SUMMER REPORTS NIEMAN REPORTS NIEMAN REPORTS VOL. NO. The Neman Foundaton for Journalsm TO PROMOTE AND Harvard Unversty ELEVATE THE STANDARDS One Francs Avenue OF JOURNALISM Cambrdge, Massachuses 02138 VOL. NO. SUMMER RACIAL RECKONING RACIAL THE NIEMAN FOUNDATION AT HARVARD UNIVERSITY HARVARD AT THE NIEMAN FOUNDATION RACIAL RECKONING GETTING COVERAGE OF RACISM AND WHITE SUPREMACY RIGHT BLACK LIVES MATTER AND THE NEW BLACK PRESS RETHINKING THE ETHICS OF VISUAL JOURNALISM cover_final 7.10 EMC.indd 1 7/13/20 4:58 PM Contributors The Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University www.niemanreports.org DePauw University and a relationship to cinema has senior leader with The been published in OpEd Project. The former Surveillance & Society, and managing editor of MLK50: her article on performance Justice Through Journalism, and police academy Douglas is the author of the training is forthcoming in a forthcoming book, “U.S. special issue of Women & Issac J. Bailey (page 6), Civil Rights Trail: A Performance: a journal of a 2014 Nieman Fellow, is a Traveler’s Guide to the feminist theory. journalist and race relations People, Places and Events Ann Marie Lipinski seminar creator and That Made the Movement” facilitator. He is the author (Moon Travel, 2021). James Geary of the forthcoming “Why Didn’t We Riot? A Black Man in Trumpland” (Other Jan Gardner Press, October 2020). He has contributed to Politico, Eryn M. Carlson CNN.com, Time, and The Washington Post, and is a Tara Pixley (page 34), a Shelby Grebbin former columnist for The Charlotte Alfred (page 2016 Knight Nieman Sun News in Myrtle Beach, 28) is a journalist and Visiting Fellow, is a Los Dan Zedek South Carolina. editor who has reported Angeles-based visual from the U.S., Europe, journalist, writer, and Africa, and the Middle East. professor with 15 years of One Francis Avenue, Cambridge, Focusing on migration, experience as a MA 02138-2098, 617-496-6308, [email protected] misinformation, and photojournalist and photo investigations, she has editor for news media. Her Copyright 2020 by the President and worked with the Global writing and photography Fellows of Harvard College. Investigative Journalism has appeared in The New Periodicals postage paid at Brent Renaud (page 14), a Network, The Migration York Times, The Wall Boston, Massachusetts and 2019 Nieman Fellow, is a Newsroom at Lighthouse Street Journal, NPR, additional entries writer, filmmaker, and Reports, and First Draft. ProPublica, and the Black / photojournalist from Little Previously, she was the Scholar. She is a co-founder 617-496-6299, [email protected] Rock, Arkansas. He has managing editor of and board member of worked on many film Refugees Deeply, and Authority Collective, an Subscription $25 a year, projects with his brother worked on documentaries organization dedicated to $40 for two years; Craig, including the HBO for PBS Frontline. diversifying perspectives in add $10 per year for foreign airmail. heroin documentary “Dope visual media. Single copies $7.50. Back copies are available from Sick Love” and the TV the Nieman office. series “Off to War.” He has covered the youth refugee Please address all subscription crisis in Central America, correspondence to: political upheaval in Egypt, One Francis Avenue, and the war on extremism Cambridge, MA 02138-2098 in Africa and the Middle and change of address information to: P.O. Box 4951, Manchester, NH 03108 East. Christina Aushana (page ISSN Number 0028-9817 34) is a 2019 Ford Foundation Dissertation Ricki Morell (page 40) is Postmaster: Send address changes to Fellow and doctoral a Boston-based freelance Nieman Reports P.O. Box 4951, candidate at UC San Diego, writer who has written Manchester, NH 03108 where she is completing for publications including Nieman Reports (USPS #430-650) her dissertation, “Staging The New York Times, The is published in March, June, Vision, Screening Others: Boston Globe, The Wall September, and December by The Performance and Street Journal, WBUR’s the Nieman Foundation Deborah Douglas (page Visual Culture of CommonHealth website, at Harvard University, 20) is the Eugene S. Pulliam Contemporary Policing.” and The Hechinger Report, One Francis Avenue, Distinguished Visiting Her writing on everyday an online education Cambridge, MA 02138-2098 Professor of Journalism at policing practices and their newsroom. cover_final 7.10 EMC.indd 2 7/13/20 2:08 PM A young boy raises his fist at a protest in Atlanta, one of many that’s erupted across the country in the wake of George Floyd’s killing Contents Summer 2020 / Vol. 74 / No. 3 Features Departments Getting Race Right 6 Visual Journalism in a 34 Live@Lippmann 2 In covering racism and white supremacy, Surveilled Society Maria Ressa, co-founder and CEO of journalists must be prepared to confront When each image has the capacity to both Rappler, on attacks against journalism in the painful and uncomfortable