SPRING 2014 VOL. 68 NO. 2

Rewriting J-School Can educators connect the classroom to the ? RAY WHITEHOUSE/MEDILL RAY Medill students put their multimedia skills to work covering the 2012 presidential election

Cover text from the 2001 (top) and 2014 (bottom) editions of “The Elements of Journalism.” An excerpt from the new edition, page 48

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COVER

24 Rewrite Journalism education has come to the same ominous inflection point that journalism itself has reached—and the stakes are just as high. Yet there are hopeful signs as educators and editors are joining forces to accomplish what neither can do so easily on their own—give students real-world reporting experiences and provide daily and in-depth coverage. By Jon Marcus Rick Tulsky on university-based investigative reporting

STORYBOARD DEPARTMENTS

8 Form Follows Function 2 FROM THE CURATOR The epic poem as a vehicle for narrative nonfiction By Ann Marie Lipinski By Russ Rymer 4 LIVE@LIPPMANN 12 The Core of Story editor in chief The promise of By Erin Polgreen 6 NIEMANS@WORK Vampires; standing in 14 Chasing Paper with YanukovychLeaks solidarity with ; Tale of Ukraine’s paper trail told in comics preparing for the U.S. By Roxanne Palmer withdrawal from Afghanistan

FEATURES 38 NIEMAN JOURNALISM LAB 18 “A Sense of Exhilaration and Possibility” Mobile is the next big challenge By Joshua Benton Building a citizen-sustained in from scratch By Engin Onder 48 BOOKS Excerpt from 40 Quiet Human Moments Amidst Great Strife “The Elements of Journalism” Remembering photojournalist Anja Niedringhaus, By Bill Kovach 1965-2014 & Tom Rosenstiel By Kathleen Carroll

50 NIEMAN CLASS OF 2015 WATCHDOG 52 NIEMAN NOTES 34 Talk to the Hand The crisis in public health reporting 56 SOUNDING By Jenni Bergal Wendell Steavenson, NF ’14 FROM THE CURATOR Missing the Story What Nigeria’s kidnapping crisis says about awareness versus understanding

ven from a country generating waves of extreme news—accounts of Afri- Eca’s highest GDP alongside stories of terrorism—the reports of the schoolhouse kidnappings were shocking. About 300 Nigerian schoolgirls had been abducted from their dormitories by violent extremists and were being held in a remote forest, seemingly beyond rescue. It international media some days before focusing on the story of the abduc- tions, but when a Nigerian’s plaintive Twit- ter hashtag—#BringBackOurGirls—went viral, the tragic news was everywhere. The phrase was tweeted millions of times. One photo of a forlorn-looking first lady Michelle Obama holding a sign of the hashtag was retweeted more than 58,000 times. But the story of how an explosive effort redirected the world’s attention to a corner of the globe is also the story of how awareness is a slim substitute for HARAM AFP PHOTO/BOKO understanding. What began as a Nigeri- The kidnapping of Nigerian schoolgirls brought a global response, yet little nuance an campaign aimed at local government incompetence was stretched to enfold all Many of those who gathered were wearing manner of worthy agendas, including fund- should not red, the color that had come to symbolize the raising efforts to secure books or uniforms settle for the facile gathering international protests. “We need for Nigerian schoolgirls—just one of the to do something and be part of that larger targets of Boko Haram, the kidnappers when deeper stories are conversation that is happening globally,” who seek to establish an Islamic state and an organizer explained. She introduced the end Western education in Nigeria. waiting to be reported first speaker, a lawyer from Nigeria who said Fairly quickly, the international discus- it was important to remember that there sion was directed by a hashtag activism on in the U.S. and Europe. were places where a library was a “luxury.” that successfully overtook more modest “ is usually a problem for American I spotted Ameto Akpe, a 2014 Nieman journalistic efforts. readers to fix, to donate to, to support,” Fellow and gifted Nigerian who In trying to parse the events, I e-mailed Zuckerman wrote me. “In a Nigerian context, has written about systemic corruption in Ethan Zuckerman, director of the MIT Bring Back Our Girls is a political demand, her country. I waved to her and we sat next Center for Civic Media and author of “Re- asking for a higher degree of competence to each other on a stone bench. “Nothing in wire,” an examination of the challenges of and engagement from an often inept gov- Nigeria is as it seems, absolutely nothing,” harnessing the Internet to build international ernment. The Nigerian campaign wanted she said. “But this overly simplified story engagement. He wrote back from Nairobi, international attention but perhaps not the seems to suit a Western audience.” where he was doing fieldwork, and said international input later offered.” As the speeches continued, Ameto pa- that what began as a local Nigerian effort On Mother’s Day morning, I biked to tiently told the nuanced history of Boko to draw attention to the incompetence of Cambridge Common where a concerned Haram’s radical, violent turn. She described President Goodluck Jonathan’s government Harvard graduate student had organized a an unlikely galvanizing moment: In 2009, became “a more complicated dialogue” “Bring Back Our Girls” rally. A bright sun when police stopped Boko Haram members when #BringBackOurGirls began trending and free coffee warmed the small crowd. riding in a funeral procession for defying

