Inside PBS Blog

The latest guest in PBS Engage's "Five Good Questions" series: Maria Hinojosa, senior correspondent for the weekly newsmagazine "Now on PBS."

Maria specializes in putting a human face on the issues of the day. In addition to her work on "Now," she also hosts National Public Radio's "Latino USA." She's also reported for NBC, CBS and CNN.

Her answers to your questions appear below.

Want to continue the conversation? Use the "Comments" section beneath this entry. Feel free to talk among yourselves.

Is it difficult to remain objective when you cover so many heartbreaking stories like the poor Alabama working man forced to hunt for food or the Army soldier suffering post traumatic stress disorder?
ww_adh (via e-mail)

I believe that most important thing I can do as a journalist is to be fair. There is no such thing as an objective perspective because all of us see the world from many different viewpoints. As a journalist, what motivates me is to tell people's stories. I allow myself to become attached and affected by the people I meet and interview because I am honored that they open their worlds to me.

So when I am with someone like Calvin Ramsey, the man who was forced to take drastic measures and hunt for food, of course I feel his hurt deeply. As for the soldier, Jonathan Norell, that was probably one of the most difficult interviews I had to do all year. I was very emotionally moved by his story and his desire to speak up and share it. In that case, my mission was to tell the facts of the story and to let my audience decide how they feel.

I'm sure you want to report on issues of interest to the Latino community and bring those issues to a broader audience. But I think this also carries a risk of marginalization for minority journalists. Could you comment on the struggle between achieving mainstream success while remaining true to one's community?
John Shonder

I love this question! First of all I don't call myself or my children "minority" - it's one of those terms I try never to use. But I believe that when I am covering Latino issues, I am telling stories about America. Period. People continue to pigeonhole these stories, but any story that involves Latinos is about America.

My hope is that we in the world of journalism world can move beyond categorizing people, so I am always aware of the issue of balance. I love to do stories on women or prisons, but it would be wrong of me to ONLY do those stories.

But you can be sure that if there is a great story to be told involving Latinos, and it's an issue we all need to know about, I will always push for that story. There are stories we as journalists must tell no matter what community is impacted. It's my job to discover what those stories are.

What are your sources for U.S. Hispanic-Latino news (in English and en Espanol)? How important is it to have relevant U.S. Hispanic-Latino news, especially in an election year?
Tomas

In my house, we watch a lot of Spanish language television - Univision and Telemundo, but also many of the Spanish-language cable channels. Because of "Latino USA," the NPR program I anchor, my producers are always scouring the papers and sending me stories I need to know about. Every week I debrief Maria Elena Salinas, another anchor there, and we do a round up of the tops stories of the week. It's important to me to have a variety of news sources, especially in an election year when true news and "spin" co-mingle.

What do you think are some challenges journalism faces, and do you think that journalism quality has declined because of the state of the industry or that some journalists aren't as good as the ones the replaced?
Kareem Johnson

I believe the state of American journalism is at one of its lowest points ever. Having corporations who are watching the bottom line in the news business can be very problematic. Telling intellectually honest stories is not always good for ratings, so these stories rarely get on the air. They also don't sell papers.

All of us are affected by the lower standards and that is a real tragedy. I also believe that many journalists now are more fearful of expressing themselves, fearful of losing their jobs in a bad market. That makes it harder and more risky to speak up and fight for important stories.

How did you start as a journalist, and who do you look to as a mentor, inside or outside of the journalism community?
Kareem Johnson

I started doing college radio at Columbia University while I was studying at Barnard College, then I got an internship at NPR. From there, I became a reporter at NPR, then CNN, now PBS.

I continue to work in multiple platforms - I have my own talk show on WGBH in Boston ("One on One with Maria Hinojosa") and I have my NPR radio show for which I write radio essays. I also write original web essays as part of my "Now on PBS" role as senior correspondent. In all of these areas, I am inspired to work in the American tradition of Edward R. Murrow.

There are many journalists whom I admire, and I find inspiration in many women in the media.