April 16 Intro to Journalism

1. April 16 Intro to Journalism

2. Today • Listen to some of your stories and look at slideshows. • Discuss next assignment: op-ed or first person reported. • One group edit • One group presentation • If time permits, discuss/view part of Page One doc • Discuss nature of breaking news coverage and use of social media in crisis reporting. Talk about impact of shrinking newsrooms in a disaster. Discuss medium. • Discuss Cindy Chang’s work

3. Next week: April 23 • Discuss final assignment, revisions • Listen to more student stories • Guest Speaker, Cindy Chang, Flom Auditorium

4. April 30th- Final Class • Finish listening to student stories. • Any final group edits • Class wrap up • Complete in-class critiques, etc. • Submit final stories and revisions. • Final exam during regular period: Pr. Campbell

5. Guest Speaker: Cindy Chang • Cindy Chang | Staff Write, The Los Angeles TimesCindy Chang covers immigration and ethnic communities for the Los Angeles Times. While at the New Orleans Times-Picayune, she was the lead writer for a series exposing the role of Louisiana's for-profit prisons in the state’s world-leading incarceration rate. “Louisiana Incarcerated” received the June 2012 Sidney Award and the 2013 John Jay College/H.F. Guggenheim Excellence in Criminal Justice Reporting Award. • http://videos.nola.com/times-picayune/2012/05/louisiana_incarcerated_intro_v.html • http://www.nola.com/prisons/

6. Boston Coverage • If you were the only crew on the ground, how would you cover this unfolding story? • Breaking News Coverage • Medium • Use of social networks (using storify) • Reporting when there is nothing to report • News gathering at reporting at once • News can break anywhere.

7. Does having the scoop matter anymore? • If it does, why? • If it doesn’t why doesn’t it and what matters more?

8. The stories journalists tell help the public make sense of confusing, threatening times. • In fact there is evidence that putting language to traumatic experiences helps individuals cope. • Although it is not a stated mission of the press to heal, articulating the event for others may have a therapeutic effect on the larger community.

9. When reporting, ask yourself: • If I were chronicling events directly affecting my family and me, would I alter the wording in any way? • Are graphic descriptions or images necessary to the angle of the story? • Could any of the reporting in this story prove harmful to the subjects of the story? • If so, is this information necessary for the story?

10. Journalists should understand that their coverage ... must be about facts, not speculation and conspiracy theories that stir people into irrational action. • They also must remember that their coverage affects people — the families of the victims, the survivors and the community. • They also should consider that their interview approaches to those family members must be sensitive and respectful. • That they should be careful not to intrude upon private property and personal grieving space where they are not welcome. • That it's OK to say "I'm sorry.“ If they do, then those journalists will be remembered as ethical and credible in their coverage.

11. In the race to get it first, don't forget the long view. It often helps to think less about gathering fact and more about creating relationships. Some of the best stories won't be told for days, weeks, months or, in some cases, years. • People in grief have long memories. You will want to be able to return to these people when they are ready to tell you what they've learned, not just what they know. The golden rule can't hurt you here. Approach people the way you'd want to be approached. Give them the respect and space you'd expect in the same situation. • If they talk with you, make this promise: No surprises. Read the quotes they've supplied back to them. Summarize how you may use the information. Make sure they have your contact information, and make sure you have theirs. The point is to start a conversation, and to continue it as time passes.

12. Be very careful about the experts you select as sources. High-profile stories are magnets for everyone from legitimate scholars and practitioners to self-proclaimed experts with no real knowledge. • Serious experts are almost always quick to admit that there is no easy explanation for why and how something happened, especially before even the most basic information is released. Beware of the expert source who is just dying to be helpful. • And perk up your ears when someone tells you: “I really need to get more information before I have anything useful to say.”

13. Early live reports of terrorist attacks are sometimes confusing and misleading.  • Journalists strive to balance the need to present accurate information of these sensational events while dampening the terrorists’ goal of producing widespread panic. • They balance the public’s need to know with the private sensitivities of those most directly affected. For instance, after CBS aired a portion of the video from Pearl’s captors months after his death, Pearl’s family criticized the network as heartless. “Terrorists have made this video confident that the American media would broadcast it and thereby serve their exact purpose,” said Pearl’s father. • CBS anchor Dan Rather responded that the anti-American propaganda displayed in the video is newsworthy because it helped explain the motives of the perpetrators.

14. Journalist Reaction • Despite the passions common to all Americans journalists generally projected a sense of calm during the early, emergency coverage of 9/11. • ABC News anchor Peter Jennings strove to maintain an emotional balance. “I have always believed that my emotion has no more validity than anybody else’s,” he said. (p. 170, Covering Catastrophe). • Tom Brokaw, the veteran NBC News anchor, acknowledges that you can’t always “suppress your personal feelings. They just spill out, and I think that’s understandable to the audience. My operating rule is: You’re not the story; you’re the conduit for the audience to the story. You ought not let your emotions become the story or become a distraction. But at the same time, obviously, you had a human reaction to a lot of this stuff.” (p. 170, Covering Catastrophe).

15. Consider the cost of integrity • Journalists take no Hippocratic Oath. There is little question that tackling a difficult story is a hazardous process for both journalist and source. • Stories chronicling suffering and loss, and exposing injustices, are typical. The issue is how to minimize the risk. In the past, journalists sometimes have been taught that the interview process must be adversarial. Painful questions must be answered, the thinking went, no matter what the price. • This need not always be the case. The journalist’s primary responsibility is to the story. Journalists are in no position to play the role of therapist, even if they are occasionally tempted by it. • But at the same time, journalists can and do think about the emotional costs of interviews to their subjects. Few interviews, no matter how powerful, are worth re-traumatizing someone who has just suffered an agonizing loss. 

