Le began our meeting by giving each if us in the group advice about our current assignments. However, his diatribe on varius issues relating to journalism as a whole was what was really the most enjoyable and informative. Le gave insight about teaching, teaching in the world of journalism, newspaper spoofs, how the world of journalism is changing, and how objectivity in journalism is on the decline. "Objective journalism was little more than a 60 year experiement that didn't work out," Le told us. He explained that there is "always a point of view in reporting because you've got to care about something." The current trend in journalism is to embrace that point of view, a position not new to a medium whose initial intent was to express the objective opinions of the editors.
Every year I try to get a "real world professional" to come and speak to each of my high school classes in order to allow the content area, whether it be English or journalism, to "come alive." Today, over a grilled vegetable wrap, I learned just how beneficial a meeting like that can be.
Amelia's post is both thoughtful and timely. I, too, just returned from the power lunch with professionals. My team's mentor was Joe Garcia, director of Communications for ASU's Morrison Institute for Public Policy. He's a former wire service and newspaper reporter. Our team's issues centered in First Amendment and diversity issues in high school newsrooms. Joe helped shape our often general topics to more specific story ideas. He also helped with sources.
ReplyDeleteOuch. Templar's comment about the decline of objective journalism REALLY troubled me. In J school my professors beat me over the head with lessons about objectivity. That value feels almost like a religion to me. Is that silly?
ReplyDeleteI was sitting at the next table yet entirely missed Templar's comment, Elaine. I wished I had heard it. This debate in my newsrooms and classrooms is often spirited about seemingly objectivity. The mere selection of sources, who does the selection, how they are ordered, headlines, captions, wording, who is sent to cover the event, edit it, are among the many subjective decisions -- all representing perspective, point-of-view, bias. What I believe most of us find common ground, though, is the need to verify information from more than one "credible" source -- something that's also value-laded. We also want to be fair, balanced, timely, proportional and ethical. I think that's the "religion" that you speak about, Elaine. And to me, it's not silly. Newsrooms and classrooms are like spiritual zones.
DeleteThese meetings have a lot of purpose. I used it as an opportunity to flesh out ideas for my article and I treated like my mentor was my editor. For me, it furthered my belief in staff meetings and mapping out ideas. And this is something I have not put a lot of attention towards in my years advising. There are a lot of strategies, lesson ideas and rules I intend to implement when I return to school, and one of those is regular meetings with editors to monitor story progression. For my purposes, yesterday's lunch was priceless.
ReplyDeleteLe is a fine mentor and a real mensch. Glad you're enjoying working with him. He's a former editorial writer who now works for a conservative advocacy group.
ReplyDeleteSteve Elliott
Arizona State University
Phoenix