Feature Stories

By Isadora Vail-Castro Bush barriers bother reporters

By Christine Stanley The Internet: A journalist’s friend or foe?

By Isadora Vail-Castro Media chief champions press freedom

By Jared Strong Scholarship honors NLGJA founder

Bush barriers bother reporters

David Minton / University of North Texas

Charles Bierbauer, former CNN White House correspondent, from left, Dana Bash, CNN White House correspondent, Bill Douglas, Knight Ridder White House correspondent, Julie Mason, Houston Chronicle White House correspondent, and Paul Burka, executive editor of Texas Monthly, composed the discussion panel, moderated by Terry Dalton, McDaniel College professor, for a session on covering the White House and how the Bush administration has effected their coverage.

Press frustrated by lack of access

By Isadora Vail-Castro

Texas State University

“Disciplined,” “controlling,” “tight,” “weirdly impenetrable.”

Those are some of the words Washington White House correspondents used Thursday night to characterize the communications staff that surrounds President Bush.

More than 100 people crammed, stood and shared seats to listen to the correspondents at the AEJMC forum.

“Something is wrong between the White House press corps and President Bush,” said moderator Terry Dalton, McDaniel College professor.

“The most coveted journalists are White House correspondents, but some believe the watchdog still has a bark but has lost its bite.”

Houston Chronicle correspondent Julie Mason described the press corps as throwing questions at a wall.

“It becomes a frustrating game where you’ve tried to play with wording just to get around,” Mason said. “(Bush) has this deflector shield that is just enormous. It is just a wall.”

The panelists agreed, however, that Bush was more pressfriendly when he was governor of Texas.

“When Bush was governor, he had little crushes on girl reporters,” Mason said. “He would put his arm around you and give you noogies. It was hard not to like him back then.”

Texas Monthly executive editor Paul Burka said he remembered how accessible Bush was as governor and noted he has seen a change in the president.

“I don’t have a clue who President Bush is,” Burka said.

“I only know Gov. Bush. What is startling to me is how quickly Gov. Bush disappeared and this new person came along that I did not recognize.”

One panelist, White House correspondent Bill Douglas of Knight Ridder, took offense when a n audience member called the press corps a “mouthpiece for the administration.”

“Do not call us mouthpieces because that pisses me off more than anything,” Douglas said. “All you see is what we put out. You don’t see what we put in.”

The correspondents agreed that in comparison to President Clinton a nd former President Bush, the current president’s inaccessibility is to blame for a lack of information.

Another Bush trait, said CNN correspondent Dana Bash, is the uneasiness that plagues the president when the cameras are on.

“He does seem to be a completely different person when the cameras are on and when they are off,” Bash said. “He was a lot more relaxed when the cameras are off.”

Bash said in the past four years, Bush has only visited the press corps on Air Force One twice. Once was on Sept. 11 to say, “Are you OK?” and another time, he was “yucking it up” with John McCain, Bash said.

“The truth is, we don’t have a lot of interaction with [Bush],” she said.

When correspondents do get the chance to talk to Bush, it is usually on late notice Douglas said.

He said the White House chose him at the last minute to go with the president to the G-8 conference in Sweden.

“About 10 reporters had to brainstorm to figure out what to ask,” Douglas said.

Following Thursday’s panel session, which lasted 15 minutes longer than scheduled, audience members chatted with correspondents in the hotel’s hallway about the

“What I am most impressed about is how little they have to work with and how much we have to rely on them,” said Peter Morello, professor at University of Missouri-Kansas City.

“Every president has a media strategy, and I think President Bush’s strategy is very sophisticated.”

The Internet: A journalist’s friend or foe?

‘Surfing’ makes plagiarism easier, panelists say

By Christine Stanley

University of North Texas

Plagiarism used to be a public thing. Reporters would have to tiptoe past librarians, find a book and then physically copy text into their articles.

“And any one of those actions could alert your conscience to tell you that you were doing wrong,” said Michael Bugeja, director of the Greenlee School of Journalism and Communication at Iowa State University.

