Free Flowing Information

Good news for a number of our Free Speech grantees: After much testimony and hard work, both the House and Senate have passed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) reform bill. Now it's headed to the President's desk for approval. According to the Coalition of Journalists for Open Government (an MTF grantee), the bill "creates a FOIA ombudsman, creates an agency penalty for not responding to a FOIA request promptly, requires improved agency reporting on FOIA performance and will allow requesters who sue to recover legal fees if an (agency) grants the records before a court ruling."

The bill comes after a number of studies and stories showed the federal government is abysmal at processing FOIA requests in a timely manner.

To view the text of the Open Government Act of 2007, visit: http://www.cjog.net/documents/Open_Government_Act_text.pdf

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Journalists in Iraq Rate Themselves

After four years of war in Iraq, the journalists reporting from that country give their coverage a mixed but generally positive assessment. They believe they have done a better job of covering the American military and the insurgency than they have the lives of ordinary Iraqis. And they do not believe the coverage of Iraq over time has been too negative. If anything, many believe the situation over the course of the war has been worse than the American public has perceived, according to a new survey of journalists covering the war from Iraq.

To view the entire Project for Excellence in Journalism survey, conducted Sept. 28 through Nov. 7, click here.

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Gannett Co. Recoups Legal Fees in FOIA Case

The federal government will pay $105,000 in attorney fees for the News-Press after the Fort Myers, FL newspaper and two other Gannett Co. newspapers successfully sued the Department of Homeland Security for the release of public records. The News-Press, the Pensacola News Journal and Florida Today had challenged the department's Federal Emergency Management Agency refusal to release details on the 1.1 million recipients of $1.2 billion in hurricane-related disaster aid. The News-Press hailed the U.S. Court of Appeals decision, which included the legal fees, as a victory for the First Amendment and the public's right to know, according to the News-Press. The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and a number of other MTF grantees are among the leaders in the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) movement. Their advocacy, legal assistance and monitoring of FOIA activities has becoming increasingly important as government agencies continue to stonewall and challenge requests for release of public information.

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World 'Divided' on Press Freedom

You have two doors to choose from: #1 is marked press freedom and #2 stability. Choose. Quick. No questions.

Well, some disturbing news for press-freedom advocates: In a global survey that posed essentially that question, about 40 percent said it was more important to maintain social harmony and peace, even if it meant curbing the press’s freedom to report truthfully. That means a lot of people chose option #2.

The survey, which looked at views in 14 countries, also covered:
+ Whether people feel the press can operate freely in their country
+ How good a job respondents feel the press does in covering news accurately
+ The concentration of private media in the hands of fewer large companies.

Interestingly, in the U.S., Britain and Germany, about 29 percent thought the press does a good job of reporting news accurately.

See the study at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/7134918.stm

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Funds for New Voices

Got the next big great idea for a community news start-up? Then The New Voices grant program of J-Lab wants to hear it, and potentially fund it. J-Lab, the Institute for Interactive Journalism at the University of Maryland and an MTF grantee, is currently accepting applications for new community news iniatives. The rules - in brief - are that the venture has to be new, must be news or information-oriented (no advocacy), must be online and open to the public. Grants are one-time only and for a maximum of $17,000.

Few programs or organizations provide specific start-up funding, so it's a rare opportunity worth exploring if you have the next big idea for covering your community. For more info and application information, visit: http://www.j-newvoices.org/

The deadline is Feb. 20.

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The 2008 McCormick Tribune Fellows

We're proud to announce that we've selected a talented new crop of McCormick Tribune Fellows for 2008. These experienced minority media executives hail from a diverse range of positions in print, broadcast and online news media. They will join a pool of more than 80 alumni at media companies across the country:

Rodney Brooks, USA Today
Sharon Wilmore, Detroit Free Press
Carole Carmichael, The Seattle Times
Terrence Williams, New York Times Co.
Johnita Due, CNN
Orlando Rosales, WTPH 14 - Azteca America
Shiree Woody, WBBH-NBC2 & WZVN-ABC7
Jayme Ribeiro Neto, WRMD Telemundo Tampa

The Fellowship is a unique executive development program that targets high-performing diverse senior managers and execs in the news media. Through training, research and convening, the program's goal is to increase the number and impact of minority media executives.

For more on the McCormick Tribune Fellowship, visit the web site at: www.MTFellows.org

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Flash-Bang Reporting

From Clark Bell:

Stephen Trosley, publisher of the Journal-Standard in Freeport, Ill., is concerned that sloppy journalists and bloggers are increasingly turning to a SWAT unit tactic of surprising or stunning people they are trying to overcome. Examples of the flash-bang technique are when reporters slip in a quote that can be misunderstood, use questionable sources without verification or construct a story to create a shocking situation. The principle involved, he said, is that the audience usually forms opinions or takes sides based on first impressions. Trosley warns his readers to take special note of the posting of bloggers and citizen journalists.

http://www.journalstandard.com/articles/2007/11/11/opinion/opinion05.txt

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Newspaper Lovers and Train Buffs

From Clark Bell:

Chicago Reader media maven Michael Miner's stinging Nov. 22 column wonders what it takes to keep a reporter on the righteous path in these dismal times. Miner's essay connects the dots between "the twin prophets of Chicago journalism, Sam Zell and John Lavine." Zell is the real estate tycoon who has crafted a deal to take over the Tribune Co., while Lavine continues his controversial quest to maneuver Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism into the modern age of media. Early posters to Miner's Hot Type link were especially ruffled by the assertion that "maybe it's OK that Zell doesn't give a damn about newspapers. The people who like them a lot are beginning to resemble the people who really like passenger trains." For more ouch connect to: http://www.chicagoreader.com/features/stories/hottype/071122/

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Cyber Soldier

In September 2006, MTF's Journalism Program gathered military and media leaders to discuss rapidly changing information management during war time. The Internet generation had gone into battle - and controlling messages going to and from the front lines had reached a complexity unlike in any previous time. (The report that came out of that conference is on the foundation's website at http://www.rrmtf.org/publications/militarymedia2006.pdf.)

Chicago magazine's October issue (www.chicagomag.com) has a fascinating interview with blogger Matthew Currier Burden. The Gulf War veteran, a Chicagoan, began a blog (www.Blackfive.net - blackfive being an old military call sign for the executive officer who makes things happen behind the scenes) in 2003 about those fighting the war. When he started the blog, Burden was one of the first to blog about the war. Today there are hundreds. Yet Burden's registers some 4 million unique visitors per year, making it arguably the most prominent military blog (or miliblog) in the blogosphere.

And according to the magazine piece military officials have taken notice: Since April 2005, soldier bloggers in Iraq and Afghanistan must register their Web sites with commanders. The Pentagon also blocks soldiers' access to 13 popular networking, music and photo-sharing sites (including YouTube and MySpace). Burden's book, The Blog of War, reprinting many of the blog's entries - was published by Simon & Schuster in 2006.

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Listening Across Borders

We all know that young people are the so-called "early adopters" of new technologies, but the question remains in student media circles about how to best harness these innovations to enhance youth communication efforts. The answer also might shed some light on how to attract bright young people in the professional news media.

A recent MTF-funded proejct tackled the issue head-on with YouthLAB, an intense two-week summer program that gathered 20 teens from Barbados and Chicago "together in a virtual space to create global exchange using peer-to-peer networks and other tools of participatory media." The project hatched dozens of youth-produced videos, Skype chats and mash-ups.

You can read all about the project and lessons learned for the youth media field in a new Youth Media Reporter piece by Open Youth Networks director Mindy Faber (http://www.youthmediareporter.org/2007/11/listening_across_borders_creat.html). Better yet, you can check-out the teens work yourself at the Youth Lab Web site (http://youthlab.net/).

Interested in youth media? You can sign up for a free subcription to Youth Media Reporter on its site, http://www.youthmediareporter.org/.

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Journalism Behind Bars

This month’s Utne Reader has a fascinating exploration into journalism in a place few expect it –America’s prison system. The story, “Shelf Life: The Toughest Beat,” by Danielle Maestrelli, takes a look at inmate-produced newsmagazines in U.S. prisons.

As the U.S. prison population has soared to more than 2.25 million, the number of publications has dwindled from a high of 250 in 1959 to fewer than 30 official prison newspapers today. At their height, some prison publications reached a circulation of 7,500 (the Mendard Time, from Illinois) and were the primary avenue by which incarcerated voices reached the outside. While stories often provide useful information for life behind bars, they have also included courageous exposes such as the piece, “Prison: The Sexual Jungle,” a 27-page essay that chronicled the systemic sexual violence typical of most prisons. This piece earned its authors at Louisiana's Angola penitentiary a 1980 George Polk Award.

Earlier this year MTF’s Journalism Program became a supporter of the youth-produced newsletter of the Consuella B. York Alternative High School, a Chicago Public School located within the Cook County Department of Corrections. Led by inspired English teacher Joyce Hutchens, teens at York produce 3&8 Voices. York Alternative typically has some 600 students enrolled during a semester, but due to its highly transient nature serves more than 14,000 students throughout a school year.

