I'll see you in the summer!

   This blog is temporarily inactive due to another blog I maintain for the photojournalism class I teach at Owens Community College.
   I will resume posting to this blog in the summer, considering I need to keep practicing my writing skills.
   Thanks, and I hope you return in June. 
   

There's a warrior in all of us

 The Warrior Dash was the race of my lifetime.
  It was 5Ks of fun and games. My worry that I'd struggle was not necessary because the race was more fun than challenging. I also hired a YMCA personal trainer to help me prepare three weeks before the event. That helped a lot.
   Most of this video was shot wearing a Go Pro camera on a snow ski helmet. I didn't care that I looked like a dork (how my kids described me) wearing a bright pink ski helmet because costumes were encouraged. What mattered is that I documented the entire race. My friend Laurie was nice enough to wear the helmet the last mile so I could show my kids that I can still run, climb, jump and swim at 50.
   I loved the mud, camaraderie and physicality of the whole experience. There were people of all ages and sizes. Very few people actually ran the whole time. Actually, you couldn't run fast most of the race because the extreme muddy, steep trails in the woods made it too dangerous. Mud forced us to slow down and enjoy the view!
   The video features highlights from all of the obstacles. The only two obstacles not recorded by the Go Pro camera were the final two: the fire and mud pit. Unfortunately, the 4G memory card went full with only 10 minutes left in the race. So, I recorded those two obstacles with my G11.
   Tips for running the race:

1. Walk at least a few miles twice a week for three weeks prior to the race
2. Use at least an 8G memory card for a Go Pro camera
3. Wear disposable socks, and don't wear anything nice
4. Bring a friend who can hold your stuff during the race and take photos of you crossing the finish line!
5. Donate your shoes afterwards to charity.

   Thanks for watching!!!! This is also available on YouTube: Warrior Dash Lori King

Huddled between pinball machines

Dana cooks hot dogs and checks the weather as the storm quickly approaches.

Anxious campers wait out the storm from the game room shelter.

Kerrie saves the chicken, and Dana comforts our kids.

   We knew the storm was coming. Fellow campers at our campground in Dundee, Michigan were talking about it all morning. Fast and furious was the word.
   So around 6 p.m. last night we all anxiously watched the storm approach. Rugs, shelters, awnings, outdoor kitchens, etc. were put away in anticipation of high winds and heavy rain. We nervously watched the dark clouds from the south as I quickly cooked chicken breasts on our small grill while Dana Googled the weather.

   Then the winds and lightening came and the tornado siren sounded, so we ran to the game room,  a small concrete building with a single pool table and pinball machines that lined the walls. My family huddled between two pinball machines. Quinn and Jolee were crying; Dana held their hands as I stood nearby...documenting the experience with my G11 until the electricity went out, leaving us in the dark.
   The storm passed quickly, but it left behind a flooded campground and two very emotional little girls who begged to go home. So we did.
    I was surprised there were only a few dozen campers (out of the hundreds who where there) who sought shelter in the game room. Don't people realize that tornadoes pick up campers and throw them around like Tonka toys?
   Maybe I'm a more aware of the power of tornadoes because I've covered quite a few tornado aftermaths, including the last one that ripped through Xenia years ago.
     Warning: If tornado sirens go off, find shelter in places other than campers, cars and under trees. We hid between two arcade games. Oh, how ironic is that?

This girl watched the storm from a pool table. Moments later the lights went out and she huddled with others on the floor.

Quinn, Jolee and Dana head back to the camper after the storm passes.

Too wet for fun. We went home 30 minutes after the storm passed.

Flames, fun and firefighters

This is what I first saw.

   I was running at Swancreek Metropark this morning when I saw black smoke arising. My first thought was that my house was on fire, even though I live miles away. Then I remembered area firefighters were training at two abandoned brick homes nearby.
   Today is my day off, but as I pulled away from the park and passed the training site, I couldn't help myself. I turned around, grabbed my Canon G11, and started shooting.
   I plan to share these photos with the firefighters. These guys are lifesavers, after all.
   If you've read my previous posts, you might know I'm a huge safety freak when it comes to fire prevention and safety. So, don't forget to install smoke and carbon monoxide detectors everywhere, and change your batteries on the ones you do have.  
   Now that my public service announcement is complete - enjoy the photos.

This is the first house.

