Political extremism: 5 ways journalists can improve coverage and mitigate harm
Political extremism presents two major challenges for journalists: The risk of platforming messages of hate and spreading disinformation that threatens democracy.
“We are concerned so much with being perceived by bad faith actors as being objective that we sacrifice telling objective truths in our journalism. And I think that harms us, and it harms our democracy,” said Wesley Lowery, journalist, author, and correspondent, during a National Press Club Journalism Institute and PEN America program this week. “I think the best of our profession does this the right way. We just have a gulf between the best and the bulk.”
Three journalists covering extremism joined Lowery to discuss how political polarization has impacted their work, how they approach coverage of extremist viewpoints, and how to manage risks associated with reporting on fringe movements.
“You have to be careful,” said Hannah Allam, a national security reporter at the Washington Post focusing on extremism and domestic terrorism. “You’re not dealing with, you know, a cranky person who’s mad at the crossword puzzles. … These are bad faith actors, bad faith campaigns that will encourage and sometimes incite harm.”
Here are five takeaways from the panel, moderated by Rhema Bland, journalism talent acquisition specialist for McClatchy:
Don’t rush: Take time to understand and provide context behind your story.
“Like any issue of complexity, coverage of extremism is serviced by rigorous contextualized reporting and is disserviced by rapid sensational reporting,” Lowery said. “Most of our news is: ‘This is what’s happening right now, and we’re never going to talk about it again.’ These are topics that are very difficult to get right in that type of environment.”
Avoid assumptions about how an audience may interpret your work.
For example, if a journalist lands an interview with members of the Proud Boys and publishes a quote, it’s critical not to make any assumptions about how a reader may react to their words.
“We might be thinking in our heads: Oh, this is so outrageous, everybody will see this as hate-filled. Everybody will understand and that’s why we need to expose it,” said Scott Kraft, editor at large at The Los Angeles Times. “But in fact, if we don’t contextualize it and be very careful with how we use that, those groups may actually use [the quotes] as recruiting tools.”
Quote extremists only sparingly and with ample context.
Including extremist viewpoints in a story should only move the conversation forward and not amplify messages of hate. But that does not necessarily mean eschewing extremists in your reporting.
“Talking to [extremists] is different from platforming them,” Allam said. “Talking to them gives you an understanding of their goals, their methods, their operational structure.”
Interviews with extremists can help provide a journalist greater context behind an issue, but reporters should carefully consider what and how they include that information.
Prioritize stories of communities targeted by extremism instead of the extremists.
“A lot of the topics that we’re reporting on are founded in disinformation, misinformation, you know, and racism and white supremacy,” said Natalia Contreras, reporter for Votebeat Texas. “We’ve already seen some [Texas] bills — some very restrictive voting bills — passed, and there’s more that are coming through this legislative session that are guided through, and spurred by, some of these conspiracies.”
Contreras emphasized the importance of showing how radical conspiracies affect local communities by having conversations early with editors about what your stories are trying to achieve and whose narrative is being advanced.
“Hearing just everyday, real-life impacts of what’s going on is always really helpful,” Contreras added.
“I kind of made an informal promise to myself that for every profile of a guy with a gun, or a group with a gun, that I write, I’m also doing stories about the impact of communities and how extremism is felt, endured, suffered, and fought at the very grassroots level,” Allam said.
Be prepared for how extremists may manipulate or harass journalists.
“We created a media environment where what is incentivized, the way people receive attention, is by saying the most outrageous and unfair things about their political opponents,” Lowery said. “When powerful people say things from big platforms, they can’t control who is hearing those things. And many of those people do take those things literally and see them as calls to action.”
Allam also advises that journalists refrain from using their full contact information when reaching out to extremist groups. Consider using the Burner app or DeleteMe to mitigate the risk of being doxxed. (For other resources on fighting online abuse, click here.)
A recent report published by PEN America, “Hate in the Headlines,” explores how journalists and newsrooms have adapted to this shifting political landscape. Through interviews with 75 reporters, journalists, academics, and other experts, the report highlights best practices for covering extremism.
