Culture of Empathy Builder: Janet Blank-Libra

Pursuing an Ethic of Empathy in Journalism
(Google Books)

"This book advances a journalistic theory of empathy, challenging long-held notions about how best to do journalism. Because the institution of journalism has typically equated empathy and compassion with bias, it has been slow to give the intelligence of the emotions a legitimate place in the reporting and writing process.

Blank-Libra's work locates the point at which the vast, multidisciplinary research on empathy intersects with the work of the journalist, revealing a reality that has always been so: journalists practice empathy as a way to connect but also as a form of inquiry, as sincere and legitimate in its goals and aspirations as is objectivity."

Table of Contents

Foreword
Preface
1. Introduction: Toward an Integrated Practice

The Principles of an Ethic of Empathy

2. An Expanding Philosophy

3. A Theoretical Examination of Empathy and Compassion

Empathy: A Theoretical Understanding

Affective and Cognitive Components of Empathy

4. Objectivity: A Timeworn Antipathy to Empathy

Objectivity and the Divided Life

5. Against Compassion: A Quagmire for Journalists

Concern No. 1: Compassion Isn't Always Pure

Concern No. 2: Compassion Fosters Weakness

6. Historically Intertwined: The Narrative and Empathy

Empathy and the American Indian

Empathy and the Fervor of War

Empathy at the Turn of the Century

Jacob Riis

Stephaen Crane

Nellie Bly

20ty Century Journalism and John Hersey

The New Journalists Insist on Progress

7. The Empathetic Journalist in the 21st Century

Two Stories: The Tangible Difference an Ethic of Empathy Can Make

A Twenty-First Century Journalist: Employing an Ethic of Empathy

Resonating with the Particulars: Disarming Stereotypes and Dissolving Distance

Resonating with the Inner Life

8. A Model for Cultivating a Life of Empathy and Compassion

The Model

Note: learn empathy with meditation

Note: lposes integrity as way

9. Research and Reflection: Fueling Empathy

Research

Reflecting to Disable Bias

10. The Moral Imagination: Reclaiming the Call

11. Cultivating Ethical Relationships

Notes: The I - thou Buber relationship

12. Empathetic Listening as a Journalistic Discipline

13. For the Good of the Soul

Papers and Articles

Empathy compels fair treatment of sources
Janet Blank-Libra Blog
"Marc Ian Barasch, author of Field Notes on the Compassionate Life, defines empathy as "our ability to feel and perceive from another's point of view." At the Jaipur Literary Festival in India in January 2011, David Finkel, Washington Post reporter and author of The Good Soldiers, told a rapt audience that he was obligated to be empathetic not only with the soldiers in Iraq but also with the policy makers in Washington, D.C., including then President George W. Bush. He noted that it might be more difficult to summon empathy for Bush than for the soldiers but that it was no less important that he do so. In saying this, he acknowledged the most basic precursor for empathy: recognition of human equality, no matter the differences, and no matter one's personal perspective. "It's impossible," he said, "not to have empathy for American troops and Iraqis." It is more difficult, he said, to have empathy for those making policy in D.C. - but "you have to." Somehow, one has to "keep empathy for all the players.""

Empathize to Understand, Not to Agree
Janet Blank-Libra Blog
"Every day, reporters cross, or should, the boundaries that exist between self and Other.
Once a person navigates that transition, his or her world expands, and in the newly created space, the self comes to know better the potential of its humanity. At times, though, we may find the act of empathy repulsive. We may want to retreat, not reach out."

Journalism: Accepting the necessity of an ethic of empathy
Janet Blank-Libra Blog
"But journalism, despite itself, is evolving, as is a multidisciplinary theory of empathy, one that contains elements and principles essential to good journalism. In the past few decades, a body of journalists has become the moral compass of an institution deeply in need of one: the press. These individuals reflect in their work an ethic of empathy and a respect for the principle that grounds any democratic system: the life, liberty, and happiness of the many must be protected. "

Augustana Journalism Students Speak at National College Media Convention
November 29, 2017

"Journalism professor Dr. Janet Blank-Libra says there is an apparent disconnect between empathy and objectivity in the news media - and many journalists intentionally eschew empathy in an attempt to remain unbiased. It has even come to be seen as taboo in the media. Four Augustana students, however, are bringing the discussion of empathy into the light and are encouraging more journalists to use it to bring greater truth into their reporting.

"I think using empathy in journalism is something that not enough people are talking - or even thinking - about, even though a lot of famous reporters are empathic," said Sophie Geister-Jones '18.

They presented their own panel discussion, entitled "Reporting on the Vulnerable: Empathy as a Form of Inquiry," at the National College Media Convention in Dallas, Texas, in October. Geister-Jones, Jessica Ruf '19, Jacob Knutson '19, and Taylor Olson '18 presented the talk, which they began developing this summer."

My book: Pursuing an Ethic of Empathy in Journalism

"When I started my book several years ago, I wanted to explore and think about the way journalists do their work in a world within which people are so often at odds. Journalists are trained to be objective, but the best of them bring to their work an ethic of empathy that allows for a more expansive route to understanding. The topic of empathy has not always been a political one.

Today, it is. In January 2018 the president of the United States called Haiti and the countries of Africa shit-holes. His racism, something he either deliberately or unwittingly reveals on a regular basis, precludes the possibility of his practicing empathy. It is more important than ever that we find ways to understand one another, that we see comments such as the president's for what they are.

Empathy remains a largely unexplored possibility-in any deliberate sense-for reconciliation among people of different faiths, cultures, countries, races, socioeconomic groups, sexual orientations, political affiliations and more. Rather than dismiss empathy's possibilities, we need to entertain the possibility that empathy is an expansive way of being in the world that promotes depth of humanity and and depth of understanding."

Compassion is not journalism's downfall, it's journalism's salvation
BY JANET BLANK-LIBRA
OCTOBER 26, 2012

"It's time to surrender: Journalism education should incorporate the study of empathy and compassion alongside its study of the objective method. The objective reporter who integrates into his or her work an empathetic, compassionate approach does not face irreconcilable demands. The compassionate act, one that seeks to alleviate suffering, often follows a process that starts with empathy, i.e., the moment within which one connects with the other in an effort to see through his or her eyes, to know something through its meaning for that person.

When journalists practice an ethic of empathy and compassion, they do not forfeit their objectivity. Empathy seeks to understand the other, not produce agreement with the other. For this reason, empathy compels fair treatment of all sources.

Just as one should empathize with the poor person, he or she should empathize with the public official. For the journalist compelled by a moral compass, the writer who seeks justice in the world, empathy can make visible the lives of those who are marginalized and misunderstood and in so doing transform the act of reporting into an act of compassion."

Presentations