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Ethnic Media Cover the California Fires

Several recent stories from the New America Media (NAM) newswire illustrate the MTF Journalism Program’s interest in working with ethnic media around emergency preparedness.

“Ethnic Media Cover the Fires” is a roundup of stories from Southern California’s ethnic media on the devastation and targeted information to evacuees and those wishing to help. The Spanish-language publication Enlace reported on undocumented immigrants affected by the fire who are reluctant to seek help. In fact, many of these "invisible victims" apparently even remained in the canyons. Enlace provided information for those wishing to help these immigrants by donating tents, sleeping bags, blankets, water and food. This is a good example of ethnic media reaching very targeted audiences with practical, pertinent information.

The piece looks at other coverage of the fires too, such as the Chinese-language media. China News Service reported that at least 1,000 Chinese had been forced to leave homes. The Ming Pao Daily provided startling context by reporting that the area burned by the fires was roughly the size of Hong Kong. Another NAM story examined how the Mexican media is covering the border fires.

MTF’s Journalism Program recently made several grants targeting the ethnic media with an eye toward better preparing all sectors of U.S. society for emergencies. In addition to continued support of NAM, MTF has awarded grants to:
+ The International Center for Journalists (ICFJ) to host a conference on strengthening coverage of emergency preparedness for journalists from Spanish-language news outlets in the U.S., Latin America and the Caribbean.
+ The Texas State University at San Marcos to study the ability of emergency agencies in Texas and Illinois to reach Spanish-speaking populations via the ethnic media.

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Planting the Seeds for the Liberty Tree

The First Amendment is taking a beating, but a group of top-shelf journalists and First Amendment advocates aren't going to stand by anymore. Enter the Liberty Tree Initiative, a new campaign that aims to improve the public's perception of the First Amendment and journalists.

The project kicked off this past week at McCormick Tribune Foundation's Cantigny Park in Wheaton, Ill., with a two-day brainstorming meeting organized by the American Society of Newspaper Editors. Describing the group assembled as a "League of Nations of First Amendment professionals," Liberty Tree mastermind and USA Today editor Ken Paulson charged participants to come up with ideas and strategies for improving public sentiment on the First Amendment freedoms.

With the help of communications firm Weber Shandwick, the Liberty Tree Initiative should have a solid foundation for a campaign by early next year.

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ICFJ Training: How Do You Spell Success?

Journalism funders invest a lot of money in initiatives aimed at improving the quality and depth of reporting on pressing current issues. But how do we measure the impact of a given single event?

No two programs are just alike, so comparisons are difficult. But a quick look at the 8-day training in immigration coverage that the International Center for Journalists hosted back in April offers clues to what makes a program successful. The 21 journalists – from throughout Latin America and the U.S. - who participated attended sessions with policy experts, conducted site visits in the DC area and even created a group blog where they posted stories for months following the training. And since the conference took place, the listserv ICFJ created has been crackling, with more than 600 emails between participants.

But the volume of coverage that resulted from the program gives an even better indication of its impact. Some of the highlights:

+ Vanessa Colon of The Fresno Bee wrote stories that, for the first time, included voices of the anti-immigration movement, including one on conservative Latinos and their thoughts on immigration.
+ Ruben Tapia of KPFK 90.7 FM in California created a radio news promo intended to help undocumented immigrants know their legal rights if detained by authorities.
+ In an example of cross-border reporting, program participants Jesus Angulo of El Imparcial of Mexico and Valeria Fernandez of La Voz in Phoenix collaborated on covering a controversial case in Arizona about a Mexican tourist who was repatriated from a hospital to Hermosillo.
+ Edward Sifuentes of San Diego’s North County Times and Matt O’Brien of the Daily Review in suburban San Francisco also worked together on an investigative story about a donor to a San Diego congressman who used political clout to have the immigration status of his own employees investigated.
+ Auxiliadora Rosales of Nicaragua’s largest newspaper, La Prensa, reported on a case involving an adolescent girl who was separated from her single father after he was deported from Miami back to Nicaragua. The story was covered extensively in Central America, raising alarm about the complex issue of separating families after deportation of parents.

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The Big Question

Not all bloggers are journalists, but some bloggers are "without question" journalists, at least according to what's thought to be the first court ruling on the issue, according to the Coalition of Journalists for Open Government. The MTF grantee reports that Federal Judge Henry M. Herlong Jr. "dismissed a trademark violation lawsuit against the blogger, noting that the Lanham Act exempts 'all forms of news reporting and news commentary.' " The judge believed the blogger's article about an auction listings company that sold items on eBay was "clearly journalism, based on both a functional analysis and an examination of blogger's intent."

For more analysis and to see the ruling, visit CJOG at www.cjog.net.

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IA School Principal Yanks Paper With Racism Survey

The Iowa City Press-Citizen reports that a school newspaper in Iowa City was pulled earlier this week after a survey on racial attitudes allegedly caused three "near fights" between students.

The article states that a plea for action against racism appeared in the same issue of City High's Little Hawk that ran the survey. Executive Editor Adam Sullivan says that the survey was intended to encourage discussions about race among students. He also says that Principal Mark Hanson did not inform anybody of his decision to pull the paper ahead of time. Hanson said that his decision was spurred by concerns over violence. "If I think there is something endangering student safety, I'm going to do something about it," he said.

Read the whole story here.

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Sign Us Up For This Trip!

McClatchy Newspapers reports that U.S. taxpayers are picking up the tab for foreign journalists to visit the country on wine junkets.

These wine-writer tours, part of the Ag-Department's Market Access Program, are said to boost foreign sales of U.S.-produced wine, according to the article (http://www.mcclatchydc.com/staff/michael_doyle/story/20694.html). The selected writers, who tour various wineries and taste hundreds of samples, are expected to produce feature articles in return for their travel costs.

Foreign consumption of U.S.-produced wine is booming and now accounts for more than $1.2 billion in exports, and many wine experts consider the marketing program a success.

On the other hand, U.S. journalists aren't as pleased, as the program raises a host of ethical questions. Any thoughts? The House of Representatives is considering boosting the Market Acccess Program from $200 million to $225 million annually, according to McClatchy.

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Attorney General Nominee Wouldn't Shield Journalists

Attorney General nominee Michael Mukasey, a 66-year-old retired federal judge, has issued statements saying that he will not tolerate Executive Branch meddling in Justice Department affairs and he does not support the use of torture in the interrogation of terrorist suspects.

But he also indicated that he does not support the proposed shield law that would allow journalists to keep their sources confidential. Mukasey believes that it’s easier to correct procedures internally when necessary than to reverse legislation that’s “etched in stone,” and said he believes that the Justice Department’s procedures have been effective so far with regard to interrogations.

President Bush has threatened to veto the shield law bill, which passed overwhelmingly in the House this past week.

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New Design for Reznet

We've just learned from Denny McAuliffe at the University of Montana that Reznet has launched a new Web design (www.reznetnews.org). Founded in 2002 and touting itself as the "online newspaper for Native America," Reznet (an MTF Journalism Program grantee) hires some 30 Native American college students nationwide as reporters, editors, photographers and multimedia journalists to cover tribal communities or schools during the academic year. Most staff members are grads of the Freedom Forum’s American Indian Journalism Institute, a three-week training and internship program held each June at the University of South Dakota. The site sports a nice new look and new bells and whistles, such as a featured “Native Video of the Day.”

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House Says Yes to Shield Law

The Shield Law movement gained more momentum yesterday when the House of Representatives passed a federal shield bill by a vote of 398-21, according to Editor & Publisher (http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003659071). The bill would preserve the identities of journalists' sources in many federal court cases. Its passage comes nearly two weeks after the Senate Judiciary Committee passed a similar version of its own shield bill.

The White House has warned it will veto the House bill because it thinks the law could harm national security through leaks of classified information, E&P reported.

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Picking Up the Investigative Tab

With news media outlets slashing investigative reporting budgets, a group of journalists and investors are stepping forward with a new model that they hope will fill the gap. Led by veteran Wall Street Journal editor Paul Steiger, the consortium of investigative journalists plans to "do long-term projects, uncovering misdeeds in government, business and organizations," according to The New York Times (http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/15/business/media/15publica.html?_r=2&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&ref=media&adxnnlx=1192453448-wMxqq682EnnL29gJG7QdMQ&oref=slogin)

The intended non-profit organization, to be called Pro Publica, will be based in New York City and consist of 24 journalists. Slated to open early next year, the outfit will be funded by a $10 million per year commitment from the former chief executives of the Golden West Financial Corp ., according to the Times. Several other foundations have pledged more modest grants.

It will be interesting to watch the experiment unfold to see whether the output is picked up by professional media and whether the group can find sustained funding.

