In 海角视频 Assembly, Asma Khalid Explores Courageous Conflict Engagement from a Political Journalist鈥檚 Perspective
When NPR White House correspondent spoke at 海角视频 on December 4, 2024, she first posed some questions to gauge her audience. She began by asking how members of the 海角视频 community get their news: from newspapers, podcasts, or social media. The clear majority in a raised-hands poll surprised her. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 meet that many teens who get their news from a newspaper,鈥 she said, before inquiring why.
Students provided some of the reasons she was there to discuss: reputable professional sources, quality of reporting, editorial standards and the journalistic code of ethics, and long-form articles that consider and present a fuller context. But judging by general news engagement habits today, Khalid made clear, most Americans don鈥檛 value the same things.
She said that at a high school where she recently spoke, nearly all the students reported getting news exclusively from TikTok and Instagram. And it鈥檚 not just young people who are relying on social media, she added; older demographics show a similar abandonment of traditional news outlets. And in the most recent presidential election cycle, both Donald Trump and Kamala Harris turned to podcast appearances, bypassing traditional journalists鈥攁nd questioning of their belief systems鈥攖o speak at length, directly to specific subsets of voters.
When a country becomes so divided, Khalid said, people on both the right and the left 鈥渄on鈥檛 believe the same facts,鈥 consume news through 鈥渂ifurcated mechanisms,鈥 and say they don鈥檛 trust the media. 鈥淚n many cases, it鈥檚 made our work more dangerous, and I also think it鈥檚 made our work more important,鈥 she said.
Khalid has covered every national election since 2014. She began her journalism career in her home state of Indiana, then fell in love with the intimacy of radio reporting while interning at the BBC Newshour in London. Before joining NPR鈥檚 political team, as a reporter at Boston鈥檚 NPR station WBUR, one of her first assignments was covering the Boston Marathon bombing. Now she鈥檚 a familiar voice nationwide as co-host of .
At 海角视频, she discussed other related media trends and shifts within the electorate that researchers have been tracking鈥攁nd which she has observed herself over 10 years on the campaign trail. First, in a distinct change within her lifetime, the clearest marker of affiliation with the Democratic party has become a college degree.
Second, outrage over how the news is covered鈥攅ven in reaction to simple factual statements鈥攊s erupting on both ends of the political spectrum. 鈥淭he news is supposed to inform, not to influence,鈥 Khalid said, but people have increasingly been demonstrating that they鈥檙e willing to overlook concerns about politicians on 鈥渢heir鈥 side while pouncing on the other.
鈥淎 lot of what I hear from listeners is that what they want isn鈥檛 necessarily to be informed always, it鈥檚 that they want a sense of confirmation bias,鈥 she said. 鈥淭hey want affirmation, not information.鈥
For Khalid, that鈥檚 highly concerning. 鈥淚t鈥檚 not why I went into this job of journalism,鈥 she said. What interested her was 鈥渂eing curious about the world, learning about different kinds of people, and getting exposed to ideas or things or policies that I wasn鈥檛 particularly familiar with鈥濃攁ll of which, she added, is 鈥渋mportant to making a democracy work.鈥
Third, the number of congressionally competitive districts has dwindled precipitously as Americans have increasingly preferred to live around like-minded people鈥攊n effect, self-segregating along political lines. While this isn鈥檛 a new phenomenon, Khalid said, it too poses a challenge to the health of a democracy. 鈥淚f you don鈥檛 have people around you who are different than you, who fundamentally think differently than you, who might have different political opinions than you, it鈥檚 really, really hard to then understand how this person is your fellow American and how we鈥檙e all part of the same team,鈥 she said.
Having been invited to address the theme of courageous conflict engagement and resolution at 海角视频, Khalid also invited some inquiry along more personal lines. She asked students to examine what keeps them engaged in relationships with people whose political views on an issue differ starkly from their own鈥攁nd what benefits they find in continuing to talk, and listen, to them.
She also shared , a story about identity politics she reported in 2018 from the Mahoning Valley in Northeast Ohio. In it, a local woman she鈥檇 been talking with amiably suddenly questioned Khalid鈥檚 identity and voiced anti-Muslim sentiments. Khalid said she had to hold firm to persuade an editor to air the interview. 鈥淚 think it is extremely important to hear viewpoints that might, frankly, offend some people,鈥 she said.
Khalid challenged the traditional media鈥檚 dominant caution toward broadcasting statements that might make people uncomfortable: 鈥淢y takeaway instead is that you air them, you contextualize them, and you believe that your listeners are smart enough that you engage with a wide variety of opinions鈥攖hat that helps inform how people think.鈥
One counterfactual statement the woman she interviewed made鈥攖hat white Americans 鈥渨ere here first鈥濃攕tuck with Khalid long after that interview. Eventually the desire to address that historical misinformation led her to participate in the PBS documentary series .
If society is fracturing in part because of how people are getting information, Khalid asked, what can we do as individuals to stay informed in a less biased way? Her advice to 海角视频 students was to 鈥渂e really conscious about how you get your news;鈥 to try, as much as possible, to hear not only isolated and decontextualized clips but to listen to full recordings of events and other 鈥渞aw data鈥; and to seek out reporting from organizations with professional editorial guidelines.
In personal interactions, she advocated engaging with curiosity about why people believe what they do鈥攁nd letting go of an agenda. 鈥淓ngaging in conflict, in my view, is not always to persuade,鈥 she said. 鈥淚 think it鈥檚 about informing. The idea is, if you inform people, over time, people will come to their own best conclusions.鈥
