The Bulldog Edition

Local papers still dominate in rural areas

2011-12-30T13:56:00.003-06:00

Local newspapers remain the dominant source of news in small towns and rural areas, according to the results of a new survey performed by the Reynolds Journalism Institute’s Center for Advanced Social Research and the University of Missouri’s School of Journalism on behalf of the National Newspaper Association.

Overall, 74% of residents of these areas said they read the local newspapers at least once a week, with 48% reading them once a week and 11% reading them every day.

Respondents said they spend almost 40 minutes a week reading newspapers; 83.2 percent said the read newspapers for their news content, and 92 percent said they pay for the newspapers.

Google, Facebook top digital views: Nielsen

2011-12-30T13:50:00.003-06:00

Google was the most-visited U.S. Web brand, and Facebook held its lead among social networks and blogs in 2011, according to year-end ratings by the Nielsen company.

Also, smartphones became even more popular last year, making up most of new phone purchases, with Apple as the top smartphone manufacturer and Android as the leading Operating System.

Last year, Google attracted 153,441,000 unique visitors per month, Nielsen said, following by Facebook with 137,644,000 unique visitors per month.

The rest of the top-10 digital sites were, in order, Yahoo!, Bing, YouTube, Microsoft, AOL, Wikipedia, Apple and Ask.com, according to Nielsen, which reviewed the top online destinations, social media sites, and smartphone devices.

Galesburg daily live-blogs from trial

2011-12-30T13:42:00.004-06:00

Police reporter Jennifer Wheeler at the Galesburg Register-Mail may have become the first Illinois journalist to gain access to a state trial court as a blogger when she covered the Nicholas Sheley murder trial there in October.

Wheeler blogged constantly through the proceedings, about every 10 minutes, and attracted more than 1,200 reader/followers at one point, said her editor, Tom Martin, writing in "Presslines" from the Illinois Press Association.

Judge James Stewart granted permission for Wheeler's coverage via the newspaper's galesburg.com web site after the newswoman verbally requested the access.

How TV covers presidential candidates

2011-12-30T13:36:00.004-06:00

Evening TV network newscasts about the presidential nominating contests have declined, according to a paper by George Mason University scholars, who found that news outlets often promise to focus on substantive issues and avoid polling numbers, but data show that “horse-race coverage has been dominant in the last three primary campaign cycles: 71 percent of the primary coverage in 2008 focused on the horse race, just slightly below the 78 percent we recorded in 2000 and 77 in 2004.”

No reason to keep ban on cameras in court

2011-12-19T15:18:00.003-06:00

Springfield's State Journal Register last week ran this terrific editorial using the time peg of the recent sentencing of convicted ex-Gov. Rod Blagojevich to revive the argument to stop excluding news photographers out of otherwise public proceedings in court.

The news peg is the bipartisan bill introduced by Illinois' U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin and Iowa's Charles Grassley, a Democrat and Republican, respectively.

Their measure "would break the federal court taboo at the top by requiring television coverage of all open sessions of the U.S. Supreme Court. This is the court that makes decisions with profound effects on the entire country, yet it remains the most mysterious body in the American judiciary," the SJR writes.

For his part, Durbin commented, "In a democratic society that values transparency and participation, there can be no valid justification for such a powerful element of government to operate largely outside the view of the American people."

Read the whole piece: http://www.sj-r.com/breaking/x771104389/Our-Opinion-No-reason-to-keep-ban-on-cameras-in-court

Murdoch seeks restricted Internet

2011-12-16T11:03:00.003-06:00

Congress is trying to restrict the Internet, and global media baron Rupert Murdoch last week personally lobbied leaders on Capitol Hill for two measures that supporters say merely combat piracy.

The bills are misleadingly titled the Stop Online Piracy Act in the House, and the Protect IP Act in the Senate.

"Both measures would require Internet operators to police activity online," according top Ryan Grim and Michael McAuliff on The Huffington Post, "and would mandate Internet giants like Google and AOL, and credit card companies, to take down sites that have content deemed to be in violation of copyright rules."

Opponents, including Google, charge that the proposals would be censorship that would stifle innovation and impose higher costs on consumers.

The First Amendment

2011-11-15T10:01:00.003-06:00

'Outrage' more common in broadcasting than blogs or print columns: study

2011-10-31T07:17:00.003-06:00

Incidents of "outrage" rhetoric and behavior on radio and television opinion shows are about four times as frequent as blogs and newspaper columns, according to a study published in Political Communication: “From Incivility to Outrage: Political Discourse in Blogs, Talk Radio and Cable News.”

Tufts University social scientists analyzed an ideologically diverse group of news sources to better understand the use of what they call “outrage discourse” — political speech designed to provoke audiences' emotional responses such as fear or hate.

Researchers examined 10 weeks of content from talk radio, cable "news" programs, blogs and syndicated columnists and identified 13 common forms of “outrage discourse,” including insulting language, name calling, character assassination, misrepresentative exaggeration and mockery.

While the tactics used by liberal and conservative commentators are largely the same, incidents of outrage were 50 percent more common in right-leaning media than in left-leaning media: Right-leaning content providers "scored" a 15.47 outrage incidents per case; left-leaning providers scored a 10.32.

As far as type of media, the average frequency on radio was 24, TV 23, blogs 6 and columns 6.

Blogs are relatively new, of course, but newspapers today, compared to 35 or 55 years ago, also feature "outrage" discourse more often in their syndicated columns. Measuring about 6 now, in 1975 it was 0.1, and in 1955 0.06.

The phenomenon is not just harmless entertainment, say lead researchers Sarah Sobieraj and Jeffrey Berry.

“Partisanship, as measured by the voting behavior of legislators, is up quite sharply in the past few decades,” they write in their conclusion. “It strains credulity to believe that the new and expanded ideological media has had nothing to do with this trend.”

Twin Cities settles with journalists arrested in 2008

2011-10-27T17:56:00.004-06:00

As a result of the arrests of journalists as well as demonstrators at the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minn., on Labor Day in 2008, local police and Secret Service must pay a six-figure settlement to "Democracy Now!" news anchor Amy Goodman and other plaintiffs.

"In addition to paying out $100,000, the St. Paul Police Department has agreed to implement a training program aimed at educating officers regarding the First Amendment rights of the press and public with respect to police operations — including police handling of media coverage of mass demonstrations — and to pursue implementation of the training program in Minneapolis and statewide," Goodman wrote."

The settlement "should be a warning to police departments around the country to stop arresting and intimidating journalists," she added

Local shared news means less for more communities

2011-10-27T17:45:00.002-06:00

Peoria, Ill., television stations' news are mentioned in a study the University of Delaware’s Center for Community Research and Service that shows that local TV stations that share video, reporters, anchors or even complete newscasts mean less original content for audiences -- and possible violations of monopoly laws.

“Local television news still holds a pre-eminent position as a news source for the public,“ said Danilo Yanich, who wrote the study and filed his report with the Federal Communications Commission.

The research cited the Peoria market, which has five local news stations but broadcast identical stories on multiple channels.

The drift toward shared services agreements will continue, Yanich conceded, but stations still have public interest responsibilities.

Half of tablet users read news daily

2011-10-27T17:25:00.004-06:00

Half of tablet owners consume news on their tablets every day, according to a study out this week from the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism, in collaboration with the Economist Group.

Further, 77 percent of American adult tablet owners use their tablets daily, 30 percent spend more time getting news than before they owned tablets, and 33 percent turn to new sources on their tablets.

Maybe most surprising, 42 percent read in-depth articles regularly on their tablets.

Americans rely on newspapers, study shows, yet don't appreciate their importance

2011-10-16T13:50:00.004-06:00

Newspapers and their websites ranked first or tied for first as a reliable source of local information on 11 of 16 topics that more than 2,000 respondents were surveyed about in a recent study by Pew Research.

However, asked whether they'd be impacted in a big way by the demise of their local newspaper, 69% said no, that they'd still be able to keep up with information and news about their community.

Television is the main source for three popular topics: weather, traffic and breaking news, the study showed. Newspapers and their Web sites are the main source for most other topics, such as local government and crime reports. Also, word of mouth -- most likely including text messaging and Twitter posts -- is the second most common means of news distribution on the local level.

“There really is a nuanced ecosystem here with very old and very new sources blending,” said Tom Rosenstiel (above), the director of the Project for Excellence in Journalism, which collaborated with the Pew Internet & American Life Project on the study, speaking to the New York Times.

Elsewhere, another Pew study clarified people's attitude about the press, which remain negative despite their reliance on news media for information.

Of those surveyed, 80% said they thought the news media were often influenced by powerful people and groups; 77% said the media tend to favor one side; and 72% said reporters try to cover up their mistakes.

Kindle Fire could be game-changer, news sites could challenge book publishers

2011-10-16T13:33:00.002-06:00

Katherine Travers on the editorsweblog writes that Amazon's new Kindle Fire tablet would upend content consumers' puchase and use of tablets.

There are three main reasons, she says: Amazon is a huge force in media (with 50% growth in quarterly revenues and the possibility of reaching %50 billion in sales this year, according to Businessweek), Amazon is considerably different than Apple, bringing its tablet into the mainstream with a price tag reflecting Amazon's low profit margins (especially compare to Apple's), and Amazon is here to stay, and Kindle Fire is a long-term investment.

Meanwhile, Amazon and its "digital imprints" are just one challenge to traditional print-only book publishers, according to the New York Times. Authors who print their own e-books, new online-only efforts and now news organizations spinning off into e-products.

The Boston Globe and Politico, the New Yorker and Vanity Fair magazines and ABC News and the Huffington Post all have e-books out or imminent about topics ranging from Rupert Murdoch and 9-11 to ending the Pentagon's "Don't ask, don't tell" policy and the crisis in the Catholic Church.

E-books are a new platform for material that's shorter than many books, cheaper to price, and quick to produce -- often outgrowths of magazine features or newspaper series.

A Kindle, Nook or tablet is an efficient way to read such contents, according to Eric Simonoff, a literary agent.

“These devices are uniquely suited for mid-length content that runs too long for shrinking magazines and are too pamphletlike to credibly be called a book” he told the New York Times.

Strict eavesdropping law ruled unconstitutional in Illinois case

2011-10-16T13:28:00.003-06:00

Chicago colleague Bob Roberts of WBBM-AM 780 and the Illinois News Broadcasters Association shares this good news from the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press:

An Illinois judge ruled the state’s eavesdropping law unconstitutional
as applied to a man who faced up to to 75 years in prison for secretly
recording his encounters with police officers and a judge.

“A statute intended to prevent unwarranted intrusions into a citizen’s
privacy cannot be used as a shield for public officials who cannot
assert a comparable right of privacy in their public duties,” the judge
wrote in his decision dismissing the five counts of eavesdropping
charges against defendant Michael Allison.

“Such action impedes the free flow of information concerning public
officials and violates the First Amendment right to gather such
information,” he wrote.

The ruling is the most recent development raising questions about
Illinois’ strict eavesdropping statute, which makes it a felony to use
a device to audio record or overhear a conversation without the consent
of all parties involved, regardless of the circumstances of the
interaction.

Allison’s legal troubles began when he recorded his conversations with
local police officers who he claimed were harassing him. The officers
were seizing old cars he was fixing on his front lawn in violation of a
city ordinance, which then forced him to pay a fee to have them
returned.

When Allison was brought into court for violating the ordinance, he
requested a court reporter so that he could have a record of his trial.
The court declined his request and Allison announced that he would
record the trial himself.

When he showed up to the courtroom for his trial, the judge immediately
asked Allison if he had a recording device and if it was on. He
answered yes and the judge had him arrested on the spot for violating
her privacy.

When police confiscated Allison's digital device, they found the other
recordings. Allison was then charged with five felony counts of
eavesdropping, each of which can carry a maximum 15-year prison
sentence.

In Thursday’s ruling, Circuit Court Judge David Frankland said that
Allison had a First Amendment right to record the police officers and
court employees.

The judge also ruled that while it was reasonable to prohibit the
defendant from recording in the courtroom, making what Allison did a
felony offense was overreaching and irrational.

“The statute [as it is currently written] includes conduct that is
unrelated to the statute’s purpose and is not rationally related to the
evil the legislation sought to prohibit,” the judge wrote in his
opinion. “For example, a defendant recording his case in a courtroom
has nothing to do with an intrusion into a citizen’s privacy but with
distraction.”

Although some civil rights activists call the decision a small victory,
the Illinois eavesdropping law is still in effect.

Earlier this week, a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals in Chicago (7th
Cir.) heard another case challenging the Illinois eavesdropping law in
which the American Civil Liberties Union argued that the statute should
be changed to allow for the recording of public officials in public
places.

One of the judges on the panel hearing the case, however, was quoted by
the Chicago Sun-Times questioning the ACLU's arguments.

“If you permit the audio recordings, they’ll (sic) be a lot more
eavesdropping. … There’s going to be a lot of this snooping around by
reporters and bloggers,” Circuit Judge Richard Posner said. “Yes, it’s
a bad thing. There is such a thing as privacy.”

The appeals court is expected to issue a formal ruling on the case in
the upcoming months, according to the Sun-Times.

In another case last month, a jury acquitted a Chicago woman who used
her cell phone to secretly record a conversation with police
investigators about a sexual harassment complaint she was filing
against the department. The recording was especially controversial
because the investigators allegedly discouraged her from filing the
report, saying on the recording “I think it’s something we can handle
without having to go through this process…”

The right to film police in the performance of their public duties has
also been the subject of debate across the U.S. as arrests for such
activities have been on the rise.

In August, the U.S. Court of Appeals in Boston (1st Cir.) ruled that
this kind of filming is a “basic and well-established liberty
safeguarded by the First Amendment,” in a case involving a complaint
filed by a Boston man who filmed the scene of an October 2007 arrest on
his cell phone, only to be arrested himself and charged with a
violation of Massachusetts wiretapping laws. The most recent ruling in
Illinois cited this decision as a “persuasive authority” for ruling on
similar cases.

DeKalb prosecutor targets journalists for subpoenas

2011-09-30T16:19:00.004-06:00

Chicago Judge Robbin Stuckert expects to rule by November 8 a case that an attorney for press interests says would violate Illinois' Reporter's Privilege Act.

