Two headlines, same story?

Take a look at the different takes the Detroit papers had on the day-after Christmas holiday sales. The Free Press headline takes an optimistic approach, saying "Big discounts lure shoppers to malls." The Detroit News tells a different story, with a headline that says "After sluggish holiday, Wednesday is another letdown." It's the same coverage area, same malls, same shoppers. Can they both be right? Can headline writers or news editors slant the news with their own interpretations? A close read of both stories shows they had similar facts. But reading the headlines side-by-side this morning left me - a reader - puzzled.

Have no regrets

I'm hoping one thing everyone learned this semester is that accuracy in journalism must be taken seriously. If you have any doubts, take a look at the roundup of the worst errors in newspapers in 2007, compiled by Craig Silverman in Regret the Error. You don't want to be included in this list. You also should look at the alarming number of ! plagiarism cases reported in the past year. Hopefully, the lessons of JRN 300 will keep you off both of these lists forever!

A candidate's religion

As per our discussion in class today about Mitt Romney's forthcoming speech on his faith and the parallels between JFK's similar predicament In 1960, I pose a question: Is it in the interest of good journalism to raise questions about the basic character traits about a candidate? Should a story appear in a newspaper that questions whether or not a candidate is going to confuse his religion with public policy (even if that religion is largely misunderstood and there exists a national misconception of the tenets of that religion)?

By 1960, the country had been run by white protestant (some more fervent than others) males. Catholic doctrine states that all Catholics must believe that then pope is infallible and only those baptized in the Catholic Church are going directly to heaven. Kennedy then had some explaining to do...what if the pope tells you to do something on a public policy matter? Do you have to listen to him? Are all of your predecessors therefore going to hell? Kennedy successfully defused the issue by portraying himself as a staunch anti-communist and a patriot and said that his faith would not get in the way of public policy.

Romney is also called upon to answer similar questions on the tenets of his largly misunderstood religion. He says we are all united in that the constitution protects (and does not advocate) and single religion.

But what if the candidate is of not religious persuasion? It is hard to argue that this country wasn't founded with the firm belief in the higher power. ("In God We Trust" is on all the money and the forefathers clearly had a "reliance on the protection of divine providence")

So what if the guy is an atheist, or a Satanist? If he isn’t religious, is he against the basic tenets of this country and therefore a serious risk to our republic? Is a candidate’s religion as newsworthy as how many times he goes to the bathroom?

Job Shadow Shout Out

I was fortunate to job shadow Adam Graham of The Detroit News last week, and I would like to give him a plug.

Adam is the music writer for The News, and his blog 'In Tune' is pretty awesome. I have added it to my favorites, and if you are a music fan, I suggest you do the same.

Right now he has blogs on Christmas music, the new White Stripes video, and one of his favorite movies of the year, 'Southland Tales'.

They are brief entries with some interesting music news and opinions, so check it out.

http://info.detnews.com/redesign/blogs/musicblog/index.cfm

Mall Shooting

I checked to read The Drudge Report today, and there was a big picture of a young teen boy with glasses and "Why?" printed boldly underneath, so I had to see what was up. Remember when we talked about the mail-man shootings, this story is similar is some ways.

Robert A. Hawkins, 19, went into an Omaha Von Maur store on Wednesday afternoon, shooting it up with an AK-47 rifle he had stolen from his stepfather. He had several victims, including himself. Hawkins is dead along with two others, while the rest of the victims are still in the hospital or have been released.

Apparently, Hawkins had dropped out of school, and have been fired from McDonald's recently, and was in a bad mental state. He had written a few suicide notes, and committed this crime beause in was in a large pulic place, and he would be famous.

http://www.ketv.com/news/14782867/detail.html

What to aspire to

Andrea Elliot of The New York Times won a Pulitzer Prize this year for her feature writing. As the Pulizter Board says, "For a distinguished example of feature writing giving prime consideration to quality of writing, originality and concision, in print or in print and online." Elliot's awarding winning work is a three part series on Muslims in America. Her articles specifically explored a mosque in Brooklyn documents the lives of Muslim immigrants post 9/11, as well as Imams, which are leaders in Muslim communities. To read touching and truly great journalism check out 'Imam in America.'
http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/national/series/muslimsinamerica/index.html

Form and Function

In this class we've talked a lot about how to write a story correctly and interestingly. We've talked much less about why we're writing the story to begin with. Obviously there are a lot of reasons for that. But it got me wondering about what others motivations were. Journalists can function as watchdogs, help build community, expose corruption, inform, entertain, put things into perspective, and so on and so forth. And of course there's always the more selfish reasons too. So, why do you do it?

gay and in the media

So I have a habit of compulsively checking this one celebrity gossip website that also has a lot of gossip about people in the media industry. The website is constantly insinuating that CNN reporter Anderson Cooper is gay. So I was wondering if it turned out that Cooper is gay and he decided to publicly come out, would it at all affect how he was perceived as a newscaster? It shouldn't, seeing as though it has absolutely nothing to do with his career, but when CNN newscaster Thomas Roberts came out at an annual convention for the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association last year, the newscast that he co hosted was cancelled a week later. CNN said it was cancelled due to budgetary reasons, which it very well might have been, but the timing does seem rather coincidental. I don't know of many high profile journalists who are openly gay, but I hope the time comes soon enough where journalists (and anyone for that matter) will not have to worry about whether or not coming out will affect their careers.

A plastic instrumented Rock Band

I never thought I'd see the day, but despite how much my jaw hit the floor ... it's here: A game that allows four people to play four different plastic instruments to real songs by indicated notes on the TV, through an Xbox 360 or Playstation 3. Guitar, bass, drums and vocals - get your friends ... it's time to rock.

Reporters, bloggers, columnists, reviewers and technology analyzers are hitting every end of the spectrum on this one. Some say it's the lamest thing ever - saying the $170 price is outrageous, seeing as one could buy and learn to play the real guitar for not much more. Others, on the other hand, are praising the game, saying it is the definition of "fun with family and friends."

More than 120 different media sources attended the release party last month in New York City, each covering the event in their own unique way.

But what do you guys think? Is this the most ridiculous thing you've ever seen? Or is it pure genius?

You be the judge.

Celeb-Crazed Nation

OK, I get it: Brad Pitt is one of People Magazine's "Sexiest People Alive". But seriously, is it really necessary for him to be a headline on CNN.com's homepage?

The article, whose headline is on the same list as a Clinton-Obama story as well as one about a mall shooting, is considered to be one of the most important stories on the website. I guess I just never understand America's obsession with celebrities. I mean, they're people. They're not the second-coming of the messiah. I believe People Magazine even has a section entitled "Stars Are Just Like Us!" Which shows fascinating pictures of celebrities such as Pitt or the Olsen twins doing things like picking their noses, changing a flat tire, or picking up dog poop. Riveting.

So in a world where there's war and genocide happening every day why are we so fascinated with celebrities? It is it to turn off our minds to the terrible things happening, just for a moment, or is it because we truly have lost sight of what's important?

News Feed

After the magazine 02138 published a less than flattering article about The Facebook father Mark Zuckerberg, he sued.

The story covers Zuckerberg's geeky wardrobe, cracking voice, and a lawsuit accusing him of stealing the Facebook idea from fellow Harvard students.

It is accompanied by documents that had been ordered "sealed" by a judge in his recent legal dispute. They include his handwritten Harvard application and an excerpt from his old online journal, "biting comments about himself and others".

