Category: Uncategorized

Lets take a look at how elections are covered around the world.

For starters, let’s take a look at one of the common themes we often see when it comes to election coverage here in the US.

“Horse Race Coverage”

This refers to political journalism around elections that resembles coverage of horse races because of the focus on polling data, public perception, and who is in the lead and who is behind, rather than the candidates’ policies.

What are some examples of horse race coverage in recent elections? Who are some of the biggest players in this type of journalism? Might it sometimes impact election results directly? How? Is this a problem to you?

Decades of academic studies find that horse race reporting is linked to:

• Distrust in politicians.
• Distrust of news outlets.
• An uninformed electorate.
• Inaccurate reporting of opinion poll data.

Horse race coverage also:

• Is detrimental to female political candidates, who tend to focus on policy issues to build credibility.
• Gives an advantage to novel and unusual candidates.
• Shortchanges third-party candidates, who often are overlooked or ignored because their chances of winning are slim compared to Republican and Democratic candidates.

Horse race reporting helped catapult billionaire businessman Donald Trump to a lead position during the nominating phase of the 2016 presidential campaign, finds another paper in Patterson’s research series, “News Coverage of the 2016 Presidential Primaries: Horse Race Reporting Has Consequences.”

“The media’s tendency to allocate coverage based on winning and losing affects voters’ decisions,” Patterson writes. “The press’s attention to early winners, and its tendency to afford them more positive coverage than their competitors, is not designed to boost their chances, but that’s a predictable effect.

International Elections

So when we turn our lens to reporting on other countries’ elections, horse-race coverage can certainly play a part in that, but it tends to skew toward other things, depending on the part of the world and the state of the nation in question: Are the elections fair and the results credible? Is there potential for instability, depending on the results?

Sometimes the tone of this type of coverage can perpetuate harmful narratives, as it the United States is above this sort of thing. The following satirical article isn’t about election coverage, but the tone of it could easily be a riff on what it might sound like if other countries reported on US elections the same way we have historically reported on theirs.

https://www.vox.com/2014/8/15/6005587/ferguson-satire-another-country-russia-china

Let’s look at a recent/current case study: Brazil

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/future-of-amazon-rainforest-at-stake-in-brazils-presidential-election

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/10/25/world/americas/brazil-bolsonaro-misinformation.html

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/interactive/2022/amazon-brazil-bruno-dom/

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-63313990

https://www.vox.com/videos/2022/10/25/23422828/brazil-lula-bolsanaro-presidential-election

https://www.theguardian.com/world/video/2022/nov/08/brazil-stolen-bolsonaro-supporters-refuse-accept-election-result-video

The Noon Briefing I looked at was from November 7, 2022. Here, during a Q&A about COP27, a journalist for China Central Television asked “Do you consider all those issues we just mentioned — the human rights issue, the bilaterals, the Wi‑Fi, apps, privacy — they are distraction from what the main core…  the core issue, which is climate crisis.” A story I’ve been working on recently is showing links between climate change and gentrification/displacement. Therefore, talk about climate change and this question caught my eye. I took this question out of context and wondered to myself, what other beats does climate change touch?

Climate change, in my opinion, does not exist in a bubble. It affects many other aspects, especially human rights issues. Scarcer natural resources brought on by climate change can lead to war, which causes human rights crises. Psychologists link hot weather to aggravated moods that lead to crime (statistics show more crimes happen on hot days rather than cold ones). In issues related to crime, marginalized groups suffer disproportionately. Companies that rely on gas lobby politicians during election season, sending funding to whichever candidate best suits their business practices. This affects things like infrastructure, which ties back to human rights (unequal housing is the root of many social justice issues).

It’s no secret that climate change is one of the hottest topics this year, especially during election season. Yesterday, the day the briefing took place, it was 75 degrees Fahrenheit. In November. I think it’s important that more people recognize that climate change affects all aspects we navigate our lives in.

In the case of Chinese media, my beat, all news sources are regulated. I wonder how the news in China covers environmental issues, if at all.

(I do not know if we had to format our second story pitches the same way as the ones for our first story. I wrote my pitch without a specific publication in mind.)

Good morning,

My name is William Ma and I’m currently writing a story on how China’s zero-Covid policy leads to the mistreatement of factory workers, especially as the holidays approach.