At issue is DeKalb County State's Attorney Clay Campbell's argument that journalists must turn over their notes from jailhouse interviews with suspects if subpoenaed.

Campbell conceded that journalists have "a competing interest" but he argued that State's Attorneys have an obligation to "prosecute cases as thoroughly as possible."

He did not explain why law enforcement or prosecutors have so little resources that independent information from reporters woould be needed to fully investigate criminal cases.

The Reporter's Privilege Act generally protects journalists from being required to divulge information they gather in the performance of their work.

American Public Media funded for 'citizen sources'

2011-09-30T16:12:00.003-06:00

It's less 'citizen journalism" than growing sources, but a $4.1 million grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting announced this week could greatly expand the voices, tips and reportinig on local and regional levels.

CPB "officials said the grant will add 100,000 more people to the network to share information with 50 more newsrooms," reported Brett Zongker of the Associated Press. "It will fund mobile apps to share content and tools to vet information from participants."

It's unclear where the funding will originate to pay the reporters and editors required to verify sources' information or to use news judgment in determining what's verifiable news and what's not. However, any help to improve local and regional journalism is welcome, of course.

Curiously, the money, to be spent over two years, if going to American Public Media and neither PBS nor NPR.

Nielsen contradicts Pew on online news use

2011-09-14T09:08:00.006-06:00

More than 13 times as many U.S. Internet surfers list pornography and other miscellaneous uses than news, according to a new Nielsen report on social media summarized by the Poynter Institute for Media Studies.

Further, Americans spend more than 22 percent of their web time on blogs and social networks.

Just 2.6 percent of the online audience noted "current events and global news."

This contradicts recent Pew research that shows that reading news online is becoming a regular American pastime. Internet news readership is increasing among consumers of all ages, Pew reports, and 75 percent of online Americans look for news on the web. Other figures suggest that up to 78 percent of Americans look for news online and 21 percent of social users are “News Junkies,” constantly looking for breaking information on the web.

Nielsen's report is being received with more than a little doubt.

"Skeptical readers may note that blogs could relate to news, and portals post news stories, so take that into account," writes Poynter's Steve Myers, who listed Nielsen's findings:

Activity % of Internet time spent on it
Other (including porn) 35.1%
Social networks & blogs 22.5
Online games 9.8
Email 7.6
Portals 4.5
Videos/movies 4.4
Search 4.0
Instant messaging 3.3
Software manufacturer 3.2
Classifieds/auctions 2.9
Current events & global news 2.6

Meanwhile, the New York Times this week noted the supposed drift away from mass-market news could be tied to a fragmentation of the Web.

David Carr writes, "Like newspapers, portals like AOL and Yahoo are confronting the cold fact that there is less general interest in general interest news. Readers have peeled off into verticals of information — TMZ for gossip, Politico for politics and Deadspin for sports, and so on."

SPJ's Quill offers good 'toolbox tips'

2011-09-14T07:43:00.002-06:00

Jamie DeLoma's "Digital Media" column in a recent issue of Quill magazine, published by the Society of Professional Journalists, offers eight solid suggestions.

"The web offers journalists countless free opportunities to enhance their reporting," says DeLoma, a Hearst copy editor and Quinnipiac Unievrsity jorunalism professor. "The biggest hurdle facing them is knowing where to find the most relevant and timely information. Google should be part of every journalist's e-toolkit."

He outlines and explains Google highlights Reader, Uncle Sam, Squared, Patents, News Archive Search, Trends, Flu Trends and Labs.

"Journalists should also build the most popular social media entities, including Facebook, Foursquare and Twitter, into their own custom wire services with news coming in about the subjects they are most interested in," he continued. "New, more dynamic sites are developing by the day, and it is critical to stay connected with the latest sites and applications in the news-gathering arena. Don't fear the developments, but embrace them."

Murdoch, news & democracy

2011-09-08T07:23:00.003-06:00

Apart from the eventual outcome of investigations on multiple continents about News Corporation's alleged criminal invasions of privacy, media kingpin Rupert Murdoch has changed journalism, politics and governance, according to columnist John Buell, author of Politics, Religion, and Culture in an Anxious Age and a teacher at Cochise College in southeastern Arizona.

"Murdoch feeds but also reflects a politics of demonization not unique to the United States but exceptionally potent here," Buell writes. "Thus to a greater extent than in most modern democracies, such questions as whether one inhaled marijuana or had a mistress pass for informed and important political debate."

That's a general observation. A specific variation exists, too, Buell says.

"Fox has been an amplification machine for the notion that the U.S. is broke and government, just like today's families, must retrench," Buell writes. "This analysis is only half right. Middle- and working-class families are broke, but the federal Government can borrow money at historically low rates. If it does not borrow -- or tax corporate and wealthy savings -- and spend, we may be sunk.

"The notion that the U.S. is broke is absurd," he added. "If we are broke now, we were much more broke in the years following WWII. Yet in those years the U.S. growth rate topped that of the Reagan era and the fruits of growth were much more equitably distributed.

"The corporate culture of News Corp/ reflected Murdoch's broader political ideals and affected its journalistic practices," Buell continued.

Associated Press blasts Kentucky athletics for denying student journalists access to players

2011-09-07T07:08:00.004-06:00

As the Western Courier recently published, the Associated Press Managing Editors (APME) and the Associated Press Sports Editors organizations both have blasted University of Kentucky athletics for revoking the student newspaper's access to players.

After Kentucky freshman forward Anthony Davis Tweeted a welcome to walk-ons Brian Long and Sam Malone, Aaron Smith, managing editor of the Kentucky Kernel student newspaper, sought confirmation of that news from the players themselves. So he looked up their phone numbers in the school directory and contacted them, said Kernel Editor-in-Chief Taylor Moak.

Then DaWayne Peevy, associate athletic director of Media Relations, contacted Smith to inform him that the newspaper was no longer invited to a special, one-on-one media interview with the players the next day because Smith had asked the players for interviews without first getting permission from Media Relations.

APME president Hollis Towns wrote Kentucky Director of Athletics Mitch Barnhart that the action “amounts to no less than an attempt to bully the newspaper into submission and to censor news concerning operations of the University of Kentucky athletic department.”

Meanwhile, Student Press Law Center attorney Adam Goldstein said the university's actions boil down to one.

“People seem to be struggling with the nuances of athletic regulations, but the simple question at the core is: Can the government punish someone for asking a question?” Goldstein said. “Any answer that defends Media Relations for what they did here requires you to answer in the affirmative. The idea that punishing people for asking questions should ever be OK is irreconcilable with any First Amendment precedent in history.”

Gov't not liable for TV station excluding Green Party from debates, court rules

2011-09-02T13:59:00.004-06:00

Just because a broadcaster is licensed by the federal government -- and even when a significant amount of its funding comes from government -- doesn't mean the government is responsible for what shows -- or doesn't show, according to U.S. District Judge Robert Gettleman in Chicago.

On August 18, Gettleman dismissed a lawsuit brought by the Green Party in 2010 against WTTW-TV (Window to the World Communications, Inc.) for excluding Green gubernatorial candidate Rich Whitney (shown above during a campaign stop in Macomb) and U.S. Senate candidate LeAlan Jones from debates the PBS affiliate telecast.

The Green Party sued on the grounds that its First, Fifth and 14th Amendment rights were violated.

The Green Party has been recognized by the state of Illinois as an established political party since Whitney in 2006 received more than 11 percent of the votes for governor.

In a five-page opinion, Gettleman dismissed the case on the grounds that the defendant is neither owned by the government nor was it acting as an arm of the government. WTTW is a non-profit corporation.

A footnote in the decision says that the court would be disinclined to force Whitney or the Greens to pay attorneys’ fees to the defendants.

Meanwhile, it seems that earnest journalists must now shoulder a heavier burden in justifying to the public any editorial decisions to ignore or exclude "recognized," legitimate or long-shot candidates for political office, whether Whitney, Republican Ron Paul or Democrat Dennis Kucinich.

Readers, communities lose big when media execs shutter newsrooms

2011-08-29T08:35:00.004-06:00

Northern California has a "news emergency," according to digital news observer and author Ken Doctor (Newsonomics) and radio listeners phoning in about the Bay Area News Group combining 10 of its 15 titles into two new ones: the Times and the East Bay Tribune.

The 137-year-old Oakland Tribune was one of the papers closed.

The business decision may result in gains in savings, but it'll also mean reader loss, Doctor says.

"It's a community loss and points to the wider impact of news cuts on the society in which we live," he writes, recalling a caller bemoaning fewer reporters.

"'The news is our last great hope for justice'," Doctor quotes a woman who advocates for the elderly and hasn't been able to get help from local government. "'We've been working with a reporter... and to see the newspapers get cut back is really hard'."

The corporate decision-makers are being short-sighted, Doctor says.

"Newspapers are all about community identity; they have both reflected it and provided rallying symbols for it," he says. "How many corruptions, large and small, [will be] unfound? We don't know what we don't know.

"How much of the reporting that does see the light of day will be 'local'?" he continues. "What's local to one reader [of the new regional papers] won't really be local to another."

Nevertheless, it's up to the reporters, photographers and editors to persevere --- and hopefully prosper individually in their careers.

"It's important for all the journalists to do what jouralists need to do: Forget the uncertain usiness around them and report the news as best they can," Doctor says.

Two sentenced for killing journalist

2011-08-27T10:46:00.004-06:00

Two Bay Area men were found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment in connection with the murder of newspaperman Chauncey Bailey -- the first U.S. journalist killed in the United States for reporting a story in 19 years.

Bailey was shot to death in broad daylight on a busy street on Aug. 2, 2007, while walking to his newspaper, the Oakland Post. He'd been investigating the group called Your Black Muslim Bakery.

Convicted of shooting the reporter with a shotgun was Yusef Bey IV; convicted of murder for his part as Bey's getaway driver was Antoine Mackey.

"This sends a signal to those who would violently attack the press in the United States that they will not get away with it," said Frank Smyth, Journalist Security Coordinator fofr the Committee to protect Journalists (CPJ).

CPJ's web site is http://www.cpj.org/

Advice for J students from OJR

2011-08-24T08:02:00.003-06:00

Incoming journalism students should take a science lab course, learn about business and network, according to writer Robert Niles (at right), whose tips appear in Online Journalism Review.

The laboratory science course can implicitly teach the scientific method, which can help aspiring journalists appreciate the goal of being "objective" -- or at least complete, fair and accurate.

Involvement in a business or even a student organization can expose students to the nitty-gritty of dollars and (financial) sense.

And networking extends from access to opportunities to developing sources.

"Without sources, you are a novelist," Niles writes. "(Not that there's anything wrong with that.) Use your non-journalism classes to build your personal network. Publish on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google Plus. Blog. Video blog. Make meeting and conversing with people your addiction. Fail to network responsibly, and all the smarts in the world won't help you succeed."

Print better than online for retention: study

2011-08-24T07:51:00.002-06:00

People who read newspapers "remember significantly more news stories than online news readers"; print readers "remembered significantly more topics than online newsreaders"; and print readers remembered "more main points of news stories," according to study presented at the annual meeting of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication. The paper, "Medium Matters: Newsreaders' Recall and Engagement With Online and Print Newspapers," by Arthur D. Santana, Randall Livingstone, and Yoon Cho of the University of Oregon.

Reporting on Slate.com, "Press box" columnist Jack Shafer recounted his own unsuccessful attempt to go "print-free."

"What I really found myself missing was the news," Shafer writes. "Even though I spent ample time clicking through the Times website and the Reader, I quickly determined that I wasn't recalling as much of the newspaper as I should be."

"Online newspapers tend to give few cues about a story's importance," he continued, "and the 'agenda-setting function' of newspapers gets lost in the process. 'Online readers are apt to acquire less information about national, international and political events than print newsreaders because of the lack of salience cues; they generally are not being told what to read via story placement and prominence—an enduring feature of the print product,' the [AEJMC] researchers write. The paper finds no evidence that the 'dynamic online story forms' (you know, multimedia stuff) have made stories more memorable."

Whistleblower case plea deal not reassuring

2011-08-20T14:21:00.006-06:00

This summer, federal prosecutors agreed to a deal with a whistleblower that avoided a trial (and public disclosure of information the government prefers to keep secret), but civil libertarians and journalists haven't been reassured that the Obama administration's zeal to vigorously stop leaks won't continue-- and have dire effects on transparency and on basic reporting.

Ex-National Security Agency official Thomas Drake (pictured above in a shot from the Government Accountability Project) was charged with violating the Espionage Act by giving classified information to a Baltimore Sun reporter, but he pleaded guilty to a lesser misdemeanor. Drake's defense was that he was a whistleblower exposing waste in an NSA program after his superiors ignored his concerns.

Journalists are very sensitive to the case -- and the federal government's targeting whistleblowers -- because journalists by the nature of newsgathering could be interpreted as co-conspirators.

"Because reporters often retain unauthorized defense documents, Drake's conviction would estbalish a legal precedent making it possible to prosecute journalists," wrote Jane Mayer in The New Yorker magazine.

Lucy Dalglish, executive director of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, predicted the administration will continue to pursue whistleblowers at intelligence agencies “very, very aggressively.”

For more coverage and context, check out Mayer's piece (http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/05/23/110523fa_fact_mayer), Scott Horton's piece in Harper's (http://harpers.org/archive/2011/06/hbc-90008114), and Pete Yost's Associated Press story from Army Times (http://www.armytimes.com/news/2011/06/ap-nsa-case-unlikely-to-deter-crackdown-on-leakers-061111/).

GJR criticizes investigative reporting

2011-08-19T12:13:00.003-06:00

Former Chicago Tribune reporter and editorial board member in the new Gateway Journalism Review blasts investigative journalists and their editors for concentrating too much on public-affairs reporting and not enough on the private sector.

McCarron appropriately points out that, too often, it's easier to investigate public bodies that, at least on paper, must adhere to Freedom of Information Act rules and similar public-access measures.

However, by charging that focusing on goverenment malfeasance contributes to a public disdain for government, he overlooks the obvious: the facts.

The truth is, some local, state and government officials do act with disregard for the public they purportedly serve. The chips sometimes fall where they may.

It's also true, nevertheless, that reporters must also do the extra shoe-leather work and sourcing needed to cover local businesses, corporations and interests that are far less transparent than government is at least supposed to be. Otherwise, such prominent forces in the community are not fully covered.

