Comments on: Jared Diamond, The New Yorker and the awkwardness of anecdotes http://www.niemanstoryboard.org/2009/12/03/jared-diamond-the-new-yorker-and-the-awkwardness-of-anecdotes/ Breaking down story in every medium. A project of the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard. Wed, 08 Feb 2012 16:36:18 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: Twitted by dvergano http://www.niemanstoryboard.org/2009/12/03/jared-diamond-the-new-yorker-and-the-awkwardness-of-anecdotes/comment-page-1/#comment-1359 Twitted by dvergano Tue, 08 Dec 2009 12:35:33 +0000 http://niemanstoryboard.us/?p=1250#comment-1359 [...] This post was Twitted by dvergano [...] [...] This post was Twitted by dvergano [...]

]]> By: Barbara Miller http://www.niemanstoryboard.org/2009/12/03/jared-diamond-the-new-yorker-and-the-awkwardness-of-anecdotes/comment-page-1/#comment-1170 Barbara Miller Sat, 05 Dec 2009 12:45:12 +0000 http://niemanstoryboard.us/?p=1250#comment-1170 Stuart makes an excellent point about media and stereotyping tropes: PNG primitives, India dowry, Kenya drought and despair, Middle East Islam and violence, Afghanistan tribalism and corruption and on and on. I am going to take a closer look at my anth textbooks and teaching to see if/how I myself am perpetuating such tropist thinking and how to counteract it without resorting to worn out countertropes such as a New Guinea highlander talking on a cell phone or drinking a pepsi. Stuart makes an excellent point about media and stereotyping tropes: PNG primitives, India dowry, Kenya drought and despair, Middle East Islam and violence, Afghanistan tribalism and corruption and on and on. I am going to take a closer look at my anth textbooks and teaching to see if/how I myself am perpetuating such tropist thinking and how to counteract it without resorting to worn out countertropes such as a New Guinea highlander talking on a cell phone or drinking a pepsi.

]]> By: Valerie Alia http://www.niemanstoryboard.org/2009/12/03/jared-diamond-the-new-yorker-and-the-awkwardness-of-anecdotes/comment-page-1/#comment-1108 Valerie Alia Fri, 04 Dec 2009 19:04:58 +0000 http://niemanstoryboard.us/?p=1250#comment-1108 Stuart Kirsch's question is precisely what I addressed in my essay. It raises what for me is a central concern about the ways that journalists cover 'Others'. Many of us have been trying to "counteract this tendency" for years. I continue to be astounded by the resistance to more conscientious reporting. When journalists are more accurate and respectful, their efforts are often sabotaged by editors and news directors who think they must sensationalize to sell newspapers, magazines, or TV programs. Stuart Kirsch’s question is precisely what I addressed in my essay. It raises what for me is a central concern about the ways that journalists cover ‘Others’. Many of us have been trying to “counteract this tendency” for years. I continue to be astounded by the resistance to more conscientious reporting. When journalists are more accurate and respectful, their efforts are often sabotaged by editors and news directors who think they must sensationalize to sell newspapers, magazines, or TV programs.

]]> By: Rhonda R Shearer http://www.niemanstoryboard.org/2009/12/03/jared-diamond-the-new-yorker-and-the-awkwardness-of-anecdotes/comment-page-1/#comment-1107 Rhonda R Shearer Fri, 04 Dec 2009 18:34:02 +0000 http://niemanstoryboard.us/?p=1250#comment-1107 Although I generally (pun intended) appreciate your posting, your statement that StinkyJournalism.org "has gone after Diamond in a series of essays, including one by media ethicist Valerie Alia ('Media, Misrepresentation, and Indigenous People')"--is unclear. It was StinkyJournalism.org's original investigation and report that first uncovered numerous errors in Diamond's New Yorker article about revenge warfare between two tribes (the Ombals and Handa) in Papua New Guinea as told by his driver, Daniel Wemp. See http://www.stinkyjournalism.org/latest-journalism-news-updates-149.php. The series of essays, The Pig in a Garden, that you cite, including the one by Alia, were a response to our report written by me and three indigenous researchers who located Wemp and others Diamond names. Imagine our surprise when first contacting Wemp, in the Southern Highlands of Papua New Guinea, July 2008, to discover that he had no idea he was to be quoted or featured by Diamond in the New Yorker--despite New Yorker's claim they had "thoroughly fact checked" Diamond's article. Wemp last talked to Diamond in May 2006. (Diamond was not contracted by The New Yorker until early 2008). Diamond's mistakes include less serious errors--naming two villages as tribes. However, when he mistakenly names Ombals and Handas as part of the Nipa tribe (untrue)...and then goes on the say Nipa (including Ombals, Handa) raped and killed Huli along a highway after an election, Ombals and Handa were upset. A map confirms that they live hours away from where this actually happened. He wrote that Henep Isum was the Ombal leader of a 3-year war between the tribes, who was paralyzed and in a wheelchair for 11 years, after Wemp's hired assassin's put an arrow in his spine. Our team of researchers easily found Henep Isum Mandingo--but he was walking, clearing land and carrying a heavy load of dirt. Turns out that he is not even an Ombal but a member of the Henep tribe. He never was a tribal warrior but was a village peace officer. If Diamond or The New Yorker would have simply contacted police, government officials, missionaries, tribal leaders--anyone living in the area, or just looked at a map--they would have learned and published the truth instead of accusing innocent persons and tribes of heinous crimes. Although I generally (pun intended) appreciate your posting, your statement that StinkyJournalism.org “has gone after Diamond in a series of essays, including one by media ethicist Valerie Alia (‘Media, Misrepresentation, and Indigenous People’)”–is unclear.

