Monday, June 17, 2013
Media Ethics
According to imediaethics.org, over Memorial weekend five teens were killed in a collision in Newport Beach, CA. Of the five teens, the AP decided to report that two of the five teens were "Arabic", and used words like "obsessed" when describing the boys interests. Why was nationality an issue when reporting a fatal collision? Why was the nationality of the other teens not reported. In a time with heightened sensitivity toward middle eastern, it seemed questionable as to the reason for making an issue out of the teen's race. According to the AP, one of the boys, Alyahyan was "obsessed with his Infinite sedan, and Hamawendi was "obsessed with weightlifting". Words like "obsessed" contain negative connotations. On the other hand the two girls were described as "accomplished dancers". This just seemed a little insensitive. Other news sources chose not to report on the boys race or ethnicity, and it doesn't appear to be the normal practice for the AP to do this when it is not pertinent to the story.
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It's kind of sneaky, because the story says they SPOKE Arabic and that one was an immigrant. But what does any of that have to do with a car accident? You're right, the AP Stylebook specifies that you should not report race/ethnicity unless it's relevant to the story.
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