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Shedding Light on Foreign News Coverage

John Maxwell Hamilton's fascination with the history of foreign news coverage sparked the creation of From Our Own Correspondent, a series of books based on the writings and memoirs of legendary overseas journalists. The latest entry is Journalism of the Highest Realm, the memoir of pioneering Chicago Daily News foreign correspondent Edward Price Bell.

Hamilton, dean of Louisiana State University's Manship School of Communication, uncovered the long-forgotten Bell memoir in Chicago's Newberry Library. The edited autobiography tells how a bright-eyed teen reporter in Terra Haute, Ind ., developed into the dean of the foreign press corps in London during and after World War I. In addition, Bell's superb journalism skills set the standard for the Daily News foreign service, widely recognized as the premier source for international news and analysis. Hamilton and co-editor Jaci Cole also provide valuable insight on the development of foreign news gathering at a time when it has never been more important. A dead-on foreword by James F. Hoge, Jr., the last editor of the Daily News and current editor of Foreign Affairs, traces the evolution of overseas news gathering and the vital roles played by Bell and the Daily News foreign service.

Hamilton launched the From Our Own Correspondent series last April with Waugh in Abyssinia by Evelyn Waugh. Next up is a long out-of-print collection of Crimean War dispatches by William Howard Russell. LSU Press is publishing the series.

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Senate Judiciary Committee Clears Shield Bill

A federal reporter’s shield bill will be headed to the Senate floor for a vote, The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press reported yesterday. Calling the vote ‘historic,’ RCFP executive director Lucy Dalglish said, “The overwhelming vote in favor of the bill demonstrates that reporters have made the case for legally protecting sources.” The bill would provide legal protections for reporters who find themselves subpoenaed to testify or produce documents in a federal court proceeding.

On Thursday, bill S. 2035 was approved by a vote of 15-2 to go to the Senate floor. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) said that while journalists report sensitive and important information from sources who need protection, it was time for the law to recognize the valuable role they play in democracy. The bill provides a qualified privilege that can be overcome if “all reasonable alternative sources” of the testimony or documents have been exhausted, the information is essential to a case, and that “nondisclosure of the information would be contrary to the public interest.”

Critics, including the Bush administration, contend that even with the national security exception this bill would impair the government’s ability to discover leaks that pose a risk to national security.

The text of the bill (before the addition of amendments from yesterday’s markup hearing) can be found at: http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c110:S.2035:

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Technology Crossing Continents

No more pricey "bloated" bureaus for ABC News, which just announced that it plans to expand its foreign coverage in the coming months through the use of mobile one-person operations in Africa, India and other countries, according to a recent piece by The Hollywood Reporter.

Like most large media outlets, ABC had shuttered some of its foreign bureaus due to high costs associated with personnel, security, travel, etc. Now the network will provide single reporters with hand-held digital technology so they can work from home and travel to produce packages for ABCNews.com, ABC News Now, World News Tonight and Good Morning America, according to the Reporter. It will be interesting to see if any of its competitors follow suit.

For more information, check out the Reporter's article:
(http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/news/e3i47e6403b3602038866ba096cb9fcdc29)

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NEWS CHALLEGE DEADLINE

October 15 is the deadline to apply for the Knight Foundation's second annual News Challenge, a contest encouraging the innovative use of digital technology in community journalism. The contest is open to applicants worldwide and aims to foster community-building through contestants' effective use of digital tools to distribute news and information in separate geographic areas.

The News Challenge attracts a diverse pool of applicants. Last year's $5 million prize winner was MIT Media Lab/Comparative Media Studies for their project, the Center for Future Civic Media. Other prize winners also included academic institutions, such as Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism (to create the Digital News Academic Program) and Arizona State University's Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication (to establish ASU's Knight-Kauffman Center), as well as community journalists and even bloggers.

The Knight Foundation intends to invest $25 million in the News Challenge over the next five years with the goal of attracting the best and brightest in digital news. As Knight Foundation President Alberto Ibargüen states, "It is vital that we discover how digital technologies can serve the information needs of physical communities in a democracy."

McCormick Tribune Foundation is also deeply committed to innovation in digital journalism. The Journalism Program recently approved a $100,000 grant to the City University of New York to support a graduate-level Entrepreneurial Journalism course and a $125,000 grant to the University of Maryland's J-Lab for support of the McCormick Tribune Initiative for New Media Women Entrepreneurs.

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Specialized Reporting Institute - LOIs due Oct. 8!

FYI - We're still looking for great ideas and partners for the next round of McCormick Tribune Foundation Specialized Reporting Institutes. These intensive journalism workshops provide subject-specific expertise and practical reporting training in timely, specialized topics of importance to media consumers. Letters of inquiry for proposed 2008 institutes are due by Oct. 8. For more information, contact the Journalism Program.

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Well Deserved Honor

Credit the tenacity of MTF grantee Olga Briseño for the U.S. Postal Service's decision to issue a 2008 commemorative stamp honoring legendary journalist Ruben Salazar. The former Los Angeles Times columnist was killed at age 42 covering the East Los Angeles riots in 1970. His courageous efforts to chronicle the complexity of race relations inspired many journalists and students, especially Mexican-Americans. Briseño, now director of the University of Arizona's Media, Democracy & Policy Initiative, spearheaded the two-year research and marketing blitz required to sway the Postal Service.

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Making Money from Citizen Journalism

The proliferation of citizen journalism projects, which range from individual bloggers to aggregated hyperlocal Web sites, has resulted in a rich journalistic dialogue and new voices entering the "media" fray. Unfortunately, those voices still need to pay the mortgage, and right now, no one has nailed a replicable profit model to support citizen journalism.

Enter the Center for Citizen Media, led by guru Dan Gillmor, which is starting a project to glean the best practices and different revenue sources for citizen journalism. Emerson College new media graduate student Ryan McGrady will be heading up the project, called Making a Business of Citizen Media.

You can read the intro and check out the outline for what's coming here: http://citmedia.org/blog/2007/09/24/making-a-business-of-citizen-media/. So far, it looks like they'll be exploring affiliate, pay-to-blog, membership, donation and advertising programs, among others. Naturally, the Center encourages citizen participation in the project and hopes to get feedback via posted comments, emails, etc.

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Can You Say ‘Got Milk’ in Spanish?

And more to the point, are you a Learner, Straddler or Navigator? The Sept. 23 New York Times Magazine had a fascinating piece on the ad agency Gallegos Group, the growth of the Latino ad market and some of the issues creatives consider when designing award-winning campaigns targeting Hispanic Americans. The article outlines the explosive growth of this market - U.S. Hispanics spend $928 billion annually - and how references that work for a mainstream audience may flop for Latinos. It also explores how cultural references range greatly within vastly diverse Latino communities. Click here to see the story.

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How the New Attorney General Might View FOIA

Betcha didn’t know that AG nominee Michael Mukasey used to write for United Press International. We imagine an AG who used to be a reporter wouldn’t be a bad thing these days. “Judge Mukasey is the first attorney general nominee in many years to have a firm grounding in the law of the press,” says Lucy Dalglish, executive director of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. “We’re optimistic that this will lead to a justice department that is more open to public scrutiny.”

Lucy should know: RCFP has just posted on its Web site an “Evaluation of the likely impact of Attorney General Nominee Michael Mukasey on Press Freedoms and the Public’s Right to Know.” The report goes into detail around Mukasey’s background and history as attorney and judge. Important issues are at stake, with FOIA reforms and reporter’s shield proposal in the balance. See the report by clicking here.

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Suprise Finding: Reading the Newspaper is Good for Kids

Youth who read the newspaper through school assignments and peruse teen-related content are more likely to volunteer, vote and be civically engaged when they grow up, according to a recent study by the Newspaper Association of America Foundation (http://www.naafoundation.org/NewspaperInEducation/Life-Long-Readers-Contest.aspx).

"Lifelong Readers: Driving Civic Engagement" - which surveyed more than 1,500 25- to 34-year-olds - supports the common-sense notion that reading the newspaper both at home and in school is linked to being a good citizen later in life. The study looked at three newspaper influences: newspapers in the classroom, newspapers as homework assignment and exposure to "teen content."

For more, visit: www.naafoundation.org

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The Reader on a Diet

Chicago's most famous alt-weekly, the Reader, is slimming down starting Oct. 5 when it changes from the quarter-fold format to a regular flat tabloid size, according to the Chicago Tribune (http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-thu_phil_0913sep13,0,2454757.story). The free paper also has some additional cost-saving measures in mind, including reducing staff size and transitioning delivery drivers to independent contractors.

The changes come after the paper's recent sale to alt-weekly chain Creative Loafing, which bought the Reader in July. Like most others in the media business, the Reader's classified ad sales have plummeted with the advent of free online listings.

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Going Green

Kudos to Society of Environmental Journalists (SEJ) for record-breaking attendance of more than 900 people at its 17th annual conference, hosted by Stanford University Sept. 5-9. Sessions covered a number of topics useful to reporters, from coverage of climate change to urban land use, green buildings, efficient energy and how to use the FOIA.

