Talking Like An Editor

To all of my fellow editors out there: Please speak correctly! When I hear editors making up words or using incorrect grammar in conversation, it shakes my faith in their ability to guard our newspapers from such blight. For example, one professional editor I know routinely says “resuscitation” when she means “recitation.”

I suggest getting out that fine-toothed comb that we use when reading someone else’s copy when we’re talking to peers, students or teachers. That way, no one can turn around and ask herself, “And SHE’S an editor!?”

Week 4 Abstracts

“Taboo Topics in Journalism Today” (2005) In his conclusion, Cliff Kincaid says that opinion journalism is being provided under the guise of objective journalism. His main point is that the American media, as a whole and for most of recent history, have been strongly biased toward the politically liberal viewpoint on a large variety of issues. Kincaid cites many topics which he says are “taboo” because the liberal viewpoint does not support them. Among these are the ideas that AIDS research is over-funded, that homosexuals can “retire” from their lifestyle, that intelligent design created humanity and that Islam supports violence and terrorism. He says that because the liberal viewpoint pervades the media, these and other ideas are labeled as “conservative” and receive little or no coverage. He says that after years of contending with this bias, conservatives have finally gotten a break with the creation of Fox News. I think the most interesting point Kincaid brings up is to quote Victor Navasky, who advocated in the LA Times for the creation of opinion media rather than objective media. If every publication or television news program were an “opinion” publication instead of an “objective” publication, then readers could choose whether to read one that aligns with their beliefs or to read one from each side and make a decision afterward. But, readers do have those options already because conservative publications and “alternative” publications already exist for readers of all different political persuasions. The problem, Kincaid argues, is that the “objective” papers are actually liberal. He quotes Chris Mooney, a Boston Globe writer, who says that he cannot write “balanced” coverage of climate change and an abortion-breast cancer link because the evidence supports a “liberal” viewpoint of those issues. This raises the question in my mind about whether there’s a problem with giving coverage more heavily to one viewpoint when the evidence supports it. For example, when covering the Holocaust, would the media better serve their goal of objectivity by quoting people who deny its existence in order to balance the reports of those who survived? I think the answer would be no because the overwhelming evidence supports the fact that it happened. Therefore, when a reporter has done research, conducted countless interviews, reviewed medical studies, etc., and he becomes convinced of an idea, should he, in clear conscience, give equal weight in his coverage to opponents of that idea, just for the sake of “objectivity”? I say no. If his idea happens to align with “liberals” or “conservatives,” then so be it. He is still fulfilling his mission as a journalist: to tell the truth to the best of his ability and knowledge. “Help Wanted on the Religion Beat” (2005) The main point of this article is that religion-beat-reporter positions are being given to low-qualified newcomers or to someone from another area of the newsroom or to no one at all rather than to someone with years of experience on the beat. Author Julia Duin says the hiring trends make her wonder why editor are eschewing religion coverage in favor of other “growth” areas when millions of American readers are touched by religion in their daily lives, whether they are evangelical Christians or atheists. Duin does not give any pat answers to explain editors’ seeming squeamishness toward religion. I think as the press struggles to define itself as objective and disinterested, editors are afraid of any perceived bias a religious writer could produce. For example, Duin cites the paper who hired a college writer with no daily experience over an evangelical Christian with several religion-writing awards to his name to fill its religion-beat position. In this case, would the paper rather bring unquestioned objectivity to its readers or have someone who so clearly has a point of view on staff? While I do see the editors’ dilemma, I also think that to leave the position empty would be a disservice to all readers. As Duin says, none of us is completely untouched by religion, even if it’s just for the sheer number of new churches constructed in our communities. And, as she laments, lack of focus on religious topics caused most media to miss the “biggest” story of the 2004 election: that faith played a role in voting nationwide. “What the F–k are They Driving At” (2006) I completely agree with Gal Beckerman that newspapers should not tamper with taboo-laced quotes without letting readers know the changes. Like Beckerman, I can understand why papers have the policy against using profanity to uphold a sense of decorum—much the same reason you and I wouldn’t throw the F-word around casually in a public speech. But to omit the word completely with no indication of the change, as the New York Times did in its story about Pentagon official Douglas Feith, is inexcusable. When newsmakers express themselves in strong language, readers should be aware; otherwise, the meaning and context get muddled, and the truth gets distorted.

CASE STUDY: “Jimmy’s World”

Janet Cooke’s 1980 Washington Post story about an 8-year-old heroin addict won a Pulitzer Prize despite having several “red flags” that could have alerted editors to the fact that Cooke fabricated the three main sources for the story, including Jimmy himself.

First, Jimmy’s quotes often sound like the speech of someone much older than his 8 years. “So, I pretty much pay attention to math because I know I got to keep up when I finally get me something to sell” sounds more rational-minded than the typical 8-year-old’s speech, especially considering this child isn’t supposed to have gone to school very often.

As Laurie Philips pointed out, wouldn’t Jimmy’s teachers have noticed the track marks that freckled the boy’s tiny arms? And who in the world would let a reporter watch as he shoots up a child, as Jimmy’s mom’s boyfriend supposedly does in the story?

