Make Yourself Unique

Mike Williams, the station manager of WDHD Channel 7 of Boston, has spent more than a handful of years working his way up the ladder of professional success. “The only limits you have in this business are the ones you place on yourself,” said Williams. As I spent time touring the news station in downtown Boston, I met and conversed with people from all areas of production and if there is one thing I learned, it is that hard work and creativity equals success. In order to stand out and make an impression in the field of journalism, you have to make an effort and be unique, Williams said.

An interesting idea that Williams raised was the idea that broadcast stations are becoming obsolete and outdated. “We don’t believe that in the long run there will be very many news stations," he said, stating that cost is rising and viewership is waning, and that will put many stations out of business in the future. If this is true, online publications are even more important. Nearly six-in-ten Americans younger than 30 say they get their national and international news online. Since I’m such a verification junkie, this idea impresses the fact of how important online news really is, and how it must follow the elements of journalism if it needs to be the truth if it is going to empower the public with knowledge.

So, taking Mike Williams’ advice to heart, I’ve decided that in addition to blogging about verification, I am also going to post about my work. Right now, I’m taking the time to introduce my latest project. From October 19 until November 7, 2009, Gordon College will be hosting Dr. Is-haq Akintola, it’s first ever Fulbright scholar. Dr. Atkintola focuses his studies on the peaceful teachings of Islam and he is the associate professor of Islamic studies at Lagos State University in Nigeria, a country where tensions have risen sharply between Christians and Muslims in the past decade.

As a college communications worker at Gordon, I have been assigned to be Dr. Akintola’s point person. I will be following him to his different lectures and events and keeping tabs on the issues and topics that arise on a daily basis, the questions posed, and the community’s reactions and responses. I plan on using my Fulbright assignment and Becoming Lois Lane as a tangible way to expose and delve more deeply into the elements and ethics of journalism. The first of which being, how does one cover a story like this?

Stay tuned. . .

Verify! Verify! Verify!

Have you ever had someone tell you something that you thought wasn't true? Have you ever had someone tell you something that you know isn't true? When someone tells me something I know isn't right I get this prickling feeling on the back of my neck and my face gets hot. In other words, I get on fire for verification.

The other day, some classmates and I took a trip to a company that works for social justices issues. The founder of this company talked to us about his projects and missions and was even kind enough to print us out some graphs and charts demonstrating his points. Unfortunately, as he started throwing statistics our way, I started to wonder where these "facts" came from. Finally, I could stand it no longer and I raised my hand. Asking this man where his information came from, his response was, "basically, I'm from the hood," meaning that the figures were his estimates that he compiled from living in an urban environment for many, many years. Of course you can guess what happened next . . . those journalistic, truth-seeking bells started going off in my head.

Don't get me wrong-- this man is doing great things for people in need. The problem here is that he could be doing even greater things by passing on knowledge to others that is factually based . In other words, verified information.Think about this opportunity-- a group of fifteen college juniors and seniors getting ready to go out into the world and wanting to make a difference. This information could really kick-start someones social justice engine. They could pass the statistics on to others who could pass it on to others and so on and so forth. Knowledge is power. The possibilities are endless, but without truth as a foundational element, no causes can get far.

This concept of verification gets driven home in light of The Atlantic’s recent article “The Story Behind the Story,” which demonstrates the distinction between being a journalist and being a citizen, in this case a blogger, with an agenda. This article is basically about an active, right-wing political blogger, Morgen Richmond, who spent his time “cruising the Internet looking for ideas and information for his blogging.” Richmond found dirt on the then-nominated U.S. Circuit Court Judge Sonia Sotomayor, which he posted on his blog and on YouTube and was then quickly picked up again and again by many different news stations and media outlets. Richmond was a blogger with a political agenda, not a journalist with “an allegiance to facts and truthful conclusions that worked for his readers” (Elements of Journalism 116). In a matter of hours, information was broadcast across the Internet, television and radio about a political candidate that was information not researched as truth that a citizen needs to make their own decisions about a candidate, but research done for the sake of finding dirt so an ‘opponent’ can look bad. That is not journalism.