Video Game Guru Luke O'Brien, the freelance reporter who wrote the article accompanying the revealing documents, denies any malicious intent. A court clerk apparently made a mistake by letting him read and photocopy the secret documents.

A federal judge ruled in the magazine's favor, and the article is still online, along with all of those juicy documents.

Are 02138 and O'Brien ethical? Should links to Zuckergerg's online journal and application to Harvard be published alongside an article making fun of him?

Read the article. I think the magazine went too far.

Day at the LSJ

Thinking about it, my afternoon at the LSJ turned out to be fairly depressing. The newsroom was struggling - not many seemed to really be into their job, except for the new guy who does multimedia, and there was a lot of complaining about menial pay and crap equipment (which is probably common in newsrooms).

Of course, there will always be an LSJ, at least for a while, but there lacked some serious excitement.

Are these newsrooms just step-up positions for young reporters looking for the cool job? What about the veterans there - are they just waiting on a pension?

It really made me think deeply about what I want to do with a journalism degree. I don't want to be a bitter sap 10 years from now wishing I had a "cool" job.

The Times Make Staffing Cuts

A little more on print vs. online journalism...While I and everyone else who pays attention to journalism trends is well aware that online news is becoming increasingly popular while the print medium is going down the tube, I wasn't entirely aware of the fact that large newspapers such as The New York Times were also suffering from the trend. Just last week the Times announced they would be cutting a significant amount of jobs from its newsroom, and a couple weeks prior, they announced a freeze on all new hires. I know they've run into some budget issues, but I'm still somewhat surprised to find that a paper with such a wide ranging audience and well respected reputation is still affected by the success of online journalism.

Get It Straight

In light of our pending broadcast efforts, I figured I should mention something that happened over the weekend with the quality journalists at ESPN.
Kirk Herbstreit, the former Ohio State quarterback turned football analyst, reported that his sources said Les Miles, the head coach of Louisiana State football, had taken the job to replace Lloyd Carr at U-M. The only problem is he hadn't.
Miles called a press conference specifically to deny these claims 20 minutes before his game against Tennessee for the SEC championship. Miles first heard of his new job from friends and had to clear the air with his team, university and everyone involved that he had not taken the job and was at LSU to stay.
Herbstreit says it was bad timing and LSU worked out a deal after he had spoken to his source and before he made the announcement.
Sure other publications speculated Miles would take the job, saying Miles was a near lock to join U-M because his best friend said he would, or that he couldnt pass an opportunity to coach his alma mater.
But, if they are going to break the story as fact, shouldn't a station as large and influential as ESPN leave the breaking news investigative journalism to actual journalists?

Slander doesn't hurt the famous

Does Don Imus deserve to be back on the air? After almost an eight-month hiatus, the radio personality is sorry about his racist comments to Rutgers women's basketball team, according to this CNN article. How much can a celebrity like Don Imus apologize until people think he is really sorry? Imus says his comments have changed his life for the better, but who's the sucker here?

Despite the four-year, $40 million contract with CBS he signed right before being fired for the comments in April, he is not announcing his salary at this time. Even if he is not making as much as before, he is rewarded with the same job back.

This leads to one conclusion: not every journalist will lose their job for good when exhibiting slander, especially if the source absolutely did not deserve it. Money is power in this business, not necessarily good judgement.

Stranger Than Fiction

This week in the news: A police officer in Washington State pulled over a man using a mannequin as his passenger to drive in the HOV lane, two hostages were taken at Hilary Clinton's campaign office in Rochester, New Hampshire, and a British teacher was arrested in Sudan for allowing her students to name a teddy bear "Mohammed".

You really can't make this stuff up.

In 2003, a New York Times reporter, Jayson Blair, was caught fabricating material for many of his stories. He made up things like quotes, details, and odd behaviors that his sources supposedly displayed. All of this information could have been collected the right way- through an interview. Needless to say, he was caught and his career all but ended.

The sad thing is, many people he misrepresented in his stories didn't come forward because they beleived that most news stories had some stuff made up. Tabloids and the paparazzi give us a bad name for distorting the truth. Credibility is something that is earned, and once lost is hard to gain back. People like Jayson Blair break the eggshells that people in the business are already walking on.

So with all of the news out there that's already compelling, strange, and interesting, why do journalists feel the need to make stuff up?

GOP and Great Lakes

I'm doing Bonnie's thing this evening blogging for The Detroit News during the GOP YouTube debate. Should be interesting, this is the first post I put up for it:

This country needs a president that won't turn his back on the Great Lakes.

A 2006 Brookings Institution study concluded that investing about $26 billion to clean up pollution hotspots (Areas of Concern), protect against invasive species and address low water levels will have return economic benefits of more than $50 billion.

This funding would come primarily from the federal government through the Great Lakes Restoration Act.

Great Lakes states and governors are on the bandwagon, both the U.S. House and Senate recognize the effort and even Gov. Bill Richardson, D-New Mexico, would appreciate some clean water to steal.

Yet President Bush was quick to veto this bill that swiftly passed through Congress. Thankfully, for the first time ever in his presidency, Bush's veto was overridden by Congress earlier this month.

Grand Rapids Mayor George Heartwell got in the mix, creating a 33-second plea for the GLRA he hopes will air during the debate. We'll see if his video is chosen and which candidates respond.

It's going to be up to our next president to persevere with this important legislation that not only affects the region, but both the U.S. and Canada.

Perhaps sustaining the Great Lakes, the largest surface freshwater system on the planet, 84 percent of North America's freshwater and about 21 percent of the world's supply, will benefit the whole world.

Think Bonnie's idea will be effective? How about the debate itself?

Print vs. Internet: Round 4,839,384

Bulky, inconvenient newspapers need to give it up and surrender to the internet.

As a print journalist, I understand the fear that people in the business feel about newspapers going entirely online. They say their craft would be dead. And I admit, there is something about picking up the paper with a cup of coffee and whipping it out to read whenever you feel like it. But I'm also a person of the future. The truth is, it would be more convenient and not to mention environmentally friendly if newspapers would face the fact that it's time to start publishing completely online.

51 million people buy a newspaper every day, and 124 million still read one at least once a day. That, my friends, is a lot of paper. And a lot of garbage. Let's face it, most people aren't willing to pay the five extra dollars for a recycling bin or take an extra trip to a venue that has one. So it's time to take out the trash. Or the recycling in this case.

Most people today have access to a computer and the internet. As a journalist, I wouldn't mind posting exclusively online. That's where most readers get their news anyway. A lot of large newspapers could survive on advertising alone, and circulation rates have been down for a while. It's time for newspapers to wave the white flag.

Editing Web for Bad Vibes

With increasing popularity of news on the Web, forgetting a story may not be as simple as throwing the newspaper away.

A Poynter Institute article, written by Bob Steele and Bill Mitchell, addresses the removal of old web-based stories from archival storage. While these stories sit just a few clicks away from anybody with access to the Internet, sources complaining about fact errors and issues "not in good light" are want these gone for good. Despite ethics a journalist must follow, these "wrong" stories remain on Web space for as long as they're kept in accessible storage.

Sources think the misconstrued information embarrasses them, affects their job opportunities, and influences their customers if they are able to be seen negatively through a story. Although more personal, you may be thinking of other areas that others gain access to with only a username and password, like Facebook and MySpace.

So, lesson of the day: watch what may potentially be put on the Web, because the whole "wide world" can judge you on it.

