Give Thanks for The First Amendment

Each term I get several opportunities to teach about my favorite journalism topic -- The First Amendment:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Those 45 words kick off the Bill of Rights to the U.S. Constitution and became law on Dec. 15, 1791. James Madison, fourth president of the United States, is revered as the Father of the Constitution and the Father of the Bill of Rights.

One of the activities that I share with my students is the fun and informative First Amendment Challenge (at least that's what I call it) hosted online by the Student Press Law Center. Students are always somewhat surprised by what the First Amendment does and doesn't protect when it's put into practice. Take the quiz and you'll see what I mean.

My aim by the end of the lesson is to have them join in my cause as a First Amendment zealot. Or at least to give thanks that they live in a country where they are free to think and say what they want. That's something for which I'll again be grateful this Thanksgiving.

-rp-

(Photo credit: "First Amendment Rally" by Luke Redmond, courtesy of Flickr.com)

Tips for the Social Networker in Every Journalist

These fine reminders on "social media" for journalists come courtesy of Alfred Hermida at Reportr.net:

1. Be human: Mass media was based on the notion of reaching millions of people with one message. As a result, that message often came across in an impersonal, corporate voice. Social media provides an opportunity to be more personal, informal and conversational.
2. Be honest: Be transparent and open about what you are doing. Social media is about genuine relationships and anyone trying to fake it is likely to be found out very quickly.
3. Be involved: Journalists should not approach social media by thinking, “how can I use this for a story”. Social media should be part of your job, not an add-on or something to be used for a story and then abandoned.

My advice to journalists is to be part of the social web, to live the social web.

Well put.

Hermida is leading a seminar today on social media best practices at a day-long event organized by CBC Vancouver. I'm looking forward to the follow-up. Meanwhile, check out the workshop blog.

-rp-

Status Report: Online Campus Media

Thank you, Bryan Murley, for your MediaShift update on one of my favorite journalism topics, the evolution of online campus media. In "College Media Has Come a Long Way Online" Murley provides links to a number of innovative online operations on campuses nationwide.

It's instructive to see what the next generation of journalists is doing out there. What surprised me was that 36 percent of college newspapers are not yet online, according to a sampling done by Bob Bergland, a professor at Missouri Western State University. What are they waiting for?!

As our own students at the Commuter have discovered since launching their improved Web site this past summer, having an immediate and seemingly limitless outlet for their journalistic and creative endeavors is not only strengthening their skills as journalists but building a new and exciting "community of interest" at Linn-Benton Community College.

It's exciting to see students engaged in trying new forms of expression and discovering that journalism is alive and well, despite what they've been led to believe by some of the old-timers in the profession.

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(Photo credit: "Media Training" by noodlepie, courtesy of Flickr.com)

Go Ahead, Check Out 'The Daily Wrazz'

Looking for a good blog about music, or just something that's fun to read? Check out The Daily Wrazz by Cory Frye.

As Cory writes in his debut post from a few days ago: "'The Daily Wrazz' is dedicated to culture of all kinds. There are no guilty pleasures here, just pleasures, period."

I've known Cory since he was a part-timer writing "scurrilous" movie and music reviews for the weekly Entertainer section of the Corvallis Gazette-Times. Those days may be long gone, but not Cory's unbridled enthusiasm for culture as well as the written word. Take today's post, for example. I'm no fan of Christina Aguilera, but I enjoyed Cory's take on whether she "Keeps Gettin' Better."

Cory notes in his intro piece:

All my life, whenever someone’s asked about my favorite music or whatever, my stock answer is “Anything I can get my hands on.” It’s not a serious reply, but actually, it is. I love noise. I love visuals. And as a consequence, although I’m acutely aware of the cultural divisions between high and low, I’ve somehow never made that distinction for myself. To this day I don’t understand how someone couldn’t like, say, professional wrestling and jazz (the “Wrazz” of this blog’s moniker) and be knowledgeable about both.

I'm looking forward to the coming attractions.

-rp-

Crowdfunding: The Next Era of Journalism?

How much would you pay to hire a journalist to report and write a news story that matters to you and your neighbors? Several groups are now experimenting with "community-funded journalism," which relies upon online donations to enlist the skills of a journalist.

Several interesting write-ups on the concept can be explored, starting with a post by Mark Glaser on MediaShift, who begins:

Bands do it. Filmmakers do it. President-elect Barack Obama made an artform out of it. "It" is crowdfunding, getting micro-donations through the Internet to help fund a venture. The question is whether crowdfunding can work on a larger scale to help fund traditional journalism...

He puts the spotlight on two efforts, one in San Francisco called Spot.us and the other in Northfield, Minn., called Representative Journalism, which is funding one reporter to cover the town of 17,000 residents.

Spot.us was the subject of a New York Times article in August. Crowdfunding may not be the answer to newspapers' revenue ills, the article notes. Then again, nothing else seems to be stemming the tide of newspaper cutbacks and layoffs.

As New York University journalism professor Jay Rosen notes in that story:

“The business model is broken. We’re at a point now where nobody actually knows where the money is going to come from for editorial goods in the future. My own feeling is that we need to try lots of things. Most of them won’t work. You’ll have a lot of failure. But we need to launch a lot of boats.”

