Journalism and the Role of Anthropology

Entering college, I didn’t even know what anthropology was, let alone did I think I would add it as a second major. I had to get some science credits, so I signed up for a 100-level anthropology class called “Intro to Evolution.” Thus began my love affair with the social science of humans, past and present, and how they relate to one another.

Even after taking that first class I wasn’t quite sure how or if I’d be able to relate the knowledge to my career, which I still knew would be in journalism. However, I had found something else I was passionate about and loved learning, and I wasn’t going to pass up the opportunity to delve further into it while still in school. I added anthropology as my second major after finishing that class freshmen year.

It wasn’t until I took another 100-level course called “Comparative Cultures” that I realized just how useful the knowledge from this degree could be. I’ve always wanted to be a foreign correspondent – to travel the world and write about the people and problems and solutions that affect them. What was anthropology but understanding people and the cultural context of their problems and the solutions to them?

I really believe that anyone seeking a job in journalism, especially if they want to be a foreign correspondent, should pursue knowledge in anthropology, and I absolutely recommend to fellow students going into the field that they take at least a few anthropology classes if possible. My anthropology classes have taught me so much about how to go about truly understanding other cultures, dropping the natural judgments we have without realizing it from the culture we grew up in, observing other peoples’ ways of life without the Western filter, etc.

It’s so easy for travelers to go to other countries and see the problems there and say, “Oh, the solution is simple. Just do this,” or to see something different and think, “That is just strange/wrong/underdeveloped,” when in reality, our version of “development,” “normal,” and our solutions simply might not work in that particular cultural context.

A realization I had, for example, from some recent reading is that our approaches to empowering women and gender equality in the United States simply aren’t the best approaches in Muslim countries. Solutions need to be seen from their cultural context and worked through them. Women in the United States might look to women in Afghanistan and say, “Allow them to dress how they want! They’re so oppressed!” when in reality, the majority of the population of women, being devout Muslims, might not even want to shed their traditional head-covering garb. They may not even feel oppressed by them. Instead, feminists should, as some are in the Middle East, examine the cultural context of the Qu’ran and educate people on how “rules” or laws relevant to feminist issues are simply not applicable anymore.

For example, the practice of polygyny, which is acceptable in the Qu’ran, is challenged by feminists now because further historical and anthropological study shows that this was only true because women’s husbands at the time the Qu’ran was written would often die in battle and have no way of supporting themselves; so, it was the brother’s duty to marry his brother’s widow in order to provide for her and her children. Polygyny was a matter of survival, where it simply isn’t anymore.

Polygyny is certainly not a hot debate for advocates of women’s empowerment in the United States, of course, but only because it is not relevant to our particular culture. Anthropology teaches us to really understand a culture (through the ethnographic emic/etic approach of living with a group of people for an extended period of time and taking up their lifestyle completely to understand it while simultaneously observing it).

Obviously, journalists work on a deadline, and don’t have a year to devote to every group of people they report on; however, having a basic understanding of anthropology, particularly cultural anthropology, can be extremely helpful, I think.

I ended up dropping my second major in anthropology and keeping a minor in cultural anthropology instead in order to graduate within four years; plus, I wasn’t particularly interested in some of the required classes, such as forensic anthropology or primate studies. I was able to take far more than the required 18 credits for the minor, however, and took every culture-related anthropology course I could while in college.

I know that when I do land a job as a foreign correspondent, or even just in my personal travels, I will have a better understanding and an ability to really relate to the people I meet thanks to the classes I’ve taken in anthropology. Again, I recommend to aspiring journalists everywhere to take whatever anthropology classes they can just for the knowledge, even if a degree is out of the question.