Why not? Job Shadow story

Its a short story. I went to downtown Detroit to The Detroit News building downtown. Beautiful building, but thats not the point.
I've only been in a few newsrooms in my life. The Dearborn Press & Guide has a decent sized newsroom. Everybody has a cubicle, a few are empty, waiting for interns to fill them. A few sections have their own offices where the few writers that work the section do their business.
The State News' newsroom is a bit larger than Dearborn's, with plenty of space for everyone to work.
So when I went downtown, obviously I was expecting it to be a little larger than two smaller newspapers. When I first walked in I saw a good sized newsroom, something the size of both papers I've worked at combined with another newsroom or two thrown in for good luck. Big, just what I was expecting.
However, as I walked back to the business desk, where I shadowed, the newsroom found a way to keep growing. In fact, there was another section of the newsroom roughly the same size of the first part thrown in the back. That was what threw me off. It was impressive.
I guess that's when you know you hit the big time.

Comcast Sucks

If the headline doesn't give it away, media giant Comcast has abused its power once again.
This time the topic has absolutely nothing to do with The Big Ten Network (though the headline has everything to do with the BTN), it actually has to do with their untimely choice to move channels.
In Salem, Oregon, Comcast decided to move cable channel MSNBC to a premium package. Normally, this would be nothing to gripe about, but in recent months political pundit Keith Olbermann and his "Countdown" program have gained against self-proclaimed rival program Bill O'Reilly's "The O'Reilly Factor".
Now my griping has nothing to do with political preference, I'm a Republican but could honestly care less what either program has to say, I just am wondering why now?
Now I understand Rupert Murdoch, owner of Fox News and conveyor of Republican ideals, owns DirecTV and has nothing to do with the cable giant that is threatening to ruin the lives of every college sports fan in the Midwest (Oops, BTN again). Yet, in a time where both sides of party lines should be viewed fairly on the way to the presidential races, moving a popular news program to the premium package from standard basic doesn't make sense.
Their explanation was they were preparing for the digital switch that will be occurring in January 2009. The same digital switch that is taking place AFTER the presidential race. Yet it seems to me it would be just as easy to switch in November 2008.
Once again Comcast sucks.

Video: Another way to tell stories

In the past year, newspapers have discovered video in a big way. Clearly, many newspaper websites see video as a storytelling device and a way to reach more readers (or viewers). An article. in the American Journalism Review points out that quality is spotty, but newspapers are getting better at video. As students in a traditional reporting class, some of you groaned when you found out you would be asked to do video stories. If you have any doubts about the power of video as a way to tell stories, check out some of the papers that are doing it well. Close to home, The Detroit Free Press has become a leader in video on its website. The newspaper won its first national Emmy award for a video on Michigan soldiers in Iraq. And video storytelling is not limited to large newspapers. Look at the video stories on the .Naples Daily News website, a Florida paper that was an early adapter. The AJR article points out that veteran journalists have become video believers when they've done a story with video and sound and witnessed the reaction from readers. Some stories are simply better suited to video. Read what the Washington Post reporter says in the AJR report about the reaction to his video story on the violinist. And if that's not enough to convince you, note what the AJR article says about the growth in multimedia jobs for journalists. Bottomline: Learning video adds to your storytelling arsenal and makes you more marketable. It's a skill that you should try to master, with or without the help of a class.

Peek in a crystal ball at journalism's future

Blogger Jeff Jarvis has a provocative post on the future of journalism. Rather than suggesting doom and gloom, he sees journalists capitalizing on the broader reach they can have - and already are having - with today's technology. Although the need for printing presses may go away, the need for strong reporting won't. The Newspaper Association of America has an entire blog devoted to the future of newspapers. Check out Mark Glaser's glimpse into the newsroom of the future as well. And then to see how reporting is already changing read Robert Niles report on a teen's suicide. Although a traditional newspaper tried to withhold information, readers demanded more - and got it.

As students, you will be part of journalism's future. What do you think? Are you excited by the possibilities? Or are you - like too many in my generation - nostalgic for journalism of the past

The latest dirt on the Bush Administration

Scott McClellan, the beleagured Bush White House press secretary who resigned in April 2006, is apparently the latest politico to come out with a tell-all book on the bad things he saw and did in Washington.

His publisher, Public Affairs, carried a brief excerpt of his new memoir "What Happened" on their website containing part of McClellan's "confession" on the Valerie Plame/CIA leak case. He says both Bush and Cheney knew Plame was CIA and told him to lie to reporters.

(In case you don't know what happened, Valerie Plame's husband, ambassador and Africa expert Joe Wilson, was critical of the Bush Administration's evidence that Saddam was seeking nuclear material from Niger. Plame happened to be a CIA agent, though her level of secrecy is still being debated, and the Administration outed her to reporter Judith Miller and columnist Bob Novak. No one was actually charged with this crime though- only the Veep's chief of staff "Scooter" Libby was charged with lying about the incident and sent to jail. Until Bush commuted his sentence. Oh, and Judith Miller spent several months in jail protecting her source.)

But anyway, this raises a larger question-When a White House press secretary is told to do something unethical, should he wait until the highest bidder offers him a book deal to reveal it? OK, maybe I'm being a little idealistic here where idealism is never a sound footing to analyze what goes on in Washington. But should a press secretary stay loyal to his boss, like Ron Ziegler to Richard Nixon, or should he feel free to express his disagreement with his boss, like Jerry terHorst (a former News guy) resigning from the Ford administration when Ford pardoned Nixon?

A Job Shadow to Remember

Since Crystal and Chris decided to write about their job shadows, I choose to jump on the bandwagon and say a little about mine. I shadowed Emily Smith a staff writer at NOISE magazine. We had been emailing each other for weeks but could never get a good time to meet each other, so I thought I would have to switch people last minute, but one week we realized our schedules completely worked together and so we set up times that I could visit her at NOISE...which is inside the Lansing State Journal building in downtown Lansing.

When I got there, there were the two secretaries who asked me who I was here to see, and as soon as they paged her Emily came right down to greet me. She asked if I was ready to go? Go? I just got there and she wanted me to go? But to find out, Emily and I were going shopping for the NOISE gift guide issue!!! Least to say I was excited. Before we went shopping we grabbed some lunch at Olga's (which she paid for with that lovely company card), and informed me that she would be writing a review of them in her blog and to watch out for it. Check out there blog anyways, it's nice.
http://noise.typepad.com/noise_blog/2007/11/once-again-its.html

After lunch we went to about five stores, grabbing all sorts of items, including a serving tray, jeans and a salts around the world gift set...oh yeah bring on the sodium! Anyways, to include the whole day would take forever but the whole day was a great experience. I was most impressed with was her professionalism. She went into the stores not to shop for herself but to find what the reader might like, she quickly identified herself and who she spoke with earlier to keep a good relationship with the people she ultimately needed to help her with job. She had her business cards handy willing to give it to anyone who asked, just in case they weren't sure she was legitimate.

She was though, she was the real deal. Everything I expected a young writer to be, Emily exceeded my expectations. We are already talking about when I can shadow her again. All in all, I highly recommend it because experience is something that can't be imitated. I hope everyone had as fun a time with the people they shadowed as I did!

Successful Newspaper Cuts Jobs

USA Today announced last Thursday that they were cutting 45 newsroom jobs calling the cuts necessary because of “economic realities”.

What is weird about this news is that USA Today is actually a newspaper that is excelling in today’s world of journalism. They had increased circulation last year and usatoday.com was recently named the top news website in the country by Online News Association.

They are offering buyouts to people with more than 15 years experience at the company and less than 5 years of online experience. Basically anyone non-computer savvy is getting the boot.

