A University of Minnesota immigration professor and former immigration reporter told students Monday night that journalists should be advocates for a more reformed citizenry.
“You can think of journalism as how people construct the images that help build the box within which they think of the issue,” Giovanna Dell’Orto said.
When a story is well done, it helps people think beyond that box, she said.
Dell’Orto is an assistant professor of international mass communication history and previously worked as an immigration reporter for the Associated Press at the Phoenix and Atlanta bureaus.
Journalism tends to focus on powerful images that end up driving the narrative, such as a boat docked at a port that was crowded with thousands of people.
“Striking images sell, but they might not tell the whole story,” she said.
She said that is why thorough reporting is needed to explain all sides of an issue. Journalists need to research before reporting on stories in order to elicit the most insightful information from their sources and avoid information that is already available to the public, she said.
Dell’Orto said it is important to be both aggressive and ethical as a reporter in order to attract readers without overgeneralizing arguments. There is a need to give a voice to the voiceless while addressing the views of people who have concerns about changes in their society when reporting on immigration.
“Objective journalism, done well, will not only elicit a really good response, but hopefully get people to want to act for some of the most controversial public affairs issues,” she said.
One theme of her talk was an exploration of the differences in the ways European countries and the United States report on immigration. She said American immigration journalism generally focuses on people crossing the border, while European journalists focus on the aftermath once people have crossed the border. Also, journalists in the United States tend to be more objective in their stories, while reporters in Europe are more openly biased.
She said it was interesting to see how immigration policies as far away as Arizona have an effect in Minnesota.
Daniel Gonzalez, an immigration reporter for The Arizona Republic, interviewed Dell’Orto and shared some of his own experiences. He said he sometimes finds it difficult to deal with complaints from the public because his grandparents are Mexican immigrants. He said he has even faced direct threats from readers.
“Part of me wants to take on the advocacy role and start to argue with them … but as a journalist, I can’t really do that,” he said.
He stressed the importance of being polite to readers and respecting their points of view.
Ethan Fichtner, a journalism sophomore who attended the event, said it was interesting to listen to the perspective of someone who has reported in both Italy and the United States. He liked learning about how reporters try to avoid stereotypes during the process of writing stories.
“You already call it a certain kind of story, like an immigration or sports story,” he said. “When you say that, you already have an idea of what that is, but it’s more than that.”
Contact the reporter at sajarvis@asu.edu
