt like she became one.
Olga made it clear from the beginning she wanted to make sure I understood the significance of the issues we were trying to uncover. Every story has an angle that can be spun, every piece has a way it can be written to influence readers.
Simple words can manipulate.
She started with the basics. “Illegal aliens.” The term is not only widely controversial, it is extremely offensive. To compare human beings with something so foreign that they are not even of the same world is us is not only offensive – but disgusting.
Simply searching the term “illegal aliens” can bring up several news publications around the country – including The Stamford Advocate and the Washington Times as just two examples. Imagine, instantly being able to google "illegal aliens" and two publications popping up right away who, as recent as last month, used “alien” to describe illegal immigrants. Quoted or not – the term is being repeated by the media and reinforced in everyone’s minds.
Also imagine how much it stung when I reread some articles we had been editing and realized I too had overlooked some reporters’ use of the term. I guess I had just heard it so much that in simple editing, it had gone unnoticed – by the reporter, the copy editors and myself.
Next Olga asked me how many times I had heard “packed” to describe immigrants. For example, it has been said before there multiple times in the news that a truck was found packed from top to bottom with illegal entrants crossing the border. But, she asked me, do you pack meat – or people?
Without even realizing it, we are treating them again as something less than the human beings they are.
Yet when terms like that slip in, it is hard to erase it from the average person’s mind. I had even grown somewhat accustomed to it.
She also used the term “herded.” We’ve all heard it before too (no pun intended.) We’ve actually heard that “illegal entrants were herded up” by police as if they were some sort of cattle being brought in for slaughter. Human beings cannot be herded… especially back across the border.
But these mindsets we allow to slip in through journalism have a ripple effect across the nation; an effect that will only grow until someone puts a stop to it.
Last week, when my interview fell through, I headed out across campus to interview random students, faculty and visitors about their thoughts on illegal immigration. The opinions/viewpoints were pretty much what I expected. Some greatly supported the immigrants, while others claimed a fence would solve all of our problems. Some even claimed illegal immigration wasn’t even a problem at all. But some of the people who claim a fence would solve the problem, really just got under my skin.
Although my first interview is still in the process of being set up, I feel as if I’ve already learned more than enough from my meeting with Olga to help better Borderbeat. Now that I have had my eyes opened a little more, I will be able to more critically analyze what information is being gathered, how it is being used and how it is being interpreted.
They are not illegal aliens, herded up and then packed into the back of a van. Legal or not, they still remain human just as we all do. And all humans deserve even just a little bit of respect.