UK's Cameron threatens to block social media

2011-08-16T13:06:00.004-06:00

Bloomberg reports that Prime Minister David Cameron of the United Kingdom is considering blocking social media, which he blames for facilitating some of the unrest that's hit England in recent weeks.

Cameron apparently learned little from similar attempts in Egypt and other "Arab Spring" sites that ignored reasons for unrest, and is focusing on tools some ruffians may be using as opposed to the property damage, thefts and other crimes that have happened.

“If you try to stop people communicating, you create more of a problem,” said Jim Killock, director of the Open Rights Group, an organization promoting freedom of expression on the Internet.

Speaking to Bloomberg reporters Amy Thomson and Robert Hutton, Killock added, “People are angry because their freedoms are threatened.”

Illustration from ABNA.co

ABC-TV 'bans' checkbook journalism

2011-08-16T12:47:00.003-06:00

ABC News has dropped the network's practice of paying subjects of news stories for exclusive interviews, media critic Howard Kurtz recently reported.

It's also addressed in the current issue of Quill magazine, published by the Society of Professional Journalists. There, columnist Mike Farrell reminds readers of ABC News having paid more than $10,000 to buy pictures tied to disgraced Congressman Anthony Wiener's "smartphone stupidity" and $200,000 to exonerated murder defendant Casey Anthony for family photos and videos.

ABC also paid $10,000 to a woman who said she'd injected Botox into her 8-year-old daughter.

Farrell reports perspectives from insiders and experts, too.

"What happens to journalism when sources agree to interviews only when they are paid?" he asks. "Media ethicist John Michael Kittross has argued that 'treating news as a commodity eventually will destroy journalism as a public benefit'.”

ABC spokesman Jeffrey Schneider, meanwhile, told Kurtz that ABC News isn't too worried about stopping the pay-off practice.

"We can book just about anyone based on the strength of our journalism, the excellence of our anchors, correspondent and producers, and the size of our audience," Schneider said.

Elsewhere, SPJ president Hagit Limor said, “When you pay for a story, you’re making a contract with the person who supplies it, and that means you’re no longer acting independently."

New ethics for local journalism?

2011-08-15T15:27:00.005-06:00

The new "Rules of the Road: Navigating the New Ethics of Local Journalism" from J-Lab is somehow reminiscent of the supposed exchange when non-violent anti-imperialist Mahatma Gandhi was asked what he thought of Western Civilization.

"It would be a good idea," he said.

However, J-Lab's Jan Schaffer and others apparently think hyperlocal, online news sites are developing faster than common sense, so something is needed.

"These 'Rules of the Road' are very much a work in progress," Schaffer writes, "shaped by a news landscape in which:
*The threshold for news is lower. Misdemeanors, not just felonies, constitute news,
*Stories unravel in real time. Editors post updates as they come in rather than wait for a fully baked story,
*'Google juice' makes micro news have a macro afterlife,
*Ethical decisions are as open to community feedback as the stories themselves, and
*Attachment to the community is valued more than dispassionate detachment."

Still, one wonders whether new sources for journalism would do well to abide by the tried-and-true code of ethics the Society of Professional Journalists has, broadly summarizing four main points:
*Seek truth and report it fully,
*Act independently
*Minimize harm, and
*Be accountable.

For details or a free copy of the 52-page booklet, go to http://www.j-lab.org/tools/learning/ethics and click on "Get the pdf."

Obama's EPA uses 'minders' to clamp down on openness

2011-08-15T15:21:00.003-06:00

For all the President's talk about transparency and openness, his Environmental Protection Agency is planning to institute a policy that employees must get permission to talk to journalists, according to a short but detailed report from the Society for Environmental Journalists (SEJ).

SEJ and other press groups have opposed such restrictions, but the policy could go in to effect unless people object before the Sept. 6 deadline for public comment.

The "Scientific Integrity Policy" also mandates that bureaucraic "minders" from EPA's press office must sit in on all media interviews with scientists.

"We object to parts of the EPA draft policy that restrict news media access to EPA scientists," SEJ President Carolyn Whetzel said. "In some cases, the proposed policy is much more restrictive than the NASA or NOAA policies, or even the White House guidelines."

Debt-ceiling crisis coverage lousy

2011-08-14T14:51:00.005-06:00

By resorting to a picture of the recent debt-ceiling fight as two political sides equally sharing the blame of refusing to be reasonable, the news media successfully gave an impression of being an impartial observer of reality. However, since that wasn't what happened, mainstream journalism mosstly failed to tell the story in a complete, fair and accurate way.

That's according to an insightful posting by The Nation magazine contributor Ari Melber, whose reporting includes blasting a typical take on the wrangling about approving an increase in what the federal government may borrow to pay bills it already incurred.

"Take this headline, running at the top of CNN [which Fox News calls "liberal"] a day after President Obama’s national address," Melber writes:

" 'They’re all talking, but no one is compromising, at least publicly. Democratic and GOP leaders appear unwilling to bend on proposals to raise the debt ceiling.'

"Journalist Josh Marshall confronted that bizarro narrative with evidence of what’s actually happening. 'By any reasonable measure, this [CNN headline] is simply false, even painfully so'," Marshall said.

"Whether you think it’s good or bad, we have just seen one party’s leadership embrace the platform of the opposing party," Melber adds, "only to watch that party apparently back off its own original position. That’s news!"

Marshall continues, "It is not partisan or spin to say that the Democrats have repeatedly offered compromises. The real driver of the debate is that the fact that Republican majority in the House can’t agree to win."

"Editors or management will not accept a political story about one side being completely wrong," Melber wrote, "Or irrational. Or irresponsible. Because that 'can’t be the whole story!'

"And if you believe that, then your only response to the endgame of the debt crisis is total denial," he concluded. "That may be human, but it ain’t journalism."

Murdoch's goon squad

2011-08-14T14:40:00.003-06:00

Rolling Stone's Tim Dickinson has a good roundup of many of the allegations against media baron Rupert Murdoch in the August 18 issue of the magazine, and it may be somewhat surprising to learn of shenanigans beyond the ballyhooed phone-hacking flap in the United Kingdom.

The allegations range from weird payoffs and "settlements" to embarrassing coziness with politicians and what sure seems like paranoia and other issues by Fox News' Roger Ailes.

(Oddly, the periodical's web site retitled the feature to "Rupert Murdoch's American Scandals.")

Illustration from newscorpse.com

Draft of personal column: 'Mom'

2011-08-12T13:19:00.003-06:00

Below is a draft of a column I'm sending out next week to the six newspapers and one news site that get my twice-weekly column, FYI.

By Bill Knight

Fireflies floated free from a field of corn moments after Mom died around dusk on a Sunday a month ago.

When someone close passes on or is in danger, swelling up in us all is fear, impotence or anger. So people reach out and reach in.

Prayer might connect the impulses to look outward and inward, although skeptics scoff, dismissing prayer as talking to yourself. Arguing, even.

But when my mother had become unexpectedly ill, I reached out, looking for a “life line” maybe, through emails, Facebook and conversations with friends. I also felt guilty somehow, remembering a line in my morning prayer: “Encourage my weak faith.”

As people grieve, there’s contact with others, plus flowers and cards, kind comments and heartfelt hugs from close friends and total strangers. Family flew in from the West; pals drove hours to be at the funeral. I heard from my book club, softball team, work, church. Also, some guy in Warren County mailed a memorial donation, and a woman in Fulton County sent a nice note. Neighbors and folks I hadn’t seen in decades – including girlfriends from the ’60s, ’70s and ’80s – expressed sympathy.

For journalists, writing obituaries for friends or family is a particularly profound blessing and burden. None fully captures a life.

Born in 1930, in Keokuk, Iowa, Mom spent much of her childhood in Kentucky before returning to Keokuk, where she attended high school. She married Dad in 1949. She leaves him behind, along with my brother and me, our wives and a grandson.

A petite woman – she described herself as “five-foot-nothin’ ” – she was a homemaker and occasional employee at a friend’s small business, active in her church and a volunteer with groups ranging from Scouts to her local hospital in Carthage. She took pleasure in family, gardening, dancing and playing bridge.

There’s more beyond such basics. Reaching in, random memories are ignited.

She enjoyed cooking and creepy novels, and loved animals, from trying to save downed birds and baby bunnies in the backyard, to many beloved cats and dogs.

Humble and stubborn, easy-going but organized, Mom was an amateur archivist of sorts, keeping scrapbooks and genealogical background librarians would envy. She had simple tastes – buttermilk, horehound hard candy, Elvis, Betty Boop – but also was unexpectedly adventurous, like driving 800 miles by herself to visit relatives, or flying in a barnstorming bi-plane that offered rides during a rural stop.

She’d told me how, as a teen-age mom, she’d been fearful and frustrated, which probably explained her being judgmental without condemning others.

“Oh, well,” she’d say. “Live and let live.”

She wasn’t political but paid attention. An Eisenhower Republican, she was drawn to Reagan’s personality, but was put off by the more patrician Bushes. She came to like Bill Clinton and was happy to vote for Barack Obama. She wasn’t exactly athletic but played golf in a determined style, shooting short but straight at the pin while around her long drives were in the woods, and becoming a good putter, tapping the ball and, as it approached the cup, exclaiming, “One time!” It often was.

Smaller memories endure. Mom taught me how to skip as we walked to the hospital, where my baby brother was getting out after being treated for croup; she typed one of the first papers I wrote, in 7th grade; she finished a model rocket for me after I’d given up, in tears, and went to bed when I was about 9.

However, we also argued frequently for 20 years, until the ’70s. Mom scolded me as always opposed to things – an “aginner!” she called me – but she wasn’t my harshest critic. In fact, she could be a heckuva cheerleader. She gave me warm support when I did OK; for decades every word I wrote was done feeling Mom and Dad peering over my shoulders.

Mom was deceptively, sometimes inadvertently, funny. After one road trip with dogs staying rowdy despite sedatives from the vet, she announced, “Next time, I’LL take the tranquilizers.”
Another time, no doubt frustrated with two teens’ appetites, she questioned cooking at all, quipping, “Why bother! You’ll just EAT IT!”

She had a catch phrase – “Yeah, RIGHT!” – as in one conversation, in which I said, “Considering I was 7 when my appendix burst and you had to drain my gut, you’ve had to deal with my crap for 50 years.”

“Yeah, RIGHT!” she smiled.

It’d be an unhappy, hollow place if souls of such goodness and grit in some way didn’t live on.
But frankly, I felt somewhat abandoned until I stumbled on a line from Scripture, where God tells Isaiah, “As a mother comforts her child, so will I comfort you.”

Now and then, here and there, things still seem empty. Then I answer myself: “But the sky seems full.”

TriStatesRadio has 'Shoptalk' weekly

2011-07-30T09:38:00.010-06:00

In less than 10 minutes each Tuesday, TriStatesRadio (WIUM-FM 91.3 and WIUW-FM 89.5) airs “Shoptalk,” an informal, roundtable discussion of media issues hosted by the station's News Director, Rich Egger (pictured above, left) and featuring print journalist Bill Knight and broadcaster Mike Murray.

This summer, topics have included a possible change to Illinois' Open Records law criticized by advocates of open government; the role media played in the days after a devastating tornado tore through Joplin, Mo.; how the news media view education; an FCC report suggesting news outlets could make money from on-line ad tracking; the use of aggregation by web sites such as the Huffington Post; and the phone hacking scandal involving the Rupert Murdoch-owned media.

Also, TriStatesRadio’s Southeast Iowa correspondent Jason Parrott (above, right)hosted two July episodes featuring Keokuk reporters Megan Spees and Cindy Iutzi from the Daily Gates City newspaper, in which the trio discussed an FCC report noting a shortage of in-depth, local journalism and also how the media handled the Casey Anthony trial and the accusations of sexual assault against Dominique Strauss-Kahn, who resigned as head of the International Monetary Fund.

The station archives podcasts of past shows at http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/wium/news.newsmain?action=section&SECTION_ID=1366

Speaking out against Eavesdropping Act

2011-06-10T10:06:00.003-06:00

Bob Roberts in the Illinois News Broadcasters Association newsletter TuneIN writes about the state legislature's Eavesdropping Act:

In newsrooms across Illinois, there's a daily mantra.

"Before we go any further, I'd like to make sure I have permission to record this conversation."

It's something I've said anytime I begin to tape the interview since I can remember. Most of the time I double-check by telling my interview subject, "Thank you again for agreeing to be recorded."

That's because Illinois law is clear: No conversation can legally be recorded unless all parties to it agree.

For those who are Illinois "lifers," it may come as a surprise that the law in other states is not uniform. In fact, a number of states don't require you, the journalist, to tell anyone you're recording.

The Illinois law is being challenged in the 7th U.S. Court of Appeals in Chicago, and RTDNA, SPJ, NPPA, the American Society of News Editors, the Citizen Media Law Project, Reports Committee for Freedom of the Press (RCFP) and the Association of Capitol Reporters and Editors have all filed friend-of-the-court briefs in the suit ACLU v. Anita Alvarez challenging the Illinois Eavesdropping Act, which RCFP Executive Director Lucy Dalglish calls "shockingly broad."

RCFP says that the brief, filed April 22, asserts that the "disposition of this case is critically important in setting a precedent that will either protect or endanger newsgatherers' constitutional rights."

Dalglish said Illinois is not the only state with a law she considers "overly broad," but said in some states similar statues have led to citizens being arrested while shooting video or still photographs of public events in public places.

"This is the most outrageous statue we've found," she said. "These unconstitutional arrests tend to have one thing in problem: they occur after someone in power, often a law enforcement official, decides he or she does not like the speech or conduct captured on the recording. The notion that you can be arrested for documenting that behavior should send chills down the spines of anyone who cares about the Constitution."

Unfortunately, INBA lacks the resources to join such a fight on a continuing basis. But I wish those who are pressing the case good luck.

Quincy native pens book on lying

2011-05-30T15:23:00.003-06:00

Veteran author and journalist James B. Stewart's new book, "Tangled Webs: How False Statements Are Undermining America," uses more familiar case studies to demonstrate the extent of dishonesty in high-profile circles.

Barry Bonds, Scooter Libby, Bernie Madoff and Martha Stewart are examined in extraordinary detail.

