Bridges with Asia: Asian Americans in the United States

Bridges with Asia: Asian Americans in the United States:
Mediawatch: Asian Americans and Asia

May 2–4, 1996

Plenary Session introduced by
	Fred Katayama Anchor, Business Asia, and Correspondent, CNN

Moderator
	Joann Lee ₁ Director, Broadcast Journalism Research and Production Program, Ramapo State College of New Jersey

Presentations
	Ty Yong Kim ₂ Associate Producer for Mike Wallace, CBS News/“60 Minutes”
	Joe Klein ₃ Senior Editor, Newsweek
	Veena Merchant ₄ Deputy Publisher, India Abroad, New York
	T. T. Nhu ₅ Columnist, San Jose Mercury News
	Steve R. Weisman ₆ Editorial Board, The New York Times

In expressing their opinions as to what is good and bad news, panelists led off by discussing what they deemed as newsworthy. Ty Yong Kim, Joe Klein, and Steve R. Weisman all thought that newsworthiness should be determined by purely objective factors exclusive of a journalist’s race or ethnicity. Both Klein and Weisman, however, acknowledged that this method has yielded many problem—an assessment with which Veena Merchant and T. T. Nhu seemed to agree wholeheartedly. Their definition of newsworthiness is shaped by what the mainstream press marginalizes. Both write about their communities because they are completely excluded by mainstream media. As a result, they have assumed a task that they should not have been neccessary.

Joann Lee postulated that media is culture. It has a profound effect on how Asian Americans see themselves and are perceived by others. The murder of Chinese American Vincent Chin illustrates this phenomenon. In the early 1980s, when U.S. control of the auto industry began to lose ground to Japan, the media repeatedly ran articles that bashed Japan. In 1983, at the height of this anti-Japanese craze, a group of laid-off Detroit auto workers killed Chin, thinking he was Japanese and somehow responsible for the loss of their jobs.

Because media representations are so influential, selecting what becomes news and what does not carries tremendous responsibility. A discussion of what is newsworthy, particularly in regard to Asian America and Asia, thus became the centerpiece of the discussion. Opinions of good and bad news were as diverse as the panelists’ backgrounds.

For Ty Yong Kim, selecting news stories is an exercise in overcoming his ethnicity to achieve objectivity. He chooses stories based on their news significance, regardless of their positive or detrimental effects on the Asian American community. His definition of a newsworthy story has a main character, a beginning and an end, and thorough documentation.

Joe Klein, much like Kim, also chooses his stories based on factors independent of race and ethnicity. He, however, admits that his objective criteria often yield undesirable results. He claims that it is impossible to go through life as a journalist and not be embarrassed by certain stories. While most stories are chosen on the basis of projected reader response, some are brought into being by the actions of a powerful small group. Recent stories on soldiers missing in action (MIA’s) are a good example. While MIA stories are pertinent to only relatively few, powerful MIA advocates have successfully blown the issue out of proportion.

While recognizing that many news stories about Asian Americans lack objectivity, Klein argued that not all such stories are negative. He noted that his publication, Newsweek,has run several stories on the success of Asian Americans in the school system and in business but said he did not understand why Newsweek till gets complaints regarding Asian American news coverage.

Moderator Joann Lee responded by explaining that these stories stereotype Asian Americans as a model minority. This categorization was created to serve the interest of mainstream culture rather than to promote the true success of Asian Americans. Meanwhile, newsworthy stories on Asian Americans are entirely lacking.

Klein admitted that he would still like to see other kinds of stories on Asians and Asian Americans, particularly those relating to the impact of affluence on Asians in both the U.S. and Asia. He considers that this aspect of society has been neglected for the last thirty years. Klein would also like to see stories covering strategies on maintaining a social safety net in a growing and increasingly fierce global economy.

China, is a prime example of a nation that is going to have to deal with this in the very near future.

Steve Weisman, like Klein, recognized that problems existed in media coverage of Asians. He noted that foreign coverage of Asian countries is particularly problematic and expressed his abhorrence for past characterizations of nonwhite countries cast within a cold war mold. But Weisman introduced an optimistic perspective. Since the end of the cold war, changing social conditions have forced the media to abandon the vilification of nonwhites. Foreign coverage is now more inclusive of social problems. Weisman charged the media with the task of reinventing foreign news coverage to suit current global conditions more appropriately.

