A Journalist Reflects, David Glenn

There is an obvious kinship between anthropology and journalism. At their best, both fields tie microbehaviors to explanations about much larger patterns and structures, without sacrificing complexity and nuance. Professionals in both fields need to reflect every day on ethical questions of consent, power, and voice. But of course there are also profound differences between the two projects: Anthropologists are likely to spend much more time with a given set of informants, and they usually have the luxury (or curse) of having much more time to write about their findings. In my contributions, I will talk about what I've learned about journalism from reading anthropology. I will also offer some reflections about how anthropology (and its major scholarly associations) compares to other social-science disciplines in its interactions with journalists. And I'll comment on news-media coverage of the U.S. Army's Human Terrain System, which journalists often describe as an "anthropology" program even though few of its social scientists are actually anthropologists by training.