More on access to public information

My students at GRCC, in the JR 257 Reporting class, again ran into problems obtaining public information from the college. I have done the same assignment at GVSU with no problem, but GRCC is not cooperating with student requests for information. It is perplexing and disturbing. This gets me frustrated and a bit angry.
I want my students to learn to be journalists - or at least what it's like to be a journalist. I guess this is a teachable moment for them. The truth is, not everyone will cooperate. Even when they are required to by law.
The funny thing is, what starts as a simple request for public information can escalate when public information is not turned over as requested. The questions are natural for reporters: What are they hiding? Why aren't they handing over the information? What is really going on?
While officials apparently are trying to keep information from reporters, they are actually only heightening the interest in that information.

Journalism Awards

Spring seems to be a popular season for both entering and learning outcomes for journalism awards. A couple weeks ago, I was proud to accompany two members of The Collegiate, the GRCC student newspaper, to the Michigan Community College Press Association conference in Monroe. Collegiate staff won 21 total awards.
The most noteworthy award was for best online publication - for Collegiatelive.com. This is the latest attempt for The Collegiate to have an online edition. I believe it is the best and most likely to stand the test of time (at least for a while). It is informative, interesting and visual. It provides much of the print content, but also web-original content, with polls, videos and blogs.
One of the funny things about awards is that many journalists get very excited about them. However, they are a difficult animal to figure out. Awards are often determined arbitrarily, sometimes with one person looking over material. They do not always represent the best work, but sometimes the most interesting topic. For many reasons, journalists should not strive simply for awards. Nor should they hang their hats on winning one award.
Having said that, it was very exciting for Collegiate staff members to learn recently they won the Apple Award - a national honor bestowed from College Media Advisers.... More on that story to come soon.....

More on access to information

A few comments have led me to follow-up the last post on access to information at GRCC. First, I have no immediate reason to believe the college is intentionally withholding information from the public. I want that to be clear.
However, I do also strongly believe that access can be severely limited even in unintentional ways. That's what I see going on now. If things like the college budget and faculty salary book are not made more easily available, then eventually my opinion may change. For now, I'm in a wait and see mode.
The comments are accurate when they wonder why access is not more easily obtained. That's what happens in these situations - individuals are left to wonder. That should not be the case.
I have heard that faculty members don't like the salary book available for viewing. My response: Get over it. GRCC is a publicly funded institution - salaries are public information. The only reason I can imagine a faculty member would not want information to be made available is for possible embarrassment. The only reason to be embarrassed is if the facts would show salaries are too high.
As this string of comments and posts shows, holding back information is not good for anyone. It leads to guessing, assuming and speculation.

Access to Information

Thursday night, I paired up students in my Reporting class and instructed them to head to the library in search of budget information on the college. It was a multi-part assignment/project. I wanted them to:
1. Actually go through the process of finding public information.
2. Get a real look at how complex things like budget can be.
3. Spend time in groups figuring out what in a budget is important.
4. Return as a class and present group findings.
5. Formulate story ideas based on the information.
Classrooms are great, but when it comes to teaching journalism there is no replacement for actually doing it.
What students found, however, was that the Grand Rapids Community College (Michigan) library does not have basic budget documents available in the library. They were told that they haven't had things like that available in the 13 years the librarians on hand could remember. And the class was told to contact a college administrator to get a copy of the budget; assuring them that the information was readily available.
I was disappointed by the entire scenario. When information is difficult to obtain - only available in certain places, and during certain hours - that can have a similar chilling result as not making it available at all. No matter what the intention. I think that's why most colleges make these sorts of documents available at a place like the library - where the hours are longer, including evenings and weekends.
It has been researched and reported that keeping documents like these only in administrative offices (even if freely available there) can have a similar result as keeping them under lock and key. Not only is it difficult for some people to get to the offices during normal business hours, but it can also be intimidating for some in the public to approach administrative offices. And I'm addressing not only journalists here.
I am a strong believer in open and freely available access to information. Libraries often provide a fantastic venue for those; in a non-threatening atmosphere.
I hope GRCC considers a change in policy regarding documents; sooner rather than later.

