W&L Journalism Professor Featured in Online Publication Blue Marble published a conversation with Aly Colón about providing balanced coverage of a crisis.

By Brian Laubscher
November 27, 2023

Aly Colón, the John S. and James L. Knight Professor of Media Ethics at Washington and Lee University, was recently featured in an article in the online publication Blue Marble.

The article explores the language that journalists use when covering conflicts. To illustrate this concept, it leads with the BBC’s Hamas-Israel war coverage, which garnered attention for its language choice when referring to the two sides of the conflict.

“The language journalists use must be accurate, precise, and verifiable,” Colón states in the article. He went on to note that describing events, using as much detail as possible, is preferable to using language that may exaggerate or distort the intended meaning.

The story, written by Laura Adamczyk, then shifts to a question-and-answer conversation with Colón. To read the conversation, visit the Blue Marble website.

Blue Marble was founded in 2023 by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs – an independent, nonpartisan, nonprofit organization – to transform the way we see our world by pursuing stories that go beyond headlines and borders.

Colón joined the W&L faculty in 2014. He holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Loyola University New Orleans and a master’s degree in journalism from Stanford University. He spent a year at Columbia University as a Knight Bagehot Fellow, focusing on business, and held a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship on ethics at the University of Kansas. Most recently, Colón served as a director of standards and practices at NBC News and Telemundo Network News.

If you know a W&L faculty member who has done great, accolade-worthy things, tell us about them! Nominate them for an accolade.