My Final Blog

Question # 1 Objectivity

When discussing journalism, objectivity is often the subject of complaint. Everyone seems to be pointing a finger. Fox is too conservative, CNN is too liberal. Politicians don’t seem to help when they claim the media is out to get them. The gotcha conniving media, is what politicians claim when they are portrayed in an un-pleasing light.

So who can be believed? Is anyone being objective theses days?

In some cases, objectivity is being exchanged for money. With both the left and right claming biases because of the loss of objectivity, it becomes more apparent that people hear what they want to, no matter what the content. So now, news organizations, such as Fox, decided to just give people what they wanted. Now they are making great profits catering to a conservative white male audience.

The real problem comes in their level of transparency. Fox, for example, broadcasts under a banner that proclaims they are “fair and balanced.” Opinion, I think, has leaped farther and farther from the editorial page, and now finds its way into un-labeled and non transparent articles and broadcasts. If someone wants to lean one way, I don’t see a problem if they are open and upfront about it.

With most of the opinions on objectivity being centered on political views, I am worried the lack of a pursuit of objectivity could leak into all sectors of what the news is reporting. A journalist should have the ability to honestly cover a given story. Someone who is connected by family or friendship to a story should have enough sense of objectivity to give the story to someone else. If a reporter has financial obligations, or benefits from a story, again they could never be free to cover the story in an objective manner. If scenarios such as these ever did begin to happen, it would not be long until public trust and opinion worsened an already bad state of our news media system.

A journalist, at the end of the day, is human and will have their own opinions and feelings on different issues and people. However, with some standards, I believe all of these opinions can be put aside, and a practiced, professional journalist can tell both sides of a story without telling the reader who is right or what is wrong.

Other journalists who are exceptionally passionate, and wish to tell the world a story through their own eyes, do have a place. The important thing is that those who choose to pursue such avenues, are open and transparent with what they are doing.

As I speculate about my own future career decisions as a journalist, I hope I can be objective in order to provide fair and accurate news stories to an open minded public. I know I have biases and my own opinions, but unless I am offered an appropriate avenue to share them, they will be kept to my self. I think that will include keeping my personal political views or votes to my self so that I don’t give an ever wearier public a reason to distrust another journalist.

Question # 2 Excellence In Journalism

Excellence in journalism is defined by what it does for the people. Journalism and a free press are essential to democracy. The news is traditionally a watch dog for the public. They keep congress and politicians under a scrutinizing light and make sure corrupt businesses are kept in check.

Independence is the keystone to this excellence. Not only does the Journalist need to be independent from the story in order to cover it objectively, but likewise, the news organization as a whole must stay independent in order to uphold what is essential for the public. The founding fathers had this independence in mind, I believe, when they outlined the rights of free speech and press. If the government owned or controlled the press, then the press could never turn around and freely report on the government. We have already seen cases of this happening: for example, a newspaper reporting on the negative aspects of Ford cars while having to worry about their needed income from Ford advertisers.

The ability to examine and ask questions also remains essential for excellence in journalism. Through such reporting, the news becomes a public advocate for the outspoken or even minority voice. Public vigilance towards issues that are affecting everyone or just a few people, can receive needed attention through the public discussion and awareness a news story can bring about.

As I read and followed the Idaho Statesman, my hometown newspaper, I noticed several things. Little attention was given to national news, and instead, local issues made the front page of their newspaper and website. Often, they featured articles about local civic leaders, or local groups fighting for and against problems that were important to people living in their area. I think the Idaho Statesman knows they are not a national, public opinion driving newspaper. They are read by the people living in south west Idaho and therefore, stick to the issues not only important to their audience, such as football at Boise State, but also help hold up that areas own democratic processes.

Question # 3 Journalistic Truth

I honestly do not remember discussing journalistic truth much in class, so most of my thoughts come from reading chapter 4 of The Big Picture.

The argument of truth seems to me more of a philosophical discussion, rather than a journalistic one. Yes, truth in the end, I will admit, is relative to the speaker and receiver. What the truth is can depend on our perspective, which rarely, if ever, is the same between two people.

I believe society decides the starting points of truth. There are expectations and norms long since established that I believe the news works with. People who are aware of their surroundings, and society as a whole, know the general perspectives that the news reports with. If this was not the case the news might be filled with hours of arguing what was really seen or said, and what it means in the end.