“It would have to be very pre-meditated.”

But the Internet has rapidly changed things.

Bugeja worries that journalism’s godsend has turned out to be somewhat of a curse, making it easy for reporters to cheat and slack on the job.

He’s not the only one that is concerned.

Shayla Thiel, who teaches beginning reporting at DePaul University, said one of her biggest challenges is getting students to talk to real human beings, rather than taking quotes from online press releases.

Thiel said the Internet makes it too easy for journalism students to not fully engage themselves in every aspect of reporting, and if a deadline is fast approaching, it makes plagiarism a breeze.

“I think it’s a huge worry,” Theil said.

“I think it’s tempting to overuse the Internet because it’s really difficult to interview a stranger.”

Bugeja said plagiarism exploded in journalism classrooms and newsrooms after 1996, when the Internet became a common tool. In his book, “Interpersonal Divide: The Search for Community in a Technological Age,” Bugeja explores the idea that this particular change in technology had an effect on the industry like no other.

“The Internet has subsumed the printing press,” he said.

“With TV you needed a transcript, and the transcript was the printing press. Now you can manipulate your own printing press.”

Bugeja said libraries were and are like gatekeepers of authenticity for journalists, but text can now be manipulated online, and reporters can cut and paste quotes from Web sites with just a few clicks of a mouse.

“The metro reporter is still the person that should burn shoe leather instead of DVDs,” Bugeja said.

“The temptation to plagiarize is greater because you’re not dealing with people, but with computer text.”

The plagiarism problem could be generational, Theil said.

Today’s young journalists and journalism students are so used to technology that driving across town to get something that’s available online seems foreign, like a waste of time, she said.

“That’s what they grew up with,” Theil said. “They’ve grown up with not having to go through that physical process of research.”

In a panel discussion Thursday, Fred Fedier of the University of Central Florida said journalists’ excuses for plagiarizing have evolved; what was once “just a coincidence” is now the fault of editors, deadlines or personal problems.

“Expect plagiarism to continue, but don’t expect plagiarists to take any responsibility for their actions,” he said.

The use of anonymous sources is also causing problems for the media industry. According to Pew Research Center findings presented by Esther Thorson of the University of Missouri on Thursday, public trust in the media dropped by 20 percent from 1985 to 2002.

Thorson argued that the use of anonymous sources could directly relate to that drop.

Thorson, who co-wrote a study on the use of anonymous sources with Renee Martin Kratzer, of the University of Florida, did an analysis of 14,558 stories from various media outlets, including TV news, cable organizations and newspapers.

She and Kratzer found that newspaper and Internet stories have the most anonymous sources out of all media outlets but also the most transparent ones, sources that are identified by name and official title.

“If you want to hear no sources, then turn on the cable,” she said.

Media chief champions press freedom

Junco

By Isadora Vail-Castro

Texas State University

Alejandro Junco de la Vega faced down government censorship and threats to his life in a lifelong struggle to build Mexico’s most powerful media company on a foundation of journalistic ethics and fairness.

“I believe that the openness of [my] papers will be the big story in history,” the Mexican editor and AEJMC convention keynote speaker said Wednesday night.

“Our journalism offers the possibility for progress.” Junco directs Grupo Norte, the largest newspaper chain in Mexico. The three main papers of Grupo are in Monterrey (El Norte), Mexico City (Reforma) and Guadalajara (Mural).

Although Junco said he does not bring in members of the public to write for his newspapers, he realizes the importance of asking his readers what issues matter to them. He said a major part of his success comes from bringing in readers to editorial board meetings to identify public interest.

“I have seen few systems with a stronger effect,” Junco said.

Junco returned to Mexico as publisher at his grandfather’s newspaper, El Norte, after he received his journalism degree from the University of Texas at Austin in 1969.

Within three decades, Junco had built one of the most powerful newspaper conglomerates in Mexican history.

