Spring 2011 • Volume 41 Number 321 • $7.00
St. Louis Journalism Review Presents:
What’s Next for Journalism Education by Jerry Ceppos Page 10
Ethics Defines the Professional by Ginny Whitehouse • Page 14
A Former Student’s Perspective: From J-School to Archeology, Ph.D. by Elizabeth Pierce • Page 24
College Newspapers in the 21st Century: Nurturing a Passion for News is the Most Important Job Facing College Newspapers by Lola Burnham • Page 21
Student Journalists Stick With Their Ousted Advisor by Roy Malone • Page 29
gatewayjr.org
Spring 2011 • Vol. 41 No. 321 • $7.00 This Issue:
J-School Education in the 21st Century 10 • W hat’s Next for Journalism Education by Jerry Ceppos
Charles Klotzer Founder William A. Babcock Editor Roy Malone St. Louis Editor Mallory Henkelman Creative Director
William Freivogel Publisher Scott Lambert Managing Editor Jennifer Butcher Production Editor Sam Robinson Operations Director
Wenjing Xie Marketing Director
Steve Edwards Cover Artist/Cartoonist
Jason Allen Editorial Cartoonist
Aaron Veenstra Web Master
Board of Advisers: Frank Absher, Jim Kirchherr, Lisa Bedian, Ed Bishop, Tammy Merrett, Don Corrigan, Michael Murray, Rita Csapo-Sweet, Steve Perron, Eileen Duggan, Joe Pollack, Michael D. Sorkin, David P. Garino, Rick Stoff, Ted Gest, Fred Sweet, William Greenblatt, Lynn Venhaus, Daniel Hellinger, Robert A. Cohn, Michael E. Kahn, John P. Dubinsky, Gerald Early, Paul Schoomer, Dr. Moisy Shopper, Ray Hartmann, Ken Solomon
12 • Preparing Students for the Changing Media Landscape by Doug Anderson
14 • E thics Defines the Professional by Ginny Whitehouse
16 • In Defense of the Study of Journalism History by Elliot King
19 • Overprotecting Free Speech by Charles Davis
20 • Why J-Schools Aren’t Doing the Job They ’re Supposed to Do by Wally Sparks
21 • C ollege Newspapers in the 21st Century: Nurturing a Passion for News is the Most Important Job Facing College Newspapers by Lola Burnham
23 • A Former Student’s Perspective: J-Schools Can’t Replicate Covering a Beat by Andrew Smith
24 • A Former Student’s Perspective: From J-School to Archeology, Ph.D. by Elizabeth Pierce
25 • A Former Student’s Perspective: Study at a Large University by Jennifer Frehn
26 • J-Schools Open Other Doors by Erin Holcomb
Published by School of Journalism College of Mass Communication and Media Arts Dean: Gary Kolb School of Journalism Director: William H. Freivogel Gateway Journalism Review Mail Code 6601 1100 Lincoln Drive Communications Building 1236 Carbondale, IL 62901
27 • Column from Scott by Scott Lambert
Features 6 • Videotaping in Illinois: Score One for Police Harassment by William H. Freivogel
7 • Colorado J-School to be Axed? by Scott Lambert
8 • Let Them Eat Cheese: Media Weigh in on Wisconsin’s Labor War by Chuck Quirmbach
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The Gateway Journalism Review GJR (USPS 738-450 ISSN: 0036-2972) is published quarterly, by Southern Illinois University Carbondale, School of Journalism, College of Mass Communication and Media Arts, a non-profit entity. The office of publication is SIUC School of Journalism, 1100 Lincoln Drive, Mail Code 6601, Carbondale, IL 62901 Periodical postage paid at Carbondale, IL and additional mailing offices. Please enclose stamped, selfaddressed envelope with manuscript. Copyright © 2010 by the Gateway Journalism Review. Indexed in the Alternative Press Index. Allow one month for address changes.
POSTMASTER: Please send address changes to Gateway Journalism Review William Freivogel School of Journalism 1100 Lincoln Drive, Mail Code 6601 Carbondale, IL 62901.
11 • Journalists and Public Relations Professionals by Namarata Bansal
SJR Spotlight 29 • Student Journalists Stick With Their Ousted Advisor by Roy Malone
31 • B etter Business Bureau Uses Ex-Journalists to Investigate Problem Firms by Don Corrigan
33 • Media Knew in the 1930s: Tobacco is a Poison Column by Charles L. Klotzer
34 • Media Notes
Spring 2011 • Gateway Journalism Review • Page 3
Editor Notes We’re devoting a large chunk of this edition to an examination of journalism schools – whether or not they’re educating students properly, providing students with the necessary academic knowledge and professional skills, anticipating what sort of talent the mass media might need now and in the future and dealing with the necessary technological issues. The task of educators would be easier were j-school students really gearing up for mass media careers in news editorial journalism, photojournalism, broadcast journalism, online journalism, advertising or public relations. But that’s not the case. An estimated 65 percent of undergraduate journalism students are in j-schools for the writing skills, never anticipating working in the media. They say they are studying journalism and mass communications because they know that’s where they’ll learn good writing, editing and production skills – skills they know they will need in whatever field they ultimately choose, and skills that seldom are adequately stressed in most English departments. As a result, j-school teachers educate students with a vast array of intents and interests. Reaching such a diverse clientele is challenging in good times, let alone during a time when media jobs are at best changing – and at worst, ceasing to exist. In a world where there’s really no such thing as a “typical first job,” it’s impossible to craft a curriculum where every graduate will have at his or her fingertips the media skills to shine in such an amorphous first job. Sure, j-school teaches students online writing, digital editing, web production, multi-faceted information gathering, video streaming and modern information marketing communication skills. More importantly, j-schools, through a variety of academic courses including media law, ethics and history, continue to teach students how to think. Key skills change and new tech quickly becomes old tech, but good, sound, logical, ethical thinking remains the goal of any quality j-school. To help us figure out what j-schools should be doing, we’ve asked a variety of people for their opinions, including university accreditors, administrators, teachers, students and former journalists. In particular, we’ve asked our cover story contributor, former Knight-Ridder executive Jerry Ceppos, if he would recommend a j-school education to Robin, his 18-year-old teenage daughter. He replies that not only would he make
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this recommendation, but that he indeed did recommend his own school to his daughter, and that she’s now a firstyear student at the j-school in Reno, Nevada. But did his daughter indeed make the right decision, and was his advice sound? Is it best to learn the craft through an accredited j-school program, or might an academic degree in political science or economics provide a sturdier foundation? Is it really necessary for budding journalists to take a plethora of skills classes when a bit of practical professional experience might fill the bill just as well – or perhaps better? Do j-school students ever ask why so many of their professors never themselves majored in journalism or mass communications? Can any professional degree realistically hope to infuse undergraduate – or graduate – students with sufficient new-tech skills to really “hit the ground running” in a first job? Can a j-school education ever replicate covering a beat, day in and day out? Is it possible for one required media law course to do much more than suggest that students exercise caution when writing a news story or a blog? Will journalism ethics courses ever help make journalists, or journalism, more credible? Recent news that the University of Missouri School of Journalism has the lowest post-graduation placement rate of any academic college at the University of Missouri, does not bode well, even considering the uncertain state of the nation’s job market. Too, the apparent shuttering of the University of Colorado’s School of Journalism and Mass Communication has sent shock waves to all j-schools across America. And I wonder, as my own 17year-old daughter Lillian nears college age: Will I recommend a j-school education to her as Dean Ceppos did to his daughter. Or would my Mandarin-speaking, rock-climbing, environmentally conscious, water polo and violin playing daughter be better off studying biology or English rather than sitting in front of a computer screen in a journalism 101 newswriting lab. Hmm . . .
Lillian E. Babcock
William A. Babcock, Editor
Letter to the Editor Dear Editor: I was disappointed in your publication for running Margaret Freivogel’s encomium to the St. Louis Beacon, and I suspect other readers were too. First of all, it is ordinarily not, as the French succinctly put it, comme il faut, for a reporter to write about an institution in which she or he is associated, especially when that association is so intimate as it is in this case. It’s an impropriety, a breach of journalistic etiquette, a conflict of interest. There are exceptions, which we’ll come to momentarily. If the Journalism Review wanted to run an article on the Beacon, it should have assigned someone else to do it. Second, the piece read like the kind of prose you see in a corporate annual report (and sometimes on a sports page): immodest, self-congratulatory and largely devoid of any disinterest, objectivity or redeeming social value. It is sometimes possible under special circumstances for a journalist interestingly and usefully to write about his or her own publication, but it requires an effort at detachment. A recent example is Bill Keller’s piece in the New York Times Magazine (Jan. 30) on the Times’ relationship with Julian Assange. Though Keller allowed personal sentiments to intrude (he found Assange repulsive), he was careful to label them as such, and he kept his narrative at arm’s length as best he could. I’ve known Mrs. Freivogel for about 40 years and have found her heretofore to be tough-minded, very intelligent and a competent writer, with only a slight tendency to confound journalism with a social mission. So I’m disappointed in her, too. Very Truly Yours, E.F. Porter Jr. University City, Mo.
THE EDITOR RESPONDS : The first issue of Gateway Journalism Review contained a package of five pieces on new/online-journalism initiatives, one of the most timely topics in journalism. This package was geared to appeal to the new, expanded circulation of GJR, which now includes some 16 states. The centerpiece of this package was Margaret Freivogel’s article on the online publication she founded, the St. Louis Beacon. By having such a lead story, GJR made it clear that St. Louis is the focus of what’s newsworthy in Midwest journalism. How often is it that a publication gets an exclusive on a trend-setting organization by the CEO of that very company? Or, put another way, passing on such a story would be like a new-tech publication turning down the chance of having Steve Jobs write about the company he founded. In addition, GJR’s publisher, William Freivogel, in his p. 5 column of the previous issue, recused himself from any coverage of the Beacon, edited by his wife. So now let’s see: GJR has a hot, timely story written by the most knowledgeable person possible, a related package of stories and a prominent disclosure of any apparent conflict of interest. Sounds to me like solid, ethical journalism dealing with a truly trend-setting topic – the very fodder that makes for an important, readable story in the maiden voyage of a new journalism review.
Spring 2011 • Gateway Journalism Review • Page 5
Features Videotaping in Illinois: Score One for Police Harassment W i l l i a m H. F reivogel of his arrest. He is scheduled to go
on trial in April.
Tiwanda Moore, the 20-year-old stripper, went to police headquarters to complain about an officer she said had fondled her and left her his personal phone number. An officer receiving Moore’s complaint tried to dissuade her from pursuing it. She began recording the conversation with her cell phone. When officers discovered what she was doing, they charged her under the eavesdropping statute. In her defense, Moore is relying on a exception to the eavesdropping law that allows a conversation to be recorded surreptitiously if a crime is about to be committed. She maintains that the officer’s effort to discourage her from filing a complaint was committing a crime. The ACLU in Illinois went to court to challenge the state eavesdropping law as a violation of the First Amendment, but a Chicago judge threw out the suit last month. The ACLU is appealing. Most states, such as Missouri, allow conversations to be recorded as long as one party to the conversation consents. That means a newspaper reporter in Missouri, for example, generally can record a telephone conversation without telling the person on the other end of the line.
