"Incarceration" is in, "internment" is out. "Asian American" is in, "Asian-American" is out. Avoid the use of "kamikazi" in Ukraine-Russia war.
The Asian American Journalists Association revealed its revised Style Guide. The guide was unveiled during AAJA’s national convention in Austin, Texas Thursday, August 8. It is an essential resource for anyone writing about the diverse and often misportrayed Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) communities.
While AAJA provided guidance on how journalists should cover anti-AAPI violence and anti-Asian hate during the pandemic, this is the first comprehensive AAJA Stylebook update in more than a decade. It’s timely as Asians are the fastest growing ethnic group in the US, their influence in entertainment and media is rising, and in politics, a woman of Asian descent is a major party’s nominee for president.
While AAJA provided guidance on how journalists should cover anti-AAPI violence and anti-Asian hate during the pandemic, this is the first comprehensive AAJA Stylebook update in more than a decade. It’s timely as Asians are the fastest growing ethnic group in the US, their influence in entertainment and media is rising, and in politics, a woman of Asian descent is a major party’s nominee for president.
“After covering anti-Asian attacks and experiencing firsthand how words can be weaponized, this guide was a labor of love to create a resource to not only combat hate but also build up our communities to promote understanding,” said Marian Chia-Ming Liu, AAJA Vice President of Civic Engagement, who led the guide’s launch.
The AAJA Style Guide complements the AP Stylebook, the industry standard for writing and editing, by providing guidance on how to cover the AAPI community with accuracy and nuance. The AAPI population comprises close to 50 ethnic groups that speak more than 100 languages; it is often treated as a monolith, covered inaccurately, or portrayed with stereotypes that can cause real harm.
It’s not meant to be a dictionary or encyclopedia on all things Asian but an actionable and practical guide by AAPI journalists to add context and guidance to terms that are being used or that should be avoided in the news. For example, it reminds journalists that “illegal” can be used to describe an action, but applying it to an immigrant is inaccurate and dehumanizes the person described. The term “kamikaze drone” is an inaccurate and insensitive way to describe an exploding unmanned aircraft. And the 120,000 Japanese Americans and Japanese nationals detained in the U.S. during WWII were “incarcerated,” not “interned.”
This guide was the culmination of two years of work by more than 50 AAPI journalists across the country, some of whom have produced style guides for their own newsrooms, from The Washington Post to the Global Press. They overhauled the old guide, added new entries and wrote out new definitions. Then, experts from organizations such as APIAVote and John Hopkins University reviewed the entries for accuracy. After copy-editing, a production team created a new living database.
The AAJA Style Guide complements the AP Stylebook, the industry standard for writing and editing, by providing guidance on how to cover the AAPI community with accuracy and nuance. The AAPI population comprises close to 50 ethnic groups that speak more than 100 languages; it is often treated as a monolith, covered inaccurately, or portrayed with stereotypes that can cause real harm.
It’s not meant to be a dictionary or encyclopedia on all things Asian but an actionable and practical guide by AAPI journalists to add context and guidance to terms that are being used or that should be avoided in the news. For example, it reminds journalists that “illegal” can be used to describe an action, but applying it to an immigrant is inaccurate and dehumanizes the person described. The term “kamikaze drone” is an inaccurate and insensitive way to describe an exploding unmanned aircraft. And the 120,000 Japanese Americans and Japanese nationals detained in the U.S. during WWII were “incarcerated,” not “interned.”
This guide was the culmination of two years of work by more than 50 AAPI journalists across the country, some of whom have produced style guides for their own newsrooms, from The Washington Post to the Global Press. They overhauled the old guide, added new entries and wrote out new definitions. Then, experts from organizations such as APIAVote and John Hopkins University reviewed the entries for accuracy. After copy-editing, a production team created a new living database.
This is a long-overdue update, but it’s not static. This guide is meant to be a living document because how we describe and define our communities evolves over time.
This guide is lovingly dedicated to the memory of Henry Fuhrmann, a longtime AAJA member and mentor. The Los Angeles Times assistant managing editor pushed for equality through words. He was instrumental in making sure there was no hyphen in “Asian American.”
“Those hyphens serve to divide even as they are meant to connect. Their use in racial and ethnic identities can connote an otherness, a sense that people of color are somehow not full citizens or fully American,” Fuhrmann wrote in the Conscious Style Guide.
This guide is lovingly dedicated to the memory of Henry Fuhrmann, a longtime AAJA member and mentor. The Los Angeles Times assistant managing editor pushed for equality through words. He was instrumental in making sure there was no hyphen in “Asian American.”
“Those hyphens serve to divide even as they are meant to connect. Their use in racial and ethnic identities can connote an otherness, a sense that people of color are somehow not full citizens or fully American,” Fuhrmann wrote in the Conscious Style Guide.
At one point, this blog used the term "Asian/American" instead of the widely used "Asian-American" or the newly adopted "Asian American." My belief was that the two latter terms made one word the modifier, thus lesser-than the other word. I believed using the slash between the two words made them both equal to each other, which is how I viewed individuals of Asian descent living and working in the United States, citizen or not.
I abandoned that effort because people had a hard time finding my posts under the much more popular "Asian-American" or "Asian American" because no one -- except my stubborn self -- used the term "Asian/American."
Some of my earlier posts are still using the slash and I'm gradually switching them to the now acceptable "Asian American" but that's a big, and long, task.
The AAJA is meeting in Austin this week. Some of the expected actions include:
- Hear from journalists covering the 2024 election cycle from every angle, and from local to presidential — following candidates on the campaign trail, tracking disinformation on social media and tackling stories on voter rights and access to the polls.
- Engage on the political issues dominating the news cycle in Texas and nationwide, including immigration, LGBTQIA+ rights and abortion.
- Support local journalists in Texas and beyond, highlighting the importance of press freedom and the necessity of telling the stories of diverse communities.
- Connect with the AAPI journalists and community in Texas, the state that trails only California and New York in its population of AAPI residents. Meet AAPI leaders and community groups working for equity, building on the event AAJA hosted during SXSW in 2023.
EDITOR'S NOTE: For additional commentary, news and views from an AANHPI perspective, follow me on Threads, on X or at the blog Views From the Edge.
No comments:
Post a Comment