“He returned to Mexico when press was corrupt institutionally,” said Rosental Alves, a journalism professor at the University of Texas at Austin.

“He created readers’ councils in the 1990s when no one was participating in journalism.”

Junco improved his company in one way by bringing in the late Mary Gardner, his journalism teacher at Texas, to teach reporting and writing to his reporters, who were educated, enthusiastic and idealistic.

He wanted young reporters who would take to Gardner’s teaching.

He knew older reporters would resist t he changes he was implementing.

Gardner, a former president of AEJMC and founder of the Hispanics in Journalism Program at Michigan State University, also trained his journalists in media ethics. Together, they explained to reporters why it is unethical to accept gifts from government officials who sought to keep certain stories out of the news.

Alves referred to Junco as a pioneer of modern press in Mexico.

“He brought modernization to Mexico during a democratic regime and when journalism was corrupt institutionally,” Alves said.

Lisa Mills, a professor at the University of Central Florida, said Junco’s speech was inspiring. “At a time when there’s so much cynicism about journalism’s credibility, he found a concrete way to make it all better,” Mills said.

Arthur Murrillo, graduate student at the University of the Pacific, said Junco’s speech might have offended some people in the audience. Even though Junco listens to citizens’ concerns, he says that highly skilled journalists run his newspapers.

“He said that it is an elite group of people who are providing the solution,” Murrillo said. “Many people were quick to say, ‘Oh we wouldn’t do that here,’ but you can’t look at it from our lens because it is a different society. (Junco) wasn’t going to sugarcoat this for anyone.”

Scholarship honors NLGJA founder

Strother

By Jared Strong

Iowa State University

A $ 5,000 scholarship and an enhanced educator’s toolbox are part of a new program unveiled this week by the National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association.

The Leroy F. Aarons Journalism Education Program will provide information packets to educators in addition to a scholarship, which will be available to student members.

“We already had some educational efforts in place,” NLGJA president Eric Hegedus, said Thursday in a phone interview. “We decided to bring them all together and add a lot more to it – we’ll keep building it.”

The program honors the memory of the group’s founder, said Pamela Strother, the group’s executive director. Aarons died of cancer in 2004.

“There became a sense of urgency to not lose the knowledge and momentum of what he began as one of very few people investigating this area,” Strother said. “When he died, he basically left us with that charge – we had to do it now.”

Hegedus called the Aarons Program a “huge rollout” and said it creates a new opportunity to ensure the next generation of journa lists is being taught well.

“Education was Roy’s baby from the beginning,” Hegedus said. “He was so passionate about it that the momentum has built over the years. With his unfortunate passing, it gave us more initiative to continue the work he was already doing.”

Aarons, who was an executive editor for the Oakland Tribune, started and ran the association from his living room for more than five years after he made a life-changing announcement at an ASNE convention in April 1989.

“His coming out was actually national news,” Strother said. “It made Time magazine and the Washington Post.”

The next year, he formed the NLGJA at his home in the presence of a handful of colleagues.

The association now comprises 1,300 members representing all 50 states.

“I wasn’t there,” Hegedus said. “But I’ve been told it was a meeting of about a half dozen people, a nd he basica l ly said, ‘We’re here, we’re queer, and we need to make ourselves known within the newsrooms because there are journalism issues that need to be talked about.’”

One of the issues still under discussion is the establishment of a consistent style to be used by media to accurately portray the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community. As part of the Aarons Program, the NLGJA offers a stylebook online to help clarify terms unique to the community.

As an example, Strother said her organization would like media to use “sexual orientation” instead of “sexual preference,” because the latter is used to imply a choice was made. She said the stylebook is evolving as the LGBT community changes and that a new edition will be available by the time of the annual conference in September, which marks the 15th anniversary of the association.

Strother, who joined the NLGJA in 1996, said Aarons would be proud of the new program.

“He’d be standing against this wall (behind the exhibition) with his arms crossed and a huge smile on his face,” she said. “He’d be a proud papa.”