At a time when millions of Americans have cell phones, with video and audio capability, and when videotapes of police misconduct often are the stuff of news reports, Illinois is leading the nation in prosecuting citizens who tape officers in public. Illinois has one of the three most restrictive eavesdropping laws in the country, along with Maryland and Massachusetts. And Illinois police and prosecutors are not shy about using the law to punish the taping of arrests and interrogations. Chicago authorities recently charged a street artist and a stripper for violating the law. Both face 15 years in prison. The street artist, Charles Drew, actually intended to get arrested in an act of civil disobedience targeting a Chicago ordinance banning the sale of art without a permit on the street. That would have been a misdemeanor, but he ended up charged with a felony for arranging a tape
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Twelve states have two-party consent laws for eavesdropping, meaning all parties must consent to an audio recording. But Illinois, Maryland and Massachusetts have the toughest interpretation and enforcement. The other nine states have an exception to the law that allows recording of public police conversations. In Maryland, the state attorney general has issued an opinion indicating that those taping officers in a way that does not interfere with their work should not be prosecuted. Prosecutors and police in Illinois, however, think the strict enforcement of the law is important. The Fraternal Order of Police in Chicago said audio recording of police on the street performing their duty could affect how officers do their jobs. That is exactly what civil liberties groups want. The public impact of the Rodney King tapes is well known. Video and audiotaping of police is often the best evidence of police misconduct. A recent surveillance video of police officers in Houston beating a teenage burglary suspect has resulted in criminal cases and discipline against the officers and provoked a strong public reaction after it was released to the media. The National Press Photographers Association sees the prosecutions of those taping police activities in public as the latest effort of authorities to harass photographers
Features performing their job. In a statement, the association said: “Despite consistent court rulings protecting the First Amendment rights of both citizens and the media to take photographs in public places, and despite many law enforcement agencies spelling it out in their official policies, the officer on the street either doesn’t get the word or decides to act on his own in the name of ‘security’ or ‘terrorism laws,’ often citing rules that don’t exist and exerting authority that’s non-existent. And recently in some states police have started citing old wiretapping laws that have been on the books for decades as their excuse for ordering photographers to cease videotaping officers as they’re doing their jobs in public, either during traffic stops or street arrests
or while interfering with photographers who are breaking no rules and who are posing no threats to safety.” Huffington Post on Illinois case:
www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/22/artist-could-face-15-year_n_812596.html
New York Times on Illinois case:
www.nytimes.com/2011/01/23/us/23cnceavesdropping.html
St. Louis Beacon on Illinois case:
http://www.stlbeacon.org/voices/blogs/law-scoop/107970eavesdropping-prosecutions-in-illinois
William H. Freivogel is director of the School of Journalism at Southern Illinois University Carbondale and a board member of the St. Louis Beacon. He is a member of the Missouri Bar. •
Colorado j-school to be axed?
The University of Colorado School of Journalism and Mass Communications is waiting on proposals from the Program Discontinuance Committee and the Exploratory Committee to determine the future of its journalism program after deciding that its current course was not feasible. - Scott Lambert
Spring 2011 • Gateway Journalism Review • Page 7
Features Let Them Eat Cheese: Media Weigh in on Wisconsin’s Labor War C huc k Q u i rmba ch News media in Wisconsin take for granted that the state capital city of Madison will be the site of medium-sized protests, late-night legislative antics and accusations of gubernatorial power grabs. While many of those fights over the last few decades were over substantive issues, it was still not the type of doings that energizes large crowds. The dynamic and sometimes tragic Vietnam War protests in Madison that many older reporters had covered early in their career – and middle-aged reporters studied in school – had a “remember when” air to them. Hearing about the Vietnam era in 2010 was like hearing about the Great Depression in 1970. You got the importance, but looked for current relevance.
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When the Wisconsin State Assembly debated the bill for three days, reporters, editors and others said, ‘When and where do WE sleep, and who will wake us should there suddenly be action?’
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Then, Wisconsin’s newly elected Republican governor, Scott Walker, announced a budget-repair plan in February that would take away many collective bargaining rights most public sector workers around the state had held since before Vietnam. Reporters and editors in Wisconsin pondered, “Hmm . . . we bet this brings tens of thousands of people out to protest.” This anticipation was bolstered by several strong possibilities. The people affected would have the means and time to take on the political powers of the day. There would likely be more unusual legislative maneuvering. A bright national media spotlight would shine on an ambitious new governor. Wisconsin newspapers, blogs, radio outlets and television stations, which usually stuff statehouse news deep into the newscasts, immediately paid attention. A Milwaukee TV station, which typically likes a title for its continuing coverage, called it “Capital Chaos.” Some national outlets, such as the New York Times and the Associated Press, were also on the announcement right away, as Walker’s plan went beyond what other conservative governors were proposing in their states. Reporters for Wisconsin Public Radio started pitching and
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filing to National Public Radio. NPR and other national media sent in their own reporters, or more of them, as the number of protesters inside and outside the State Capitol building did indeed reach the tens of thousands. For a few days, television networks led evening newscasts with stories out of Madison. The evening cable talk shows paid attention. The late night skewers of the news, including Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert, did their thing, often with a cheesy Wisconsin flavor. On the social media front, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported people bonding, or breaking up their relationships, depending on one’s view of the collective bargaining dispute. Along the way, there were new questions for Wisconsin reporters – questions already dealt with by some media in other states. A quick list: • What to do when some key players leave? When 14 Democratic state senators left Wisconsin to slow down Republican discussion of the budget repair bill, were the lawmakers “on the lam” as some reporters called it, or were the senators simply meeting in another state? How closely should the media pursue lawmakers? • When a blogger from Buffalo, “buffaloed” Gov. Walker into thinking Walker was talking to billionaire businessman David Koch, a large financial donor to Walker’s 2010 campaign, electronic media wrestled with airing audio of the discussion, because Walker apparently didn’t know he was being recorded. Some outlets aired or posted audio clips, some didn’t. • Reporters for Wisconsin Public Radio, Wisconsin Public Television and other public broadcasters in the state decided to disclose they would be affected by parts of the budget repair bill. But how often do you repeat that disclosure before the audience says, “Yes, okay, we KNOW.” • In the aftermath of the Tucson shootings, and threats to some Wisconsin public officials, reporters in the state capitol faced additional security requirements and wondered, how long will this last? • When the Wisconsin State Assembly debated the bill for three days, reporters, editors and others said, “When and where do WE sleep, and who will wake us should there suddenly be action?” • Who’ll take a bet on which Democratic senator will come back to Wisconsin first?
Features Going forward, there are additional questions; – would any lawmaker be recalled by angry voters; would State Capitol building security ever go back to normal; would Wisconsin’s Governor become a lasting national figure; would unions continue to protest at his stops around the state; would a more financially balanced state budget trigger the private sector confidence the governor promised; what’s the effect Wisconsin is having on the 2012 race for president?
These may not be the life and death questions of the Vietnam Era. But the state media, and national reporters who keep an eye on Wisconsin, once again have plenty on their plate – besides cheddar. Chuck Quirmbach has been on the news staff of Wisconsin public radio since 1980. As employees of the University of Wisconsinextension, he and his fellow WPR reporters would be affected by some of the changes Governor Walker proposed. •
Journalists and Public Reations Professionals N a m a ra ta B a nsal I was taught in my graduate class that journalists and public relations (PR) professionals share a love-hate relationship. I experienced the validity of this statement when I myself worked as a public relations professional in various capacities in India and dealt with journalists. I could feel how my relationship with them used to fluctuate, ranging from a symbiotic relationship to a parasitic relationship. Some days journalists would call me to get an exclusive story or for that special interview, and other days the same journalists would not even take my call. An incident that happened in India recently had wide impact across the Indian bureaucracy, corporate world and Indian media, and confirmed my knowledge of the relationship between journalists and PR professionals. A PR professional of a large Indian PR agency tried to influence Indian journalists to write positive stories for her client. Two journalists (one from a respected newspaper and one from a TV channel) were featured prominently in the tapes. The conversations were not limited to the benefits of the corporation alone but also involved influencing decisions of portfolios in the Indian cabinet ministry. The whole conversation was recorded by external sources and published. Because of new media, the transcripts of the conversations are now available in the public sphere for consumption by the general public. In the series of recorded conversations, the seemingly influential PR professional gave directions to the journalists to write the story favoring her client. The journalists were heard asking for opinion and directions from the PR person on how to write and proceed with their respective stories. The PR person seemed to be in full control and one of the
journalists seemed more than willing to take directions from her. When these journalists were asked to clarify, they reported they were simply doing their job of gathering information from a PR person, and it was usual for journalists to pretend to be friendly with PR persons to access “inside stories” and exchange information in an informal setting. They nonchalantly dismissed it as part of the “love-hate” relationship between journalists and PR professionals. The indicted journalists tried to clarify their position by writing articles, tweeting and using other social media devices. But their clarification did not diminish the damage t to their reputation and faced a lot of criticism because of their alleged relationship with a PR professional and, more importantly, for getting “influenced.” This incident created quite a stir but the professionals in both the industries know that this is how things function. The entire journalists’ fraternity came under fire and many articles and discussions took place on the growing deterioration of the Indian media industry. Since journalists cannot avoid interacting with PR professionals, how much is too much? It is always a difficult decision to draw the line on how far the relationship between a PR professional and a journalist can go. When the actions and conversations are always under scrutiny because of new media technology and increased competition among media, it becomes important for journalists to be careful in their relationship with PR professionals. Namrata Bansal is a first year Ph. D. candidate in Southern Illinois University Carbondale. She worked for six years as a PR professional in India. •
gatewayjr.org Spring 2011 • Gateway Journalism Review • Page 9
J-School Education in the 21st Century
What ’s Next for Journalism Educ ation J e r r y C eppos
As assignments go, this one was pretty easy: Would I, the editor of this journalism review asked, recommend journalism school if I had an 18-year-old daughter who was about to enter college? The answer: Yes, I in fact did that very thing. Robin is a sophomore at my journalism school, the Donald W. Reynolds Robin Ceppos School at the University of Nevada, Reno. I recommended j-school because she was interested after spending a lifetime (literally) listening to me talk about how much fun a journalism career can be. But I also recommended j-school because there still is no better way to learn to write and think clearly and concisely, traits that are shockingly rare in today’s world. I also recommended journalism school because the best of the schools are going to improve in the following ways while Robin still is enrolled, and afterwards.