Other inconsistencies in the story and the fact that they were overlooked raises an interesting point, one that Cooke herself brought up amid the paper’s retraction: Editors may have questioned her less because she was black. Despite hyperbole, inconsistency in time and speech patterns, editors might have thought that Cooke got the story more easily than a white reporter could have because she was able to blend in better with the sources. Also, Cooke had turned in several unproblematic stories before this one.

If I were on the desk when this story was filed, I would have to ask myself whether the “red flags” warranted another look before publication. I would want to talk with Cooke about where exactly the crack house was located.

I would also consider reader reaction. How would I plan to deal with outraged readers and law enforcement who want to intervene in Jimmy’s life? All of these considerations lead me to the conclusion that anonymous sourcing is not a good idea. As the editor, I would have required Cooke to disclose more information about her sources, at least to me.

Story Idea: Personality Profile of Michael Fritton

For a community section in Jacksonville, I would write about Michael Fritton, a drama teacher at the private Bolles School who also has had a No. 1 hit on the calypso music charts in the British Virgin Isles under the stage name Lord Land Crab. Fritton recently starred in the Theatre Jacksonville production of “Dearly Departed,” in which he played a beer-guzzling redneck who is layed off from his job at a sewage treatment facility. Fritton lives with is wife and young son in Jacksonville but also has a house in Tortola, British Virgin Isles, which is about 60 miles east of San Juan, Puerto Rico. As part of a cultural exchange program in 2002, Fritton took 14 of his students from Bolles to Tortola, where they performed with local children in a play he wrote called “Me Nanny Told Me Granny.”

The profile would focus on what made Fritton, a middle-aged white man, interested in Tortola and calypso music in the first place and what has made him go back year after year. How did he come up with the name Lord Land Crab? The profile would also include description of his clothing, which usually includes a funky hat, and his home décor, which features several stuffed wild animals that he dresses for various holidays.

I would interview Fritton, his wife, his son, and someone who worked to help produce his No. 1 hit.

The Web component would offer a history of calypso music with samples of well-known songs, including several by Lord Land Crab. This feature could be integrated into an interactive map of the British Virgin Isles, with places to click on and learn more about the country and its culture. The story would include links to YouTube videos of the children performing “Me Nanny Told Me Granny” and Fritton performing in “Dearly Departed.” It could also include a slide show of pictures of the interior of Fritton’s homes, with their eccentric decorations.

Week 3 Abstracts

Skeptical Editing:I think MacCluggage made an excellent point in this speech: Stories need adversaries more than they need advocates. I like the analogy he makes between an editor and a cross-examining lawyer; the lawyer’s job is to poke holes in and cast doubt on the other side’s testimony, and an editor’s job should likewise be to hold a story up to similarly stringent standards. A designated “devil’s advocate” for each story sounds like a great idea, especially for new editors and editors-in-training. I like how MacCluggage relates skeptical editing to the need for more diversity in the newsroom by quoting Poynter’s Bob Steele: “I think we make our best decisions when we make them with people who are different from us in the newsroom.” In other words, skeptical editing can be better achieved when we have a variety of viewpoints.  Joint Operating Agreements:Joint operating agreements, a result of the signing of the Newspaper Preservation Act of 1970, allowed two newspapers operating in the same market to consolidate business operations, such as printing press operation and classified ad sales, while maintaining separate and competitive news operations. To do so, news organizations were exempt from anti-monopoly laws. Usually, the papers were a daily paper and an evening paper, which were printed on the same presses at different times of the day. This type of arrangement casts some doubt on whether the two papers could remain truly independent of one another while sharing resources. I believe that the editors and reporters of the two papers could act ethically while sharing business resources, however. In fact, I do not see much of a problem with this arrangement.  Meet the News Face of Hyperlocal Journalism: One idea stuck out to me about local news blogs: If you have unique content people like, then you will gain readers and ad revenue. One advantage blogs like Baristanet have over traditional print media is timeliness. The example of the storm coverage that “kicked butt” of the traditional paper makes this point well. However, the blog has taken more than two years to start being profitable, and that’s starting with a publisher who already has name recognition from a previous writing career. An unknown writer/publisher has even less of a chance at success. In response to the critic who says local blogs like this do not serve the watchdog function of journalism, I say that not all media are designed to fulfill this function. Traditional papers should challenge those in power, television dramas should entertain and local news blogs can fall somewhere in between. This is not necessarily a weakness. Rather, a local blog’s ability to identify with local readers is a strength that is easily quantifiable by page views and comments.   “Potemkin Village” Redux :The main point of this article is that the trend in grassroots journalism Web sites is that they contain less actual journalism and more advertising or PR-type fluff stories. The author attributes the state of things, in his conclusion, to lack of funding. Basically, the only sites reviewed that are close to profitable are those with corporate backing or investors. The truly grassroots sites have no sales staffs and struggle to make ends meet while not expanding into new markets. In reading this article, I thought about the comment function that makes online journalism so unique and how that function seems to be used for such unproductive discussions in the online forums I’ve seen. For example, in the comment sections on both GainesvilleSun.com and Aol.com/news, I have seen people calling each other names, preaching their moral viewpoints and chastising each other. Very little “discussion” relates to the story in an informative way, from what I’ve observed.  This review of hyperlocal sites brings up the question of whether these “news” sites have a place in modern society. It trends continue as they have, the answer appears to be, “Not an important one.” However, there are some lights on the horizon, such as Baristanet’s use of interactive maps to show the pattern of houses being torn down or some blogs’ increasing use of appealing graphics and videos. As with traditional media, content must still be king with online sites.  Common Sense Journalism:                  This article was written by a creator of a “community storytelling” site set up for a town of about 10,000 people. The site had reached 45,000 unique visitors at the time of the article, telling the author that he had done something right. His tips included the following: Let visitors post pictures, be aggressive in promoting the site and make it easy to navigate. He says, when creating a citizen journalism site, think like a user when figuring out how to organize it. Also, he says potential online publishers must keep in mind that a site will cost $5,000 to $10,000 to set up and should require a full-time technologically minded employee for at least a month of setup. Overall, the article seemed to be saying that community storytelling sites, as a genre, are still in the formative and experimental stage of development. One big lesson to take away is that users will gravitate toward sites about which they feel a sense of not only belonging but also ownership. Therefore, interactive features must entice the audience.                      “Eagle Snatches Dog”:                   This article begs for more skeptical editing. First of all, the entire story is told through the eyes of one source, who was a witness but not a participant in the action of the story. The story was written after the source called the newspaper to give his tip. Running the story could bring up the ethical concern of causing injury to the owners of the lost dog. A devil’s advocate might ask, “Haven’t these people suffered enough? Will the readers be offended by a seemingly insensitive telling of the story?” For example, the detail about the husband’s jubilation might seem to trivialize the incident, especially when one considers that the account is based on one person’s observation and memory. If I were the editor, I would have to evaluate how trustworthy the source seemed and what good the story would do if it were run. It doesn’t really serve a public good except to be entertaining. Is that enough to justify running a story based on one man’s account?