Still with the world of newspapers going online and none of them making the majority of their money from online, is this just the first cut of many?

So what does this mean for the journalism students of today? As a journalism student it’s a little scary to think that getting a job out of college isn’t the end of my worries anymore because who knows how long it will be before the next cut.

Electronic competition

Recently Amazon.com launched its electronic paper product Kindle. I remember talking about the possibly of electronic newspapers in JRN 108 two years ago, but I never really expected it to become a reality so quickly. That kind of technology still feels a little sci-fi extravagant to me.
But online media continues to be a major alternative to traditional print, and this kind of innovation really threatens to date printed news as nostalgia instead of cutting-edge.
Obviously with a $400 price tag, I don't expect Kindle to abolish the print version of the New York Times any time soon. But there are some distinct environmental- and convenience-related benefits to investing.
But what does Kindle ultimately mean for us, the fledgling reporters-to-be? Are we learning a model of writing just as it's becoming outdated? Is it possible to consider a future with no Sunday newspaper ruffling over corn flakes because it's been replaced with a touchscreen?
Although, it might be too soon to tell. With new technology, if it's not brought to the mainstream through some celebrity or other, it's liable to go the way of the Sega Saturn.

Why should you care?

Good journalism is all about telling stories, whether you're writing for the web or print. Robert Niles, of the Online Journalism Review, suggests some of the assumptions we make about writing for the web are wrong. He says regardless of your platform writers must remember: "To connect with that audience, however, journalists must report thoroughly, write with authority and place all information in their reports into a context relevant to readers' personal lives." And Jonathan Dube, of cyberjournalist.net, makes similar points, at least in part. "People want to know not just what happened, but why it matters. And with all the information sources out there now, in the end it will be the sites that explain the news the best that succeed. Write and edit all your stories with this in mind." Readers simply stop reading if reporters don't explain what's in it for them. My advice: Everytime you write a story, put a sticky note on your computer that reminds you to ask: "Why Should I Care?" Remember who your readers are and make sure you answer that question.
Think of your own reading habits. Why do you keep reading some stories and not others?

It's all in the headline

In class last week, we talked about writing for the web and how it differs from writing for print. We also touched on the importance of headlines on web stories. Readers often skim stories on the web and a headline literally has only a second to grab a site visitor's attention, according to Steve Outing, a journalist and online media pioneer. Howard Finberg, of the Poynter Institute, wrote an interesting column a few years back on boring web headlines. The conclusion: If you want people to read what you write - online or in print - you need to have an interesting headline that includes keywords and cleverly captures the story. As evidence, check out the most emailed story on today's New York Times web page. It's a column by Maureen Dowd. I'm guessing the headline - Should Hillary Pretend to be a Flight Attendant? - has something to do with why it's the most emailed story today.
Do you agree? Do you decide what you'll read based on the headline? Did the Hillary headline pull you in?

Job Shadowing by the bay

I've never been to Bay City, and Friday was not the best day to go. Cloudy skies (and a 5:30 a.m. wake-up call) made me a little pessimistic about how exciting my job shadow would be.

I drove an hour and a half to the Bay City Times, where I job shadowed Jeff Kart, the environmental reporter. As soon as I called him to let me into the building (how was I supposed to know you needed a key card to get in?) and he laughed hysterically at my flustered state, I knew maybe it wouldn't be so bad.

First off, Kart is a really, really, really funny guy. I took that as a good sign because you can't hate your job and have a sense of humor, right? The workday at The Bay City Times is from 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. I got there at 9 a.m. so I had the pleasure of attending the daily budget meeting.

At The State News, only editors go to budget. At The City Times, reporters and editors go and then duke it out about what stories will run and why, exactly, they should. Kart taught me the art of enthusiasm. While all the other reporters sullenly mumbled about what they may or may not have ready for Monday, Kart wildly explained his story, how it was coming together and even showed off pictures that would run with it (I helped him choose which ones to show off).

After budget, which goes from about 10:30 a.m. to 11 a.m. or so, we drove to Saginaw Valley State University for a speech Kart had to cover. We got free lunch (which consisted of some kind of awkward turkey wraps with wasabi-lime sauce, heaping piles of frozen potato salad and brownies. So random.) and I got to see Kart at work.

He doesn't believe in voice recorders, so he furiously scratched down everything he felt was important for the story. When we got back, he busted out a story in about 10 minutes. Pretty impressive.

Long story short (but I guess not after all my rambling), job shadowing another reporter was an invaluable experience. If it wasn't part of the curriculum, I probably would have still done this just to see how things work out in the "real world."

Hope everyone's job shadowing was equally as entertaining, if not slightly marred by disgusting wasabi-lime sauce.

Is having political bloggers ethical?

This Poynter online article brings up the ethical question: should a newspaper be showcasing writers that have contributed to a certain political campaign? With many political bloggers not serving as professional journalists, the article also addresses the showcasing of them as well.

Poynter reporters Mallary Tenore and Naughton Fellow asked five political editors from papers around the country about the issue. Responses range from controlling the bloggers' behavior by certain guidelines set by the paper, to welcoming their partisan blog contributions regardless of what they're behavior is toward a certain political campaign.

So what do you think? Under a newspaper's payroll, should a blogger not be able to financially contribute to a campaign? Does this cause an ethical problem with the newspaper's voice or does it matter at all?

The Art of Page Design

I want to be a newspaper page designer when I grow up. Yay.

I chose to follow a different route than most people in our class by finding out what The Detroit News Presentation Editor Rick Epps does on a typical day...or should I say a very unusual day...in the newsroom.

After walking into a brass knuckle fight near downtown Detroit's Greyhound Bus Station (no I am not kidding) I took a few minutes to ponder by day at The News. Here are words to summarize the day: sports, big rooms, page design, MSU, old school and new-kid-on-the-block designers, and of course "small plates" of lettuce-wrapped goodness somewhere in the middle.

Seven designers were gone on a sick day, which according to Detroit News Design Editor Erin Sprauw, "have never happened in my time here." Five designers and a Saturday edition to make in eight hours; you do the math. Rick Epps had quite the night ahead of him to say the least. My claim to fame was helping with some minor errors on an inside sports page. Well, working on any page in The Detroit News now is not minor to me by any means.

Norman Mailer

Two-time Pulitzer Prize winner and Village Voice co-creator Norman Mailer died on Saturday.

Writing both fiction and non-fiction novels Mailer was one of the most honest and argumentative authors. He often made politically incorrect statements, but cared little about the repercussions, steadfastly holding onto his opinions.

He dismissed radical feminism and at one point in the 1960s tried to run for mayor of New York City. He wanted to make the city the 51st state in the U.S.

Mailer also had a tendency to criticize his fellow authors, among those being Tom Wolfe, Truman Capote and William Styron. He once punched Gore Vidal for criticizing Jack Kerouac.

Whether or not you like or agreed with his writings and ideas, Mailer was definitely and entertaining writer.

Student threat or sour grapes?

A newspaper publisher in Montana is crying foul over the creation of an online newspaper by journalism students at the University of Montana. The publisher says by covering the Crow Indian Reservation, the students are competing with his traditional newspaper. The online experiment, he maintains, could backfire by hurting his newspaper's ability to sell advertising. Although the students are gaining experience, he says, it may mean he can no longer afford to hire them after they graduate. The student publication is partially funded by J-Lab and is part of an experiment called the Rural News Network, aimed at covering underserved populations.
So what's your take? Is the publisher right? Have the students undercut him? Or is competition good? And is this simply a way for students to get valuable experience in a rapidly changing profession?