2 Nieman Reports | Spring 2014 a motorcycle helmet law, the mourners interpreted it as a provocation. Weeks of Questions of Care armed clashes between Boko Haram and Three awards, administered by the Nieman Foundation, went to work that exposed practices the Nigerian military followed, with each at hospitals in Nevada, Louisiana, Wisconsin and across the country that affected their most vulnerable patients. side claiming the other side fired the first shot. The clashes ended when Boko Haram’s 2013 WORTH BINGHAM PRIZE FOR founder, in police custody, was fatally shot. The Sacramento Bee “Nevada Patient Busing” Ameto was dismayed by the “misinfor- Lead reporters Cynthia Hubert and Phillip Reese, mation through oversimplification” she felt photographer Renee Byer, graphic artist Nathaniel Levine, characterized much of the news coverage researcher Pete Basofin, presentation editor Robert Casey, and, consequently, world reaction. Corrup- and editor Deborah Anderluh. Over the course of five years, tion, political ineptitude, and incompetent Rawson-Neal Psychiatric Hospital in Las Vegas transported leadership loom large in Nigeria and these more than 1,500 mentally ill patients out of Nevada—a third Hubert Reese problems need to be addressed locally. of them to California and at least one to each of the lower Even the international discussion of Boko 48 states—often without treatment plans or housing in place. The series led to a $30 million increase in funding for mental health care in Nevada. Haram as “foreign Islamic terrorists,” she said, fit a fearful Western narrative and had the unwelcome effect of absolving the 2013 TAYLOR FAMILY AWARD FOR FAIRNESS IN local Nigerian government of its primary Milwaukee Journal Sentinel role in this evolving tragedy. “Deadly Delays” “Call them what they are,” Ameto said of Reporters Mark Johnson, Ellen Gabler, and John Fauber, news the captors: “Thugs.” She said she worried applications developer Allan James Vestal, photojournalist Kristyna Wentz-Graff, copy editors Jennifer Steele and Karen that the story had become “hijacked” by Samelson, graphics artist Lou Saldivar, designer Nick Lujero people of good intent who, in a rush to and interactive designer Emily Yount. Thousands of hospitals raise awareness, had redirected the focus across the U.S. delayed testing newborn blood samples, Johnson Gabler to well-meaning but ultimately ineffective causing doctors to miss easily treatable but dangerous actions, while the underlying problems of conditions in infants. The series led to changes in federal law and the establishment of new poverty, corruption and an impotent gov- safeguards at hospitals. ernment were sidelined. “Buying books has nothing to do with this,” she said. Finalists: Tampa Bay Times and the Center for Investigative Reporting, “America’s Worst Charities”; ,“Trials: A Desperate Fight to Save Kids and Change Science” The emotional pull of the kidnapping story was undeniable and the #BringBackOurGirls social media movement understandably 2014 J. ANTHONY LUKAS PRIZE PROJECT appealed to distant observers aching to J. Anthony Lukas Book Prize respond—with rallies, donations, tweets. , “Five Days at Memorial: Life and Death in a Storm-Ravaged But journalists should not settle for the Hospital” (Crown) facile when deeper and more complex stories Decisions made at a hospital in the days after Hurricane Katrina are explored. Finalist: Jonathan M. Katz, “The Big Truck That Went By: How the about political and economic alienation World Came to Save Haiti and Left Behind a Disaster” (Palgrave MacMillan) are waiting to be reported. Fink “We have criticized Western journalists Mark Lynton History Prize for not reporting on us properly but we are Jill Lepore, “Book of Ages: The Life and Opinions of Jane Franklin” (Alfred not doing the job of telling our own stories,” A. Knopf) Ameto continued. “Every Nigerian knows This biography of the youngest sister of Benjamin Franklin provides a fresh what is happening, and I blame both indi- perspective on the lives of women in early America. Finalist: Christopher Clark, vidual journalists and the media houses for “The Sleepwalkers: How Europe Went to War in 1914” (HarperCollins) Lepore political coverage that is character based J. Anthony Lukas Work-in-Progress Award and not deep enough.” Adrienne Berard, “When Yellow was Black: The Untold Story of the First At the rally that morning, a new speaker Fight for Desegregation in Southern Schools” (Beacon Press) talked about efforts to buy clothing for Ni- Thirty years before Brown v. Board of Education, a Chinese family and their gerian schoolgirls. Ameto shook her head. two young daughters fought to break through the color line at a Mississippi “We don’t need an emotional response,” she school. Finalist: Yochi J. Dreazen, “The Invisible Front: Love and Loss in an Era of said. “We need an intelligent response.” Berard Endless War” (Crown)

On July 15, Little, Brown will publish last year’s Work-in-Progress Award winner, “Factory Man: How One Furniture Maker Battled Offshoring, Stayed Local—and Helped Save an American Town,” by Beth Macy, a 2010 Nieman Fellow. PHOTOS BY LISA ABITBOL AND LEISE JONES

Nieman Reports | Spring 2014 3 LIVE@LIPPMANN The Joy of Scrolling BuzzFeed editor in chief Ben Smith on the challenge of competing with every other piece of content on the Web

hen Ben Smith joined BuzzFeed as editor in chief in 2012, the Wsite was better known for cute cat videos and fun lists than for serious journalism. Over the past two years, he’s hired more than 150 reporters and editors; the site now covers politics and business and has an investigative reporting team. It now attracts 130 million monthly unique visitors. Before arriving at BuzzFeed, Smith was a well-established political reporter. He was an early hire at and creator of some of the earliest New York City poli- tics , including the Politicker, which he started for the New York Observer in 2004. He began his career at The Indi - anapolis Star before moving to Latvia and reporting for the European edition of The Wall Street Journal.

Smith was interviewed by 2014 Nieman SEITZ JONATHAN Fellow Susie Banikarim during a visit “Most things on the Web are too long,” BuzzFeed’s Ben Smith tells Susie Banikarim to Lippmann House earlier this year. Edited excerpts: On Twitter followers wire stories, no one shares wire stories. The On attracting readers Somebody at a big told me that form was created for this very specific reason Our view is that the bar is very high to he sees his Twitter account as his helicopter that has to do with newspapers, and cutting do something that’s compelling enough on the roof. If management ever gets in his from the bottom. It’s this very wooden form. to have someone actively decide to face too much, it’s this piece of leverage, You put nine things in the first sentence, share it, not just to have somebody wan- essentially, that he can always threaten to you summarize the story in the second der past page A7 and glance at it because leave, and take it with him. sentence, then you have a random quote that’s the newspaper that landed on their I do think there’s clearly been this shift that restates, not as eloquently, the thing door. A lot of editors in the last decade in power from news organizations to re- you just said. Then you have a paragraph learned that, “Oh, the Internet is this porters and to individual reporters. I don’t that tells you things you already knew, and trick.” You can get the tech guys to SEO love the word “.” I’m not sure what it then you just have everything else in order [search engine optimize] your stuff. means. can rise and fall very fast for of importance. That’s a weird way to tell Then you can get traffic. That’s exactly individuals or companies. The incredibly a story. One thing we think about a lot is the wrong lesson for what turned out stressful fact that you’re only as good as what replaces that. I think it’s something to be the next era, which was social, your last story is as true as ever, even if you more visual, more emotionally driven, may- where you really can’t trick people into have a lot of Twitter followers. be funny sometimes, when it’s possible sharing things. They have to really to be funny about the subject. Certainly like it and be proud to share it. Whether On story something that pulls in all the media that it’s a more traditional form of a story or One challenge is figuring out what replaces you’re talking about—images, videos, and, a totally new one like a quiz, that basic the wire story as the way breaking news increasingly, tweets and status principle holds. gets communicated because no one reads updates that are part of the story.

