All the News That’s Fit to Broadcast

This has been a pretty good week at school.  Miraculously I have had some time during my planning periods the past few weeks to get the Journalism Work Room and Dark Room (really a storage room since we don’t work with film photography) mostly straightened and cleaned up after months—nay, years—of neglect…including organizing the cabinets and drawers.  Now, as of this week, I have just a couple of drawers and four cabinets to work through before it’s done!  I’m not sure where all of this spare time is coming from, though.  Probably Monday I’ll walk in to an e-mail message reminding me the Japanese translation of War and Peace I should have been working on for the past month is due by 3:15.  Oops!

But that’s not the only good news on the school journalism front.  I also found out one of my best writers from Journalism I, whom I also taught in English I Honors a couple of years ago, will be on next year’s staff.  She skipped a year somehow (probably scheduling), but she’ll be back next year.  And this young lady has already engaged in a partnership with a local media outlet (which I totally forgot to mention in this week’s discussion board question about partnerships).  This past year, she has been an intern with the Columbia Star, a local, independent, weekly newspaper.  I’ll definitely be picking her brain to see if we can take further advantage of the door she’s already opened.

Detail.  Gymnasium wall.  W.J. Keenan High School.  Columbia, South Carolina.  2007.  
Photographed by Stephen Milligan (September 30, 2007).

But wait—there’s more!

Another current journalism student (second year) asked me this week what Journalism III Honors was—she said when she was called in by her counselor to make her schedule for next year, that’s the journalism class she was put into.

And, yes, I am at a school where teachers aren’t given their teaching schedules for the following year much in advance or even have much say in it.  Some years I’ve surmised my schedule based on students telling me they were going to be with me the next year for journalism or English.  But it’s better than it was—the first few years I was there, we received our teaching schedules in the mail along with our welcome-back letters.  In August.  With hardly any time to plan.

But I digress.  And this gets even better.

When I went in to see my principal for my final Goal-Based Evaluation conference for the year, he talked about building up the journalism program.  He pulled out a draft copy of the master schedule and told me there was room for another journalism course, which would being me up to three; in fact, he said I currently have only two English II sections, so this could mean I may…possibly…perhaps…conceivably…perchance have four journalism courses next year.  The most I’ve ever had is three, and that was only one year.

Then the other shoe dropped—he would really like to see a broadcasting component in place.

Beggars can’t be choosers, so I guess I’ll have to take that Kent State broadcasting elective after all.

But imagine what I can do with three or four journalism courses!  Imagine having the time to teach all of the concepts we’ve been learning about and produce the publications!

How exciting!  And how frightening!

Let’s just hope I’m not getting in over my head…      

Down the Photoshop Road

Included in this week’s readings for the Social Role of the Mass Media class was a piece called “Detecting the Truth in Photos,” which detailed the ever increasing ease with which one can manipulate photos.  Not only is Photoshop and its ilk widely available and periodically updated, providing more opportunity for image manipulation, but the rapid nature of social media posting makes the spread of such images more rampant and, I would say, so frequent that only the most dedicated among us has time to do the legwork to investigate whether an image has been altered.

And as a dedicated journalism teacher, I looked down on Photoshop use, even by my best friend Paul, who likes to add filters and effects to photos using the program.

Chicago, Illinois.  Looking northeast from the Willis Tower (formerly Sears Tower).  
Photographed by Stephen Milligan (June 14, 2012). 

I looked down on Photoshop, that is, until the summer of 2012.

That summer I found myself on an architectural pilgrimage to the Midwest to visit and photograph as many Frank Lloyd Wright properties as I could in Wisconsin.  The icing on the cake was the fact that the Wright Plus housewalk in Wright’s Oak Park, Illinois, neighborhood coincided with the first leg of my trip, so, of course, I took advantage of this opportunity!

Now, you may be wondering what this has to do with Photoshop.

When I returned to South Carolina and began pulling the photos off of the memory card to categorize and edit them, I was horrified to see an indistinct gray blob in the top left corner of the last several sets of photos.  Somehow, at the end of the Wisconsin portion of my trip and all the way through my second stop in Chicago (and, yes, there would have been a third stop in Chicago if there had been any way possible), some dust or debris had found its way into the camera and lodged itself on the lens, creating this blob on each photo.  And since I couldn’t see it in the viewfinder, I never even knew it was there. 

