The Authentic Voice

The Best Reporting on Race and Ethnicity

Edited by Arlene Notoro Morgan, Alice Irene Pifer & Keith Woods

Whether you deem it a melting pot or a mosaic, this nation continues to attract people of color from all over the world. More than 12 percent of the nation was foreign born in 2005, with more than one-in-three residents living in Los Angeles, according to the U.S. Census Bureau study. But even smaller town such as Missouri City, Texas, Boynton Beach, Fla., and East Orange, N.J. are home to burgeoning ethnic neighborhoods.

With so much demographic change, journalists (as well as marketers and advertisers) are challenged daily to “get it right.” That means they must understand the lives and culture of native-born people of color and also that of immigrant communities in order to accurately reflect their readers and subjects.

A new publication and companion DVD addresses this ongoing issue with a series of case studies based on award-winning TV and newspaper stories. The Authentic Voice: The Best Reporting On Race and Identity, is based on the work from “Let’s Do It Better! a workshop held at the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism. Accompanying the stories are ideas for discussion points, suggested readings and websites.

The DVD contains the seven stories discussed in the book, 14 interviews with the featured journalists who reported the stories, and a topic index that cross-references subjects by category such as Ethics, Language Choices.

“The Authentic Voice is an important multimedia tool for journalists and journalism educators who have struggled to find better ways to serve Americans of all races and ethnic backgrounds,” says Edward C. Pease, professor and graduate director in journalism and communication at Utah State University.

Arlene Notoro Morgan, Alice Irene Pifer & Keith Woods edited The Authentic Voice. It is published by Columbia University Press/New York. www.columbia.edu/cu/cup