Some basic concepts of truth are accepted by the Journalists and the consumer, and for me that creates the groundwork for creating societal and civic knowledge.

Question # 4 Where Is the News Going?

Over the last several months the News networks of print and broadcast have seen a glimmer of hope, and have had further devastating blows dealt by a global economic melt down.

Through out this semester I was very interested in what was going on with newspapers, and where they were going. It seemed all the news was depressing, layoffs, downsizing, and sliding confidence from the public. The glimmer of hope was from the presidential election fervor. People were watching the news more. Even young people were tuning in to the more traditional news sources it seemed. The real victory, especially for the newspaper world, came on the day after Obama’s win. Newspapers had record sales with papers selling out in many places, and special over priced editions selling like hotcakes. Yes people were buying the papers for the historical significance, but I felt like it was newspapers time to show they were still worth something and still an important profitable product.

Unfortunately, it does not seem as though that was accomplished. The Tribune Company, which publishes the Los Angeles Times and the Chicago Tribune, filed for bankruptcy. So it might turn out Newspapers did not seize the opportunity of increased popularity as I had hoped.

In all fairness it is not the complete fault of news organizations. With the economy in gloomy times it has really been a two edged sword for newspapers and broadcast companies alike. For starters people pay more attention to the news when there are attention grabbing headlines like stock market crashes and giant financial collapses. On the other hand the bad economy affects newspapers through several ways. One, many newspapers are publicly owned and a bad stock market means bad news for those newspapers and an ever pressing expectation on the newspapers to increase their profits. Two, less advertising dollars because of a decline in add spending means a big chunk of revenue gone. Third, giant companies who also own news groups can’t spend as much money on the news so their solution is downsizing and layoffs for the news rooms.

Maybe the final blow came once everyone started to realize there is not a lot of money to be made from internet content. Over the past several years many decided to run as fast as they could to make their content available on the internet. To their credit many have done this, and done it well. However, where is the money in it? With disappointing add revenue from their internet sites even more newspapers are folding.

The scary part about all this is the stress and strain it places upon the journalists. Now a poorly paid crew of even fewer reporters are expected to accomplish what before took huge budgets and many more people. This causes not only less quality in the writing and reporting, but even the size and page count of the paper itself is decreasing. Most frightening though is what this means for our press as a public advocate and watch dog. If there is only one journalist keeping tabs on things that used to take 10 a lot more can slip by. A perfect example of this is the fact there is only one full time American journalist stationed in Iraq. What more could be reported and uncovered if news organizations were not being forced to be make cuts.

Obviously this also means a bleak outlook for my own future. In 5 or 10 even 20 years from now it is hard to say exactly what will happen. TV news, I believe, has many years until significant changes will be made, but newspapers will not last much longer. If I had to guess newspapers will consolidate and die off until only several larger ones remain. Perhaps even instead of newspapers gathering the news individually I could see the creation of journalists groups such as the AP network who will do all of the reporting, investigating and writing. Then these groups will sell the stories to the news outlets. This would be unfortunate and would make decent local reporting even harder to finance.

In the end my outlook remains positive. I think the need for journalists with good writing skills will always exist. Although how we view and report the news is changing at an accelerated rate the need will always be there for the public to be informed.

Just an added note I did not discuss the internet i.e. blogs and twitter a lot, but at the end of the day these online forums will never become the main news source for the general public. They will though, help the people who are reporting the news get more first hand and in-depth accounts of unfolding stories.

Question # 5 My Own Personal Code

When I have contemplated my future career I decided long ago that if I was going to spend the better part of my life doing my job that it needed to be worth more than just money. The more I learned about what journalism really is, the more I knew journalism has far reaching and significant affects on our society. My bumper sticker read a voice for the people and a voice for democracy. I believe journalism at its best does these two things. By giving first the people a voice public discussion and thought can be initiated. People can be empowered by the knowledge true news brings. With this empowerment of knowledge educated people can turn the wheels of democracy that our country is founded on.

Even in countries outside of our own journalists wage the war of independent thought and government accountability. We are blessed in this country to have the protection to print and say the truth. The more I think of my own chance to participate in something so great and bigger than myself the more excited I am.

