Text, Lies, and Videotape

Paul Anger, Editor and Publisher of the Detroit Free Press helped lead an investigation of the Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick that eventually led to the Mayor being jailed for 4 months, and being fined by the City of Detroit $1 million. The full length story can be found here.

During his discussion about this story, Anger provided us with several suggestions when working on a case as big as this.

1. Journalism is alive and well! The web is our friend, and so is technology, so embrace it! It helped in this situation because the majority of evidence from this case came from text messages between the Mayor and his girlfriend /mistress.

2. We need to protect our sources. In this case, the sources were confidential and would’ve never come forward if they were not given anonymity. He cautions journalist to use confidential sources, but if you do, you must always maintain their confidentiality if they ask you to.

3. Make sure your story is bullet proof! Investigative pieces must be bullet proof,  meaning they must contain all of the pertinent information necessary for the case to be solid, without holes, and more importantly not libelous or slanderous. Nothing but the truth and the factual evidence must go into your story.

4. Digital technology is a great tool for watchdog journalism, news, and communication.

Broadcast Journalists: Give them a Break!

               On September 11, 2001, our nation was forever changed.  Among the changes, were the affects the attacks had on the American people.  Mike Walters, a broadcast journalist for WUSU in Washington D.C. was in New York and was also an eye-witness to the attacks on The Pentagon.

                He said for once in his life, he was “on the other side of the job.”  What he meant was that after witnessing the attacks during 9/11 he was interviewed by journalists, like himself.  He said it was strange at first, but that the journalists interviewing him made him feel comfortable and  “told him to say what he felt.”  These common tactics of making an interviewee feel comfortable and telling them to say what they feel about a particular subject, really works in a traditional interview setting.

                 A year later, Walters produced a package (story) about survivors of the 9/11 attacks.  He recalls Chris Young, a man stuck in the elevators during the attacks, who when the doors opened, had no idea what had happened, and why he was still alive. “My life was saved, I don’t know why,” he said. “There were angels in that building saving people’s lives.”   The thing he most remembers and that has gotten him through this traumatic event is that he felt, “my boss was watching out for me. She couldn’t save herself, but she would be damned if I wasn’t going to get out.”

Lena Jakobsson of truTV, spoke about the stigmas associated with reporting about crime and traumatic events in people’s lives.  She spoke  of a story she produced about a town that was relieving devastating events about the Freedom Summer.  Three Young men (Two Caucasian and One Black) who went to Mississippi to register Black voters and were killed for doing so by the KKK in 1969.  The defendant was back on trial for the murders.

Lena Jakobsson; Photo from: SPJ.org

She said that any reporter who is placed in the difficult situation about reopening old wounds about a case that has since expired, or about reporting a death, they should do the following:

1. Tell the story instead of push it of out individuals.

2. Give voice to the story. Remember who you are talking about, and that you are talking about lives of people.

Your Multimedia Toolkit

August 28, 2009

COMING SOON!!

They ran out of handouts which had a complete list of supplies for a backpack journalist.  We are waiting for that e-mail.

Thanks!

Are Journalists Paranoid About Mental Illness?

August 28, 2009

How would you cover something you could not see?

David Chartrand, one of the few journalists in the US who cover mental illness, and Dr. Scott Poland, from the Center for Psychological Studies and Coordinator of Suicide and Violence Prevention Office, Nova Southeastern University, teamed up to try to teach journalists how to cover mental illness.

As I said, there are few journalists who will attempt to delve into this kind of coverage because it’s hard to report what you can’t see.  Matter of the mind are always hard to understand, much less report!

Let’s begin with resources:

• The New Freedom Commission on Mental Health (2003)
• The Surgeon Generals Report on Mental Health (1999)
• The National Strategy on Suicide Prevention (2001)

Journalists, and everyday people for that matter, are afraid to talk and write about things they don’t understand.  The first step toward understanding is looking for facts.  You must research the topic.  Ask stupid questions, then question your answers.

Interview the mentally ill people you want to cover.  Talk to their family and friends.  You need more than an official source anyway!