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1. Being famous for something In 20 years on the Accrediting Council for Education in Journalism and Mass Communications, I would guess that I’ve read more than 350 summaries of site teams that have visited schools being considered for accreditation. I’ve made nine visits myself. Too often, I’ve left a discussion thinking, “This school has met the accrediting standards (which is tremendously important), but I can’t come up with one really distinguishing characteristic that separates it from schools one state away.” Rude translation: “Schools that try to do everything end up doing nothing that’s excellent.” A solution may be in sight: My guess is that tough curricular reviews, prompted by budget crises in many states, will result in the best schools belatedly making difficult solutions about areas to emphasize – and, as a result, areas of less importance. Every administrator and faculty member will come up with a different list (I hope). My direction would be to ask a few obvious questions. Does your location lend itself to a specialization? If not, is there a broad underserved area in journalism that your school might help? After the last election, I’d say that rigorous public-affairs reporting would be one area. I love Politifact.com and other fact-checking services, but isn’t
J-School Education in the 21st Century 2. Specializing When I was the executive editor of the San Jose Mercury News I hunted for an electrical engineer who could write – or, at the very least, a journalist who had studied electrical engineering. I never found either but I still think that he or she could have covered Silicon Valley’s semiconductor industry better than we did with our very bright but traditionally trained reporters. From the very beginning, journalism’s accrediting council had in mind the need for broadly educated journalists who could cover anything, even chips.
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Schools that try to do everything end up doing nothing that’s excellent.
As a result, the council limited the number of journalism courses that a j-major can take (which seems counterintuitive to academics in other, more narrow fields). Today’s accrediting standards require a minimum of 80 semester hours “in courses outside the major area of journalism and mass communications, with no fewer than 65 semester hours . . . in the liberal arts and sciences.” For most students, that means a potpourri of interesting courses that lead to a broad education – a good thing – but not a specialized education. However, the requirement leaves plenty of room for that specialization – a beefy minor or a second major in a specialized, not broad, area. Writing about graduate education, Nick Lemann, dean of the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism, recently said that specialized courses provide “the kind of intellectual grounding that enables a journalist to delve deeper into a story, asking the kind of questions an expert in the field might pose and evaluating evidence.” I’ll bet the best schools will push, even in undergraduate education, for more minors or double majors in unusual areas . . . such as electrical engineering.
3. Learning to add Our provost – my boss – recently asked me if journalists know how to evaluate, say, the chance of a Category 5 storm hitting New Orleans or the risk to the population when Ecoli is discovered in a very small part of the food chain. I told him the truth – most journalists don’t understand numbers. But I suspect the best schools will encourage journalism students to study at least rudimentary statistics and, depending on kids’ interests, maybe even basic accounting. If students complained, I’d steer them toward one of my favorite sites, 538.com, whose official goal is “to accumulate and analyze polling and political data in way that is
informed, accurate and attractive.” What it really does is use statistical analysis to measure all sorts of interesting subjects, including the chances of clearing a heavy snowfall from the streets of New York. It’s a fascinating site. Stats or accounting would be the perfect accompaniment to a good course in database reporting.
4. Questioning news sources Thanks to pioneering work at the State University of New York at Stony Brook, the best journalism schools are teaching students how to evaluate the news they are reading, whether they’re getting it by phone, computer, print, television, radio or social media. To our surprise, many of the students in our pilot news-literacy course last semester didn’t grasp the importance of evaluating the source of news: A partisan site seemed as credible to many students as a news site. For the spring semester, we’ll emphasize specific questions to ask about sources.
5. Writing long-form journalism My newsroom friends will think that all of those ink fumes got to me over the years when they see this idea. But the best public-affairs reporting that I have read recently was long and nuanced. “Game Change,” by John Heilemann and Mark Halperin, may have had a lot of blind quotes, but it also had detail I read nowhere else. Adam Nagourney in New York Times Magazine told me things I didn’t know about Harry Reid – and I live in Nevada.
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The best journalism schools are teaching students how to evaluate the news that they are reading, whether they’re getting it by phone, computer, print, television, radio or social media.
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fact-checking what all journalists are supposed to do?
Almost everything Peter Baker writes in the Times and Times Magazine, such as “The Education of President Obama” in October, enlightens. The best journalism schools will match up the need for better public-affairs reporting and long-form writing by using some of these examples – even if we are in the age of Twitter.
6. Working with journalism professionals Collaborations flourish. More and more journalism schools are working with professionals in all sorts of ways – covering specific neighborhoods, investigating subjects that haven’t been covered. As Geneva Overholser, director of the journalism school at the USC Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism, writes, “. . . a great deal
Spring 2011 • Gateway Journalism Review • Page 11
J-School Education in the 21st Century of work is being done by journalism schools in meeting the public’s need for high-quality information.” Besides, students are learning to collaborate with each other and with pros. What could be wrong with that? Not much, but I’d argue that students should be paid and receive course credit, which implies evaluation by a serious editor or faculty member. Overholser quotes one of my colleagues at Reno, Donica Mensing, as adding a third requirement: “For this work to have value, the standards, organization, editing and networking of new models must be incorporated into the creation and distribution of the journalism. We owe it to students and to the health of the discipline to push for new skills and mindsets for the future, and avoid absorbing all energy into reproducing work we know how to do.”
Three years ago, our senior class decided that new graduates should be offered a chance to pledge that they will practice ethical journalism in their careers. Those who like the idea sign a parchment ethic pledge that we display and receive a small copy for themselves. “Our daughter should put that on her resume,” one happy mother told me last year. The best journalism schools will push ethics education. I don’t know what Tony Wagner of Harvard, author of “The Global Achievement Gap,” had in mind when he wrote about the skills that all students need. But here’s how Tom Friedman paraphrased him: “There are three basic skills that students need if they want to thrive in a knowledge economy: the ability to do critical thinking and problem-solving, the ability to communicate effectively, and the ability to collaborate.”
7. Learning the right thing to do
To me, that sounds as if he is talking about journalism education.
At our graduation reception each spring and winter, I tell students I have good news and bad news for them. The bad news is that many other good journalists, in addition to our latest crop, are out there. The good news is that few of them (at least that’s my argument) have received the mandatory ethics grounding that our kids have received – and that will distinguish them in an important way in this unprincipled society.
Jerry Ceppos is dean of the Donald W. Reynolds School of Journalism at the University of Nevada, Reno. For 36 years, he worked as an editor at the Miami Herald, as managing editor and executive editor at the San Jose Mercury News and as vice president for news Knight Ridder. He later was an adjunct professor at San Jose State University and a fellow in media ethics at the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University.
Preparing Students for the Changing Media Landscape D o ug A nderson
After 10 years of full time in the classroom – where I taught media law, press freedom theory, in-depth reporting and editing – and 24 years in administration at two major universities, I still feel good about how we prepare our students for the changing media landscape. As I have noted on many occasions, we might look at faculty composition and our curriculum differently than we did three decades ago, but the mission of a journalism program remains the same: to educate and prepare students for citizenship in a society in which communication and information are major commodities that constitute the heart of the democratic process. At a time of profound change in structure, content and dissemination patterns of media, the fundamental skills of investigation, analysis and communications through written and visual media remain.
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The news business has changed at warp speed over the past decade or so. Changes ultimately create opportunity – and students continue to see journalism as an attractive academic major and career. We have more than 3,300 undergraduates in our College of Communications at Penn State – and with more than 700 junior-senior majors, journalism remains our largest program. Advertising/public relations is a close second, followed by telecommunications, media studies and film-video.
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During my 34 years in journalism education, I’ve seen many changes. But I am as excited about what we do today as I was when I took my first teaching job at Nebraska-Omaha in 1977; when I moved to Arizona State in 1979; and when I assumed my current position at Penn State in 1999.
The news business has changed at warp speed over the past decade or so.
I consistently contend – and firmly believe – that journalism is one of the best undergraduate majors at universities because it helps prepare students to work in the everexpanding array of media outlets, as well as to find success in multiple fields. When students take technique classes such as news writing, reporting, editing and convergence journalism along with conceptual courses such as media ethics, media history and
What tools does the new journalist need?
J-School Education in the 21st Century
This is one reason journalism is the seventh largest undergraduate major, of nearly 200, on the 42,000-student University Park campus of Penn State. Yes, I feel optimistic about the future of journalism education – although, like the media industries we prepare our students to enter, we face challenges. Then again, we always have. I noted in a speech 15 years ago: “Indeed, the late 1980s and the 1990s, in many respects, have not been the best of times for journalism-mass communication education. Mandated shotgun reconfigurations of mass communication units and attacks from within and outside the academy on the relevance of our field have provided fodder for countless meetings, discussions, studies and published articles. “I am not among the doomsday forecasters, though. Our students are getting jobs in traditional media as well as in new, interactive media - areas not dreamed about a few years ago. Clearly, these are exciting times, an era filled with unique challenges. I like our chances of succeeding.” Today, the greatest challenge facing journalism education – as it was 15 years ago – is funding, particularly at public universities. As is the case in most sectors, we must do more with less. States are facing massive budget shortfalls – and the foundations and media outlets that, since the 1980s have contributed to our financial well being, have
cut back. All of our revenue streams have slowed at a time when our instructional hardware and software needs have never been greater.
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media law – combined with extensive coursework deeply rooted in the traditional liberal arts and sciences – they are equipped to gather information, exercise judgment, write and possess a broad understanding of society.
I like our chances of succeeding.
We continue, though, to hire superb faculty members – many of whom have significant journalism experience and wonderful new-media expertise – and to draw first-rate students who arrive on campus with a thirst for knowledge, savvy technological skills and a desire to be journalists. We continue to be recognized – and appreciated – on our campuses for our commitment to sound undergraduate education; for the role we play in offering media literacy courses to non-majors who, more than ever, given the multiplicity of voices in the marketplace, need to be informed news consumers; and for preparing our students to contribute intelligently to the discourse that powers our democracy. We have our hands full, but it is an exciting time to be adjusting our curricula to respond to the needs of media industries, the marketplace and our students – all the while remaining true to the rock-solid fundamentals upon which our programs have been built. Douglas Anderson is professor of journalism and dean of the College of Communications at Penn State, the country’s largest nationally accredited program. In 1996, The Freedom Forum named him Journalism Administrator of the Year, the youngest person ever to receive the award. He is author and coauthor of six books. •
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J-School Education in the 21st Century Ethics Defines the Professional
G i nny W hi teh ouse
A thorough understanding of ethics is what will separate professional journalists from someone with a lambasting opinion and an internet portal. As more technology becomes available to a wider audience, journalists will capture their market and define their distinctiveness through their integrity. Knowing how to make ethical decisions will be the skill set that sets professional journalists apart. Emerging media markets and a crumbling economy have forced journalism administrators, rightly, to re-evaluate their priorities and re-think curriculums. In a 2004 study, one-half of journalism programs included a freestanding ethics course as either a required or an optional part of the curriculum, and more than 80 percent reported teaching ethics modules in skills or conceptual courses. Faculty in that study said a primary learning goal for ethics courses and modules was to foster moral reasoning skills. In other words they wanted to teach students how to identify ethical problems and come up with viable solutions. Both journalism administrators and faculty described ethics as essential to the curriculum. But that was 2004, before a host of crises hit the industry. The actual impact on media ethics education is yet to be clear due to rapid change, so let me make the case for continued focus in journalism schools on ethics.
