The episode “Ganster rap” from the Netflix mini-documentary series “Follow This” follows John Stanton who is a journalist for Buzzfeed News. John Stanton is a reporter that covers immigrations and border politics who is pursuing a story about the gang MS-13. Instead of focusing on violence or crime Stanton wants to focus on the gang and its relationship with hip-hop music to create a better understanding of the culture of the gang. Stanton has to find and interview sources who have information about the gang and their music because there is not a great amount of documented information on the gang due to their skepticism of outsiders. MS-13 members have created their own gangster rap songs, which Stanton wants to study in order to find out more about the gang. Even though MS-13 members are very secretive Stanton is able to contact members and former members of the gang and discuss the music with them. Stanton interviews people with differing perspectives on the gang including former and current gang members, government informants, and law enforcement officials. Stanton finds that the music is made by the gang for the gang and is used to recruit teens into a life of gang violence by giving off the perception that the gang is powerful.
One challenge that could come from this story includes objectively reporting the story because the topic is controversial and deals with sensitive content such as the deaths due to gang violence. Another challenge that comes with this story is finding quality sources who are trustworthy and not use any false information that was given by a criminal in order to create a false perception. Also, it could be a challenge to put out the story because the journalist might feel that his safety is in jeopardy due to the nature of the content. Some parts of the story could expose things that the secretive members of MS-13 do not want to be public knowledge and could put the journalist’s life in danger. This story is a good opportunity for a news company to appeal to a younger audience and spread awareness for gang violence.
Stanton did an excellent job of maintaining his journalistic integrity by not being biased towards the people he interviewed who have been gang members. By treating the gang members with the same respect that he had for the law enforcement officials Stanton displayed parts of strategy 23, treat editing like a mystery. This strategy talked about keeping an open mind when approaching a story, meaning that the reporter should objectively report on the facts of what is happening instead of using their opinion because they disagree with the actions of the people in the story. Stanton stated his opinion when he said that he hoped the music can help law enforcement put an end to the violence that comes from MS-13, however he kept his opinion separate from the work. Stanton did a good job at keeping an open mind because even though he had his opinion on the gang violence, he was able to conduct his interviews with no bias in order to get information that reflects the truth regardless of anyone’s opinion.
While this episode did a good job of using objectiveness as a strength, there could be improvement in other areas. This episode did not show a good depiction of strategy 18 skeptical editing. Stanton came to his conclusion very quickly and did not appear to put much thought into other possibilities or other interpretations of the music. Once he thought he understood what something meant he did not bother to question it further in order to dig deeper. This can be improved on by thinking more critically about the dynamics of gang life and how complicated it can be. It is important to be skeptical especially in this situation because some of the sources that Stanton wants to use for his story are current and former gang members. The reason that you would want to be skeptical of them is because criminals and gang members do not have the best reputation of being trustworthy or even good people. Journalistically is it very important to make sure that you are publishing the truth and not a hidden agenda.
Strategy 16, context, is another strength that helped make this episode solid. While there is not a great deal of information about MS-13 available because they are very secretive, Stanton did a good job of providing context. In the episode, the history of the gang was discussed as well as how they started and evolved over time. The viewer is able to comprehend the nature of the gang and understand the importance of the story due to the context that is provided. Too much context can be distracting and not enough context can leave the view confused, but the amount of context in this episode worked well.
Overall, this episode did a good job of staying up to par with journalistic standards because of the objectiveness displayed and use of good context. Even though the amount of skepticism could be improved upon there are many good things about this episode that give good insight on what journalists do.
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