As a journalist my own personal code would be to uphold and further this great journalistic legacy. I would hope I can accurately and objectively as far as it is possible present stories of our society to the public at large. If and when my opinion would be warranted I will be transparent and label it as such.

Hopefully what ever content I produce under the title of a “journalist” I will be sure to not do or say anything that would tarnish my own reputation, but even more importantly tarnish the reputation of journalists everywhere.

Citations

My thoughts and writings for this final have been based off of class discussions, personal thoughts, and current events I have discussed in my own class blog; with the exception of question three when I used some ideas from chapter 4 in the Big Picture book.

Twitter

So I have been thinking about twitter and what it means to journalism and news and as I did so a discussion from my history class popped into my head.

This discussion was about the worth of first hand accounts to learn about history events. The class debated about how these first hand accounts contained biases, and although enlightening and interesting a true student of history could not rely on one first hand account alone in order to understand the picture as a whole.

It seems to me that each twitter post although invaluable to developing a fuller story is just describing one a single tree. With apparent limitations, such as a 140 word count limit, mini bloging sites such as twitter make it impossible to fully describe a whole forest.

Most recently Twitter was pushed into the spot light with articles such as “Citizen Journalists Provided Glimpses of Mumbai Attacks” published by the New York Times. As this article hints in the title, many got glimpses into the horrific attacks because of twitter posts.

Perhaps the most important question is how is all of this affecting journalism in general and our traditional news media? With reports saying that Twitter was receiving more than one post a second with the words Mumbai in them, that’s more than 3,000 posts in an hour, who really has the ability to take all of that in and cohesively weave the facts together to paint a bigger picture.

Yes Twitter is becoming in-valuable, but to who? I am going to guess in large it is not valuable to the average person who wants a quick and accurate account of what is going on for any given news day.

With that in mind I am going to have to say that these blog sites are truly valuable to a true journalist or news organization that has the time and resources to analyze and use them.

Back to my discussion in my history class it was pointed out that it is the traditional history book that is able to take all the historical fist hand accounts and boil them down into something that can be easily understood for a beginning level history class.

Like wise it is our newspapers, TV, and Radio stations who are using the first hand insightful tweets to present a well understood story of what is happening.

Blogs and tweets will not make traditional news media obsolete, but it will enhance their ability to accurately unfold important news at record speeds.

Turkeys and Journalism

As I thought about what to write for this blog I came across three articles that reminded me of the importance of journalism and its far reaching impact on society and the journalists themselves.

The first article I read was entitled Media coverage can impact financial markets, journalists say. The title tells it all. Journalists I feel have a responsibility to know the power the news has and unfortunately in some places the consequences can be more than financial.

The second article was the news of a grenade attack on a Mexican newspaper office, and as I scrolled through the related articles one read simply Another journalist murdered in Mexico. It seems the many criminals in Mexico do not like the attention brought by the journalists and newspapers.

However, even with these dangers, and other journalists being jailed or killed the world over, they continue to report what is important for others to hear.

On a lighter note apparently we can thank a journalist for our upcoming thanks giving break

According to the Science News website in the article Thank Journalist, Rather Than Pilgrims, For Thanksgiving Feast, “The holiday came about through fifty years of relentless promotion by Sarah Hale, editor of Godey’s Lady’s Book and Magazine. She promoted it in columns and stories in her magazine until President Abraham Lincoln finally bestowed it national recognition.”

Maybe this year I will be thankful for journalism.

Finally some good news

Just in time too. I don’t know about anyone else out there but I was getting a bit depressed and discouraged about the whole business of print journalism. At my core I truly believe and understand the importance of tangible things such as newspapers, but all the doomsday predictions and declining percentages had me really second guessing the future of print journalism.

That was until newspapers sales after election day. People apparently were running out of newspapers as they flew off the stands in record numbers.

As we have talked a lot about biases and other problems facing the coverage of the recent election maybe the publics interest has shown that right or wrong the media as a whole has taped into record breaking audiences.

Whether it was the historic nature of the election, or the way it was covered can be debated. I would like to think it was a combination of the two, what does everyone else think?

TV news enjoyed a record 71.5 million viewers tuning into watch. ABC was at the top of the prime time viewership and CNN, with the aid of some special effects, historically brought in the most viewers overall.



