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 Gleam in Her Eye

Maria Figueroa wiped her dirt-streaked brow with a cloth and then rubbed her equally grimy hands down her jeans. Despite her middle-age girth, she leaped gracefully down from the scaffolding on the side of the building. She had been cleaning its marble walls and sculptured pediments laced with 14-carat gold for eight hours now. Soon the bells would ring for Mass.

She shrugged her shoulders to loosen the cramps, then turned her head upward, eyes playing across the facade. 

Slowly the smile spread across her shiny face. The jewel of her small Arizona town it was, she thought to herself. St. George Church. And she got to polish its crown.

"Jewel" has been my favorite word for many years. I remember when I used it for the first time in a news article about a luxury housing development planned for a downtown that sorely needed it.

"God, that is a pretentious word," I thought to myself, and almost deleted it.

But the next day after the story published, the mayor called to compliment my description. A friend called to ask about the condos for sale. The developer later bought an ad in my small-town paper and offered me seats at a local ballpark. Decline.

Jewel is one of those words that promises and winks. And sometimes it overpromises. I like that complexity.

Sam Adams (Old Fezziwig)

Today's discussion in Journalism 101 was about truth and transparency.
I love Sam Adams, but his Journal of Occurrences in 1768 was political spin sans a shred of fact (see if you can say that fast three times).
Yet Adams' published lies about "indecencies" that British soldiers inficted on Boston's women, old men and business people helped drive the occupying British forces out of Boston and jumpstart a revolution.

Spin with purpose?
Ends that justify the means?
So Machiavellian.

But not journalism.
And a great conversation starter to get at the essence of journalism.

Here's a novel concept I tried to convey to journalism students:
Be transparent in your writing, your blogging, your communication spin. Unveil those "gray" areas: biases, viewpoints, agendas.

I love it when I see statements like this in news articles today:
"Full disclosure: This Ford Foundation director also sits on the Gazette's Board of Directors."
"Full disclosure: I am the mother of two young children and I worry about pedophiles all the time."
"Full disclosure: My dad invested his life's savings in Enron and today is destitute. I"m trying not to be bitter."

Full disclosure: I may never write openly about my political viewpoints or my religious philosophy.
But when I write, I'm never going to lie.
That's what's called being a journalist.

All the News That's Fit to Pay For

The New York Times today said it will begin charging in 2011 for repeated use of its news content.
Bravo!

Those of us who still get home delivery of the print edition will get free, unfettered access.
But all you slackers who have come to see quality news and info as a service, rather than a product with intrinsic value, will have to pony up an as-yet-to-be-disclosed monthly fee for regular use of the site.

It takes balls to monetize an entire news site.

Actually, it takes a reputation like the Times'. Or the Wall Street Journal, which already does it.
What will the Times' online advertisers say, do? I'm guessing the Times has talked to them ad nauseam, and has spreadsheets out the wazoo laying out the plan.

Can The Cincinnati Enquirers and Dayton Daily Newses of the world take the leap?
Doubt it.

But it's a VERY SMART step forward. SOMEONE's gotta do it.
All the News That's Fit to Print... on your debit card's monthly statement.

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!

Why Read The New York Times?

This week, Bob Driehaus visits Miami University to talk about real-life journalism careers.

And Bob's career resonates with many journalists who, like me, are hard-pressed to understand why being the first with a juicy story, doing kick-ass reporting and writing your heart out isn't enough to sustain the news industry anymore.

Bob worked for 10 years at the late Cincinnati Post, covering hard-nosed beats like city government, transportation and economic development. But he knew that the Post's joint operating agreement with Gannett Co. Inc., which publishes The Cincinnati Enquirer, would not be renewed at the end of 2007.

So he struck out on a freelance career, one that today includes reporting regularly for The New York Times.

That's why Miami students are blogging now about The Times, and most particularly its National Desk products, because Bob usually writes for that team.

When I was a journalism student at the University of Missouri, becoming a reporter for The Times was the goal. You could go no higher. And some of my classmates made it.

In fact, above is a photo of some of my Mizzou Journalism classmates at the school's centennial in September '08. From left they are Jim Lynch, a former Miami Herald reporter; Janice Hume, a journalism professor at the University of Georgia; Lynn Uhlfelder Berman, a former New York Times journalist; Dan Berman, a former journalist at several East Coast papers; Gary Graff, the Detroit-based music critic for Billboard, Rolling Stone and other media; and me.

We laughed about our graduation, when the esteemed Times journalist Seymour Topping gave the commencement speech and came to our after-party at Lynch and Graff's decrepit apartment, where he drank cheap beer while seated on someone's bed.

Today the Times is still synonymous with excellent in reporting, in writing and in fearlessness to investigate fraud, abuse of power, corruption, neglect and ignorance worldwide. And it has applied the same high journalistic standards to multi-media journalism.

But it has stiff competition from unlikely media sources, and is yoked with a liberal mantle (rather than intellectual or progressive, as I would ID the Times) in an era of polarization.

So you be the judge of how relevant it is to your generation. And enjoy getting to meet one of the Times' journalists. Be sure to interview him thoroughly.

Check Your Engines

Your blogger engines, that is.
Intro to Journalism students: If your link at right does not immediately connect to your own blog, go back to your Settings and make sure that Accessibility is opened to "everyone" or at least "people I choose" if you want to hand-add all of us.
Check your other "Settings" as well, to make sure you have updated those settings to be as public as you feel comfortable.