David Kamp in Business Week magazine describes the work as "tweezer journalism at its finest," storytelling that takes readers inside the moment these well-known liars "made the fateful choice to lie."

Stewart is uncharacteristically critical of President Bush's not firing Karl Rove or Richard Armitage in the episode wherein Scooter Libby illegally revealed CIA employee Valerie Plame's identity. Bush's failure to hold those two accountable was "rank hypocrisy," Stewart writes.

He won the 1988 Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Journalism for his Wall Street Journal articles about the dramatic 1987 upheaval in the stock market and insider trading. A contributor to The New Yorker and an editor at Smart Money, Stewart's other books include "Den of Thieves," "DisneyWar" and "Blood Sport: The President and His Adversaries."

News media using many platforms

2011-05-30T15:19:00.002-06:00

Jennifer Greer and Yan Yan in a recent edition of "Grassroots Editor" report that the Internet ranked as the third most popular news platform -- behind local and national television outlets. Local print newspapers ranked as the fifth most popular news sources, with 50% of respondents to a national survey saying they get news this way (Pew Internet, 2010). The trend of news consumption shifting online is not new. Readers have been logging on to news websites, including those produced by traditional news organizations, since the 1990s. But the Pew Internet & American Life Project survey also showed that news consumption has increased.

Further, citing a classic 1993 magazine column by newspaper consultant John Morton, the scholars added that "the fundamental strength of newspapers [is] the ability to 'provide intense local coverage of events and subjects of intense concern to local consumers'.”

News finds mediated students

2011-05-30T15:11:00.003-06:00

A new global study by the International Center for Media & the Public Agenda (ICMPA) at the University of Maryland shows that students no longer search for news.

The news finds them.

Students "inhale," almost unconsciously, news served up on the sidebar of their email account, on friends' Facebook walls, on Twitter and via chat.

"We are used to having information about everything on the planet and this information we have to have in an unbelievable time. Our generation doesn't need certified and acknowledged information. More important is quantity, not quality of news," said one student from Slovakia.

"Students now get their news in chunks of 140 characters or from Facebook posts," said Ph.D. student Jessica Roberts, a former reporter at the Cape Times in South Africa, and a member of ICMPA's research team.

"Students want and get their news as it is breaking, with few filters," she added.

Most students in the study didn't discriminate between news that the New York Times, the BBC or Al Jazeera might cover, and news that might only appear in a friend's Facebook status update.

"Students are interested in news," Roberts said. "It's just that students today are more inclusive about what they consider news than older adults are. 'News' to students means 'anything that just happened' - and students want to know it all immediately, whether it is a globally momentous story or only one of personal interest."

State celebs add voices, faces to press campaign

2011-05-30T15:04:00.006-06:00

The Illinois Press Association (IPA) lined up several prominent Illinoisans for its "Leader are newspaper readers" campaign.

Besides actor Dennis Franz (see previous post), participating are retired astronaut Scott Altman of Pekin, Secretary of Ttransportation Ray LaHood of Peoria, and Illinois basketball coach Bruce Weber of Champaign/Urbana, plus SIU presidenet Glenn Poshaard, Chicago Blackhawks president John McDonough and Assistant Secretary of Veterans Affairs Tammy Duckworth (pictured at left).

"There are two things that all of these Illinoisans have in common," said IPA executive director Dennis DeRossett. "They are all leaders, and they are all newspaper readers. That's not an accident. Leaders depend on the reliable, comprehensive and diverse information that newspapers provide."

Print ads are downloadable from IPA -- www.illinoispress.org

Who needs newspapers?

2011-04-18T08:19:00.004-06:00

Paul Steinle and his wife Dr. Sara Brown set off on a journey to visit newspapers throughout the country to answer the question: Who needs newspapers? They have visited newspapers in nearly 40 states and have chronicled their findings on the website WhoNeedsNewspapers.org. Read their stories starting with Illinois' Northwest Herald in Crystal Lake -- http://whoneedsnewspapers.org/np_main.php?npId=ilnwh

News on the radio can thrive

2011-04-04T10:06:00.005-06:00

Mark Twain said it about his own death: "The report is greatly exaggerated."

Those who say "radio is dead" are equally full of hype, according to a new article in The Communicator from the Radio Television Digital News Association (RTDNA).

Plus, the examples of success are in Illinois, at Bloomington's WJBC-AM and -FM (pictured above), and at Champaign's WDWS-AM and WHMS/WUIL-FM.

There, the stations successfully attract sizable audiences with not only news, but solid and enterprising journalism and community-minded, public-service reporting.

Kevin Finch's feature, "Radio news on more than just a shoestring," is a well-written account of real-life radio work that contradicts the "conventional wisdom' that's a lot more conventional than wise.

Print pay walls increasing, responses to NYT vary

2011-04-04T09:58:00.003-06:00

GateHouse Media's Peoria Journal Star and State Journal Register in Springfield have erected "paywalls" limiting free access to online contents, following several newspaper experiments -- most recently the New York Times.

A week ago, marketing experts from Washington University in St. Louis offered different reactions to the Times' attempt, with one forecasting a decline in audience and another pronouncing it a good business model.

Read the whole summary here --http://news.wustl.edu/news/Pages/22076.aspx

Columnist puts news, posts into context

2011-02-27T17:04:00.004-06:00

Syndicated columnist Leonard Pitts (above), who writes for the Miami Herald, last week had a terrific column about the venomous attacks hurled at CBS News reporter Lara Logan following the journalist's beating and sexual assault at the hands of a mob in Cairo's Liberation Square this month.

Besides standing up to the anonymous comment posters whose mean remarks mocked and dismissed the incident, Pitts defended her -- and all victims of such violence.

"The woman is a reporter and she was doing what reporters do: going places, sometimes dicey, difficult or dangerous places, in order to originate the information that allows the rest of us to opine from the comfort of our chairs," Pitts wrote. "We are talking about a real attack on a real woman who must now grapple with real consequences.

"It's as if some feel Logan's tragedy exists only as a vehicle for them to score political points."

Reading the whole essay: http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/02/22/2080093/i-am-with-you.html

Understanding the participatory news consumer

2011-02-18T11:29:00.002-06:00

According to a new survey by the Pew Research Center’s Internet and American Life Project and the Project for Excellence in Journalism, almost two-thirds of Americans get daily news from a combination of print and web, and almosts half used multiple media platforms daily.

The Internet is generally a more popular source of news than print and radio, making it the third most popular news platform overall, behind only national and local television news.

The survey, "Understanding the Participatory News Consumer: How Internet and Cell Phone Users Have Turned News into a Social Experience," was based on responses from more than 2,000 American adults. Its findings include:

•Nearly 60% of Americans get daily news from both Internet and print sources.
•46% obtained news from four to six media platforms per day, while only 7% get news from a single platform.
•33% of cell phone owners access news on their portable phones.
•28% of Internet users have a homepage personalized with news sources, and 37% have participated in news creation, commentary and dissemination.
While the Internet is an increasingly popular news source, the survey found that Americans have mixed feelings about it. While more than half say it is easier to keep up with news and information today than it was five years ago, 70% feel overwhelmed by the amount of news and information available. In addition, nearly 75% of respondents have concerns that many news sources are biased in their coverage.

Young journalists' conversation yields 'benchmarks'

2011-02-18T11:25:00.002-06:00

The national J-Lab convened a weekend meeting of a group of youong journalists, who came up with examples of stories that were inspiring or otherewise effective.

In the discussion, those gathered came up with a list of 10 ways "content providers" can produce good work. They are:

We can produce good journalism if we:

1) Challenge knee-jerk master narratives

2) Reach for new kinds of accountability

3) Add historical context

4) Impart a sense of community, sense of place

5) Seek authenticity

6) Have impact

7) Make the invisible visible

8) Strive for attachment vs. detachment

9) Do less harm

10) Anticipate the future

Editorial cartoon right on time

2011-02-07T10:21:00.003-06:00

Cartoonist John Cole of the Scranton Times-Tribune created this excellent graphic commentary on thugs' treatment of journalists trying to cover events in Egypt.

Health care reform OK but information insufficient: business scholar

2011-01-30T14:59:00.003-06:00

Health care reform will be good for Americans, according to Dr. Joel Rudin, a professor in the Management and Entrepreneurship Department at Rowan University in Glassboro, N.J.

However, what has not been good is how government officials have explained the policy, and that is impacting what U.S. citizens think of it.

Further, the news media are complicit in the sense that the press has not done its own due-diligence in independently explaining what the actual law will really do.

“Under health care reform, most Americans will have health insurance that is similar to my (New Jersey state) health insurance, but that won’t happen until 2014," Rudin said. "By then, the people who came up with this idea may have been voted out of office. If that happens it will be their own fault for failing to explain to the American people how much better and cheaper their health insurance will be.”

Sharing the blame in Americans' lack of knowledge about health care reform is the press, which can accurately and clearly explain the law -- but hasn't.

Struggling against Powers That Be

2011-01-30T14:46:00.005-06:00

Duxbury (Mass.) Clipper editor-in-chief Justin Graeber wrote the following editorial for his weekly on Dec. 29, pertaining to an unusual-yet-not-unheard-of case of a small-newspaper journalist (Jessica L. Lloyd-Rogers, right) being squeezed out of doing the work:

At the Clipper we belong to a couple of professional newspaper societies, such as the New England Newspaper and Press Association, the group that gives out the Better Newspaper Awards each year.

We also belong to the International Society of Weekly Newspaper Editors, and this group often sends out “hotline” questions via e-mail. It's always informative and interesting to see how other weekly editors around the country and around the world are tackling some of the same questions we are. For example, there was recently a free-wheeling and wide-ranging debate about charging for obits. (Just in case you were wondering, not going to happen at the Clipper while I'm alive.) But a couple months ago we got a very serious series of e-mails from an editor in Oregon. She was dealing with some serious pushback from officials as she tried to shine the light on a government that was used to doing their business in the dark.

The editor, Jessica L. Lloyd-Rogers of the Coast Lake News in Lakeside, Oregon, was an experienced freelancer who started the paper with her husband. It's got a very local focus on a town with a population under 1,500. Problem was, the city council didn't appreciate that tight focus.

Lest you think I'm exaggerating the level of the corruption in Lakeside or the threats Lloyd-Rogers and her husband faced, here are just some examples, outlined in the latest ISWNE newsletter.

• The chairman of the fire board is the live-in girlfriend of the fire chief.

• Two of the board members on the Water District Board are spouses of city council members.

• The city administrator doesn't meet even the minimum of the written job description, and gave herself a raise by pencilling it in after the 2008-09 budget was passed.

That's not even everything. They've also faced threats, including being libeled repeatedly by a blog backed by city officials unhappy with the paper. (Lloyd-Rogers said stories about a porn star with a similar name are being spread as if it's her.) They even got evicted from their office.

“I sometimes feel like an unarmed marshal sent into an Old West town run by bandits,” she wrote in the ISWNE newsletter.

The point here is that the over-the-top political incest described by Lloyd-Rogers isn't unique or even all that surprising. It's what happens in a community that is not aggressively covered by a local newspaper (there is apparently a daily that covers Lakeside, but they must be facing budget cuts or something.) This is what happens when no one's looking. People double dip. They cut favors for buddies or family members. They give themselves raises when they think no one's looking. That's why someone has to be looking. Think any other things Lloyd-Rogers described could happen in Duxbury? Not with the Clipper and other good local media on the case.

For Lloyd-Rogers' complaints in her own words, check out her story on page 1 of ISWNE's December newsletter -- http://www.iswne.org/newspdfs/dec10.pdf

Ted Koppel on the Sorry State of TV News

2011-01-12T16:45:00.000-06:00

Check out this revealing look at the current state of television news by veteran newscaster Ted Koppel: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/12/AR2010111202857.html.

We, too, are bidden

2010-12-25T11:45:00.003-06:00

A personal hero, newspaper columnist and labor activist Heywood Broun, was known for his progressive views and his passionate interests – from sports and books to poker and Christmas.

Seventy-two years ago this week, the liberal commentator wrote this piece for the old New York World-Telegram.

The angel of the Lord said to the shepherds, “And this shall be a sign unto you: You shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.”

They made haste to go to Bethlehem to see the thing which had come to pass. “For unto you,” the angel said, “is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord.”

But as they journeyed to Bethlehem they fell into a discussion as to just how they should find the place where the infant lay. The shepherds were not folk familiar with the town, even though it lay a short journey from the fields in which they tended their flocks. Besides, they knew that many from the country roundabout had gone to Bethlehem in compliance with the decree of Caesar Augustus that all the world should be taxed. Indeed, one of the group grumbled, “In Bethlehem there be many mangers, and how are we to find the one?”

And the youngest shepherd said, “It will be made known to us.”

The night was bright with stars and the way more easy than they had expected. In spite of the late hour many walked in the narrow streets of Bethlehem, and from all the houses there came a clatter. The shepherds stood for a moment in some perplexity as to the appointed place. The noises of the town were confusing to men who had been standing silent under starlight.

And suddenly, the volume of voices increased, and down the street there came a caravan of camels. Upon the backs of the beasts sat great bearded men, and with them they brought sacks of precious stuffs and huge treasure chests from distant kingdoms. The air was filled with the pungent tang of spice and perfume.

The startled shepherds stood against the wall to let the cavalcade of the mighty pass by. And these wise men and kings seemed to have no doubt as to their destination. They swept past the inn and dismounted at the door of a stable. Servants took the burdens from the backs of the camels, and the kings and the wise men stooped and went in through the low door of the stable.

“It is there the child lies in the manger,” said one of the shepherds and made as if to follow, but his fellows were abashed and said among themselves, “It is not right that we should crowd in upon the heels of the mighty.”

The youngest shepherd spoke up, insisting, “We, too, are bidden. For us, as well, there was the voice of the angel of the Lord.”

And timidly, the men from the fields followed after and found places near the door. They watched as the men from distant countries came and silently placed their gifts at the foot of the manger where the child lay sleeping. And the shepherds stood aside and let the great of the Earth go out into the night to take up again their long journey.

Presently they were alone, but as they had no gifts to lay beside the gold and frankincense, they turned to go back to their flocks. But Mary, the mother, made a sign to the youngest shepherd to come closer. And he said, “We are shepherds, and we have come from the fields whence an angel summoned us. There is naught which we could add to the gifts of wise men and of kings.”

