Roundtable for AAA 2013: Professional Divides II

[Colleen Cotter]

Dear LingAnth members,
Sam Spies and I are reprising our 2012 Professional Divides  
roundtable, this time with Chicago-area journalists and some  
Midwestern relevance. Current abstract below.

Please let us know if you'd like to join the roundtable as an active  
participant or discussant, or if there are additional topics you'd  
like raised. Comments and contributions are welcome.

Thank you!

Colleen Cotter (c.m.cotter at qmul.ac.uk)
Sam Spies (szspies at temple.edu)

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ROUNDTABLE

Professional Divides II: Journalists and anthropologists in continuing  
conversation about language, news practice, and social impact


This ongoing roundtable series brings together journalists, linguists,  
and anthropologists to discuss timely issues of language,  
representation, and social justice and critique. Key themes include  
the roles of the news media and the academy, the extent to which  
academics can influence journalistic practice, and the representation  
of vulnerable communities. Case examples for 2013 include news  
coverage of the Trayvon Martin case (scheduled for trial in the  
summer), renewed debate over the ?Washington Redskins? nickname and  
its local impacts, the discourse of gun control, reporting on Hmong  
communities in the Upper Midwest, and labels used in stories on aging,  
as well as the recent successful effort, undertaken by linguistic  
anthropologists, to end use of the term ?illegal immigrant? by The  
Associated Press.

Several Chicago- and Milwaukee-area journalists and journalism  
educators, who come with a range of backgrounds, histories, and  
perspectives, will participate, in effect, as our ethnographic  
informants. They can speak directly to issues of race, immigration,  
education, local demographics, newsroom policy, politics, language,  
news style, news practice, and the effects of industry changes. The  
linguists and anthropologists on the roundtable are similarly placed,  
some having transitioned from journalism careers to academia. They and  
the other presenters have done extensive research involving news media  
(print, broadcast, online, social) across disciplinary frameworks.

Unlike the standard panel format, this roundtable encourages active  
participation from audience members throughout the discussion, whether  
or not their research involves social justice, media representation,  
or newsroom ethnography. This is an opportunity for journalists and  
anthropologists from all subdisciplines to talk to each other about  
complementary and divergent objectives within the two professions, as  
well as to better understand the constraints of each other?s  
occupations and the opportunity for joint engagement. Indeed,  
developing journalistic skills is similar to developing ethnographic  
skills (Cotter 2010). Journalists are also uniquely placed members of  
local communities ? a feature of the news profession that academics  
could make better use of.

Professional Divides II continues a discussion from the 2012 annual  
meeting in San Francisco in which academics, Bay Area journalists, and  
a community activist addressed race and reporting, the efforts to  
reshape immigration discourse and terminology, and the larger role of  
journalism in social justice issues.

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Colleen Cotter
Linguistics Department
School of Languages, Linguistics and Film
Queen Mary, University of London
Mile End Road
London E1 4NS
UK

http://linguistics.sllf.qmul.ac.uk/langMedia2013