Navigating the Storm

Political theater?

With all of the recent press covering the administration’s disclosure of secret CIA prisons and the transferring of 14 high-profile al-Qaeda suspects to Guantanamo Bay, the story I would like to track throughout the semester is the continued coverage and investivation of the treatment of prisoners at the covert CIA facilities and those at Guantanamo. The above announcement and that of the decision currently facing Congress to approve military tribunals brings Gitmo and torture back into the headlines at a crucial time, as the US faces the fifth anniversary of 9/11 and the rapidly upcoming mid-term elections. When political manuevering and issues of human rights combine, how will the story evolve and what will be the public’s reaction and interpretation? With oftentimes limited access to the setting and characters of the story, how do journalists provide a complete picture of the events to the public? When and in what forms of media are lines blurred between journalist and advocate?

Iraq’s Journalists

Fascinating Op-Ed piece from the NYTimes about the state of journalism in Iraq and America’s role in shaping and now, theatening its existence.  The focus is on the danger facing Iraqi journalists working for news outlets, but I would have been interested to hear the author’s perspective on the bloggers in his country and how they fit into the changing world of Iraqi journalism.

A Singular Role

I have found that in just the few short days since our program began, my views on journalism, its practitioners, and the future of the industry have been strongly challenged. I have left classes with my head spinning, trying to make sense of all the change before us. And, we have only made it through the first week…

At its best, journalism helps maintain communities, both large and small. Through the dissemination of information of import and interest to the public, journalism helps people preserve connections and helps inform decisions they may make during their day, whether it be what train to take on the morning commute or what candidate should receive their vote come election day. Through the news, people are able to remain well informed about their local community while far-away stories are illuminated. So, as journalists, we should be committed to meticulous reporting, insightful analysis, vociferous questioning, and transparency in order to provide the public with information that enables them to better interpret and understand events and issues. In all its changing forms, journalism provides a dialogue about the modern human experience, and with ever-increasing opportunities for people to respond to the media and publish work themselves, it has become a much more active conversation.

The internet has revolutionized the way we all conduct our lives, images and information come at us quickly in a multitude of forms, providing an exceeding array of choices for people in how we listen to music, how we shop, how we consume the news, among other things. The internet has altered the way people receive, interpret, and now, publish information, including news, opinions, and personal reactions. Choice reigns supreme and journalists and the media are now faced with the challenge of how to adapt the ways in which news is delivered and utilize the transformative power of the internet to the public’s benefit. Journalism should be a reflection of the times in which we live. I believe that the intersection of this burgeoning technology that allows for a myriad of voices to be heard and stories to be told in new ways with a society forced to face new fears, has provided the impetus for the changes that are occurring in journalism. People needed an arena in which to react, voice opinions, make connections, and pose questions. In this new arena, if the public wants transparency from their government, whether it is in national or local affairs, they no longer have to leave that job to the traditional gatekeepers, they can begin the conversation themselves. Citizens (and that includes trained journalists) can debate, question, and share ideas and people have more choices than ever in information content and format. And, as trained practitioners, we should listen and filter. Invite these new storytellers into the discussion, whether they are posting well-reported investigative pieces or personal musings, or, as it may be, invite ourselves into their discussion. Perhaps they will help lead us to discover different stories to tell and more innovative ways to tell them.

Questions that currently confound me through all of this are: how will standards change and translate to online media? How will a trained journalist’s role change as the industry transforms? How can we think of new ways to filter and navigate the ever-increasing amount of information available to the public? How will the “agenda” be set? (See Time’s new idea as newsweeklies rapidly decrease in influence). Are Time’s efforts completely futile in a world where many people pick and choose the way to receive their news from a menu of niche publications, blogs, and user determined email blasts? What else can publications do to stay relevant? As more and more of our lives are navigated through a high-tech world, how do citizens without access to the technology remain a part of the dialogue?