Writing for the Web

Journalists have to be ready to fill a number of roles within a newsroom. One of them is writing web-original content.
Some of the general guidelines of web news include: concise, specific, to-the-point, easy to navigate, links, lists and timely updates. Many of these overlap with good ol' fashioned news-writing. Some are clearly different.
The Collegiate staff had an opportunity to do some Web-original content when staff members learned the morning of March 20 that Grand Rapids Community College President Juan Olivarez announced he is resigning to take a position in Kalamazoo. After some confusion and discussion, staff members rallied to get the Web site (Collegiatelive.com) updated by the afternoon. It included a photo, short story, a list of past GRCC presidents and a bio.
The content was timely and mostly well done.
The biography came directly off the GRCC Web site and should have been cleaned up for news style, with much of it condensed. It was too flowery. A link to Wood TV8, with video, also seemed unnecessary - it steers readers away from The Collegiate Web site. That's not a good idea.
Overall, I was impressed with the quick and well-planned coverage of this major news story. It's not easy to get the Web side of news right - this came pretty darn close.

Conference in NYC

I'm attending the College Media Advisers spring national convention the next few days in New York City. The convention this year moved to the Marriott Marquis in Times Square - creating quite the buzz among attendees. It's in the heart of the action.
That said, I couldn't wait to get away from the mania of Times Square yesterday. To find food, fun and the real city. I think a lot of people want to do that in a place like this; few actually find a way to do it.
Getting off the beaten path is a cliche among journalists in a lot of ways. As a collective, we talk about doing things differently and looking at the other side. Too often, we fail at that as an industry.
One of my goals for this conference is to find ways to encourage students to continue to look outside their comfort zones. To explore new story ideas, watch for new possibilities - and how to explore those to produce news content.
I have several other things I'm interested in doing here, of course. But journalists need to be reminded to continue to look not just straight ahead, but up, down, around and to the future in order to properly serve readers.

NY Times: Making news on McCain?

Did the NY Times go too far with its article on John McCain?
I know this for sure, the news about the article has been bigger than the news about the content of the article. Media making the news is not a good trend for media credibility.
We discussed this story in one of my classes. Students seemed mostly uncertain about how this thing will play out. They seemed somewhat concerned about the NY Times doing an article based on anonymous sources.
My bigger concern: Has McCain, who claims to be outside the dirty politics of Washington, just like all the rest? Does he take lobby money, allow lobbyists to influence him and basically act the norm in D.C.?
If he's better than the rest, that's also potentially a bad sign!
Maybe this is the reason we haven't had a senator win the presidency in some time now. When we learn the details of how they operate, it's difficult to stomach. Will the same happen with Hillary and Obama at some?

Give Me Personal Responsibility

I see a trend in many of my classes that is moving away from taking personal responsibility.

I have students who want me to figure everything out for them; who would love it if class was canceled every time it snowed; who routinely do the minimum amount of work; who ask things like, "If I can't make it tonight, will I miss anything important?"; and who simply are not challenging themselves to be the best learners they can be.

There have always been slackers in college. But I am seeing very few in my classes who simply want to do more - to figure things out on their own, who want to do extra, who want to learn outside the requirements.

The ones who are able to think critically, solve problems and have motivation to learn independently are the ones who I want to become the next generation of journalists. They can learn to write later.

Is the media biased?

If you ask the average American if the media is biased, and I'm talking about newspapers, it's likely you'll get a high percentage of affirmative answers. It's the general concensus.

If you follow that up with a request for specific examples, I believe most would struggle to give concrete answers. They might give an example of a story when they were personally involved - often those who become sources for stories feel this way. It's understandable.

In general, it is a phenomenon we in the business simply must deal with. Most readers are skeptics.

Should readers trust the media more? That's debatable.

Should readers respect the media - and view it as one source of information? I firmly believe they should.

And all consumers of information, from the media and all other sources, should forever remain skeptics.

A proud profession

I am proud to be part of a profession that has stood the test of time. Tocqueville praised the role journalism plays in a free democracy when our country was a fledgling group of states trying to organize into greatness.

Few professions face the level of public scrutiny that journalists do. Every day, people pick up newspapers and critically read the stories and headlines. Yet, the vast majority of those countless stories every day stand up to those millions of critical eyes.

I have become increasingly proud of my role as a journalism teacher. It's something I do in a classroom setting now. However, my role as a teacher did not begin when I first took my place near the front of the room three years ago. I have been teaching much longer than that. I was lucky enough to have young (and some not so young) journalists working under and along side me during my professional career. Some have really taken off:
- Matthew LaPlante was a young sports reporter under me who is now covering the military for the Salt Lake Tribune (Utah).
- Joey Sprinkle was in a career change when he became a journalist and worked under me. He went on to become a sports editor in Kansas.
- Morgan Ryan was unsure of his future in journalism when we hired him to work under me. He is now living in New Jersey and working for a national daily horse racing newspaper located in Manhattan.
- Jim Tankersley was a high school student when he wrote some stories for me in McMinnville, Ore. He was a talented young man who has excelled, winning a prestigious Livingston Award and now working a political reporter for the Chicago Tribune.