4 Nieman Reports | Spring 2014 On fluff vs. news Newspapers, like The Wall Street Journal in I think mostly everybody, except sociopaths, particular, have always had great thematic cares about cute animals and most people beats. We have a global gay rights beat and want to know what’s going on in the world. a global women’s rights beat that play on I think you don’t get stupider when you a conversation and a universe of sourcing go pat the animal as it walks by. We don’t in a way that makes a lot of sense. On video view it as we want to bake some spinach I’ve never been a big fan of video for news. into the brownies. We feel like most of On story length I think text is a great way to communicate our readers want to know what’s going I think things should be as short as they can information. A guy talking at a screen is on in the world, but also more people are possibly be. I think that’s always been true. not as good. Our video guy is a going to read about Beyoncé than about Most things on the Web are too long. It’s celebrity if you’re an Internet geek of a certain advances in transgender rights anywhere. a really great crutch for editors that you era. He was a very early digital video guy can say this four-paragraph digression who invented the vlog, the camera pointed On finding the right audience about your grandmother is beautiful, but right at your face, and the quick cuts, and The way we look at analytics is that each we just got an ad, and it doesn’t fit in the the voice. A little pre-YouTube. He had this story has a potential audience, and if it’s column so we have to cut it. show in ’06, ’07 called “The Show.” a story about Ukraine, or a story about It’s harder for the editor to say, “This He was getting 40,000, 50,000 views a lobbying in D.C., there may be tens of is really self-indulgent and lame.” day, which was a huge number particularly thousands or hundreds of thousands of Long, narrative features on the Web got then but also now. He’s been experimenting people who, in an ideal world, will share a bad name, in part, because the places ever since. Having a background in TV and read that story. If it’s a doesn’t tell you that much about what feature about rebuilding a people want to watch and share online. house in , there may “We definitely see a lot of readers One thing is Ze’s videos are often very be millions. If it’s a list of short. Three, four minutes is long-form. cute animals, there might He’s done these series of true facts videos be tens of millions. for deeply reported, emotionally about various animals. They’re really weird It’s an unscientific sense of and funny and get hundreds of thousands “what’s the possible audience compelling, narrative stuff” of views. It’s totally unrecognizable. It’s for this piece, and let’s try to not a descendent of TV. hit that whole audience.” that traditionally do them wonderfully, It’s a success if gets a like , did a horrible job On guilty pleasures scoop on what the House is doing on the putting them online with these weird When launched its Employment Non-Discrimination Act, if page breaks. Styles section in the ‘70s, people were hor- 5,000 people read it and share it. That’s The experience of scrolling is really nice. rified. It was done for advertising reasons a success, whereas if 50 people read it, it’s I like reading long things on my phone. and was a huge commercial success. I think probably not. You don’t have to turn pages. We see peo- different generations have different kinds ple actually spend a little more time on of leisure content, and maybe people who On new beats those stories on mobile than on desktop. read The New York Times want to read One advantage of starting from scratch is On the flip side, you often had people questionable trend pieces in the Styles sec- you can rethink beat structures. Gay rights putting things online that had been spiked tion, or features in the Real Estate section is this huge story of the last 10 years, but or that good writers hadn’t been able to about $9 million mansions in Venice that it’s covered as a B-list beat in a lot of pub- sell to a so, basically, they’re you might want to buy. lications, just because it always has been. not as good. People of my generation, maybe, are For us, it’s very much a frontline beat and is really important for stories more interested in Instagrams of cats. It’s we’re able to hire the best reporters who like that, and cutting is important. The actually really hard to make a great list really own that beat because you want to term “long-form” gets attached to self-in- of Instagrams of cats. You’d be surprised. be in a place that’s taking it seriously, not dulgent, unedited stuff that often could Go ahead and try to do one that gets a in a place where it’s a secondary beat. be 6,000 words rather than 9,000 words. million views. It’s a very competitive space. For international coverage, there are these I think the thing there’s maybe not room traditional, regional beats that don’t always for is the 900-word daily story, but we The full video and transcript make sense. definitely see a lot of readers for deeply of Ben Smith’s talk are online Partly because of the way communication reported, emotionally compelling, great at nieman.harvard.edu/bsmith has changed, there are thematic beats. narrative stuff.

Nieman Reports | Spring 2014 5 NIEMANS@WORK ABC PHOTO ARCHIVES/GETTY PHOTO IMAGES ABC Barnabas Collins, in the 1960s soap opera “Dark Shadows,” may have been the first conflicted vampire in

And Marx and Engels both used the word “vampire” to describe the capitalist class. Heart of Darkness Modern vampire novels are often about power and strategy. One day, I came across Margot Adler, NF ’82, ponders the connections a professor who said, “You know, almost every good vampire film and novel asks among vampires,Wall Street, and moral complicity this question: Now that we are at the top of the food chain, do we treat humans as ight about the time that my late hus- Marx and Engels used cattle, or, since we were once human, do band was diagnosed with terminal we treat them with respect?” How different stomach cancer, I started obsessing “vampire” to describe the is that, she said, than the questions we R face every day. How do we treat someone on vampire novels. There I was, sitting by my husband’s bedside, pondering mortality, capitalist class with less money, power and status? Does and reading these novels—270 by the end. might make right? A couple of months into this, I started how often vampires were used as images By the end of my four-year obsession, I asking larger questions: Why have vampires in the Occupy Wall Street demonstrations decided that vampires simply reflect the had such traction in our culture? Why had I was reporting on. I also noticed that jour- fears and concerns of any age. And today’s Hollywood spent $7 billion over a couple nalists writing about the economic crisis vampires, from the Cullens in “Twilight” to of years on vampire films and television often used vampire imagery. The Huffing- Angel and Spike in “Buffy,” are struggling shows? My exploration resulted in my book: ton Post described a piece of new data as to be moral despite being predators. As are “Vampires Are Us: Understanding Our “like a single ray of sunlight—it’s already we. Our struggle is over our complicity in Love Affair with the Immortal Dark Side,” enough to make the vampires scream.” I sucking the lifeblood out of the planet. The published by Weiser in February. What I saw a cartoon of someone putting a stake first truly conflicted vampire was Barnabas now understand is that underneath the in the heart of a Wall Street trader. Vol- in “Dark Shadows,” who appeared right sexual glamour of modern vampires is an taire wrote that vampires were not real, but before we first saw the earth from space. exploration of morality, power and its abuses. there were men of business “who sucked We saw, for the first time, our vulnerability, While I was looking into this, I noticed the blood of the people in broad daylight.” responsibility and moral complicity.

