Should Journalism be Portrayed in the Media as Subjective or Objective?

Journalists strive for objectivity and give claims in a story based on factual evidence as to how an event is displayed. There are tons of camera crews on the scene giving input as to what happened, who the victims were but little or no input on community members who were affected by an event or even input that displays empathy from the journalists. There’s no subjectivity from journalists because issues taking place simply don’t concern them. I believe that when reporting on issues around minority groups, there should be an emphasis on having that said minority group share their perspective. In order to bring a greater awareness/ emotion to the problem. Most importantly to get journalists to care about problems that surface, that do in turn affect everybody no matter your race or gender.

In the resource Media an Invitation to Dream Up Media Reparations like black newspapers being in the midst of black crime and having elites control us for not using our voice, should

give us an inclination that nothing is going be until we do about our current journalistic style. With modern journalist’s real-world topics are often over, not taken into with little or no remorse. During the Jim Crow era, Freedom’s Journal was in to hear black voices and promote advocacy for the racial injustices happening including segregation, voting restrictions, lynching, in which that same privilege to fight for was given to Black people have been using their for a long time, and in even into times where we’re in the age of we have to use our voices for good. Yet, when we voice our opinions, we’re overlooked.

In reference to Is Your Journalism a Luxury or , Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs was used in the case of what a company wanted from rather than what the needed from journalists. They often cover media that revolves around first world problems, or issues that don't necessarily force people taking steps towards change. It's either a politician's job to give a speech, or a small community's job to have everything on their backs and fight for the greater good of the country. When we know that's not possible. How are people supposed to be involved if it's never in the media? Journalists continue to not make matters such as "rural poverty, or managing an opiod addiction, or handling your lease when you're gentrified out of your neighborhood" a pressing issue. It's blown over and given to the next politician to figure out. Why aren't black people allowed to throw fits and act out of character when our voices aren't being heard, like the men who raided the capitol?

The problem with journalism today is that there is no community build. No one cares about issues that don't pertain to them if it's not about the latest celebrity gossip, they could care less. And the world is so selfish so to even take that first step in the right direction, fighting for change, people would be ignorant to the cause. To build community and have journalists go into spaces that are based off of what is heard and reported by their objectionable reporting style. It's up to the public to reach out.

In a Free Press Article: Legal in Philadelphia, the article states how, "news coverage that focuses on crime and how the public perceives Black and Brown communities, the poor, their own neighborhoods' safety and actions taken by police and elected officials." If we keep explaining the narrative that black or brown people are harmful or worthless, in the end the public will see us like that. Journalists seem to have no issue with it, and they just are reporting like they do, they are just "doing their job."

The Shift the Narrative Project is a prime example of getting journalists to see what the media has not portrayed. The credibility of certain issues whether that be crime, housing inequality, poverty rates skyrocketing. They're bringing communities together across Philadelphia to in essence shift the narrative. Communities like the Initiative for Better Gun Violence are taking action to fight for change, but it'll take a long time to involve all states across the country to get on the same page. How do we move forward with solving these issues? Do we take on the shift the narrative personal or stay stagnant?

In the article about women and the suffrage movement, the media did their job with pinning women as the problem. Women faced systematic discrimination due to their gender. Women had limited access to education. All of these issues birthed the Suffrage movement, but it wasn’t until people started fighting and speaking up against the wrong doings of the government that a shift was made. Journalists did not see the issue until riots broke out. In the article Vindication of the Rights of Women, “there is a quote that states innocence as ignorance is courteously termed, truth is hidden from them, and they are made to assume an artificial character before their faculties have acquired any strength.” But is the truth hidden from women, and other minority groups or is the government, too ignorant to care about oppression. And why does it take a whole community to stand up, and still not be given proper human rights or human decency.

Simply put, the main issue we are facing today is journalists’ reiteration of worldly matters. We all know how your surroundings influence your mind. We see it in racism where narratives and stereotypes are passed down from generation to generation, so much so that we have children avoiding certain people or things based on what they were indoctrinated to believe. Even before modern technology and media, cultures all over the world have created their own taboos based on the ways their ancestors have formed irrelevant narratives on why certain things are deemed as shameful. And with today’s so called reformed modern technology and media, we push corrupted information on what is going on in the world. Do you see a pattern here?

You would assume that we would evolve as humans the same way we’re evolving in other matters. But it is clearly more important for America to evolve in a capitalist way than to evolve in reformative ways. We saw it in the civil rights movement. It certainly took longer than it should have. However, the people affected by blatant racism and ignorance came together and advocated for themselves. That is what allowed our nation to evolve from our bigoted perception on a minority. If one group of people managed to break an ideology as grand as racism with just the organization of their words and voices, imagine what we can do as journalists with modern technology and media?

After reading the Power and State Article, I concluded that men have influenced the negative portrayal of women in the media. We also see this in modern day media through journalism. As journalists it is time that journalists start portraying the truth of what is going on in the world instead of brainwashing a collective to believe a narrative that benefits the government. We need to spread awareness about the current problems that many minorities all over the world are facing. We need to stop turning a blind eye and start advocating for the corruptions of the world. What better way can we do that other than talk about it wholeheartedly through journalism?

We see journalists indirectly twisting their words just to subliminally send certain messages all the time. We need to do the same regarding the same matters. Additionally, journalists need to talk about the things that are swept under the rug. For instance, the atrocities of the ongoing genocide in Palestine, and the normalized genital mutilation that is normalized in certain parts of the world. It is only then we can revolutionize our nation along with the world.