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.

Hiatus

   This blog is in temporary hiatus.
   However, I have two other active blogs that are thriving: lking17.blogspot.com (Kent State's Social Role of the Media class blog) and owenspj.blogspot.com (the Owens Intro to Photojournalism class blog).
   Both of these blogs are pedagogical in nature, meaning they are directly linked to scholastic journalism education.
   Feel free to continue reading what's on this blog.