Nebraska leader credits faculty for success

Emily Goodson / Texas Christian University

William Norton, dean of the College of Journalism and Mass Communications at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, recently won the 2004 AEJMC Administrator of the Year award.

By Denise Montaño

Texas State University

“Selfless” and “courteous” are some adjectives used by colleagues to describe Will Norton Jr., AEJMC’s 2004 Administrator of the Year.

The dean of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln College of Journalism and Mass Communications “is a very special guy— one of the most unselfish, if not, the most unselfish administrator that I know,” said Doug Anderson, journalism dean at Pennsylvania State University.

“Everything [Norton] does, from the time he gets up in the morning until the time he goes to bed at night, is for his school, his faculty and his students. He seldom uses the word ‘I.’ He’s totally unselfish, dedicated to his program and his faculty, and he’s a nice fit at Nebraska.” Anderson said.

Known throughout his profession as an important asset to journalism education, Norton is a former president of AEJMC and the Association of Schools of Journalism and Mass Communication. He currently is vice president of the Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communications.

Norton is as well known for his humility as his accomplishments.

“He sort of gives you that ‘Aw, shucks I’m just an old country boy trying to do my best,’ but he’s really a very skilled, gifted and connected administrator,” Anderson said.

In an interview Thursday, Norton emphasized the talents of Nebraska’s faculty and students rather than call attention to himself.

“It really is a reflection of who our faculty is and what they’ve done,” he said. “They’re the ones that nominated me, and anything that they’ve listed as reasons for my getting the award basically has to do with things they’ve done. This is just an outstanding faculty, so I feel like it’s a terrific statement to the parents in Nebraska and elsewhere of what their students, their children, will get if they come to school in Nebraska.”

Caption.

The University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s Web site notes that Norton is dedicated to facilitating a close and progressive relationship between students and faculty. He prides himself on his school’s preparation of journalism students for the professional world, the Web site states.

“I inherited a Nebraska where that’s what the faculty did,” Norton said. “Every semester they worry about how effective they will be. It’s a place where the faculty is tough on themselves.”

He said he has simply tried to maintain what predecessor and the faculty established.

Richard Cole, retired dean of the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill School of Journalism, praised Norton for increasing Nebraska’s reputation nationally and internationally.

“Will is one of the best journalism-mass communications deans in the country,” Cole said. “He has brought in new faculty members. He’s started new programs and he was well worth of getting this award.”

Q&A: William Norton

You’ve been Nebraska University’s dean for 15 years. What are some of your biggest accomplishments as the dean of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln College of Journalism and Mass Communications?
“It’s really pretty much a faculty process and I think there’s several things that happen. We provide our curriculum to try to make it more modern but still have all the basics of an old-fashioned program. We have moved into a new building. We have increased diversity on the faculty and in the student body. Our endowment has gone up dramatically.”

According to the University of Nebraska Web site, you said that the College of Journalism and Mass Communications is superior in the preparation of students in the professional world. How has your school achieved that?
“We inherit students who haven’t been many places and haven’t done a whole lot, in some ways, and so they are really not arrogant in any sense. That may be a gross over-statement. I’ve been so impressed with how conscious these students are. Every class that we have, that has skills for the professions – advertising, broadcasting, and news – is either a four- or five-hour lab. So, we have kids who are in our building for long hours of the day, and they do a story or they have to redo it. When we have guest speakers, guest speakers don’t just come and talk about whatever they want. They talk about what that faculty member was going to talk about that day in class. There’s this terrific work ethic among faculty members and real intense requirements of students. We do best having people when they leave us knowing how to write, edit, and talk well and how to present information in an understandable fashion graphically.”