The Art of Interviewing

Yesterday I had the opportunity to sit in with Wards Autoworld reporters during an interview with General Motors CEO Rick Wagoner at his office atop the Renaissance Center in Detroit. The meeting required the CEO's handlers as escorts, special visitor passes, clearance through two security guards, ascending two different elevators, and permission from his personal secretary. But before we even entered the building, I knew how much planning and strategy went into such a high-profile interview.

Briefing the Soldiers:

Back at their office in Southfield, I was briefed on the intense scrutiny that created the questions. Two prep meetings were held with the three reporters scheduled to interview him. There were multiple interviewers because multiple stories would come of the interview, and each reporter was knowledgeable in a different area. They had to analyze what questions to ask, how to word them, and in what order to ask them. Although CEO's, I'm told, are generally not chasing after interviews, General Motors' Wednesday Announcement of a $39 billion loss probably played a role in how he answered questions. (Now I know why the meeting was pushed back a day.)
Reporters took steps not to step on each other's toes to answer questions by using subtle gestures and eye contact to signal who will speak next, and the only time one of them made a slight interruption, Wagoner made them know it. Eye contact and silence are key.

The "Tough Question" Thicket:

It's OK to ask tough questions, but you have to ask yourself "how tough is too tough?" If it took four months to get an interview with someone you haven't spoken ill about, how worth it is potentially pissing them off and shutting yourself out from them forever? On the other hand, don't go all soft; then you're just an unpaid public relations official. Save hot-button issues for the end.

A Lesson to Photographers:

The gossip around the journalistic campfire is that executives are a lot less candid about having their photo taken, and are in fact rather crabby about it. This was made crystal clear with Wagoner's handlers constantly reminding us of his secretary's "sore spot" for photo equipment, and the CEO's insistence that Ford CEO Alan Mulally instead be on the cover. According to Wards reporters, photographers have been asked to leave, and CEO's have walked out at will. Whether it be a hesitancy to put a smile on the face of a company facing huge cuts and losses, the executive fright of not being in control, or pure hatred of that annoying flash, photographers must keep in mind they are not welcome and be as fast and gentle as possible.

Getting in good with assistants:

All high-profile people have handlers- people who act as guard dogs from outsiders, particularly in the media. That sort of insulation demands the reporter not only build rapport with the person they're going to interview, but their assistant who, according to my dad, "decides whether you get the interview."
They have a higher turnover rate than the people they work for, so make a point of getting to know them as much as possible so you have a better shot when you need an interview.

In conclusion, tips like planning ahead, utilizing your other reporters as resources, eye contact, humility, and getting to know the assistants are key to any interview, not just the people with offices bigger than my apartment. Well, in that case I'd also recommend not getting too fixated on the picture of them with Muhammad Ali.

The basics: Key to journalism success

Digital superstar Rob Curley, of washingtonpost.com, says the key to being a successful journalist today is the same as it was 25 years ago - you have to write well. He urges students to embrace new technology and be open-minded about how they tell stories but warns that they can't forget the basics. You still need strong reporting and writing skills to succeed. If you don't believe that read this post from Dr. James F. McGrath, assistant professor of religion at Butler University. In his experience, student journalists are forgetting the basics. And that's made him leery of giving interviews to student journalists.
So what do you think? If you're writing for the web, do you need the same reporting and storytelling skills you needed to write for print?

Ken Ward knows

Ken Ward Jr., the environmental reporter from the Charleston Gazette, came to MSU last week and brought a refreshing dose of journalism with him.

By today's standards, he seems like a traditionalist. Spending months on a story that in the end shows obvious blunders by either the government or irresponsible businesses (big or small) is his forte.

What was interesting, though, was his take on what it means to be an effective enviro journalist.

Don't try to rile up the public by making wild claims about how an incident may be so terrible. I see this all too often and as a young journalist, know exactly what he's talking about because I've made this mistake.

Simply give the public the numbers. Give the facts in an historical context and let the public decide for themselves.

"Get them talking about the issue, not your story."

What's the deal and whose style can be more effective? Al Gore or Ken Ward...that rhymes.

And on another note, the notion of people actually going back and buying newspaper subscriptions again...crazy. That's like telling people to go back and eat the crust first then get to the good stuff.

False reports.

When I read this, I couldn't believe it.

What would make someone call and file a fake police report? Especially with everything that has been going on across campus with random assaults? Is it an issue of how someone is raised? Is it for attention? Does anyone have any experience with knowing who would do extreme things, simply for attention?

MSU police Sgt. Florene McGlothian-Taylor said false reports like this are seldom filed.

I personally had the opportunity to talk to a panel of Michigan State University police officers about the safety of women on campus, and what they are doing as extra protection for them. I have interviewed random female students around campus asking them if they have stopped walking alone as soon as it begins getting dark out. And almost each one of them said they never even think about walking alone. They also appreciate the e-mails sent to all of campus from the MSU police, giving them a heads up at all times.

It's just hard to grasp and comprehend: Why is all of this happening so all-of-a-sudden? Since my freshman year, I don't remember female students having to be so unbelievably careful in East Lansing.

I just want all of this to end.

Southeast Asia Gets a New Travel Mag

Despite claims by some that the travel industry has been in a slump, inter-regional travel has more than doubled since 2000 and the publishers at Travel + Leisure are using it to their advantage.

In December 2007, American Express Publishing will launch their sixth international edition of Travel + Leisure, Travel + Leisure Southeast Asia. It will be the magazine's largest edition, distributed in 12 countries and creating content to be reproduced in U.S. versions.

American Express Publishing said they trying to introduce both the U.S. and the world to aspects of Southeast Asian cultures.

I'm not sure how much of an introduction Travel + Leisure will be giving to the world since the 12 countries that the magazine will be circulated in are all Southeast Asian countries.

However I am all for more travel magazines, I think they can be a great way to learn about different places granted the content isn't all based on where the best resorts and restaurants are. So hopefully this will be a good one and maybe it will eventually be circulated in the U.S.

The Future of News

The Audit Bureau of Circulations released new numbers on the health of American Newspapers. What's most interesting is the fact that only two out of the top 10 American newspapers, USA Today and The Los Angeles Times (well, they much broke even), report gains in daily sales over the six month period in which the study was conducted. As for the Sunday edition, declines were even steeper and the only top ten paper to gain any ground was the Houston Chronicle, albeit very modest (and to be fair, USA Today doesn't do Sundays).

Another story to come out of all of this is that while newspapers are seeing declines in their print readership, they are seeing tremendous gains in online readership- a service which makes almost no money. Beside the fact that they make almost no money, online content is increasingly full of blogs, quick updates from the field, and many place for readers to post their comments.

Does all of this represent the dumbing down of the culture that we're always hearing about? Do people not have the time or the inclination to sit down and read a newspaper, instead preferring to get quick soundbites and headlines? Or is this a return to a better sort of journalism- not as disconnected from the everyday citizen and allowing reporters to write on whatever esoteric interest they have, given the fact that they have unlimited space and a much wider audience online?

The Afghanistan Abandonment

Although once the front line of the "War on Terror," Afghanistan has all but disappeared from the news media's priority list. In that time, much of the country's territory has fallen back into anti-American hands.

A 2005 report by the American Journalism Review indicated only a handful (less than 20) of full-time journalists remain inside Afghanistan, with a scant number of "satellite" journalists viewing the news from outside locations like New Delhi.