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Knowing how to make ethical decisions will be the skill set that sets professional journalists apart.
Ethics instruction must be an integral part of j-school curriculums or we will end up with Enrons in our own profession that will make the New York Times’ Jayson Blair look like a minor blip. Without systematic and deliberate media ethics teaching, students will end up adopting the ethical constructs of their corporations and fail to learn how to ask important questions. Or, they will fly as solo entrepreneurs fighting to keep their small media businesses afloat and not even have a corporate boss to provide ethical guidance. Things won’t quite feel right but they won’t know why or what to do about it. Without systematic and deliberate ethics education, they won’t have the critical reasoning skills as technology advances to apply ethical codes or see gaping holes where new ethics codes are needed.
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More than cogs Students must have extensive multi-platform technical skills to compete in the ever-emerging media market. But without a solid foundation in ethics they will become little more than automatons operating without mind, heart or soul. It’s not enough to be able to write an inverted pyramid lead and know how post it on Twitter. Professional journalists must know what those 140 Twitter-allowed characters have to do with privacy, conflict of interest, truth, fairness, promises, etc. Knowing ethics and being ethical is part of doing the job well, regardless of whether objectivity remains part of the mainstream media business model.
Making sense of the complexities The New York Times ethics code has more than 10,000 words, a treatise far too complex to ask a newbie to operationalize. But nowhere in all those words are there instructions on how, when or whether to quote directly from a Facebook status update. (Chances are pretty good your mother didn’t teach you that either.) Ethics instruction involves learning how to ask questions from multiple viewpoints: What are the standards that might be in play here? Who might get hurt? Is this really the only way to achieve some greater good? Is my quest for truth trampling on other things I value? Media ethics classes can help students know what questions to ask.
Good teaching needed Clifford Christians and Edmund Lambeth, in 2004 and in their three previous studies of media ethics instruction, called for better training of ethics professors. As the newly laid-off veterans of the media industry enter the classroom, they need to bring with them more than war stories. They need a solid foundation of ethical theory to give their students an arsenal of tools for problem solving. And, professors need some understanding of the advances in brain research that show how and why the human race tends to make ethical decisions in certain ways. Just as reporting professors need to know how to best help students learn to conduct an interview, media ethics professors also need to know to how to best train their students to do the good in addition to knowing the good.
Deliberate teaching needed As curriculums focus on new skill sets, the temptation will be great to just say media ethics will be folded into other courses. Media ethics should be taught across the curriculum and in conjunction with law, history and media literacy.
J-School Education in the 21st Century Yet the free-standing course remains the best way to present media ethics skills with necessary concentration lest it become after-thought or add-on. Ultimately, the ethos of news organizations and those who produce the news will depend on their ability to show integrity in how information is presented. Perception of ethics then holds as much weight on the bottom line as speed of delivery and ease of access. Ultimately, ethics courses offer the best financial hope for
the future of the journalism because it is by ethics that journalists will separate themselves from everything else clamoring for public attention. Ginny Whitehouse, Ph.D., is an associate professor of Communication Studies at Whitworth University in Spokane, Wash. She is co-director of the AEJMC Media Ethics Division’s annual Teaching Media Ethics workshop, and is former chair of the AEJMC Media Ethics Division and the SPJ National Journalism Education Committee. She teaches and researches in the areas of media ethics, social media and intercultural communication. •
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J-School Education in the 21st Century In Defense of the Study of Journalism Histor y E l l i ot K ing
Consequently, the fact that the history of journalism currently doesn’t play a prominent role in journalism education, and probably never has, should come as no surprise. History, by definition, requires looking backward rather than looking forward and frankly, the study of history cuts against the ethos of journalism. But the mismatch in temperament is only one of the reasons journalism history has played such a small part in journalism education. From its inception, journalism education has been a subset of the larger trend toward professional education – coming into its own at roughly the same time universities began to offer curricula in business, teaching, agriculture and other professions and “mechanical arts.” Given those roots, the focus has been primarily on the acquisition of skills professional journalists need to succeed and it has been hard to make the case that knowing the history of journalism will help aspiring reporters write better leads or ask more penetrating questions. Not a few journalism educators have expressed downright hostility to the idea that students should waste precious time studying anything about the history or social role of journalism itself. Their mantra has been to teach students to report and write professionally and have them study other academic subjects so they have something to write about. Journalism historians have had trouble offering compelling counter-arguments. The idea that “we stand on the shoulders of giants” or “those who don’t know history are bound to repeat it” or any other cliché in the defense of learning history simply seem unconvincing to students. And, despite journalism educator James Carey’s plea nearly 40 years ago to broaden the scope and depth of journalism history, much of the scholarship in the area is just not engrossing. Many professors report getting students interested in journalism history is challenging. Finally, as with so many other aspects of journalism, the emergence of the Internet and its associated applications has perhaps dealt a coup d’grace to teaching journalism history in the academy. To be current, journalism programs have to address convergence, backpack journalism, blogging, Twitter and so on. With so much new to teach, something old has to be eliminated. As the American Journalism Historians Association has documented, the “old” is often
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journalism history. That is the wrong direction to go. The tsunami of the “new” flooding journalism is precisely the reason why the role of journalism history in the curriculum must be enhanced. The established forms and institutions of journalism are being swept away. The days of a crusty ex-professional instructing students to “read the New York Times and do it like that” or “see how it is done on the CBS Evening News” are over. You may have noticed that the readership and viewership of the “mainstream media” are eroding rapidly. With the forms and institutions that defined journalism for the last 50 years crumbling, what is left? The answer is that the culture of journalism is what remains – the way journalists view the world and understand their role in it. And the culture of journalism cannot be understood – indeed it makes no sense – without knowledge of the history of journalism. In some way, a common thread connects the colonial newspapers published prior to the Revolutionary War to the Huffington Post. The form is different, the subject matter is different, the delivery vehicle is very different and the business model is different. But they are linked.
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Yesterday’s news, as most journalistic graybeards will tell you, is only fit to line the bottom of a birdcage (or wrap fish.)
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Almost by definition, journalists are forward-looking people, always on the search for “what’s new.” One of the most damning criticisms in the trade is that an article is “yesterday’s news,” and yesterday’s news, as most journalistic graybeards will tell you, is only fit to line the bottom of a birdcage or wrap fish.
Many in journalism think that how the craft has been traditionally practiced is the only way to do things. They are factually wrong. In just one example, throughout much of the 19th century, editors felt their primary role in American politics was to lead public opinion, not just “objectively” report on the back and forth between the parties. Understanding the history of journalism leads to an understanding of the changing nature of society over time and the role news plays in its organization. Understanding history of journalism leads to an understanding of how “new media” such as newspapers (newspapers were new once), television and now the Internet, change what is reported by whom to whom and with what effect. Karl Marx argued that the working class allowed itself to be exploited because it did not have “world-consciousness,” that is it didn’t truly understand its role in economic production. Without knowledge of the history of journalism, journalists and journalism students lack the professional consciousness and context they need to participate fully
J-School Education in the 21st Century in the debates and experiments that will shape and define journalism in the decades to come.
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Many in journalism think that how the craft has been traditionally practiced is the only way to do things. They are factually wrong.
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There is a maxim that says “if you don’t know where you are going, any road will get you there.” But as any video game player knows, where you can go depends, at
least in part, on where you came from. A knowledge of the history of journalism is the starting point for the creation of journalism’s future. Elliot King is professor and assistant chair of the Department of Communication at Loyola University Maryland. He is the author of six books including Free for All: The Internet’s Transformation of Journalism (Northwestern University Press: 2010) and The Online Journalist (with Randy Reddick) (HBJ; 1995, 1997, 2000). He is the immediate past head of the History Division of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication and served as the conference chair of the Joint Journalism Historians Conference from 2001 to 2010. •
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J-School Education in the 21st Century
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J-School Education in the 21st Century O verprotec ting Free Speech C ha r l e s D avis Change is nothing new to media law scholars. In fact, many of us were drawn to the study of law because it can, and often does, change. The normative tradition of legal scholarship is based entirely on the notion that legal doctrine can be improved through the reasoned critique of judicial reasoning. So it comes as little surprise that the field of media law, like the broader media world, is undergoing transformative change, raising new legal questions and reframing old ones. Topics of interest to media law scholars are in constant flux, with the time-honored fields of inquiry such as libel, privacy and newsgathering law developing new wrinkles. Anonymity is a fine example. Long protected by the First Amendment and with roots stretching back to the American Revolution, it’s an article of faith. Yet the rise of online comment boards and the absolute protection from ISP liability ushered in by Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act have many serious First Amendment scholars re-examining their once-axiomatic defense of the right to anonymous speech. The medium, it seems, is altering the message. A new book from Harvard Press on the subject, The Offensive Internet, edited by Saul Levmore, the William B. Graham Professor of Law at the University of Chicago Law School, and Martha C. Nussbaum, Ernst Freund Distinguished Service Professor of Law and Ethics at the University of Chicago, offers a provocative look at online speech.
Information Empires, a book that has me rethinking much of what I do and how I teach it. Wu takes apart the infrastructure of American telecommunication historically and legally, raising all sorts of issues ripe for further study, not the least of which is whether or not the First Amendment (gasp!) is the future determinant of free expression. “In the United States,” Wu asserts, “it is the industrial structure that determines the limits of free speech.” The First Amendment limits Congress, he points out, not the titans controlling the channels in which we speak and receive information. And it is control of that channel that will shape the future of online communication. Wu – the creator of the term “net neutrality” – writes that each major new medium unleashes optimism and innovation, only to consolidate into an empire that seeks to monopolize “the master switch,” as Fred Friendly at CBS once called it. Wu demonstrates this, over and over again, by using history as his guide. The telegraph monopoly was undone by the telephone. Broadcast oligarchs who sought dominance of the public airwaves replaced the tinkerers of early radio. These men, in turn, succeeded in squelching the upstart television for 20 years. Then the television execs put their energies into strangling the cable innovators in their cribs. On and on it goes, Wu writes, in an anecdote-rich book that should be on every media scholar’s reading list this year.
What is remarkable about this volume is that a group of free speech stalwarts are tackling free speech issues in a critical way, and often concluding that, as privacy expert Daniel J. Solove, John Marshall Harlan Research Professor of Law at the George Washington University Law School says in a riveting essay, that “the law is hampered because it overprotects free speech.”
It’s just this sort of historical-legal work that should inform the media law scholarship of tomorrow. Media law is more critical to the undergraduate journalism experience than ever before, but its curriculum must be expanded even further, examining issues of ownership, media diversity and consolidation along with traditional First Amendment doctrine.
The Internet poses new problems, and offers new veins of research. Indeed, the issue of net neutrality alone ushers in a host of meta-questions for media law scholars. Tim Wu of Columbia Law School raises many of these systemic First Amendment issues in The Master Switch: The Rise and Fall of
Charles N Davis is an Associate Professor at the Missouri School of Journalism. He teaches graduate seminars in media law, as well as the School’s introductory survey course, Principles of American Journalism. •
In the know . . . in the now.