This is the second house.

Thank you, firefighters!
By the way, this photo is not staged, as some have thought. It's called attention to detail.

Blog Post Consolidation

   Boring alert: The next 20 posts (a semester's worth) are really boring if you don't care about journalism. I had to write them as part of my required homework for my master's class, The Social Role of Mass Media.
   I had a separate blog for the course, but decided to consolidate it with this blog for a few reasons.  First, the social role blog only had two followers, so very few people knew it existed. I don't want that material to disappear into a big black Blogosphere hole, which brings me to the second reason I consolidated. I'm the first to admit the material is dry as a bone and not very entertaining. However, it's vital information that I don't want to forget. In fact, I think it's so important I hope to share it with more than just two people.
   It feels good to jump-start this blog again, which includes my New York media trip last summer. This blog has been in hiatus for a long time, and now it's back.

Lessons learned

   This is my final blog for this course. I shall miss studying all things social media, but that's the beauty of education...it continues at our own will.

Here a few highlights I learned from this course:

1. The act of doing journalism is a social responsibility that contributes to the democracy of its citizens. A free press enables citizens to stay informed about their local communities, government and school systems, as well as what's happening around the world.
2. Journalists are no longer the sole provider of news. Because of technology, like blogs, Twitter and mobile devices, traditional consumers of news now have the capacity to supply it.
3. Because it's so easy to disseminate news in this electronic age, it's more important now more than ever to teach the traditional principles and standards of journalism. This point is what separates the journalists from the citizen communicators.
4. Journalists can have feelings, too. We can advocate for a cause as long as it's for the good of its citizens. This includes synthesizing complex information, as well as teaching readers about certain topics that otherwise would be hard to understand. This strays a little from the “be objective” role we traditionally hold.
5. Journalism educators have a very important mission of teaching media literacy to every student we can get to listen, including those students who have no intention of entering the journalism field. Citizen journalists now outnumber the legacy journalists, so it's no longer just enough to focus on those who want to be journalists when they grow up.

• One more thing, the Elements of Journalism rocks!

    Everything I learned this semester is sinking in. One major change I'm thinking about implementing next semester is creating a Twitter account for the Intro to Photojournalism class. They're already blogging, but I wonder if that's enough. I'm also considering developing a media literary summer course for the community college.

    Thanks for being a great teacher, John! Your law and ethics classes have helped make me the teacher I am today!

My Blogosphere

    I want to share last week's assignment before I sign off from this course. We had to develop a futures wheel on blogging. A futures wheel is just a fancy term for charting how we see the future of a given topic. We were encouraged to “let our imagination roll.”

I created a solar system based on the Blogoshere. Yeah, it's way out there, but we must not forget to have fun while we learn. Let your own imagination go wild as you read my own silly planet chart. One fellow student suggested that paparazzi be astroids. Now that's funny!

   My futures wheel is similar to a vibrant, active solar system. I will refer to this universe as my Blogosphere. There are eight planets that rotate around the sun. Each planet represents an outer ring into the universe.

    Hop on the Blogosphere social shuttle to visit or live on any of these planets, including the sun!

The sun = Planet Educator. Let's start with an energy source: The sun. The sun is 109 times as big as the earth. Without the sun, there would be no life on earth. Earth would be dark, cold and barren, and the other planets would be in perpetual blackness.

In my Blogosphere, the sun represents journalism education. The sun is home to The Sun Academy, where journalism teachers and advisers harness the sun's energy to teach students everything they need to know about journalism.

Journalism educators here have their work cut out for them, though. Not only is it their mission to teach traditional journalism values, like ethics, transparency, balance and verification, but they also must keep up with the most recent technology. Newspapers no longer exist, so journalists disseminate all of their news throughout the entire solar system using social media.

Mercury = Planet Student Bloggers. Mercury is the first planet in the solar system. It's one of the smallest planets, but it's the first! This is a popular communal planet where graduates from The Sun Academy go to live. They stay in shared housing while they hone their writing and ethical skills. They live here until they are ready to move to Venus, where good paying jobs with great benefits are plentiful.

Venus = Planet Legacy Bloggers. All working journalists who live on this planet maintain professional and personal blogs. There's a standard, industry-wide code of ethics derived from the Elements of Journalism (101^st revised edition), which eliminates much of the current confusion when using social media tools. This planet is nicknamed The Fourth Estate. Because all journalists here have jobs, they also own their own hover crafts and homes!