It was StinkyJournalism.org’s original investigation and report that first uncovered numerous errors in Diamond’s New Yorker article about revenge warfare between two tribes (the Ombals and Handa) in Papua New Guinea as told by his driver, Daniel Wemp. See http://www.stinkyjournalism.org/latest-journalism-news-updates-149.php.

The series of essays, The Pig in a Garden, that you cite, including the one by Alia, were a response to our report written by me and three indigenous researchers who located Wemp and others Diamond names.

Imagine our surprise when first contacting Wemp, in the Southern Highlands of Papua New Guinea, July 2008, to discover that he had no idea he was to be quoted or featured by Diamond in the New Yorker–despite New Yorker’s claim they had “thoroughly fact checked” Diamond’s article. Wemp last talked to Diamond in May 2006. (Diamond was not contracted by The New Yorker until early 2008).

Diamond’s mistakes include less serious errors–naming two villages as tribes. However, when he mistakenly names Ombals and Handas as part of the Nipa tribe (untrue)…and then goes on the say Nipa (including Ombals, Handa) raped and killed Huli along a highway after an election, Ombals and Handa were upset. A map confirms that they live hours away from where this actually happened.

He wrote that Henep Isum was the Ombal leader of a 3-year war between the tribes, who was paralyzed and in a wheelchair for 11 years, after Wemp’s hired assassin’s put an arrow in his spine. Our team of researchers easily found Henep Isum Mandingo–but he was walking, clearing land and carrying a heavy load of dirt. Turns out that he is not even an Ombal but a member of the Henep tribe. He never was a tribal warrior but was a village peace officer.

If Diamond or The New Yorker would have simply contacted police, government officials, missionaries, tribal leaders–anyone living in the area, or just looked at a map–they would have learned and published the truth instead of accusing innocent persons and tribes of heinous crimes.

]]> By: stuart kirsch http://www.niemanstoryboard.org/2009/12/03/jared-diamond-the-new-yorker-and-the-awkwardness-of-anecdotes/comment-page-1/#comment-1101 stuart kirsch Fri, 04 Dec 2009 15:58:05 +0000 http://niemanstoryboard.us/?p=1250#comment-1101 Thanks for the thoughtful post. I might even go one step further. It is very difficult to get the media to publish anything about Papua New Guinea that doesn’t draw on the same set of primitivizing tropes. I think audiences have been largely conditioned to expect this as well. Do you think this is a general pattern for reporting on other countries or regions of the world as well, e.g. that stories about Africa are expected to feature corruption, or accounts about the Middle East more likely to focus on religious violence? Is it possible to counteract this tendency? Thanks for the thoughtful post. I might even go one step further. It is very difficult to get the media to publish anything about Papua New Guinea that doesn’t draw on the same set of primitivizing tropes. I think audiences have been largely conditioned to expect this as well.

Do you think this is a general pattern for reporting on other countries or regions of the world as well, e.g. that stories about Africa are expected to feature corruption, or accounts about the Middle East more likely to focus on religious violence? Is it possible to counteract this tendency?

]]> By: Twitted by niemanstory http://www.niemanstoryboard.org/2009/12/03/jared-diamond-the-new-yorker-and-the-awkwardness-of-anecdotes/comment-page-1/#comment-1074 Twitted by niemanstory Thu, 03 Dec 2009 21:22:25 +0000 http://niemanstoryboard.us/?p=1250#comment-1074 [...] This post was Twitted by niemanstory [...] [...] This post was Twitted by niemanstory [...]

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