My personal favorite was the "Freelance Pitch Slam" session, where a panel of editors (Wired, National Geographic Adventure, Popular Mechanics, High Country News, etc.) respond to 60-second story pitches from journos in the audience brave enough to grab a nearby mic. “That’s local-we’re a national magazine” was matched by the occasional “Great story idea. Let’s talk right after this session.” Another panel offered up tips on using Google Earth and GeoEye for both reporting and presenting findings in map form for readers.

See SEJ’s Web site for video coverage of the conference, resources posted from sessions and SEJ’s annual awards for exemplary coverage of environmental issues (take a peek at those student winners while you’re at it) at www.sej.org.

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Free Press on Campus

All college media outlets are deemed to be "a public forum for expression by student journalists and editors," according to a recent bill passed by Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich (D). The bill also forbids school administrators from exercising prior review, according to the Student Press Law Center (SPLC), even when the media is produced by the school.

The bill comes in response to the Hosty v. Carter case, in which the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in 2005 that "college-sponsored student publications that are not designated as public forums can be controlled by school administrators in the same way high school officials can control student media on their campuses," SPLC reports.
The law goes into effect in January 2008.

For more information, visit: http://www.splc.org/newsflash.asp?id=1597

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The Drama of High School

Known for producing lascivious reality television like the Real World and The Hills, teen TV juggernaut MTV is set to create a new hard-hitting reality series delving into...high school newspapering.

The eight-episode series, to be called The Paper, follows the "dynamic and surprisingly intense life of students" working on the award-winning newspaper at Cypress Bay High School in Weston, Florida, according to a recent article in Broadcasting & Cable (http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6473000.html?display=Breaking+News&referral=SUPP&q=mtv).

The show will document the inner workings of The Circuit, which won several local journalism awards in 2004-2005. If it's like other MTV reality shows, the Circuit is sure to be filled with heavily-scripted backstabbing and drama.

Stay tuned. The show is slated to open in the first quarter of 2008.

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News Preferences

A recently released Pew Research Center study that monitored audience interest in 19 news categories from 1986 to 2006 showed growing interest in two areas---Washington Politics and Money. In the late 1980s, 17 percent of those polled closely read stories about national politics, while coverage of money was closely monitored by 23 percent of the audience. In the 2000-06 period, Washington politics had risen to 24 percent, while strong interest in news about money soared to 40 percent.

Interestingly, the Tabloid News category didn't gain in reader interest during the two decades studied by Pew. Stories about celebrity gossip, non-political scandals and popular culture were closely monitored by 21 percent in the 1980s and 18 percent in the final years of the survey. Coverage of natural disasters drew the most attention in the 1980s, while the Bad Weather category topped the preference list in the 1990s. Since 2000, U.S.-linked War/Terrorism scored the highest preference.

Full results can be found here.

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No Laughing Matter

The Committee to Protect Journalists recently warned that China remains stubbornly backward in allowing its people open access to news. Crackdowns on press freedom are especially prevalent in online reporting. Now comes word from the Associated Press that government officials in Beijing will start monitoring the Web on Sept. 1, using animated police officers who will pop up on a user's browser. The cartoon alerts will appear every half hour on 13 of China's most popular portals. By the end of 2007, the Public Security Ministry said the web patrols will appear on all Web sites registered with Beijing servers.

AP said the cartoon cops are designed to startle Web surfers and remind them that Communist Party authorities closely monitor online activity. The government claims its Internet meddling is designed to thwart morally threatening nudity, profanity, gambling and other illegal activities. Although journalism is not singled out, the 137 million registered online users in China are routinely blocked from accessing overseas sites and domestic sites deemed obscene or subversive.

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ICFJ Names International Journalism Award Winners

The International Center for Journalists (ICFJ) named its 2007 Knight International Journalism Award winners today. This year’s winners are Wael Abbas, an Egyptian blogger, and investigative reporter May Thingyan Hein of Burma.

Abbas’ win marks the first time a blogger has received the award. His blog, Misr Digital, has covered stories such as police brutality and corruption—topics that many mainstream media normally don’t—and has attracted so much attention that it’s encouraged the media to begin reporting these subjects. Despite beatings and arrests, Abbas says that bloggers are “the last independent voice,” and are “necessary” for protests to be heard in Egypt.

May Thingyan Hein, who is a freelance journalist, also tackles controversial topics in her investigative reporting. In Burma, stories must be submitted to officials before being released and her coverage of the spread of bird flu into the country was instrumental in forcing the government to take action against the epidemic.

ICFJ President Joyce Barnathan says that Abbas and Hein are “blazing the path in their countries with extremely bold coverage” and that others should follow their example.

The Knight International Journalism Awards are given by the Knight International Journalism Fellows, funded by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. The Fellows strive to lead the news media into making societies more accountable to citizens.

For more information, visit ICFJ online, or visit The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation online.

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White House FOIA-Free?

The White House Office of Administration claimed in court filings this week that it's not subject to the Freedom of Information Act, according to an article by the Washington Post (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/22/AR2007082202441.html). The legal motion is based on a civil lawsuit that is "seeking the release of internal documents about a large number of e-mails missing from White House servers," the article notes.

Hilariously, the article reports that the filing is at odds with the own White House Web site, which at the time of publishing listed the Office of Administration as subject to FOIA.

It comes as no surprise, as the current administration hasn't exactly been considered FOIA-friendly. According to an early August report by the Coalition of Journalists for Open Government, the FOIA backlog at 30 federal agencies with the most requests has reached record highs at 39 percent. That means nearly two of five requests didn't get processed within a year, CJOG notes. You can view "Still Waiting After All These Years - An In-Depth Analysis of FOIA Performance from 1998-2006" by visiting:
http://www.cjog.net/documents/Still_Waiting_Narrative_and_Charts.pdf.

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Do we just see ‘the tip of the iceberg’ of newspaper errors?

The average newspaper should expand by a factor of 50 the amount of space given to corrections, according to an item posted by Slate editor-at-large Jack Shafer. Shafer’s column cites a recent study by Scott Maier, an associate professor at the University of Oregon, that also found that fewer than 2 percent of factually flawed articles had generated newspaper corrections. The study explored data from 10 dailies by sending stories to sources to check on the articles’ accuracy. About 69 percent of 3,600 news sources completed the survey, spotting 2,615 factual errors in 1,220 stories. Shafer takes the discussion a step further – discussing the merits of fessing up to errors and pointing out that papers might actually take pride in posting more corrections rather than assuming that an increase reflects growing negligence. To see Shafer’s column, click here: http://www.slate.com/id/2172283/nav/fix.

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Who's Steering the Ship?

Stop the presses: Journalism and Mass Communication schools are run predominantly by older white males, at least according to a recent study released by the University of Maryland's Philip Merrill College of Journalism. This despite the fact that two-thirds of j-school student enrollees are female.

The Knight-funded survey of 165 JMC administrators found that 90 percent of respondents were white, 64 percent were male and their average age was 55 years old. The study was designed "to take a snapshot of the nation's JMC administrators and learn more about some of the key issues and pressures they face—among them the growing expectations to raise private funds, adaptation of their schools’ curricula in a digital world, and faculty hiring challenges."

For more data from the study: http://www.journalism.umd.edu/newrel/07newsrel/jmcsurvey07.html

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UPDATE: Journalist's Murderer Arrested

A 19-year-old bakery employee was one of seven people arrested on Friday, August 3, a day after the shooting death of Oakland Post editor Chauncey Bailey.

Devaughndre Broussard, who worked at Your Black Muslim Bakery in Oakland, told police that he killed Bailey because he was angry about stories Bailey had written about the establishment and its workers. The bakery was founded by black muslim leader Yusuf Bey over 40 years ago and is currently run by his son, Yusuf Bey IV, who was also one of the seven arrested.

Further reading:

http://www.insidebayarea.com/ci_6544355

http://cbs5.com/topstories/local_story_218142506.html

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The City That 'NETworks'

Community Media Workshop (www.newstips.org) recently hosted a lively – and timely - Community Media Summit at Columbia College in downtown Chicago. The forum featured speakers such as media consultant Richard Somerset-Ward, Julia Stasch of the MacArthur Foundation and Sandy Close of New America Media. The provocative issues discussed included:

 What role can local media play in community life?

 What is the role of collaboration in community media?

 How will access to broadband affect community life?

The event highlighted the work of a number of community media leaders from groups throughout the Midwest such as Radio Arte, Grand Rapids Community Media Center, the Twin Cities Media Alliance and We the People Media. To see video segments from the summit click here.

The event featured release of the long-awaited report from the Mayor’s Advisory Council on Closing the Digital Divide, “The City That Networks: Transforming Society and Economy Through Digital Excellence.” To see it click here.

The Benton Foundation, a key sponsor of the summit, recently released a report “What’s Going On In Community Media?” To see it click here.