Earth = Planet First Amendment. Remember when Earth was the only planet in the solar system that sustained life? Now, thanks to artificial air and water sources, the other eight planets are thriving with life. But earth is a special place because of its historical value. Not only is this planet known for the creation of humans, it's also where the First Amendment was created.

Yes, this 18^th Century document still exists today! So, because of First Amendment, all legacy and citizen bloggers throughout the entire universe exercise their right to free speech, and censorship is banned.

Mars = Planet Truth. This is home of Poytner Institute and headquarters for the Solar System World JEA. Conveniently located between the planets First Amendment and Citizens, Planet Truth is a popular seminar destination for blogger educators and students.

Jupiter = Planet Citizens. This is the largest planet in the universe, and it's where most citizens live now. Citizens subscribe to their favorite news bloggers from throughout the solar system. Because of the mind-boggling high volume of bloggers available, there is universe-wide accreditation system. This helps to alert citizens when a blog originates from the Planet Uranus.

Saturn = Planet Interesting and Relevant. The inhabitants on this planet are known for their artsy blogging. These crazy newsmakers go above and beyond the 5Ws and the H. Saturnites think outside hemisphere by using short story forms and advanced multimedia. Need inspiration? This is a favorite vacation destination for news bloggers who are tired of the same old way of telling a story. The inhabitants on this planet don't mind sharing their skills and enthusiasm with others. In fact, bloggers from other planets are encouraged to enroll in one of the many famous creative blogging schools here.

Uranus = Planet Misinformation. This makes sense, doesn't it? You know what happens when you assume... This is where bloggers are exiled when they are are caught blogging misinformation, rumor, innuendo and lies. It's way out there in the universe, where it belongs.

Neptune = Planet New Media. This is planet where social scientists are working on the new media that hasn't been even been invented yet. This planet is light years away, but as fast as technology is changing, it won't take long to arrive. We just need to go around Uranus to get there.

Journalism and democracy

    I love this quote by George Lewis.
   “When there’s a disconnect between the truth and the official version of what happened, I think it’s our obligation as journalists to jump all over that," Lewis said during a recent speech. 
   "Journalists have become intimidated, self-censored, too reluctant to dispute the official version of events in recent years.  What happens when journalists pull their punches, pander to their audiences, sell out to commercial interests? What happens when we fail in our mission to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comforted?  I’ll tell you what happens: society loses – big time.” 
   This comment solidifies one of the reasons journalists help protect democracy.
   Would Kenneth Lay, Richard Nixon or former Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich gotten away with it their corruption if it wasn't for the diligence and resourcefulness of journalists?
   Would more Hurricane Katrina victims still be suffering if the media hadn't been on the scene to document the death and destruction?
   Would there be more dead dogs if it weren't for theToledo Blade, who spearheaded a media campaign to oust the Lucas County Dog Pound warden, Tom Skelton. He was known for putting down all pit bulls that entered his cages, no matter the temperament. The Blade has taken more than a few hits for being relentless in this cause, but has their coverage protected the afflicted - defenseless dogs?
   What do these examples that have to do with democracy? Well, everything. It begins with the First Amendment. Freedom of the press allows journalists to report on their communities, which includes our own government and other powerful organizations that control our lives.
   Press freedoms are granted to anyone who feels obliged to tell the truth for the sake of democracy, and it traditionally began with scholastic journalists. But that's changing because of citizen journalists and social media.
   No matter what the age or credential, there should be no disconnect between the truth and the official version of what happened. Below are five core concepts of journalism as stated in the Elements of Journalism:
1. Never add anything that was not there.
2. Never deceive the audience.
3. Be as transparent as possible about your methods and motives.
4. Rely on your own original reporting.
5. Exercise humility.
   As long as student, legacy and citizen journalists follow these principles, society wins - big time.

Social Media is our future

   I have seen the future of journalism, and it is both terrifying and exciting.

    The days of having to wait for the 11 'clock news broadcast or the delivery of top headlines at your doorstep are over.

    With a single click, you can read instant, up-to-date stories on wars in Iraq, natural disasters in Haiti, political revolutions in Egypt, fashion statements in New York and the local price of gas. Actually, the mouse click might soon be a thing of the past, too, as they are replaced by iPads and mobile devices.