-rp-

(Photo credit: "Reporter" by alex-s, courtesy of Flickr.com)

Eugene Weekly: Newspapers Don't Get It!

On the heels of a New York Times article stressing the imperative of newspapers and the rest of the media to change or perish comes a good shout-out by Eugene Weekly in its weekly Slant column. It began by noting the recent SPJ conference, "Building a Better Journalist," and continued:

"Excellent presenters from around the Northwest focused on how news organizations can reinvent themselves. Lots of talk about Web sites, blogs, YouTube, Twitter and new 'economic models' for success, but little discussion about how journalism itself is to blame for the financial woes of traditional media. Give the public lively, compelling, relevant content and they will stick with you. Give people superficial, predictable stories and recycled press releases and they will flock to something more stimulating, such as Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, Bill Maher , or conservative talk radio. National content in print form is yesterday’s news, so political junkies turn to interactive political Web sites."

As I shared this take with students in my Media & Society class at LBCC nods of agreement spread around the room. After all, they don't read newspapers, but they are media consumers and big on the Internet.

Eugene Weekly concluded: "Newspapers need to rise to the challenge with better content, rather than dumb down and pander to their shrinking advertiser base."

For more on this topic, see my blog, "Journalism: A Return to Its Partisan Roots?" from earlier this week.

-rp-

p.s. Fans of U.S. Rep. Peter DeFazio and his no-nonsense approach in Congress will find much to like in his Q&A with Eugene Weekly.

(Photo credit: "Reading Over His Shoulder" by Point-Shoot-Edit, courtesy of Frickr.com)

Newseum Shares Front Pages to Remember

Thanks to my LBCC English Department colleague Greg Rathert for reminding me of a great resource not just for newspaper junkies. Every day the Newseum displays newspaper front pages from around the nation and around the world.

They are always particularly striking on "big" news days, such as elections and other events. It's fascinating to see how other parts of the country perceive the news, and how the media shares that news with its readers.

And if you've never been the the Newseum, be sure to include it among your stops the next time you venture to Washington, D.C. It's well worth the trip.

Election 2008: Proud to Be an American

Now that Election Day has finally arrived, where can you go for the latest results online? Reportr.net has compiled a list of sites and links to find out the latest in the race to the White House.

And if you haven't seen it yet, a must-see site is YouTube's "Video Your Vote" Channel, which now has more than 750 videos chronicling, voting, voting problems, notable voters... It's a great reflection of our democracy in action.

Everywhere you look, it seems, and on the radio, TV and online, people are excited that Election Day is here. Optimism has replaced yesterday's cynicism and the endless flow of negative campaign ads. Yes, many are touting their guy -- Sen. John McCain or Sen. Barack Obama -- but more than that you can feel how proud people are to take part in the democratic process, and to be an American!

I'll be spending my afternoon hanging out with the student journalists at The Commuter, the student newspaper at Linn-Benton Community College. For many of them this is their first Election Day, which tops any holiday when you are a journalist. Few places can match a newsroom for the excitement of covering the election's outcome. By noon the staff already had set up additional computer monitors to project the results as they come in, and they were posting updated election stories on their Web site.

I'm excited to see how engaged my students, and young people in general, are in this election. I'm hopeful their involvement will continue way past Election Day. That's a positive vote for America.

-rp-

(Photo credit: "Vote!" by ktpupp, courtesy of Flickr.com)

Journalism: A Return to Its Partisan Roots?

Last week students in my Media & Society class engaged in a discussion of journalism's partisan roots, discussing how many newspapers in colonial America got their start from political parties and "radicals" who opposed the King of England. They were interested in the tale of John Peter Zenger, whose arrest for "seditious libel" and subsequent release paved the way for the First Amendment, freedom of speech and freedom of the press.

Later they talked about journalism's conversion to "objectivity" in the early 1900s, and the continuation of that mantra to today. Then we got into a discussion of Bill O'Reilly, Keith Olbermann, Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert.

"Not a lot of objectivity there," they agreed. However, they also agreed that these "journalists" have developed a healthy following, if not always a healthy adherence to "objective" reporting. And the students seemed to agree that these journalists have generally fulfilled their mission in serving their respective audiences.

For example, the students readily agree that Stewart and Colbert are satirists more than journalists. Nevertheless, they have succeeded in raising awareness during the presidential campaign and have spurred many young people to get involved in politics. And that's a good thing.

So I just saw a post on Social Media discussing the apparent return of partisan journalism. The post was based on a New York Times article, which notes that many news outlets can attribute their success and growing audience to their own partisanship that is on display for all to see.

While these partisan news outlets grow in stature and audience, newspapers are withering, in part I think because their readers aren't particularly interested in their claims of objectivity. They know where the newspaper's staff stands on the issues, and that's great if readers agree. If not, why bother when they can get the news from someone who shares their political outlook.

As my students reinforced, perception guides much of what we do, why should news consumption be any different? People will trust those they perceive have similar biases. Maybe it's time for newspapers to stop with the charade of objectivity, call things as they see it, stir things up, and perhaps they'll rediscover an audience of eager readers.