6 Nieman Reports | Spring 2014 From Chile, With Thanks Paula Molina, NF ’13, on finding local stories of global interest

y Nieman year gave me a strong sense of the truly globalized conversation in which we can

M SIERRA, THE FILM “NAE PASARAN” FROM BUSTOS FELIPE all take part. When I returned to Chile, as the host of a radio program in Santiago A story in a Scottish paper about Bob Fulton resonated with Chilean citizens and a correspondent for the BBC, I wanted to bridge divides, to turn radio stories into Bob Fulton refused to repair the engines had never visited: “Workers like me, human online narratives, and to turn of Chilean warplanes that had bombed the beings like me, were being killed. That drove into stories of universal interest. In The presidential palace. The union followed his me to say no.” My story was published in Herald in Glasgow, Scotland, I found a tale lead, extending Fulton’s refusal throughout Spanish on the BBC Mundo website, and that connected Santiago to East Kilbride. the factory. Few, if any, Chileans knew about I broadcast it on my radio program. It was In that Scottish town, workers at the Rolls this show of solidarity. widely shared, and many Chileans thanked Royce factory risked their livelihoods to Four decades later, Fulton, now 90, took Bob and his fellow workers. “Paint your stand in solidarity with Chile after the mil- my Skype call. In a halting voice, he told me village and you’ll paint the whole world.” itary coup in 1973. For religious reasons, what had inspired him to help a country he It’s an old saying and still true.

Covering the Home Front In a speech to the U.S. delegation to the U.N., Sangar Rahimi, NF ’14, laid out the challenges facing Afghan journalists as the U.S. prepares to leave

started working in the media with the in Afghanistan. Personally, it would be hope of bringing change. My main hope Journalists reporting almost impossible to work as a journalist Iwas to help my people understand from the provinces need in Afghanistan if I had to work under their rights and obligations as citizens, to the pressure and conditions my fellow monitor the government’s performance, steadfast support Afghan journalists face. In particular, and hold accountable the wrongdoers. journalists reporting from the provinces I’ve been trained in a newsroom with or working with Western media outlets, brilliant New York Times foreign cor- Taliban, warlords or narcotic smugglers. still need the international community’s respondents, and I’ve had the Times’s Sometimes, after a controversial story is support. To do our jobs, we need the support. Despite these privileges, I’ve often published, we turn off our phones and continuing support of the Committee received serious threats from the Taliban, go underground for a few days to avoid to Protect Journalists and other jour- and a few times I have been subjected being targeted for reprisal. nalists’ rights agencies. The Western to interrogation and intimidation. At As the U.S. government and its Western journalists currently based in Afghanistan times, the government has threatened allies draw down their military commit- will eventually leave the country as the to prosecute me for allegedly defaming ment in Afghanistan, those efforts are transition process continues, and it is senior officials. We often had to withhold in doubt. The Afghan government is not the responsibility of Afghan journalists our names from the byline of a story if strong enough to protect the achieve- to provide the world with quality news the topic concerned the crimes of the ments of the past decade of free media from Afghanistan.

Nieman Reports | Spring 2014 7 NIEMAN STORYBOARD Form follows

function. Just what that axiom means, applied to journalism, was revealed to me by a man named Carl New- The epic free-verse poem ton, of The Atlanta Journal when I arrived for my first newspaper as a vehicle for job in 1971. Newton was a chain-smoking former ball-turret gunner, who, perhaps as narrative nonfiction a consequence of his World War II service,

By Russ Rymer was adept at both offense and defense. His top desk drawer held a .38 caliber revolver, which he signed out to reporters heading into unpredictable interviews. In the newsroom, he was militant protector of the stylebook against any intrusion of ostentatious erudition. I witnessed him shame a reporter for trying to slip the word “apotheosis” into a family newspaper, and (another time) hurl across the room a Faulkner novel he was reading between deadlines when he encountered the abomination of a sentence longer than a page. He introduced me to the divided soul of journalists. As invasive as we are in our reporting, as much as we live by the ethic of incursion and trespass, the bursting

Stockholm was the scene of a murder that became a national (and writer’s) obsession of conventions and shibboleths, in our writing we are idea that a well-run country could eradicate evil in its by tradition hidebound conservatives, guardians of the midst and offer to an imperiled world the model of a temple of fact. Our marauding and defending sides are virtuous state, the case became a referendum on the integral: Breaking down walls requires an unbreakable fate of nations. A line of implication could be drawn hammer, and the reporter’s hammer of choice is the from sexual violence to nuclear Armageddon; that is, rigor of literal accounting, uncorrupted by emotion, if I were smart enough to draw it. bias, assumption or fancy language. Our liberties on I wasn’t. I did my reporting, interviewed prosecutors, the field are redeemed by our restraint on the page. police, and other major players, and then went home All this begs the question, in my own current project, and sat. I picked up the project, put it down, wrote some, “Between Lilac and Witch Hazel,” of why I feel com- tore my writing up. The story was a good one; it just pelled to tell a reported news story in the form of an wouldn’t find its form. The causal links I felt to be so epic free-verse poem. I have little doubt Carl Newton, strong, between a woman’s murder and the wounded did he know, would toss me out a window. soul of a nation, between private evil and the sweep of The story I’m composing is a staple of traditional history, crumbled on the page like cookie dough when news journalism, a murder mixed with a scandal. I you forget to put the butter in. stumbled on the tale in the fall of 1993 at a reception in Form follows function, and every story has its rightful an upstairs room in Den Gyldene Freden, a restaurant shape. I knew a few shapes by that point in my writing in the old city of Stockholm, where a woman described career, which had evolved from news reporting to long- to me an event that had blossomed from a crime into form magazine writing to longer-form nonfiction books a national identity crisis. A prostitute had been killed, and, finally, a novel. When it came to the Sweden story, and her dismembered body discovered in trash bags though, even fiction’s liberties didn’t avail me. Myste- dispersed around the city. Such a murder would disturb riously, the usual expository buttressing—argument, any society hoping to call itself healthy, and Sweden, background and explanation—only made the story sound where such gruesome events are not daily fare, was less plausible. The task required a different logic than troubled all the more, especially after two prominent any I’d ever employed. I wished I could push through physicians were arrested for the crime. my constraints, wished that some editor could arm me In Sweden’s national mythology, doctors exemplify with a pistol of appropriate caliber to embolden me in the scientific caring the virtuous state might offer to its an unpredictable writing situation. But there was no citizens. That these paragons of rationality could be the such protection, and I put the project down, until two culprits rocked the foundations of society. They were decades later when I realized I might tell the tale in an acquitted of the murder, but then a graduate student (as entirely different way. it turns out, the woman I met in Den Gyldene Freden) I generally know that a story is taking shape when doing research among Stockholm’s prostitutes produced it starts to speak, and dissociated (even nonsense) more evidence, and the doctors were arrested again. They words and phrases begin compiling themselves in my couldn’t be retried for murder, but they were charged with the dismemberment, and, this time, convicted. So, a good story: Sordid crime that shakes a society, mystery solved by a crusading outsider. And more: Since the society in question was committed to the