Newspapers also enjoyed a surge of interest increasing output in some cases up 60%.
Here are some quotes, that sum it up better than I can ,from an article titled “A Strange Global Phenomenon Occurred Wednesday – People Were Lining Up To Buy Newspapers, Many Outlets Sold Out, And Additional Press Runs Were The Order Of The Day,” by Philip M. Stone.

Digby Solomon, publisher of the Daily Press, in Newport News, Virginia - “We anticipated some additional demand, but this was an historic election… and (we) completely underestimated it, It shows that when something truly historic takes place, people want a printed record of it.”
But perhaps what newspaper publishers need to remember most – they could do a lot worse than use it as a tagline for an advertising campaign reminding the public that newspapers are published every day, not just the day after Election Day – is what Shirley Holman, 59, of Dallas said: Seeing the news in print "makes it real."

Surely there’s a message there for publishers that if they put out a quality editorial product that its populace is really interested in, then print newspapers do just fine. Sure, the election of a Black man as President of the United States was historic and exceptional, but it goes to show people have not forgotten newspapers, and newspapers need to keep coming out with editorial products that people want to read, even keep.

So for me I am skeptical if Obama will really bring any of the change he promised, but if anything else thanks to him maybe newspapers can use this historical event as a spring board to reestablish the legitimacy with advertisers and naysayers alike.

Maybe if newspapers in the end don’t make it they won’t have anyone to blame except themselves for not putting out a quality product people want and feel is important. That quality I think lies in the hands of the journalists writing, taking the pictures, and helping put the final product together.

How many people does it take to write a newspaper?

“The blogosphere has had its share of news breaks, but absent a functioning mainstream media to annotate, it could be pretty darn quiet out there.” wrote David Carr, in the article Mourning Old Media’s Decline.

In this article he sums up the decline of newspapers, and magazines that has been highlighted most recently by Gannett, who happens to be the nation’s largest newspaper company planning to lay off 10 percent of their newspapers staffers.

Many reasons are given for the decline including the economy and the decline of advertising revenue.

CNNMoney.com invites us to Read all about it...but not in your newspaper, saying “According to figures by PriceWaterhouse Coopers, between 2005 and 2010 the U.S. newspaper industry will go from a $60 billion to a $50 billion industry, as measured by revenue.”

I think 50 billion dollars is still a lot, but apparently not enough to keep things how they were.

Two more quotes from these articles stood out to me.

“Bob Iger, the CEO of Walt Disney, was asked what he thought about the newspaper industry's future. In so many words, he basically said that if the newspaper didn't exist and someone tried to create it, you'd be hard-pressed to dispute the appeal of a product that delivered the world to your doorstep every morning in a smartly-produced package. He then noted, with some relief, that Disney briefly owned newspapers but unloaded them more than a decade ago-largely to Knight Ridder.”

“At the recent American Magazine Conference, one of the speakers worried that if the great brands of journalism — the trusted news sources readers have relied on — were to vanish, then the Web itself would quickly become a “cesspool” of useless information. That kind of hand-wringing is a staple of industry gatherings. But in this case, it wasn’t an old journalism hack lamenting his industry. It was Eric Schmidt, the chief executive of Google.”

I guess my real question is with all these reporters and newspaper staffers being fired how long will it be until anyone notices the difference in news quality, or has it already happened?

The right, the left, some Russians and O'Reilly

It is certain that many people are interested in the news media and their coverage of the election, and more specifically the candidates. Both sides seem to want to argue that there is a bias for one thing or another. They want to claim agendas for determining what they cover, how they cover it, and how much air time theses issues receive.

James Rainey from the Los Angeles Times said this about these concerns of bias and agenda pushing.

“Such pronouncements, sorry to say, tend to be wrong since they describe a monolithic media that no longer exists. Information today cascades from countless outlets and channels, from the Huffington Post to Politico.com to CBS News and beyond.”

Even though I agree with this outlook many people have taken the time to research the issues of media biases. One of which is the Center for Media and Public Affairs at George Mason University, who says that ABC, NBC and CBS are more tough on Obama than on John McCain

Other groups seem to find the opposite true. The conservative Media Research Center found after isolating stories on the ABC, NBC and CBS that 42 percent were positive and only 7 percent were negative.