    The exciting part isn't that anyone with a wifi connection has access to these stories. That's almost become an expectation. These stories are coming out of countries that were once places of total secrecy and isolation, where residents are still ruled by dictatorship and media are banned from reporting the truth about the government.

    What's incredible is that these stories are not generated by the traditional, mainstream press. Because of social media, average citizens are blogging and tweeting their plight into living rooms thousands of miles away.

    This is our new reality as journalism educators.

    We have to see all of our youth, and older citizens, too, as potential storytellers. That's the terrifying part. Our network of communicators has expanded beyond my comprehension, which is probably why we have to rely on our students to spread the word, as well. Right, John?

Journalism student = learner and teacher

   The past two blog posts are about my memories as a working journalist. I was comfortable learning the craft as I went along because there weren't too many changes after college graduation.  Journalism was simple back then, wasn't it?
   I wonder if educators 30 years ago had the same fear as I do now of not being able to keep up with technology.

Aggregate...responsibly

   I learned a new word recently: aggregate. Although this is a new word for me, it's not a new social media concept. It's been evolving for years.

   According to the Merriam-Webster definition, aggregate is the collection of units or particles into a body, mass or amount. What that means in the journalism world is that sites like AOL News and Yahoo! News collect mass amounts of stories from other media sources, like the New York Times and the Washington Post, and repost them.

   Are these aggregation sites content thieves or bargain story outlets? Sure, the stories link back to the original source, but did they pay the journalists who wrote the stories or the photographers who took the photos?

   "For the first time in our history, the news increasingly is produced by companies outside journalism, and this new economic organization is important. We are facing the possibility that independent news will be replaced by self-interested commercialism posing as news," wrote Elements of Journalism authors Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel.

   To be fair, aggregation has its advantages. It's convenient for busy readers who want a broad range of news, and some sites have even hired people to manage hyper-local news, including local bloggers (citizen communicators) dedicated to covering their own community. 

   The problem with this latter point is that too many bloggers, masquerading as journalists, are willing to work for free for the chance to expression themselves and get published. I fear these bloggers are being taken advantage of by greedy aggregators hungary for space filler and original content.

   For this reason, media literacy should be a mandatory class for all college freshmen or sophomores. It's just too easy to misinform the public, which has been relying on ethical journalism (reliable, accurate, fair transparent) for hundreds of years. 

   This is where journalism educators can make a difference. We can't stop aggregation, but we can help make it more ethical by teaching journalism values to everyone, not just journalism majors. 

Delivery methods change, but truth does not

One of my homework assignments for last week: Your student reporters want to start using blogs to go with their stories. In a 300-word position statement, explain why this is or is not a good idea. Use arguments from this your required reading. (25 points)

---

    Before computers, I used pound out stories on old fashioned typewriters. Each time I made a mistake, I'd rip out the paper, crumple it up and start over. It wasn't a good machine for a perfectionist. It took me hours to write a single story. This was in the early and mid-1980s, when I was an Army journalist.

    By the late 1980s, while a PJ major at Kent State, desktop computers replaced the typewriter. They were bulky, slow and prone to crash, but writing stories on computers was much faster and easier than peck, peck, pecking away on loud typewriter keys. You could actually edit copy without throwing away packs of paper, and save files to floppy disks. I practically lived at the Daily Kent Stater (the student newspaper) because I used the computers for my other homework.

    Then the portable Smith Corona and Brother word processors were invented. This allowed me to write in the comfort of my own home. And now? I have a MacBook Pro and an iPad.

    I've witnessed much change in technology during my 30 years in the journalism business, most of it improving the workflow for print journalists, editors, page designers and photojournalists.

    Yet, I don't think these changes in delivery methods are as monumental as the current social media tools available today, like Twitter, Facebook,WordPress and Blogger, which allow average citizens to publish their opinions in seconds.
   Like stated in Elements of Journalism, "Machines do not change human nature." (Page 184)

    So yes, I strongly encourage journalism students to blog and tweet their stories and photos, guided by editors and instructors who teach that "you cannot supplant the search for fact and content that traditional journalism of verification provides."  (Elements, Page 184)
   Learning to blog responsibly will separate students from countless citizen bloggers who have no formal education in journalism ethics and law. 

