Sources

This week we have been talking about sources.  We have discussed whether anonymous sources should be used in scholastic media or not, as well as the importance of using a variety of sources.  Yesterday on the JEA listserve there was an email with the subject line "What to do when a source changes his/her mind?" The email was about a high school who was covering a local community college story.  The president, who had his share of controversy, was retiring and receiving a nice severance package.  The community was outraged at the amount he was receiving, which was what the story was focusing on - the community response.  The student journalist had interviewed, on the record, a professor at the college.  A few days after the professor emailed the student and said that nothing in the interview could be used without any explanation.  The adviser was emailing the listserv for advice.  This email really caught me off guard.  When I was thinking about whether or not anonymous sources should be used in a scholastic newspaper, I never even considered a source changing their mind.  Being a relatively new adviser there are many situations that I have never even thought of that happen all the time.   My first thought was to make a policy so that if we have these problems come up we will have a plan in place already.  However, I realistically know that won't work.  Every situation is different and handled individually.  It makes me uneasy but I think that situations that deal with anonymous sources and even sources backing out are something that you can't plan for.  I just have to teach my students to be the best journalists they can be.  

Page One

After finals, I had my students in Intro to Journalism watch the documentary Page One while I graded.  I've seen the movie dozens of times, but a lot of what it talked about resonated with what we have been talking about in both the Social Role class as well as my Editorial Writing class.  The documentary, although a bit dated now, follows David Carr and the Media Desk at the New York Times.  It primarily focuses on the changing landscape in the newspaper industry, but touches on many other topics that relate to journalism.  One of those being a journalist's responsibility.  I think that this ties into what we have been discussing in Social Role this week about objectivity.  Several times throughout the documentary they mentioned the arrogance that many feel the New York Times carries.  I believes this ties into objectivity, because the reporters from the NYT have to write objectively and not let their role or their job get to their heads.  It also means that the readers of the NYT have to read the paper objectively and form their own opinion.  The Judith Miller fiasco proves that reading too much into a reporter's story can lead to disastrous things.  In addition to touching on objectivity, the documentary also shows students the weight that the NYT and the media carries.  Having grown up without reading the newspapers, my students often do not understand the importance that a paper like the NYT has.  Page One speaks volumes to what the social role of newspapers was and is becoming today.  Overall, the documentary reminded me of the importance of newspapers as well as the power they hold.