NPR’s Coverage of Kenya

During one of my recent commutes from Gainesville to Jacksonville, I was listening to NPR and heard a story about thousands of people in Kenya who were “displaced” from their homes in the days after the results of a presidential election were announced and tribal violence broke out. The violence was so bad that these displaced people were sleeping with wild monkeys in open fields “under the stars.” The reporters interviewed a woman who had helped organize a movement to provide diapers and food to the babies in one field that contained about 4,000 people. The story ended with the reporter saying something like, “…no end in sight.”

After listening to the report, I was overwhelmed with the questions that it had left unanswered. First of all, how do thousands and thousands of people suddenly become”displaced”? Who exactly was forcing these people out and how did they do it? Did the aggressors burn down entire villages? Did they threaten these people with death or rape? Why wasn’t the newly elected president stopping this mass movement out of homes? I also wondered how common this sort of tribal violence is in Kenya. If another presidential candidate had won, would the displaced people have forced their enemies out of their homes instead? Basically, I thought the story lacked the context to help me, a fairly educated listener, understand what was really happening.

#51 on my list: Facebook groups

Last week, we read about 50 places to “shop” for story ideas. If I were writing the list, I would add No. 51: Facebook groups. These social network groups identify something that people find interesting enough to have a created an online group dedicated to it. Browsing through the list of groups created by University of Florida students (You can search groups based on location or school), one finds devotees of everything from Dave Matthews Band to Spongebob Squarepants. And for every group in support of something, there are two more in opposition to it. I have used Facebook groups several times to find sources for my news feature stories. The administrators and creators of these groups make especially passionate commentators.

I have also used the Facebook search feature to identify sources who live in a certain area of town or drive a certain type of car.

If you are a journalist, take advantage of social networking sites today!

Week 2 Abstracts

MEDIA SHIFT:

Mark Glaser predicts an increased involvement by readers in researching and writing news stories. This involvement will come at all stages of the process, from being the inspiration for story ideas to fact-checking stories to adding to a finished story after it is posted online. I think this prediction is based on the unlikely assumption that readers will care/have enough time to be highly involved in the newsgathering process. As journalism students, we are frequently reminded that readers have little attention or time to devote to the consumption of media. How, then, does Glaser think that these same readers will devote time to help edit, shape and give copious feedback to our presentation of news? One answer: He says other bloggers and social network friends will be constant sources of feedback during newsgathering. However, this seems quite a limited audience. In other words, a community of online friends and news gatherers will support each other, but will those outside the blogosphere take part in the consumption? Also, from a business standpoint, where will the profits come from in an online system like the one Glaser describes? Would bloggers have to devote ad space to their pages? Media is, after all, a business. 

 50 PLACES TO SHOP FOR STORY IDEAS:

This list is full of helpful tips. When I received it a couple of semesters ago in my reporting lab, I found it to be a comfort during highly uncertain times. Particularly, No. 6, “Start Googling,” has come in handy more times than I can remember. I have Googled the names of sources used in a Washington Post story and was able to contact the same sources for a local feature I wrote last semester. For my favorite place to shop for story ideas, check out my blog at thisisjess.wordpress.com in the upcoming week.