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“You Know You’re A Journalist When…”

Ever seen the Society for Professional Journalist (SPJ)'s answers to the question above? (They’re hilarious.) “At weddings you take notes on the sermon.” “You shoot B-roll for your vacation videos.” “You’re not a social drinker. All drinking is work-related.” Etc.

Well, you can add being extremely unpopular to the list. As if newsroom working stiffs didn’t have enough to deal with these days with low pay and long hours - a Harris Poll measuring public perceptions of 23 professions has placed the field in the Bottom 10. What do farmers, lawyers and priests have in common? They’re all more popular in the popular mind than journalists. At the top are fire fighters, teachers and scientists. Hovering at the bottom – even below evil reporters - are bankers, actors and real estate agents. Go figure. Click here to see the study http://www.harrisinteractive.com/harris_poll/index.asp?PID=793.

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California Journalist Murdered

Chauncey Bailey, who was recently named editor of the Oakland Post, a weekly newspaper in Northern California serving the Oakland, Berkeley and Richmond communities, was killed this morning by an unidentified gunman. Witnesses say that the gunman fired on Bailey, then fled the scene. Police have no suspects in custody yet, but have said that the killing appears to be a “deliberate hit.”

The killing comes during a year that has been cited by the International News Safety Institute as the deadliest yet for journalists worldwide.

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Dialing in to Local TV News

When it comes to local news in Chicago, one channel is as good as another, at least according to more than 1,400 TV-news viewers in the Chicagoland area. This finding, among others, was revealed in a new study "The Local TV News Experience: How to Win Viewers by Focusing on Engagement," conducted by the Medill School of Journalism and Media Management Center at Northwestern University.

The study - released on July 20 - reported that a majority of respondents felt that "No program causes its viewers to react or feel differently than others," according to an analysis by Broadcasting & Cable magazine (http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6463856.html&referral=supp). The study provided examples from newscasts on local channels for analysis. The goal was to give TV news directors "tools to increase local news viewing by enhancing viewer engagement and provide broadcast leaders insights to help them think strategically about the position of the station and its role in the local community," according to the study.

In general, the study found that viewers had higher confidence in the integrity of TV news as compared to newspapers. It also noted that stations could benefit from increased diversity in newscast soundbites, according to Broadcasting & Cable.

To view the complete study, visit: http://www.mediamanagementcenter.org/localtv/

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Alternative Owners

It seems no media outlet is safe from the consolidation and economic changes hitting the biz, as Chicago's own Reader just got sold to Tampa-based Creative Loafing Inc., according to Editor & Publisher magazine. The city's well-known alternative weekly, with an average circulation of about 135,000, was founded back in 1971.

The paper - which was purchased along with the Washington City Paper- will join the collection of Creative Loafing, which owns alt weeklies in Tampa, Sarasota, Atlanta and Charlotte. For more, check out E&P's news brief: http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003616208

Chicago media critic and blogger Michael Miner - reacting to the news - wrote that there's some apprehension at the Reader, with the thought that the paper won't continue the kind of "serious journalism the Reader is known for" under the new ownership. Writing in News Bites, Miner notes: "How the Reader will change, and how much it will change, are questions that preoccupy everyone concerned at the moment." (For more: http://blogs.chicagoreader.com/news-bites/)

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Eyeballing Ethics

Perceptive Gene Policinski hit another bulls-eye in a recent First Amendment Center essay of the risky business of reporters getting too close to their key sources. This sensitive issue has heated up in recent weeks after MSNBC.com identified 143 journalists who had contributed to political candidates or organizations. That sticky story was followed by two sexier ethics capers involving TV reporters in Los Angeles and Chicago. Both broadcast brouhahas involved attractive women reporters and men they covered professionally.

Policinski writes that "there's no requirement in the First Amendment that journalists and news sources, particularly in government, automatically be antagonists. But there certainly is the proviso that the press is not part of government, formally or informally." Carried to a personal level, he says, means "maintaining a healthy skepticism about those on whom you report. Keeping that distance, mentally or physically, can be difficult."

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Defining the News Media

Journalists, judges and just about everybody else has an opinion on how bloggers fit into the news media universe. Many university-trained working journalists scoff at the idea that bloggers are part of the profession. But there are plenty of smart people who are convinced that journalism is an act of communication, rather than a white-collar vocation. Now, the CIA is weighing in the side of including bloggers as a vital component of the news media. Govexec.com reports that the CIA's final rule on processing fees for Freedom of Information Requests adopts an earlier federal government definition of "news media" that includes "alternative media" that is electronically transmitted. Read more about it, including the outlook for those nasty FOIA fees.

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Proposed Legislation Tries to Shed Light on FOIA Problems

An op-ed piece by David Carr in the July 23, 2007 New York Times reflects on the need for greater transparency in government activity, citing some government agencies that have Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests that are more than 15 years old. The column asserts that the Openness Promotes Effectiveness in Our National Government Act of 2007, sponsored by Senators John Cornyn (R-Texas) and Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont), would streamline the efficiency of FOIA by stiffening the penalties for agencies that fail to comply with the 20-day deadline on FOIA requests.

However, Senator John Kyl (R-Arizona) has expressed concerns over the security risks that he feels the bill poses in its present form. According to Kyl’s press secretary, Ryan Patmintra, the senator doesn’t dispute the need for greater FOIA efficiency, but “wants to make a good bill better” by suggesting improvements that would preserve the security of government operations.

Most everyone in the news industry agrees that something needs to be done soon. Paul J. Boyle, senior vice president of the Newspaper Association of America, says that the current FOIA system is “broken” and “needs to be repaired.” This bill, he says would put “real deadlines” behind already-existing statutes and give agencies an “incentive to comply.”

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Insights on Eco-Reporting

The Society of Environmental Journalists’ summer edition of SEJournal has an interesting interview with reporter Ken Weiss of the Los Angeles Times on the Pulitzer Prize-winning 5-part series “Altered Oceans” that he and others at the Times produced. At a time when resources devoted to investigative reporting are declining, Weiss offers insights to anyone trying to pitch investigative stories to editors. The interview, by Mike Dunne, touches on a number of areas, including:
 The evolution of the idea for the series (interesting – Weiss was new to the beat)
 The challenges in selling a long-term project to editors (can you say ‘travel’ without first gulping?)
 The choice to focus the series on environmental challenges already taking their toll - over gloomy forecasts for the future (provides more immediacy and relevance)
 The role of the reporter as ‘translator’ in making heaps of scientific data understandable to the public (the need for someone to stitch together the work of many scientists, each looking at very specific areas of research)
 The challenges of producing a multi-media product (‘storytelling is storytelling, no matter what the medium.’)
 The reaction by readers (‘The response was big. Really big.’)

You can view the LAT series “Altered Oceans” at http://www.latimes.com/news/local/oceans/la-oceans-series,0,7842752.special

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Bad Ad News

It's more of the same for beleagured newspaper executives: The speed of the downturn in newspaper ad revenue has accelerated since the beginning of 2007, according to a Wall Street Journal article on July 18. You can read more here:
http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB118471859134569679-7SEc8U7GAYLdAU_0upCRHWAU2cU_20070816.html?mod=tff_main_tff_top

Citing a Newspaper Association of America (NAA) report, the article notes that total print and online ad revenue was down 4.8 percent from the first quarter a year earlier. Unfortunately for publishers, online ad gains haven't made up for the loss in revenue from the nose dive in print advertising.

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Shunning Newsprint...And the News

Today's young Americans are "estranged from the daily newspaper and rely more heavily on television than on the Internet for their news," according to a newly released study "Young People and News" from the Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard University.
Though most experts agree that young people pay less attention to the news than their counterparts 20 or 30 years ago, the study comes at a time when many experts disagree on how much attention today's teens pay to current events and news. Some argue that young people are harnessing the Internet to become civically engaged in ways not seen in previous generations. This study - funded by the Carnegie Corp.- seems to contradict that conclusion. The researchers surveyed 1,800 randomly sampled people of all ages and found that teens don't make following news a regular part of their day.
Check out the full report for yourself: http://www.ksg.harvard.edu/presspol/carnegie_knight/young_news_web.pdf

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Student Journalism Rights: Step by Step Toward Acceptance?

Oregon Governor Ted Kulongoski signed a law last week that protects Oregon high school students and college journalists from censorship by school administrators and also gives students the right to sue their school if they feel their right to expression has been violated. Click here (http://www.statesmanjournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2007707130314 ) for a Statesman Journal (Salem, Ore.) story on the law detailing how:

+ The Oregon law is the country's first in more than a decade to protect high school journalists and the first ever to cover both high school and college journalists under one statute. (This new ruling adds to the list of six states that currently have laws protecting high school journalists from censorship; all were passed before 1996.)

+ A 2005 Seventh U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling (Hosty v. Carter) allowed college administrators to impose prior review and restraint on student newspapers if the publication is not a designated public forum for student expression. (This ruling covers three Midwestern states but has been cited by administrators nationwide to justify tightened controls over high school and college publications.)