16. Don't assume that that the grieving person won't share. When I first started as a reporter, I found the idea of calling someone who had lost a loved one repulsive. I was sure the person would not want to talk and would be angry if I asked. Every person grieves differently. Some will need and want to talk; some will not.

17. Don't say "I understand," unless you have had the same experience or relationship. [In fact, trauma journalists warns this should rarely if ever be said to a victim of terrorism.]

18. Next assignment • Op-ed : 750 words • First person reported: Between 700 and 1000

19. First Person Issue Pieces (OR, First Person “Reported”)

20. Combining Narrative With Analysis • By grounding stories in a broader context, their messages are better understood.

21. So, here’s an example… • Say you’re writing about your three kids. • Problem is….they’re all fat. Obese even. • So, you begin your story, of course, with a captivating and engaging lede. • You write about how it is so hard to get your kids to eat healthy. They love juice boxes! The ice-cream man thwarts your efforts! You’re too exhausted to prepare a healthy meal they refuse to eat! • Okay, so….you tell your story, your plight, your drama. You have compelling arc, you use telling, cinematic details. You use dialogue!

22. But then…..you start mushing in little bits of analysis… • So, you’re telling your story… and it is going along quite well. • And then! POW! Maybe after your first anecdote or after your second. Once you’ve hooked your reader…..once you’ve got them addicted to your story….you throw in some bricks…(up till now it’s been all balloons, all story).

23. What’s a brick? • A brick is your analysis. • Maybe you write something like…. “I’m not the only one struggling to get my kids to eat healthy without giving them a complex. 47 percent of American kids under the age of 12 are obese, according to the Center for Disease Control.”

24. Keep going with the bricks… “ I spoke to Skinny Mary, a pediatric dietician at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital. She says, parents need to make it fun to eat healthy…..blah blahblah you get the idea.”

25. So, you need 3 things… • You need: • An awesome personal story • And 2 types of reporting: • The kind of reporting you can do yourself. You can dig up statistics and information from REPUTABLE, TRUSTWORTHY websites. • And you need to speak to some sort of expert, an analyst or an historian who can provide unique analysis and context.

26. First person essays should move readers. • But….they don’t always satisfy curiosity about the issue. • In the first person REPORTED piece, you’ll tell your story but then you’ll let readers know how experts would analyze the underlying issues. • You’ll tell readers what talented experts have concluded about the issues and hopefully, in the process, you’ll shed light on your particular story.

27. The thing is…experts can be wonky • Some expert findings are neither easily accessible nor very readable. • YOU have to play a helpful role by translating their results in ways readers can understand and use. • Sometimes this means asking people to explain things again and again and again.

28. Readers love issues presented up close and personal. • So you will tell your personal story and break it up with researched explanation.

29. A little bit of narrative, like sugar, just makes everything better. • Narrative conveys emotion. • Narrative shows, not tells. Consider this…..

30. Which would you rather read? • Childhood obesity is the number one cause of diabetes in adolescents. 46 percent of children under 12 are considered overweight, according to the Center for Disease Control. • When I walked into the kitchen, Francesca was unapologetically downing her 4th juice box. This, despite the talk we’d had about choosing water sometimes. • At the beach one day, I overheard one of the other mom’s refer to my son as “the candy crack dealer” because he seems to have unlimited access to fruit roll-ups and Starburst. Apparently, this makes the kids flock to him like some kind of a miniature rock star.

31. Here’s another way you could do it… • You could tie it to a NEWS story. This makes your piece less “evergreen” which is good because then an editor is forced to publish it sooner.

32. So….what do you mean? • News story: NJ Governor Corzine wants to pay gym teachers less than math teachers. • I’m a gym teacher! So….I could tie my personal story of being a gym teacher in with both research on the importance of gym teachers AND the news hook of the story about Corzine.

33. So ultimately, what are you doing… • You are telling your own compelling story (and remember it should be ONE SINGLE STORY with a beginning, middle and end) • And you are using that story to get people interested in a larger issue. • The issue doesn’t have to be ground-breaking. It doesn’t have to be heavy (though it can be).

34. So…. • You will tell your story. You know it. It happened to you. You can recreate it. BUT, make sure it is honest, truthful. Remember, this is not fiction! • Then….you’ll research your issue and you’ll find little slots in your story where you can fit them in to provide context for your personal narrative.

35. This really isn’t so different than any other story…. • The only difference is that instead of going out and finding people to put a human face on an issue- your own experience will be the human face of the issue.

36. When Doctors Make Mistakes By AtulGawande • At 2 A.M. on a crisp Friday in winter, I was in sterile gloves and gown, pulling a teenage knifing victim's abdomen open, when my pager sounded. “Code Trauma, three minutes,"the operating-room nurse said, reading aloud from my pager display. This meant that an ambulance would be bringing another trauma patient to the hospital momentarily, and. as the surgical resident on duty for emergencies, I would have to be present for the patients arrival. 

37. Next week- Writing an Op-ed • Op-ed, opposite the editorial page. Is an opinion piece, but it requires research and knowledge. • Find a news hook and be timely. Here is an example: http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/04/14/a-tax-system-stacked-against-the-99-percent/