The Offending Art
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NIEMAN REPORTS The Off ending Art PoliticalPol cartooningcartooning after Charlie HebdoH nr_winter2015_covers_spine_31815.indd 1 3/25/15 2:38 PM Contributors The Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University (page 32), who wrote www.niemanreports.org Jonathan Guyer the cover story, is senior editor of the Cairo Review of Global Aff airs. He has written about Arabic media and satire for Foreign Policy, The Guardian, and other publications, and is a contributor to PRI’s “The World.” He researched Egyptian political cartoons as a Fulbright fellow. publisher Ann Marie Lipinski editor Olivia Koski (page 8) is a multimedia journalist James Geary who has produced digital and live works for senior editor The Atavist and Guerilla Science. Her writing has Jan Gardner appeared in Popular Mechanics, Wired, and Scientifi c American. researcher/reporter Jonathan Seitz Vladimir Radomirovic (page 12), a 2015 Nieman editorial assistants Fellow, is editor in chief of Pištaljka, an online Tara W. Merrigan investigative journalism outlet in Serbia that he Laura Mitchell founded in 2010 to report on corruption and design cronyism. Pentagram editorial offices Amy Webb (page 18) is a digital media futurist One Francis Avenue, Cambridge, and founder of Webbmedia Group, a digital MA 02138-2098, 617-496-6308, strategy consultancy (@webbmedia). She is a 2014– [email protected] 2015 Visiting Nieman Fellow. Special thanks to Delinda Frazier, research assistant on this project. Copyright 2015 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College. Periodicals postage paid at Barbara Selvin (page 26) is an assistant Boston, Massachusetts and professor at the Stony Brook University School of additional entries Journalism. A former business reporter for New York Newsday, she began her career covering local subscriptions/business news for weekly newspapers on Long Island. 617-496-6299, [email protected] Subscription $25 a year, Mark Jurkowitz (page 30) started his career $40 for two years; at a weekly paper near Boston. He was associate add $10 per year for foreign airmail. director at the Pew Research Center’s Journalism Single copies $7.50. Project before buying the weekly Outer Banks Back copies are available from Sentinel in North Carolina. the Nieman offi ce. Please address all subscription Bassem Youssef (page 37), an Egyptian correspondence to: comedian, was the host of “Al-Bernameg” (“The One Francis Avenue, Program”), a political satire TV show. It ran for Cambridge, MA 02138-2098 three years, attracting an audience of 30 million and change of address information to: viewers per episode before ending in 2014. P.O. Box 4951, Manchester, NH 03108 ISSN Number 0028-9817 Michael Fitzgerald (page 42) is a 2011 Nieman Postmaster: Send address changes to Fellow who writes about innovation for The Nieman Reports P.O. Box 4951, Boston Globe, The Economist, Fast Company, MIT Manchester, NH 03108 Sloan Management Review, The New York Times, and many other publications. Nieman Reports (USPS #430-650) is published in March, June, Jake Batsell (page 48) is an assistant professor September, and December by of journalism at Southern Methodist University, the Nieman Foundation at Harvard University, where he teaches digital journalism and media One Francis Avenue, entrepreneurship. He previously worked for The Cambridge, MA 02138-2098 Seattle Times and The Dallas Morning News. BOTTOM, OF HBO PRESS; COURTESY FRANCOIS MORI/ASSOCIATED FOR IOP; OPPOSITE: TOP, MARTHA STEWART YOUSSEF: nr_winter_2015_32415_FINAL.indd A 4/1/15 5:30 PM The murder of cartoonists for the Paris-based Charlie Hebdo ignited a debate on freedom of speech Contents Winter 2015 / Vol. 69 / No. 1 Features Departments storyboard cover From the Curator 2 Step into the Story 8 By Ann Marie Lipinski The immersive potential of virtual reality The Off ending Art 32 By Olivia Koski Political cartooning after Charlie Hebdo Live@Lippmann 4 By Jonathan Guyer Quartz publisher Jay Lauf Whistleblowing in the Balkans 12 Mightier Than the Sword 37 Independent news outlets struggle Satire has an enduring role to play Niemans@Work 6 to survive By Bassem Youssef Breathing new life into archives, By Vladimir Radomirovic bringing social commentary to the streets, informing public debate in India How to Make J-School 18 watchdog Matter (Again) Need to Know 42 nieman journalism lab A new blueprint for journalism education Why in-depth coverage of net neutrality The Triumph of the Social Platform 46 By Amy Webb is essential Distributed content off ers new possibilities By Michael Fitzgerald for publishers to fi nd revenue and readers Covering the Community 26 By Joshua Benton Why local weekly newspapers matter By Barbara Selvin Comedian John Books 48 Oliver’s powerful Excerpt from “Engaged Journalism: TV segment on net Connecting with