by Bridget Webber

Created on: May 08, 2009   Last Updated: May 27, 2009

Whether journalists are describing the race, gender or the cultural background of an individual involved in a news story, it is critical that they are tasteful in their delivery. This is necessary for a variety of reasons, from adhering to moral and social responsibility, to respecting the rights of individuals and ethnic groups.

Each of us comes from a particular social and cultural background. We may have different skin coloring, viewpoints and beliefs that stem from our upbringing, religion and place of origin. All of these factors are open to the abuse that comes from stereotyping.

Journalists have to be very careful when they report stories that they don't offend, damage,or criticise individuals because of their race, or seem to be doing so. Just inadvertently inferring racially stereotypical material could be cause for libel, when considered defamation.

Personal Opinion

When using descriptive wording in a news story it is essential that journalists break free from peppering their reports with personal views on the subject at hand. When writing, or broadcasting a story, remaining neutral, so that the audiences understanding of events is not influenced or altered by a journalists opinions and beliefs, is professional journalistic behaviour.

Stereotyping

Perhaps in today's world we have become far more tolerant of racial stereotyping than we should be. Jokes are often made at the expense of others because of where they come from. Journalists need to be careful not to use language which is offensive or which places the emphasis on a subjects race.

Describing people as individuals, rather than using generalisations, can help a journalist to keep within ethical boundaries so that they don't use stereotypical descriptions of people based on irrational views.

Discrimination

Discrimination in a journalists descriptive work occurs when an individual, or group, are singled out because of their race. Spending longer describing the wrong doings of one subject more than others, who equally participated in an event being reported, insinuates prejudice. This is especially so if the subject ,who is made the central character of the story, is also described by their ethnic origins.

To avoid making this mistake journalists can give all subjects equal attention where appropriate, and use similar descriptive terminology for everyone.

Responsibility

Journalists are responsible to their employers and the general public when it comes to using tasteful descriptions in news stories. The style in which they write, including the level of sensitivity used, reflects on the newspaper, or news channel, that the journalist comes from, It affects the readers by either providing them with accurate, or inaccurate information.

Descriptions which are not based on fact, but are based on discrimination, stereotypes and personal opinion are not accurate. Readers need to be left free to make up their own minds about how they feel about a particular story.

The choice of the readers to think for themselves is just as important as free speech. We all understand that we have a right to be heard and to know information about that which affects us. It is a journalists job to deliver information, but not to influence readers opinions about ethnic groups.

Even more importantly, it is essential that journalists don't damage the reputation of a particular ethnic group, or feed the racist viewpoints of others.

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