Mary replied, “Before the throne of God, who is a king and who is wise, you have brought with you a gift more precious than all the others. It lies within your heart.”

And suddenly it was made known to the shepherd the meaning of the words of Mary. He knelt at the foot of the manger and gave to the child his prayer of devotion and of joy.

News media manipulated on ACORN: study

2010-12-04T15:03:00.006-06:00

If you think you know what happened to ACORN, the network of community organizations attacked by politicians and video bloggers over the last few years, check out Michael Schudson and Julia Sonnevend's article “In ACORN’s Shadow” in the new Columbia Journalism Review.

Schudson, a professor at Columbia's Graduate School of Journalism, and Sonnevend, a Ph.D. student, examined a political science journal article summarizing a study 647 stories about ACORN during 2007-08, and they found that ACORN’s alleged voter fraud “was absurdly hyped for partisan advantage; the national media were steamrolled into promoting ... a ‘disingenuous controversy’; and ACORN twisted in the wind.”

Analysts Peter Dreier and Christopher R. Martin found that the press was "taken in all too easily by a very effective group of 'opinion entrepreneurs largely indifferent to facts or fairness."

Pulitzer Prize winner here Thursday

2010-11-06T08:27:00.004-06:00

A longtime Chicago journalist who shared in the Tribune’s 2001 staff Pulitzer Prize for its reporting on the airline industry will visit a few classes and take part in a Brown Bag It Q&A with students featuring free pizza and soda on Thursday, Nov. 11.

Patrick Olsen, who also worked for the Los Angeles Times, is a good example of a journalist who works in multiple media. Now Editor-in-Chief at Cars.com, Olsen oversees an editorial staff of almost 20 journalists reviewing cars, writing blog posts, and shooting photos and videos.

Olsen spent 11 years at the Tribune, including six years as the Page One Editor, and more than three years launching and helping to run RedEye, the Tribune’s tabloid aimed at 20-something readers. The winner of numerous journalism awards (including for Investigative Reporting, Professional Performance, Headline Writing, and Design), Olsen will briefly visit two 11 a.m. classes taught by Mohammad Siddiqi and Pearlie Strother-Adams in Simpkins rooms 214 and 309, respectively. At 12:30 p.m., Olsen will be in Simpkins room 327 for a casual "Pizza with a Press Professional" hour or so of Q&A mixed with slices and pop.

WIU's PRSSA chapter is co-sponsoring the appearance along with the department of English & Journalism.

Google invests $5 million in journalism

2010-10-29T14:28:00.002-06:00

Google is often criticized for contributing to stealing the audience, if not the contents, of journalism, but in a move this week, the internet giant is making a contribution to help the practice of journalism, if not the platform of print.

And it's making the move because of journalism's importance to democracy.

"Journalism is fundamental to a functioning democracy," Gogle said in its blogged announcement. "So as media organizations globally continue to broaden their presence online, we’re eager to play our part on the technology side.

"We’ve granted $2 million to the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, which has a proven track record of supporting programs that drive innovation in journalism," they continued. "It will use $1 million to support U.S. grant-making in this crucial area. The other $1 million will augment the Knight News Challenge, which is accepting funding proposals from anyone, anywhere in the world, until December 1. Now in its fifth year, the News Challenge has supported projects like DocumentCloud, which aims to bring more investigative-reporting source material online so anyone can find and read it."

Details on the remaining $3 million to be invested internationally will be forthcoming early next year, Google said.

'Truth LIES here'

2010-10-26T13:35:00.003-06:00

The November Atlantic out this week has a compelling story on the use and abuse of the Internet to not just try to control the flow of information, but to make it up.

Contributing editor Michael Hirschorn quotes the late Daniel Patrick Moynihan's line that we may each be entitled to our own set of opinions, but we are not entitled to our own set of facts.

"The Breitbarts, Gingriches, and 'bury brigades' are engaged in an enterprise uniquely enabled by the collapse of the center and the ubiquitous means by which information can spread instantly," Hirschorn writes. "It’s easy to welcome a time in which technology unleashes an ongoing town hall on any and all issues of the day, in which the wisdom of crowds holds sway. But the dislodging of fact from the pedestal it had safely occupied for centuries makes the recent disturbances in politics and the media feel like symptoms of a larger epistemological, even civilizational, rot."

Ex-Courier editor takes Ohio Press helm

2010-10-26T11:47:00.003-06:00

The one-time Western Courier editor who led the student newspaper in its early days after WIU kicked it off campus has been named executive director of the Ohio Newspaper Association.

Dennis Hetzel, most recently the manager of northern Kentucky operations for Enquirer Media, will start his new duties on January 1.

Hetzel, who penned an editorial for which the newspaper was sued for libel and won, formerly worked at newspapers in Galesburg, Madison, Wisc., and York, Pa.

'Inside-the-Beltway' press out of touch?

2010-10-25T07:24:00.002-06:00

Arianna Huffington may be a progressive, but her recent column recalling conversations with ABC-TV's Diane Sawyer and magazine writer Joe Klein is revealing.

Both Washington-based journalists are coming to realize that there's a lot of news -- and a lot of Americans -- being ignored by the Capitol-oriented corporate press.

"One thing I realized on this trip was how much time I spend immersed in the media back home -- reading newspapers and blogs and books, watching TV -- and how little time I spend immersed in other people," Klein conceded.

Huffington praises NPR's "StoryCorps" feature, which showcases regular people and how they/we offer as many lessons as the "inside baseball" perspective of too many members of the Washington press corps.

Check out the full Huffington post here -- http://www.huffingtonpost.com/arianna-huffington/joe-klein-and-diane-sawye_b_752674.html?view=print

AOL Thinking of Buying Newspapers

2010-10-07T14:18:00.001-06:00

There's a fascinating story about how AOL is thinking about buying newspaper properties to enhance its Internet content at http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=137266.

Washington Post Scribe Moves to Daily Beast

2010-10-06T10:21:00.001-06:00

The Washington Post's Howard Kurtz is moving to the online news site, the Daily Beast. There's a great piece about the move of traditional print folks, like Kurtz, to the Internet on the Poynter Foundation web site, http://www.poynter.org/column.asp?id=101&aid=192116.

'Sign of the Apocalypse'? Broadcaster Barbie

2010-09-24T08:30:00.003-06:00

Mattel's "I can be..." series of Barbie dolls has a news anchor.

Its promotional material describes her as, "A flair for journalism – and power pink!'

Appropriately, Mattel also has a caution: WARNING: CHOKING HAZARD."

Excerpt shows courage of press -- and wackiness of Nixon

2010-09-22T11:22:00.003-06:00

The Daily Beast has a gripping excerpt from Mark Feldstein's book Poisoning the Press, detailed the paranoia, arrogance and totalitarian mindset of the Nixon White House in the months before Watergate toppled that presidency.

Nixon and his Oval Office advisers actually proposed and considered assassinating investigative reporter Jack Anderson, a syndicated columnist.

"We examined all of the alternatives and very quickly came to the conclusion [that] the only way you're going to be able to stop him is to kill him,” said G. Gordon Liddy, ex-Republican campaign operative and future right-wing talk-radio host.

It was a close call, Feldstein shows.

Georgia hyperlocal editor praises Patch.com

2010-09-22T11:08:00.002-06:00

A Patch.com regional editor from greater Atlanta shared his perspective on AOL's new venture, and describes the initiative as a hyperlocal network of news sites.

Check out this rough posting, which includes a short video of his appearance at the Center for Sustainable Journalism: http://pjnet.org/post/2362/

Apple 'making nice' with print for iPad

2010-09-22T10:52:00.004-06:00

Whether through opportunities to feature content produced by others or chances to monetize material that newsrooms create, Apple is solidifying its ties to newspapers.

In the most recent Adviser Update from the Dow Jones Newspaper Fund, technology columnist Gary Clites writes an informative piece on the Applie iPad: "Welcome to the wonderful work of publishing by app." Check it out here -- https://www.newsfund.org/uploads/2010Summer.pdf.

Meanwhile, Apple itself is making sounds that insiders believe mean new subscription ideas for newspapers. However, details are still being finalized, apparently.

"Roger Fidler, head of digital publishing at the Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute in Columbia, Mo., said Apple probably will take a 30% cut of all subscriptions sold through the company's online App Store, and as much as 40% of the advertising revenue from publications' apps," writes John Boudreau in the San Jose Mercury News.

"Publishers wanted to pay Apple a fee rather than a cut of subscription and advertising revenue and are not happy with Apple's terms, he said," Boudreau's article continues. "They had hoped to offer app editions as part of subscription bundles that include print versions of the paper. Instead, they must use Apple as an intermediary with subscribers."

Las Vegas Newspaper Tries For More Civil Online Discourse

2010-09-22T07:43:00.003-06:00

The Las Vegas Sun has implemented a new policy regarding online comments on its stories. It's an interesting read: http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2010/sep/21/story-commenting-policy/.

Journalism jobs outpacing overall economy

2010-09-14T10:07:00.004-06:00

Mike Mandell at "Mandell on Innovation and Growth" shows that there's a communications boom resulting in expanding journalism jobs, and "we may be headed into a Golden Age of Journalism."

Using statistics from Current Population Survey from the Census Bureau and Labor Department, Mandel shows that employment levels for reporters and related journalism jobs have climbed back to where they were before the worst of the Great Recession hit in late 2008 (see chart, above).

Adding context, Mandell explains that journalists might be getting hired in nontraditional industries, are successfully self-employed, and are doing better than editors and news-production workers. However, some might be working fewer hours at less pay.

'Good journalism remains timeless'

2010-09-14T10:00:00.003-06:00

Dawn Osakue on Editorsweblog.org writes, "Whenever technology advances, there are fears that new inventions will take over the old. The death of the newspaper has been discussed for some time, as the web becomes more popular, and now the death of the web has been announced as apps become more common. However, John Naughton [of the Guardian], has reminded [us] that 'good journalism will thrive, whatever the format'."

Indeed, Naughton argues that predicting Internet trends is futile: "The problem with endism is that it's intrinsically simplistic," he says. "Of course, new technologies threaten some older things ... but the demand for reference information hasn't disappeared.

"Print is just one way of publishing the fruits of journalists' labours," he adds. "The web is another; iPhone apps are a third. And there may be more to come as the internet continues to work its disruptive magic."

AOL hires hundreds of journalists

2010-09-12T14:55:00.003-06:00

AOL hired 900 people over the summer, and about half are journalists working for the company's local blogs network, Patch.com, according to CEO Tim Armstrong.

Check out Patch.com -- http://www.patch.com/

Newspapers' audiences way up, if websites count

2010-09-09T10:57:00.003-06:00

In the most recent ratings study, newspapers' websites generated "unprecedented traffic," according to Nielsen, analyzing data for the Newspaper Association of America. That seems to show that content matters significantly,\ -- apart from whichever platform that has it.

In the first quarter of this year, newspapers' sites drew more than one-third of all Internet users: 74.4 million unique visitors per month, the analysis shows.

Elsewhere, 56% of Internet users say they consider newspapers' print editioms to be "important" or "very important" sources of information, according to a report from the University of Southern California's Annenberg School for Communications and Journalism's Digital Future Project.

True, newspapers are behind television (68%) and the Internet (78%) in what Internet users value. However -- almost paradoxically -- a majority of Internet users also concede that they don't trust material online: 61% ssay less than half of the Internet's information is unreliable; 14% say that little or none of it can be trusted.

WIU grad named Daily Herald's AME/Opinions

2010-09-07T11:45:00.004-06:00

WIU journalim alum Jim Slusher this summer was named assistant managing editor/opinions for the Daily Herald in Arlington Heights.

Slusher joined the Daily Herald in 1989 after two years as managing editor of the Californian in El Cajon, Calif. He also served as assistant metro editor for the Saginaw News in Saginaw, Mich., and as a reporter and wire editor for the Daily Gazette in Sterling, Ill.

"Jim deeply cares about the community and has a great appreciation of the opinion page's mission of public good," said Daily Herald senior vice president/editor John Lampinen. "He's an outstanding journalist and we're pleased that he will be the next steward of the newspaper's editorial page voice."

At the Daily Herald, owned by Paddock Publications, Slusher has served as news editor, associate editor and assistant managing editor with various responsibilities, including newsroom training and direction of the senior reporting staff.

Slusher, a 1974 WIU graduate who worked on the Western Courier, conducted workshops on newspaper design at a 1995 Journalim Day on campus.

'Why can't I sleep? I blame journalism'

2010-09-03T10:42:00.003-06:00

The Huffington Post shared this short essay from Oakland University journalism student Kay Nguyen, who makes a topic that could've seemed a bit conceited or too "inside baseball" very accessible -- and fun.

It's safe to say that I'm yet another sleep-deprived college student.

My family's fairly routine schedule has always given me optimal sleeping conditions since I was born and still does.

That's right. I live at home and commute to school. That means that I'm sleeping less, but can't really blame it on anyone else.

I never really had to learn how to sleep in a dorm.

When I did have to share an apartment, though, I learned that a stubborn routine does not work to my advantage. I wake up no later than 8 a.m. every day no matter what the circumstances.

Why did my sleeping habits change when nothing else changed, though? Like everything else: I blame it on journalism.

I started staying up later and later soon after I received a laptop. It was given to me -- with careful instructions -- to use for scholarly purposes when I began college.

After never having any electronic entertainment -- that's right: no PlayStations or TVs -- in my room for my whole life, I all of a sudden had access to everything. By everything I mean YouTube and -- at the time -- MySpace.

I then began working for the campus newspaper. Guess when I began harboring the compulsive need to always stay connected and on top of current events?

In addition to staying up late studying, I now had to read every single legitimate news website in order to sound chic and worldly. Also, let's face it: I also read Perez Hilton and admittedly still click on blurbs about Heidi Montag.

After my brief phase of drinking Celebrity Juice, I became a section editor at the campus newspaper. Cue days of no sleep spent producing the newspaper while stressing out over what e-mails came -- and didn't come -- in.

Fast forward to the present day. I'm a caffeine junkie ridden with the nerves of being a student of journalism a.k.a. what others may call a dying industry.

