Male reporters may be the issue

By: Sara Crouse

Historically, male reporters have been significantly more prominent in numbers than female reporters. This trend has continued into the 21st Century, but seems to be progressing slightly towards an even ratio. America can still feel the trend prominently though in political coverage. John McCain’s sudden refusal to appear on the Larry King Live show may be a direct effect of male reporters in action.

The media coverage of John McCain’s choice to for Vice President has been focused largely on issues of children and the woman’s role in society. Why are these two topics on the mind of reporters and journalists alike? There has been quite the controversy and many questions asked of Sarah Palin that would be nowhere in an interview with a male candidate. Perhaps male reporters are fascinated with Sarah Palin, and believe her family life is far more important than her voting record as Governor.

The increasing questioning and reporting of Palin proves no different than the coverage of Hillary Clinton during her campaign. The issues important in Clinton’s agenda were often pushed aside by the media. Voting records and ideology were not needed to discuss the first female front-runner in the race for the presidency. Reporters were concerned with Clinton’s female tendencies such as tearing up on stage or the ‘Sisterhood of the Traveling Pantsuits.’

Have reporters gone soft with male concerns of the emerging female presidential hopefuls? Has the public gone soft with the issues important in the ’08 Election? Have the large numbers of male reporters chosen to cover these stories on seemingly unaccepting views of women politicians for a reason. Perhaps female reporters should step out and focus on what has been a bad year for feminism.

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Media hurting media

By: Shauna Agan

With Sarah Palin’s first nationally televised interview since being named as John McCain’s vice presidential mate coming up, many people wonder what questions will be asked and how well Palin will respond. Word on the street is that ABC News is going to come down hard on Palin in the near-future interview.

Since Palin became a nationally known name a littler over a week ago, the media has done little to praise her, leaving many headlines to do quite the opposite. Many attacks and accusations have been made about her and her family, some true, but some false.

The media has attacked her daughter, Bristol Palin, for being 17, unmarried, and pregnant. The media has also accused Bristol Palin of being the real mother of Sarah Palin’s infant son with Down’s syndrome. Sarah Palin has also been accused by the media of being too inexperienced, and since she came into the national radar, the media has done nothing but try to dig up as much dirt as possible about activities she has taken part of that some may refer to as ‘shady’.

Leave no doubt though; Palin was prepared to fire right back. At the Republican National Convention during Palin’s speech last week, she sent out a message, “here’s a little newsflash for all those reporters and commentators: I’m not going to Washington to seek [your] good opinion”.

Palin isn’t the only one in the McCain campaign standing up to the media. Rick Davis, McCain’s campaign manager said, “Why would we want to throw Sarah Palin into a cycle of piranhas called the news media [?]”. He added that she wouldn’t do an interview until the media gave her some respect.

The question that must be asked now is: Does media come down too harshly? Do they push too hard trying to draw public interest, but in result create an affect of actually pushing away the target of the criticism, which ultimately hurts other media?

The media was not nice to Palin. It made her not even want to conduct an interview. If the media does not treat her fairly, there is no reason she should play along with its games.

Palin is not the only person in this situation. Virtually all public figures must sensor what they say because the media is too harsh. If public figures even word one thing wrong, it is definitely the headline in the next day’s paper. And, of course, the story about it includes the media’s spin on the situation.

I believe the media is only hurting them self by running multiple criticizing articles. There must be some way to deliver a story without constantly bashing the individual the story is about. If the situation continues, nobody will want to be interviewed because the media will say what they want anyways.

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Be safe out there

By: Quinn Albrecht

After my last blog, encouraging people to make news happen, I came across a story that refutes my statement. I found an article about the journalists in Minnesota that got caught up in an out of control protest, at the Republican National Convention.

The journalists were reporting on this protest, and everything was okay. The problems started when the permit the protesters had, expired. Even though it expired, they still wished to protest. In the end quite a few protesters dispersed away, but a few stuck in there and created problems.

Being good journalist, they stuck around, waiting for a good story. Little did they know they were going to become the news story of the evening.

The protesters where corralled onto a bridge, with the journalists. When the journalist tried to leave, they were not allowed. The journalists were given tickets for being a part of the protest.

In the end, I found that making a news story happen can sometimes be a good thing, but other times you could end up with a hefty fine to pay. So when looking for a news story, play it safe and attack China’s government, not your own.

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Trimming down student newspapers

By Austin Bates

Recently, The Daily Orange and The Daily Californian both announced that they would be cutting a day from their daily prints. Now, this would be pretty eye-opening if this were a national, commercial paper, but these two papers are student run from the University of California and Syracuse University, respectively. So, with falling revenues for all newspapers, big, small, and student run, one can't be too shocked about these "lay-offs".

Still, these are student run papers, and I'm sure the students running these papers were less than happy about this decision. Obviously, a paper printing operation has to have money to print, and if it's not there, then you can't print, but the fact that a school created paper would suffer from the problems that should affect only commercial operations is sad. Afterall, these are papers that are meant to be a sort of practice run for students seeking to enter into professional, commercial journalism, or possibly into a business related career. If the paper had to be cut all together, students would lose out on an invaluable experience that really couldn't be had effectively in any other way.