China’s strict lockdown policies began with Shanghai during the spring of 2022. It severely harmed the local economy and even had global economic impact as one of China’s largest cities. Shanghai has since recovered, but many other Chinese provinces have faced strict lockdowns. This includes Hunan, Guangdong, and now Beijing.

In Hunan, an Apple factory shutdown has led to the halt of iPhone 14 shipments. This is a specific case that has been in the news most prominently, but I plan on looking at why workers are fleeing the factory.

In China, if one person in a public space tests positive for Covid-19 then all other people also in the public space are locked in. People are not allowed to leave until they have tested negative. This led to stampedes of people feeling an IKEA in Shanghai earlier this summer when a boy inside the store tested positive.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-62547503.amp

The same thing happened last week in Disneyland Shanghai last week. However, I am hoping to cover the effect of lockdowns on factory workers.

Companies in China are allowed to operate in a “closed-loop system.” This means that even if a factory worker tests positive, the factory can continue operations as long as all workers stay in the facility. Earlier this year, Tesla was criticized for their factory workers in Shanghai being made to eat and sleep on factory floors.

We often hear of how mistreated and underpaid workers are used to maintain American consumerist demand. Workers are fleeing iPhone factories to avoid being locked in to meet quota demands. Most likely, some factories will keep workers insid their “closed-loop system” to maintain quota demands.

I think this story is of interest as Americans, especially as the holidays are approaching, are more focused on obtaining the latest iPhone or material good without realizing the suffering foreign workers toil to meet demand. This story is essentially a human rights story disguised as a business story.

I plan on interviewing business professors at Baruch College as well as Human Rights Organizations to get the most nuanced story possible, even if I am unable to interview factory workers remotely.

Thank you for your time and please let me know if you have any questions about this story!

Hi Sandra, (Sandra Lilley, editor of NBC News Digital – NBC Latino)

Hope to find you well, it’s been so long since we’ve spoken! I’m currently working on a feature story regarding the Venezuelan migrants arriving to New York City.

My main focus is as the holidays are coming, I’d like to report where a majority of the children of Venezuelan parents are doing emotionally and physically at a time we are in.

I want to take this feature and focus it on the education they’re receiving, the food they are also consuming once school is over, and how they spend their afternoons or how they will be spending their time during the holidays.

Another thing I’d like to also include the non-profit organizations that are helping the families out. This includes clothing distributions, food-pantries, mental health services and more. Despite the city of New York helping the Venezuelan community with services such as, food stamps, housing, and cash assistance. I’d still like to know whether these non-profit organizations are strictly helping this community.

Let me know what you think, Sandra!

All my best,

Rosa Guevara

Have you ever heard the sound of the South Asian diaspora?

If not, you’re in for a treat.

I’m a journalist based in New York, and I’ve been invited to celebrate the sounds of the South Asian diaspora with The Foreign Affair.

Anik Khan is a Bangladeshi-American Hip Hop artist from Queens who founded The Foreign Affair. This is the first time The Foreign Affair has acted as an agency collaborating with ROOTED—a South Asian creative consulting agency that curates events.

The Foreign Affair is a cultural consulting agency that focuses on BIPOC and diaspora audiences. The event, frequencyBRWN,  brings together a collective of dynamic and global Brown (South Asian) artists for a night of cultural connection and expression through music. Their diverse lineups of artists include: Indocarribean, Bangladeshi, Sri Lankan, Pakistani and Indian performers who will take over this event on November 11th at 7pm in New York City. 

This event brings together a collective of dynamic and global Brown (South Asian) artists for a night of cultural connection and expression through music. I am thrilled to report on what this event has to offer to our readers as each artist has their own unique sound that they bring to the table.

The lost language of Puerto Rican Taino’s

By: Malina Seenarine

Jemaine Norton (they/them) was a teacher for five years in their home country of Guyana before moving to Brooklyn last July. Norton who identifies as gender non-conforming remembers being mocked and tortured in school. Their peers would say they were “too girlie”, or “too feminie” and call them “auntie man”, a derogatory term in the Caribbean for gay men. Throughout their time as an educator, Norton tried to provide a safe space to their grade school students who identify as LGBTQ+, something they did not feel they had growing up. 

Norton experienced animosity from their teaching colleagues who criticized how they taught dance, saying that only ‘gays’ teach like that and went as far as accusing them of wanting a relationship with their students.