About the speakers
Hannah Allam writes about extremism, domestic terrorism and national security for The Washington Post. She joined The Post in 2021 from NPR, where she was on the national security team. As a longtime foreign correspondent for McClatchy, Allam served as bureau chief in Baghdad during the Iraq War and in Cairo during the Arab Spring rebellions. She returned to the United States in 2012 and has reported extensively on U.S. foreign policy, race and religion, and the mainstreaming of extremist ideologies.
Rhema Bland is a journalism talent acquisition specialist for McClatchy and an adjunct instructor at UNC Hussman School of Journalism and Media. Previously, she served as the first permanent director of the Ida B. Wells Society for Investigative Reporting. Prior to that, she spent four years working higher ed as a student media advisor for Florida Gulf Coast University and later as director of the student media program at East Carolina University. She is a veteran journalist, reporting and producing for CBS, the Florida Times-Union, WJCT and the New York Daily News.
Natalia Contreras has covered a range of topics as a community journalist including local government, public safety, immigration, and social issues. Natalia comes to Votebeat from the Austin American-Statesman, where her reporting focused on impacts of government policies on communities of color. Natalia previously reported for the Indianapolis Star, where she helped launch the first Spanish-language newsletter, and at the Corpus Christi Caller-Times. Natalia was born in Tampico, Tamaulipas, Mexico, and grew up in Corpus Christi, Texas.
Scott Kraft is editor at large for enterprise journalism and special projects at the Los Angeles Times, where he oversees the Investigations department, standards and practices, polling and survey research projects, and newsroom-wide reporting initiatives. During nearly four decades at The Times, Kraft has been managing editor, deputy managing editor/news and national editor, as well as a foreign and national correspondent. As an editor, he has directed work that won nine Pulitzer Prizes. As a reporter, he was a Pulitzer Prize finalist in feature writing while a New York-based national correspondent for the Associated Press before joining The Times in its Chicago bureau. He spent a decade abroad as The Times’ bureau chief in Nairobi, Johannesburg and Paris. He covered the release of Nelson Mandela and the end of apartheid as well as the ill-fated U.S. military mission in Somalia, among other major stories. His story for the Los Angeles Times magazine on the AIDS epidemic in Africa won the SPJ Distinguished Service Award for Foreign Correspondence. He has served as both a juror and chair of the Selden Ring Award for Investigative Reporting. He also was a Pulitzer Prize juror in international reporting in 2014 and subsequently chaired four Pulitzer juries – Public Service in 2015, International Reporting in 2020, Explanatory Reporting in 2021 and Illustrated Reporting and Commentary in 2022. He is currently a president of the Overseas Press Club of America.
Wesley Lowery is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, best selling author, podcast host and on-air correspondent. At The Marshall Project, he is among the team members working on Testify, an unprecedented effort to examine the criminal courts in his hometown of Cleveland, Ohio. He was an executive producer of In the Cold Dark Night, an Emmy-nominated documentary chronicling the effort to solve the 1983 lynching of Timothy Coggins. For GQ, he has gone deep about marriage and monogamy with Will Smith, talked politics and the press with Trevor Noah, dove into the post-scandal life of Andrew Gillum, and chronicled the last days of death row inmate Dustin Higgs. For Men’s Health he wrote about opiod overdoses among black men in Milwaukee and cities across the country. And for the cover of Ebony he profiled Tessa Thompson. As an on-air correspondent for 60 Minutes+. the streaming version of CBS News’ iconic newsmagazine, Lowery reported from protests in Minneapolis and Kenosha, aboard a crab boat in the Chesapeake Bay, and from the frontlines of the COVID-19 pandemic. Lowery has extensively chronicled police violence and the Black Lives Matter movement, and specializes in journalism that marshals data to illuminate the realities within the three branches of the American criminal legal system — police, prosecutors and prisons.
About NPCJI
The National Press Club Journalism Institute promotes an engaged global citizenry through an independent and free press, and equips journalists with skills and standards to inform the public in ways that inspire a more representative democracy. As the non-profit affiliate of the National Press Club, the Institute powers journalism in the public interest.
About PEN America
PEN America stands at the intersection of literature and human rights to protect open expression in the United States and worldwide. We champion the freedom to write, recognizing the power of the word to transform the world. Our mission is to unite writers and their allies to celebrate creative expression and defend the liberties that make it possible.