In the
School
of
Communication
and Multimedia Studies at
Florida
Atlantic
University, we have programs in both print and electronic journalism. As this is
South Florida
and the LGBT community is very much a part of the everyday news beat, discussion about how to cover LGBT stories and issues is incorporated into our various news writing classes.
For example, one instructor (who is a full-time reporter for a local newspaper) notes that in teaching students how to write an obituary, he selects one that has information for a gay male police officer. Students are given a list of his accomplishments (which include saving a woman and her children from a burning building) along with his biographical information. That information includes his life partner, the details of their commitment ceremony and a quote from the dead officer's patrol partner, who said that it was tough being a gay officer, and that the dead officer handled it well and earned the respect of his colleagues.
Students are left to organize the details of the obit and decide on the relative merits of the information. When the class discusses the story, they discuss how to report his sexual orientation. Some students want to put it in the lead; others do not want to include it in the story at all.
The instructor then tells them how he would handle it by not necessarily putting it in the lead (the burning building rescue needs to be there), but certainly including it prominently in the story, with a mention of his partner's name and the quote from his patrol partner.
Another instructor, also a full-time reporter, uses the recent controversy over the derogatory remarks about the LGBT community made by the mayor of
Fort Lauderdale, a story that made national news, as an example. Student are told that writing it as a news story, the reporter should just stick to the facts, noting the context and situation leading to the mayor’s comments, the response by the LGBT community and the growing controversy the remarks engendered. The writer could also attempt to explain why the remarks were considered derogatory without actually repeating them.
In another instance, there was a story about how an older gay man was murdered by a young man he had taken in. In reporting on this, it was noted that a reporter should not include any judgments or opinions about the relationship between the older and younger man, either directly or indirectly through quoting someone. On the other hand, information about the possible motivation of the crime can be included.
Finally, one instructor had her class write a story about the family relations of older people in retirement homes. She first, however, made the students very aware that there are many different kinds of families, including LGBT families, and that her students should be ready to include them all.
Beyond news writing classes, LGBT issues and topics are covered in a number of other courses at
Florida
Atlantic
University. In the course “Minorities and the Media,” media representation, both news and non-news media, of the LGBT community (along with other minority communities) are covered. The underlying similarities in how the media typically depict marginalized groups are noted.
In the course “Media and Sexuality,” both news and non-news media are examined, looking at how much of the media still have a very strong heterosexual bias in their presentation of reality. In this course, we also cover the history of the LGBT movement and how media representation of it has changed. In doing so, we consider how the techniques of journalism like balance and authoritative sources have contributed to the way the LGBT community has been portrayed. For example, in the 1960s, since the medical profession saw homosexuality as a sickness, reporters then had to incorporate that perspective in their reporting. We also note then how entertainment media drew upon these news stories to create fictional accounts of homosexuals.