+ According to the Student Press Law Center, a wave of similar laws is currently being pursued in other states (including Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey and Vermont).

+ Many student press advocates consider the law a victory – yet consider the final version somewhat watered down by amendments (including removal of a provision that would have allowed punishment for administrators that censor student publications, along with another that would have designated college publications public forums.)

To see Warren Watson's piece on this legislation, visit www.jideas.org

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Sweet Notes

*Pete Weitzel, founder of the Coalition of Journalists for Open Government, an MTF grantee, will be honored by the National Press Club on July 16 with the John Aubuchon Freedom of the Press Award. Weitzel, the former editor of The Miami Herald who also launched the National Freedom of Information Coalition, will receive the Aubuchon award along with the late Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya. A complete list of the 2007 National Press Club Award winners can be found here.

*Speaking of Freedom of Information, July 4 marked the 41st anniversary of congressional passage of the Freedom of Information Act. Check out the nifty Neiman Watchdog profile about the stubborn California congressman who waged a 12-year battle in support of a law giving the American people a right to know the facts regarding the activities of their government. All journalists owe a debt of gratitude to John E. Moss.

*While many of the nation's news organizations continue to reduce staff, tighten budgets and squeeze editorial resources, it's refreshing to watch a privately-held news and information company invest in its product. Bloomberg News is on track to expand its 2,300-strong news operation by more than 10 percent this year. A recent Financial Times report says Bloomberg has already hired 180 new reporters this year and plans to add another 60 more journalists by the end of 2007.

*Slate media guru Jack Shafer weighed in with a thoughtful piece on the connection between quality and newsroom head counts. While careful not to discount the economic turmoil that has slashed editorial payrolls at most mainstream news organizations, Shafer looks at the 1972 staff sizes at the Washington Post and The New York Times. He said both of these newspaper heavyweights were able to publish quality products 35 years ago with far fewer journalists than they currently employ in 2007. He notes that many of the staff upgrades made in the last three decades helped improve coverage in business, international and specialized feature sections, as well as investigative reporting. Of course, the future quality challenge for all news organizations is how scarce resources are managed and deployed. Despite the fundamental changes in the definition of news and how best to present it, the truest measure of quality should always be tied to providing information that allows citizens to make better-informed decisions.

*The spate of collaborations, partnerships and acquisitions involving new and mainstream media organizations was bound to produce some rough sailing. Forbes.com reports that the media revolution is now being co-opted by alliances once deemed unholy. Bloggers who become part of a big media company sometimes face alienating new wave purists. Some also have found the harsher journalistic standards of mainstreamers a daunting challenge. Others appreciate the rigor. "I'm coming in with a lot to learn," said Brian Stelter, a 21-year-old whiz kid who recently joined The New York Times. "What I was doing at TVNewser was journalistic, but it wasn't always journalism."

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Cutting Back on Diversity?

UNITY's president is calling for media companies to begin collecting and releasing the racial and ethnic breakdown of employees laid off or taking buyouts in the past year's flurry of journalism job loss. According to UNITY President Karen Lincoln Michel, the group will be brainstorming in the coming weeks ways to slow the loss of talented diverse staffers in the newsroom. Personally, she's advocating for companies to collect and release the racial and ethnic breakdown numbers of departing staffers as a way to track the situation.

You can read Lincoln Michel's column here: http://www.unityjournalists.org/presidents/przmsg_070507.html

What do you think is the best way to address journalism diversity erosion in a tumultuous business time?

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2007 is Journalists' Deadliest Year So Far

According to mid-year statistics released last week by the International News Safety Institute (INSI), the worldwide journalist death toll has reached 100 during 2007, surpassing the level reached in mid-2006, when 68 journalists had been killed. (There were a total of 168 journalists killed in 2006—the worst year on record.)

This year’s milestone was reached in Iraq, where 57-year-old veteran journalist Hamed Sarha was killed by an unidentified gunman on his way home, leaving a widow and five children. During his career, Sarha had reported for various publications and for the Iraqi news agency. The dangers of reporting in Iraq are emphasized by INSI’s tally of 214 journalists killed since the beginning of the occupation in March 2003.

For more information and a detailed account of the casualties, visit http://www.newssafety.com/casualties/2007.htm.

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Toasting A Friend of Press Freedom...

The world of press freedom lost a true leader this past week. Dana Bullen, who for many years headed the World Press Freedom Committee, passed away June 25. A real ‘journalist's journalist,’ Bullen was foreign editor at The Washington Star, covered the U.S. Senate and Supreme Court, wrote a syndicated column and was selected as a Nieman Fellow. He headed the WPFC for 15 years, sitting in on many UNESCO meetings - where New World Information and Communication Order proposals were launched - lobbying behind the scenes to nip potential dangers in the bud. On an individual level Bullen also helped many journalists lacking institutional support by covering their legal bills through WPFC’s Fund Against Censorship. In 2000, Bullen was awarded the Inter American Press Association’s Chapultepec Grand Prize in recognition of his work for press freedom.

To see the New York Times obituary
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/27/us/27bullen.html?ex=1183608000&en=2e4f8a07d1090586&ei=5040&partner=MOREOVERNEWS

We welcome you to post a comment about Bullen

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Big Shoes To Fill

Two staunch defenders of press freedom are taking on prestigious journalism education positions. Searches to replace Mark Goodman of the Student Press Law Center (SPLC) and Brant Houston of Investigative Reporters and Editors (IRE) are well underway.

Goodman, formerly SPLC's executive director, will serve as the Knight Chair in Scholastic Journalism at Kent State University. Houston is leaving as executive director of the University of Missouri-based IRE to serve as the Knight Chair in Investigative and Enterprise Reporting at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Both Goodman and Houston have agreed to assist in the transitions and won't officially begin their new duties until January 2008. Their successors will join highly regarded, financially stable organizations. The challenge will be building on the leadership and legacies of their predecessors.

In Goodman's 22 years at the helm of SPLC, the organization reinforced its position as the top defender of press rights for high school and college journalists. He became deeply involved in a number of super-charged cases involving censorship, prior restraint and other crackdowns attempting to muzzle student journalists.

Houston, who will serve as acting director until Dec. 31, spent 13 years molding the world's leading training organization for investigative journalists. IRE has more than 4,500 members covering all facets of media. Its recent annual conference, held June 7-10 in Phoenix , drew 950 participants.

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Why Iowa Matters

Check out our collleague Shawn Healy's take on the recent McCormick Tribune Foundation reporting institute on covering the presidential nominating process in Iowa. He gives some interesting insight as the resident scholar of the Freedom Museum:
http://fanningtheflames.blogspot.com/2007/06/why-iowa-matters.html

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Being There

It’s a stark and grisly black-and-white image from the past – a line of executioners, kneeling and squatting under a hot mid-day sun - captured the moment they open fire on a row of prisoners several yards in front of them. Facing in the direction of the firing squad, but blindfolded, most of the prisoners are already crumbling to the ground or being thrown backward as bullets hit them, dust flying up from the earth. A lone prisoner on the far right side of the image adds to the photograph’s considerable power – he still stands facing above and beyond his executioner, unable to see him, awaiting death.

For 27 years this Pulitzer Prize-winning photograph of Kurdish prisoners being executed was attributed only to an ‘anonymous’ photographer. When it ran the photo in 1979, the Iranian newspaper Ettela’at chose not to reveal the photographer’s name out of concern for his safety. Fast forward to 2002, when reporter Joshua Prager of The Wall Street Journal tracked down the unknown photojournalist. He eventually found the author of the photograph – Jahangir Razmi – and convinced Razmi to show him the entire contact sheet. The Iranian journalist’s name finally appeared as the photo’s author in a Journal story from December of this past year (throughout the years numerous other photographers had been cited as the author) and at the Pulitzer luncheon at Columbia University on May 21 Razmi received his Pulitzer certificate and $10,000 prize.

Kudos go out to many in a fascinating story like this – to the folks at the local UPI desk 27 years ago who immediately appreciated the photo’s value and had it transmitted around the globe; to Prager for the persistence in pursuing a difficult story; to Sig Gissler, who administers the Pulitzer for exploring whether this is now a safe time for the prize to be given; and to Razmi. For being there when it counts.
To see Prager’s December 2006 piece in the Wall Street Journal (includes a link to the entire contact sheet of photos that Razmi took that day)
To see a New Yorker piece on Razmi’s recent trip to the U.S.
To see an International Herald Tribune piece which includes the photograph

For those in the Chicago area: The First Division Museum at Cantigny (Wheaton, IL) is hosting a summer exhibit “REQUIEM: By the Photographers Who Died in Vietnam and Indochina.” These 150 ‘moving and powerful photographs – taken by men and women on all sides who gave their lives during the conflict – begin with the French Indochina War in the 1950s and culminate with the fall of Phnom Penh and Saigon in 1975.’ The opening is June 21, 2007, at 6:30 pm. See the Cantigny website for more information at www.FirstDivisionMuseum.org.

