Name: Tatsuya King

Social Justice Group: 2018-2019, Freedom of the Press

Date of Fieldwork: February 8, 2019

Name of Organization: Democracy Now

Person (people) with whom I met and their job titles: Amy Goodman

Type of Fieldwork: Tour of Organization

What I did:

We went to visit the Democracy Now! building. There, we watched the filming of the show and got a tour of the building. we were also lucky enough to meet with Amy Goodman and a few other people who worked on the show.

What I learned:

I learned a lot about how news podcasts and shows like DN are filmed and created. There is a lot of preparation for the show as well as a whole team working behind the scenes to make sure that it looks good and has information that is correct. After the show, they immediately start working on the next show and after that show, they start working on the one after that and so on. This is very hard and tiring work but it is also rewarding which is why a lot of people don’t want to do it, but also why a lot of people do want to do it.

What I learned about Social Justice “work” and/or Civil and Human rights “work” from this fieldwork:

I learned from this trip that social justice work is very hard and demanding. We learned from Amy Goodman that at any time, something huge could happen in the news and reporters would have to report on it. When working in the press, or any topic, you have to be ready to react to anything, because anything could happen. This can be really stressful and only a certain type of person is willing and ready to take on that pressure. This could be why so few people actually take action, even if they support a cause.