Broadening Discussions (even after victory)

I was very excited to see President Tom Rochon rescinded the media policy this week. It was an unfair policy that seemed to be more for a corporation rather than a college. 

However, in our celebration I think we must also keep a skeptical eye on the top to bottom hierarchy this institution seems to be embracing in all areas of the college. Yes, we won the battle but not the war. We should not forget that the reason Rochon terminated the policy was because the Society of Professional Journalist’s panel members discussion with the president and the board. It was not because of faculty discontent. It was not because of student protests. 

We are in an institution that hears us but is not listening. Senior Rob Flaherty said it best in this week’s Ithacan article: “I don’t want the repeal to take away from broader discussions that need to happen on campus about the decision-making process here and the sort of perceived corporatization and centralization of campus.” 

Live Blogging: David Cay Johnston

Minute by minute coverage with David Cay Johnston during his visit to Ithaca College's Independent Media class.

2:40 p.m. "The only degree I have is night high school... but I never stayed at any college for more than 30 units."

• Has enough credits for a masters, went to 8 colleges, but never got a degree from any of them

2:45 p.m. "Before I came along, the LAPD was treated like a god like institution from the LA Times."

2:48 p.m. "I took the LA Times places where they never intended to go."

• referring to LAPD political spying and abuses
• the intelligence unit was not being controlled

2:57 p.m. "A few days after this blind date, I went to this police social function...No matter how mad Gates was he would always talk to me... because he wanted to know what I was doing and that what Henry Kissinger's way."

• Johnston's bind date was spyed on, tried to use intimidation factors on him
• that first date, blind date is now Johnston's wife

3:03 p.m. "I have to manage my editors and figure out how to get things into the paper"

• Editors jobs would be on the line so the LA Times did not want this story covered 

3:12 p.m. "You will have the same work, but not the same benefits and that's not all due to the economics facing all news organizations."

• IRE has gone down 16%, but journalists 30% decrease

3:14 p.m. Take law, public communications courses, learn numbers because you will be able to turn them into useful things

3:17 p.m. "My head is kind of a spreadsheet."

• this is a way Johnston makes numbers easy to understand for his readers

3:18 p.m. "The CIA Factbook is a trove of information."

3:20 p.m. "You'll have bad editors, you'll have good ones. You'll have bad producers and you'll have good ones. But you'll also have people who make you look better than you deserve."

3:22 p.m. "Editors: they have real power."

• They have the power to put a huge investigative piece on page 87 

3:24 p.m. "There are no rules in journalism they there are only judgement but because you sign your name to everything you write you have to live with those judgements." 

3:25 p.m.  "George W. Bush was sold to the American people as a product."

3:30 p.m. "Once you tell me what the bar is and I hit the bar you got to put it in the paper."

3:36 p.m. "Disclosure is the best disinfectant," Professor Jeff Cohen said.

3:35 p.m. "If you are just Joe-Schmo and I am interviewing you, I will give you a tremendous amount of leeway...If you are Bill Clinton I am not going to cut you any slack under and circumstances." 

David Cay Johnston's Coming To Town!

I am so thrilled that the IC chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists is hosting Pulitzer prize winner David Cay Johnston tomorrow night in Textor 101 at 7 p.m. Johnston is an incredible investigative reporter, mainly focusing on areas of taxes and economics that evaluates the idea of the 1 percent. Johnston also is the current president for Investigative Reporters and Editors. His third book, The Fine Print: How Big Companies Use "Plain English" to Rob You Blind, was just released and is becoming a big hit.

So why should we care about this speaker? Because investigative reporting, finding a story in the silences, defines independent media. This is exactly Johnston's message.

Interested in hearing more about his economic views and his new book? Check out his interview on Democracy Now here.

Interested in seeing him in person?! Stop by Textor 101 at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, November 13th.

A look into Indian Tribes Independent Media

Sitting in the Ithaca College pub, I was brainstorming with my friends about my next blog post. What would I talk about this week regarding independent media?

