From the South Side to Gaza, good journalism requires homework

Deanna Othman is exhausted.

Since Hamas attacked Israel in October 2023, the Palestinian American writer and teacher living in the southwest suburbs has fielded nonstop requests. She’s a point person and a spokeswoman.

Over the past year she’s participated in at least 20 interviews, connected media sources to local Palestinian voices, organized cultural events and given media literacy presentations.

"You can’t turn anything down because you want to get this message out there," Othman said.

The message is combating anti-Palestinian rhetoric such as dehumanizing language or blanket portrayals of Palestinians as militants. As reporters look to localize a global story in a county with the country’s largest Palestinian population, Othman steps in. Relatives who are worried. Doctors returning from Gaza describing trauma. A whole community grappling with grief.

Her family is from the West Bank. Her in-laws are displaced in Gaza as Israel is unrelenting in its bombings.

"I appreciate our voices were sought out more in the past year. I definitely feel there was an uptick in demand," Othman said.

But missteps happen.

"I remember a specific question from a television anchor when I talked about the challenges my family was facing, and they asked why didn’t they just go to Egypt," Othman recalled. "To me that was evidence of a clear bias of the reporter. I basically said they should not have to go to Egypt, because they’re not Egyptian and they are already refugees. My in-laws were already in a refugee camp before Oct. 7. They should not have to flee their home. It doesn’t make sense and it’s not possible. Borders are closed."

Showcasing humanity of Black Chicagoans, Palestinians

In 1999, I was a graduate student at Northwestern University, and the journalism school offered a global residency program that allowed students to report abroad in various cities. I chose the Associated Press in the Jerusalem bureau.

I took many breaking news assignments: Nelson Mandela’s first-ever visit to Israel since his prison release. Trade missions by then-governors Jeb Bush of Florida and Gray Davis of California, which also included a visit to the late Palestinian National Authority President Yasser Arafat at his Gaza compound. Protests at illegal settlements.

But I also pitched story ideas. Part of my drive in becoming a journalist stemmed from wanting to tell stories beyond crime from my beloved South Side Chicago. Too often, local news coverage failed to show the breadth and humanity of Black neighborhoods. I felt a similar kinship about Palestinian territories and actively sought to report from the West Bank. What improvements were made five years after the Oslo Accords? What was life like in the Dheisheh refugee camp? Was Bethlehem ready for Y2K?

As a budding journalist, I felt American media coverage missed out on opportunities depicting the breadth and humanity of Palestinians.

I’ve thought back to that transformative reporting experience a lot over the past year.

Journalists need to do homework

For many Americans, the Middle East — an invented geopolitical term — is an amorphous, faraway place. Over the past year, I’ve never seen in my lifetime more attention, questioning and understanding on the region. Newsrooms are debating language: whether to call it the Israel-Hamas or Israel-Gaza war, with the latter better reflecting the scope and toll on civilians resulting in more than 40,000 deaths of Palestinians in Gaza. Not to mention fraught debates around using the words "apartheid" and "genocide." Plus internal newsroom divisions about antisemetism and how bias gets in the way of asking tough questions.

"The press holds an immeasurable amount of power because they hold the lens in which our entire country and world views this issue," Othman said. "Our narratives, even brought forth in American media, are scrutinized but it’s the opposite with the Israeli narrative." She’s referring to debunked stories about Hamas beheading babies.

For local journalists thrown in the fray, their own knowledge base is limited and they must decide where the narrative begins. Even the need to balance sourcing is an issue Othman has observed. She’s seen interviews with an Israeli consulate or ambassador and the Palestinian voice is someone from a grocery store.

"One person is trained in talking points and then you choose a random man on the street that lacks that training," Othman said.

Her advice to journalists is to do homework — interview academics, organizers and experts in the field. Don’t be antagonistic.

"We have this idea of neutrality and not inserting opinions. But I've felt from local journalists that they are putting sources on the defensive," Othman said.

What’s global is local. The news media has a responsibility to, among other tenets of journalism, combat misinformation and tell stories of people whose humanity has been debased.

And that’s from the South Side to Gaza.

Natalie Y. Moore is a senior lecturer at Northwestern University.

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