According to Mark Bowden, author of article, “Work formerly done by reporters and producers is now routinely performed by political operatives and amateur ideologies of one stripe or another, whose goal is not to educate the public but to win… Americans increasingly choose to listen only to their own side of the argument, to bloggers and commentators who reinforce their convictions and paint the world only in acceptable, comfortable colors.” Journalism needs to be a public forum, independent from faction. The news must be built on foundational elements of truth so that the truth can set citizens free from stereotypes and bias and allow them to make their own educated, factually based decisions. Knowledge gives us that power.


What do you think?

Tweet your Homework

The end of summer and beginning of fall is often a time for new-- new notebooks, new pencils, new back-to-school shoes, new teachers, new classes. And this year at DePaul University, students are also offered something new that I think has great potential: a journalism class devoted to Twitter. The course, which is apparently the first college class ever to be devoted entirely to the social networking and micro-blogging platform, is called “Digital Editing: From Breaking News to Tweets.”

"Digital Editing: From Breaking News to Tweets, is really about learning how to make sense of the clutter of the Web, particularly in situations of breaking news or major developing stories, and how to evaluate and verify the authenticity of reports by citizen journalists," says Craig Kanalley, a Chicago Tribune digital intern who is teaching the class. Part of the focus of the class will be evaluating and verifying material produced by citizen journalists-- just what the world of journalism needs!


Would you take this class? Is this class beneficial for the modern journalist or just succumbing to entertainment as media?

Verification: Why caution is key

I'm not sure how many of you are aware, but very recently CNN seriously botched up a news report making it quite obvious why the element of verification is so important.

On September 11, 2009, a routine Coast Guard training exercise on the Potomac River caught the attention of television crews that were already on alert for trouble due to the fact that it was the anniversary of 9/11. CNN took this information and ran with it, publishing reports that wrongly suggested shots had been fired on the river and noted that President Obama had just finished speaking nearby at the Pentagon. This information raised the possibility of some sort of criminal plot and the false reports produced an hourlong scare about gunfire and a terrorist attack. If only CNN had verified their facts before relying on a police scanner to misreport a Coast Guard training exercise.

In response to this incident, Tom Rosenstiel, director of the Project for Excellence in Journalism said, “There’s never a benefit to a news organization in having something first if it’s wrong. That’s why caution is important.”

The essence of journalism is a discipline of verification. Clarifying common misunderstandings and improving fact-checking may be the most important step a journalist can take to bettering the quality of their writing and the news they deliver, as well as sparking meaningful public discussion. In the end, the discipline of verification is what separates journalism from other fields.

Carol Marin, a Chicago newscaster explained verification in a very succinct way:

"When you sit down this Thanksgiving with your family and you have one of the classic family arguments--whether it's about politics or race or religion or sex-- you remember that what you are seeing of that family dispute is seen from the position of your chair and your side of the table. And it will warp your view, because in those instances you are arguing your position . . . A journalist is someone who steps away from the table and tries to see it all."


What do you think is the best way to avoid these instances of misinformation from occurring? Are the inevitable?

Tell Me Why: The Importance of Verification

As an aspiring journalist and modern student of communication arts, I've stumbled across this imposing, imminent and unavoidable thing--the Internet. While I have Googled and Wikipedia-ed my way through quite a few college assignments, I never really considered the ethics involved. I always cited my sources, so I didn't see a problem. The real question that I never asked myself was where was this information coming from? Was this Website really giving me credible information? Who was verifying these facts? As some assignments go, not knowing didn't pose a real problem. But, as I started to get deeper and deeper into my newfound love of journalism, I realized that my previous Internet habits couldn't really slide anymore. This is what brings me to my point, and a question that I hope Becoming Lois Lane can help answer:

How does a journalist stay true to the fundamental elements and ethics of journalism when there is so much easily accessed "information" out there on the World Wide Web?

How does a reporter take the time verify a tip when someone else might be breaking that story? Whether or not you want to admit it, we are rapidly moving into a world where news is immediate. Whether you get it Tweeted to your Blackberry or emailed to your iPhone, information has become accessible from almost anywhere, but is it always reliable?

What do you think? Is there a solution for the modern-day journalist in a world of immediately accessible information?

"In the end, the discipline of verification is what separates journalism from entertainment, propaganda, fiction, or art. Journalism alone is focused on getting what happened down right." -Kovach & Rosenstiel