"What about Indian tribes?" said Jason MacDermott, a junior anthropology major at IC. "If independent media is about voices being silenced my mainstream media than I think that's a perfect example."

I couldn't agree more. 

In mainstream media, the Indian tribe community and native Americans are largely ignored. In fact, they are largely ignored in history books as well (the story of Thanksgiving is not as friendly as elementary school made us think). However, because of this dark past, blogger Delvin Cree states that journalism is difficult for writers today who want to report news within reservation boundaries.

Let's look at the story of Bill Lawrence.

According to Cree, "Bill's effort in exposing the truth of what was happening on Minnesota reservations made someone mad enough to shoot bullets through his office windows in Bemidji. Even though an act of violence took place, he continued to be one one of the nation's most ferocious tribal government watchdogs."

He even won the Freedom of Information award in 2003 from the Society of Professional Journalists for his investigative reporting. But what is happening currently within this beat? I explored IndianCountryTodayMediaNetwork.com to find out.

The site covers world news, politics, business, veterans, the environment and more, all from the Indian perspective. This perspective is largely unheard, but this media organization is trying to give voice to this silenced population.


  

Reflections from the Buzzcave

With production weekend for Buzzsaw Magazine approaching, I have been realizing how many connections from this Independent Media class can be made to my experience with this alternative magazine.

Buzzsaw Magazine is the premier alternative magazine on the Ithaca College Campus. It is independent from the Park School of Communications for funding, but instead goes through Campus Progress, an organization that trains and supports the next generation of young progressive leaders. We also get funding from the Student Government Association. This allows us to have a more critical eye of not only Ithaca College in general, but also our own communications department.

This is the main value of independent media, one that Buzzsaw Magazine also shares: to report on the silences and cover policies of the school with a more critical eye and through a different lens. Buzzsaw was formed by editors of IC's "mainstream" media outlet, the Ithacan, who did not like the way the outlet was run or how they reported stories. Not only does Buzzsaw still do critiques against mainstream media on campus, but it also covers topics and sparks discussions about topics that may not be in the forefront of most students minds. And we cover it extensively. Take the Militarization issue; not only did articles cover many interesting and varying aspects of militarization, but Buzzsaw also hosted a panel on the issue and other events on campus to spark discussion.

But in my opinion, our most important coverage within the past year has been on the Park School of Communications.

Last year, a Buzzsaw Asks Why column, on the subject Park thinking professionals in the field of communications also translates into professor, sparked a lot controversy. The column was an opinion piece, but things got heated when the Dean of the Park School of Communications started defensively commenting online on the piece as well. She ended up writing her own article in response to the column, which we posted on our website. However, it got the administration and students thinking about what constitutes a good professor and why students may be feeling this way.

This year, our coverage of the new media policy enacted by IC has taken center stage. It has been the focus of our newsletter, Haircut, which was distributed to the student body community. However, because we favor advocacy journalism and are independent from the school of communications, Buzzsaw was able to go one step further and formally take a stance on the media policy. There was an official call to repeal the policy signed by all the editors, as well as some staff writers and alumni. The mainstream outlet remained neutral in its official stance.

So as I mentally prepare to head to the Buzzcave (aka the basement of Bogart in a room with no windows) to edit, copy and print another great issue, I feel I have a new found appreciation for the alternative publication I love so dearly, as well as a greater understanding of its importance on the Ithaca College campus.

Is IC's New Media Policy Censorship?

I closed my laptop, dumbfounded at the email I had just read. Effective immediately, Ithaca College changed their media policy for student media on campus. A list of 84 faculty members now must be contacted via the media relations department, specifically David Maley, if a reporter would like an interview with them involving Ithaca College or their policies. In an email, President Tom Rochon said:

"Note that this policy is strictly limited to the administrators listed here AND to instances where you want to interview them about IC policies or college developments.  The procedure for speaking with all faculty, all students, all third parties and all staff not listed in this document is unchanged -- you simply contact them. The procedure for speaking with anyone on this list about any topic not related to IC policies or college developments is also unchanged -- simply contact us."

