The Burn Issue
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TABLE OF CONTENTS THE BURN ISSUE MJR 2016 ABOUT MJR 2 REPORTING FROM THE PERIPHERY 3 2016 STAFF 4 MONTANA SCORING THE DOLEZAL DEBRIEF 6 BILLING THE BEREAVED 7 DIGGING DEEPER BY THE WEEK 8 THE LANGUAGE OF GENDER AND SEXUALITY 9 RECORDS GO ONLINE 10 MUGSHOTS AND THE RIGHT TO KNOW 11 MONTANA BRINGS SHIELD LAWS ONLINE 12 THE WEST GOOD COP, BAD PRESS 27 BUCKING CENSORSHIP OF STUDENT SPEECH 28 EAST COAST STORY SHAKES LOCAL PRESS 30 THE RELUCTANT YOUTUBE SENSATION 31 NEW APP PROSPECTS FOR TOURISTS 32 USING ANALYTICS TO NEGOTIATE CONTRACTS 33 COVER STORY JOURNALISTS ON THE WILDFIRE BEAT 34 EXTRA: CROWDSOURCING FIRE SCIENCE 39 EXTRA: FIRE, WEATHER AND CLIMATE 39 EXTRA: BURNT BUDGETS 40 EXTRA: POLITICIANS KNOCK DRONES DOWN 40 FEATURES 4 WAYS TO BETTER FREELANCE PAY 13 DECLINE OF THE CAPITAL BUREAU 17 Q&A: “WE DON’T ALWAYS ANSWER THE WHY.” 20 HIGH SCHOOL PAPER REIGNITED 22 THE BUDDING COVERAGE OF MARIJUANA 46 ANATOMY OF AN EDITORIAL BURN WOUND 50 LAWS OF WAR LEAVE JOURNALISTS AS TARGETS 53 A STRICT NO COMMENTS POLICY 57 FORECAST THE SHADOWY WEB OF NATIVE ADVERTISING 61 SCIENTISTS BREAK THE STORIES OF 2016 62 Q&A: IRA GLASS ON TELLING ONE GOOD STORY 64 JOURNALISM ETHICS NEED A RADICAL REBOOT 65 THE MONTANA FILM TO SEE THIS YEAR 66 THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT WORKING ONLINE 68 MJR 2016 1 ABOUT Journalism, by its nature, is outward- and neighboring regions, offering a bold, looking. We survey the world and take affectionate and sometimes irreverent look. note of our surroundings We are gatherers Each year, we tackle a theme and ex- of information, learning and absorbing so plore its many facets and interpretations. that we may process, analyze and report Our departments focus on media coverage back to an audence. But it has always been in Montana, the West and the year to come, necessary for journalists to periodically turn while our feature stories take a long-form ap- our attention inward, surveying our own proach to issues both domestic and global. reflection for flaws. As the oldest journalism review in the That mirror can be messy, and while country, MJR has its roots in tradition while scrutiny of East Coast media hubs is prev- striving to evolve with new digital storytell- alent, journalism in the West is often over- ing methods. Founded in 1958 by J-School looked. But Montana and the rest of the Dean Nathaniel Blumberg, the magazine West are not immune to the complications is produced by journalism students at the and issues the industry faces. University of Montana and has been under At Montana Journalism Review, we the guidance of Editor-in-Chief Henriette pursue stories that cover media in our state Löwisch since 2012. t 2 ISSUE 45 LETTER FROM THE EDITORS REPORTING FROM THE PERIPHERY Nine million acres across the United that is often necessary, but it leaves little capital bureau to freelancers negotiating States went up in flames in 2015, along with room to step away from the cycle and report business deals, we probed several ways more than half of the Forest Service’s annual deeper, see wider. Context falls short. But as journalists are feeling the burn. budget. Old growth forests in Washington renowned photographer and Guggenheim We dove into culture desks along the and Oregon, peat bogs in Alaska and Fellow Donald Weber summarizes in his Pacific Coast and the Rocky Mountain subdivisions in California fueled the fires. advice to storytellers, “the periphery is where slopes where newsrooms are lighting up Every year, reporters across the country it’s at.” with reviews and commentary on legalized recount the many stories of spreading For our 2016 cover story, we sent staff marijuana. wildfire. Every year, many miss the bigger writer Andrew Graham and photographer And we ourselves came under fire after picture. Jake Green out to find what journalists are the exposure of several errors in last year’s Contrary to public belief, the number missing as they cover the wildfire beat. Their cover story. of wildfires lighting up the West is not rising. story, “Lost in the Smoke,” is a dispatch from This year’s staff took a hard look at our Individual fires are, however, burning bigger the periphery, a stab at getting a handle on fact-checking system, analyzed what went and burning longer, and the Forest Service is some of that context. wrong in MJR’s last issue and changed the left to play “catch up” instead of proactively In the wake of such a volatile fire season, workflow to ensure an even higher level managing the burns. as well as several metaphorical house fires of self-scrutiny. We expanded our social As journalists join this annual circus, closer to home, the word “burn” struck us as presence to include behind-the-scenes they become trapped