Before I move on to expanding the ethical self-other relation in a global or cosmopolitan scope in the following chapter, I want to ground the theories I have adopted above in ethnographic findings. My attempts at sorting out ethical and epistemological notions and meanings of journalistic objectivity are mirrored in the journalistic practice and theory. I want to repeat my argument for a return of ethical accountability to the journalist-subject through a sample of interviews conducted among journalists working in the US Virgin Islands (USVI). The USVI journalists with whom I had the opportunity to speak during my stays in St Croix and St Thomas47 can sketchily be divided into two groups48; the professional journalist and
47 Between 2 and 22 February 2008 I recorded interviews with Shari Wiltshire, Stephanie Hanlon and Tom Eader from The St Croix Avis; Ayesha Morris and Aesha Duval from The Daily News; and Bill Kossler from The Source. I moreover spoke to an investigative reporter at The Daily News, Tim Fields.
the personal journalist. These categories, which will become apparent shortly, stand in correspondence to Muhlmann’s unifying and decentring journalistic practices.
However, my intervention here is not a theorisation of journalistic products; rather I am attempting to discuss the journalist-subjects’ understanding of their own relation between their subjectivities, their practices, and the community in which they function. The two categories allow the journalist-subjects to negotiate different approaches to and degrees of consideration given to the concepts of journalistic objectivity and un-biased reporting. They make apparent the different uses of the concept within the practice of journalism and in which way journalistic craftsmanship takes precedence in these definitions. These categories are fluid, however, and complicated at times, but for the time being they provide a way of speaking about journalistic subjectivities and their relations to the community in and for which they produce their journalism in a somewhat structured manner. I will here present the framework given through the two groups of journalistic subjectivity, based on semi-structured interviews49 with journalists in St Croix and St Thomas in order to develop further what I mean by the concept of journalistic subjectivity.
In the same way as the Danish social imaginary makes for a prototype in understanding the self-perception and the journalistically-produced cultural memory within Denmark, the Caribbean former colonies of Denmark, the United States Virgin Islands (USVI), provide a uniquely diverse view into the negotiations of journalist positioning and subjectivities. The USVI were Danish colonies for more than 250 years. Danish rule ended with the sale of the islands to the US in 1916. Though the islands can be said to be postcolonial in their relation to Denmark, they are at the same time neo-imperially ruled. St Croix, St John and St Thomas are mere territories of the US. The USVI are moreover situated on the northern half of the Caribbean island chain and the migration and flux among the Caribbean citizens affect these North American islands as well. The diversity of the USVI means that though the vast majority of the USVI population is of African or other black Caribbean descent many
The following analysis is based on a particular part of the interviews focusing on the self-perception of the journalists regarding their position and relation to the community for which they write and which they simultaneously (re)produce. The 67 people represent close to 50 per cent of the USVI journalist corps of about 15 people.
48 These categories are of course not sufficient to understand the complexities of the USVI cultural and therefore journalistic reality. I will elaborate on the complexities as the analysis progresses.
49 See Appendix 1 for an outline of the semi-structured interview.
white, ‘mainland’ North Americans are represented among the journalists. Though the islands are postcolonial and by virtue of this position could be seen as the other of the Danish (journalist-subjects) they are also part of a US neo-imperial cultural export which is merged with the Caribbean, the Danish, and the otherwise European colonial cultures that have left their mark on the islands’ culture and politics.
The categories are discussed through the journalists’ backgrounds as well as their answers in the interview in order to make available analyses of how these cultural, ethnic and gendered backgrounds may or may not correspond to the perspectives taken by the singular journalist-subjects. That is, I am trying to explore the situatedness of the journalistic experience and subjectivity. All of the journalists I spoke to were trained in the US mainland, despite the fact that the University of the Virgin Islands offers a degree in journalism. Three out of the six journalists were of African descent (Ayesha Morris, Aesha Duval, Shari Wiltshire), two of whom were raised in USVI (Duval and Wiltshire). Two of the six journalists were male (both white) (Bill Kossler, Tom Eader), and four out of six were born in the US mainland (Morris, Stephanie Hanlon (who was the only white female in the group), Kossler, Eader). The journalists are employed by the two major newspapers in the USVI, The Virgin Islands Daily News (The Daily News) and The St Croix Avis (The Avis).50 Only Bill Kossler is employed by the online news outlet, The Source.