PETER LEVI/MOMENT VIA GETTY IMAGES NIEMAN STORYBOARD

mind. With “Between Lilac and Witch Hazel,” the early from my own, I’d always found the empathetic bridge. phrases floating past were not just words, but rhythms, The Sweden story frustrated me not because the con- cadences. The clue to an approach was there from the nection between story and storyteller was too obscure, start. If it took me a while to accept the invitation, I but because it was, on the surface, so obvious. My expe- had reason. Poetry is no place to enter undefended. rience—being assaulted and robbed on St. Croix, having Some years ago, I was inspired to pen a thank-you friends murdered, trying to care for a friend who’d just note to a friend of mine in rhyming tercets. My exertions been raped by an intruder into our house—was the sto- earned plaudits from my friend, but a caution from his ry’s missing, cohesive ingredient. But equating my own wife, a nationally prominent poet. “Don’t think this is travails, however horrendous, with the violent death of easy,” she growled, a warning reinforced by all the poetry a young Swedish woman edged beyond self-awareness critics and reviewers I’ve ever read. Some of those critics into egoism. That is, when the equation was expressed reserve particular opprobrium for free verse, the style through expository argument and explanation. A poetic of poetry I picked to tell my story, especially when (as often) it’s done wrong. Ac- If it took me tor (and confessed private A Short History of Long Poems poet) Stephen Fry nicely Early epic poems, which typically focused on the exploits of great warriors, were a while to called the combination of intended to be read or sung aloud. More recently, writers have adapted the form amateur zeal and undis- for memoir, verse novels, and narrative nonfiction. accept the ciplined verse “worthless invitation, arse drivel.” 2000 B.C. 700-800 B.C. 200 B.C.-200 I had ree verse was suggested The Epic of Homer’s The Iliad The Mahabharata to me partly by those Gilgamesh (Greece) Greeks () Factions of reason. Fearly half-heard ca- (Babylon) The king sack Troy by an Indian clan go dences, and partly, I confess, of Uruk searches for means of a to war, with by pride: It may not be the immortality wooden horse divine help Poetry is easiest poetical form, but at least it’s not as easy to no place critique as more formal, codified styles. There’s no approach let me mine those connections less literally, place to hide in a villanelle. Free verse also allowed allowed my experience to enter the story as metaphor, to enter me the rhetorical leeway to keep my poem enslaved to instead of monstrosity. By decoupling “literal” from brute facts. I wanted a reported piece, with quotes and “objective” (by, in fact, making literalness the enemy undefended attributions. In this I didn’t have models, exactly, but I of objectivity) the poetic form freed me to engage a have found enablers, empyrean examples of the form layer of story my careful prose obscured. I wish to attempt. W.G. Sebald’s “After Nature,” James With that permission, the tale grew. Elements too far McMichael’s “Four Good Things,” Tomas Tranströmer’s apart (or too tenuously connected) to be linked in a “Baltics”—not reported, not quote heavy, but long, beau- standard narrative suffered no impediment here. There tiful, profound re-livings of actual events. With their was nothing to keep me from zinging, in the space of encouragement, I set to work at the beginning, and a line, from 2014 to 1970 to 1993, from Stockholm to quickly began to comprehend the benefits of the genre. Massachusetts to the Caribbean shore where I once For one thing, the beginning didn’t begin where I lived in an abode that would become a stage for terror. thought it would, in Sweden in 1990, but 20 years earlier and half a world away, during a violence-plagued season Set on an outcrop, in my own life, when I resided in the U.S. Virgin Islands. cantilevered over a jagged reach of coral. As though It’s a commonplace of writing that, in some observed in mid-dive from a loom of jungle the white house leapt stories, the facts are incomplete without the fact of the at the sea. Nothing neighbored it. The road observer. I’d been aware, in past projects, that I hadn’t threaded slim and careful along the empty coast cracked the assignment until I’d confronted my own to town. For miles, the road. Town the crumble of investment in the tale. Even when the lives of my earlier Frederiksted, with only the ghost of a dirt track books’ protagonists (a wealthy black patriarch in the Jim branching off along the way for intersection, Crow South, a girl raised without language imprisoned along the road that in a suburban Los Angeles bedroom) seemed distant limned the land like beach wrack.

10 Nieman Reports | Spring 2014 But together with the liberty to speak like that, The sea he’d seen lie gentle only, that had at first to repeat my “along”s and throw in a “limn” (a word seemed empty. Until with Mickey late I distrust) with my “wrack”s, come new taboos. on that initial afternoon they’d burrowed down into it Connections must remain allusive or disjunctive, and met with their almost no longer teenaged bodies still not spelled out. While I can jump from era to era clean as augurs its iridescent schools and swarms, and as abruptly as I want, I find it hard to view one era sinking to where the shallows strangely from the vantage point of another, as I do so heavied and a blade cold drew him easily in prose. Foreshadowing works not well at all, downward first by the feet, he’d felt and flashback little better. through the snorkel the sonar ping of The poetic ground is by design too unstable to submarines. make a firm foundation for narrative devices that lean so far out over time. Word choice, too, has its limits. Thanks to this precision, the new mode, for all its On the one hand, I can mangle or manhandle my strangeness, feels like a . Not because I’m vocabulary without incurring the comic toll such play a poet at heart, but a journalist. This form is as direct would inflict on my prose, but the poetic requirement a telling, as the inverted pyramid structure was to the that one be inventive in expression is balanced news in The Atlanta Journal. by a moratorium on flashiness, a moratorium on However lush and runaway it might appear, the visible exertion. Ostentatious erudition is all the more poem is spare. This may have been the cause of my uncool. long inability: Telling such a far-flung tale as standard Especially, I’m finding, because each word takes nonfiction always involved too much verbiage, its ideas on so much extra force. Like a battle on a board over-padded in the excelsior of explanation. The poem