FERPA is one of the most misunderstood documents ever, Chartrand said.  In order to help clear up some confusion, he created FERPA: Murphy’s Law to help us all understand a little better.

Remember that stories about mental illness are not health stories.  It’s treated like one, but in honesty, it is a political story, Chartrand said.

Shall we talk a little about suicide?  Well, yes.

There is a stigma that comes with a person taking their own life.  Politicians know this, your grandmother knows this.  The question we need to think about is why is a person characterized so differently after their suicide?  For instance, if Johnny was the most popular boy in school and everyone viewed him, in life, as the happy-go-lucky kid they had always known, then why after he commits suicide does he become the loner or drug addict?  I’m not going to answer that question.  I will leave that one for you to ponder.

When Dr. Poland stood to speak in the session, he said some shocking things that hurt my heart.  For instance, an elementary school child brought a gun to school.  When a fellow classmate noticed it in the first child’s backpack, he alerted the teacher quietly.  After three times of being told that a student in the room had a gun, the teacher asked, for the whole class to hear, “Do you have gun in your backpack?”  The kid confirmed the fire arm was in his backpack.  The teacher asked the child to bring the gun to the front of the room.  A child walked through his full classroom to hand the gun to his teacher, who did not alert administration.  His question was, are we asking our schools about mental illness?  Are they being held responsible?

He said that 20 percent of children have a diagnosable mental illness, but there are few resources for them.  On a college campus, suicide is the second leading cause of death.

The prescribed method to start shedding some light on mental illness is to start producing stories and information to show people what they can do to prevent tragedies like school shootings and suicides.  The nation needs information and resources about mental health awareness.

If you have any questions about mental health reporting, I can tell you I’ve written one story about the issue, so I can only help so much.  I do however know of people who can.  Contact me for their information.

Also, there is a 24-hour suicide crisis hotline.  The number is 1-800-SUICIDE.

Jessi Propst

President

Weird Careers in Journalism

August 27, 2009

As most of us know, the state of journalism is a little scary currently with people getting laid off and papers shutting down all over.  But, never fear!  Journalism majors and journalists have options.

This session focused on jobs for journalists that maybe we would not have thought of by ourselves.  Michael Koretzky, from Florida Atlantic University helped lead us into this unknown territory because, as he said, traditional journalism jobs in un-traditional places.

From August 2008 to August 2009, during some of the worst moments of the recession, Koretzky saw 342 full-time jobs and 62 part-time jobs come across his desk.  He runs a job listing site you can check out by clicking this link.

Koretzky said the best jobs are not on the career sites you might expect to look through when looking for a job because it costs too much for many places to post there.  Instead look for listings at the source.

If you want to get a job in sports journalism, don’t look at newspapers!  Look in the sports field. Realize early that you can’t specialize in one sport anymore.  They want sports fanatics who can learn multimedia programs quickly.

Even though for years journalists have looked at public relations as the “dark side,”  people who hire PR people want to hire people who can write. It looks like the “dark side” is becoming less dark.

Nonprofit organization are hiring journalists.  Why?  Because good writing brings in more donations into the organization.

Burger King , yacht magazines are hiring journalists who know nothing about the subject they are covering!  They need people who can report and write.

If you want to work at a daily newspaper, learn how to be a backpack journalist.  If you are unfamiliar with the term: a backpack journalists is a reporter who interviews, videos, writes for print and web, shoots pictures, etc.  We must become a one-stop, be-all-end-all kind of reporter.  Oh, and much to the dismay of a copy editing major, copy editor are always the first to get laid off, Koretzky said.

Just a few tips for getting a job from Koretzky:

1. “Experience with” means you can open the program and alter existing documents.  “Proficient with” means you can do it all – open the program, create a document, and fix anything that is wrong with it.
2. You can stay employed if you can multitask well.  Younger people are better at this than older people in a newsroom, but older people usually understand government and issues and tend to have a better “bullshit meter” for politicians.
3. When writing a resume, do not list your education first.  Start with experience.
4. Learn to spell.  Some employers will toss your resume and materials in the trash if they see a misspelled word.
5. All the above information gets you to your initial interview.  There you will be asked to share a “war story” about your time in the field.  Think long and hard about this question BEFORE you enter the interview.  Stupid answers or answers that take too long to think of make you look like an idiot.