I also read that you have taken major step toward the advancement of technology on campus. What are your personal views on the importance of technology?
“We have been a little more creative with how we use the budget, and we’ve gotten a bigger budget. We think technology is a tool, and no matter what the technology is, what you’re doing is providing information to people. Journalism education has its roots in the ancient liberal arts. One of the original liberal arts was something called rhetoric, and rhetoric is written and spoken language. So, you had Plato, Aristotle and other teachers teaching their students how to persuade, how to present information and that was called rhetoric. When it got into American universities, there were departments of rhetoric, and over time part of those departments said, ‘We would rather be known as English departments’ and the other parts of those departments said, ‘we’d like to be known as speech departments.’ Then, English departments gradually moved increasingly away from teaching writing, so they taught literature. Speech departments increasingly had the graduate assistants teaching speech, but they were basically teaching communication theory and organizational communication and moved away from rhetoric. Now, who teaches people how to argue points of view in the media of our day? It’s not amphitheaters now, it’s the Internet, television. We feel like we’re part of the mainstream of what a university is about.”

Top professor lays down the ‘law’ for Florida students

Courtney Addison / Texas State University

Sandra Chance, winner of the 2004 Journalism Teacher of the Year Award, is a media law professor at the University of Florida.

By Jared Strong

Iowa State University

When Sandra Chance was an undergraduate, she didn’t even consider becoming a teacher.

But these days she’s the incumbent Journalism Teacher of the Year, and she’s at the AEJMC convention to discuss one of her life’s passions: media law.

“I was a product of the ’60s, and I thought I could do something more important than teach,” Chance said. “When I was growing up, teaching was all women could do, and I wanted to do something a little more radical.”

As an undergraduate at the University of Florida, Chance took a class that every journalism student had to pass: media law with Joanne Smith. As it turns out, the class that most journalism and mass communication students dread the most inspired Chance to pursue and have a successful career in law.

Now Chances teaches that very same journalism law class.

“My favorite teacher as an undergraduate at Florida is Joanne Smith,” Chance said. “She was passionate, knowledgeable, and she challenged us. I was never prouder of any grade in my undergraduate program than the ‘A’ I got from Professor Smith because I know I earned it.”

Because of her experience in the journalism program at Florida, Chance knows students dread her class. But she said she makes it a personal challenge to make it their favorite.

“We’re not only teaching future journalists and communicators,” Chance said. “We’re teaching future citizens of our country, and I want them to understand the value of the First Amendment.”

Caption.

Chance said she enjoyed her law career, but she said teaching allows her to make an impact on her world in a more proactive way by helping students avoid legal pitfalls.

“I always tell my students that they must have a passion for what they do and everything else will follow,” Chance said. “Teaching at the University of Florida is a place where my passion and my purpose have sort of collided.”

Chance, who has been teaching at Florida for 12 years, also heads the university’s Brechner Center for Freedom of Information. She has a B.S. and M.A. in journalism from Florida. After working as a journalist for several years, she returned to the university and earned a law degree.

Chance practiced law in Tampa and specialized in media law.

“The public depends on us to uncover things like government corruption, abuse of power, inefficiency and waste,” Chance said. “Journalists can write those stories because they have access to documentation, predominantly through FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) and state sunshine laws.”

As Teacher of the Year, Chance hosted a discussion about freedom of the press at the AEJMC convention Wednesday night with noted First Amendment Lawyer Floyd Abrams. Abrams talked about the case of New York Times reporter Judith Miller, his client who is incarcerated for not revealing a confidential source.

“I think that’s a really important area,” Chance said. “What I talk about in class is the law, but I also say each newsroom should have a policy about dealing with confidential sources. The first thing a reporter should do is try to get the source to go on the record – it’s very important.”

Chance teaches an undergraduate media law class of 240 students each spring and a graduate seminar in the fall. She said she was “thrilled and speechless” to receive the Teacher of the Year award for a job that allows her to “affect students’ lives in a way that is really meaningful and important.”

It’s a calling – none of us do it for the money,” Chance said. “I feel like I make a difference.”

