Examining How Media Portrays GLBT Issues

Lisa Keen, an award-winning journalist who writes about Gay Lesbian Bisexual and Transgender (GLBT) stories, gave a presentation discussing many aspects of GLBT coverage in mainstream media in the Rainbow Center Wednesday afternoon. Keen has worked with major news publications around the country, inluding an editor position at the Washington Blade for 20 years and now as a correspondent for The Boston Globe.

Keen discussed how the media coverage has changed in the past 20 years to the mistakes publications make that change the views on the GLBT community.

Keen personally did not get into news and journalism until after her undergrwaduate work at Virginia Tech and moving to Washington.

Before starting her powerpoint, she began by asking the crowd what kind of sources were used to obtain information about current events. The four sources she brought up were TV, radio, newspapers and the internet. Not surprisingly a majority of the people present raised their hands in the air when Keen asked if the internet was used to access news.

She began reciting statistics of how little GLBT news is represented in newspapers and some startling comparisons were brought up. For example, USA Today articles reach between one and two million readers per year yet the largest GLBT reaching news source, The Advocate, does not even reach a quarter of that. A more local comparison, the Hartford Courant reaches more people than the New York Blade, another GLBT news source.

Despite not being able to reach as big an audience as the GLBT news sources would like, there are over 206 gay publications in operation. The first gay publication of the country was The Advocate which is, as mentioned above, the leading LGBT-focused newspaper.

Keen told the audience that one editor she talked to, said that the mission of his publication "used to be about 'the cause' but now it is all about the business." A lot has happened since 2001, she said; So many publication businesses have changed. Keen also said that the question she gets asked the most is why is a gay news publication of any sort needed? To which she replies the main reason is to give members of the GLBT community the resources they may want that their local newspaper would not provide.

With change has come the expansion of GLBT coverage in the news as this country slowly progresses to acceptance. In the 1960s for instance, one would have to look under the Sex Perversion section in a library to find any information about gays. However, since there are so many sources for obtaining news, especially with 24 hour coverage TV stations and the plethora of information available through the Web, Keen stressed mainstream media should be more selective on what they publish. Readers are bombarded with 'easy' stories that are just written to take up space and with these quick stories come many mistakes both factual and biased.

Mistakes in news concerning the GLBT community can be innocent and benign, including punctuation and syntax. On the other hand mistakes that are made by biased journalists can be serious.

According to the information Keen obtained and relayed to the audience, 50 percent of mainstream media stories have some type of mistake in them yet only 10 percent are corrected. This begins with a lack of investigation and then a lack of action by those who are offended or wronged by the information conveyed through the story. Many incorrect views of the GLBT community are portrayed in the mainstream because of this. Also, how a journalist chooses their words can send the wrong connotation to the reader or even be a way for them to slip in their own opinion of the topic. For an anti-gay journalist to be writing about a lesbian politician, this can be an obvious conflict of interest if the journalist cannot keep their writing unbiased.

Polls that are taken can also lead to corrupted data that only presents those asking the people the questions, with the answers they want to write. Thus, tainted statistics are produced and mainly the GLBT community is wrongfully represented.

Keen gave 6 main tips to modernize gay coverage in the news. "Don't call us homosexuals; it is an outdated term and is limited in purpose. Don't call us admitted homosexuals; it denotes that being gay is wrong. Things don't have a sexual orientation. 'Homosexuals' are not at risk for AIDS. Sexual orientation is not a 'preference.' Don't apply a double standard."

She also gave pointers for readers of the GLBT community who feel as if they have been wronged by something a reporter has said. Keen said that letters to editors requesting a story change or another article from a different perspective can be persuasive as long as the person requesting this has just cause. Other options include boycotting, letter-writing campaigns, and using links within the publication company to pass the word along.

Contact Kaylah Baca at Kaylah.Baca@UConn.edu.