Perhaps this is why most Americans don't realize the Taliban has driven government forces out of roughtly half the territory NATO officials last year said was safe. Or that British officials have criticized U.S. Special Forces for their air-strikes, which kill civilians and complicate peaceful relations with locals.

Although some news coverage is obviously there, is it enough to make anyone talk about it? The coverage pales in comparison to that of the domestic drama from Britney Spears or OJ Simpson. Thus, we see how the conflict came to be known as "The Other War."

Beats with a snazzy network

An experiment of sorts with a live, social network contributing to reporter's beats is underway.

NewAssignment.net, an academic "think tank" of news organizations participating in an open platform with citizen journalists and professional reporters, is creating a new project to help beats.

Jay Rosen, a professor at NYU, is leading the project and speaks of it in great length in his blog, PressThink. The goal of this project, according to Rosen, is to test this idea:

"Maybe a beat reporter could do a way better job if there was a “live” social network connected to the beat, made up of people who know the territory the beat covers, and want the reporting on that beat to be better."

It would be done in a blogging format, with 12 beat reporters working with contributors outside of the newsroom.

This project could be a really cool way for reporter's to expand their horizons, in a sense, and get greater coverage than ever imagined.

It's things like this that still give me hope for the future of journalism. Who's with me?

No better time to be a journalist?

Marshall Loeb, the former editor of Fortune, Money and the Columbia Journalism Review, has an interesting take on the cataclysmic changes occurring in journalism. He suggests there is no better time to be a journalist, despite the hand-wringing going on in the industry. Yes, technology is rapidly changing the way journalists do their jobs. But ultimately journalists now have far greater reach - thanks to the internet - than ever before. Jon Friedman, of MarketWatch, also weighs in on the monumental changes in the industry in just the past decade. Who knows what the next 10 or even 2 years will bring?
Are you excited about being part of the revolution? Do you think you can have an impact in greater ways than journalists of past generations?

Gotta Read That Paper Stuff

We're asked every class morning, so what's in the news?

Most of us would agree that turning the T.V. on to channels like CNN, MSNBC, or perhaps local network news that morning is sufficient enough to find the big headlines. I'm guilty for looking on the Newseum's Freedom Forum Web site for a quick glance of the day's big headlines. Roy Peter Clark, a senior scholar from the Poynter Institute, comments on how many of us are slacking the reading of the traditional newspaper, including Clark himself. As Clark puts it you need to read the newspaper "--emphasis on paper, not pixels."

Clark's article says that with the whirlwind of multimedia, most people are not reading the news. They're just absorbing it without catching its real meaning. Perhaps news venues like T.V. and Internet only give us one version of the story, rather than a unique way each of us can perceive it. Simply reading is sufficient; bells and whistles need not apply.


Which do you like better? I welcome your thoughts.

Oops! UNC student journalist, 140,000 - John Edwards, 0

The John Edwards campaign tried to squash a video produced by a University of North Carolina journalism student, according to a story in the
News and Observer. The video, produced for the campus TV station and posted on youtube, asked if the location of Edwards Chapel Hill headquarters in an exclusive neighborhood squared with his poverty campaign. The brouhaha backfired - at least if Edwards did not want it to get publicity, according to a UNC blog. By Sunday night, the video had more than 140,000 page views. I'm guessing the student reporter never expected the reach her video has gotten - another lesson in the power of multimedia reporting and the web.
What do you think? Of the reported move by the Edwards camp? Of the student video?

Ready to learn new tricks?

A report from a college media conference says Washington Post digital wunderkind Rob Curley told a room full of college journalism students that too many students are resistant to learning online skills. His advice: If you want a job in journalism - get over the resistance, fast! And in Florida, Mindy McAdams tells students at an SPJ meeting that recruiters want to hire students with online skills. McAdams also tells students how easily they can learn multimedia skills - to broaden their storytelling arsenals - on their own. Finally, editors at a conference in Maryland talk about what they're looking for when they hire. Guess what! It's multimedia skills or at least openness to learning new things.
So where do you stack up? Are you trying to learn online skills? Do you see it as a way to reach more people with your stories? Or are you resistant? And why?

The old switcheroo

Ethics. Love 'em or hate 'em, they're here...And since they're here, they will be broken.

The editorial adviser at The State News passed this e-mail along to staffers: The publisher of the Argus-Press in Owosso caught one of his staff members plagiarizing from a high school student!

When the student was asked where she got her information for a story on changes to her hometown's city, she said her notes came from the Laingsburg City Council meeting. When the Argus-Press reporter was asked to show his notes from his story, he resigned.

It turns out 90-95 percent of the Argus-Press reporter's story came from this high schooler's article.

Usually it's the other way around, of course.

This surely comes as a wakeup call to all of us (those, I mean) who thought it safe to take from puny high school newspapers.

Should the Argus-Press hire Lindsey Fausett, the girl from the Laingsburg Informer (the high school paper), or pay her back handsomely?

Perhaps the reporter from the Argus-Press can still get a job as a blogger.

Celebrity gossip--I love it, but is it news?

Recently, it seems that celebrities are more famous for their personal lives than their movies or albums because of the celebrity blog phenomenom.

Blogs such as Perez Hilton (http://perezhilton.com/) and TMZ (http://www.tmz.com/) have changed popular culture in drastic ways, but are they really considered journalism?

These blogs have incriminating videos, photos and information that are making and breaking celebrities’ careers right now, but is it fair to give them the title of and “independent celebrity news site,” or “a tabloid journal”? The description that such sites as TMZ label themselves as.

I will not lie, I am a huge fan of the celebrity gossip sites, but I feel that it is much more a guilty pleasure than vital information that I need. I guess that there are many news outlets and many different news topics that I can’t discriminate, but I think that these sites may are being taken a little too seriously.

It is nice to read some news besides war and violence, but when I go to cnn.com I don’t want to read about Britney losing custody of her children. So, as much as I love these gossip sites, I like them as a separate indulgence, not a news source. I think that recently the line has been blurred on what is news, but what do you think?

Alternative Story Forms

Here I go again tooting the horn of news design. Sorry Sue, I thought this Freep page looked good :)

In the past ten years or so, news page designers have been using alternative story forms (or ASFs or "STD's" Detroit Free Press designer Steve Dorsey referring to story telling devices) used to portray stories outside traditional text and box photo. In this Poynter Online article, a journalist examines a study The Poynter Institute administered to 600 readers. Using six identical stories, each with the same facts and three print/three online, designers experimented with ATFs using factboxes, different fonts, graphics and photo alteration. Although the same information was presented in all six stories, the ones portrayed with ASFs were read more. Even more information was retained by the readers because a visual stimulus helped them remember facts better.

Check out newspagedesigner.org for some more ASF-designed pages.

How to succeed in journalism

Two bloggers weigh in with advice for journalists who want to be successful as the industry undergoes a major transition. The first, U.K. journalist and educator Paul Bradshaw, aims his counsel specifically at journalism students. Take note - some of you will recognize pitfalls you've already encountered like waiting too long for a source to return an e-mail. And Howard Owens, digital director for a newspaper company, suggests journalists need to use their curiosity to teach themselves about the latest tools of our craft. He also suggests you check out journalist Mark Briggs' new online book on surviving in the new digital age.
So how do you stack up against the advice? Do you have what it takes to succeed?

Reading newsprint: Necessary or nostalgia?