Q&A: Sandra Chance

What should educators be teaching journalism students?
“First, we need to teach students about the laws and the importance of freedom of information and the First Amendment to our democracy. And then we need to help the students learn that even in times like these – and more importantly in times like these – we need to be asking questions. We need to continue to expect and demand that the government is responsive and not just take their word.”

What is one of the challenges facing journalism right now?
“It’s the idea that we need the government to operate secretly to protect our national security. The government has been using this idea to justify closing all kinds of records and meetings.”

Has there been another period of time where sunshine laws have faced similar challenges?
“Not really. The Freedom of Information Act was passed in 1966, so it’s fairly new. There were people in government then, such as Vice President Cheney and Defense Secretary Rumsfeld, who thought FOIA was a bad idea. When there were improvements to it, they encouraged President Ford to veto those bills, and Congress overrode those vetoes.”

What is something that most people don’t know about you?
“I got run over by a car in a parking lot once. I didn’t even see it coming. Now I have a cadaver ligament in my left leg.”

‘Daily Show’ shapes new reality for young viewers

By Jaime Loke

University of Texas - Austin

Josh Grimm never misses an episode of “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.”

The University of Texas at Austin student says he relies on the satirical show for his political news.

Grimm is not alone.

“I think the reason it’s popular among young viewers is because the show is speaking to how ridiculous the current political climate is,” Grimm said. “It’s not a roast. Jon Stewart actually offers solutions as well.”

“The Daily Show,” which airs nightly on Comedy Central, is known for its political commentary and celebrity interviews. It satirizes current international and domestic events as well as coverage from traditional news outlets.

In 2004, 21 percent of people under 30 claimed they learn about candidates and campaigns from late night comedy shows, according to a Pew Research Center study.

Ying-Ying Chen, a graduate student from the University of Texas at Austin who studied the influence of “The Daily Show” on young voters during the 2004 presidential election said they are fed up with mainstream media.

“Most of them said they watch ‘The Daily Show’ because it’s entertaining, but a lot of them also said that if they had to pick only one news source, they would choose ‘The Daily Show’ or nothing else,” Chen said.

But the question among experts is why fewer than half of eligible voters between 18 and 24 voted in 2004.

Caption.

A study conducted by students at the University of Michigan showed that late-night talk shows informed young viewers about politics but was not as successful in encouraging voting among them.

Connie Book, a professor at Elon University, says “The Daily Show” is an indirect cause of low turnout among young voters.

“Jon Stewart doesn’t portray politicians as prestigious professionals,” Book said. “The show trivializes news, and as a result, everything seems like a sham.”

But whether or not the show encourages viewers to vote is not the key issue, says Gerald McNulty, a professor at Marist College.

“I have had undergraduate students say to me blankly: ‘I get my political news from ‘The Daily Show.’’ While they might be 18, 19, 20 and young and naïve, they really miss the main point, and they get angry when I tell them that’s not information, that’s entertainment,” said McNulty.

Even so, “The Daily Show’s” alternative presentation of current issues can be seen as one of the show’s main attractions for young viewers.

Traditional news media often present each piece of news with two opposing but equally valid sides, which can seem artificial and forced according to Bell.

“To take a hypothetical, if reporting on what shape the world is, today's traditional journalist would write, ‘Well, many scientists believe the world is round, but some say it might be flat.’ ‘The Daily Show’ would say, ‘the world is round and the ones who say it's flat are whacked.’ End of story,” Bell said.

Profs challenge Clear Channel

By Ashlee Erwin

University of Missouri-Columbia

While Clear Channel Communications has drawn criticism for forcing a conservative bias among its media and for its zero tolerance policy toward on-air obscenity, it has also been attacked for pushing the trend toward media consolidation.

On Thursday, Clear Channel executives Mark Mays and John Hogan faced a panel of researchers specializing in media ownership and content, with voice tracking, or local radio news produced off-site, a focal point.

After researching a Clear Channel market, Lee Hood, of the University of Colorado, found that what’s important to the community may be overlooked by regional news producers.