“Things like that have turned my whole spirit right from me from actually continuing in the system,” said Norton. 

Guyana is the only country in South America where “homosexual acts” are still illegal. While these laws are uncommon in most of the Americas, laws against “buggery” (sodomy) can be found in many Caribbean countries due to the residual effects of British colonization. 

Guyanese law states that “everyone who commits “buggery”, either with a human being or with any other living creature, shall be guilty of a felony and liable to imprisonment for life.” 

In twenty-five interviews with people in Guyana who identify as LGBTQ+ from the book Envisioning Global LGBT Human Rights: (Neo)colonialism, all of them said they experienced violence in public spaces in Georgetown, the capital of Guyana. They also expressed that they experienced harassment from the police and they all agreed that their LGBTQ+ identity “situated them in disadvantaged positions where they had limited, less or no access to goods, resources and opportunities as a result of the embedded stigmas that shape local social, political and economic institutions in Guyana.”  

There are around 140,000 Guyanese residents currently living in NYC. A majority of them live in Richmond Hills, Queens, and the neighborhoods of Flatbush and Canarsie in Brooklyn. The Guyanese community is the second largest foreign-born group of immigrants in Queens.

After moving to New York City, Norton joined a support group for LGBTQ+ people of the Caribbean diaspora, called Unchained. 

“I was kinda dominating, I wanted to speak because of how comfortable they have made me,” said Norton, who described themselves as shy, about their participation in the last meeting they attended in Queens. 

Unchained meeting. Photo provided by: Sai Ali. 

The meetings are held on the first Monday of every month in Queens and the last Monday of every month in Brooklyn, both of which they attend.

Unchained is hosted by the Caribbean Equality Project, a community-based nonprofit that advocates for LGBTQ+ Caribbean immigrants. The organization was founded by Mohamed Q. Amin (he/they), a Guyanese native, in response to the anti-LGBTQ+ hate in Richmond Hills, Queens.  

“It’s been a mix of community support dashed with a little bit of colonial homophobia, dashed with hate violence and cultural hate speech, mixed with a little bit of street harassment every day,” said Amin about the response from the community. 

Unchained began in 2015, the first program organized by the Caribbean Equality Project. Members come together to talk about their experiences, topics that span generational trauma, the immigration process and intimacy. 

“We’ve always tried to tailor the group to what is going on with the members or what is affecting them,” said Sai Ali (she/her), one of the facilitators at Unchained group in Queens who is a part of the Guyanese diaspora. 

Ali became acquainted with Amin after she joined SALGA, a community-based organization for the South Asian queer community. She attended her first support meeting back in 2016, a couple of days after Trump had been elected president. She had never been in a room with “ a bunch of brown, South Asian LGBTQ people before.” All the participants were upset at the election results but Ali came mainly because she was trying to find support for her transition. She was struggling with her mental health.

When it was her turn to speak she was honest about why she was there. The members were very supportive.

“I just received such an outpouring of love,” said Ali. “From there, I met a lot of amazing people who really took me under their wing, gave me support and were there for me.”

Portrait of Sai Ali. Photo provided by: Sai Ali.

By September 2018, Ali was running the Unchained support group in Queens. Ever since then the group has grown. They have been able to offer food and metro cards during the meetings as well as referrals to short-term counseling and immigration. 

Ali says that while the people that participate in meetings have a lot of “trials and tribulations” she tries to make it a place of positivity. 

“That space is also where we share a lot of joy, a lot of humor, a lot of stories, positive stories, and people become friends.” 

In Norton’s short time in New York City, they said they feel they are being treated a lot better than back in Guyana. They have received mental health care but, feel like they still have to watch their back. 

“I still have the fear of someone having to attack me,” said Norton. “I am still scared and so fearful to be like the real me.”

Norton is looking up and believes this fear will ease in time. 

Progress is being made in Guyana when it comes to LGBTQ+ rights. In 2018, a law banning cross-dressing that was used to criminalize transgender people was overturned.

In 2018, Guyana held its very first gay pride parade, the first of its kind in the Caribbean. 