My immediate concern was getting the camera repaired before I took any other photos.  Unfortunately, there’s a dearth of camera stores these days, especially around here, so the best and closest one I could find was Biggs Camera in Charlotte, North Carolina, about an hour north of me.  This was in no way a hardship, though, because of the Cheesecake Factory in SouthPark Mall, just minutes from the camera store!

Of course, my next concern was what to do about the spot in the photos.  In some photos, the blob was indistinguishable, obscured by trees or dark colors or patterns, but all shots with sky or light colors at the top left were ruined.  Creative cropping only helped in a few cases.  I certainly couldn’t go back and recreate my trip (although I would have loved to), and I certainly couldn’t discard all of those photos of Frank Lloyd Wright properties, a few county courthouses, and that stunning Chicago skyline. 

So I broke down and bought Photoshop.

I can’t say I did it all perfectly, but I managed to get rid of that gray blob in each photo.  Was I manipulating reality?  Not really, I suppose, because the blob really wasn’t in the sky or on the building or floating above a daylily blossom.  And keep in mind, these photos were not being used to illustrate news—I justify this to myself by thinking of these as artistic photos rather than journalistic photos.

“Detecting the Truth in Photos” tells us the latest versions of Photoshop are so advanced that some changes are practically undetectable.

I needn’t worry about that—the work of my steady hand could be spotted all the way from Chicago…

Let There Be Light!

Citizen journalism.  We have come back around to this topic.  Or have we ever really left it?

Because of the pervasiveness of social media, the citizen journalist has been our bedfellow…our partner in crime…our conjoined twin practically since the beginning of this class.

Grant Wood Studio.  Cedar Rapids, Iowa (1890s).  Remodeled by Grant Wood (1920s).  
National Register of Historic Places (1982-1984).  Photographed by Stephen Milligan 
(July 6, 2013). 

Do y’all remember Gina?  Before she absconded from the class, carrying away her opinions on citizen journalism like a cat burglar in the night, she wrote a blog post for Week 2 entitled “A Case for a Well-Place Period: Citizen.  Journalist.”

Thankfully, Gina exited so rapidly (perhaps more like a smash and grab at a jewelry store than a cat burglar), she didn’t delete her blog, so I was able to look back at it after this week to see how I felt.

This was also the week I had a conversation with Bart at Eye Associates of Cayce, in which I came to a realization.

Now in Week 12, I’m presented with the paper “Can This Marriage Be Saved?  The Love-Hate Relationship between Traditional Media and Citizen Journalism.”

I have to admit I’m still torn on the topic, and while the lightbulb did come on, it’s still in the brightening stage—I’m working on adjusting the dimmer to a comfortable level of understanding and acceptance.

I’m afraid I have no choice—if I don’t get with the program, all of those citizen journalists on social media are going to overload the circuit, and I’m going to be knocked flat by the shock…and find myself with a perm to boot!

Reading the paper helped—in two ways. 

It felt good to have my opinion validated by some of the professional journalists who were interviewed, those who believe in the tradition of journalism as a profession with professional standards of conduct and procedures.

But it also was helpful for me to see other professional journalists who are embracing and working with the citizen journalists to help them be better and provide them guidance concerning professional standards.

This can only be a win-win situation, one that will ultimately benefit the audience: The professional journalists will gain the reach of the citizen journalists in the trenches, while the citizen journalists will profit from the expertise of the professional journalists.

The room just got a little brighter.

The Chicken or the Egg?

The reading this week in the Social Role of the Mass Media class included an article headlined “Cultural production of ignorance provides rich field for study.”

My mind immediately leapt to Facebook and how people use it to propagate such ignorance.

Field.  Boone County, Arkansas.  Photographed by Stephen Milligan (June 25, 2014).

A glance at recent activity on Facebook provides a sampling of the material people fertilize that field with to make it even richer:

“‘Fire of God’ Is Coming!—Warning Signs in America 2015”

“Christians Look to Torah Portion to Prove Solar Eclipse Is the ‘Shadow of God’”

“Obama Hasn’t Congratulated PM Netanyahu—but He Congratulated Erdogan, Sisi, Rouhani…and Putin!”

“Obama refuses to renew 40-year-oldemergency oil supply pact with Israel”

“Russian companies prepare employees fornuclear war”

How can people actually believe this stuff?