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J-School Education in the 21st Century Why J-Schools Aren’t Doing the Job They’re Supposed to Do W a l l y S parks
Many of these people toiling were misfits and mutants, fiercely dedicated to an ideal. That whole mystique of the press as an institution struck something deep in a young person looking for a calling. I loved the tradition of its people standing up and telling truth to power after being clever enough to ferret it out. I wanted to be one of them. So, I went to journalism school and became a reporter. I worked as a journalist for 15 years. I kept striving to be one of those clever, plucky reporters I had admired in college. I risked my life a few times, going to very bad places and talking to people who had guns. I was threatened a few times and every mayor hated me. I learned public documents, the art of the interview and how to tell a good story in an economical way. I won awards and at some point along the way I realized I was the real thing – a newspaper reporter.
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How will a journalism school address the main issue facing journalists today – that of lost credibility?
I also realized it was time to get out. I realized my news judgment, as well as everyone in the news business, is biased. I also witnessed a distinct tilt to the left among many of my colleagues. I remained firmly rooted in my right-leaning views, which I kept to myself while making every effort to remain objective as a newsman. And then the business hit hard times. The business end began intruding regularly into our news calculations. My company bought and sold papers. One day I woke up and found they’d sold mine. The business of news is not the same thing as being a news reporter. They don’t teach you that in journalism school, you learn that on your own. I loved my journalism education and on most days, I wouldn’t trade it for anything. But would I send one of my children to a journalism school now?
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I don’t think so, at least if they want to be a journalist. A political science degree would do a much better job of enriching their knowledge of politics, even if those in political science also tend to lean too far to the left. A degree in business or in engineering would certainly give my children a better chance of securing a job in journalism because it would give them a specialty that they could cover as a journalist.
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I fell in love with journalism when I was 21. I stumbled onto the paper at my university after taking my first news-writing course as an elective. The smell of the ink and cigarette smoke, the clack of typewriters and a few keyboards (just arriving), along with the serious, likeable and intelligent students that worked there immediately grabbed me. I had only recently discovered I could be a decent writer, and I had always been interested in history and current events. Maybe most importantly, I had a chip on my shoulder and a problem with authority.
The business end began intruding regularly into our news calculations.
And how will a journalism school address the main issue facing journalists today – that of lost credibility? Journalism may be suffering financially, but it suffers far more from a growing lack of credibility and intellectual honesty. The big institutions, can no longer get away with ignoring the issues of bias, context and inaccuracy in their news pages. Pew research indicates that over the years there has been a growing disconnect between the public and the extent to which it believes what the media reports. The disconnect is even greater when split among political parties. Journalism is changing to a more advocacy-based model. New forms of media follow this new outline. It seems that much of the public, especially those who lean to the right politically, have decided to cash the new media’s credibility checks, after having so many of the old media’s bounce. What can journalism schools do to address the perception that they teach journalists a liberal bias? How many journalism schools have at least one professor who hammers home the theories of Karl Marx in his or her classes? How many journalism professors preach objectivity out of one side of their mouth and then openly campaign for liberal politicians, often professing their personal opinions in class? How many journalism professors look at the financial success and rising ratings of conservative media and dismiss it out of hand as biased and “not real journalism?” Point-of-view and advocacy journalism may not completely be the future, but it will most definitely be a part of the new media landscape. And until journalism schools take a deep look at themselves and examine how they prepare their students for this landscape, until they teach that a news story, no matter how objective, is just one person’s understanding of how the news is presented, they will continue to send out students unprepared for the media landscape they face. Journalism schools should teach students how to gather information, how to think critically, how to conduct an
J-School Education in the 21st Century interview and how to do the research necessary to tell a good story. They need to teach their students how to recognize their biases and live with them. Stories need to be researched, balanced and fair. Leave the bias out of it. Right now, I don’t think enough journalism schools are trying to do that. And until they do, I don’t think I could tell
my child to go to journalism school, no matter how much I enjoyed my experience. Wally Sparks is the pseudonym of a professional journalist who worked over 15 years in the news business as a reporter and editor. Sparks currently has a public relations connection to a University.
College Newspapers in the 21st Century: Nurturing a Passion for News is the Most Important Job Facing College Newspapers L o l a B u rnham and college newspapers must focus on teaching students to view the world as reporters and photographers and provide them with the skills and knowledge they need to chronicle that world, but the college newspaper has the special task of training student journalists to make their coverage relevant under real-world conditions.
The
If we hope to produce reporters and photographers who will sustain journalism, we must teach them to produce Pr obl newspapers that people em w dents. want to read. We also need i t h Te a c h i n g C u r r e n t E v e n t s t o J - S c h o o l S t u to teach our readers that newspapers still have a vital role to play in American For the foreseeable future, college newspapers will continue society. If the college newspaper does its job well, it can to play the two roles they have played since their start: train students to become news consumers who will turn to chronicling life on campus while providing a training newspapers throughout their lives. ground for aspiring journalists. How do we teach students to make coverage relevant? If that seems like old news, think again. Today, the college Student journalists must be taught to recognize all the newspaper must accomplish those tasks while working with possible ways to cover stories that will have meaning for undergraduate students who often have not been raised to their readers. Newspaper advisers must have a constant, be newspaper readers, much less reporters. boundless enthusiasm for the possibilities of news coverage and must pass that enthusiasm on to their students, many The college newspaper now also plays a third role: It must of whom cannot see those possibilities when a story idea nurture a passion for news in its staff members. is broached. Students covering their first budget, speech or meeting story are often overwhelmed just by the reporting. Though there are exceptions to the generalizations I am about to make, for many students today, following the news means The adviser (aided in large part, it is hoped, by the journalism following their sports team or the latest celebrity scandal faculty) must teach student journalists to show their readers or, the latest sports-celebrity scandal. Journalism schools how they will be affected by the story.
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J-School Education in the 21st Century
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The college newspaper has lately been expanding its definition of the basics to include online reporting. Good reporting is good reporting whatever the medium, but good online reporting requires additional technical skills as well as the ability to think of alternative ways to tell a story. Some students today resist learning online skills. Another large part of the adviser’s job is to help students recognize the importance of those skills, both to expand the newspaper’s coverage and to give students additional qualifications for their first jobs after graduation. For us, online-only is not an option, nor will it be until our online news site produces income. College newspapers that want to break news online and follow it with print the next day also have to accommodate students’ class schedules. When students are working for little or no pay, how demanding can the newspaper’s publication schedule be?
The college newspaper must set the standard for reporting for the public good.
College newspapers also face the question of whether or when to remove content from the Web site. Such requests come from former students who were the subjects of arrest stories but also from former staffers who want to have poorly written articles removed. Our policy is not to remove online content because we are the paper of record for our university. If we would not remove a less-than-flattering story about a former student who was not connected to the newspaper staff, should we consider removing less-thanflattering examples of a former staffer’s work?
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For many students today, following the news means following their sports team or the latest celebrity scandal or . . . the latest sports celebrity scandal.
These are only some of the issues unique to the online age that are facing the college newspaper. But just as 25, 50 or 100 years ago, the college newspaper must set the standard for reporting for the public good. In teaching our students to see journalism as a public service, we help to ensure that good journalism will have both practitioners and an audience throughout the 21st century.
Lola Burnham is an assistant professor of journalism and the editorial adviser to the Daily Eastern News at Eastern Illinois University. •
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The college newspaper must . . . [work] with undergraduate students who often have not been raised to be newspaper readers
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Advisers must teach students to think beyond the surface, to ask questions that will lead to the kinds of stories that will pull readers in and help them understand what’s what. Advisers must teach students to be thinkers and diggers, not just stenographers. We have to ground our student journalists in the basics of newsgathering and story-telling and then give them the opportunity to practice, until those basics become second nature. Through that practice, reporting improves, organization improves and storytelling improves.
J-School Education in the 21st Century
A Former Student’s Perspective:
J-Schools Can’t Replicate Covering a Beat A nd rew S mit h Almost 25 years ago, when I emerged from the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communication at Syracuse University with a shiny new journalism degree, there was a debate in the business about whether a reporter needed such an education to succeed. Some things never change. My first job was at the Times-Picayune in New Orleans. After a couple of stops in California and Syracuse again, I’ve been at Newsday on Long Island for the past 18 years. In addition to many co-workers educated at various journalism schools, I’ve also worked with math majors, English majors, law school grads and a few with no college education at all. It’s been clear to me that you can be a terrific reporter or editor without a journalism education.
However, I didn’t learn everything. There’s no way for a journalism school to replicate covering a beat day in and day out. It’s difficult to teach how to develop sources. Those were things I had to figure out on my own.
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Even before I got into high school, I knew I wanted to be a reporter, and nothing else.
That said, I wouldn’t trade my education at all. I went to a journalism school because even before I got into high school, I knew I wanted to be a reporter - and nothing else. I was going to do anything I could do to make that happen at a high level as quickly as possible. I didn’t consider applying to any university without a respected journalism school. Like those without journalism educations, many of the most important things I’ve learned I picked up on the job. There is no substitute for just doing it. However, a good journalism school makes you do actual journalism. In my sophomore year, I covered a presidential primary and got my work published. By the end of my junior year, I was working more than 20 hours a week at the Post-Standard in Syracuse. That grew out of an internship I got through the Newhouse school. Without the experience and clips from that part-time job, there is no way I would have started my career at the Times-Picayune. Besides practicing journalism, the main advantage students have is they learn why they’re making the choices they make and examine what they do before, during and after they do it. They routinely get the kind of guidance they might get from an excellent editor, if she or he had time on a particular day to talk about the craft. You learn the trade faster in a j-school.
J-school isn’t for everyone. My belief in the value of journalism school is probably best expressed by the fact that I teach at the one at Stony Brook University. I see there that students who are focused on being journalists get value from such an education and get a head start in the business, just as I did in the 1980s. But I also see that those who drift into the journalism school, unsure of what they want, get washed out quickly. Those students would be even more unlikely to see the inside of a newsroom with a degree in anything else.
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When I walked into the newsroom in New Orleans, I knew how to write a lead. I knew how to mine the clips and fully report a story. I knew how to make use of public records. I knew how to get people to talk to me. I knew how to observe details and use them. I knew how to function on deadline. Sure, I could have learned all those things on the job, and many people do. But I didn’t have to. I was already a reporter.
I could have learned all those things on the job, and many people do. But I didn’t have to. I was already a reporter.
Just as you go to engineering school if you know you want to be an engineer and just as you go to medical school if you know you want to be a doctor, you go to journalism school if you know you want to be a reporter. If you’re not sure, a liberal arts education is perfect. Journalism school is for journalists. Since graduating from Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communication in 1986, Andrew Smith has worked at several newspapers, including Newsday, for the last 18 years. He was part of the staff that won the Pulitzer Prize for spot news reporting on the crash of TWA Flight 800, and he won a White House Correspondents Association prize for national reporting for his work on a series about nuclear waste. He also lectures at Stony Brook University’s School of Journalism. •
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J-School Education in the 21st Century
A Former Student’s Perspective: From J-School to Archeology, Ph.D.