The Song of 19 B.C. Roland () Charlemagne’s Virgil’s The Aeneid The Tale of the Heike W.G. Sebald’s army battles (Rome) Aeneas escapes (Japan) Samurai clans After Nature Muslims in Troy, founds Rome vie for control of Japan The biographical 1100s 1300s-1400s James McMichael’s links among a Four Good Things medieval painter, an Coming of age in 18th-century explorer 700-1000s post-war America and the author Beowulf (England) A Scandinavian warrior 1980 1988 fights a monster and its mother 1974 Tomas 1986 Tranströmer’s Vikram Seth’s Baltics The Golden Gate Autobiographical Love and technology game, enormities are manipulated with the flick exploration of in San Francisco, of a hand. The smallest rephrasing has strategic one family’s circa 1980 consequences. Again, this seems organic. troubled history If “Between Lilac and Witch Hazel” is at heart about the connections between a local event and the great world, the equation (so impossible to can stick to the necessaries. For that reason, writing state explicitly in prose) is implicit in the poem’s it feels not like a license, but an adherence, faithful to very structure, wherein each small word holds sway the form the story’s function called for. It’s just that, over the entirety. for the form to stay true, the writer needed to stray. In phrasing, too (in another scene from the Caribbean section of the tale, involving a Russ Rymer has contributed to The group of adolescent boys), the tie between personal New Yorker, Harper’s, and other impression and imperial power can make a gentle and has authored two appearance. nonfiction books and a novel

Nieman Reports | Spring 2014 11 NIEMAN STORYBOARD The Core of Story How comics can enhance reader engagement and bring new audiences to narrative nonfiction

By Erin Polgreen bring new readers into complex issues. As journalism organizations try to connect hortly after I co-founded Symbolia, with new audiences and innovate online, a digital publication that merges comic book narratives can work across comic books and journalism, I got platforms, engage younger, more visually S oriented readers, and transcend cultural an intriguing pitch. Reporter Sarah Mirk wanted to tell the stories of the veterans borders. who had served at the Guantánamo Bay Comics are certainly popular. Graphic detention camp to help reframe the public novels—the popular term for book-length understanding of the base and make the comics—are one of the fastest growing “image of Guantánamo become very clear offerings in contemporary publishing and and personal.” have been growing in popularity since at Mirk took on this story because “me - least 2008. Amazon recently scooped up dia about Guantánamo focuses almost digital comics publisher Comixology. exclusively on policy discussions and the Looking at the print spectrum, BookScan’s opinions of high-ranking decision-makers.” 2013 report, which covers about 85 percent As a result, human impacts as well as the of book store sales (not including libraries or experiences of those working at the facility comic book stores and few big box stores), are “overshadowed.” shows a nearly 4 percent growth in the I immediately green-lit the story. Mirk number of comic books sold in 2013 and instinctively understood what comic close to 7 percent growth in total revenue. book formats can do for journalism. The Print sales overall have been shrinking since form makes heady topics intimate and 2008, according to the 2013 annual report relevant. Issues that are far away become from PriceWaterhouseCoopers. more personal to the reader. In a world of But why do comics work so well? The information overload, beautifully crafted, secret is in how users consume the content. Comics like Symbolia’s “Declassified” give hand-illustrated comics provide clarity and Comic books make it possible to understand readers a personal understanding of a emotional resonance. more—and do it faster. Comics theorist and story that may feel remote from daily life Mirk worked with artist Lucy Bellwood cartoonist Scott McCloud calls it “amplifi- to merge subtle audio, looped anima- cation through simplification,” in which the tions, and sequential visual narratives in a simplified drawing pares down an image complex meaning quickly from the artist’s profile of two Navy veterans. The resulting to its “essential meaning.” rendering. piece, “Declassified,” is one of the most This kind of iconic illustration focuses Neuroscientific research supports what successful stories from our first year of attention on specific ideas and emotions narrative nonfiction storytellers instinc- publishing. in a process of highly disciplined edito- tively know: Stories with clear, emotionally “Declassified” has been syndicated at hu- rial decision-making. Each stroke of the evocative dramatic arcs are most effective man-interest journalism outlet Narratively, pen imparts instant meaning because the at keeping readers engaged. These stories excerpted at political newsblog Think Prog- images are essential and also universal. cause the body to produce chemicals in- ress, distributed as a print minicomic, and A few furrows on a character’s brow cluding cortisol, which focuses attention, translated into French for a forthcoming convey worry. A comic about a veteran’s as well as oxytocin, which is associated issue of Swiss start-up Sept. experiences in Guantánamo Bay becomes with empathy. They also light up areas of The work is a powerful case study in how a story about a woman that we relate to the brain linked to understanding others. comic books can be successfully used to on an emotional level because we infer Neil Cohn of the University of California

12 Nieman Reports | Spring 2014 How comics can enhance reader engagement and bring new audiences to narrative nonfiction LUCY BELLWOOD LUCY

San Diego, who has been studying comics al eye candy of a chart with the spine of highly engaging content that works well on for more than 10 years, argues that comics narrative. You can highlight the humanity multiple platforms, don’t rely too heavily can increase overall comprehension as of a subject by making their words come on bells and whistles. If the interactive well. “Studies for several decades now have out of a face rather than just attached to takes away from the core narrative, you shown that using works written in these a name on the page.” don’t need it. Don’t automate a story’s visual languages in educational contexts Though comics use simple lines and sparse progression like a timed slideshow. Let can be helpful for learning,” Cohn says. prose to tell a story, they are anything but the reader control the speed and length of “The evidence is fairly clear that sequential simplistic. The best-selling works of Joe time that they spend in the story. Know images (usually plus text) are an effective Sacco, Marjane Satrapi, , the core of the story you’d like to convey, teaching tool.” and Alison Bechdel contain numerous and animate that core—in images and Comics are “great for condensing and examples of the successful integration of words—in ways that evoke empathy and coloring stories,” says Roxanne Palmer, nonfiction and comics. resonate with diverse user groups. who created the story about Ukraine’s Ya- As readers increasingly move toward dig- nukovychLeaks investigative reporting ital content delivered to multiple screens, Erin Polgreen is co-founder project on the following pages. (For the theories like McCloud’s and findings like of Symbolia and has helped animated version, visit nieman.harvard. Cohn’s are critical in developing new ways many media outlets tell edu/comic.) “You can combine the visu- to present journalistic content. To create visual stories

Nieman Reports | Spring 2014 13 NIEMAN STORYBOARD

NIEMAN STORYBOARD

“A Sense of Exhilaration and Possibility”