Apparently Russian observers of the election have agreed with the later saying in a preliminary report that after observing ABC, NBC and CBS, Obama has a "hidden advantage."

I think bias and completely fair and balanced news coverage might be impossible to have, especially when as we have discussed in class observers will find what they are looking for.

Can biases be helpful to a journalist as long as they continue to responsibly cover the news?

One person who does not try to hide an obvious bias towards one side is Bill O'Reilly who recently used his biased commentary in order to secure himself a 4 year 40 million dollar contract.

So maybe in the end it seems to me like having an outrageous bias or opinion and being open with it is a great way to earn money while classical thoughts of an unbiased neutral media seem to be a sure fire way to being laid off or down sized.

For 10 million dollars a year what would you say on TV?

Now What?

The New York Times reported this week that online advertising revenue for newspapers has been declining in an article entitled Newspapers’ Web Revenue Is Stalling.

A lot of papers have been expanding their online features to attract and increase add revenue, and they were all betting for big returns.

Unfortunately in the last quarter online add revenue was down 2.4 percent.

To help slumping sales many in the industry struggle to decide whether or not to use add networks to fill up empty add space which would otherwise go unused. Others are limiting their add space and filling it themselves to improve their add revenue and percentages.

According to an article from Bloomberg.com Wachovia Capital Markets and Barclays Capital estimated that add revenue will continue to fall throughout this year and the next.

Some papers are taking drastic measures; the McPherson Sentinel from Kansas has cut out the entire day stopping the print of newspapers for Mondays.

From the same above mentioned Bloomberg article we get this quote from Nancy Conway, editor of MediaNews Group Inc.'s Salt Lake Tribune.

“You have to sort of weigh the service versus the cost, and right now newsprint is very costly…Revenue isn't what it used to be, so we have to make some tough decisions.”

Decisions that, for the Salt Lake Tribune, have meant merging and combining sections of the newspaper.

I feel as add revenue continues to slip down we will see newspapers finding new ways to adapt and cut costs.

Any guess what those will be? Comment what you think.

$ money $

http://www.payscale.com/research/US/Job=Journalist/Salary

So after hearing the guest lecturer speak today I started to wonder about just how much a print journalist could make. So I just did a quick search on google and found some info on average salaries. As we learn more about journalists and what journalism is I think I discovered at least one thing today, and that is journalists don’t make a lot of money.

check out the links

http://www.simplyhired.com/a/salary/search/q-Journalist

http://newsguild.org/scales/index.php?ID=4937

Journalist Interview

Tim Woodward

I think I have had in the back of my mind for many years this thought that journalists are celebrities in their own right. They are the ones giving us the news but by doing so they themselves become figures in the public light. So I guess with this thought I was surprised how easy it was to contact and conduct an email interview with a journalist Tim Woodward from my home town newspaper the Idaho Statesman. I enjoyed how friendly and how down to earth he seemed in our email correspondence.

Besides the things I learned from his answers was a truth I learned from the preface he gave me about the answers; he said “Sorry the answers were so rushed. Too many deadlines of late.” Being a journalist I think might be a little harder then I thought.

With that said the Q & A with Tim Woodward of the Idaho Statesman

ENJOY! I think he gave alot of answers that go along with the things we have discussed in class and our blogs.

Why did you go into journalism?

I'd always wanted to be a writer. It seemed like a way of being able to
write and still earn a regular paycheck.

How did your break in the field?

I applied at almost every paper in the state. No jobs. Took a job as a
photographer for National School Studios, taking pictures of elementary
school kids. That lasted until the week I realized my travel expenses, which
came out of my own pocket, were within $10 of my salary. Quit on a Friday;
the Statesman called Saturday. I've been here ever since.

How do you define good journalism?

Accurate reporting, as objective and well written as possible, about
subjects that affect readers' lives.

Do you feel like your news organization practices good journalism?

Yes.

How would you define the type of journalism you do?

I'm sort of a shirttail journalist. I've done about every kind of reporting, but in recent
years do mainly feature stories and columns.

Does your organization allow you to do the type of journalism you want
to do?

Yes

How does the journalism you practice serve your community?