on a merry-go-round a singularly apt theme for all the features in stories on Medium.com and reimagined our of coverage that is merely reactive instead our magazine. It led us to a vast and playful website to archive this and past issues’ stories of critical. Acres burned, communities breadth of stories, a variety of literal and and artwork. evacuated, structures lost, repeat. figurative paths to explore. After a semester of hard work, we feel There is a practicality to such news From a legacy publisher closing its ready to take the heat. t NICKY OUELLET CELIA TALBOT TOBIN HENRIETTE LÖWISCH MANAGING EDITOR, EDITORIAL MANAGING EDITOR, CREATIVE EDITOR-IN-CHIEF MJR 2016 3 2016 STAFF NICKY OUELLET CELIA TALBOT TOBIN TANA WILSON MANAGING EDITOR MANAGING EDITOR MARKETING DIRECTOR CONTRIBUTOR ERIN LORANGER ANDREW GRAHAM REAGAN COLYER SENIOR EDITOR STAFF WRITER COPY CHIEF CONTRIBUTOR HUNTER SCHMITZ EVAN FROST JACOB GREEN COPY EDITOR MULTIMEDIA EDITOR STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER CONTRIBUTOR DECLAN LAWSON KATIE HOFSCHIELD ALYSSA DILLON DESIGNER DESIGNER DESIGNER CONTRIBUTOR CONTRIBUTOR 4 ISSUE 45 2016 STAFF SHANTI JOHNSON TAYLOR WYLLIE HUNTER PAULI SENIOR EDITOR SENIOR EDITOR SENIOR EDITOR AILENE CAMACHO BREE ZENDER CLAIRE BURGESON COPY EDITOR COPY EDITOR COPY EDITOR CONTRIBUTOR CONTRIBUTOR CONTRIBUTOR DAYTON SMITH HANNAH-LAURA RUDOLPH OLIVIA KEITH VIDEOGRAPHER ART DIRECTOR DESIGNER CONTRIBUTOR SUZIE CHIEM CHRISTIAN GRANT SCOTT HAWK SOCIAL MEDIA EDITOR SOCIAL MEDIA NEWS EDITOR WEB EDITOR CONTRIBUTOR MJR 2016 5 MONTANA Local scoop Scoring the Dolezal debrief BY BREE ZENDER Brennen Rupp was terrified when he only interviewed people for sports stories tant to publish a story about Rachel Dolezal. stepped into the small Christian school in before the Dolezals. He said the story had already gotten too Libby, Montana. He was looking for Ruth- “I found out from the people that work much attention from the national media. anne Dolezal, mother of Rachel Dolezal— there that this is where Rachel is from — “He thought that the one story did it the head of the Spokane NAACP who re- Libby, Montana. I was like, are you kidding justice,” Rupp said. “And he didn’t want to signed after her parents outed her as a white me?” he said. “In one of my first two weeks keep going on and on about the story be- woman. She identified as African American. working there I can do this huge potential cause he thought that people were probably Rupp had started working for The story.” getting sick of it.” Western News, Libby’s local paper, when the When Rupp arrived, the bi-week- Rupp pursued the interview none- Dolezal story broke. He saw the video in- ly had covered the sensational story about theless. He had a difficult time getting in terview in which an ABC broadcast affiliate its famous local on tiptoes, relying solely contact with Dolezal’s parents and tracked in Spokane confronted her about her racial on Associated Press copy. Other Montana Ruthanne down by finding her at her work- identity and watched the story spread to na- news organizations also relied mostly on AP place. When he identified himself as a re- tional outlets like BuzzFeed News, Gawker stories. Some ran editorials and letters to porter, he said Ruthanne Dolezal “kind of and MSNBC. the editor about their opinions on Rachel went white.” Ruthanne Dolezal and her husband, Dolezal’s racial identity. She granted him the interview because Larry, talked to many national news sources The Missoulian wrote about the story’s he was from the local paper and was able but later disconnected their phone and re- effect on the Dolezals in mid-June, but was to relate to her in a way others couldn’t, fused to talk to any Montana media after the unable to contact her parents. The article Rupp said. national firestorm. Until Rupp. ran in two other Montana papers, despite Maybe after being burned by the na- A college football recruit before writing having no comment from Dolezal’s parents. tional media, it’s easier to talk to somebody for a sports beat in Minnesota, Rupp had Rupp’s editor, Bob Henline, was hesi- your own size. t PHOTO BY AARON ROBERT KATHMAN VIA CREATIVE COMMONS 6 ISSUE 45 MONTANA Obituaries Billing the bereaved BY ALYSSA DILLON Out of 19 Montana newspapers contacted, 8 said they started charging for obituaries in 2010. As if paying for a funeral wasn’t expen- sive enough, small- town obituaries now have a price tag to boot. The trend of small papers charging for obituaries only started within the decade, and for many, just within the past five years. These papers are from towns of 20,000 peo- ple or fewer and charge an average of $20 per obituary. While small -town newspapers explore obituaries as a new source of revenue, larg- er dailies continue to increase their prices.