    The following are a few valuable lessons I believe students get out of learning social media tools: 

• It allows them to write more often and concisely;

• It forces students to verify on tighter deadlines;

• They learn blogging/social media ethics; 

• They learn a little about web design;  

• Blogging adds another dimension (multimedia) to their storytelling;

• It prepares them for journalism jobs in the 21^st Century.  

   I was taught how to blog in one of my grad classes: Teaching Multimedia.  I am paying it forward. (see owenspj.blogspot.com.)

   That's the power of education.

The balance of past and future

   I remember the first time I watched a company advertise their website during a TV commercial. I wondered what the heck .com meant, and how do you find and use it?

   Digital cameras were just beginning to be the rage then, too. I think it was in the late 1990s. The first true digital camera for photojournalists was the Nikon NC2000, valued at more than $14,000. The  Toledo Blade purchased two for a staff of 12. It didn't have an LCD monitor, so you had no idea if your photos were properly exposed. Another challenge was that it was like shooting slide film. Your exposure had to be perfect.

   We were handed the camera and given a quick lesson on using it. Fortunately, the digital Kodak part was mounted on a Nikon N90 body, so the learning curve wasn't too drastic. But with that camera came memory cards, scanners and computers. We all knew these cameras were game changers.

   It was the beginning of my digital age.

   I now marvel at my journalism roots. I came from X-Acto knives, counting headline lengths with my fingers, and processing black and white film in my bathroom.

   Does a traditional past make for better teachers, or does it make us dinosaurs?

   The answer depends on what we're teaching them now. Students need to know the history of journalism, and that some things shouldn't change while other things need to change.

   Ethics really haven't changed much. Photojournalists still need to verify caption information, not set up events, not take free stuff, and not manipulate photos. But what has changed is the delivery method. Teachers who don't learn current multimedia skills and social media tools are doing their students a serious disservice.

   So, young journalism teachers need to brush up on their history, while us seasoned ones need to keep up with the times. It's this balance of the past and the future that makes for the survival of journalism.

   I have a small collection of Brownie cameras that remind me of those who came before me.
   In about 30 years, working photojournalists might have in their historic collection the cameras of today, which for me is a Canon 1D Mark IV that also shoots video. It also captures audio with a Sennheiser mic fitted into the hot shoe.
   But you know what? The shutter speed, aperture and ISO still work the same way.

Are younger reporters overworked?

New Report Shows Young Reporters Feel Overworked - Washington Whispers (usnews.com)

Teaching tools of the trade, and ethics, too

   There is no shortage of information dealing with social media ethics on the Internet. Just about every journalism organization, like the Journalism Education Association and the Online Journalism Review, offers tips, policies and warnings on the subject. But don't assume most newspapers take advantage of all the advice.
   Journalists are Tweeting, Facebooking and blogging more than ever, but it seems we are doing so with little or no guidance. I am convinced journalism educators are partly responsible for changing this lack of guidance.
   It's up to us to study the current trends and teach our students what they are. But I admit: keeping up with technology isn't an easy job. There's literally dozens of social media tools and apps available. How do we choose which ones to highlight or use in our journalism classes?
   Well, that's a matter of what our goals are as teachers. My Intro to PJ class uses Blogger because I find it's more photo-friendly than WordPress. It's simply about style and technique. But whether I use Blogger or WordPress isn't really the point. What matters is that we're ethically responsible with every tool and app we use.
   My deep appreciation goes out to educators like Mindy McAdams and the instructor for this course, John Bowen, who dedicate so much of their time researching the social media topic and sharing their goldmine of information with us.  Their expertise helps me to answer many of these tough questions:
1. Should instructors be Facebook friends with our students, and should students be friends with their sources?
2. Should journalists mix professional and personal Tweets and blog posts?
3. How often should student journalists blog?
4. How do we force students to follow each other's blogs, and should we?
5. Are students journalists permitted to bash the school or their teachers on their own Facebook page?
6. Is there a policy for retweeting material from a source?
7. Are anonymous comments permitted on a student's blog?
8. How should social communicators market themselves in order to build high traffic on their blogs or Twitter accounts?
   Yes, traditional ethical and legal policies are still applicable for today's journalists, but we must  constantly update our online policies for the new media, otherwise known as the Fifth Estate.

