“Behind the Mic,” hosted by WUWM, brought two generations of journalists together for a conversation at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in May.
Tonya Mosley from NPR’s Fresh Air spoke with Maria Peralta-Arellano, an Eric Von Fellow and UWM alum, during this public community event.
Before the conversation began, David Lee, WUWM’s president and general manager, addressed the crowd on the current landscape of public media, and he introduced these two journalists.
The insightful discussion was on their journeys as journalists. These continuing journeys include reporting in local communities and covering national conversations. Through their experiences, they explored the challenges, responsibilities and human moments that define journalism today.
Before the main conversation, which happened in the Wisconsin Room of the UWM Student Union and was attended by several WUWM and NPR listeners, there was a pre-conversation with UWM students.
Special Q&A with UWM Students
Sara Tomilin, WUWM’s major gifts officer, led an intimate conversation with nine students, Tonya Mosley and Maria Peralta-Arellano.
Students got to ask questions and hear about the ever-changing journalism field before Mosley and Perlata-Arellano’s discussion in the Wisconsin Room later that evening.
Both guests took the time to greet every student and learn about their current studies at UWM.
A huge part of the conversation was dedicated to the rise of AI in journalism. Mosley and Perlata-Arellano talked about how they personally use AI for their daily tasks, such as transcribing audio interviews.
They both mentioned how AI should be used to eliminate time-consuming, boring work to focus on the fun part. Although she is not completely against AI, Perlata-Arellano emphasized the need for human eyes and hands to run through AI-generated work before moving forward with it.
The conversation also covered how the rise of social media affects the way people consume news and media. Students mentioned the rise of “news influencers,” people who regurgitate news into short-form clips, on social media apps like TikTok and Instagram.
The group discussed how this can cause false information to spread and how people use TikTok as a search engine and their news app.
Notable Quotes from the Conversation
“About 10 years ago, I had the privilege of a fellowship at Stanford University where I worked with social scientists on this implicit bias curriculum for journalists. I learned so much, and it was like a very confirming year for me. There’s a conflation with objectivity and neutrality. And neutrality was never a part of, that’s never a journalistic tenet, because there’s no way to be neutral. Bias is a natural human trait.”
“The entire infrastructure of American journalism was kind of built from this idea of objectivity. There’s a flaw in that. We all come from somewhere. We use the tenets of journalism, the things that we’re trying to find out: the who, what, where, when, why and how. We are trying to make sure we’re getting multiple points of view. Then, making sure that our work is read and edited by others who are less connected to it. In hopes that we can get as close to the truth as possible, but also offer people something that is fair and true.”
“To be completely objective is something that we’re always aspiring to be, but everything comes from a point of view. Even the decisions on what you’re going to cover and the vantage point that you’re going to take is a perspective. When you and your editor are talking about it as you’re about to head out, that is a perspective. Someone else might take an entirely different perspective. That year was very clarifying for me in understanding journalism in a deeper way. It has allowed me to understand that as long as the audience understands where I’m coming from, that is truer than pretending like I’m not coming from anywhere.”
– Tonya Mosley
“First off, all journalists, all American journalists have a bias toward democracy. That’s something that we don’t really acknowledge. So if I’m covering Black Lives Matter, and Black Lives Matter was a movement that basically was saying that our lives as black Americans matter too. Under this democracy, that is what we have said to be true. For me to go out and cover something that is about the humanity of others, and acknowledging that they exist, and acknowledging that they should have the rights and freedoms of everyone else in this country. That is not a side.”
“I think that when I went out covering that, that’s how I was covering it. I think the bigger challenge is when you’re up against leadership that might see things differently because they’ve not had the life experience that you have.”
“I want to say that the majority of the places that I’ve ever worked have all been good, well-meaning newsroom leaders who might have come from a place where they just don’t have the life experience. But that’s what makes diversity important. If we’re covering our country and the beautiful diversity of thought, place, space and experience, having people from different backgrounds who can give you that lens is very, very important. It’s imperative.”
“I’ve been a part of newsrooms where I’ve been the first black person in the newsroom, and that’s a travesty. I’m old, but I’m not that old. It shouldn’t be in the last 30 years, well, it’s the first time you’ve ever had a black person in the newsroom. That means that you’ve not accurately been covering your community. Because if a community is even 1/3 Black American, that means that you have missed an entire population of people. I stand really firm in that, even when I was covering Black Lives Matter. I used all the journalism principles when I was covering that movement.”
– Tonya Mosley
“Back to the question about when media will develop a backbone. I think that the backbone is developing now. We were just in conversation with students and they were asking questions about AI in the digital space and how are we navigating around that.”
“We had a conversation about it. They were very quick to point out that while we’re navigating a media landscape where millionaires and billionaires are owning and consolidating a bunch of sources, the same thing is happening on the digital space.”
“So there is questions populating, questioning that both sides have to be represented. You know, how are we navigating our landscape? I’m very hopeful that a backbone will be even more present as we just continue within the next five years and these students are graduating.”
-Tonya Mosley