February 13th, 2012
A Valentine for journalism – ‘This I Know’
By John Ensslin, 2011-12 SPJ President
Our SPJ colleagues in Colorado have produced a video that I’d like to bring to your attention.
It’s a 60-second valentine to the power of journalism called “This I Know.”
The video was born out of the frustration many of us felt after coming so tantalizing close to passage of a national Shield Law for journalists in late 2010.
But then came Wikileaks and the bipartisan support we had won came unglued. At the end of that debate you might have thought that the whole point of the Shield law was to deal with Julian Assange.
Lost in that debate was the simple fact of the people whom a Shield Law was meant to protect, hard-working journalists whose work shines a light on those dark or unnoticed corners of society. It’s work that vital to the health of a democracy.
So last spring, a group of volunteers set out to remind people of the real beneficiaries of a Shield Law – not just the journalists who produce this valuable work – but the readers, viewers and listeners who depend upon it.
To drive home this point, we assembled a cast of mostly non-journalists. They included a lawyer, a hospice director, a public relations professional, a bartender, a gadfly and a law student.
The only journalist in the bunch was a 16-year-old crusading editor of a high school newspaper.
The one common denominator of the group was their appreciation of the work that journalists do.
Under the direction of my SPJ colleague Cynthia Hessin and the camera work of my friend Jerome Ryden, we gathered one Saturday morning in the Denver studio of Rocky Mountain PBS.
They took turns reading lines that began with the refrain, “Because of a journalist…”
“Because of a journalist…I know who used steroids in baseball.”
“Because of a journalist…I know who covered up the Watergate break-in.”
“Because of a journalist…I know about the torture at Abu Ghraib.”
I’ll be the first to admit that this is not a slick video. The people speaking these lines are clearly not polished actors or spokespeople.
They are just regular folks who happen to believe that the work we do matters.
That’s why I screened this video on the night I took my oath as SPJ president in New Orleans.
That’s also why I’m asking chapter leaders if they would consider screening this video at the start of their next SPJ event or posting it to their chapter website.
Will any of this move us one bit closer to a national Shield Law? Not likely.
But in these tough times, I think it’s important to remind people of the value journalism has to the people who rely upon us for the work we do.
Tags: Abu Ghraib, baseball, Cynthia Hessin, Jerome Ryden, Julian Assange, Rocky Mounain PBS, Shield Law, SPJ Colorado, Steroids, This I Know, Watergate, WikiLeaks
February 13th, 2012 at 1:30 pm
This is great. I have always been proud to be a journalist and this video drives home the message of why. I love the different media in each person’s hand, illustrating how many different ways our stories are getting to the public. This is a wonderful reminder to the public that information doesn’t magically get inside a TV set or iPhone, journalists are working hard and taking huge risks to find that information and convey it to the world. And the stories chosen for highlight are excellent examples of the public feedback that comes from people being exposed to the information actually turns around and impacts the story and makes real differences in lives and in the way the world works.
Good work!
February 15th, 2012 at 4:19 pm
A great Saturday’s work !
When i watched it before reading the explainer, i thought they were all journalists. It was still powerful. But I’m a journalist ! It would be even more powerful if there were lower thirds (titles) to identify them by profession, so people who just see the video get that it is NOT about self promotion.