“It suggests that if you don’t understand the local context, things like conflict, which we tend to think of as the universal news value, are chosen over some of the things like community understanding,” Hood said.

Hogan defended Clear Channel by saying there is a difference between concept and execution in the way the company disseminates news.

“The concept is that by using the available technology today, we can create a better product than we otherwise would have,” Hogan said.

The execution, which Hogan argues is still controlled by local program directors, is what worries researchers like Hood.

“The execution of that would suggest that it’s unrealistic to expect all of that control to be local if you have given some of that control over to a centralized place, which is what their system does,” Hood said.

Another factor is whether Clear Channel will work with academia in research on media ownership.

“I was not totally satisfied with their answers,” said Mark Harmon of the University of Tennessee. ”We have serious questions about media concentration that cannot be dismissed with canned answers.”

Most of the panelists expressed pleasure with the opportunity to meet Hogan and Mays.

“I think they’re honest about communicating their corporate message,” said panelist Laura Smith of the University of South Carolina. “The question is pecking away at that message and getting to what’s happening on the ground in local communities. Where they see it in corporate headquarters is very different from where people in our back yards see it.”

Fairness key to partisan press debate

Courtney Addison / Texas State University

David Abrahamson of Northwestern University speaks about how journalism needs to turn away from partisan press during one of Thursday afternoon’s sessions.

Media bias acceptable if properly labeled, panel says

By Gabe Wicklund

Texas Christian University

The real issue surrounding the debate over the existence of a partisan press is the practice of deceptive labeling by some media outlets, panelists said Thursday.

Texas Monthly editor Evan Smith said he does not see the current media environment as a return of the partisan press but rather an acknowledgement of it.

“I inherently believe that all press is partisan,” said Smith, who claimed that his publication’s major bias is pro-Texas: “we hate liberals, but we hate bad brisket more.”

Smith said all journalists are biased and that the movement to a partisan press is an honest one.

“To say that we somehow check our points of view completely at the door, I think, is unrealistic,” Smith told the audience.

The panelists of “What Goes Around Comes Around: A Return to a Partisan Press?” agreed there is a distinct divide in points of view and that the media are reporting what they think the public wants.

Fox News’ slogan, “We report, you decide,” inaccurately voices what its focus is because it already has a decidedly conservative spin on stories for its audience, said Geneva Overholser, a Pulitzer Prize winner and University of Missouri journalism professor.

“Truth and labeling is the key,” Overholser said. “That is what we should call people on.”

Smith said Fox’s claim to being “fair and balanced” is deceptive because the network possibly is fair but not balanced.

“You can be biased and fair,” Smith said.

Smith said he believes the turning point in the coverage of the 2004 election was not the Swift Boat advertisements but instead was CBS and Dan Rather’s story on President Bush’s National Guard record.

“I think the problem with Rather was not bias, but bad journalism,” Smith said. “(Readers) say you’re biased when they disagree with you,” he said. “Bias is not incompatible with the truth.”

How media outlets label themselves has become a problem, said Charlyne Berens, a professor at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Because there is so much for the public to choose from today than 10 years ago, any news consumer should be able to find a media that correlates with his or her viewpoint, she said.

“One person’s bias is another person’s truth,” Berens said.

However, she said the trouble comes when readers cannot tell if their information is coming from a partisan outlet.

Going back to the partisan press — a 19th-century phenomenon — almost guarantees a widening in the public divide, she said.

“The more media is divided, the more we will play with it,” Berens said. “We will give people what they want while saying we are still covering the news.”

David Abrahamson, a professor at Northwestern University, said a skeptical public wants more objective reporting instead of a partisan spin.

Journalists need to set a new standard of accountability and by resisting the current trend, journalists will provide a service to the public, he said.

“They want it, they need it and, I would argue, they certainly deserve it,” Abrahamson said.

Reporter Notebooks

‘Reporter Notebooks’ offer student journalists working for the AEJMC Reporter a chance to share their viewswith the newspaper’s readers.

