Journalists from across the country gathered Sunday at OU to begin their half-week conference on immigration and its coverage in the media.
The conference is intended to bring common ground to the way journalists write about issues surrounding the immigrant communities, said journalism professor Warren Vieth, one of the conference organizers.
“The event has been pretty good,” Vieth said. “We’ve covered a lot of ground today and I’m really looking forward to the rest of the week.”
Vieth said the group participated in a somewhat heated debate whether media outlets should refer to members of the U.S. immigrant community, particularly from Latin American countries, as “illegal immigrants” or “undocumented workers.”
“I think we reached a conclusion that we should refer to them as illegal immigrants. We are OK with it for now, but we would still like to find a better term later on,” Vieth said. “Just because someone is here without certain papers doesn’t mean they are illegal. Sometimes their visa has just expired, and they don’t know it needs to be renewed. Some people who are here who aren’t documented with the government aren’t necessarily here to work either.”
Those in attendance said they were excited about hearing what other journalists had to say about immigration issues.
“It’s nice to hear other people’s perspective on the situation,” said Lara Saavedra, journalism alumna who covers minority events in Tulsa’s COLOR Magazine.
Saavedra said sometimes she has personal questions when she is in the field reporting on immigration issues.
“I enjoyed hearing the perspectives from other and more experienced journalists,” Saavedra said. “It’s been really encouraging to me, and some have given me personal advice when we talk about the different problems we face.”
Event attendee Pilar Marrero writes for “La Opinión” in Los Angeles. Marrero said the first day of the conference was beneficial to her understanding of how others cover immigration issues and said she was looking forward to the next few days of the conference.
“My newspaper caters to the Spanish-speaking population and immigration issues come up all the time,” Marrero said. “I always like to attend conferences like this to see how others see the issues of immigration.”
Today’s event will mainly take place in Gaylord Hall.
Beginning at 9 a.m., the group will discuss the impact of Oklahoma House Bill 1804, a bill that has been regarded as one of the nation’s toughest immigrations laws. Following that discussion, the group will study what the Obama Administration is doing to address immigration issues. The day will wrap up with a discussion led by Jason Riley from the Wall Street Journal who wrote “Let Them In: The Case For Open Borders.”
Tuesday, the group will go to an inner-city high school and middle school to study immigrants in the public education system.
Wednesday, the group will return to OU to talk with two prominent Hispanic journalists who report on immigration issues. The group also will discuss immigration issues facing the Muslim community in post-Sept. 11 America.
The conference will continue the rest of the week in Dallas, where attendees will meet with Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials and officials in the U.S. Immigration Court.
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franks 2 years, 1 month ago
Geez, does anyone at this paper READ your own articles? This is so biased I had to turn my head to read it! You call this journalism?