This is the first problem I have with this new policy. One of the reasonings for the change is to not distract faculty bombarded with requests from their work. Yet, they specify the type of requests that have to go through Media Relations and which ones do not. Journalists are supposed to be the watchdogs to their government. Bringing the scale down to the college level, shouldn't we student journalists then be acting as the watchdogs for the college and its administration?

This reminds me of the CNN/war general controversy we discussed in class. CNN boasted they spoke directly with the White House and got all of their sources for commentary on the war approved by the governemnt. CNN was under direct fire by many journalists, especially those in the independent media field, because the government could coach the sources on exactly the perspective on the war they wanted spread to the masses. Isn't this exactly what can happen now when sourcing must go through the media relations department? Why else would interviews involving IC policies be the only interviews they care about setting up? All other interview requests that do not have to do with Ithaca College policies can go directly to the administrator without the middle man. Is this a form of censorship?

President Rochon continued in the email to say this would not effect the quality of student reporting.

"It is explicitly NOT the intention of this policy to limit access to IC administrators, to prevent you from pursuing certain stories, or to cause an unwarranted time delay in completing your interviews. The practice of working through Media Relations is long established at IC for all independent media external to the college, and it works well.  In applying this policy also to media affiliated with IC (in the varying extent each of you are), we are simply applying a common professional standard and procedure on media access generally." 

Problem No.2: We are taught in all of our journalism classes that news is 24/7. Even in this Independent Media class, we are always talking about timeliness and the importence of putting news and spreading ideas on the internet-- the great part of the web being the instantanious aspect of it. But according to the policy, there must be at least 24 hours notice for any type of commentary. Doesn't this then inhibit our abilities to be professional journalists and thrive in an age of instant news?

To me, I see this policy as a setback for student journalists initiated by our school-- a school that is supposed to be extremely supportive of media and the fourth estate it represents. To me it seems that Ithaca College wants us to be critical reporters, just not critical of the college itself or its policies. 

Skyping with Mother Jones

The Society of Professional Journalists hosted a video chat with Mother Jones publisher Steve Katz and reporter Kate Sheppard, Monday night.

Students learned about the role Mother Jones played in releasing the controversial Mitt Romney 47 percent video released last week. They also learned about the advantages and disadvantages of working for independent media.

Katz started the discussion talking about the challenges and benefits of working for a non-profit magazine.Mother Jones is funded 40 percent by magazine subscriptions and advertising in print and online. Sixty percent of funding comes from individual donations. Katz stressed the importance for smaller publications of getting funding from multiple sources because they are not reliant on any advertisers or on the state of the economy. He said one of the most difficult aspects of being from a smaller independent media outlet is the fact they have to fight hard to gain exposure, which can give them trouble in increasing capital to attract investors in order to expand. However, Katz said the mission of the outlet over weighs any difficulties they may have along the way. Mother Jones goes after stories and reports issues that are more integrated with politics and corporations than other media outlets that do not feel comfortable following through with these controversial issues. 

 Sheppard, an ‘06 journalism graduate of IC, gave advice to students about diversifying their education. She spoke about her career path that led her to independent media (she originally was an editor for Buzzsaw Magazine on campus) and her love of investigative journalism. It was amazing to see and get suggestions from a successful alumnus.

     

The moment during this conversation that meant the most to me was the description of the atmosphere of the newsroom after the release of the Romney video. Katz described a feeling of connection and pride that you can only get in this small, more intimate newsroom. Kate was on the road at the time and said she noticed the recognition of the name Mother Jones right away. The day before in interviews, people were asking if she wrote for a parenting magazine, and the next day they stood awestruck asking many questions about the unveiled video. It is nice to see Mother Jones finally getting the recognition they deserve for solid investigative journalism.