I do unpaid internships, freak out about the prospect of not getting a job, work on my portfolio, worry about the job market, try to get my website up and running, worry about not having a web present to employers, try to get good grades in case I have to go to grad school and bug out a little more while scouring the internet for more unpaid internships that will hopefully land me a job in the future.

That may be why I have trouble sleeping even though I live in a house that is quiet from 9 p.m. to 8 a.m.

Did I mention I'm also the editor-in-chief now? I now refresh that inbox even more and (hopefully) have two more years of it left.

Social networking? I'm not even anywhere close to being a pro, but I am active in Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. Even when I truly have nothing to do, I'll listen to Pandora to fall asleep.

I am the American teenager with distracting digital devices at my bedside. I've been leaving my house at 9 a.m. every weekday for two internships, but have been falling asleep later and later.

I don't think Dr. Michael J. Breus would think that 4-5 hours of sleep is enough. It will probably only get worse, though.

I got my first smartphone this week. I am now going to be even more oversaturated with information, as my hands have not let go of that Crackberry since it came out of its box.

Classes begin next week and newspaper production schedules will begin ruling my life again along with an internship.

Looks like I can keep listening to Rooney's "Sleep Song" and blogging about my sleeping habits while I'm laying in bed, though.

Follow Kay Nguyen on Twitter: www.twitter.com/kaynguyen

100 best blogs for journalism students

2010-09-03T10:32:00.003-06:00

The posting is more than a year old and "consider the source" suspicious (coming from "bachelorsdegreeonline.com"), but there are plenty of reliable, provocative and sensible web logs listed in the list from "Learn-gasm" (ahem).

Number 1? PoynterOnline: a no-brainer.

Solid suggestions? No. 12 is Columbia Jouraism Review and No. 14 is the Nieman Journalism Lab.

Novel ideas? Six blogs from other journalism students, dozens of "new media" sites (including Mark Briggs' Journalism 2.0, brilliant and fun innovator Rob Curley, and Mark Glaser's Mediashift), the indispensible Romenesko, and The Newspaper Guild.

Areas of interest? Investigative reporting and photojournalism each have multiple sites.

(No, The Bulldog Edition hasn't made it yet.)

Journalism is about people, not technology

2010-09-02T10:46:00.004-06:00

Following is an excerpt from Journalism Next, a 2010 paperback that students of Journalism should read to put in perspective the great opportunities ahead for the field. (To order go to http://www.cqpress.com/product/Briggs.html )

By Mark Briggs

To survive and thrive in the digital age, I argue, journalists need to adopt a new way of thinking and approaching their craft. Learning the skills and technology is the easy part. Recognizing you are part of a new information ecosystem is the steeper hill to climb.

My first book, “Journalism 2.0: How to Survive and Thrive in the Digital Age,” was published in 2007 and written for working journalists with a simple message: “you can do this” and the “future is now.”

In the United States, that “future is now” message came true. Too true in some ways. Many working journalists in 2006, when I started writing the book, could still embace the illusion that it would be 5 or 10 years before real disruption come to their industry. That grace period evaporated quickly in the U.S. as more than 15,000 journalists lost their jobs in 2008.

The pace of disruption for mainstream media – daily newspapers, local TV stations and magazines – is in full force today. As a result, the evolution of the business model is (finally) receiving the focus it deserves, meaning we have already begun to glimpse what the next incarnation of sustainable journalism looks like.

Newspapers are dying. Why should I study journalism?

We are at the end of a golden period for publishers, where organizations grew large and consolidated, pushing profit margins up and supporting publicly traded companies. Mainstream news organizations, the commercial enterprises that have supported journalism in the U.S., haven’t always been like this. Prior to 1970, journalism was practiced by many more organizations of differing sizes.

But the people who run news companies today only experienced the best of times during the 1970s, 80s and 90s, so any historical basis for claims of a stable industry seem shortsighted when using a longer lens to view the history of newspapers.

More than 100 years ago, the newspaper industry was dealing with technological change on a comparable scale to today. In the 1890s, telephone service revolutionized reporting, while “one linotype operator could do the work of five men,” according to the Encyclopedia of American Journalism, dramatically increasing the speed of printing.

This led to an explosion of newspapers – and newspaper readers – that I see as emblematic of what we’re seeing today with online journalism startups.

Look at the landscape of the Progressive Era, according to the Encyclopedia of American Journalism:
- The number of English-language daily newspapers grew from 850 in 1880 to 1,967 in 1900 to 2,200 in 1910. An additional 400 of other types … were also published that year.
- Daily circulation totals grew from 3.1 million in 1880 to 15.1 million in 1900 to 22.1 million in 1910.
- Chicago and Boston each had eight newspapers in 1900. New York had nine.
- Newspapers began charging (one cent) per issue in 1833 and it wasn’t until the 1880s when advertising slowly began to replace sales and subscriptions as the chief source of newspaper revenue so that by 1914, 66 percent of newspapers revenue came from advertising.
- By 1911, some newspaper critics began to fear the influence of advertising on journalism, “One proposed solution, which had little success, was to create an ‘adless’ newspaper supported by subscribers. Another was to create a non-partisan, adless newspaper funded by city government.

If journalism and the business that supports journalism can evolve that quickly once, who can argue that it won’t happen again? The technology that allowed the number of newspapers to grow 123% in 20 years is similar to what we’ve seen this decade with the Internet and publishing platforms like Wordpress.

In January 2009, the Los Angeles Times announced it was making enough money from online advertising to cover its entire (albeit drastically reduced) editorial workforce. Five years from now we will look back on this development as the beginning of the new era, when news organizations made the switch from print to online ad dollars for financial support.

“Evolution is already happening – at thousands of small and large media sites on the web,” John Battelle wrote in his SearchBlog on Jan. 8, 2009. “In short, I am convinced that journalism will not die if and when major print based journalism outlets die.”

What are the new jobs in journalism?

File this under the “GM problem:” journalists might understand that big, monopolistic news organizations didn’t always produce the best journalism, but they provided the best jobs. Like General Motors, a big company is really good at employing lots of people with solid benefits, enabling families to pay for mortgages and new cars. But a big company can be downright dreadful at innovation, evolution, hustle and experimentation.

And these are the qualities that win the day, especially in times of serious disruption.

Looking forward, the state of news, media and journalism will probably look a lot more like it did at the turn of the 20th century, when far more news organizations were competing for audience. Each was tiny compared to the behemoths of the 1990s and 2000s, but there were many more of them. So instead of a daily newspaper with 50 journalists, a mid-size city in the future might have 10 digital news operations with about five journalists each.

“The probable elimination of a raft of second-tier newspapers during this economic downturn,” wrote Edward Roussel, digital editor for the Telegraph Media Group, in the Winter 2008 issue of the Nieman Reports, “will provide a fertile environment for a new generation of digital media businesses to flourish.”

Shoveling traditional journalism online – that which has always been found in newspapers or television broadcasts – has not worked for news companies. As Jack Shafer wrote at Slate.com, newspapers tried to invent the Web by copying and pasting their journalism, values and temperament online, with the same control they enjoyed in their local distribution monopolies.

“Despite being early arrivals, despite having spent millions on manpower and hardware, despite all the animations, links, videos, databases, and other software tricks found on their sites, every newspaper Web site is instantly identifiable as a newspaper Web site,” Shafer wrote. “By succeeding, they failed to invent the Web.”

This new reality will allow a new form of journalism to emerge with new job titles, new roles and new responsibilities. Jeff Jarvis, a thought leader in online media and author of What Would Google Do?, wrote about this future at his blog, Buzzmachine.com. By separating a single job description – journalist – from a single industry – newspapers – with a single business model – print advertising, the practice of journalism will diversify and emerge as many job descriptions with many business models.

“The key to survival is reinventing what we do,” Jarvis wrote.

Reasons to study journalism

So now it’s your turn. Your opportunity may come from a traditional news company, start-up news blog or a new enterprise you launch yourself. “Journalism will survive its institutions,” says entrepreneurial journalist David Cohn. But only if a new generation of journalists with an entrepreneurial spirit hit the ground running.

So here’s why it’s a good time to study journalism:

1. Journalism has a bright future
Experimental news operations are popping up all over the Web as this decade draws to a close. Some have become sustainable businesses in a very short time. Others are still searching for viability while finding new ways to cover issues and communities.

In short, the demand for journalism from its audience hasn’t diminished. But the models are starting to look very different.

A more narrow focus is required. Think of it as “bottom-up” journalism instead of “top-down.” Technology, political and hyperlocal news sites have been the first to find success by starting small and concentrating on a very specific topic. This, of course, goes against the more general audience publications that ruled the day when a printing and distribution monopolies ruled the day.

Now that anyone can be a publisher with a few clicks, trying to be everything to everyone is a recipe for failure.

For a glimpse into the future of journalism, check out these independent trailblazers – Politico, TechCrunch, Voice of San Diego, West Seattle Blog, MinnPost, Pegasus News, The Patch – and many others yet to be created.

“These sites have received little attention in the mainstream media, which has focused on its own demise,” wrote journalist-turned-entrepreneur Om Malik, who started his own successful news service called GigaOm. “That’s too bad, since they may be the best hope for the kind of journalism we used to count on from local newspapers.”

Unleashed from corporate-run organizations sweating out the quarterly profit margin, the journalists powering these new sites have infused them with a level of energy, commitment and passion that can only be found in a startup company. It’s easy to see how these sites will pave the way for the true digital transformation of mainstream news companies, by finding successful new methods to inform and connect a community online.

Or, in some cases, they will replace them.

2. The future is in your hands
Journalism needs you. It needs someone who can bring a fresh approach without the baggage that burdened earlier generations.

As the institutions that perform journalism struggled economically through the past decade, it became increasingly apparent that the people in charge did not have what it takes to oversee a digital transformation that would secure a viable future. Harsh words, I know. But their inability to put the readers first and use new technology to do better journalism – instead of copying the existing model and pasting it online – created a world where every newspaper Web site is immediately identifiable. Most are disjointed repositories of what a news organization has always produced, with some new twists thrown in for good measure, instead of rich, vibrant information sources their communities want and need.

“Newspaper executives chose to sacrifice the interests of their readers and their advertisers by their stubborn refusal to embrace the Web for what it could be,” Dave Morgan wrote in a column titled “My Last Column on the Newspaper Industry.” “As compared to what they wanted it to be (a way to sell and deliver “locked-down” content products in “walled gardens”) which neatly fit in their “trees to trucks” vertical monopoly mentalities. That was their death knell.”

That’s where you come in. Whether you end up working for a newspaper, magazine, TV station or Internet start-up, you will have the opportunity – make that responsibility – to do things differently. My first job in journalism (part-time sports clerk) was mostly answering phones and doing grunt work. No one asked me about my ideas. Your first job is likely to be much different.
In fact, I predict that you won’t get a first job without your ideas, in addition to your skills and experience.

Emily Kostic, a journalism student at Rowan University, captured the opportunity in a blog post titled “Why I’m Not Giving Up: Reasons I’m Still a Journalism Major” in January 2009:
“We all know journalism is undergoing some monumental changes as it embraces the online world more and more. However, the future of journalism and where it’s going is largely going to be left up to us — college journalism students. Think of how major that responsibility is. Think of how inspiring that is. It’s up to us to help make journalism web savvy in way that our elders can’t even imagine.”

3. Journalism will be better than it was before
Transformation and evolution are messy, emotional processes. When they produce advancement for society and business, they are seen as healthy and worthwhile, but not necessarily to those on the front lines.

Because this transformation started 15 years ago for news companies and the Web, you benefit by having missed the early mess. Newspapers, finally, have learned that their vision for a digital future that can be controlled like their analog past is not viable.

But the game isn’t over, for mainstream news companies or independent journalism startups. It’s just getting started and, since you inherently “get” the Internet because you grew up with it, you have the opportunity to shape the future of journalism online like no generation before. Interactive, transparent, collaborative journalism works. Digital technologies, some that have yet to be invented, will aid you, but they can’t replace a thoughtful, skilled professional with an entrepreneurial spirit. You will be ready to try, and fail, and try again.

Thankfully, you will find a more experimental culture at news organizations today (and tomorrow). In “Serious Play: How the World’s Best Companies Simulate to Innovate,” author Michael Schrage illustrates how technology allows companies to rapidly and inexpensively test products, services, and business models before unleashing them. This is the new model for news, and one that you will lead.

Rather than confining yourself to the road traveled before you, the opportunity to chart your own course is not only available — it’s mandatory.

Summary

As Battelle, the journalist-turned online expert wrote, “I don’t think we’re all that far from the right answer. I can tell you this, however: It won’t look much like the old answer.”

So that’s the new deal: you probably won’t get to travel a well-marked, established career path like your parents did. But you will have a say in how the fourth estate evolves and how citizens are informed and engaged in the decades to come.

Sounds like a pretty good deal to me. So let’s get started.

About the author: Mark Briggs is CEO of Serra Media, a Seattle-based digital innovation company, and principal of Journalism 2.0, a strategic consultancy formed as a spinoff from his book of the same name. He served as assistant managing editor for interactive news at The News Tribune in Tacoma from 2004–2008 and new media director at The Daily Herald in Everett, Washington, from 2000–2004.

Magazines offer glimpses of people behind WIkiLeaks

2010-08-28T07:31:00.004-06:00

Most people hadn't heard of WikiLeaks.org when the organization this summer released tens of thousands of military documents about the war in Afghanistan to three respected news operations: the New York Times, the Guardian in the United Kingdom, and Der Speigel in Germany.

But readers of the New Yorker magazine had, thanks to a superb piece of magazine journalism by Raffi Khatchadourian in the June 7 issue. "No Secrets: Julian Assange's mission for total transparency" is informative feature writing, with insight, detail and depth.

Check it out: www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/06/07/100607fa_fact_khatchadourian

More recently, Rolling Stone magazine published Nathaniel Rich's piece on WikiLeaks' technical wizard, Jacob Appelbum, in its current issue's "The most dangerous man in cyberspace."

That story is still on newsstands, but here's a link to a telling excerpt: http://www.rollingstone.com/culture/news/17389/192242

Singer here last Fall ailing, needs help

2010-08-27T16:14:00.005-06:00

Anne Feeney, the troubadour, labor activist and citizen journalist who performed with David Rovics on campus last October and locally in a benefit for WTND radio last April, has been hospitalized with a lung tumor and is undergoing tests to find out what can be done.

