The Boston Globe: reporting the circle of life in the US

So this morning when we were told that we’d be going to the Boston Globe and then interacting with a group of Ethnic Media, the group of a few of the fellows had a list of tough questions to ask. And if anyone thought that we’d just sit and listen into what the groups had to say, they were obviously going to encounter a different group.

Over the course of the fellowship, the change in so many of us has been visible. Whereas the first week of the fellowship was meant to be a lot more of “watch and learn” by the time we reached the half way point of the program we had shed our shells, and grown up – We wanted to learn, be challenged and also to raise challenges and impress our experiences and observations with our meetings.

The Boston Globe meeting, I would have to say, was interesting at best. You have to understand that the fellowship brings together people from foreign countries with diverse backgrounds and that gives us the opportunity to engage in dialogue to find out how we can bring greater benefit to our people who are in the US and those that are back home. And that always gives cause to the discussion of diversity to take center stage.

While the fact that the Boston Globe, like so many other newspapers, had decreased its circulation because of the competition that the internet was giving to them, I was shocked to know that over time, they had closed down their offices in foreign countries. What?! No foreign correspondence!? So where do they get their news and how diverse can a daily be that wishes to play its role as the responsible news delivery mechanism for its readers, wishing to provide both sides of a story?

While the Editor of the Boston Globe, Martin Baron, mentioned the phrase, “we are a diverse community in this country and in this State”, I have to question how that diversity is represented and ultimately, expressed through the paper. I questioned. I wasn’t convinced.

Except for the news items that are being picked up from let’s say Reuters, there doesn’t seem to be too much else going on. In fact, the copy of the Globe that Mandira ran to pick up, had one page dedicated to World News, of which 20% of the space would have been taken up by ads. I just found that sad.

I look at the amount of reporting that the US corporate media groups do on the world, and then am just not surprised that the average American is so shocked when he comes across one of us “diverse people”. I’m not saying that you should give up publishing content about America – of course not. But there are other ethnic groups out there. They are part of the American society that many of these publications report about, yet, they are not included as part of their stories.

Regardless, I’d like to thank Martin Baron, Editor of the Boston Globe for his time in arranging to meet with the Eisenhower Fellows.