I would hope such a fate would never befall the Simpsonian, and if there was danger of such a thing, I would suggest the paper be buttressed with public voluntary funds, or other non-commercial means. I would hate to see what's supposed to be a mostly educational experience turn into a nitty-gritty, money grabbing operation just to stay afloat, and personally if it did come to that, I would almost prefer the paper to just be put out of its misery. Working with the Simpsonian, even for just one article so far, I can say the experience really has been unmatched by anything else so far, and is invaluable in learning how to write actual news stories for an actual newspaper. I believe it should be the school's responsibility to ensure such an experience remains intact and available for all future generations of students.

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Google-paper

By:Adrian Aitken

Have you ever missed a newspaper one day, attempt to look at the publisher's website and find either shortened versions of stories or different coverage? Or maybe you would like to look up a historical newspaper story from across the country? Well the solution has arrived!

Google has just informed the public of its new newspaper archive program. The system will work just like the original Google search engine, but specific to newspapers. Viewers will be able to see the actual newspaper as is on the Internet and although at the moment only a handful of publishers are signed on, the team at Google is working to expand their network from large dailies to small monthlies. At this time Google has commented that this service will not be entirely free and gave no details on the cost.This might be the change newspaper publishers need to move with today's technology.

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Technology ultimately helping new branches of journalism

By: Taylor Browning

  It is commonly known that the Internet is hurting the newspaper business by providing instant news continually throughout the day.  The Internet however, is also helping many entrepreneur journalist get a huge leap into their aspired careers as well as sparking many new journalism outlets. 

     

     An Entrepreneurial Journalism class taught by Jeff Jarvis at the City University of New York's new Journalism School covers the opportunities the Internet provides many aspiring Journalist, outside the world of blogging. Many online versions of magazines and newspapers use the Internet to spread their awareness and advertising,  gaining money through organizations and online subscriptions in hopes of making it into print media.

    So while the Internet makes everyone a journalist through blogging and such, those further seeking a career in journalism are getting a boost into the field. As one era started without technology is somewhat diminishing, a new wave of entrepreneurs are emerging in journalism as technology continues to grow.

     

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Good advice from a 2008 journalism grad

By: Brian Steffen

We've been spending a lot of time in the first few BNR sessions in talking about the skills today's journalism students need to have. It's a scary time, but — as many have pointed out — there are opportunities for those who are willing to innovate, take risks and stay on top of the business.

Now comes this advice from Nick Rosinia, a 2008 graduate of the University of Florida, who's in his first job at MLB.com, the Web site that covers major league baseball. (Pretty cool job for those interested in sports, don't you think?)

Rosinia, by his own admission, isn't a tech geek, but he does have the basics down, and he's using that to remain competitive in a highly competitive work environment. It's great advice from someone who was sitting in a chair like yours not too long ago.

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It is not just about right now

By: Lexie Hagerty

A majority of what we consider journalism today has interest, impact and immediacy. I believe the first two to be true, but information can still make an impact and have interest without immediacy.

American Journalism Review published an article about noticting the small, yet interesting stories out there that most journalists are too busy to find. The article focused on a story about the use of a semicolon in a subway sign.

Correct punctuation is usually not that interesting. In this case, however, the AJR reporter found his angle and went with it creating an entertaining story.

I find that this reporter can be a motivation for all journalists. It is not always about what is going on today, but what could help and interest the readers of today.

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The money issue

By: Katie Anthony

Money seems to be the trouble maker across the nation right now. However, I personally, wouldn't have ever considered money to be the reason for the decreasing quality of journalistic work.

The State of the News Media took a poll of over 500 journalists in regards to their largest worries when it comes to the state of their career, and 55% of national journalists said that business and financial are is the highest up on their list of concerns.

The list of concerns ranged from business and financial, all the way to the lowest scoring concern, which was ethics and standards. In my opinion, there in lies the problem.

Tom Rosenstiel and Amy Mitchell that work on the Project for Excellence in Journalism, state the the "money concern" has begun to impact the quality of work. "As financial concerns have risen, few journalists cite the quality of coverage and the loss of credibility with the public as the most important problems facing journalism," says Mitchell and Rosenstiel.

So, how can we go about fixing this problem? So many journalists seem to be focused on this specific problem, but no one has yet proposed an idea to attempt to reverse the growing financial problem.

Who's going to "take the plunge," as I stated in my first blog, to begin to fix this ever-growing financial crisis for the journalists? Better yet, who's to blame?

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Palin's Media Overkill

By: Pat Tierney

In every political campaign, there always seems to be media hype. However, in this 2008 presidential election, there seems to be more than ever. Since the announcement of Sen. John McCain's running mate, Sarah Palin, there has been a media frenzy over every detail of her life. Even details that some may say don't even justify as news.

Just a few days after the official announcement was made, the media broke what they claim to be an important story, that Palin's 17 year old daughter is 5 months pregnant. This story was leaping of the covers of magazines and front pages all across the country with headlines such as "Babies, Lies, and Scandals." Many outlets tried tying Palin's own newborn to her daughter and others torn the new vice president candidate apart for her daughters mistake.

In a historic election such as this, is it important to look at things such as the candidates children or perhaps the candidates wardrobe style? CNN.com had a link on their front page entitled "Sarah Palin's Style." This linked directly to a video clip over 7 minutes long, discussing the way the new candidate dresses.

The country depends on information from media outlets, in order to make an informed decision in November. This puts the responsibility on media outlets, to convey clear news, that matters, to the consumer. Some may say that Sarah Palin's style may directly effect the way she helps lead this country, but in the grand scheme of things, there are a few bigger issues to tackle than family drama and a wardrobe change.

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