Many skeptics should look in the mirror

The public’s overall impression of the news media has been on a downward spiral for the past several years – if not longer – and there are many reasons for this.

One reason is the definition of news media has been expanded. Newspapers and other credible news outlets are being lumped in the same category with the Fox News and the MSNBC’s of the world. The public watches too many opinionated “news” programs, many of which spend a great deal of time criticizing traditional news outlets, like the New York Times, which creates an even greater skepticism in the public’s mind.

Another reason is the public seems to be losing its ability to consume news. I don’t know if technology is to blame or if its our short attention spans, but consumers have turned more sheepish rather than taking more control of their news consumption.

But another reason for the skepticism on news media is the way candidates deflect negative press away from themselves by heaping blame on the journalist asking the questions. The Sarah Palin’s and Newt Gingrich’s of the world feed the public’s criticism of the news media by throwing their own insults, especially when they are attempting to defer negative press that is often a relevant issue.

Today’s New York Times had a story on the growth of GOP presidential candidates taking jabs at the moderators of the debates, especially Gingrich who doesn’t seem to understand what the definition of a debate it.

The same thing happens on all levels of politics, I suppose. This year a Piedmont politicians called my newspaper “too liberal” when it had published a couple stories that weren’t flattering to this particular person. There isn’t a liberal bone to the paper. I’m liberal. I’m very liberal. But the thought that you could find any liberal bias in the Gazette is absurd. But it was just another way to blaming the messenger rather than focusing on the issue at hand.

There is some bad journalism in the world but I think you could make a strong argument that some of the foundational news outlets are doing some of their best work today. Part of the blame for the growing skepticism lies with some news outlets and politicians that exploit that perspective, but I think the majority of the blame lays with us the consumer. We need to do a much better job at consuming news and more people need to start subscribing to a newspaper, rather than simply turning on the tube at night.

My Desk

Small town newspapers still doing their job

The journalism industry is in turmoil, but not weekly newspapers, according to Judy Muller’s recent piece in the Los Angeles Times entitled “Where newspapers thrive.”

Muller spent some time recently exploring the world of small town newspapers and said they are an example of journalism success in an era when many have already pronounced he death of newspapers.

“At a time when mainstream news media are hemorrhaging and doomsayers are predicting the death of journalism (at least as we’ve known it), take heart: The free press is alive and well in small towns across America, thanks to the editors of thousands of weeklies who, for very little money and a fair amount of aggravation, keep on telling it like it is,” Muller said.

Muller does a good job exploring the challenge many small newspapers have when it comes to covering a beat where many editors are neighbors, or at least closely work with those they are required to hold accountable. It’s easy for a daily newspaper reporter to slam the mayor of a small town or school district superintendent, but for small newspaper editors like me, you want to be careful not to burn bridges while also practicing good journalism.

Muller also identifies the reason many small town newspapers are thriving, which is they are hyper-local, publishing stories readers can only find in the weekly newspaper. However, local news is personal news. Local business, schools and crimes are extremely personal issues to many people and its not uncommon for readers to respond passionately to the issues they read. Take for example the Williams Foods grocery store issue, which is only news in Piedmont. The story has been an important one for about a year as it deals with millions in taxpayer money, but many readers have made the issue extremely personal because it deals with their neighbors, family members and the future prosperity of their town.

But for all the challenges our industry faces, and we do face many, there does seem to be hope in many places, including the small town newspaper, where many of the founding pillars of journalism still live.

“I wouldn’t be so bold as to predict the future, not in a media landscape that is constantly shifting,” Muller said. “But when we engage in these discussions about how to “monetize” journalism, it’s refreshing to remember a different kind of bottom line, one that lives in the hearts of weekly newspaper editors and reporters who keep churning out news for the corniest of reasons — because their readers depend on it.”

Covering a disaster

Front page of the May 26 Piedmont-Surrey Gazette.

It was 4 p.m. on Tuesday and the paper was put to bed. The pages were sent to the press and the front page was heavy with the recent graduation of Piedmont High School and a story on how the city was prepared for any severe weather that might come its way this summer. I could have gone home and enjoyed a relaxing evening before I began another weekly news cycle, but I had heard bad weather was coming our way and thought it would be a good idea to stick around. At the very least I could update our website with some photos of some downed tree limbs and a report from the fire department that all was good after a relatively typical Oklahoma storm.

