1992 LA Riots and the Akron Beacon Journal

I know this is not a current event, but I read something in our Media Ethics book and it really struck me as interesting. There were a couple of paragraphs that talked about the Rodney King incident and the LA Riots that occurred 6 days after the trial. For clarification purposes, here's the background story.

Rodney King, an African American was driving down a California freeway when highway patrol attempted to pull him over. King drove faster because he had been drinking and a DUI would violate his parole in his robbery conviction. Speeds reached up to 115 miles per hour until King finally pulled over. There, the events get fuzzy. Amateur video shot by a nearby apartment building shows police, all Caucasian brutally attacking King with their batons, and at one point an officer kicks him in the head. The officers say they were threatened, and reported that King came at one of them and struck another in the chest, though that is hard to see in the video. The case went to court and ultimately the officers were acquitted of their charges. After that announcement, there were 6 days of rioting in Los Angeles, California, fueled by racial anger.

What I did not know was that the Akron Beacon Journal, when covering this story, published a year-long series called "A Question of Color" that talked about different black and write realities of the residents. The Beacon Journal focus groups were conducted by independent research contractors and was facilitated by reporters. During the series, the paper invited area organizations to volunteer to establish projects addressing race relations. The publisher, John Dotson, hired 2 facilitators to direct planning efforts among the groups. The project was an effort to move the community beyond previous conversations about race, and ask why there were still noticeable gaps in quantifiable areas like housing, wages and educational opportunities. In December 1993, the paper ran a front page "coupon" that asked people to take it a step further than just actively talk about black and white race relations. The readers were to sign and return the coupon, pledging to fight racism in 1994. The Akron Beacon Journal subsequently won a Pulitzer Prize for Public Service.

Our Media Ethics book then talks about the critics of the series. They ask if the paper had gone too far with their role asking for community participation. Had the Akron Beacon Journal surpassed their role of impartial observer and disseminator of news? What affect does it have on their credibility? Personally, the critics raise some good ethical questions, but the way I think about it is that the paper was thinking of their community as a whole, but in order to make a dramatic change in the way community members are thinking, sitting back and letting it happen with no discourse does not solve anything. Yes, a circulation paper should try and stay impartial (except for their opinion page) but in hopes of another event like the LA Riots occurring again, I think the Akron Beacon Journal made the right steps to at least get people thinking about the subject.