truths inform the viewing public and the police, Philippines and on journalism as advocacy By Issac J. Bailey what is the photojournalist’s responsibility to his or her subjects? Niemans@Work 4 Tension is High, 14 By Christina Aushana and Tara Pixley Letting marginalized voices narrate their Trust is Low own stories, writing ction inspired Coverage of Black Lives Matter protests Reporting and Resilience 40 by the headlines, lessons learned from in Little Rock highlights the fraught Overwhelmed by covering a global investigating corruption in Peru relationship between local news outlets pandemic and racial tumult, newsrooms and the communities they cover are realizing the importance of supporting Nieman Notes 46 By Brent Renaud journalists’ mental health By Ricki Morell Sounding 4 8 Recognition and Reckoning 20 How the new Black press is telling stories about — and for — Black communities By Deborah Douglas ON THE COVER: “You Want to Do Better 28 FRONT: A woman poses at a demonstration Reporting? Hire People from the in Atlanta in May People You Are Reporting On” BACK: Protesters gather outside the U.S. In Europe, refugee journalists bring access Capitol in Washington, D.C. to stories that would otherwise be missed LEFT: In France, Nina Gheddar By Charlotte Alfred co-founded Guiti News to give FRONT COVER: ELIJAH NOUVELAGE/GETTY IMAGES BACK COVER: MATT MCCLAIN/THENOUVELAGE/GETTYCOVER: MATT WASHINGTON BACK COVER:IMAGES ELIJAH FRONT FARID NOUVELAGE/GETTY BOTTOM:SARA IMAGES ELIJAH TOP: PAGE THIS GETTY VIA IMAGES POST opportunities to exiled journalists NiemanReports-summer2020-inside-EMC 7-10 FINAL.indd 1 7/15/20 2:07 PM @ have no other business interests. Every ­­ Rappler shareholder signed something that said that they will give both editorial and economic decisionmaking to the journalists. I’ve no other businesses except journalism, Maria Ressa on countering the and so we stood up against it. “atom bomb” that’s gone off in our On journalism as advocacy information ecosystem In the old days, we had very strict rules of the difference between reporting and activism. A trailblazing journalist in the Philippines I would do my best never to be an activist, because those were the standards and ethics recommends legislation to curb the bad of that time. There were already all these cracks in behavior of social media platforms our old ways of looking at journalism, but then, when it came to the battle for truth, and when I got arrested, it became very clear to me that my rights were abused, and that these charges were trumped up and were he facts of Maria Ressa’s career are im- journalism and combine it with technology political harassment. pressive enough: Princeton cum laude, to build communities of action. We wanted At Rappler, we had a huge discussion. We Fulbright Fellow, CNN bureau chief impact. were like, “Do we say there’s a pro-Duterte and chief investigative reporter in Asia, That was the idea for Rappler. It [began and an anti-Duterte? How do we label these?” author, news division head at ABS-CBN, out of a] realization that the world had You get down to this: In the battle for truth, Tthe Philippines’ largest media and entertainment changed, that Filipinos were young [the you have to say who lies. [Research shows] the company, and co-founder of Rappler, one of her median age was 23], and we wanted to use accounts spreading lies [in the Philippines] country’s leading digital journalism sites. the technology to come to them. were overwhelmingly pro-Duterte. In introducing Ressa — a 2018 Time We did really well. Within a year and a half, How that impacts things and who does it, magazine Person of the Year — when she spoke at we grew from 12 employees to 75. Back then, that’s the investigative journalists’ work. In Harvard in March, Nieman Foundation curator I would speak not about press freedom, but the battle for truth, journalism is advocacy Ann Marie Lipinski offered this concise history of about innovation in news, using technology. because we will fight for the facts. Ressa’s career. She added, “Rappler’s journalism exposing corruption and conflicts in President On the first attack against Rappler On social media and harassment Duterte’s government including Duterte’s We weren’t the first news outlet to be In 2016 a student asked then-Mayor Duterte a extrajudicial killing campaigns has attracted attacked. When the largest newspaper, the question about the extrajudicial killings. That not just the enmity of the government but the Philippine Daily Inquirer, was attacked, they was the first time I saw hate unleashed. We full force of its retaliatory powers.” Duterte has buckled within two weeks and said they came out with an editorial because there was repeatedly attacked Ressa and Rappler, and said would sell to a businessman favorable to a Facebook page threatening that student he desires to ‘Kill journalism in the Philippines.’ President Duterte.