Managing Risks on Assignment

ACOS Standards

https://www.acosalliance.org/safety-management

FOR JOURNALISTS ON DANGEROUS ASSIGNMENTS:

1. Before setting out on any assignment in a conflict zone or any dangerous environment, journalists should have basic skills to care for themselves or injured colleagues.
2. We encourage all journalists to complete a recognized news industry first aid course, to carry a suitable first-aid kit and continue their training to stay up-to-date on standards of care and safety both physical and psychological. Before undertaking an assignment in such zones, journalists should seek adequate medical insurance covering them in a conflict zone or area of infectious disease.
3. Journalists in active war zones should be aware of the need and importance of having protective ballistic clothing, including armoured jackets and helmets. Journalists operating in a conflict zone or dangerous environment should endeavor to complete an industry-recognized hostile environment course.
4. Journalists should work with colleagues on the ground and with news organizations to complete a careful risk assessment before traveling to any hostile or dangerous environment and measure the journalistic value of an assignment against the risks.
5. On assignment, journalists should plan and prepare in detail how they will operate including identifying routes, transport, contacts and a communications strategy with daily check-in routines with a colleague in the region or their editor. Whenever practical, journalists should take appropriate precautions to secure mobile and Internet communications from intrusion and tracking.
6. Journalists should work closely with their news organizations, the organization that has commissioned them, or their colleagues in the industry if acting independently, to understand the risks of any specific assignment. In doing so, they should seek and take into account the safety information and travel advice of professional colleagues, local contacts, embassies and security personnel. And, likewise, they should share safety information with colleagues to help prevent them harm.
7. Journalists should leave next of kin details with news organizations, ensuring that these named contacts have clear instructions and action plans in the case of injury, kidnap or death in the field.

FOR NEWS ORGANIZATIONS MAKING ASSIGNMENTS IN DANGEROUS PLACES:

1. Editors and news organisations recognize that local journalists and freelancers, including photographers and videographers, play an increasingly vital role in international coverage, particularly on dangerous stories.
2. Editors and news organizations should show the same concern for the welfare of local journalists and freelancers that they do for staffers.
3. News organizations and editors should endeavor to treat journalists and freelancers they use on a regular basis in a similar manner to the way they treat staffers when it comes to issues of safety training, first aid and other safety equipment, and responsibility in the event of injury or kidnap.
4. Editors and news organizations should be aware of, and factor in, the additional costs of training, insurance and safety equipment in war zones. They should clearly delineate before an assignment what a freelancer will be paid and what expenses will be covered.
5. Editors and news organizations should recognize the importance of prompt payment for freelancers. When setting assignments, news organizations should endeavor to provide agreed upon expenses in advance, or as soon as possible on completion of work, and pay for work done in as timely a manner as possible.
6. Editors and news organizations should ensure that all freelance journalists are given fair recognition in bylines and credits for the work they do both at the time the work is published or broadcast and if it is later submitted for awards, unless the news organization and the freelancer agree that crediting the journalist can compromise the safety of the freelancer and/or the freelancer’s family.
7. News organizations should not make an assignment with a freelancer in a conflict zone or dangerous environment unless the news organization is prepared to take the same responsibility for the freelancer’s wellbeing in the event of kidnap or injury as it would a staffer. News organizations have a moral responsibility to support journalists to whom they give assignments in dangerous areas, as long as the freelancer complies with the rules and instructions of the news organization.

How to complete a risk assessment and corresponding action plan

Scenario #1:

It’s April 2015. You’re a Mumbai-based staff photographer for a wire agency hearing early reports of catastrophic damage and major loss of life after an earthquake struck northwest of central Kathmandu. You call your editor, who tells you to get there as soon as possible.

What are 1) some of the risks here, and 2) how will you mitigate them?

Put together an action plan: How will you get in? Are airports open? How will you move around once you get there? What information/contacts will you require before you arrive? Where will you stay? How will your editor know you’re safe? What do you need to bring with you? How much is all of this likely to cost? Once you’re there, how will you get back out again?

To clarify: Risks don’t don’t always necessarily mean risks to your physical safety. They can also refer to financial risk, risk to access, risk to your sources, risk of arrest or deportation, risk that your presence could make a bad situation worse, risk that once in you won’t be able to get out, risk that communications will be down and you won’t be able to file your material, risk to your gear, etc.