Readers continually tell me I write about things no one else does, that I help keep
our local history alive, find stories about things they care about and bring
them to the forefront and occasionally bring about some sort of action such
as readers contributing to help needy subjects of my columns and stories,
correct wrongs (a misspelling on a granite memorial to the armed services is
a recent example) and recognize those who otherwise might be forgotten. I
write more about the little guys than the big names.

What is your opinion about recent movements such as community,
citizen, civic, and public journalism?

I think this would be a better question for one of our editors.

Have you ever had an experience in which you felt your work as a journalist really made a difference?

Yes. I did a series that resulted in a corrupt state official going to prison. Did some columns that got a man unjustly imprisoned out before he died. Those are two of many through the years.

How have your views about journalism changed over the years?

They haven't. The technology has, but the basics are timeless.

Have you been affected by dropping circulations, ratings, layoffs, and growth of citizen journalism?

Yes. We all have. My job is changing right now as a result of a smaller staff and a newsroom reorganization it necessitated.

What advice would you give students wanting to go into journalism?

Study hard, work hard, get an internship that gives you hands-on experience. And
you might want to consider a medium other than newspapers, which are doing a
lot more laying off than hiring these days.

Opinion and Journalism

Picture of Heather Mallick

I enjoyed the discussion today in class, it honestly sparked something inside of me to want to actually think a little bit more about journalism and what it really is. The art analogy stuck with me, and I walked away from class thinking maybe journalism has become its own art of sorts. Perhaps a journalist like an artist is in the eye of the beholder.

For example the journalist I interviewed said he thought good journalism was “Accurate reporting, as objective and well written as possible, ABOUT THE SUBJECTS THE AFFECT THE READERS’LIFE.” So maybe in this day an age where everyone is embracing individualism and finding various means to feed into what they define themselves as being perhaps journalism and news has become just another niche product made to please the consumer. What affects my life, what interests me, and how I define the importance of different topics depends less lately on society as people seem to look more inward to answer the questions.

With that said I am trying to say that it is not the writer, or the “news” that is currently defining journalism, but instead the viewer/ consumer. In that sense it is like art because the person that sees it or reads it can decide what divides the art from chaos, or in our class’s case what divides news from entertainment and opinion.

Major news organizations have held onto more traditional journalistic values. One news organization called the CBC in Canada has recently had to make a judgment call in the case of content not going along with their self described guidelines of good or responsible journalism.

I read this story today in the New York Times and it caught my eye because the headline read ‘Boss Is Not Ammused After Columnist’s Humor Brings A Retort From Fox News.’ In one of my earlier blogs about the daily show I posed the question about humor and satire being used more in print news and thus I read today’s article eagerly to see what type of humor had gotten this columnist in trouble.

It turns out the columnist Heather Mallick wrote about Sara Palin writing among other things that she “has a toned-down version of the porn actress look.” Upon reading that and other comments she included in her column I immediately thought wow this is a real life example, coming from a legitimate news source, of the “Obama is the anit-christ” example from class.

These comments then of coarse en-flamed an onslaught of conservative criticism, and as the headline suggests several upset phone calls and questions from Fox News corp. back in America.

This back lash caused the government founded CBC to remove the article from their website and issue an apology. John Cruickshank made several interesting comments about what had been written and how it did not fallow the journalistic aspirations of the organization.

Cruickshank said it would have worked just fine if it had been labeled as satire. However, Mallick disagreed saying “It wasn’t satire though; it was straightforward political commentary, admittedly with jokes.”

Cruickshank in his apology also said “every news organization needs to have an opinion dimension. Access to different viewpoints helps readers, listeners and viewers make reasoned choices, especially during an election campaign. As a public broadcaster we have an added responsibility to provide an array of opinions and voices to complement our journalism.”

The last part especially interested me that he said these opinions are not really news, but instead he says the opinions are there to complement their journalism, and by so saying I think he draws that line that opinion and journalism are two distinct things. Yes, things that go hand in hand, but never the less separate entities indeed.

Mallicks website where you can find her original article

exerpts and commentary from Mallicks article

Give them what they want

The Chicago tribune redesign on first look seems a lot more aesthetically pleasing and overall more inviting to jump into.

I can see they have put more thought into the design of the newspaper and from the preview video the choice of pictures they use to go along with the stories.

Changes such as these seem like a perhaps much needed upgrade in design quality when it comes to print journalism.