Roy Peter Clark, of the Poynter Institute, last week exhorted journalists - and J-school students - to read print newspapers. As the industry struggles to find a business model that will support it, Clark suggested it's a journalist's duty to read print. As you know, newspaper print circulation has been declining steadily. So has advertising revenue. Although much of the industry is now looking to online delivery as a potential savior, online only brings in between 5 and 7 percent of newspaper revenue at the moment. That is the problem, as Clark passionately noted. But his plea for reading out of a sense of duty sparked a torrent of feedback. Some compared his suggestion to asking amateur photographers to stick with film instead of going digital. One blogger suggested we'd all still be in the dark if candle-makers had reacted the same way when Edison discovered the lightbulb.
So what do you think? Is Roy Peter Clark right? Or are too many editors reluctant to move forward as the bloggers suggest. As journalists of the future, what do you think? Do you have an obligation to read print? Do you read newspapers the old-fashioned way now?

-30- or the end of credibility

Before computers replaced typewriters, journalists signalled the end of their story with the symbol "-30 -," which Webster's defines as a sign of completion. An American Journalism Review story points out that many younger journalists have never heard of the tradition. In fact, at the New York Times in July, a copy editor unfamiliar with the symbol created an embarrassing error when an editor thought the reporter's use of 30 was supposed to be a date in the story. Unfortunately, the editor turned that date into Feb. 30! And we wonder why people don't believe what they read in the news media. If you think accuracy isn't important, check out the list of errors editor Craig Silverman compiles on his. Regret the Error site each day. The morale of the story: Double-check and triple-check your facts. You don't want to end up on Silverman's list. And even more importantly, you want people to trust what you write.

Warner BROS indeed.

So the big buzz in the entertainment industry is apparently misogyny is in, and gender equality is out.

Jeff Robinov, president of production for Warner Bros. Pictures (and apparent sexist tool of the underworld) stated that they are no longer doing movies with women in the lead.

Way to go, champ.

This decree is apparently the result of poor box office investments like “The Brave One,” starring Jodie Foster and “The Invasion” with Nicole Kidman.

When I think about it, Warner Bros. should totally stop giving women leading roles. In fact, they should produce movies with no female parts at all.

The careers Foster and Kidman have created obviously are void just because one movie doesn’t gross a certain amount in theaters.

And the movies were probably bad for the sole reason that these women were in them. Writing, directing and production has nothing to do with it. C'mon people, give Warner Bros. a break!

We should just make movies with animals. People love those.

The New Newseum

The Newseum has undergone a considerable technological upgrade. If you are not familiar with the establishment in Washington, D.C., it is what it suggests--a museum of news. The facility has added a 75-foot First Amendment engraving, a 4-D theater, news media exhibits and galleries. One exhibit puts you in the scenario of a reporter and you have to complete an assignment for your "editor" by the proposed "deadline." The revamped Newseum is intended to be more interactive and aim towards a younger audience.
I remember going to the old Newseum in 2001 for an eighth grade field trip. Newspapers from around the world had sent their front pages that day, and seeing the diversity and complexity of world news was--in one word--fascinating.
The new Newseum was previewed by 200 newspaper editors from around the country last Wednesday. The facility will open to the public sometime in early 2008.

Taser Incident Shows 1st Amendment Oppression

(This was written one week after the tazer incident at the University of Florida)

It's no wonder politicians get away with what they do in this country when the people who ask tough questions get tazered.
For those of you living under a rock that lacks youtube access, last week at the University of Florida, a student who pestered John Kerry with questions had his microphone shut off and was dragged, literally kicking and screaming, toward the exit by police. After briefly breaking away from his captor the student, Andrew Meyer, was pushed to the floor and rendered completely immobile by numerous officers. Despite numerous officers holding him and and his pleading "Don't taze me, bro!" the student was 'tazered,' eliciting frantic shouts of pain from the 21-year-old.
The student asked John Kerry three questions: the first was why he conceded the 2004 election as quickly as he did, the second was why he isn't calling for an impeachment of President Bush, and the third was if he was in the same "secret society" in college as Bush.
All very useful questions despite Meyer's rambling and discontented attitude. Unfortunately this is not an isolated incident, because college students aren't the only ones with honest statements and questions who are, one way or another, cut off, tasered, or hauled out of the room.
Back in January 2003, when the Iraq War was pitched to Congress, then Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld said the war would cost "under $50 billion." However, Lawrence Lindsey, the White House economics advisor, estimated the cost at over $100 billion. Lindsey was then fired and his estimate considered "very, very high." The current cost of Iraq is somewhere between $400 billion and $2.2 trillion, depending on who you ask (http://www.defenselink.mil/transcripts/transcript.aspx?transcriptid=1322). The alarming removal might have been more widely known to Americans if the Secret Service had to carry Lindsey out of the White House flailing his arms and yelling like the Florida student.
The now-infamous Joe Wilson got much worse treatment that same year after publishing an article in the New York Times entitled "What I Didn't Find in Africa," in which he concluded "that some of the intelligence related to Iraq's nuclear weapons program was twisted to exaggerate the Iraqi threat."
Eight days later Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame, was outed as an undercover CIA agent by conservative columnist Robert Novak. Her safety was threatened to make an example of Joe Wilson; to warn others who spoke out against Bush Administration policy.
Just last August Alberto Gonzalez resigned amid hearings with a Senate Judiciary Committee over the firing of eight U.S. attorneys who were all apparently doing their jobs investigating criminal activity. Replacing so many of these influential figures midway through the administration is unprecedented, with only three attorneys forced out similarly since 1981. (http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/26/opinion/26mon4.html?_r=1&oref=slogin) Gonzalez had no problem with stunning hard-working individuals en masse.
Rumor has it that Meyer is a spectacle-hungry campus prankster, but his charged queries to Kerry are not a reason to cut his mic; they're a reason to turn up the volume. The officials' belief that unforgiving challenges were inappropriate is evidence of a state where politicians are not rightly held to utmost scrutiny. An informed student, ambassador, or attorney has a right, if not a responsibility, to demand -not timidly ask- politicians to explain themselves.
This violent, unnecessary detainment is not only reprehensible when it is against a boisterous student; it is incalculably worse when it is a trend in maiming and silencing political dissension in America. Political discussion should be electrified, but not the discussers.

Videos of the incident:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5307657127017581467&q=Florida+Taser+incident&total=91&start=10&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=8
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6325830637005579877&q=Florida+Taser+incident&total=88&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=0

Taser This

The student who ran the "Taser this: Fuck Bush" headline is keeping his job.
Colorado State University protected his First Amendment rights as a journalist but scolded him for violating the school's ethics (use of profanity and poor judgment).
David McSwane, editor in chief of The Collegian, CSU's self-funded newspaper, was "hard to read" after the decision was made in his favor Thursday.
First Amendment rights protect us as journalists against censorship. Running such extreme profanity in an over sized headline, however, was simply irresponsible. The newspaper lost $50,000 in advertising revenue and a lot of respect, if you ask me.
As for McSwane, he gained valuable experience in publicity and First Amendment defense. He also may have learned a big lesson, and joked that now that's it over, he can start going to class again.

The fallout after a student's story

A student at Western Oregon University discovered a security breach on the school's computer system and wrote a story about it for the student newspaper. Although he did not publish any private information about students, he did download the file. It contained private student information including social security numbers. That led to disciplinary action against the student journalist. The student newspaper advisor's contract was not renewed because she failed to tell the student about the university's computer policies. And university police searched the student newspaper's computers without informing the adviser or students who worked at the newspapers. Student press advocates worry about the chilling effect such a search and the disciplinary action may have on student journalists. The university also ordered the student reporter to write a commentary on university policies. Other student journalists worry about the consequences of that? Can a university order up student journalists to write stories? Should they be able to?