Journalism: There's no box big enough

   It's impossible to contain journalism in a safe, little box.

   There are too many different kinds of stories to tell, and so many ways to cover them. I get overwhelmed when I think too hard about the overall responsibility of teaching journalism.

   As educators, we have to somehow break down the craft of journalism to its simplest form, to make it a conceivable task to the youthful mind. But first, we, as educators, must make sense of it ourselves.

   I've been in the journalism business a long time, but I am just now learning to categorize the different ways and means of teaching it.

   I used to think the writing of a story was the most important part of journalism. Write a good lead, and the readers will come. Teaching grammar and spelling is a part of the job. No doubt about it. But for the past two years, since I've been in the MA Journalism Educators program, I have come to realize journalism is more than a well-written story.

   It's teaching students:

• their First Amendment rights;
• legal and ethical policies;
• the tools of the trade (multimedia, software, web/newspaper design);
• what news is;
• about the watchdog role;
• communication skills;
• teamwork;
• the elements of journalism;
• the difference between PR and journalism;
• that journalism is a social responsibility in its purest form.


  These are 10 solid reasons why principles should not be prior reviewing or censoring their student media staff. Unless they are former journalists or journalism majors, principals don't have the education to censor. They can't put journalism in a safe, little box. It's much more than that.

   What they can do is hire qualified advisers/teachers who can teach all of these functions. That's the safest route to responsible scholastic journalism.

Foundations for Scholastic Journalism

Foundations for Scholastic Journalism

Thanks to John Bowen for posting this on the JEA's Scholastic Press Rights Commission blog. This is fantastic reference material for every journalism educator! Thanks, John!

Social responsibility at work

   My Intro to Photojournalism students were assigned to shoot weather photos last week. They learned how hard it is to document real people in real situations. A common question in class yesterday: Do our photos have to have people in them?
   Well, yes and no.
   This week's assignment required them to turn in two photos related to weather. One had to be a scene setter, or a wide shot. The other needed to be tight, to show detail. As in all photography, the subject matter depends on the subject.
   One student documented a new sledding hill at an area park. All of her photos captured happy people playing in the snow, so they were all willing to supply their names for caption information. But another student shot an electrical outlet box in the basement of a building with rain water  "gushing" over it. Is that a major safety issue? If so, I doubt the janitor would dare pose by it for obvious reasons. This student thought this was a powerful photo that she was compelled to take, but was reluctant to turn it in because the photos should have included people.
   I approved this photo because journalism is a social responsibility, after all. If she was working for a community newspaper, that photo would make a powerful statement about the dangerous mix of water and electricity. Who is responsible for the upkeep of that building?  What if the electrical box caught fire and caused the deaths of residents (if it's an apartment complex), or students (if it's a campus building)? This is a wonderful example of witnessing a problem and bringing it to light.
    This is social responsibility at work. Journalism's first loyalty is to its citizens, according The Elements of Journalism by Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel. This photo could help save lives. The caption information she collected on this photo will be paramount to the success of this particular static photo (I will add these photos next week). 
   This is a big issue: Should we, as an Owens adjunct instructor and photojournalism student, inform the Owens facility management of this particular building regarding this safety issue? This is when the Independence from Faction chapter helps. Even though we're Owens employees and students, I believe we're still obligated to report the truth. 
   Another issue: Should we turn it into the school paper, The Outlook, in our effort to expose the problem? Is it even a problem? This is where verification really matters. We shouldn't jump to the conclusion that this is a fire hazard until we talk to the proper authorities. Perhaps the box is water proof and not an issue. 
   These are all good questions that are ripe for discussion in our next class. It covers at least three elements of journalism: 
1. Journalism's first obligation is to the truth;
2. Its first loyalty is to its citizens;
3. Its practitioners have an obligation to exercise their personal conscience.
   This is a good teaching moment, indeed.