E l i za b e th P ierce
The cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul were themselves a media draw. Few other cities in the country could boast of two major daily newspapers, a large alternative publishing community that included magazines such as the Utne Reader, the literary influence of Garrison Keillor and a plethora of public radio stations that could raise thousands of dollars in 15 minutes of a pledge drive. This rich media market also had another benefit: Many of my instructors at the University of Minnesota were current or former journalists, including Pulitzer Prize winners.
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Writing skills are like riding a bike – they may need to be polished after a period of disuse, but the right training guarantees that these skills will stay with you forever.
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Because of the size of the university, the journalism program was able to offer specializations such as broadcast or written media, advertising or mass communications. Courses included news-writing, magazine publishing, page lay-out, photo-editing, and classes that required us to read some of the great literary journalists of the past and present. Most importantly, there was a heavy emphasis on the quality of writing, a skill that is useful no matter the profession in which we ultimately ended up. Anews-writing course that included twice-weekly quizzes on the A.P. Style Book and Libel Manuel certainly paid off when I passed the A.P. test only three months after graduation. I had not heard about wire services in journalism school, but was instead introduced to the A.P. because the local bureau shared an office with my hometown newspaper (where I worked at the time), and I was invited by the bureau chief to take the test. Working for the A.P. was a challenge and a great deal of fun. Because of the wider scope of its coverage, I was able to cover everything from the South Dakota Legislature and
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the landing of Air Force One during a presidential visit to the heart-breaking stories of drought-ravaged communities, which had been overlooked by government officials. Eventually, I decided to leave journalism and have since pursued a Ph.D. in medieval archaeology at the University of Glasgow in Scotland. The change of discipline did not make my journalism skills any less relevant. Proper writing skills made writing my dissertation much faster for me and less painful for my supervisor, as she had to spend much less time editing my grammar and could concentrate on the content. In addition, the research skills gained through years of working in journalism made finding sources and hunting down information much easier than for those with less experience. I have not abandoned journalism all together but plan to continue in some form in the future, perhaps by writing about archaeology or doing other freelance work. Writing skills are like riding a bike – they may need to be polished after a period of disuse, but the right training guarantees that these skills will stay with you forever. Individuals serious about pursuing a career in journalism should study at a large university with a journalism program that will allow them to specialize in a particular interest area and to intern with a well-respected media outlet.
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I first came to the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis because of its reputation for having a good journalism school and a good swimming team. The people were friendly and it was located relatively close to home. I had been active in high-school journalism, and I knew without a doubt that I wanted to study journalism in college.
Proper writing skills made writing my dissertation much faster for me and less painful for my supervisor
The generic English or mass communication degrees offered at smaller colleges, which may offer only one newswriting course among a variety of media classes, do not always give students the strict instruction in writing and production they will need if they hope to succeed in larger media markets. Journalism can be incredibly fun and allow a person to see a side of society normally hidden from everyday life. For many it becomes a passion as much as a profession, and that is something no university can teach. Elizabeth Pierce is a 2001 graduate of the University of Minnesota and worked for several years as a journalist. She is currently finishing her Ph.D. in medieval archaeology at the University of Glasgow in Scotland. •
J-School Education in the 21st Century
A Former Student’s Perspective: Study at a Large University
J enn i fe r F rehn
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be placed across the board (in and out of j-school) on the question, “Is this the best use of our time and resources?” Just because the New York Times is doing something edgy does not mean that (1) it is actually catching on, and (2) it is right for your readership. Tactics for distinguishing predicted value for readers should be a key component of every j-school’s curriculum.
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My interest in journalism started when I was around 8 years old and I read a children’s story about muckraker Nellie Bly’s undercover reporting from Bellevue Mental Hospital. I was amazed that someone could effect such important changes by investigating an issue and writing about it. As the years went on, I was convinced being a journalist was one of the best jobs on the planet.
I received an excellent education in the foundations of what makes ethical, intriguing and useful journalism.
I now work as an editor/writer for a long-term health study and sonn will return to school to study public health, with a special interest in the role media have in fostering positive behavioral health changes in society. While attending j-school at CSU Long Beach, I received an excellent education in the foundations of what makes ethical, intriguing and useful journalism. A large focus was placed on a journalist’s responsibility to be accurate, responsible and unbiased - to not just follow stories, but to be a news leader by investigating overlooked angles. We were encouraged to think critically about our coverage and ensure it was fair and legal.
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To those considering j-school, I would offer up three bits of advice. First, gain as full of an understanding of the industry that they can obtain to ensure journalism aligns with their skills and areas of interest. I met many students who said they got into journalism because they loved to write. However, they were not passionate about going after stories. A love of the written word is important, but this will not carry someone through a career in journalism. Students need to make sure they have enthusiasm for informing others. I also advise those considering j-school to double major. Students should develop expertise in an area outside of journalism. This gives students an edge when they are reporting (especially if reporting on science and technology). Finally, once students have enrolled, I advise them to be open to every job at the student newspaper. Do features, hard news, write opinions, design a front page spread, copy edit, take photos and ask for more work. Not only will this exploration help you decide which areas you excel in, but it will give you an appreciation and understanding of the roles of each department of a publication. As someone who has a passion for educating the public, I am very happy I was able to attend a j-school. I learned what constitutes worthwhile journalism, and just as I suspected as a child, the power it has for lifting society. I plan to take these lessons with me in future roles, and I am grateful for the opportunities my j-school education has given me thus far.
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In 2002 I began college at California State University, Long Beach, and, to no one’s surprise, majored in journalism. Upon graduation, I was accepted as a Dow Jones Newspaper Fund Copy Editing Intern, and completed my internship at The Fresno Bee. I went on to be a copy editor and city editor for the Los Angeles Times Community News, a subsidiary of the Los Angeles Times. In 2009, I served as a volunteer English teacher in Peru.
I learned what constitutes worthwhile journalism
The fact that the school had three on-campus student publications meant there were several venues for students to practice skills learned in the classroom. Undoubtedly, the most valuable part of j-school was being heavily involved in these publications. This is where I learned the inner workings of a newspaper/magazine, including how to generate interesting stories, how to collaborate with an array of clashing personalities, and most importantly, how to meet deadline. If there is any area of j-school I might have benefited from that was not present, it would be evaluating recent historical data on attempts to gain readership. As newsrooms struggle to entice readers of all ages, more of an emphasis should
Jennifer Frehn lives in Southern California. She is currently a project editor for the Adventist Health Study-2, a long-term study funded by the U.S. National Cancer Institute exploring the links between lifestyle, diet and disease. •
Spring 2011 • Gateway Journalism Review • Page 25
J-School Education in the 21st Century J-Schools Open Other Doors E r i n H olcomb I chose to enter the journalism school for my bachelor’s degree at Southern Illinois University Carbondale because it felt like my element. I was hired at the student-run newspaper, the Daily Egyptian, before I had even stepped foot on campus more than a couple times. Now, as a senior nearing graduation, I’ve done enough time in the news writing world to know that yes, I am cut out for it, but it just might not be in my heart to love doing it. I realized this new, exciting world I had jumped into – interviewing new people every day, communicating with advertisers, meeting deadlines, and mastering the plethora of multitasking that encompasses it – I wanted to stay. That is, at least for a while. At the Daily Egyptian, I began writing at least three stories a week; all as a full-time student. I still loved it. I loved the journalism classes even more. Everyone involved in the journalism school and the newspaper had that “never back down” passion, and we all fed and still feed from that. I have never walked out of a journalism class feeling uninspired. I have never turned my ears off when a journalism professor or fellow journalist speaks. However, I burned out (as did my grades) and I became too frustrated my second semester to want to work for the campus newspaper the next year. The one thing I learned specifically about news writing is that the news always needs a journalist and a journalist can never turn it down. I wasn’t too sure I wanted it to be that way. It was a “it’s not me, it’s you” break-up situation. I doubted I would be able to continue battling and quelling this never-ceasing, magnificent monster that is the news, at least while attending college. Someone suggested changing my major. Thus begins that classic mid-college crisis where the student asks him or herself, “What the hell am I doing here?”
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I howled back, “Journalism!” This year is when I realized I made the right decision in not changing my major to — what? English? Art? I have learned so many things in my journalism education that I would not have learned in any other major. I was never able to communicate with such ease, write quality work under pressure or feel so accomplished every day. The greatest thing I learned is that all of my abilities are vital for any professional career. I’m looking at graduate programs in mass communications, and internships and careers in public relations, where I find myself on the backwards end of the journalism spectrum. Still, I will proudly carry the title of “Journalist” after earning my bachelor’s degree even if I never find myself working for a newspaper.
J-School Education in the 21st Century Gateway Expands with an Improved Web Site Column S co t t L amber t
When Southern Illinois University became the host of the St. Louis Journalism Review, now the Gateway Journalism Review, we had a few goals in mind. The first was to expand the coverage area of the original St. Louis Journalism Review. That led to the change in name. The most important thing we wanted to do was add a Web site that we felt would give us the opportunity to expand our coverage. Without the Web site, the Gateway Journalism Review won’t survive. Our first attempt at a new Web site didn’t work. We just didn’t like it. So we talked with Aaron Veenstra, an assistant professor at SIUC, and asked for his help in building a new site. Dr. Veenstra came up with some ideas and implemented them. After going offline for a while and revamping some things, we think we have a Web site that reflects our goals as a journalism review that concentrates on journalism in an expanded Midwest. Please, check out our Web site at www.gatewayjr.org. While other journalism reviews concentrate on East Coast journalism, things often are a little different here in the middle. Our Web site reflects that. We have the ability now to cover the events in Wisconsin as they unfold, we can cover Ohio and we’ve already spent time in Kentucky during the 2010 elections. Our ability to examine journalists as they work will be up-to-the-minute with the Web site up and running again. We’ll be watching media across the region – and beyond -- that we cover and we’ll be reporting on what news is being covered as well as what news is not being covered. The Web site allows us another portal for our review. Not only do we have information from our regular editions on the web but we’ll also be bringing you web exclusives of stories that are too time sensitive to be placed in our magazine. We also have some other features that we think might interest you. Look to the right of our Web site. The section titled News from the Midwest has up to the minute RSS feeds from newspapers and online web sites across our region. These aren’t just the major newspapers in our area, since we believe most of you may already read the online version of the Chicago Tribune, etc. already. You can see what’s happening in the middle of the state of Illinois or Kentucky. You can get information from some of the better online news operations in our area and have the chance to see just how news is being covered throughout the Midwest.