It didn’t take much time to find out more about the sites posting this material: one admits to publishing straight news along with conspiracy theory and prophesy; one claims to have neither a conservative or liberal perspective but a Biblical one; one promises to tell the truth about Israel and Judaism; one has a definite conservative republican slant (this one actually appears to be the most believable of the bunch); and one proclaims a Christian, conservative, orthodox worldview.   

How can people actually believe this stuff?  Oh, wait…I’ve already asked that question.  Trying to find any common sense here is like looking for a needle in a haystack.

Now, there may be some kernel of truth hidden somewhere in these stories (it’s always good to start with a little truth for that realistic touch), but there’s an obvious pattern to their subject matter.  Of course, I admit I knew exactly where to look for these stories—some Facebook friends share them with such frequency and in such quantity, it doesn’t take long to figure out their political or religious feelings. 

Interestingly, more than one of these websites proudly proclaims to be publishing the truth that the mainstream media doesn’t.  If only people would examine these stories and sites more carefully before posting—if your source publishes hard news and conspiracy theory, perhaps it’s not the most credible place for gathering information.  That’s a horse of a different color, though—one I’m afraid many people aren’t willing to ride.

Instead, they’re going to go for the pig in a poke: They’re going to read what they want to read, believe what they want to believe, and post what they want to post.  Journalism of Affirmation appears to have a hand in the cultural production of ignorance…or is it the other way around…?   

The Choice of a New Generation

The reading this week in the Social Role of the Mass Media class has primarily focused on cybermedia from the journalist’s point of view: ethics, legalities, mobile reporting, effective use of social media, verification, and so on.

But who’s consuming all of this cybermedia?  Of course, we know from weeks past it’s all of those Millennials, a fact highlighted in this piece from the Associated Press.

Independence Examiner (April 13, 1945).  Harry S. Truman Presidential Museum & 
Library.  Independence, Missouri.  Photographed by Stephen Milligan (June 28, 2014).

To maintain credibility, transparency, and all of those other honest, forthright characteristics of a good journalism teacher, I must admit I didn’t some across this story after hours of in-depth research for this class.  No, while I was trying to grade my way out from under a pile of papers in time for this week’s third marking period report card deadline, this article appeared in my e-mail inbox from none other than John, the lawyer who doesn’t watch local news but instead gets his news from Google and phone alerts—he of student bus driving fame (see my Week 6 blog post).

The story even uses Tom Rosenstiel as a source—he of Blur and The Elements of Journalism fame (see just about every week of this class).

The piece details the results of a survey showing most Millennials get their news online, mostly from cybermedia like Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and YouTube.  The results also show this method of consumption is trickling up into older generations. And news consumers are using up to three or four cybermedia sites for their news.

Still, though, some of those who gather their news from social media have a use for newspapers and television, but they are growing tired of those talking heads spouting off opinions—bad news for those purveyors of journalism of affirmation.

Possibly another nail in affirmation journalism’s coffin: Well over half those who get their news via cybermedia say they subscribe to multiple viewpoints in their feeds.  If only everyone could or would be this open minded!

We can’t have our cybercake and eat it, too, though—most of those surveyed admit to receiving their news through passive consumption instead of actively seeking it out, attending to the stories that pop up in those feeds.  In teaching a new generation of students news literacy, journalism educators can stress the value of active consumption.

A little bit of icing on that cybercake is that even when respondents encountered news randomly on social media, some conducted further research into the topic of their own volition.  Healthy skepticism!  What better way to educate oneself and make an informed judgment?

And a big dollop of whipped cream on that cake: News consumption and cybermedia engagement are increasing in all age groups studied.  Surely this will lead to a more informed, engaged populace

Perhaps there is hope for this new generation—and for the generations ahead of it.

Palmetto Pride

How could I let this week pass without acknowledging—nay, basking in—the pride I and many other South Carolinians have in our former governor, Mark Sanford, who set the example for good health and outdoor tourism with his penchant for walking the Appalachian Trail?

And now, Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel have immortalized Sanford in their text Blur as a cautionary tale—oops, I mean…example…of how interview subjects are booked for television news programs.

South Carolina State House.  Columbia, South Carolina.  1855.  
Greek Revival style.  National Register of Historic Places 
(June 5, 1970).  National Historic Landmark (May 11, 1976).  
Photographed by Stephen Milligan (June 21, 2010). 