The human need to connect

   Reading the article about "the great rebel journalist" I.F. Stone took me back to the days when our only social networking tools were snail mail, rotary telephones and the printed word. How did we survive?
   My kids, 9 and 11, couldn't imagine life without computers, cell phones, large screen televisions, Bluetooth and satellite dishes. They both have AOL accounts, and the oldest has her own Facebook page. Whether I like it or not, social networking is a part of their young lives.
   Yes, I could shield them from being "connected," but that's not realistic. They need to be taught responsibility with the media tools available to them. They are very much aware about stranger danger, cyberbullying, identity theft and spam on the Internet.  We, as parents, need to teach our youth these issues now, because that's our job as caregivers.
   I have that same philosophy for my collegiate photojournalism students. They, too, need to be aware of the dangers of social media, like anonymous sources, public relations flacks masquerading as journalists and wrong information, not to mention the many ethical and legal concerns.
   But social networking can be positive, as well. In the NPR segment, The Point of Twitter, Bob Garfield stated that "people simply like to share, not only what they think is cool that you should check out but the reality of what they're doing or seeing or just thinking right this second."
   It's through social sites like Wordpress, Twitter and Facebook that people connect. It's a "primal human need for keeping in touch, even virtual touch, with other humans," Garfield said.
   Because of this need to be connected, journalists must adapt to the social tools of the day in order to verify and synthesis the information they receive and distribute on the Internet.

Saliency and Social Responsibility

   My Intro to Photojournalism students took their 20-point law and ethics test yesterday. I'm proud to announce that every student got a A!
   Here's one of the questions and a sampling of their answers:
Name two reasons it's important for photojournalists to be accurate and truthful when covering assignments:

• as a social responsibility -  the people want true facts; 
• to show truth so society can make a judgement from our own presumed level of truth; 
• our credibility as journalists is important, so we must keep ourselves at a higher standard.

   To appreciate these answers, know that none of them, at this point, have a desire to be in the news business. The class is a requirement for commercial art majors -  so here they are, learning how to Photoshop out blemishes in one class and being told they absolutely can't do that in mine. 

   Are they being taught to be schizo? Not at all. My goal is to teach them the difference between commercial photography and photojournalism. We, as journalism educators, must understand that our future news makers are products of this social media phenomenon that grows faster than we can keep up with it. 

   So, while journalism majors learn how to write stories that are salient, others, like my commercial photography majors, are learning that journalism is a social responsibility. 

   This point is made by Michael Gartner, Pulitzer laureate, former president of the American Society of Newspaper Editors and of NBC News, who proposed journalism education not for prospective journalists but for citizens, so they can arm themselves against shoddy work. 

   My point, exactly.

  

Sometimes news ain't pretty

   It would be tempting to disregard controversial content at the scholastic journalism level. Journalism teachers wouldn't fear getting fired, and students wouldn't worry about making their subjects angry. I'm sure the administration wouldn't mind, either.
   But we educators know that if we take the controversy out of journalism, then we'd be teaching public relations. It's a necessary evil to teach scholastic journalists that sometimes news ain't pretty.
    Covering controversy is not easy for anyone, not even the experienced investigative reporter or war photographer. It takes a lot of research, guts, time and sometimes a hard shell. It also takes cultivating sources and contacts (with cops, the school system, the local government), and maintaining a reputation of being fair and trustworthy.
   What is considered controversial content? According to Merriam-Webster, controversy is a discussion marked especially by the expression of opposing views, a dispute. But it's more than that. Controversy is bad decisions, tragic accidents and simple mistakes.
   Whatever the topic or subject, journalists need to be prepared to cover it, to shed a light on it, rather than ignore or run from it, because it's our social responsibility as news reporters. It's sometimes easier said than done, and easier taught than applied. Sure, most student journalists might not ever cover controversy throughout their scholastic careers, but they all should be taught to do so.
  

Verification is what separates us

   My photojournalism students are struggling with the concept of citizen journalism. What's the difference between a journalist, a citizen journalist and a blogger?
   One student defined her new role as a collegiate journalist/blogger this way: 
   "The point I keep coming back to is 'using the press tools they have.' If you do not have press tools (or knowledge of them) then you cannot use it (the title of citizen journalist).  In this class, we are learning the tools of the press - editing, ethics, establishing facts and writing skills.  Once we have them, then we can employ them to become citizen journalists.  Those bloggers that do not employ even the smallest bit of press tools are just citizens participating in the social media via blogging.  This issue is not about one being bad and the other good.  They both have their place in society but we do need to recognize which category they fit into."
    Yes, I think Kathie gets it. Press tools make the difference, and one of those tools is verification. According to The Elements of Journalism authors: The essence of journalism is a discipline of verification. That's a pretty simplistic statement, considering they compare verifying information to the science of reporting. Science? Yikes.
    They then break down the intellectual principles of a science of reporting to these core concepts:
1. Never added anything that was not there.
2. Never deceive the audience.
3. Be as transparent as possible about your methods and motives.
4. Rely on your own original reporting.
5. Exercise humility.
   These are easy enough to understand. But, of course, there is more to verifying information than these five concepts. But it's a start.