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Pomp-ing Up The Volume?

When you watch a candidates’ debate on television, do you feel your questions are answered? Or do you feel more like you’re watching a series of live campaign ads? The problem may not be as simple as the integrity of the candidates, it might be the format of the debates themselves.

Dante Chinni, a senior associate at the Project for Excellence in Journalism, writes in a June 12 column in the Christian Science Monitor that the televised debates between presidential hopefuls, which were once such a useful tool for voters wanting to compare candidates’ stances on important issues, have become a cumbersome mess full of showmanship and resembling “talent shows” more than actual discussions about the issues.

Chinni contends that this is largely attributed to having more candidates staying in the races than ever before. The “compressed schedule” means candidates “with a prayer and a few bucks” aren’t necessarily forced or encouraged to drop out if they feel they won’t place well in the race. This also leaves voters with more choices to make than before. All of this makes the debates very important, as the actual discussions between candidates offer more insight than individual campaign materials. But it also becomes a problem: with more candidates on the air, and more issues to discuss than ever before, each candidate gets less individual air time. Does this process serve the electorate well enough? Do these factors inhibit the thorough media coverage of the election process?

(Read Chinni’s full column here.)

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Tony The Tiger

Tony Blair's blistering attack on the British news media showed the frustration of a lame duck politician who once feasted on media adulation by mastering the art of PR spin. But once you move past the bitterness, Britain's outgoing prime minister offered perceptive criticisms of media standards and strategies. Kevin Sullivan's piece in the June 12 Washington Post quotes Blair as saying today's media "hunts in a pack" and "is like a feral beast, just tearing people and reputations to bits." He said newspapers have morphed into "viewpapers" by emphasizing opinion over balance and impact over accuracy.
Blair also cited the pressures of the technology-fueled 24-hour news cycle for "unraveling" sound journalism standards. He fears the media's shrill tenor produce conspiracy, crisis and scandal stories that "sap the country's confidence and self-belief" while reducing the ability to make proper public policy decisions.

Speaking of media critics, O.J. Simpson told Editor & Publisher that "when Paris Hilton was going to jail last week, more people knew about that than knew we were sending people into space that day." The infamous former football star/actor said he yearns for the days when peephole reporting was the purview of gossip writers such as Rona Barrett. "Now, it is the equivalent of Edward R. Murrow reporting it today." Fanning O.J.'s flame was the Project for Excellence in Journalism's weekly roundup of top stories, which showed Paris Hilton snagged more cross-platform coverage last week than the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Paul McLeary of the Columbia Journalism Review also tackled the "war-free news" issue in his June 12 column.

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Ethnic Media for President

Newsflash to the presidential candidates: Nearly a quarter of the country consumes ethnic media, according to a 2006 poll by New America Media. So it's no surprise that Spanish-language TV network Univision recently asked that the presidential candidates participate in a Spanish-language debate. The request comes from the highest-rated Spanish-language TV network. Univision has high viewership among young adults and viewership ratings above CNN, Fox News and MSNBC, according to the LA Times.

The network hopes to televise a debate for each party on back to back Sundays in September, according to the L.A. Times, and the debates are likely to be held in Miami and focus on immigration issues. The debates "would mark a rare foray into presidential politics" for Univision, the article noted. They would also be the first entirely Spanish-language debates conducted for a U.S. presidential election.

So far New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson and Connecticut Sen. Christopher Dodd have accepted the invitation to participate. Not a bad idea, as the Democratic presidential candidates are said to be "courting Hispanic voters like never before" because of early primaries in heaviy Hispanic-populated states, according to The New York Times on Sunday.

To learn more about Univision's request, visit: http://www.freepress.net/news/23687

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Stop the Presses: College Campus Press Act

Illinois college journalists are in line to receive the same free press rights as their professional counterparts if Gov. Rod Blagojevich approves a bill passed this week by the state legislature. According to the Chicago Tribune, the College Campus Press Act- passed unanimously by the state senate and 112-2 in the Illinois House - would permit college student journalists "to write articles without fear that college officials could censor or bar publication of their work."

College press freedom is a hot topic in Illinois, after a prominent prior restraint case in 2001 at Governors State University. Three student journalists sued the school after a dean stopped the paper from being printed after learning there would be several stories critical of the university, according to the Tribune. The case went to the courts and the Seventh U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals held that college administrators did have the right to use prior review and restraint for student papers if the publications weren't designated as a "public forum for student expression," according to Virginia-based Student Press Law Center. The new Illinois legislation designates college publications as public forums for student expression.

Gov. Blagojevich has 60 days to decide whether to sign or veto the bill.

For more, visit: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/southsouthwest/chi-collegepressjun08,1,6884139.story

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Who Says Journalists Won't Give?

It just takes a little extra prodding – but they will. Take the Society for Environmental Journalists, for example. On the SEJ website a recent posting notes that the group has raised more than $130,000 in donations from individuals. Turns out, SEJ is a member of the Challenge Fund for Journalism (CFJ), a unique partnership in which selected journalism nonprofits are offered technical assistance to help them ‘grow’ their individual donor base – with a tempting matching grant acting as the carrot.

SEJ, for example, was challenged to raise more than $103,000 as part of its 21st Century Fund endowment. Donations had to be made by people who’d never given to SEJ before or were giving more than they had previously – by May 31, 2007 – to count toward the challenge grant. If SEJ made it, according to the agreement, CFJ would match these donations with a $51,500 grant. Cha-ching.

Learning to nurture individual donors has been difficult for journalism groups historically. To help j-groups along, the Ford and Knight foundations established the CFJ in 2002. The fund – since joined by the Ethics and Excellence in Journalism Foundation – is administered by the TCC Group, formerly The Conservation Company. At its recent May board meeting MTF’s Journalism Program became a supporter of this important initiative to help build the sector’s financial independence. We're looking forward to helping to add to the list of groups that have become stronger as a result of this partnership.

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Community Journalists to Participate in World Affairs Fellowship

Thirteen top U.S. journalists selected as World Affairs Journalism Fellows will spend up to three weeks abroad reporting on issues that are vital to their local communities. This program is administered by the International Center for Journalists (ICFJ) and sponsored by the Ethics and Excellence in Journalism Foundation, with additional funding from the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting. The fellowship covers travel and reporting expenses abroad and provides each Fellow with a mentor who has regional and topical expertise relevant to the reporting project. According to ICFJ Vice President of Programs Patrick Butler, "This fellowship is truly unique because it allows news organizations to make international issues relevant to their audiences across the United States.” He also says that it's "never been more important for Americans to understand what is happening beyond our borders," due to terrorism, climate change and other world issues, while news organizations are ironically scaling back international coverage.

World Affairs Journalism Fellows have won more than 20 top journalism awards for the stories they’ve done on this fellowship since 2002. This year’s fellows are:

Antigone Barton*, Reporter, The Palm Beach (Fla.) Post
Linda Blackford, Enterprise Reporter, Lexington (Ky.) Herald-Leader
Craig Gima, Reporter/Assistant City Editor, Honolulu Star-Bulletin
Stephanie R. Heinatz, Military Reporter, Daily Press (Newport News, Va.)
Ellen Lee, Technology Reporter, San Francisco Chronicle
Bob Moser, Business Reporter, The Daily Advertiser (Lafayette, La.)
Matt O’Brien, Reporter, The Daily Review (Hayward, Calif.)
Julian Pecquet, Staff Writer, Tallahassee (Fla.) Democrat
Jeffrey Sheban, Senior Business Reporter, Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch
J.B. Smith, Staff Writer, Waco (Texas) Tribune-Herald
Laura Ungar, Medical Writer, The Courier-Journal (Louisville, Ky.)
Carroll Wilson, Editor, Times Record News (Wichita Falls, Texas)
Dan Zehr, Business Reporter, Austin (Texas) American-Statesman

* Barton is the Pulitzer Center Fellow

The Fellows will also be honored at reception at the National Press Club on June 5, which will feature ABC's John Donvan and will include an exhibit of past fellows’ best newspaper layouts and photos.

The International Center for Journalists, a non-profit, professional organization, promotes quality journalism worldwide in the belief that independent, vigorous media are crucial in improving the human condition. Over the past 22 years, ICFJ has worked directly with journalists from 176 countries. Aiming to raise the standards of journalism, ICFJ offers hands-on training workshops, seminars, fellowships and international exchanges to reporters and media managers around the globe. For more information, or to apply for the 2008 program, please visit their website below:

World Affairs Journalism Fellows

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All Joking Aside....

Leave it to The Onion to capture the hilarity of the over-caffeinated news cycle that Internet Age reporters and editors often bemoan. The Onion's recent piece "Media Landscape Redefined By 24-Second News Cycle" provides a laughable take on the deadline pressures journalists face in the digital world. The lede posits that the 24-second broadcast news cycle might not actually capture the depth and nuance of the "old" 45-second stories.