I first thought the storm might have a better chance of hitting Okarche, one of two town’s we cover, but at the last minute the storm angled to the east and came straight through northern Piedmont. I rode out the tornado in the middle school, where a community shelter had been opened. It seemed like a bad storm, but nothing too major. Once the sky cleared I headed out and saw an unusual amount of emergency vehicles headed north. I decided to follow until I was prevented from going any further due to road blocks about a mile north of the center of town. I abandoned my car, walked into the secure neighborhood and found street after street of destroyed homes.

I called the press and said we would have a brand new paper by morning.

The last two weeks have been busy for our small news room as we produced a new issue in the wake of the storm through an all-night news gathering and layout operation. The next week was spent collecting survivor stories and attempting to organize the immense amount of information that was flowing in for the next week’s paper and to aggressively update our paper’s website.

Front page of the June 2 Piedmont-Surrey Gazette.

I would never describe myself as a seasoned journalist. At 26 it would be hard to be a seasoned anything, but this is a craft that I continue to learn and continue to look at with fresh eyes. I have covered other major events, such as quadruple homicides and other horrific crimes, but never a natural disaster. Assessing the situation I figured people’s lives had just been ruined. Some people were going to be in need of some immediate help and it was my job to tell that story in a way that documented what would be a historic day in Piedmont.

I’m sure we made some mistakes along the way, but overall, I was pretty pleased with the product we were able to create in the weeks following the May 24 tornado. Not that I am hoping to cover another natural disaster someday, but I did come out of the experience with some specific thoughts and lessons learned on the process.

• Organize Information: The most challenging aspect of disaster coverage is the inflow of information. Staying organized with each fact, and verifying each fact, becomes the name of the game. In our newsroom we used a wall with post-it notes to organize any piece of info that we collected. A green post-it signified information that was verified and true; red was used for those facts that had yet to be checked. It was extremely helpful as we compiled our information for the printed issue the following week and allowed us to make sure we were covering every angle of the story and its many facets.
• Importance of the Web: I don’t need any convincing on how important the Internet is for journalism in the 21^st Century, but for a sleepy town like Piedmont, that has only recently had a relatively strong newspaper website, the disaster coverage really tested our use of the website and its effectiveness in reaching our readers with timely information in between editions of the weekly paper. We averaged several hundred readers a day before the tornado. We hit 4,000 the night of the tornado, 12,000 the next day and 20,000 the following day when a missing child was found dead in a Piedmont lake. Since then we have gone back down to around 4,000 readers a day.
• Doing it all: I love community journalism because I get to be a writer, graphic designer and photographer all in one day. All three aspects were important in telling the story of the May 24 tornado. The event did not need any bigger hype, as it was already one of the biggest events to happen in the town. The layout of the paper was used to signify the severity of the event, strong writing (hopefully) allowed our readers to separate rumors and murky opinions from the facts of the event and photos told the story in a way that no words could. Photo albums online also became a way for residents, and other across the country, to experience the storm in a way that did not involve crowding emergency workers and survivors as they tried to dig out from the storm. Even if you were a Piedmont resident that did not suffer any damage, it was still a dark day for your community and we received lots of comments from readers that said they appreciated the opportunity to feel connected to the event with photos and survivor accounts.
• Who’s in the know: When an event of this scale takes place you have a plethora of people involved, each with some perceived leadership role. You have Red Cross officials, city staff, political officials, emergency crews, church leaders and more that each play an important role in the tornado’s wake. However, not everyone is in the know and it becomes important to know which persons hold credible information (Police, city staff, emergency management staff) and which do not (politicians). Sound bites and opinions are everywhere, but there is too little time to just take what you can get. You have to quickly determine where the best source of information comes from and start developing those beats. Fact checking is important in every story, no matter big or small. But this event was an exercise in the importance verifying each piece of information is, especially when your audience has tripled and many are relying on those facts to make decisions.