Just as Sanford had jetted off to Argentina for a week to court his mistress, upon returning to his job as leader of the Palmetto State, he was immediately courted by television news outlets to come onto their programs to tell his tale of tortured love—mostly on his own terms or with promises of sympathetic interviewers, according to the e-mail messages Charleston’s newspaper, The Post and Courier, snagged through the Freedom of Information Act.

Talk about adding insult to injury!  It’s bad enough the man cheated on his wife, abandoned his job for a week, abandoned his four sons the week of Father’s Day, and lied about the whole mess (there’s that Palmetto Pride showing again), but then he has media franchises clamoring to have him as a guest so he can explain away the whole thing (wait, Palmetto Pride is an organization dedicated to fight litter in South Carolina…how appropriate—I’ll leave that reference in).

I remember Gov. Sanford’s 2009 walk well—I was in Springfield, Illinois, at the time, participating in a fellowship to study Abraham Lincoln for a week.  With only one teacher from each state, as the lone South Carolinian, I was the center of attention the morning the story broke.  A day or two later, the lady from Ohio even accused Sanford of having Michael Jackson killed to deflect attention from his escapades. 

Even more embarrassment—now South Carolina will forever be linked in some minds to the death of the King of Pop!

As a journalism teacher, there is something here to truly be proud of—the investigative reporting (see how I worked that other topic of discussion from this week in) of Gina Smith, The State newspaper reporter who drove four hours to Atlanta in the middle of the night to greet Sanford as he stepped off the airplane at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport that morning—to avoid the Columbia airport, of course.  Smith had gotten a tip that something other than a stroll on the Appalachian Trail was afoot, so she pursued the investigation—did a little digging, did a little raking—and hit pay dirt.

Those are the tools of any good investigative reporter—a shovel and a rake to uncover and sort through the muck politicians like Mark Sanford so plentifully supply their constituents.  If it hadn’t been for Smith’s persistence, Sanford’s dishonesty might have taken longer to be uncovered—or even have been obscured in the glare of his golden boy image.

Stay Tuned—Your Local News Isn’t Next…or Is It?

In Chapter 5 of The Elements of Journalism, “Independence from Faction,” Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel make some predictions about the future of localism.

News consumption will move away from local topics.  National electronic news organizations will arise.  Internet news will further polarize society.  Small interest groups will spring up.  And it’s already happening!

Old Horry County Courthouse.  Conway, South Carolina.  1908.  Photographed 
by Stephen Milligan (April 3, 2011). 

Just when you thought localism might be an antidote to all the ill feelings people seem to have toward the national media…

According to the authors’ research, news consumers have more confidence in their local media than in the national media, but local media may go the way of the film camera if the these startling predictions come to pass.                         

At least the predictions were somewhat startling to me.  Through my rose-colored glasses, I thought people would always want to see their children’s names and photos in the paper or clip and save a beloved relative’s obituary.

What a quaint notion!  Why wait for a photo of a child to be published?  Children are already famous—what parent doesn’t whip out a ubiquitous cell phone, snap a photo of the child doing something allegedly cute, and upload it to a social media site, if not multiple social media sites?  Every moment of one’s existence is captured and published these days.

And why wait for that obituary to be published when it can be found instantly online?  You can even sign the online guestbook—no need to attend a visitation to sign a real guestbook, or rather print in it since no one is taught cursive writing anymore.

In the dark ages of my childhood, my hometown, little old Conway, South Carolina, had two newspapers, The Field and Herald (named for the town’s agricultural heritage) and The Horry Independent (pronounced OR-ee and named for the county, Horry, which developed a reputation for independence since it’s cut off from the rest of South Carolina by rivers; the county was named for local Revolutionary War hero Peter Horry).

Now, keep in mind both of these newspapers were weekly papers, so we had to wait an entire week to see the school honor roll or the latest tobacco crop yield report.

The Field and Herald has been long gone, but The Horry Independent is still thriving; in fact, it’s part of a larger publishing group, Waccamaw Publishers (named for the river that runs through the heart of the county; ultimately named for the local Native American tribe), that prints weekly newspapers for several of the smaller, rural towns and communities in the county (The Sun News is the county’s daily paper out of Myrtle Beach).

Maybe this publishing group is an anomaly, an anachronism, in today’s media world.

Or maybe localism is still alive…in your local newspaper, your local magazine, your local radio news show, your local television news program.

In another word—dare I say it?  Locally.