Digitally Empowered neutrality led to News Audiences” an overwhelming By Jake Batsell onslaught of public comments on the FCC’s website Nieman Notes 52 page 42 Sounding 54 Denise-Marie Ordway, NF ’15 front cover: Christopher Weyant nr_winter_2015_32415_FINAL.indd 1 3/31/15 2:39 PM From the Curator Parsing the Equivalency Debate Is it possible to place stories on some universal scale of import and assign coverage and Protesters in Paris adapt a Charlie Hebdo slogan to highlight a January 7 Boko Haram massacre empathy accordingly? But there is a pernicious quality to those depth of coverage.” The danger to reporters equivalency arguments that suggest ma- who enter the perimeters of Boko Haram’s levolent intent on the part of journalists power. The diff erence between a terrorist and overlook more complex realities about eruption and a civil war. How we report on newsgathering. As reporting resources con- a “principle”—freedom of expression—un- tract and social media empower us all as ar- der murderous attack as opposed to ongo- the facebook posting was striking, biters, debates over where journalism aims ing coverage of “an appalling, mind-boggling coming from a friend who writes powerful- its fl oodlights have grown more pitched. disregard for the sanctity of human life.” ly about race and was now arguing against These questions took on an urgent The implied threat that the terror in Paris the University of Oklahoma’s expulsion of quality following the Charlie Hebdo kill- could be replicated in the U.S. fraternity members for their racist chants. ings in Paris. Heavy coverage by Western But what particularly troubled Wycliff “Educational institutions ought to edu- media soon found critics: Why did that about the equivalency criticism were two cate—or try to,” he wrote. “This was a teach- story—with 17 victims and three gun- things the critics implied but did not state. able moment and should have been used men dead—receive more attention than The fi rst: That black lives are not val- to teach.” Boko Haram’s murderous attack in Baga, ued in newsrooms the same as white lives. Others weighed in, until one poster ef- Nigeria, with claims, according to the BBC, “There may be cases where this is true or fectively shut down the debate. “Instead of of between 150 and 2,000 dead? Some crit- where the facts suggest it, but Charlie dialing up the umbrage meter for a bunch of ics sought a discussion about the inherent Hebdo/Boko Haram was not one,” Wycliff drunk and stupid college students … I wish diff erences in the stories. Others practiced wrote me. “If black lives were undervalued people would get outraged—and do some- ridicule, as evidenced by this tweet from a in the Boko Haram case, it was the Nigerian thing about—things like this.” She linked to journalism professor: “US media on Baga: government that did the undervaluing.” the tragic story of a teenage mother’s search Hey, we just did Ebola. Isn’t there someone The second: The media is responsible for for justice following rape accusations. The else to call?” shining a light on Boko Haram suffi cient to discussion fell silent. The equivalency battles rang hollow to cause the world to intercede. “I think the Is it possible to place stories on a uni- me, with more emphasis on body count es- critics vastly overstate the ability of the me- versal scale of impact, import, or horror and timates than the larger news signifi cance of dia to galvanize ‘the world,’” Wycliff wrote. assign coverage and empathy accordingly? either development. And why did the sto- Reading Wycliff ’s closing thought, I re- These equivalency debates are the natural ries need to compete, rather than stand on fl ected on our last issue of Nieman Reports extension of trying to hold two or more their individual merits? I wanted to check documenting the perilous conditions in events in balance, a primitive defi nition of my refl exes so I contacted the man whose which so many foreign correspondents work what news editors do. When their work is Facebook account hosted the short-lived and the anemic support for their labor. good, there is a complex weave of decisions discussion about hate speech in Oklahoma: “That doesn’t relieve the media of the hidden beneath the surface of a news report. Don Wycliff, a wise journalist and critic duty to report, to keep trying to make the who served as public editor of the Chicago relevant interesting,” he wrote, “but it does Tribune, head of that paper’s editorial argue for some sobriety about what can be board, and writer for The New York Times accomplished.” Why did two news stories editorial pages. He said the discussion had troubled him, need to compete, rather too, then parsed the criticism: The logistical than stand on their diff erences of traveling to the stories that own individual merits? made for “huge differences in speed and Ann Marie Lipinski ABITBOL OPPOSITE: LISA PRESS.