AAJA MediaWatch Alert: Coverage of Discovery Channel Hostage Situation

In the coverage of the Discovery Channel hostage situation and its aftermath, the Asian American Journalists Association wants to remind media outlets about relevance and context regarding race.

Journalists should be careful when using headlines, crawls, and tweets referring to "Asian" taking hostages--as the suspect's race and ethnicity, does not seem to be a factor in his actions. It's doubtful that news organizations would say "Black man (or white man) takes hostages." This reminder is in that same vein.

There is no doubt the suspect is Asian, and it's fair to use in any description of him. But unless his race ends up being a factor in today's events, we want to remind people to make sure any mention of race and ethnicity is placed in the proper context.

Click here to download an AAJA stylebook for journalists covering Asian American and Pacific Islanders and Asian American and Pacific Islander issues.

AAJA and AAJA MediaWatch stand ready to assist any news organizations that have any questions or concerns about news coverage and race, because we all have the same goal: good journalism.

Sincerely,

Sharon Chan
President, Asian American Journalists Association
schan@seattletimes.com

Jam Sardar
Co-Chair, MediaWatch
jsardar@aol.com

Bobby Caina Calvan
Co-Chair, MediaWatch
bcalvan@sacbee.com