The Rory Peck Trust has a helpful and very thorough breakdown of what a risk assessment might include: https://rorypecktrust.org/resources/safety-and-security/risk-assessment

Scenario #2:

It’s 2017, during the uneasy span (August-October) between a Kenyan presidential election surrounded by rumors of fraud, a Supreme Court decision annulling the results, and a re-run that would lose all legitimacy due to an opposition boycott. Protests have started up in the Nairobi slums of Kibera and Mathare and in the western city of Kisumu. Police are cracking down violently; there are reports of live bullets and civilian deaths, and of skirmishes between supporters of opposition leader Raila Odinga and incumbent president Uhuru Kenyatta. You’re a Nairobi-based freelancer and you’ve scored an assignment to cover the ongoing story for VICE News.

Put together a risk assessment and action plan. Ask yourself the same kinds of questions as above. What are the unique risks of this story?

https://www.worldatlas.com/r/w960-q80/upload/eb/df/13/untitled-2-009.jpeg– Photo of the Poorest regions in Mexico from WorldAtlas.com.

Immigration to Mexico has spiked, with remote workers from the United States choosing to move there. U.S remote workers want to pursue a higher quality of life at a cheaper cost by getting paid with U.S dollars and paying for their expenses in Mexico with pesos. This is a contrast to Mexican people who come to the United States under any means necessary in order to escape poverty and pursue a better life in the United States, where in most cases they still live in poverty.

On average, rent in Mexico is between $451 USD and $772 USD (depending on the location) for a one bedroom home. The cost of living in Mexico which includes utilities, Wi-Fi, transportation and groceries is approximately $520 a month. Salary.com reports that the average base salary of remote workers in the United States is $33,213 USD a year. Although $33,213 USD doesn’t seem like a lot, it can go a long way in Mexico.

“I had to come to the United States in order to find a job that pays well. We were really poor, jobs in Mexico only pay a few dollars a day.” said David Degante, a 36 year old man who immigrated to the U.S from Puebla, Mexico when he was 15 years old. David Degante has older siblings who migrated to New York before him for the same reason, “My older brother was the first to leave, then my older sister and shortly after, another one of my older sisters went and they all sent money to my parents to support the family.” said David. 

Puebla’s percentage of population living in poverty is 58.9%. WorldAtlas reports that as of 2018, 42.9% of Mexico’s population live in poverty and Mexico’s 3 poorest states are Chiapas (76.4%), Guerrero (66.5%) and Oaxaca (66.4%).

Salvador (Doesn’t want to disclose last name) age 47, moved to the United States at 13 years old. “All my siblings were already here and I wasn’t in school anymore so I came here to work.” said Salvador. Salvador said he came to the United States with a friend and stayed with his sister who was already living in New York.

When asked if they planned on returning to Mexico, David and Salvador both said that they hoped to return one day. 

David said that he built a multi-family house to rent out and live in but that he can’t survive off the income he makes from being a landlord so he’s saving money in order to go back one day. David has a wife and a daughter in his home town in Mexico that are waiting for his return.

Salvador said that he’s inheriting his parents house and has been making renovations so that he can retire and move there one day. Salvador’s parents live in Mexico, but his wife and kids live in New York with him. “Life in the states isn’t life, once you get here all you do is work” said Salvador who hopes to move back to Mexico when his kids become self-sufficient. 

The poorest regions in Mexico are located in the southern parts of Mexico and recently, the Mexican government has proposed a tourist train project that will connect to 5 southeastern states. President Andres Manuel hopes that this project will close inequality gaps and push forward economic development in poorer regions.  When asked how he felt about this development, David said “I think that tourism is good because people spend money.”

David and Salvador both acknowledge that poorer regions in Mexico would benefit from tourism. But when asked how he felt about remote workers from the U.S moving to Mexico, Salvador said that he is worried that it would make the cost of living go up and the only people who would be able to afford it would be Americans. David and Salvador still have a lot of family in Mexico and worry that remote workers from the U.S could move to regions that are close to their hometowns, which would affect their loved ones. 

David Degante is currently still undocumented, and has 2 jobs so that he can support himself while he lives here and support his family in Mexico. Salvador managed to become a resident in 2016 after living in New York for almost 30 years, and works in a factory. Salvador and David have provided more financial security for their families by moving to the U.S, but they still struggle to support themselves and the ones they love, but had to leave behind. U.S remote workers moving to Mexico in order to live more comfortable lives rubs salt into the wounds of many Mexicans, who had to leave their homes to help support their families. Many undocumented Mexicans go decades without seeing their families in Mexico because of how difficult and dangerous it is to make it back to the U.S.