Jessi Propst

President

Super Session: Reporting from the Sidelines

Photo courtesy of CBS.com

The Super Session titled Reporting from the Sidelines was a panel of journalists who had both reported in Iraq.  Kimberly Dozier of CBS Washington D.C. Bureau and James Janega of the Chicago Tribune both discussed what it was like in Iraq as a reporter and how their views of the war changed. 

In 2006, while in Iraq, the caravan Dozier traveled in was hit.  As a result, the cameraman and sound-man were killed.  Dozier’s legs were broken, and she suffered burns to her legs.  She says that happening changed her outlook on life. 

Both reporters said that in 2005-2007, the risk of a caravan of reporters and troops getting hit because they were journalists was very high.  During this time, however, journalists wanted to find people to write stories about.   They said that now, it is difficult for their superiors to send reporters overseas because of budgetary reasons.  Journalists are often questioned by their bosses and asked to explain what story they will write, what their proposed budget is, why this story and how they are going to acquire the story.

More information about these reporters can be found, by clicking their names on this page.

SPJ Nationals 2010

OK everyone!  It’s that time of year again.  Time for SPJ Nationals!  This year we are in Indianapolis celebrating 100 years of SPJ.  We are extremely excited to get out and meet people and learn new things about journalism.  Some of our friends from Fort Worth are here, too, so we will be meeting up with them at some point.

Since we are the only one’s here, Larry and I will keep you all informed through this blog.

Each of us will attend sessions, then blog about our experience!  It will be like you are here with us in a very distant way.

Getting ready for a good year

This summer I’ve been exceptionally busy trying not only to figure out the rest of my life, but also to plan an amazing year for SPJ UT Austin.  As many of you may know, this year we are hosting the Region 8 Convention in Austin, TX.  In order to pull off such a monumental, first-time event we need to raise $30,000!  If you just nearly vomited on your keyboard, you had the exact reaction I had when I saw that number!

Although the number is terrifying, I feel that we can do it.  Of course, as our parents have told us for years, money doesn’t grow on trees.  We need to fundraise like it’s going out of style, team!  If you have any ideas, please let the officers know.

Now for some updates in SPJ UT Austin news:

First of all, we have some new officers that I know will do a great job.  I’m returning as president with Larry Dechant returning as my partner in crime, or vice president as some call that position.  Bridget Green is our new secretary.  Candice Holloway is our treasurer.  Jordan Bodkin is our PR and events officer.  Last, but not least, is Stephanie Kuo, our webmaster.

Secondly, I want to say thank you and congratulations to our chapter for receiving the Region 8 Campus Chapter of the Year.  I’m so proud of all of us!  Our hard work paid off!

I have high hopes for this year, ladies and gentlemen.  Simply put, I am dying to get this year started.  We have so much hard work to do, but so much fun waiting for us.

Our first general meeting is scheduled for September 10 at 6:30 p.m. in Burdine.  The actual room is TBA.

Thanks again to everyone!

Jessi Propst

President

Oral Interviews- Help a fellow student out.

Hi all!

A fellow UT student has asked SPJ to view and respond to her PowerPoint presentation about the death penalty and the media.

Thanks!  I know she appreciates it!

Jessi Propst -SPJ President

**This PowerPoint does not suggest  SPJ’s views of the issue.

The scary state of journalism

Journalism is scary. Everyone are loosing their jobs, students out of college can’t find jobs, people aren’t buying newspapers. It’s just real scary.

SPJ’s shining speaker Hagit Limor gave us hope first thing at the spj conference. She told us her story about starting her career in the worst year for journalism to date. She said she went from town to town to town begging for a job wherever she could find one. Eventually, she did. And she learned. And she got better.

That’s what Hagit says we as young journalists should do. She believes we have the advantage in this new medium, and I agree. Us young, tech-savvy college kids have no problem learning how to pick up our own video camera and learning to write our own interview questions, then shooting and editing and posting our package on a news site. No big.