Veena Merchant and T. T. Nhu have very different frames of reference. Both write for papers with relatively small, specialized constituencies which they both maintain emerged as a result of the marginalization of their issues. Merchant works on a publication devoted entirely to South Asian Americans. Nhu’s column for the San Jose Mercury News is about a midsize town’s Asian population. Even within such a clearly defined focus, however, Nhu still encounters problems. Many editors, she argues, favor the most sensationalized and outrageous stories on Asians. She did admit, however, that stories on so-called exotic Asian cultures or foods do not fall in the former category and can be quite informative.

Each participant had a different take on what is newsworthy. While some adhered to the notion of objective criteria, others denounced such standards as agents of marginalization, which make it necessary for journalists like Nhu and Merchant to address ethnic-specific issues. But while there was disagreement on what is news, everyone agreed that the media needs to examine and reform itself in several different areas.

Discussion

The question and answer period exceeded that of the panel discussion. Many topics not addressed earlier were brought up by well-informed audience members. In addressing why adjectives are assigned to specific peoples—such as “ Muslim” rather than “Christian” or any other religious adjective to describe terrorists—panelists were deadlocked. Steve Weisman led the discussion by decrying such characterizations, and Nhu elaborated that such characterizations occur frequently as the result of a bias that treats Europeans as individuals and Asians as monolithic groups. She also noted that reporters need to learn the language of the country they are covering to overcome their own ethnocentrism.

Joe Klein took a very different perspective. He asserted that journalists had to generate flamboyant stories since readers were no longer responsive to foreign coverage.

Discussion also centered around the ethical responsibilities of journalists and whether they think about the results of their stories. Nhu and Merchant both agreed that these decisions are made primarily by editorial staff members. Joe Klein argued that publishers are mainly just trying to report what happens, which can lead to excessive coverage of negative stories, such as those on Asian gangs, the most visible or exciting aspect of the Asian American experience. Klein, however, recognized the dangers that his philosophy could harbor and acknowledged the need to balance negative stories with more positive ones.

Endnotes

Note 1: Joann Lee is Associate Professor of Communication Arts at Ramapo College. Her writing on issues facing Asian Americans has appeared in New York Newsday, Editor and Publisher and the San Francisco Chronicle. As a reporter in local television news she was the first Asian American to be hired on-air in Sacramento (KXTV), Chicago (WLS), Philadelphia (WCAU) and CNN (New York bureau). Back.

Note 2: Ty Yong Kim is an associate producer for Mike Wallace at CBS News/60 Minutes and is responsible for developing hard news/investigative pieces. He was involved in negotiating the successful entry of The CBS Evening News into North Korea in 1990. Mr. Kim is a graduate of Stanford University. Back.

Note 3: Joe Klein is Senior Editor at Newsweek, where he writes a regular column titled “Public Lives” in which he examines politics, international affairs and social policy. His columns received a “National Headliner Award” in 1994. He is also a regular commentator on American politics for CBS News. Mr. Klein has had a distinguished, award-winning career, covering New York City government and public affairs for New York Magazine from 1987 to 1992 and writing articles and book reviews for The New Republic, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Life, Rolling Stone and numerous other publications. He has written two books, Payback: Five Marines after Vietnam (Knopf, 1984) and Woody Guthrie: A Life (Knopf, 1980). Mr. Klein is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and a former Guggenheim fellow. Back.

Note 4: Veena Merchant, Deputy Publisher of India Abroad, is in charge of the editorial department, which includes all six editions and the news service. She joined the publication as a consulting editor in 1973, after working as an editor for the Somani Group of publications and the Modi Group’s first trade publication. Back.

Note 5: Tran Tuong Nhu is a columnist for the San Jose Mercury New and writes on a wide range of subjects, especially about changing communities and mores in California. Born in Vietnam and educated in the US, Nhu returned to Vietnam during the Vietnam War, where she was a social worker and worked for NBC News in Saigon. She is currently assisting the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation with a documentary in Vietnam. Nhu also serves on the boards of Asian Women United and Global Exchange and has received a number of awards for community service. Back.

Note 6: Steve R. Weisman became a member of the editorial board of The New York Times in February 1995, after having served as deputy foreign editor since 1992. Previously, he served as bureau chief of The New York Times in Tokyo and New Delhi. Before becoming a foreign correspondent, he covered the White House, Albany, City Hall and the New York metropolitan area for The New York Times. Back.