Page - 241 - in Media – Migration – Integration - European and North American Perspectives

Round Table Discussion | Worst Case and Best Practice 241 a good example how journalists sometimes should take a while and think who they ask. From the audience In a study that is part of our research project “Media Integration of Ethnic Minorities in Germany, the U.S., and Canada” we’re asking journalists here in Dortmund two sets of questions. First we ask: What are minority organizations doing in the field of public relations? Are they sending in material? If they are sending in material, what are you doing with it? Are you taking it into account like the other? If you have language problems, do you put that special input into it, so you can print it or do you throw it away, or what do you do with it? And the journalists all say that they hardly send anything. But if they do, we do make a special effort. They seem very sincere. But at the same time, something else is also true. I asked them: and you, have you ever contacted any ethnic minority on your own? “Well, maybe.” In what case? Then they admit “well, I can't remember.” Some outright said “no”. I've asked some 40 journalists now and I had one or two who had an example. And in these cases, it weren’t even minority organizations. This was another context; they had personal connections to someone, whom they could phone on a private line. The barrier seems to be high. The public relations are bad and the journalists are also afraid, so to speak, to ask those people most concerned. From the audience One of the worst practices in journalism is not to ask why in a serious way. If you ask why, everything gets better. Augie Fleras We are getting very close to four o'clock and I think that four o'clock is a great time to end the proceedings of our assembly. Just one question remains to be responded. What can we learn from other media, from other countries or more specificly, what can your European media learn from experiences in the classic countries of immigration in North America? And if you recall, that in this morning presentation, it was quite revelatory for me to study ethnic aboriginal media in Canada and to come away with the absolute other conviction. It strikes me that the confusion of ethnic media can only collectively move the yardsticks forward in terms of creating a process by which new Canadians can make the transition into Canada at a pace and a degree that they feel comfortable with, not