18 Nieman Reports | Spring 2014 The co-founder of Turkey’s 140journos on building a citizen-sustained news agency from scratch

MURAD SEZER/REUTERS

By Engin Onder the dead. He covered the funerals and offered his per- Coverage of last spective on what happened. He took pictures of the spring’s Gezi Park n December of 2011, Turkish military jets bombed the grieving relatives and the massive funeral procession protests brought village of Uludere, about five miles from the border that brought the corpses, wrapped in blankets, from 140journos a much with , killing 34. Was the attack a tragic mistake the site of the massacre, and he circulated the images larger audience I via Twitter and Instagram. or a planned strike on suspected Kurdish separatists? Were the casualties terrorists, smugglers, or innocent Akinan did what journalists throughout Turkey all citizens? It was impossible for anyone in Turkey to too often refuse to do: report a story that might cast find out because the media did not report the deaths. the government in a bad light. Sometimes, the prime Serdar Akinan, a journalist with the Turkish main- minister tells the media not to cover certain stories. stream daily Aksam, traveled to Uludere on his own Sometimes, the media censors itself. Nine months af- to cover what’s now known as the Roboski massacre. ter he took to social media to tell the story of Uludere, There, he interviewed eyewitnesses and relatives of Akinan was fired from Aksam. He has said he believes

Nieman Reports | Spring 2014 19 MURAD SEZER/REUTERS

Few media outlets covered the protests in 2013 aimed at stopping plans to develop Gezi Park in Istanbul

he was fired because Prime Minister Recep Tayyip for the character limit in a tweet, and “journos” as the Erdogan complained about his columns criticizing the slang reference for what we had no training to be: Turkish government’s policies regarding treatment of the journalists. country’s Kurdish ethnic minority, among other issues. We started covering the news in earnest in January of A couple of weeks after the massacre, two friends and 2012. We skipped our college classes to attend trials and I were sitting in an Istanbul bar talking about what protests, and we shared via social media photographs, Akinan had done and about the sorry state of our nation. audio and video recordings, and reports of what we wit- Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) came nessed. We covered leftist factions supporting arrested to power in 2002 promising to reduce the military’s journalists, radical Islamic groups protesting abortion, influence on politics, reverse the exclusion of Islam from and a trial involving game-fixing by one of the nation’s public life, protect the rights of the Kurds, and enhance favorite football clubs. We were so new to all this that civil liberties. But since then the AKP has increasingly when a Turkish media critic told us we were engaged imposed a kind of one-party rule. The government uses in “,” we had to look up the term on its power under antiterrorism and criminal Wikipedia. Months later, , a Turkish-born laws to punish dissent. A professor at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Do we need mics with a TV series of high-profile jour- Hill who studies the intersection of technology and nalists have lost their jobs society, told me, “This is not ‘citizen journalism.’ This station’s name to let people after public reprimands is ‘journalistic citizenship.’ ” Journalistic citizenship is from Erdogan, and most an important model, not just for my country but for know what’s happening? of the mainstream Turkish other countries where people aren’t getting the news press stay well away from they need. stories, like the Uludere attack, that might harm the government’s image. n February, audio appeared on YouTube and was We felt deeply frustrated by what the Turkish media circulated via Twitter purporting to record Erdogan, was—and wasn’t—delivering. All three of us were in our Iwhose government faces a corruption investiga- 20s, and we wanted to consume news in real time. We tion, ordering his son to get rid of large sums of cash all used Twitter, and we asked ourselves: Do we really from a safe in his house. Erdogan said the tapes were need microphones emblazoned with the name of a TV fabricated to discredit his government. He fired key station to let people know what’s happening? So we officials involved in the corruption probe and tightened created a Twitter account, calling it 140journos—“140” control over the judiciary. In March, Erdogan banned

20 Nieman Reports | Spring 2014 UMIT BEKTAS/REUTERS

Concerned that the government might manipulate the March 30 election results, citizens conducted their own vote counts

Twitter; the nation’s highest court overturned the ban Early on, the mainstream press largely ignored the two weeks later. The move made little difference to protests. Not even Haberturk, a TV station right around Turks, including my mother, who used anonymous the corner from Gezi, broadcast live from the scene. virtual private networks and alternative domain name CNN Turk, one of the largest television stations, aired systems to get around it. a documentary about penguins during a violent clash According to a recent report by Freedom House, a between police and protesters. If the mainstream media Washington-based nonprofit that promotes civil liberties, wasn’t going to document the protests, we decided, the Turkish government is increasingly resorting to “a then the protesters themselves would. variety of strong-arm tactics to suppress the media’s proper role as a check on power,” such as publicly railing e reported the tear gas attacks and other in- against critical journalists and launching tax investi- justices that took place during the Gezi Park gations into media outlets that question it. Turkey is Wprotests. But we also debunked misinformation. also the world’s most aggressive jailer of journalists, At one point, accusations circulated on social media with the Committee to Protect Journalists reporting that Turkish police had attacked citizens with Agent Or- that 40 journalists are currently imprisoned as a result ange, which was used of their work, putting the country ahead of China and during the Vietnam The Turkish government is Iran. This is the social and political backdrop against War to defoliate the which we created 140journos. jungle. Members of suppressing the media with The spring 2013 protests in Istanbul’s Gezi Park marked 140journos conferred a turning point for us. The demonstrations began when with chemical engi- “strong-arm tactics” a small group of environmental activists gathered to neers and determined block government plans to replace Gezi Park with a the canisters in question contained nothing more than commercial development. News of the occupation colored smoke. Before Gezi, 140journos produced about spread via social media and thousands converged on 400 tweets a month. But during June 2013, we shared the park. Police routed them with tear gas and water more than 2,200 tweets, videos, and audio recordings, cannons, which drew tens of thousands of protesters and our Twitter followers increased from roughly 8,000 to Taksim Square, where Gezi is located. Over the next to about 45,000. two weeks, occupations took place across the country, Turkey has about 12 million active Twitter users, with some 3.5 million people participating, according roughly a third of the online population. We have more to the government’s own estimates. than 300 volunteer content producers all across the