Gabe Wicklund

I am not normal.

That’s what everyone tells me anyway. I am a college student who reads the newspaper every day, does not like getting my news online and keeps a crazy work schedule. I rarely sleep past 7 a.m., and it’s almost guaranteed that I’ll be at work after 5 p.m.

I am a journalist.

I am not a journalist because of the pay — I would be a doctor if I were in it for the money.

I am not a journalist for the benefits — I’m not even sure what benefits there are for me to have.

I am a journalist because I love to write, and I want to make a difference.

If someone is in the business for any reason other than that, then I think he or she is in the wrong occupation. If I didn’t love the job, I would see myself out the door in an instant.

At the moment, I am a journalist in San Antonio, essentially covering a journalism convention.

So far I have heard theories about why the media is in a death spiral and why the public lacks trust for us. We definitely need a “Wake Up Call.”

As a student, here’s my theory: The few give us a bad name.

When the public is wronged once by a journalist, it holds a grudge from thereon out. The public stereotypes every journalist as a Jayson Blair, a Jack Kelly or even a Dan Rather.

Everyone has his or her reason for not trusting the media, but let’s put ourselves in their shoes. What would you do if your quote were turned around to say the exact opposite of what it meant? Would you get mad if your words were taken out of context?

What would you do if you were continually bombarded and basically forced to say something — even if it’s not true? Would you return a reporter’s phone calls?

What would you do if you read accusations about yourself made by anonymous sources that the journalist says are exceptionally credible? Would you take the journalist’s word for it or would you be skeptical about who said it?

I, personally, would stay as far away from the media as possible. I would keep my guard up and not say anything that could cause a controversy.

And that is exactly what happens with the public. They hear stories about scenarios like those and don’t want anything to do with it — so they stay quiet and their trust goes down the drain.

I don’t blame them.

But I wish those few wouldn’t give us a bad name because journalism is about gathering information, processing it and reporting the truth. It’s that simple.

I’m in the journalism business because I’m like Curious George — I want to get my hands on everything and find out why things are the way they are.

I am a journalist, and as one, I have a responsibility to report the truth fairly and accurately — and whether or not others will do the same, I will.

I will not become one of the few, and in the years to come, I hope that the public can see our attempts at regaining their trust by keeping the few out of the newsroom and reporting the truth, even if it makes us look bad.

This experience is one I know, I won’t learn in a classroom.

Michael Walter

The final deadline for the AEJMC Reporter is 7:45 p.m. At least, it’s supposed to be.

At 10 p.m. the first night, our newsroom was still packed with confused reporters, stressed designers and editors who were, well, let's just say weren't terribly pleased.

Working together, though, we eventually finished. It wasn't the most pleasant deadline experience I've had in my life, but meeting a deadline has never been fun.

No matter how much planning is involved, things always manage to fall apart and dilemmas are more common than George W. Bush bumper stickers in a Crawford traffic jam.

I know this will never really change. The “perfect paper” a newsroom always strives to publish is a myth, like the fountain of youth or a fair and balanced report from Bill O’Reilly.

So, knowing all of this and acknowledging the stress that comes with publishing a newspaper, why do we all come back to the newsroom night after night?

Are we insane? Or is it simply that a newspaper is the only place we can get a job that doesn't involve scooping fries into tiny cardboard boxes?

I think we are all just that in love with this business. It’s the same reason that, while celebrating the power of alcohol with several fellow journalists in San Antonio's shadiest bar late Tuesday night, all we discussed were topics related to journalism. Sure, our words were slurred and our sentence structure was irregular while we cursed Fox News and praised the likes of Lester Bangs and Bill Moyers, but we somehow still remained in reporter mode throughout it all.

I suppose that’s part of what makes us journalists. We’re obsessive nerds who love being overworked, overstressed and underpaid day after day. And no matter what happens, we always bounce back stronger and smarter than ever, ready to pounce on the Next Great Story.

I wouldn’t have things any other way.