Regardless of doctors' advice, the recording artist faces months of lost income and is welcoming donations -- of no more than $50.

"I really don't want any larger donations," she says on her web site. "I have enough dear friends who are doing okay that those of you who are struggling shouldn't spend a second worrying about my finances."

Still, the selfless woman is in need, so if you appreciated her music and attitude last year, please consider letting her know -- and include a few bucks if you're able.

Mail to Anne Feeney, 2240 Milligan Ave., Pittsburgh, PA 15218.

Her web site is http://www.annefeeney.com/ and her blog is http://fellow-travelers-advisory.blogspot.com/

Join the staff of Western Illinois Magazine

2010-08-27T08:49:00.002-06:00

Get involved with Western Illinois Magazine!

First meeting of the year will be Wednesday, September 1 at 4 p.m. in the Western Courier office, 3rd Floor, Heating Plant Annex (Through the yellow door next to the basketball courts behind the Art Gallery)

For more information contact: R-moreno@wiu.edu

The Western Courier Wants You

2010-08-20T12:03:00.001-06:00

The Western Courier has immediate openings for

• Proofreader
• Reporters
• Photographers
• Newspaper Distributors

Fill out an application today at the Western Courier
3rd Floor, Heating Plant Annex
(Through the yellow door next to
the basketball courts behind the Art Gallery)

Greetings WIU Journalism Majors and Minors

2010-08-09T15:54:00.001-06:00

Welcome:

Two things as you start thinking about packing and moving to Macomb for the Fall:

First, all Journalism majors and minors are urged to attend a program meeting at 4:30 p.m. Monday afternoon, August 30 in the Courier newsroom in the brick building called the "Heating Plant Annex" northeast/across Sherman Drive from the University Gallery -- by the outdoor basketball/roller hockey court. Faculty will update you on changes, chat about student organizations, and get you going for 2010-2011. We'll also have a drawing for a DVD of the classic 1976 drama about reporters and Watergate, All The President's Men.

Next, there are still seats available in a few upper-division Journalism courses. Please go to STARS and consider enrolling, especially in Photojournalism/Jour. 335 (STARS # 50353) , Beat Reporting/ Jour. 334 (STARS # 50352 and Editing/ Jour. 328 (STARS # 50348) . Professor Lisa Kernek reminds you that there's no prerequisite for Photojournalism, which will meet 3-4:15 p.m. Mondays and Wednesdays only. Jour. 334, which meets at 10 MWF, has a series of guest speakers including State Sen. John Sullivan, Supt. of Schools Alene Reuschel and Father Luke Spannagel from Newman Center. And Jour. 328 will now be taught by me on an Arranged schedule after the initial meeting at 12:30 on Tuesday, Aug. 24.

See you soon -- and at the program meeting August 30!

Bill Knight
Deputy director, Journalism

A Look at the McChrystal Story

2010-06-29T09:00:00.006-06:00

NPR's "On The Media" recently offered an interesting analysis of the differences between beat reporters and freelance reporters working on news stories, particularly in regard to the controversial Rolling Stone story on General Stanley McChrystal. Check it out at http://www.onthemedia.org/transcripts/2010/06/25/03.

Bill Knight named 2010 John Hallwas Liberal Arts Lecturer

2010-06-14T08:04:00.000-06:00

Bill Knight, an award-winning journalist, professor and deputy director of the journalism program at Western Illinois University, has been named the 2010 John Hallwas Liberal Arts Lecturer in the College of Arts and Sciences.

He will present the Eighth Annual Hallwas Lecture at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 7 in the University Union Grand Ballroom at WIU-Macomb and at 3 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 8 in Room 102AB at WIU-Quad Cities.

Knight's topic is, "I Read the News Today, Oh, Boy: Journalism, Empathy and the Liberal Arts."

In addition to teaching at Western Illinois since 1991, Knight remains an active columnist, radio commentator and author. He writes twice-weekly columns for newspapers in Pekin, Peoria, Monmouth, Galesburg, Kewanee and now Macomb. The author of the 2003 "Video Almanac" and "Fair Comment: Essays on the Air," Knight is a featured weekly commentator on Western's Tri States Public Radio.

A graduate of WIU (1971) and the University Illinois-Springfield (1982), Knight this month is being named one of a "Golden Dozen" recognized by the International Society of Weekly Newspaper Editors (ISWNE) at its annual conference for his opinion piece on moving Guantanamo Bay detainees to Illinois. His writing has also won awards from the Illinois Associated Press (Best Commentary), the Illinois Press Association (Business Reporting), the International Labor Communications Association (Best Column) and the Suburban Newspapers Association of America (Best Sports Writing).

His newest books are "Horse Shoe Bottoms" (2008), a 1930s novel by west-central Illinois journalist and activist Tom Tippett, for which Knight wrote the biographical introduction and edited; and "Rick Johnson Reader: Tin Cans, Squeems and Thud Pies" (2007), a collection of rock criticism, essays on popular culture and zany screeds by Johnson, the late Creem magazine writer who had attended WIU.

Knight, a native of Carthage (IL), also is the editor of Western’s College of Arts and Science magazine Focus, which is published twice yearly since Spring 2005.

FAU Adviser Firing Sparks Firestorm

2010-06-01T08:12:00.002-06:00

On May 18, Michael Koretsky, longtime adviser to the student newspaper at Florida Atlantic University (12 years) and an extremely popular speaker at student journalism conferences around the country was fired from his position. Since then, the ongoing dispute between the student newspaper's editors, Koretsky and the university has made fascinating reading. Check out Koretsky's blog at http://fautocratic.blogspot.com/ as well as the student newspaper's blog at http://owlmanagement.wordpress.com/.

National Geographic Photo Editor to Speak at Knox College

2010-04-29T12:09:00.001-06:00

Senior photo editor for National Geographic Traveler magazine and Galesburg native Dan Westergren, will present a talk, “The Last Degree,” at 7 p.m. Friday, April 30 in the Round Room, Ford Center for the Fine Arts, Knox College in Galesburg. The talk is free and open to the public.

Second issue of Western Illinois Magazine now available

2010-04-27T09:25:00.002-06:00

Western Illinois University journalism students have produced the second issue of "Western Illinois" magazine, a new publication showcasing interesting people, places and things in western Illinois.

The free publication, available in Western Courier newspaper racks on the WIU Macomb campus and in various locations in Macomb, Galesburg and Springfield, includes a cover feature on the history and legends surrounding the abandoned Illinois State Asylum for the Incurable Insane in Bartonville, near Peoria.

Other features in the issue include a look at the 1970s “Forgottonia” tongue-in-cheek political movement, which encouraged people in western Illinois to secede from the rest of the state, as well as the bizarre story of the Macomb poltergeist, a real-life firestarter. The issue offers a profile of Western Illinois University quarterback Matt Barr, and spotlights the unique shopping opportunities found on Galesburg's historic Seminary Street.

Additionally, the issue includes articles on: Lisa Welch, Macomb’s "Rug Lady"; Colchester's Bill Combs, a retired WIU professor who collects antique tractors; a kid's eye view of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield; a profile of comic book writer and WIU alum Chris Ward of Springfield; and other topics.

"Western Illinois is probably one of the least exposed parts of the state, so we’ve found there are plenty of stories out there just waiting to be told," said Alyse Thompson, a WIU sophomore journalism major from West Chicago (IL), and editor in chief of the magazine.

The student-run magazine is produced once each semester. Advisers include veteran Illinois journalist and WIU journalism professor Bill Knight and Rich Moreno, director of student publications at WIU and a former magazine publisher.

To receive a free copy, send your name and address to R-Moreno@wiu.edu.

Bloggers help expose Israeli censorship

2010-04-18T10:39:00.004-06:00

Bloggers and independent journalists somewhat apart from the pressures of the mainstream press were key in exposing a scandal wherein Israel's government placed a reporter's alleged source under secret house arrest for months, placed a gag order on on Israel's news media about the arrest, and even imposed a gag order on the existence of the first gag order, according to the Jewish Daily Forward.

The Forward summarized how the incident finally came to light when bloggers not only stood up to Israeli threats, but posted material despite pleas from the supposed source, Anat Kam, who feared for her future if her imprisonment became known.

The government reaction stemmed from leaked documents apparently showing that Israel's Defense Forces defied Israel's Supreme Court and targeted unarmed Palestinian militants for assassination.

After the first few stories about the story went online, other news media broke the story: the Associated Press, the Guardian, the Independent, Israel's JTA news service, the Times of London and the Washington Post.

Reporter Lisa Goldman recapped the scandal in the Forward.

NYT shares morning meetings with world

2010-04-16T12:53:00.003-06:00

Journalism students, much less news consumers, will be interested in the New York Times' latest web feature: scenes from the newspaper's regular morning budget meeting.

That's where editors pitch stories, update colleagues on works-in-progess, and generally plan the next day's editions -- and ongoing web updates.

Reporter Clark Hoyt also did a nice behind-the-scenes overview of some of the unintended consequences of the new feature -- http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/11/opinion/11pubed.html

iPads offer hope to print: 2 blogs

2010-04-10T13:16:00.003-06:00

Two insightful posts from Alan Mutter (Newsosaur) and Susan Moeller (Huffington Post) are optimistic about what Apple's new iPad can offer to journalists and to operations depending on print.

"Fortunately, print publishers have a distinct edge over their digitally indigenous competitors in the race for tablet supremacy, because they have a depth of content that will work to great advantage on tablets," writes Mutter, a long-time newspaperman who once was Chicago Sun-Times editor.

"The strength of print is that it enables deep and subtle exploration of a subject," he contnued. "The [iPad] tablet combines the strengths of print, web and mobile into a satisfying -– and, yes, transformational –- experience."

Mutter expressed disappointment with most newspaper and magazine applications, however.

"Publishers who want to take full advantage of the iPad will have to do better by creating content that is media-rich, interactive, viral, transactional and mobile," Mutter said. "In other words, this is no time to cut corners."

On Huffington Post Moeller compares classic, decent journalism to traditional, nutritious food and sees parallels between the "slow food" movement and "slow journalism -- valuing content over speed."

She writes that "the iPad's capabilities align neatly with this agenda."

Guild recruiting 'foot soldiers' to fight for journalism

2010-03-25T10:57:00.004-06:00

The Newspaper Guild labor-union affiliate of the Communications Workers of America (CWA) is stepping up its efforts to guarantee that journalism survives despite changes in how it's presented.

The fight for journalism in many ways is the fight for a representative republic, obviously.

TNG-CWA is planning a May strategy session in Cleveland and is encouraging broad attendance from U.S. and Canadian Guild locals.

Free Press founders John Nichols and Robert McChesney, authors of the new book The Death and Life of American Journalism: The Media Revolution that Will Begin the World Again, have been invited to be a part of the discussion, which will focus on ways the Guild, organized labor and other groups concerned about democracy all can help maintain the vital role of a free press.

“This should not be a discussion about journalism," said Nichols, who's a co-founder of the nonprofit Free Press advocacy group and a writer for The Nation magazine and an editor at the Madison (Wisc.) Capital Times. "It should not be a discussion about newspapers, or a discussion about media. This is a discussion about democracy.

“The founders were very, very blunt: Freedom of the press meant not just a free press but a ‘press’ — something real.”

Discuss the Future of Journalism

2010-03-20T15:47:00.000-06:00

The Journalism Program in the Department of English and Journalism and the University Libraries invite you to attend "Journalism Beyond Print" this Wednesday, March 24, in Malpass Library Room 180.

This discussion begins at 11:45 a.m. and brings together three professionals to describe and share examples of how their news organizations are delivering information and news "outside of their legacy platforms of newspapers or broadcasts" to the digital realm (to computers and smart phones or with podcasts or RSS feeds).

Mark Butzow, assistant professor of journalism, and other WIU journalism professors will augment the presentations by these guests: Jason Piscia, a web editor from Springfield's State Journal Register; Erin McCarthy, a reporter/photographer for Macomb's McDonough County Voice; and Rich Eggers, the news director for Tri-States Public Radio and WIUM-FM (NPR).

We see this is as a wide-ranging discussion of the directions that journalism is taking in the wake of digital media, and we invite your participation. For more information, contact Mark Butzow at ma-butzow@wiu.edu or 298-3171.

Content and its vehicles

2010-03-18T14:52:00.003-06:00

The next time some Internet guru (or broadcaster) snickers "Print is dead," you might reply: "Everything's dead.

"And, everything's alive."

According to a recent report from the Pew Research Center, more than 25% of American adults now get their news on their cell phones.

True, what they consider "news" consists mostly of weather reports and sports scores, but the point is made.

Content is key.

It matters less that a soup is delivered in a bowl or a mug than its ingredients and preparation are tasty.

Just wait 'til the iPad price comes down.

"TV, phone home."

WGN radio boss muzzles announcers

2010-03-18T14:39:00.004-06:00

The CEO at WGN-AM recently annoyed staffers and listeners by issuing an edict forbidding announcers from saying certain words and urging them to report those who utter them, according to a memo shared by longtime Chicago media reporter Robert Feder.

The heavy-handed memo is reminiscent of a comment from a priest friend who recalled parishioners complaining about some Masses varying ever-so-slightly from others: "When you can't control the Big Picture, you tend to get really bitchy about the little things," Father said.

Some of the words are tired, cliches or journalese, sure. But prohibiting "alleged" seems a bit much. And "really?"

Really?

You'd think a chief executive would have other things to do.

Todd Frankel Today

2010-03-10T09:36:00.000-06:00

Todd C. Frankel, an award-winning metro general assignment reporter for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, will be the keynote speaker for Western Illinois University's 2010 Journalism Day Wednesday, March 10.

Frankel was a key reporter in the Post-Dispatch's daily coverage of the "Missouri Miracle," the kidnapping and rescue of youths Shawn Hornbeck and Ben Ownby. He was a finalist for the Livingston Award in 2006 and won a Sigma Delta Chi award for feature writing and a Casey Medal for coverage of families and children in 2002. When the St. Louis Riverfront Times named him the best newspaper reporter (Sept. 29, 2004), he was praised for his ability to report with equal comfort and enthusiasm on events including a horseradish festival, a fiery car crash, a double murder or a flu epidemic.

