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.
27 January 2011
20 January 2011
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.
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.
09 January 2011
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.
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.
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