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.