Covering the Total Community p.

By: Debra Gersh

IJE conducts workshops aimed at making newspapers
more reflective of all segments of the population
SINCE THE RIOTS in Los Angeles last year, and time and time again in coverage of minority issues, the press has taken hits over coverage that misrepresents or excludes segments of the community.
In an attempt to thwart that criticism, the Oakland, Calif.-based Institute for Journalism Education has begun a series of "Total Community Coverage" workshops.
Working with newspapers and minority journalism groups ? notably the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ), the National Association of Hispanic Journalists (NAHJ) and the Asian American Journalists Association (AAJA), IJE spends about a week with journalists of all races, delving into issues affecting all segments of the population.
Although the focus is on coverage of minorities, IJE president A. Stephen Montiel said gender, sexual orientation and physical disabilities issues also are among those addressed.
The pilot program was held at the Fort Worth (Texas) Star-Telegram in mid-April. Participants included 28 newspaper employees, including reporters, editors, photographers and a graphic artist, some in Fort Worth and others from bureaus, people of color, whites and gay staffers.
After about a week of intense discussion and learning, the participants produced an eight-page special paper ? not distributed with the Star-Telegram ? that was critiqued by staffers and sources from the community who were involved.
The result of the project is an 11-member task force that will take the project's message to others in the newsroom with seminars and continue to monitor the paper to see that it becomes more reflective of the community.
Charter members of the task force are appointed but are expected to be elected as the idea takes hold, explained Jackie Koszczuk from the paper's Washington, D.C., bureau, who participated in the project.
Los Angeles is to be the site for the next Total Community Coverage project, but it is to be structured differently.
The Los Angeles project will include a group of more than 40 editors, reporters, photographers and graphic artists from across the country, and, instead of working from a specific paper, a makeshift newsroom will be set up at an educational institution or in rented space, probably in South Central, according to Montiel. Plans for the project have not been finalized since funding has only recently been received.
Following completion of the weeklong project Aug. 11-18, members of the AAJA, whose convention in Los Angeles begins on the 18th, will critique the resulting work as will participating members from the community.
"One of the spotlights that hit Los Angeles in the last couple of years was not only on the unrest but also on the media coverage, which has been under extraordinary scrutiny," commented Washington Post columnist Dorothy Gilliam, IJE board chair and vice president/print of the NABJ.
Gilliam added that it is important for newspapers to become vehicles for letting different voices be heard, fostering understanding and helping people to know each other better.
Other Total Community Coverage projects are slated for Atlanta, to precede the Unity '94 convention there, and possibly in conjunction with the minority journalist associations' conventions in 1995, Montiel said. He added that individual newspapers are encouraged to participate.
The Total Community Coverage program in Los Angeles was made possible by a $100,000 grant from the Freedom Forum. A portion of those funds also will be used for an IJE management training program held in conjunction with the NABJ convention in Houston in July.
In addition, IJE announced that a $17,500 gift from the New York Times Co. will fund a management training seminar to be held in conjunction with the NAHJ conference in Washington, D.C., this June.
?