We have links to many of the newspapers and media across our region, as well as links to the online sites that we’re aware of. If you know of any that we’re missing, let us know, we’ll add them to our list. We want you to be able to find where the news is coming from in today’s world. We also hope to provide a portal to professionals and academics alike, a place where they can go to find some information they may need, links to sites that may provide information on journalism across the region. We have provided links that may provide help in copy editing and reporting, links that may help journalism professors with lectures or discussions on what approaches work best with students. We even have a link for professors to go for paper calls. Mainly, we want to give you, the journalism professional, a window into the world that we cover. In order to do that, we need your help. We need your comments; we need to know what we’re doing well and what we aren’t doing well. We need you to visit our site and, if you have ideas to make our site better or ideas for stories, let us know. Submissions are always welcome. So, by the way, are subscriptions and donations. Come look at our site. Let us know what you think and let us know what we can do to improve on it. Again, you can find our site and www.gatewayjr.org.
Thank you, Scott Lambert Scott Lambert is the managing editor of the Gateway Journalism Review. He worked as a sports journalist and editor for 13 years in the industry before returning to school. He is currently working on his Ph.D.
Spring 2011• Gateway Journalism Review • Page 27
SJR Spotlight
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SJR Spotlight Student Journalists Stick With Their Ousted Adviser R oy M alone
A drug ring? A cell of conspirators? An editorial meeting?
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In 2008, a SLU official ordered Meyer not to set foot in the U News office. That’s when the editors decided to keep visiting Meyer in his office or outside the U. News office.
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It’s the third. The man is Avis E. Meyer, who meets each Wednesday at 8:30 p.m. with some of the section editors of the student newspaper, U. News, at St. Louis University. Professor Meyer brings them snacks and mentors them about story leads, headlines and layout. They return to a long night of work of putting the issue to bed. Why meet outside instead of in the newspaper’s office? “It really is odd,” said Meyer, who, for about 30 years, was the official adviser for the weekly newspaper. But for more than two years he’s been banned from stepping foot inside the office. He was replaced as adviser by the administration, but the student journalists have continued to seek advice and editing help from their favorite teacher. The ban is the result of a longtime feud between Meyer and the president of the Roman Catholic Jesuit school, the Rev. Lawrence Biondi. Meyer says the Rev. Biondi presides over the school like an autocrat and for more than 20 years has been trying to get rid of him. Meyer said he gets blamed for just about anything published in the U. News the Rev. Biondi perceives as negative to him or SLU. “If I didn’t have tenure, I’d be gone,” says Meyer, who adds that the Rev. Biondi wants the U. News to be more like a public relations bulletin rather than a hard news publication. Some of the stories that annoyed the Rev. Biondi over the years include: the university’s sale of its hospital, big increases in parking fees, an attempt to levy a $75 graduation fee, reporting how a Biondi homily was identical to one given a year earlier by a priest in California. U. News pays its own way through sale of ads, and staffers pick their own editors. In 2007 the administration revised the paper’s charter to give the school more control over the editors and hired a less-experienced person to be the official adviser. Meyer has taught journalism at SLU for 35 years
and worked part-time as a copy editor at the Post-Dispatch for 24 years. Efforts by the Rev. Biondi’s subordinates to get Meyer out of the editorial page box as an adviser or mentor have been unsuccessful; editors resisted because they were upset that he was pushed out. Diana Benanti, a former editor of the U. News, had her student stipend cut in half when administration officials came down hard on Meyer and her during a tense period in 2007. She lacked funds to continue and left SLU to attend another school for her senior year. “I was so disgusted by what they did to Dr. Meyer. It was despicable,” she said. She’s now an editor and writer for the Riverfront Times, an alternative paper in St. Louis. She said she went into journalism “mostly because of Dr. Meyer . . . he is one of my favorite people. He’s warm-hearted and brilliant. To keep him out of the newsroom is ridiculous.” In 2008, a SLU official ordered Meyer not to set foot in the U. News office. That’s when the editors decided to keep visiting Meyer in his office or outside the U. News office. Many of the paper’s staffers have been students in Meyer’s journalism and writing courses – classes in which students seldom earn A’s. SLU does not have an official journalism program. For 30 years, Meyer and the U. News have been it.
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An older man meets clandestinely at night with several young people beside a building in midtown St. Louis. He hauls items from his vehicle to give them. They talk about 10 minutes and then go their separate ways.
SLU does not have an official journalism program. For 30 years, Meyer and the U. News have been it.
In a St. Louis Journalism Review story in 2007 the Rev. Biondi declined an interview, saying the questions were biased and “I have never been given a fair shake.” That was at a time the student editors thought the U. News would be moved off campus and the charter was being changed. Meyer, to his regret, sought to incorporate the name of the paper, should it have to operate independent of the campus. The move never occurred, but the Rev. Biondi instigated a federal lawsuit against Meyer claiming trademark infringement. And even though Meyer had voluntarily relinquished the name, the university hired an expensive downtown law firm to sue him. While most of the suit was thrown out, it dragged on for 18 months. In a settlement, Meyer admitted registering the name of the paper without SLU’s permission. And though
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SJR Spotlight surrounding area and increasing SLU’s endowment. The PostDispatch named him Citizen of the Year for 2005, citing his determination, energy and vision. Jonathan Ernst, the current U. News editor, said he and others try not to pay attention to the Biondi-Meyer sparring but insist on keeping Meyer’s name as “mentor” on the editorial page. The official adviser looks after business matters, but is not always aware of the stories going into the paper, Ernst said.
the case never went to trial, the Rev. Biondi sent a message to staff, faculty and students that claimed a victory over Meyer for taking “what never belonged to him in the first place.” It blamed Meyer for the lengthy court case. U. News in an editorial called the Rev. Biondi’s statement “mean-spirited” and noted he failed to mention that Meyer had relinquished the newspaper’s name six weeks before the suit was filed. The paper ran a cartoon showing the Rev. Biondi taking money from the SLU budget and pouring it into a “frivolous lawsuit.” The editorial said, “Suing a respected professor for efforts to protect students’ free speech is no victory.” Meyer said defending himself cost over $100,000 in legal fees he still is paying off. “I’m broke,” he said after the settlement. Estimates indicate the lawyers SLU hired billed for three times that amount, which presumably came out of University coffers. In a court motion, Meyer’s lawyer said “SLU has been using the court to try to punish Meyer and drain his resources.” Former students and friends held two fund-raisers for Meyer and some alumni stopped donating to SLU in protest. Past and present editors of U. News say Meyer never tried to influence them into running negative stories about the university or its president. The Rev. Biondi, now 72, gets credit for expanding the campus, shoring up the
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Ernst said he gets a call exactly at midnight on Wednesdays from Meyer who checks in with final advice on headlines, “helping us boost them with strong verb choices.” The next afternoon, at Meyer’s office, Ernst gets a critique on the issue and brings back a marked-up paper to instruct other staffers. “He’s a critical reader . . . he was copy editor at the Post, so he knows a lot,” Ernst said. “How can you deny somebody who puts his heart into what he does? Dr. Meyer is a big asset in my learning. He’s somebody with a lot of passion for journalism. He helps us grow as journalists, students and leaders. There needs to be more Avis Meyers in the world,” Ernst said. Meyer and his wife, Anna Marie, hold a picnic at their house for students at the end of each school year. He stays in touch with a lot of his former students, many of whom have gone on to jobs with large media companies or in public relations. He sends them, and gets back, more than 100 Christmas Cards. He recently attended a wedding of two students who met in one of his classes seven years ago and worked on U. News. They remembered he had a dog, so they named their dog ``Avis.’’ Meyer, now 68, has a shelf full of teaching and advising awards. He says he’s thankful he has survived as the paper’s adviser, official or not. “The students made, and continue to make, a difference. They kicked up a fuss,” he said. Roy Malone, is a retired Post-Dispatch reporter, editor of the former St. Louis Journalism Review and now St. Louis editor of the Gateway Journalism Review. •
SJR Spotlight Better Business Bureau uses Ex-Journalists to Investigate Problem Firms D o n C o rrigan Newsroom cuts at TV stations and newspapers across the country have put a damper on investigative projects. However, in St. Louis, the Better Business Bureau is picking up the slack. Michelle Corey, president and CEO for the BBB of Eastern Missouri and Southern Illinois, can point to a stable of experienced reporters the agency has picked up to help with its consumer investigations. She can also point to dozens of BBB investigations picked up for publication by news media short on staff and resources. “We’ve received awards for our work, and been recognized as one of the top BBBs in the U.S. for earned media coverage,” Corey said. “We are in the 16th media market, but we place second or third in the amount of coverage our work gets. “I really credit the news people we have hired for the quality of our projects and the production of good, solid information that can be used with confidence. I do think that with news operation cutbacks, we have been able to fill the void in a number of ways.” Among the well-known St. Louis newsies now working for the BBB are Bob Teuscher, Bill Smith and Jerri Stroud. Stroud is the editor of The Bridge, the BBB publication that comes out every other month to highlight many top investigations. The final issue in 2010 featured Bill Smith’s investigation of air-duct cleaning scams. The story tagged a company in suburban Chicago that has been preying on homeowners in both Illinois and Missouri with high-pressure sales tactics, enormous bills and useless services. The scam airduct cleaning story was picked up on network and local television news, as well as by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Consumers who answered flyers and direct mail ads for $69 cleaning specials found themselves socked with bills 10 to 20 times the original amount in the offers for cheap, quality service. “Seniors have really been exploited in the air duct scams,” Corey said. “They are shown phony videos of dirt and mold that the company says have been taken by its cameras – and then they are charged for all kinds of extra services. We found seniors who were too embarrassed to admit how badly they were taken. “The Environmental Protection Agency has a site that says it’s not really necessary to clean your air ducts in most cases.
In fact, it’s like asbestos, the dirt in the ducts is not harmful if you don’t mess with it. The dirt will not go anywhere unless it is stirred up.”
Top Notch Investigations Diana Likely of Crestwood, Mo., credits the BBB with helping “wise her up” to the air duct scams after she used a $49 direct mail coupon that turned into a bill more than 80 times that price. She is still fighting the enormous $4,131 bill from Air Duct Cleaning Pros. “I’ve learned two things,” said Likely. “Do your research with the BBB before contracting and know what kind of services you really need.’’ The BBB’s investigation into air-duct cleaning scams got plenty of ink, but so have a number of other recent investigations. Among them: • A payday loan investigation that revealed companies charging outrageous interest rates to those who can least afford them. Missouri allows an APR of interest up to 1,950 percent based on a two-week loan of $100, by far the highest of nine contiguous states. • An in-depth investigation into car warranty extensions that are seldom honored but totally oversold. In the case of U.S. Fidelis, misleading advertising included a halo over the logo to promote the company as angelic, as it bilked consumers out of millions of dollars. • A holiday investigation into unethical charities, phony online charities and agencies that purport to help veterans. The BBB found plenty of police, firefighters and veteran charities that were more interested in lining their own pockets than helping the supposed beneficiaries of their online and phone bank solicitations. • An exposé of timeshare fraud focused on owners desperate to get out of long-term agreements. Owners spent millions of dollars to sell their timeshares, with few actual sales resulting from selling fees charged.