Hagit said it’s harder for those who have been in the buisiness for years to learn how to do these things that come naturally to us. We can do it, and they can’t. So hooray for us. In a few years our know-how could dominate the media, coming up with new formulas for handing out news. We will have fresh ideas for the most effective way to keep the news industry alive.

She admits that newspapers are dying, but newspapers are dinosaurs. And sure, dinosaurs are fun to think about and remember how cool they were, but today we have new things, much cooler than dinosaurs. Like computers. Computers, and blogs, and twitter, and facebook, and youtube, and a million other online meduim that will work as tools for us to use to be the best journalists we can.

Don’t be scared, she told us, be excited and ready. And we should be. It’s cool to think about that we might be able to do in the near future.

Bye bye old dinosaurs, hello super-cool space age.

–Jordan Bodkin, SPJ UT Austin

Bright lights, big city (Hah!) – Give me community news instead.

In this session on March 21, Tommy Thason, Kay Pirtle and Susan Karnes discussed their work with community papers and magazines.

The main thing, I gathered from this session is not to write off small, community media outlets.  Small papers and magazines are a great place to learn.  If you have questions, an editor is easy to reach to ask for help.  And if you make a mistake, it’s still bad, but not catastrophic.

–Jessi Propst, SPJ UT Austin President

When flacks become friends: Transitioning from journalism to PR

On March 21, I went to the PR session at the SPJ Region 8 Conference because I’ve been considering trying to get a job in nonprofit PR.  With the state of the economy, many long-time journalists are making the same transition.

Kay Colley, Donna Darovich and Kristin Sullivan lead this session.  All three have journalists.  They feel they have an advantage in PR because they understand the journalists they deal with on a daily basis.  These women fight for journalistic right instinctively.  It is important to maintain good relationships with the journalists who will be covering your organization.  Sullivan recommends never burning bridges with anyone you meet because you never know when they may be writing a story about something you are working on.

PR is all about positioning.  You must look at all the angles of the story you want covered and find the one that is the best.  You want to look for ways to set your organization apart. For instance, if your organization wins an award, when you publicize it, you would say, “We are the only organization in Texas to win this award.”  You want to make your organization look great.

Good writing is very important in PR work.  In my opinion, good writing is important to anyone to function in society. Plus, you don’t want to look like an illiterate idiot, right?  When writing press releases, use AP Style or whatever style your organization uses.  Most prefer AP style. One thing Darovich recommends highly is to always take notes and carry a recorder when going in for an interview.  She says several students have come to interview her empty-handed  Crazy kids!

–Jessi Propst, SPJ President

Multimedia: A New Way to Tell the Story

In the Session Multimedia: A New Way to Tell the Story,  Jen Friedberg, a multi-media journalist for the Star Telegram, spoke about the changing world of journalism and its transition to the world wide web.  Her first thought to any working and aspiring journalists is that reporters, photographers, and multi-media personnel should all work together.  “If they work together, the end result will be better than if they had worked alone,” she said.

One of the projects Friedberg worked on was a profile on the Rogers Hotel.  This piece explored the so called  “haunted hotel,” and allowed the public to gain access into a building that has since been shut down. 

Friedberg also showed works she had created with a fellow reporter about the execution of a man who was convicted of killing a 20-year-old male and his girlfriend.  Friedberg showed us two videos of the three part series.  She said the web allowed for in depth and lengthier pieces such as these two because it is essentially free, whereas T.V. is more expensive because of the need to provide advertising and create revenue.  Friedberg said, on average a television report is 45 seconds, while an internet report typically lasts one minute 30 seconds. This is because T.V. requires brevity and advertising to make it successful.  The internet has no time limits and is not restricted by commercials to create revenue.

Friedberg said the stories she does are documentary style, meaning she lets the source speak more than the reporter. 

Another key component to online journalism is the need for networking amongst other sites.  Friedberg said you should send stories out to other outlets who have a vested interest in your subject.  For example, if you are blogging or writing about a local organization, you should send the local organization the link to your website so that they can post it on their website, thereby creating potential traffic to your blog or website.  Also, establish rapport with Public Relations people you work with.  Send out the links to them as well, because chances are they will link your story to their site and you will get visitors to your site. 