However, in the interview from the poynter website the design director for the newspaper describes the new approach in a content perspective. The person from the tribune makes several references about giving the reader what they want, and setting up blogs to let readers give direct feed back to the editor of what they want to see and read in the newspaper.

I wonder if all this feed back and the mind set of “giving us what we want” is a good thing. Typically when we hear of news programs being over run with stories that have more of an entertainment value rather than informative or educational one, people will say it’s because that is what people want to see.

The video we watched in class on Monday gave rise in my mind to the true public service which a newspaper can provide, informing us of the things that really matter. In that same spirit of hard news that really concerns us rather than “whats hott,” as one new section in the tribune was coined, I fell a little over loaded by yet another example of trying to give the reader what they want.

With all the talk of new paper’s audiences being older and more out dated I wonder if the Tribunes efforts are really focused at all on giving those readers what they want. How many older people can you think of who would be jumping on computers to blog in their likes and dislikes?

I think maybe the Tribune is really trying to attract new younger readers with different wants and needs, but are these wants and needs really what’s best for a news organization and the more traditional ethics of journalism?

If it is in fact new readers they wanted why hasn’t there website improved much after a quick glance it seems the same to me as any other newspaper website.

Poynter Article

Chicago Tribune Redesing

Interviews

Katie Couric’s interview of Palin has been in the news a lot lately. One reason for it are the types of questions Couric was able to ask her and they way in which she did so.

Obviously even if the definition of journalism is changing the basic skills which a journalist needs are important in order to distinguish themselves from the rest. Couric as of late I feel has been able to do this by putting Palin in a light which has helped raise questions about Palin’s experience and knowledge on important subjects.

As a student of news writing 211 we have opportunities to help develop our own interviewing skills. For those of you also taking this class this semester you know our global to local articles will be written in lab this week and we all need to interview at least two BYU students about our chosen topic.

For my article I will be writing about the bail out plan, and I am including in this blog a list of questions I am hopping to be answered for my student interviews, and thought it might be fun to use this forum to help not only get those questions answered but also receive ideas for different questions. Basically feel free to leave in the comments your name what year of school you are in and the answers to my questions, or a critique on my questions or the usefulness of using the internet for interviewing purposes.

As aspiring journalists I hope we are on the same page with a desire to grow and develop the talents which one day will be required of us, and that have been highlighted recently from professionals covering the campaign.

THANKS

Questions

1. Do you have a good understanding of the countries financial situation and its causes?
2. What do you think are the true causes of the problem for example the government, Wall Street or the average person who was financially irresponsible with loans and their credit?
3. Have you or your family been personally effected?
4. Will this effect your future?
5. Are you worried about the availability of loans to help pay for your schooling?
6. What can the younger generation do to help avoid another financial crisis?

link to ap article on Couric’s interviewing http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jY9H2YvVCjkamDTzSFuuVNn3XkCQD93HC3K80

What’s informative and what’s funny?

This last week was reported to have been the most watched week ever for The Daily Show with John Stewart, with about 1.9 million viewers per episode. With such an increase in viewers during this past news worthy week I wonder how many people are tuning into the Daily Show to laugh, and how many are watching to get their news.

Either way the popularity and recognition of the shows funny but poignant stabs at current political and economic issues makes me want to know if there is any comparable satirical efforts within the world of print journalism beyond the comic strip?

Maybe in today’s climate of slumping sales and fewer print newspapers a little humor could go a long way to increase the number of readers.

ARTICLE FROM NYT

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/26/arts/26arts-DAILYSHOWENJ_BRF.html

Responsible Headlines

Sensational emotionally charged headlines may move papers, but some are realizing they can have far reaching consequences.

In a New York Times article earlier this week called “Amid Turmoil, Some Try to Tone Down Emotion” Richard Perez-Pena discusses that many news papers are avoiding some words during this economic situation. Among the words on the do not use list are

CRASH, MELTDOWN, and APOCALYPSE.

the article states the reason for such precautions are because “This year, the media have been accused of contributing to the collapse of both Bear Stearns and IndyMac, a large California thrift, so journalists are more aware of the risk of stoking fear — and the risk of being blamed.”

Although not every newspaper has adopted a new way of valuing the risk factors involved with giant sensational headlines many have.