Journalists, teachers and advertisers

    There was a time when us Blade photographers wouldn't answer the phone because we were afraid of being asked to work overtime. It was about 10 years ago, in the height of the doc.com era. President Clinton had the national debt under control, and I made nearly $29 an hour.
   Advertising was good back then. The Blade was thick enough with ads to generate enough money to pay top salary to its reporters and photographers.
   But that was then.
   I make $5 less an hour now, overtime is practically non-existent, and the national debt is out of control.
   Nearly every week I hear about journalists being laid off and newspapers closing. Our own paper is thinner than ever because paid classified ads are now free in Craig's List, and the auto industry and grocery stores have cut their advertising to the bone.
   Advertisers and newspapers. This dysfunctional marriage ties in exactly with what the authors of the Elements of Journalism were talking about in the third chapter about who journalists work for.
   Truth is  - newspapers need advertising to get the job done. And advertisers used to need newspapers to get their sales published. But the Internet is changing things. But to what extent? I have no idea. Photographers don't know those kinds of details.
   Teachers are being laid off, too, because voters are not renewing levies for our schools.
   It sure is a hard time for both teachers and journalists. People think I'm crazy because I'm going to school to be a journalism teacher. But I can't imagine what life would be like without ethical journalists, or what journalists would be like without skilled teachers, or what newspapers would be like without paid advertisements.

The Pedagogical Imperative

   Journalism ethics has been a growing interest of mine ever since my first law and ethics class at Kent State two years ago. The easy part was memorizing this one simple explanation between the difference:  Law is what you have to do; ethics is what you should do.
   But applying that philosophy is not as easy as it seems. Sure, you have your cut and dry ethical guidelines, like don't fabricate, plagiarize or manipulate. But ethics goes much deeper than that,  according to the paper Teaching Ethics and Moral Reasoning in Scholastic Journalism, by Louis Day and John Butler.
  This is one document I will print and keep with me as long as I teach. The authors not only advise that teaching journalism ethics is necessary, they insist journalism instructors should also be responsible for teaching the kind of ethical behavior children learn at home.
   Their reasoning for this is because students come from different backgrounds and have varying degrees of ethical training and behaviors, so we should never assume students come to class ethically fit.
   I appreciate they went so far as to offer a pedagogical lesson tool: the case study simulation. This is a great way of teaching and evaluating a student's understanding of using analytical thinking when faced with ethical dilemmas. In fact, I'm going to create a lesson plan for this class that I can actually use in the Intro to PJ course I teach.
  I feel it's my duty, as a journalism instructor, to help students be as ethically fit as they can be in this stage of their lives.

3rd Blog is a charm

Intro
   Welcome to my newest blog, dedicated to the Social Role of the Media grad class I'm taking this semester at Kent State, taught by John "the ethics master" Bowen.
   This blog is one of three I currently manage.
   The first, called Lori King's Blog, began as a class requirement for my Teaching Multimedia course at Kent. It still exists, but has been in hiatus since summer, and will remain so until I graduate. However, it's still active and offers quite a bit of journalism ethics content, as well as photos and thoughts from the Kent State/New York Media Seminar last year. It's pricey, but I highly recommend it!
   The second blog is dedicated to the Intro to Photojournalism class I teach at Owens Community College. Blogging is a course requirement, because this is a perfect time to teach collegiate journalism students about the ethics and responsibilities of social media tools.
   According to the syllabus,  I am required to "create and maintain a blog that addresses social role concepts and issues we are discussing weekly."

The influence of the Internet
   The field of journalism has changed tremendously over the years, or has it? There's no doubt the delivery methods of getting our news has expanded. But have the basic principles of journalism changed? Is the Internet the cause for the death of so many newspapers throughout the country? Is it too easy for citizen journalists to have a say in the news business? Or are citizen journalists actually keeping the working press honest, like the working press is expected to do with our democratic government?
   These are just a few of the many questions I'm looking forward to examining this semester.