A graduate of the University of Delaware, Frankel previously worked at The Herald in Everett, WA; The Daily Mail in Charleston, WV; and The Gleaner in Henderson, KY. He often speaks on three main topics: making sense of the Missouri Miracle; bringing pizzazz to mundane topics; and telling compelling stories in 20 inches or less.

At Western, Frankel will speak about "How to Tell Compelling Stories on Deadline" to journalism students at 4:30 p.m. at the Western Courier office in the Heating Plant Annex.

He will present "Breaking Away From the Pack: Finding and Telling the Overlooked Story," at 7 p.m. in the University Union Sandburg Theatre. This presentation is open free to the public.

Frankel's visit is sponsored by the WIU Visiting Lectures Committee, the English and journalism department and the WIU chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists.

Broadcast journalists aren't escaping media 'transformation'

2010-03-04T15:36:00.005-06:00

The press for more than a year has trumpeted the lousy news of big-city daily newspapers' financial woes -- brought on more by ridiculous business decisions and outrirght goofy assumptions than by Internet competition. But even as small dailies and weeklies survive and even prosper, other media sectors are suffering, too.

ABC News will cut between 20% and 25% of its news-division employees -- some 300 jobs -- on the heels of CBS News' recent layoffs of about 100 employees.

ABC News president David Westin (above) in a memo inexplicably wrote about the potential of growth even as in the same breath -- or, paper -- he announced the cuts.

"The digital age makes our business more competitive than ever before," he writes. "It also presents us with opportunities we couldn't have imagined to gather, produce, and distribute the news."

He lays out his plan for the network'a news operation's transformation by promising to "dramatically expand our use of digital journalists" and "move to a more flexible blend of staff and freelancers," which sounds like the short-sighted management axioms "Do more with less" or "Use cheap help."

Westin buries the lede, too, finally mentioning, "When we are finished, we will likely have substantially fewer people on staff at ABC News. To ease the transition, we are offering a voluntary separation package to all full-time, U.S.-based, non-union, non-contract employees."

Unionized journalists and other workers will have separate "voluntary separation offers," he adds.

Like the Tribune's Sam Zell or other media moguls, he doesn't address how such a gutted endeavor will be expected to do more work.

Be encouraged, editor tells J students

2010-02-28T14:36:00.002-06:00

The president of the American Society of News Editors recently assured students at Penn State that now is a great time to be in journalism.

"This is an opportune time to be a journalist," said Martin Kaiser. "From all this uncertainty comes opportunities."

Kaiser, coverred by the Daily Collegian newspaper, said he realizes that there are problems in the industry, but that there are actually more readers now then ever before. The main problem to be solved is how to bring in revenue to the newspapers from the online readers.

With the increased amount of online traffic for newspaper Web sites also comes an opportunity for reporters to experiment, Kaiser said. New technology gives reporters "an opportunity to be more transparent," lending more credibility and interactivity to stories.

'Journalist' as a diagnosis

2010-02-28T14:26:00.002-06:00

Magazine writer and novelist Anna Quindlen maybe had it pegged when she wrote, "Being a reporter is as much a diagnosis as a job description."

However, New York Times executive editor Bill Keller added some flair to the sense of destiny to pursuing journalism -- the calling, if you will.

In an email to Off The Record, Keller wrote, "Journalists are disposed to a kind of A.D.D., a restless curiosity. One great lure of this work is that you can move from subject to subject, from reporting to editing and back again. Think of it as pushing the 'refresh' button."

Eggers' 'new/old journalism' in 'Panorama'

2010-02-28T14:13:00.003-06:00

The Chicago Tribune's Christopher Borrelli writes about the wonderful one-shot "Sunday newspaper," the San Francisco Panorama, through a chat with creator Dave Eggers, an Illinoisan from his roots through college.

"The first thing to know about the 33rd issue of McSweeney's, the literary journal started in 1998 by Lake Forest native Dave Eggers, is that it's a fantasy, a tantalizing mirage — a glimpse of a perfect media world. And it isn't a fantasy, not entirely. Issue No. 33, so immense it comes in a pillow-size, silver, Ziploc-ish bag, is designed as an old-school Sunday broadsheet newspaper. It features articles from Junot Diaz, Stephen King, Michael Chabon, Miranda July and actor James Franco; it has comics from Alison Bechdel, Art Spiegelman and Oak Park resident Chris Ware; cartoonist Daniel Clowes (another Chicago guy) created the front-page logo. The books section runs 96 pages, the Sunday magazine 112 pages. The photos are large and gorgeous, the longest story is about 20,000 words, the arts section is two sections, and, basically, it's fun.

"Really fun.

"So perfectly executed that if you work at a daily newspaper — heck, if you merely prefer the feel of news on print, or just adore the beleaguered medium (as Eggers does) — issue No. 33 may bring a tear to your eye."

Click on the link above for the full Q&A; also fun.

Journalism's past and future: ex-BBC news chief

2010-02-28T14:04:00.002-06:00

BBC global news director Richard Sambrook is excited about what the web offers news consumers and news rooms, but frets about substance.

"The Internet for breaking and daily news is going to be more important, but where is the space on the web for current affairs and investigative journalism?" he asked in an interview with Vin Ray of the BBC College of Journalism.

After three decades in journalism, Sambrook is leaving the BBC to join the public relations firm Edelman.

Ustream has the conversation on video on the Reportr.net link above.

Toyota puts price on good journalism

2010-02-12T11:57:00.003-06:00

As Toyota steps up its public-relations pushback machine, consumers of news as well as cars might recall that the Japanese carmaker’s problems are not new –- and they’re trying to financially punish those news operations that brought the facts to light.

ABC-TV affiliates in five southeastern states had Toyota pull all their advertising in retaliation for ABC News accurately reporting on problems such as sticky pedals.

“ABC News and its chief investigative correspondent Brian Ross have been reporting on the problem of ‘runaway Toyotas’ since last November,” reports journalist and commentator Laura Flanders. “Ross had hosted a series of stories long before Toyota management started issuing apologies and denials about the extent of their cars’ defects.”

Earlier this month, as Toyota started its biggest recalls ever, Southeast Toyota dealers started pulling commercials off ABC. According to excerpts from an ABC report, the ad agency representing 173 dealers told local ABC affiliates that the shift was due to “excessive stories on the Toyota issues.” One unnamed ABC station manager quoted in a February 8 story on the ad-pulls is quoted as saying that the dealers shifted their commercial time buys to non-ABC stations in the same markets, “as punishment for the reporting.”

Toyota recently started recalling 2010 Prius, too. to its list of recalled vehicles.

“Will ABC News continue reporting?” Flanders asks. “Probably. But will cash-strapped local affiliates continue to run those stories?”

'A fight I'd like to see'

2010-02-03T09:18:00.003-06:00

The National Society of Newspaper Columnists this week re-printed the following essay, which is worth sharing.

Pictured at right is newspaperman/novelist/correspondent Ernest Hemingway -- "content provider"?

By Joyce Marcel
American Reporter Correspondent

DUMMERSTON, Vt. - The first time I was called a "content provider," I knew things were all downhill from there.

Think about Ernest Hemingway. Martha Gellhorn. Dorothy Thompson.

Then Damon Runyon. Alberto Moravia. Mark Twain. Jacob Riis and Lincoln Steffens. Graham Greene. Tom Wolfe. Gay Talese. Nellie Bly. H. L. Mencken. Grantland Rice. Hunter S. Thompson. Walter Winchell. Red Smith. Ernie Pyle. Russell Baker. Dave Barry. Carl Hiassen. Edna Buchanan. Ambrose Bierce. Mike Royko. Herb Caen. Janet Flanner. David Remnick. Seymour Hersh. Art Buchwald. George Seldes. I. F. Stone. David Halberstam. Geraldine Brooks. Jane Perlez. Tony Hillerman. Molly Ivins. A.J. Liebling. Murray Kempton. Ellen Goodman. Anna Quindlen.

Think about the sob sisters and advice-givers: Dorothy Dix. Amy Vanderbilt. The Lederer twins, Eppie and Pauline, also known as Dear Abby and Ann Landers. Heloise.

The great photojournalists: Mathew Brady. Margaret Bourke-White. Robert Capa. Weegee. Eddie Adams. Alfred Eisenstadt.

The New York columnists: Jimmy Breslin. Pete Hamill. Jimmy Cannon.

The ones who will forever be linked together: Katharine Graham. Ben Bradlee. Carl Bernstein. Bob Woodward. Or Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur.

The great movies, The Front Page, His Girl Friday, the brutally cynical Ace in the Hole, Absence of Malice, All the President's Men, Sweet Smell of Success - god, Sweet Smell of Success! The Year of Living Dangerously, The Killing Fields, The Quiet American, Good Night and Good Luck. And the greatest one, Citizen Kane."

The arts writers - Gilbert Seldes. Brooks Atkinson. George Jean Nathan.

Donella Meadows. Rachel Carson. Truman Capote. Joan Didion.

Journalists have added immeasurable richness to our culture.

I've loved four great newspapers in my life: The New York Times, The Miami Herald, the San Francisco Chronicle and The Boston Globe.

These are all shell papers now, ghosts of their former selves. Today we are hearing the death rattle of the Globe as the Times struggles to stay afloat.

Some people say newspapers have outlived their usefulness. These folks have their iPhones and Twitter and podcasts and RSS feeds. Newspapers, they say, are like buggy whips. They served their usefulness and should pass quietly from the scene.

But it's hard to come up with the many cultural contributions of the buggy whip. Or to find instances where people have given their lives for it.

The International News Safety Institute recently estimated that more than 1,300 journalists and other news professionals have died trying to cover the news in 105 countries since 1996. In places like the Congo, Mexico, Darfur, Georgia, Iraq, Colombia, Gaza, Afghanistan. They didn't die to provide "content." Or to raise the price of a media company's stock. They died to bring us the truth.

Some people say that texting, community journalism and social networking will replace newspapers. Yes, it's easy to hear about a plane landing on the Hudson River from people with iPhones who were watching as the thing come down. But will they break the news on Twitter about the next Abu Ghraib, pedophile priests, or a corrupt President?

Newspapers are more than a place to learn what's happening in the world. They're more than a place to find out which congressman is stealing, which sports figure is on steroids, and which actor is secretly having an affair.

They're where you go to get a lead on the good movies and books. They tell you stories about people you've never heard of. They give you the scores and the past performances. They tell you about the latest hip restaurants. They even give you pages of recipes. How many of us have learned to cook our first turkey with the pages of some newspaper taking up too much counter space?

All in one place, mind you. And every day.

Every day in this country, about 1,400 daily newspapers large and small publish how many pages filled with how many words?

And who comes up with the words to fill those pages? Writers.

Mind you, I'm not saying that all newspaper writing is good writing. Far from it. A lot of reporters are terrible writers. They bury the important facts, or cling to the "narrative" opening even when it's a hard news story, or get their facts wrong, or misquote and misinterpret, or push their own agendas, or defend conventional wisdom even when it's clearly not true.

But when you've got that many pages to fill with that many words, you're going to unearth some damn fine writers along the way.

A world without newspapers is a world without a place for writers to be paid to start writing. It's a place where curious people won't be paid to start investigating. I fear a new set of Dark Ages ahead.

We're barely five months into the new year, and the number of laid-off or bought-out reporters is approaching 10,000. The number will rise if the Globe is closed.

Imagine if Hemingway was still alive and someone called him a "content provider." That's a fight I'd like to see.

Journalists in Haiti need help, too

2010-01-23T13:02:00.006-06:00

Broadcast journalists work in the studios of Signal FM, the only Haitian radio station to continuously broadcast during and after the powerful, 7.0-magnitude earthquake that ravaged the capital, Port-au-Prince, and surrounding areas. (Photo from AP/Ariana Cubillos)

Haiti needs water, food and medical assistance, and the world needs news from the impoverished nation reeling from the January 12 earthquake there.

Joel Simon, executive director of the Committee to Protect Journalists, has joined a myriad of groups gathering donations to help Haitians.

"We are beginning to collect funds that will go directly to Haitian journalists," Simon said. "If you’d like to make a contribution you can [go to http://cpj.org/about/donate-online.php] and enter 'Haiti' in the 'Notes' section on the second page."

For other opportunities to help Haitians, go to http://www.google.com/relief/haitiearthquake/

Also, there are three easy ways to donate $10 through your cell-phone bill: To give $10 to Hope for Haiti Now, text 50555 and type "give" in the message. To give $10 to the Red Cross, text 90999 and type "haiti" in the message. To give $10 to Save The Children, text 20222 and type "Save" in the message. All three will promptly reply with an opportunity to confirm your contribution.

Mainstream newsrooms still produce most news

2010-01-18T11:27:00.002-06:00

A new study finds that "most local news still flows from newspapers, and while broadcasters, web sites and blogs, and even social-network sites or podcasts distribute news, "the work of gathering that news is still the job of newspapers," adds the Pottstown (Pa.) Mercury.

The study, from the Pew research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism, shows that mot actual reporting comes from U.S. newspapers.

"It does say that as digital platforms for information proliferate, most original reporting comes from traditional sources — local newspapers, television stations and radio stations," writes Majorie Cortez of the Deseret (Utah) News. "Most digital news outlets are regurgitating the reporting of newspapers, television and radio stations. They often add commentary but provide little new information.

Newspaper job loss in perspective

2010-01-18T11:18:00.003-06:00

About 15,000 newspaper workers lost their jobs last year, according to News Cycle, a media industry outfit.

Some perspective: From August forward, layoffs dropped significantly.

Further, as Bill Steiderwald writes in The American Conservative magazine, "despite all the headlines and hysteria, exactly 10 of the country's 1,437 daily newspapers have stopped publishing since 2007. [And] in September alone, the construction industry shed 64,000 jobs."

Lastly, there's a sizable difference between the headline-grabbing situations of the Rocky Mountain News and the Chicago Tribune on the one hand, and dailies that operate far more quietly and profitably in small and mid-sized markets.

"One thing that would be supportive of newspaper employment is that 70 percent of daily newspapers have circulation under 50,000," said newspaper financial analyst John Morton. "Those kinds of newspapers have suffered far less than big city papers have. Going forward, they will suffer less."