Transparency

People don't like to admit they are wrong.
That they don't know the answer to something.
That, because some very human issue intervened, they didn't finish the job.

Yet, transparency has become one of the most important aspects of doing quality journalism.
And journalists are just as guilty as everyone else of glossing over mistakes, holes in information, and how real life can side-rail their work.

I was irritated today by a New York Times article about allegations that Herman Cain, an interesting and appealing GOP candidate for president in 2012, had been accused at least twice in the 1990s of sexual harassment by colleagues.

In the interest of transparency, the Times does a number of things right. It clearly states that some of these allegations were dug up by a news competitor, the Associated Press. It openly stated that one of its sources, Chris Wilson, who worked as a pollster at the National Restaurant Association when Cain led that trade group, would not say what Cain said to one of the allegedly harassed women, and that Wilson couldn't shed much light on any such instance. It identifies Wilson today as being a pollster for the Rick Perry campaign for president.

But the Times story also contains this passage, supposedly outlining the sweep of its interviews to try to get to the bottom of this Clarence Thomas/Anita Hill-like mess:

While Mr. Cain’s accusations briefly turned the attention away from him, interviews with more than a dozen people over the last three days paint a picture of his 1996-99 tenure at the National Restaurant Association that is at odds with his insistence that he never harassed anyone. Several people who worked at the association said they knew of episodes that women said had made them uncomfortable dealing with Mr. Cain. 

If you keep reading though, very little info "at odds" with Cain's story is revealed. Many people are quoted anonymously. The story leaves me feeling unsettled, unconvinced. Why was this story on Page One of the nation's most influential newspaper?

And, in fact, this is how I want my journalism students at Miami University of Ohio to feel whenever they consume some news that doesn't quite fit nicely in a transparent box.

I want them to be skeptical. To challenge assertions. To go seek out other info, other viewpoints.

And, ultimately, I want my students to be MORE transparent when they must write an article in which the stakes are high, the answers obscured by muck and the audience ravenous.

Raising Questions

My teenagers always accuse me of asking 20 questions about things they'd rather not share at all.

My reply always runs along the same line as Jack Sparrow gave in "Pirates of the Caribbean," when Will Turner indignantly said in the midst of a sword duel: "You cheated!"
Sparrow's reply: "Pirate."
My reply to my kids: "Journalist."

As a new Journalism 101 semester begins at Miami University, my students will be exploring what it means to be a journalist today -- and back to America's roots as a democracy.
Their first assignment: Check facts and look for bias while comparing the same news story across several different news sources.

The exercise cuts to the heart of the question: Whom do you trust for reliable news?

A New Year, a New Outlook

Today's class discussions - in all three journalism courses I teach at Miami University of Ohio - are about news media trends.
It's a hard lesson, both for me and for students.
The fun part for students was doing their own news media surveys of family, friends and fellow students. How often do you seek out community news? U.S. news? World news? Where do you go to find it? Do you usually read a story to the end, or just the headline, or just look at the photos or video?

It's a great discussion to have with young people. Some were shocked by how little some classmates know or care about news these days. Some were surprised at how much family members - even younger siblings - stick with newspaper reading, or the nightly network news broadcast.

But then comes the hard part: Looking through the annual "State of the News Media" report from the Pew Project for Excellence in Journalism.
A sobering moment, even when I emphasize that studies show demand for 24/7 news is growing, but that the business model to support that newsgathering is on life support.

It's a hard lesson for me, too. After 30 years of calling myself a "journalist" (since I was a teen, editing the Echo student newspaper at Webster Groves High School in St. Louis), I often today marvel at what that term means.
How many times can you say to a young person: "Well, 30 (or 20, or 10) years ago, journalists blah blah blah..." Many get their "news" from Jon Stewart, or Colbert.

I was struck yesterday by Technorati's annual "State of the Blogosphere," so similar to Pew's "State of the News Media." Three out of every four bloggers today is a "hobbiest," the study found. Three quarters are college grads. Two of out every three are male (where are all of us chatty women? Facebook?).

I haven't had much time to do real journalism in the past year because of my teaching and web design load. The conservative Cincinnati columnist Peter Bronson was just named editor of the magazine I previously had written boatloads of business articles for. I won't be working for Cincy again.

But I HAVE blogged. Blogged during my 2009 summer in Italy often, and loved it, and always reported and wrote like a journalist. Technorati's studies show that a large chunk of bloggers feel they are doing journalism. So maybe I should feel better about my blog work, and even my Facebook posts of "news," like the Bronson bit, which my Cincinnati media colleagues will buzz about.

But for writing students, I know blogging is a blast. They have fun, they work on their writing, their journalism. And, best of all, they contribute to the global conversation while doing it. Democracy - the Fourth Estate, if you will - at work at Miami University.

Go Redhawk writers!