Turning my attention from the Danish to USVI journalist-subjects gives me access to a threefold perspective. Firstly, the USVI journalists write from/to a marginalised position in terms of their postcolonial position in relation to Denmark. Thus, the journalistic subject position of the USVI makes space for a dismantling of the colonial relation to Denmark. This is the decentring move of Muhlmann (2007) and Eide (2002). Secondly, the culturally dominant position of the US-trained journalists breaks up the dichotomy of the centre versus margins and questions the power positions of the journalist-subjects. Thirdly, the Caribbean setting and the – after all – diverse backgrounds this situatedness of the journalist-subjects brings with it allows for a further destabilising of categories in the production of reiteration of journalistic cultural memories. This final destabilisation will be developed in the next chapter in
50 There is more on these newspapers in case study 1.
which I follow the consequence of my statement that journalist-subjects are always in relation. The journalist-subject therefore is in a multiple relation to the other in a cosmopolitan sense. I will return to this in chapter 3.
2.5.1 The professional journalist
To the professional journalist, ‘objectivity’ is at the core of working hard and not being lazy (Stephanie Hanlon). This is because ‘objective’ stories are not necessarily balanced stories but they are structured attempts to hear and see everybody’s perspectives on the matter. Objectivity is primarily understood in epistemological terms. If one side of an argument is stronger than the other that should be expressed in the story, believes Stephanie Hanlon from The Avis. She explains the way to be objective is to talk to all the people who are involved in a case or might have an interest in the case and then collecting all the gathered knowledge in the article. It is important that the journalist realises that she is wrong sometimes – she can be fooled – and therefore her own opinion should not be part of the story. Being objective, then, is a question of journalistic practice and craftsmanship. Aesha Duval of The Daily News puts it like this: ‘You stick to what you are trained to do – you write fair and balanced stories. You present the facts in a way that people can understand’. Both Hanlon and Duval see a journalistic strength in trying to understand the diversity of the culture in/for which they write. Hanlon is from New York and had only been in St Croix for a year at the time of the interview, whereas Duval was born in St Croix, has lived and worked on the US mainland for a number of years and has returned to work first at The Avis and now for The Daily News. Whereas Duval believes that, through her experience of working in the States she understands what someone from outside the USVI would not know, Hanlon tries to live among and with the local population in the hope that their concerns will be her concerns and thus afford a kind of commonality and understanding. While Duval decentres herself in relation to the USVI ‘us’, Hanlon supports a kind of unifying effort in journalistic practice.
However, for Duval, being objective is to ‘be outside of what’s going on’, ‘being an observer and reporting that way’. So though Duval finds that it is a strength to have been abroad and through that experience be able to see a case from outside as well as from inside the community, it is also difficult to write negative stories about her own
neighbourhood, for instance. However, being ‘ban’ya’51 protects her a little, she contends. There is a difference between being a reporter from St Croix and being from the mainland US, she believes: there is more respect surrounding the local reporter.
Even though Duval, as quoted above, borders on an argument for decentring journalism, both Hanlon and Duval – in their different ways – represent the professional journalist who takes his or her starting point within the practices of journalistic training. Journalism is a practice and if you stick to the practice you will do un-biased reporting. It is clear, however, that both Hanlon and Duval understand that their positioning in the society plays a role in the practice of journalism which they are actively dealing with through their jobs. That is, they realise an ethical dimension to their positions as journalists but not necessarily in the practice.
Another way of confronting the complex matter of positioning the journalistic subject and epistemological objectivity is by taking on and pride in the role of the outsider.
Bill Kossler from The Source sees himself as an ‘observer’ – a role as an outsider of which he is conscious. Kossler is a white, male mainland US citizen, and his decision to acknowledge his outsider status seems also to be a question of respect for the local population. As in the case of Duval, again though Kossler sees this position as strengthening him in terms of objectivity because ‘you do not have so much at stake’.
This could be seen as an unconsciously generated ethical notion of objectivity which Kossler operationalises in that not having personal ‘stakes’ makes him more likely to be ‘fair’. Likewise, Tom Eader of The Avis sees his journalistic practice as a conveyor of facts. He reports directly what he is being told, he believes. This ‘conveying’ of facts is supported by journalistic practice but is unreflexive about both the journalistic subjectivity and the embeddedness of Eader as a journalist-subject. The last two examples miss the point and the awareness of the embeddedness of the journalist-subject. The ethical stand becomes a detached ‘abstract individualism’ expressed through journalistic practice rather than a conscious and ethical positioning.
