Opening thoughts from the SPJ Reporters Institute
By SPJ
A map, Post-its and more than 20 journalists in a room … it seems that is all it takes to have a good laugh on a Sunday night!
And I have a feeling more laughs are to be had as the SPJ Reporter Institute at Poynter this week continues. I and other video/broadcast journalists from around the country are coming together for a week of training, discussion and networking, all surrounded by our love and passion for journalism.
I am looking forward to being here for many reasons: advice, new tricks of the trade, ethical debates, friendship, and of course a place to vent about the hardships young journalists sometimes face in newsrooms across the country.
While I don’t need to tell you this, news is changing, and as members of Generation J we have an opportunity to shape and mold the future of journalism in a way many other journalists will never have. We can lead the way in ethical reporting online; we can lead the way in accurate use of social media in the news; we can make a promise to cover the stories that matter!
I always get excited about an opportunity to learn new things; but, when the possibility of learning is combined with working with fellow journalists, there is a certain sense of hope, excitement and determination I feel.
I am excited to learn from others who have a strong passion for media in all of its current forms and I encourage you to join us in the conversation.
We have created a Twitter hashtag and will be uploading videos on the Generation J YouTube page as well. On Twitter just search #SPJRI to join in on the conversation, ask questions or just to see what all the fuss is about! We’re here until Wednesday, June 16.
Lynn Walsh ( Twitter: @lwalsh) is an investigative video journalist for Texas Watchdog, a non-profit online journalism organization in Houston, Texas. She is a graduate of Ohio University’s E.W. Scripps School of Journalism who has experience in television, online and print journalism. Lynn began her career as a reporter for The Government Channel in Athens, Ohio, were she covered city and county issues for the citizens and students living in Athens County. Lynn also served thepalestra.net as a general assignment reporter focusing on anything from sporting events to the 2008 general election.
Tags: generation j, Poynter, Reporters Institute, Society of Professional Journalists, spj, Texas Watchdog
June 21st, 2010 at 1:16 am
Hey, I’ve got an idea. Teach your journalism students some ethics! They may not be able to hang on to them, but you can try.
Subject: AP Timeline Details Michael Jackson’s Last Day
By Thomas “Ghoulish News Unlimited” Watkins and Lynn “I’m With Watkins” Elber
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5j7ZasRn0DH_rPlx2XB5eA2tNw4qAD9GF2DGG0
It’s disconcerting to witness the deterioration of journalism right before my very eyes. I saw it beginning in the 70’s with the tabloidization of television. Now, with the proliferation of “citizens journalists,” where anyone with a computer and an opinion considers him/herself a journalist, the rotting process is complete.
I didn’t think the deterioration of journalism would spread to The Associated Press, winner of 49 Pulitzer Prizes over the years, but it has. Witness…
“It was a chance to silence detractors who had mocked his increasingly clownish, artificial appearance and what appeared to be an equally artificial and veiled version of family life with the three children he was raising alone.”
Disgusting. There is every evidence that Jackson’s own family of three children was genuine, loving, caring, nurturing and his children well-balanced. Time and time again, people who actually know this family—not reporters looking from the outside through cracked glasses—have testified to Jackson being an exemplary father, brother, son and friend.
“Harsher critics cast him as a man who used wealth and celebrity to elude justice on child molestation charges.”
There should be a law against reporters persistently referring to charges for which a person has been acquitted. What has Jackson’s past legal battles to do with his final days? Again, power through innuendo is disgusting—and very transparent. At the very least, what has happened to a journalist’s code of ethics? Completely dismantled. Sadly, nowhere to be found.
“Less than three weeks before his new life may have started on a stage filled with special effects and song, the old one ended in a cloud of drugs and unfulfilled dreams.”
The O2 concert series was yet another dream fulfilled in Jackson’s lifetime. Jackson fulfilled more dreams in one of his ordinary days than you have in your entire life. You’re pathetic.
“But privately, he was struggling with chronic insomnia that he battled with a regular regimen of powerful drugs.”
Join the club, Mike. Chronic insomnia is a national epidemic. These reporters, not surprisingly, display no empathy for this unrelenting condition but use it for increasing condemnation as these reporters build their biased case against Jackson as “Strange!” “Weird!” “Bizarre!” “Freak!” Higher ratings that way.
“He lay restlessly on the white sheets of his renaissance-style double bed with a curlicued headboard. Beside him, investigators would later find a porcelain doll in the likeness of a little blond boy.”
What has the latter sentence to do with anything? Completely out of context, it does nothing but impart a sinister aura instead of describing a man simply lying in his own bed.
“Authorities would also note how untidy and warm Jackson’s living quarters were. Jackson kept his inner sanctum fully heated, even though it was early summer in Los Angeles.”
“Inner sanctum…” Is that anything like the Devil’s lair? Methinks these “reporters” are trying to lead me somewhere.
“He told the Jackson children that their father had passed away, then asked to return to the house.”
Are you sure about this? Several people have reportedly said they informed the children about their father. So far, the children have heard the announcement 4-5 times from different people—according to “reporters.”
This piece illustrates the growing problem of medialoid, defined as mainstream media infected by tabloid journalism The entire story is never told, there is always something withheld by the teller, omitted by the reporter, or told in a manner to elicit a prejudicial reader response.
There’s no one left. No one. All journalists have succumbed to salacious and irresponsible reporting. Unfortunately, it happens to veteran reporters, too. Hang your heads, Mr. Watkins and Ms. Elber. You’re not journalists anymore. You’re hacks.