While fallowing my local paper the Idaho Statesman I was hard pressed to find any of the words accused of causing fear and panic, instead the headlines used words like “turmoil” and “mess” as if this financial problem could in fact be cleaned up. One headline especially stood out to me “Idaho treasurer says state investments are 'safe” perhaps used to even help calm some peoples fears about the this confusing economic situation.

I was happy to realize that the media and especially newspapers are aware of, and are taking steps towards being a responsible help and not hindrance to the public. Especially in a day and age where far too often the media is accused of inciting fear amongst the public it tries to serve.

article link
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/22/business/media/22press.html

Protecting Confidential Sources- A Panel Discussion

News is to inform the public. Often this means digging a little deeper and uncovering often un-flattering truths. Illegal business deals, corruptible politicians, and unscrupulous practices by any number of people are things good reporting can uncover. To disclose such things can often lead to legal proceeding and lawyers and judges alike would love to know why and by whom such facts were discovered.

A journalist to gain access to such info will usually be by someone closely related to the problem. These sources at times are promised in exchange for the information anonymity.

Currently a law to protect the journalist and their anonym’s sources does not exist on a national level. Due to this fact often journalists will be summoned to court to disclose names and information, and face jail time if they don’t comply. One person who has faced this possibility was RonNell Anderson, a speaker at tonight’s discussion. Helping her fight off the legal issues and keep her source confidential was journalist turned lawyer Jeffrey J Hunt, who was also present for the discussion. The third speaker in attendance was M. Dayle Jeffs who was a part of a Utah Supreme Court Advisory Committee that helped put into law Rule 509 which gave the state of Utah a long awaited shield law to protect journalists and their sources.
Hunt and Jeffs covered the issue in the context of state laws. Each state is left to make their own laws concerning the issue and Utah was one of the last to create their own. Many factors helped make this a reality such as increased media attention and a general consensus amongst local media groups to push for and support the formation of such a law.

Anderson on the other hand focused on the issue on the national level. This issue and the problems which confidential sources can cause is a recurring debate and has been discussed on capital hill and in national courts. Each time it happens the same arguments are raised. Anderson said these arguments revolve back to the argument that the small number of confidentiality problems does not justify legal intervention on a national level. Anderson, who has helped collect data that says otherwise, disagrees with this conclusion.

For me the most interesting question this issue raises is the question of what constitutes a journalist. I was surprised to hear many journalists adamantly oppose such laws. These journalists say that one, claiming protection under the first amendment is sufficient, and two, arguing such laws could be a slippery slope leading into a government regulated news media. These fears perhaps stem from the necessity of the law to define what constitutes a journalist, and in today’s world of online bloging and other online news groups the definition continues to broaden.

It is my hope that if I continue in the pursuit to become a journalist in what ever context that ends up being that there will be at that time laws to protect myself and others in their endeavors to educate and inform about things that may otherwise go un-heard.

I believe in the profession of Journalism

In the Journalist’s Creed written by Walter Williams it is interesting that it starts out with the statement “I believe in the profession of Journalism.” this wording and phrase at first glance reads a little awkward and perhaps, as we discussed in class, somewhat outdated. However, as I contemplated what is journalism and who is a journalist I realized the modern importance of what was some of the first answers to the question.

A journalist despite the medium or method should hold most strongly to two points that of truth and a responsibility to the public to which they present and unfold these truths.

More and more people are questioning not only the truthfulness of what is reported but the very reason behind the reporting of it. Giant media corporations are owned by big business, and many believe they sensor or control what makes the news, and what hits the cutting room floor. Still other news organizations are accused of presenting slanted views and biased opinions.

I remember a conversation with a friend who said they can’t read or watch the news anymore because it’s just entertainment and not informative.

Many people with these views and frustrations have turned to the internet, blogs and independent sources to try to filter out some of the influences that have been brought upon major news corporations. Truly the line of who is a journalist is beginning to blur, and transcend press passes, paper and a pen.

So as a journalist is redefined and people loose faith in the governing principles of fair and balanced news that goes beyond a lead in line my thoughts again turn to Walter Williams words, “I believe in the profession of Journalism.” for William these words were a declaration and now many years later I feel they are more of a reassurance that journalism still is a profession, one which plays an important role in our democratic world.