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| Corona virus afflicts people ct any race, many of whom wear face masks. |
It happened again last night. I was watching a local Bay Area TV newscast about the spread of COVID-19. All the footage used to accompany the story were of Asians wearing masks.
There were so many Asians, it looked like the TV station's newsroom just lifted footage of an airport in Asia.
After working in newsrooms for over 30 years, I know that some of the editorial decisions to run specific pictures or footage is based on a matter of convenience under the pressure of meeting a deadline. There's a slot to fill, so fill it with what the news wires provide. There's no consideration of the implicit message that visual sends to the viewer or if the another picture could convey the same message without the cultural impact.
The Bay Area, with one of the highest concentrations of Asian Americans in the country, should be better served.
But lazy news coverage of the virus is not just limited to that one TV station. Its happening around the world. And the world is responding after seeing all the news reports, if you're Chinese, you must be infected.
It should be said, however, in the US, the media has been careful in not releasing the race of the patients who have contracted the disease.
As soon as the viral outbreak became newsworthy last month, the Asian American Journalists Association put out guidelines and cautionary suggestions to the media-at-large to be careful not resort of promoting race-based reporting on COVID-19.
At best, implementation of those guidelines have been spotty.
The Centers for Disease Control, the agency tasked with fighting the outbreak, also issued tis own guidelines against associating the virus with any particular race.
Nevertheless, news agencies -- including The New York times, the New York Post and teh Hill have all used photos of Asians wearing masks accompanying articles about confirmed coronavirus cases in New York, reports NBC Asian America.
Perhaps the most widely example of sensationalized reports was the emergence of a video of “a Chinese woman eating alleged fruit bat soup”.
Although this video has been debunked, once online, always online. The video is still circulated online, promoting the narrative that Chinese people deserve their virus because they eat exotic dishes.
Most journalists pride themselves in remaining neutral in reporting a so-called balanced story, but they are as guilty as anyone else in believing that they are without ingrained, sometimes unknown, biases.
“Journalists need to be attuned to their biases. We all have them and must work to reverse the harmful stereotypes our point of view has created,” says Kainaz Amaria, Vox’s visuals editor who has been recognized for her ethical practices within photojournalism. “We need to retrain ourselves to better reflect a diverse audience.”
Perhaps the most widely example of sensationalized reports was the emergence of a video of “a Chinese woman eating alleged fruit bat soup”.
Although this video has been debunked, once online, always online. The video is still circulated online, promoting the narrative that Chinese people deserve their virus because they eat exotic dishes.
Most journalists pride themselves in remaining neutral in reporting a so-called balanced story, but they are as guilty as anyone else in believing that they are without ingrained, sometimes unknown, biases.
“Journalists need to be attuned to their biases. We all have them and must work to reverse the harmful stereotypes our point of view has created,” says Kainaz Amaria, Vox’s visuals editor who has been recognized for her ethical practices within photojournalism. “We need to retrain ourselves to better reflect a diverse audience.”
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