Solidarity Journalism with Anita Varma

Anita Varma, PhD leads the Solidarity Journalism Initiative at the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics, where she is the assistant director of Journalism & Media Ethics as well as Social Sector Ethics. Her research, teaching, and public engagement all focus on how marginalized communities are represented in public discourse, and how these representations can improve. Varma serves on the board of the Society of Professional Journalists (Northern California Chapter) and she is the research chair of the Media Ethics Division for the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication. She believes storytelling can help change the world. In this installment, Brigit and Don welcome Anita Varma, the assistant director of Journalism & Media Ethics and Social Sector Ethics, to explore the essence of solidarity journalism, the dichotomy of journalistic neutrality and acknowledging social justice, the difference between empathy and solidarity in reporting, what solidarity reporting for India’s surge in Covid-19 cases would look like, how both journalists and audiences have been exhausted by the incessant trauma displayed in the news, and the implications of vicarious traumatization.