What do you think? Was the student journalist out of line? Did the advisor err? Was the university wrong to search the newspaper office?

Clearly, you must read this

In class, we've been discussing writing with clear, simple sentences. A writers' group at the Cleveland Plain Dealer has been talking about readability in much the same way. This memo from the Plain Dealer urges writers to put their stories in plain English. It cites " The Writer's Coach," a book written by Jack Hart, an editor at the Oregonian. It notes that you can test your readability with the Flesch-Kincaid test on most Word programs. Some of the folks who commented on the Plain Dealer memo worried that this might be "dumbing down" newspapers. Yet most writing coaches and editors will tell you it simply makes sense to write clearly. After all, the whole point in writing is getting people to read your work. Steve Buttry, now with the American Press Institute, offers these tips for writing clearly. And check out this advice from Joe Hight, the editor of the Oklahoman, as well.
So what's your take? Is it simply a matter of clarity in your work? Or do we run the risk of dumbing down newspapers?

Everybody must get stoned

I wish I would have posted this earlier, it's good timing for the officer coming in tomorrow...

Officer makes killer (or so he thought) batch of ganja brownies

I brought this up the other day with the cops and courts reporter from the Detroit News.

Normally I would gripe about an officer not getting prosecuted for breaking the very laws he enforces. The poor guy whose pot he stole probably has to piss in a cup every week. But I don't think there's any shame in getting busted with marijuana, and this cop undoubtedly resigned from his post in shame.

He has suffered enough, though hopefully he'll share that recipe.

Hairy Situation

First off, please excuse the pun in the title. It was bad. But I couldn't help it.

So, Old Redford Academy in southwest Detroit wants to suspend a student because the length of his hair doesn't comply with the school's dress code.

The thing is, his mother is Jewish and doesn't cut his hair due to religious beliefs. The Michigan ACLU filed a lawsuit and is saying the school is infringing the boy's right to religious expression. And good for them.

People should be able to express their religion, as long as not as it's not infringing on someone else. So let's think about this, kids:

Not only is he not hurting or affecting anyone because his hair is "too long," but he wears it in a ponytail, so it's not like it's flying around in people's mouths or food or anything.

If his hair was attacking students and making bomb threats, then I could see the issue.

This country's constitution is based on the basic rights granted to people (i.e; the right to express one's religion). Like, oh I don't know, the First Amendment? So why can't he have his hair neatly pulled back if it's part of his faith?

Am I crazy to think a person should be able to exercise their faith in a — what we refer to as — free country?

Please tell me I'm not.

Tongue Tying

If one of your sources tells you they are pursuing, contemplating, or even having dreams about taking legal action, do not tell the recipient. Ever.

I learned this the hard way; I was covering a conflict between the City of DeWitt and developers attempting to build a subdivision in the area.

Outside City Hall during a council meeting the developers said they were waiting to hear from their lawyers on the best course of action. Their primary 'adversary' as they saw, was City Administrator Brian Vick.
In my interview with Vick following the meeting, I asked him the city's planned recourse if "hypothetically, DTP were to file an injunction."

Vick leaned back in his chair, threw his hands behind his head, and smiled at me; the interview was over.

If your need for a particular source is exhausted on an issue, then it doesn't hurt to bring in questions that can only help. But if you want more information out of someone, don't tell them they've got a lawsuit against them. Once the legal realm is on the table, people don't want to say anything that could get them in trouble, especially something that may be published.

It's not your responsibility to tell someone a lawyer is working against them; they'll find out on their own. Get the information you need before you lock their jaw.

Paper or Plastic

Recently Fox launched the radically unsuccessful series, Anchorwoman. The show plopped a blond model with no experience in the middle of a newsroom and taped the ensuing "hilarity." The show got a lot of criticism before it aired for devaluing the work of real journalists. It was immediately cancelled.

Thank God.
Unfortunately rating-grabbing pretty faces, or in Katie Couric's case, short skirts are still exploited in broadcast to a certain degree. In fact some big name broadcast journalists don't even write their own columns, instead leaving that task to lesser reporters.
So do some reporters have more in common with Lauren Jones than we, as the professionals, would like to believe? Does the fact that the show tanked show that the American public is unwilling to knowingly get their news from beautiful bimbos? Or does it mean watching the process makes for uninteresting reality TV?
Of course, as an aspiring female reporter, I'm insulted to think that that's how any woman in the media will be thought about. So, are the Katie Courics and Lauren Jones of the world ruining for the rest of us?

Freedom or folly?

The debate continues over whether the editor of the Collegian should lose his job over his decision to use the F-word in huge type in an editorial. J. David McSwane insists the editorial was simply intended to defend free speech. McSwane has been ordered to appear before at a formal hearing before Rocky Mountain College's communication board on Oct. 4, according to a story in Editor and Publisher. Last week, the board said they'd received more than 300 emails about the editorial, with 70 percent running against McSwane's decision. The debate is raging in the blogosphere, too, with some defending the student and others saying the editorial was irresponsible. Apparently, some who know McSwane think he was more interested in grabbing the spotlight than the first amendment all along, according to an article on the Rocky Mountain News website.
So where do you stand? Should the editor stay or go? Is this really a first amendment issue or not?

Power to the People

Last week I attended a public hearing at the Lansing Center that brought public opinion on the Yellow Dog mining project in Marquette, Mich. to the ears of state policymakers.

For background, a foreign-subsidized mining company, Kennecott, was granted initial approval from the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ) to mine for sulfur in the Yellow Dog Plains - a beautiful watershed home to a unique river and rare fish species.

Not only does mining for sulfide have consequences such as radiation exposure and the depletion of animal species. It has the potentional to suck the Salmon Trout River completely dry!

The MDEQ remained totally ignorant about the mine’s consequences until a group of scientists presented them with undeniable evidence of its destructive potential.

This is where you can see the Power of the People.

From there, numerous grassroots projects banded together to protest these industrialists and dissuade the MDEQ from giving in to big business.

The public hearing in Lansing was overwhelming. I approximated that for every 12 people that spoke against the mine’s construction, there was one supporter.

The public has the opportunity to voice their opinion until Oct. 17, when MDEQ will close off public comment and make a final decision.

From what I saw, these public hearings were a fantastic opportunity to seriously prevent this big business from destroying one of Michigan’s gems.

I know some public hearings are mired in deadlocks between sides. But when public consciousness is obviously right and contradicts the government, it is a journalist's duty to report democracy in action.

Power to the People.

Contacting Sources

I have realized the beauty of the back-up plan.

As journalists, we have the pleasure of talking to interesting people to pick their brains. There's times when you can just walk up to someone and have a friendly conversation and presto! One source down.

But what if a source doesn't call you back?

I constantly wonder about the great juxtaposition that is The Journalist. As a journalist, you are required to pry and dig for details and push the boundaries to get the story. Maybe even be a little annoying. Face it, folks-- people think journalists are annoying.

So when is it too annoying? If a source doesn't get back to you, and you're on a deadline, obviously you try and get in touch with them. Sometimes twice. Sometimes a couple of phone calls and an e-mail.

To bring me back to my original point, it's good to have a back-up plan. Plan ahead. Call/e-mail the sources who are priority first and then talk to other people. If the priority sources don't get back to you, try again. But still talk to other people. And then if they never get back to you (which is just rude) hopefully you'll have enough information to go off from the other people you talked to.

Note the word hopefully.