For videos in the Fort Worth area visit: startelegram.com/videos

 

 

Making Media in the Age of Obama

The last lecture I attended revolved around subjects that are very near and dear to me. Yes, there is the obvious, President Obama. But there is also his not-quite-so-obvious effect on the news, specifically speaking, how he’s allowing race and culture to find their ways back into mainstream media. And not in the bad, controversial, Times-Picayune way.

We were lucky enough to be graced by four prominent journalists, Gilbert Bailón, Scott Nishimura, Cheryl Smith and Bob Ray Sanders, all of whom were eager to put their two cents in on the importance of diversity.

“I love seeing diversity–diversity of your minds and hearts,” said Smith, commenting on how diversity may not always entail physical and racial qualifications.

Bailón then commandeered the mic and told us how in this industry “you need to be trilingual,” and not in the traditional sense. You need to be able to speak English beyond what is sufficient. You need to command the language, a skill that can only be gained through intensive reading and writing. Next, you need to be literate in yourself and be knowledgeable of your abilities and talents. And finally, you need to be literate in multimedia, a medium that is without a doubt the future of journalism. Using technology as a journalistic tool is definitely a highly sought after expertise in the business.

Then came the pivotal question of the afternoon, the real focus of the day.

“Is the Obama presidency going to make a difference in the industry?”

Sanders jumped at the answer.

“It already has.”

He gave credence to his response by explaining that people who weren’t commonly in mainstream media are suddenly getting coverage today.

Obama is an internationalist. He believes that this world extends beyond our borders. And it shows. His proactive outreaching to foreign countries through emphasis on dialogue and diplomacy are beginning to appear in the headlines. Essentially, with Obama, comes stories on international issues and international figures. And with that comes the broader understanding and acceptance of such issues in the American journalistic arena.

However, the remnants of previous media continue to keep contemporary journalism hanging by a thread. The true test will be revealed in the 2010 Census, which all four journalists agree will show that newspapers have not been doing their jobs in reaching out to various demographics.

Diversity matters.

“Diversity matters for business and for coverage,” said Bailón. With more exposure to international and racial issues, we need people who better comprehend them. Therefore sending a white American to cover stories on Chinese New Year or on the rise of crime rates in a primarily African American neighborhood, or on the impact of Islamic law on women’s rights, isn’t always the most practical idea. That’s not to say that people of color and of diverse backgrounds are completely necessary in coverage. Nevertheless, it helps.  Fundamentally, we need journalists of all colors and of all backgrounds. If we learn to embrace the broadening of the newsroom populace, we’ll get new perspectives, better understanding and generally more thorough and legitimate coverage.That’s why diversity in the newsroom is important.

In response to this, Smith proclaimed proudly, “I see the color and I celebrate the color.”

Let’s hope that Obama ushers in that era, that era in which journalism also sees the color and celebrates it too.

-Stephanie Kuo, SPJ UT Austin

“The Power of the Story” with Dave Lieber

Once upon a time, in a kingdom called Ft. Worth, I learned the power of telling a good story by a prince named Dave Lieber. He was an energetic and engaging speaker, but most importantly he had a refreshing point to make: that perhaps if we focused our attention on the simple act of storytelling the story will be more likely to reach the public.
According to Lieber, we as journalists have “cluttered up the story with all our crap”. That from the beginning of mankind, the most effective and lasting stories are those told with a hero, a villain, and a beginning, middle and end.  He suggested that  “there is no such thing as a boring story, only a boring writer” and insists that this can be applied to any aspect of life, not merely writing. For example, you should tell the story of why we deserve a raise to your boss instead of listing off your great qualities and how productive you’ve been at work lately. The perfect story translates into any situation, language, or time period.  We should always try to find the hidden gem in every story, the part that will hook the reader and invite them to continue reading, eventually absorbing all of the important facts of the story that would have otherwise flown over their heads.
Lieber explained his “perfect model” of a story, advocated that we as journalists remain the watchdogs of our society, and generally won over the crowd with his charm and knowledge of his field. And so we SPJ Austin members left his workshop knowing so much more about the story then when we had entered and lived happily ever after. The end.

–Bridget Green