One of the primary goals of the media, said a renowned journalist speaking on campus Oct. 14, is to further social justice.

"Freedom of the press is not the goal; it is the means to one," said David Bacon delivering the Daniel W. Kops Freedom of the Press Lecture in Goldwin Smith Hall. "The ultimate goal should be a just society."

Bacon, an activist, writer and photojournalist based in Oakland, Calif., is an associate editor at Pacific News Service and a contributor to TruthOut, The Nation and The Progressive, among other publications.

Bacon expressed his impatience with the mainstream media's attitude toward less affluent members of society.

"Media moving toward justice would give a voice to the people on the bottom," he said. "It would give context to social issues, so we can understand how the system works."

As he spoke, Bacon showed photos he had taken of immigrant families, mostly from northern Mexico and California. "I want to put a human face on what I have to say," he said, flicking through images of single mothers left behind in Guatemala and fruit pickers crammed 10 to a room in Salinas, Calif.

Bacon said that he hoped that journalistic work like this could function as a kind of reality check.

"When [mainstream media] is talking about immigration in terms of hysteria, my work shows immigration [as] it really is," he said.

Immigration does not simply involve individuals acting independently; rather, it often includes entire communities. When families cannot emigrate together, he said, the result can be devastating.

"Loneliness is a huge factor," he said, referencing an interview with a Mexican immigrant. "When families are kept separate, they grow desperate."

To solve this problem, he suggested, the U.S. government could alter policies, for example expediting the green card process for spouses and children of immigrants.

"It can take 11 years for a green card to be approved, if it's approved at all," he said. "A lot of things can change in 11 years. People could die in that time."

At this point, however, change from the top seems unlikely. Bacon quoted President Barack Obama's commitment to soften immigration policy before citing the record numbers of immigrants deported since his inauguration.

Because of this failure, he argued, the media must work to convince the American majority that migration is often a necessity rather than a choice for itinerant workers.

"In Mexico, people have been fighting for the right to stay home," Bacon said. "But choosing to stay home is only a possibility if it can provide for a future."

Such a future has thus far been made impossible, he said, because of such trade agreements as the North American Free Trade Agreement, also known as NAFTA, which caused 38 million people to immigrate into the United States, he said.

Considering this reality of immigration, he said, American progressives must recognize the political importance of equality for all members of society.

"Equality of rights extends to all working people," he pointed out, "whether they're immigrants or not."

However, he cautioned, the media must avoid only focusing on the tragedies inherent in immigrant life.

"Working people should not be treated as victims," he said. "They should be treated as agents of change."

The lecture was supported by the Kops Freedom of the Press Fellowship Program, established in 1990 by Daniel W. Kops '39, a former editor of the Cornell Daily Sun, and was hosted by the College of Arts and Sciences in cooperation with the American Studies Program.

Kathleen Jercich '11 is a writer intern at the Chronicle.