Puppy Mill Scandal Perhaps the BBB report with the biggest impact was Bob Teuscher’s March 2010 study on the puppy mill industry in Missouri. The study found the state to be the puppy mill capital of America, with regulators overwhelmed by the sheer size of the dog breeding industry.
Spring 2011 • Gateway Journalism Review • Page 31
SJR Spotlight
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There’s no question that BBB research had an impact on the battle over Proposition B, regardless of what the Missouri Legislature does to the voter-approved measure.
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“When you have 90,000 puppies being transported out of Missouri annually to other states for sale – something is going on,” Corey said. “There is a reason that it’s so much cheaper to breed puppies in this state compared to others.” The BBB investigation found that puppies from Missouri’s mills are mistreated and they also are a consumer rip-off. The puppies are raised in cages in which they can barely turn around; the cages are stacked on top of each other; and the puppies get sick from the feces and filth in these cramped conditions. The BBB found that when a family buys one of these pups, they can end up with a diseased animal that can result in a big vet bill. Many puppies are shipped out of the state in huge trucks where they can be stuck for five days. When pet shops in other states reject them as unhealthy, the pups face another five days in the truck for the ride back to Missouri. “We believe our puppy mill investigation had some influence in getting Proposition B on the ballot in 2010 to more closely regulate this industry in the state,” Corey said. “We did not take a position on the issue, but we know that the study was cited by those seeking to address the abuses in Missouri.” Proposition B, otherwise known as the “Puppy Mill Initiative”, was passed by state voters in November 2010. Rural voters generally opposed the measure and urban voters heavily supported it. Now, rural lawmakers are intent on repealing Proposition B or weakening its regulations in the current 2011 statehouse session.
BBB Gets Recognition BBB research had an impact on the battle over Proposition B, regardless of what the Missouri Legislature does to the voter-approved measure.
And, BBB of Eastern Missouri and Southern Illinois is getting recognition locally and nationally for investigative work performed by its crew of former newsroom types. The national BBB gave St. Louis the Myers Memorial Award and cited the work of Bill Smith and others in exposing fraud in the auto service contract industry. Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster presented the St. Louis BBB with its Justice Award for Consumer and Senior Protection. Some criticism of the BBBs nation-wide came up last year because of a new rating system for firms which awarded them extra points if they paid to become accredited members of the BBB. Chris Thetford, spokesman for the St. Louis BBB, said it had voted against such a policy but it was approved for all 122 chapters. After lawsuits and criticism across the country that awarding extra points was unfair, it was scrapped last November. Still, a lawsuit was filed against the St. Louis chapter by a remodeling firm that challenged the rating system, but it was dismissed by a judge. The St. Louis BBB recently moved its headquarters from a suburban office in Maplewood to the downtown Metropolitan Square Building; it has established an office in Columbia, Mo.; it is reaching out to university graduate programs to enlist students in its research efforts on advertising and business practices. Corey noted that BBB was originally founded in 1917 to check out the veracity of advertising and to help the business community self-police the marketplace. Corey said that is still the major focus of the BBB mission. “Unfortunately, when the economy is suffering as it is now, companies cut down on their advertising,” Corey said. “That means the news media that depends on advertising have fewer resources to devote to news projects, and the quantity and quality inevitably is hurt. “They also are not scrutinizing the ads, which they are getting, for honesty as much as they might have before,” Corey said. “They turn their heads a little bit, because they don’t want to turn away advertising in tough times.” Don Corrigan is a professor of journalism at Webster University in St. Louis and is editor, co-publisher of two suburban weeklies. •
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SJR Spotlight
Media Knew in the 1930s: Tobacco is a Poison Column C ha r l e s L. K lotzer
Opening statements were made on Jan. 31 in a 13-year-old suit filed in 1998 by the City of St. Louis against American Tobacco, reported the St. Louis PostDispatch. In all, 37 plaintiffs, primarily hospitals, are targeting 11 tobacco manufacturers. “Ken Brostron, a lawyer representing the hospitals, argued that tobacco companies knew as far back as the 1950s that cigarettes were addictive and harmful, yet continued to manufacture and market them,” the Post states. Mr. Brostron is wrong. It was known much before 1950 that cigarettes were poison, but the media suppressed this information in collusion with the tobacco industry. My apologies to long-time readers of this journal, who might remember that we reported on this some years ago. But the core of this information deserves repetition. Mr. Brostron probably never heard of George Seldes, the father of media criticism and journalism reviews, who died in 1995 at the age of 104. From time to time, we have reported on Seldes accomplishments and life. First a word about Seldes. As a reporter for major newspapers, he offended every tyrant, was banished from the Soviet Union during the early years, barely made it out of Fascist Italy and in 1928 left the Chicago Tribune after the paper published full articles from the U.S. oil companies, but censored his dispatches from Mexico. He attacked the National Association of Manufacturers for assisting Hitler, Mussolini and Franco. After his reports from the civil war in Spain were suppressed by some newspaper chains on the East Coast, he returned to the States and published the In Fact journal from 1940 to 1950. It carried the subtitle, “For The Millions Who Want A Free Press,” which he changed in 1943 to “An Antidote for Falsehood in the Daily Press,” and later that year to “Exposes Native Fascism, Corrupt Press, Lanor-Baiters.” Seldes revealed a clause in the contract between the tobacco companies and newspapers that “no news and no adverse comments on the tobacco habit must ever be published.” Seldes reported on many other findings on the effects of smoking. Hal Bieler, for example, analyzed at length the embalming effect of smoke on lungs (In Fact, Vol. VI, No. 25, March 29,1943). “The action of smoke on the delicate air-cells of the lung is quite similar to the action of smoke on a fresh ham hung in the smoke house to be ‘cured.’ The irritants which the smoke contains shrivel and dry and preserve and harden the exterior of the ham . . . When
smoke is inhaled into the lung the same irritating process takes place . . . When the stethoscope is applied ‘smokers rales’ are heard over the entire respiratory tree . . . He is unaware that his lung lymphatics are getting black with tarlike irritants; that the actual breathing capacity of his aircells has been diminished more than one-half of the normal, and that his resistance to lung-cancer, respiratory diseases or to severe infections has been decreased to more than onehalf of the normal.” As early as the 1920s, scientists knew about the harmful effects of smoking. In 1927, Johann Plesch, head of the medical school of the University of Berlin, treated Seldes for malaria. Plesch told him to cut down on tobacco, because it contained deadly poisons. In 1938, a study by Raymond Pearl of Johns Hopkins University showed that heavy cigarette smoking severely limited a person’s life span. By 1941, this study was published only by the Washington Post and a number of country papers that received no tobacco advertising. It was suppressed by “the NYSun, Post, News, Mirror, JournalAmerican and Herald Tribune,” Seldes wrote. In response to Seldes naming the New York Times as suppressing news of Pearl’s finding presented to the New York Academy of Medicine in 1938, the NYT managing editor James (last names only cited) sent him copies of a mention of less than two inches. However, after noncommercial weeklies played up the story, it ran a 10-inch story under the heading, “Tobacco called a life shortener.” In 1942, physician Edward J. Grace writes in In Fact, among others, “Cancer of the mouth, lips, tongue, larynx and pharynx is more prevalent in smokers than non-smokers.” Reviewing volumes 6, 7, 8 and 10 of In Fact (the only ones in our possession), which published 102 issues during the war years 1942 through 1944, we found 36 articles lambasting the cigarette industry, revealing the dangers of smoking and the influence of advertising. Later, others studied smoking. Only after Richard Doll and A. Bradford Hill in 1947 documented in a statistical analysis and in 1950 Evarts A. Graham and medical student Ernst L. Wynder published a landmark article, did the public become more aware that smoking was related to lung cancer. Reacting to his unrelenting attacks on business and government actions, President Roosevelt ordered the FBI to investigate In Fact, causing the publication, which once had a circulation of 176,000, to fold. Seldes reports, however, have endured the test of time. Charles L. Klotzer is the founder and editor/publisher emeritus of the St. Louis Journalism Review.
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SJR Spotlight
Media Notes St. Louis Media History Foundation
Seventeen media, advertising and public relations veterans have joined the newly created non-profit St. Louis Media History Foundation as members of its first board of directors. The foundation will spearhead additions and preservation efforts for an extensive collection of local print and broadcast history, including radio and television recordings, and a range of advertising and public relations materials gathered for more than 23 years by former radio broadcaster Frank Absher. “This foundation will serve as a template for other areas and help us secure and expand these valuable collections so these important pieces of our region’s history are preserved,” said Dave Garino, senior vice president
and senior partner of FleishmanHillard Public Relations and president of the foundation board. The foundation will concentrate on attracting funding to develop and expand the collection in these four areas: websites, local archives/ repositories, oral histories and the media halls of fame.
KDHX Has New Digs
Radio station KDHX FM (88.1) is moving into the heart of grand Center at 3524 Washington Blvd. It has broadcast from an old bakery building at 3504 Magnolia for 23 years. The station is launching a $4 million capital campaign to renovate the new facility.
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News Returns To Channel 30
After nine years without local news, ABC television affiliate KDNL (Channel 30) has begun newscasts at 5 and 10 p.m. The station struck a deal with KSDK Channel 5 to produce and staff weekday newscasts and weekend programming for Channel 30.
Beacon Gets Danforth Money
The St. Louis Beacon, an online news operation, received a $1.25 million gift from the Danforth Foundation. Nicole Hollway, business manager for the Beacon, said it would seek to develop additional revenue sources and become less dependent on philanthropic funding.
SJR Spotlight Why Didn’t Mizzou and Iowa Play For 100 Years?
The Mizzou Tigers and Iowa Hawkeyes played Dec. 28 in the 2010 Insight.com Bowl, with Iowa winning and thus ending a gap of 100 years in which the teams didn’t play. Why the drought in the once-heated rivalry? The St. Louis Post-Dispatch didn’t answer that question, but a few other papers did, including the Chicago SunTimes. The Sun-Times published a piece by Gregory Bond who got a doctorate from the University of Wisconsin and researched racial aspects of American sports. He said the standoff started with a player in 1910 named Archie
Alexander, who was black. Missouri didn’t admit black students and objected to Alexander taking the field against the Tigers. A Missouri-Iowa game in 1896 was stopped early in the second half when Missouri fans taunted a black Iowa player. Iowa school officials tried to negotiate but the president of the University of Missouri, was quoted as saying, ``Missouri will not play against any team that has a nigger on it.’’ Mizzou didn’t have a black on its football team until 1958, Bond wrote. Reid Laymance, sports editor at the Post, said the paper ``didn’t have time to research’’ the reason for the 100-year gap.
Globe-Democrat.com Shuts Down
After a 13-month run, the online news site Globe-Democrat.com shut down in mid-January. The St. Louis operation took its name from the old Globe-Democrat newspaper, which was shut down in 1986. Publisher Dan Rositano started the site in October, 2009, and hired a number of reporters. He never disclosed where the startup money came from. The site carried columns by conservatives Pat Buchanan and David Limbaugh, brother of Rush Limbaugh. Jerry Berger, in his blog, said Rositano went to work for WRBU Channel 46
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