Newspapers aren't safe either, The Onion notes: "While the changes have brought higher ratings and ad revenues to televised news, print newspapers have suffered greatly, due to the high cost of printing and distributing a new edition every 24 seconds."

For more laughs:
http://www.theonion.com/content/news/media_landscape_redefined_by_24

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Please Don't Shoot the Messenger

Reading about journalists who go beyond the call of duty to carry out their work is a reminder that this is a job, yes, but also a calling that can inspire passion and demand exceptional courage. Take the case of Lydia Cacho, a Mexican journalist and human rights activist who reports for the CIMAC news agency and also writes features for "Dia Siete" magazine. Cacho has written extensively about prostitution rings in Cancun and wrote a book published last year, “Los Demonios del Eden” (“Demons of Eden”), about the Lebanese-born head of a local child pornography and prostitution ring. When she testified at his trial in May of this year, her car was sabotaged and she was threatened with violence. She now travels with bodyguards .

Lydia Cacho has just been named one of the 2007 Courage in Journalism Award Winners by the International Women’s Media Foundation. IWMF’s award, created in 1990, honors ‘women journalists who have shown extraordinary strength of character and integrity while reporting the news under dangerous or difficult circumstances’ and includes high-profile events in Los Angeles and New York. Other 2007 winners are:
+ The Iraqi women reporters of McClatchy’s Baghdad bureau, who risk their lives to cover the war in Iraq;
+ Ethiopian publisher Serkalem Fasil, who gave birth to a son while confined to a vermin-infested jail cell for her work; and
+ Peta Thornycroft of Zimbabwe, who is being given a lifetime achievement award for her many years of independent reporting on human rights abuses, farm occupation and government repression.

Read more at http://www.iwmf.org/press/10092.

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Check, please!

A hearty congratulations to three McCormick Tribune journalism grantees recently chosen for the inaugural round of digital journalism grants from the Knight Foundation News Challenge. Only 25 of the more than 1,500 groups and individuals that applied were selected to receive grants for cutting edge projects in digital journalism. According to the Knight Foundation, the winners proposed innovative strategies for leveraging digital news to build community. These range from individual blogging grants to building networks of citizen journalists to cover a large metropolitan city.

Among the winners, the MTF grantees included:

• School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Kansas State University: Will serve as an incubator as one of seven universities to explore solutions to digital news problems.
• Dori Maynard of the Robert C. Maynard Institute for Journalism Education: Received a $15,000 grant to blog on diversity issues in digital media.
• Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University: Rich Gordon was awarded $639,000 to found a scholarship program designed to train computer scientists in journalism to address the need for talented tech-people at media companies.

The Knight Foundation will award $25 million during a five-year span "to help lead journalism into its digital future." For more information on the News Challenge and a complete project and winners list, check out: http://www.newschallenge.org/winners/

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Why Pay For The Cow?

There's been plenty of debate of late about the wisdom of newspapers giving too much of their product away for free. A forceful May 7 Wall Street Journal commentary by Arkansas Democrat-Gazette publisher Walter E. Hussman Jr. sparked the latest round of soul-searching. Hussman's call for newspapers to reconsider the costs and consequences of free news comes at a time when online ad sales growth is slowing and news aggregators like Yahoo and Google continue to capitalize on content created by the mainstream media. (Read Hussman's full editorial here)

Certainly, many newspapers are satisfied with the progress of their websites and remain committed to a strategy of offering frequently updated news at no cost to readers . But that strategy likely will be tweaked if print advertising revenues continue to nosedive and online sales fail to reach projections.

Whatever the trend, it's time for universal agreement on how and why budget-driven reductions in newsrooms produce a rippling negative impact on all things connected to journalism.

Your thoughts?

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Defining Community Media

While "mainstream" news organizations continue to struggle in the technology-fueled media environment, many nimble niche players have emerged as big winners in the communications revolution. Success stories can be found in the community media category, which has achieved some promising results by combining the passion of citizen journalism with the dedication of grass roots community activism.

The best of the breed in the community media sector seem to parlay innovative thinking, focused strategy and sensitivity to audience appeal. But harnessing more knowledge and research is essential for the community media movement to blossom.

Two MTF grantees are participating in a June 15 Community Media Summit at Columbia College in Chicago that will attempt to better define the role and power of the sector as it attempts to impact debate on such vital issues as immigration reform and community development. MTF grantee Community Media Workshop is joining with the Chicago Community Trust and the Benton Foundation to sponsor the summit. Ethnic media guru Sandy Close of New America Media is among the panelists.

Another interesting wrinkle to the summit is the June 14 stage-setter featuring a joint meeting of the community advisory boards of WTTW and Chicago Public Radio. This will be the first-ever joint meeting between the boards representing public television and radio in the Chicago area. For more information, call 312-344-6400.

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Shield Law Shenanigans

The never-ending drive to protect confidential sources who provide information to reporters hit a suspicious snag in Texas. The Free Flow of Information Act was sent to the scrapheap in late May after a Texas State Senator raised a technical objection to its description in a bill analysis. It seems one passage of the description used a comma when a semicolon was called for. If passed, the Free Flow Act would have protected journalists from being compelled to testify about, disclose or produce confidential information in criminal cases, with certain exemptions.

Suggested reading:

Houston Chronicle, May 22, 2007

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Free Speech vs. Press Responsibility: The Venezuela Situation

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has been making worldwide headlines this week with his closure of Radio Caracas Television network (RCTV), the country's oldest television channel, founded in 1953. The move comes as part of a larger effort to "socialize" the country's media with government-backed channels such as TVes, which broadcasts cultural programs. Chavez had earlier accused CNN of comparing him to Osama bin Laden by juxtaposing images of the two during a broadcast. CNN acknowleged the mix-up, but denied comparing Chavez with the al-Qaida leader.

Most international coverage of the station closings is overwhelmingly negative, with several media rights groups calling it a serious blow to free speech. Chavez and his supporters counter that the privately-owned independent stations do not represent the interests of Venezuela's people, and that many of these stations were supporting overthrow attempts and some had even encouraged assassination attempts. Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR) points out that in 2002, RCTV participated in a short-lived coup that temporarily removed Chavez' democratically-elected government and that once Chavez returned to power, RCTV refused to report on it, forcing the question of a media outlet's responsibility to report relevant news events, and the consequences of abdicating that responsibility.

Student protests against the closings continue, and police have responded with tear gas and rubber bullets. Several students have been injured and one police officer has suffered a broken leg.

Other reading:

Yahoo! News

Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting

CNN

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Newspapers--A View From The Past

Finley Peter Dunne, a Chicago writer who wrote for the Chicago Times and Chicago Tribune in the late 19th century, gave the world some insightful musings on the purpose of newspapers in his nationally syndicated "Mr. Dooley in Peace and War." Here's a particularly good one, in the character and dialect of its Irish immigrant protagonist:

"Th newspaper does ivrything f'r us. It runs th' polis foorce an' th' banks, commands th' milishy, controls th' ligislachure, baptizes th' young, marries th' foolish, comforts th' afflicted, afflicts th' comfortable, buries th' dead an' roasts thim aftherward"

Interesting words, especially in these days when the role of journalism is questioned so closely.

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You Wrote What about Your Principal?

Oregon is on track to becoming the seventh state to authorize expanded free speech protection for student journalists, provided the state Senate joins its House in passing a new bill, according to the scholastic journalism group J-IDEAS. The Oregon House approved the landmark student press bill earlier this week and it's headed to the state Senate by the end of the month.

The bill protects both high school and college students from administrative (i.e. principal, superintendent, deans etc.) censorship and is the first of its kind that offers protection to both age groups, according to J-IDEAS.

The proposed protections come at a particularly contentious time for student speech - a number of teachers and students nationwide have recently reported a crackdown on student media. In addition, in April the Washington state Senate killed a student press bill as well.

For more information, visit http://www.jideas.org/

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Sunshine Week '07 Exposes the Shadows

A nationwide survey of more than 1,000 adults, commissioned by the American Society of Newspaper Editors for Sunshine Week, found that people overwhelmingly believe that their federal leaders have become sneaky by listening to telephone conversations or opening private mail without court permission. Twenty-five percent believe the federal government is either “very open” or “somewhat open,” while 69 percent said it’s either “somewhat secretive” or “very secretive.” See the poll findings at http://www.sunshineweek.org/sunshineweek/scrippspoll07 and a list of open government websites at http://www.sunshineweek.org/sunshineweek/orgs.

More than 800 organizations (nonprofit groups, news organizations, press associations, public libraries, elected officials, etc) participated in this year’s Sunshine Week (see a full list at http://www.sunshineweek.org/sunshineweek/participants07). In Illinois, more than 30 groups participated, including the State Journal Register of Springfield. The SJR website features a six-part series on FOIA - “Request Denied” - including a video on the topic (at http://www.sj-r.com/extras/specialprojects/foia).

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