I don't take direct credit for any of those four. They deserve credit for the time and effort they have dedicated to becoming top-notch journalists. I am proud to have crossed paths with them early in their careers and hopefully to have provided some encouragement along the way.

Damage Control

One mistake can haunt a news organization for months, years and even longer.

Perfection is the goal of every editor and every newspaper. Error-free, thorough, complete coverage of the news is the ideal.

However, I'd be hard-pressed to ever agree there has been a completely error-free edition of a newspaper. It's just the nature of the business - producing a paper involves so many people and so much information that errors (to lesser and greater degrees) are inevitable.

Unfortunately, one error can sometimes define a news organization far more than all the accurate, well-organized, well-informed information that is distributed. One simple mitsake can tear down all the positives in the stroke of a key.

I'm not complaining about this phenomenon or even trying to change it. Only pointing out the nature of news consumers. Of which I am one.

Reading the Competition

As a practicing journalist and a journalism professor, I can't stress enough the importance of reading other newspapers. All newspapers - big and small. The competing paper is a must, but any and all papers you can get your hands on to read (or read online) will be beneficial.

I am sitting in a ballroom at the Amway Grand Plaza Hotel in Grand Rapids, Mich., right now. Around the room are the winning newspapers from the Michigan Press Association contests -for professional and college levels. It is inspiring to see the best in the state. For me, it's also a fantastic opportunity to glean ideas: layouts, stories, color use, photos, etc,... If you're looking to improve your own publication, why not look for ideas from the best?

Read, read, read. It's one of the best ways to become immersed in the field and to improve.

Collegiate coming soon

The first Collegiate edition of the winter 2008 semester is due to hit the hallways at GRCC on Wednesday (Jan. 30). Students have been planning and working toward the date for about six weeks. I'm anxious to see what the returning students come up with - as well as the addition of a few newcomers. I still get excited for every edition - publishing a newspaper is difficult, challenging, stressful, complicated and at the same time rewarding, exciting and fullfilling.
The culmination of all of that is when readers pick it up - or log on to check it out (Collegiatelive.com). I plan to do both.

Journalism: A dangerous profession?

There are news reports out today about a journalism student in Afghanistan who has been sentenced to death. According to the Associated Press story, 23-year-old Sayad Parwez Kambaksh, was found guilty of violating the tenets of Islam when he distributed a paper that humiliated Islam.

The story reported that Kambakash was not represented by a lawyer during the trial. There are two appeals courts yet, while the student remains in custody. He was a student at Balkh University. It is not known if he wrote the paper or only distributed it. Kambaksh also works as a journalist at the Jahan-i-Naw newspaper in Mazar-i-Sharif.

WOW! Can you imagine if that's the way things worked here in the good old USA? It's when things like this happen that we can thank our Founding Fathers for the Constitution. It isn't difficult to imagine the impact this could have.....

Pick Your Messengers

My students know I believe strongly in the journalism profession. They also know I'm not so blinded as to believe all journalism is fault-proof. Far from it.
That's why it is important for consumers of journalistic news to pick their messengers wisely. Read who you trust. If you don't trust, don't read.
If consumers simply followed that formula, the less-than-honest information providers out there would fade away. They need us to survive. Letting them know how we feel with our actions is the best way to ensure high journalistic standards will remain a necessity.

The Collegiate online

The GRCC student newspaper, The Collegiate, has been publishing for more than 50 years. The print edition has a storied history, with many awards and accomplished alumni.
It's fledgling online edition is not nearly as accomplished. It has been a hit-and-miss venture over recent years. When I took over advisership of the paper in fall 2006, establishing the online edition was one of my goals. The online version for The Collegiate (collegiatelive.com) officially launched in fall 2007. While it started slow, things have really progressed over the last six months. Much of the credit goes to web design editor Charles Jurries and Collegiate design editor Abigail Southworth. The work they are putting in benefits The Collegiate, the students and community of GRCC and their own future.
Charles and Abby are benefiting as much from this experience as any student who works on a student newspaper. It is personally rewarding to watch the progression of their work - as they further develop the site, add new features, post web exclusive stories and improve existing features. These blogs are just the latest venture.
Be sure to check out the online polls, the archive, and pdf's of the print edition. I enjoy opening the pdf's early on publication dates - getting the earliest possible peek at what the paper will look like. It's usually up by the time I wake up - about 6:30 a.m. The next edition is due out Jan. 30 - I'll be anxiously awaiting the next Web site update.