In sum the professional journalist emphasises the practice of journalism and the ideal of standing outside the case in point – despite the fact that the journalists who represent this approach realise the discrepancies involved in this position. The
51 ‘Ban’ya’ is a local expression for being ‘born here’. Duval believes that her status as ‘local’ gives her street credibility and protects her from criticism.
approach is not determined by the factual position in, and in relation to, the community, though there is a slight preponderance of white, mainland US citizens in this category. The professional journalistic approach makes a split between the journalist-subject and subjectivity explicit. Like Muhlmann’s unifying journalists, it runs the risk of excluding singular subject positions in the community. Reflection upon for whom the journalist-subject is speaking – whom he or she is giving voice to – is needed. The professional journalist-subject does not acknowledge the embeddedness of his or her position or at least s/he thinks s/he can overcome this through good craftsmanship – that is, a striving towards objectivity.
2.5.2 The personal journalist
To the journalists in the category of the personal journalist, ‘objectivity’ is something to be tweaked in accordance to the story. Shari Wiltshire, who works at The Avis, explains it as working ‘freely’ with the concept of objectivity by asking the right questions and ‘manipulating’ the story into adopting her point of view. This is in spite of the fact that she sees epistemological objectivity as a journalistic goal:
Your goal is to stand on the outside and to report on what is going on and just relay that information to the public in the most basic sense. I think my background in English [literature], being very analytical, [… ] I can’t help – and I can get away with – putting more feedback into it.
Not necessarily from my own perspective, but listening to what [people are] saying and the discussions that are being made and ask the right questions to get the answers that you want to hear, you know what I mean, so you can put that in your article and then people can think what you are thinking. (Wiltshire, The Avis)
It is important to the personal journalists to have an interest and an engagement in the issues that they cover. Journalism involves things that they care about and it is constructed on the frontier of literature and journalism, like the work of the decentring journalists (Muhlmann 2008: 29). To Wiltshire this means that she wants to focus on groups ‘that are never going anywhere’ socially – the groups that are affected by the political decisions and so on. There seems to be a personal ethical attachment which is allowed space on the pages in the newspaper. The split between the interviewees’
understanding of their subjectivities and journalism, which was prominent to the professional journalists, is less so to the personal journalists. Wiltshire believes that her upbringing in St Croix and the fact that she knows the people who are affected is the reason for this commitment. Wiltshire emphasises that she believes that her lack of training in journalism helps her to be more involved and ‘less objective’. Ayesha Morris from the The Daily News’s St Thomas office expresses her idea of objectivity in the following:
To me, everyone has a bias. And I think to me the most important thing is to be fair. Because when you are a journalist you have the power to destroy, and you have the power to build up. […] You can really tear down people by what you write. To me the key is to report what you see as being the fact. Report the spirit of the people as passionately as you can – without being over the top. And being truthful – as truthful as you can be. (Morris, The Daily News).
There are many overlaps between this statement of journalistic practice and that of the Danish journalist students’ oath, however the difference is placed significantly in the starting point of her approach, that everyone has a bias. That is, also the journalist-subject. Hereby, Morris takes difference into account and seems very aware of her particular reader. Ethical accountability, then, is for Morris both a part of the interaction and the dialogue with the readers but also a continuous evaluation of her work. Like Wiltshire, Morris feels connected to the community though she was born in mainland US to an American mother and a father from Tobago. Instead of just being an observer she sees herself as participating in many of the events that she covers, which enables her to have more sensitivity in relation to what the Virgin Islanders’ find offensive, important, or interesting.
The personal journalist, then, creates a starting point in her own engagement and personal life. Objectivity is more about accountability – that is, it is about being able to account for the stories published which are personal and political, to a certain extent. However, this is not about being from USVI, necessarily – though Wiltshire bases her engagement in her upbringing in the territory – but about ‘a sensitivity’
towards the readers. The personal journalist runs the risk of losing credibility because
she is reporting about her friends in a close-knit community. The personal and emotional engagement may not speak to all readers and so the readership becomes limited to the community which the personal journalist writes for and about – that is, it closes in on itself and restricts the unifying abilities and effects of journalism.
However, it is an attempt at taking political and ethical responsibility within the community and for the impact of journalism. When it works, this approach taken by the journalist-subjects results in a decentring journalism that turns the gaze and the awareness on the readers and their community, which they hold in common with the journalist-subject. But when it fails it merely turns the ‘margin’ into the new ‘centre’
or represents a distorted ‘authenticity’ of a given community or culture.52