Nieman Reports | Spring 2014 21 ASSOCIATED PRESS ASSOCIATED ) PHOTO BELOW PHOTO ( THANASSIS STAVRAKIS/ASSOCIATED PRESS; PRESS; THANASSIS STAVRAKIS/ASSOCIATED Broadcast media ignored last summer’s protests in Istanbul against the government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, below

country, including a survivor of we get word that something is happening, we use the the Uludere attack. As the num- Twitter search tool Topsy to look for tweets with photos. ber of Turkish citizens feeding If, for example, I receive a tweet about a protest in information to 140journos grew, Ankara from a I don’t know and I can’t get in we shifted gears. Instead of doing touch with the person, I search for tweets in Turkish all the reporting ourselves, we accompanied by photos sent around the time of the focused on collecting, categoriz- tweet reporting the protest. If I find a tweet with a ing, validating and Storifying the photo and it is from someone who already follows news content sent to us. To verify 140journos, I send the tweeter a direct message seeking news reports, we use free tools like Yandex Panorama more information. If the tweet is from a source not (’s version of Google StreetView) and TinEye, a known to 140journos, I start following the tweeter to search service to help determine if images are new or see what else they tweet. If I have a location for the pulled from websites. protest, I access public street cameras online to try to To monitor the flow of news tips, 140journos uses verify the information. TweetDeck. We keep lists of 140journos con- f we have any doubt about the veracity of a tweet, we With 300 volunteer reporters, tributors who tweet do not retweet it. New members of 140journos are 140journos has become a news from more than Iencouraged to consult with a group of experienced 50 cities, universities editors via WhatsApp or . Sometimes a newbie clearinghouse for news and other political fails to exercise caution and sends a tweet with incorrect hotspots in Turkey. We information. We own up to mistakes and apologize as also keep lists organized by individual events, such as soon as they are discovered. That happened recently protests against executions in Egypt, and lists organized when a new editor failed to authenticate a photo of a by factions, such as ultra-nationalists and conservatives. protest; a 140journos follower presented us with proof In addition to Twitter, we collect newsworthy information that the photo was from a previously reported protest. via a dedicated phone number—our content support If I see a tweet with a picture or intelligence from a line—and via messages sent through WhatsApp. When trusted person in our network, I dig deeper. Early one

22 Nieman Reports | Spring 2014 XX

afternoon in April, I saw a tweet from a city in south- When local elections took place in March, we enlisted eastern Turkey alleging that police made excessive use citizen volunteers to tally votes to check against fraud. of tear gas and some primary school students were In the 24 hours following the elections, we collected affected. Attached to the tweet was a picture of two photos of more than 6,000 pages of official vote tallies, girls lying on a bed in what looked like a hospital. An noting inconsistencies between the local tallies and adult was with them. the official results, most of which favored the prime On Topsy, I typed in the name of the city and the name minister’s AKP. The opposition Republican People’s of the district, a frequent location for protests, and saw Party filed formal complaints of election fraud. Mean- a similar photo from another user. A second tweet with while, we continue to analyze vote tallies and refine our a very similar photo came from the city’s parliamen- crowdsourced system of vote counting as we prepare tarian, who follows 140journos. He is a trusted source for the presidential election in August. so we tweeted the news, sticking to the confirmed When a disaster killed some 300 miners in May, facts. 140journos sent tweets, photos, videos and audio As 140journos has gained a wider following, we’ve recordings from the mining town of Soma. We inter- attracted “pirates”—members of major news channels viewed activists, lawyers, rescue team members, and like NTV, CNN Turk, Haberturk, and Skyturk 360 the relatives of miners. In addition, we distributed frustrated by the self-censorship of their own stations— reports from protests there and across Turkey as who feed the news they gather to us. The contributions mourners demanded accountability from the gov- of professional photojournalists have helped us a lot. ernment. During the Gezi Park protests, we distributed compelling Soon we will launch the beta version of Journos, a images from a pirate photojournalist. mobile app that we hope will encourage more citizens to More recently, a pirate from a TV station confirmed report the news. With a tip we had received about an alleged Istanbul Journos, every piece protest against controversial spiritual leader of visual evidence is A better informed citizenry Fethullah Gülen, whom Erdogan has accused of working digitally watermarked now has a bigger stake in to undermine his administration. Mainstream news with date, source and outlets reported that Gülen had cursed Erdogan, location information what’s going on in Turkey though not by name, and his supporters during a weekly to ensure the integrity podcast. The pirate provided us with photos showing of our citizen-reporting network. We ask 140journos anti-Gülen protesters carrying signs saying “Pray Don’t contributors to use Vine for video because the app bars Curse.” users from uploading footage other than clips taken with their phones; the smartphone’s GPS provides urrently, 140journos receives thousands of tweets the location information. We only publish audio of a day on everything from protests to local politics. public figures whose voices we know or recordings CWe also host a 30-minute show once a week on from trusted sources. With the new app, 140journos Acik Radyo. Now 140journos is moving into an era in editors and trusted sources can create pages for news which the goal is not only to become a standalone news about specific subjects, which places a premium on agency sustained by a network of citizen journalists but live reporting. Users who try to fool the system will a force for creating a civil society, one in which citizens be blacklisted. holding divergent views can talk to each other and in For journalists in the mainstream media, Turkey is a which every vote is properly counted. tough place to work. But it’s a great place for journalism Plans to build the nation’s first nuclear power plant start-ups because citizens are so hungry for news—and have sharply divided public opinion, so in 2012 we many are willing to help report it. invited citizens to debate the issue, using the hashtags We started 140journos, first of all, to inform ourselves. #YesToNuclearEnergyBecause and #NoToNuclearEn- But as more citizens join the effort, they are developing ergyBecause. As a host from CNN Turk moderated a a bigger stake in what’s going on. Citizens are willing public debate at the foot of Galata Tower, we projected to put themselves at risk to record what’s happening. the Twitter stream onto the Istanbul landmark. There’s a sense of exhilaration and possibility. If that It was a new experience for many, because our country is a byproduct of journalistic citizenship, then it’s doesn’t have a long tradition of civil public discussions. something countries well beyond Turkey should We delivered 40,000 pro- and anti-nuclear energy welcome. tweets—93 percent against nuclear energy, 7 percent for—to the Turkish Grand National Assembly. The Engin Onder is a co-founder of 140journos government has not changed its stance on nuclear and president and co-founder of the Insti- power, and protests against the plant continue even as tute of Creative Minds, an Istanbul-based construction is stalled due to legal problems. network of creative professionals

Nieman Reports | Spring 2014 23 How journalism schools are trying to connect classrooms to ASU CRONKITE SCHOOL ASU CRONKITE

A nightly newscast produced by ’s j-school By Jon Marcus hen a handful of students show up this fall for the new media innovation graduate program at Northeastern University, they’ll learn coding, information visualization, videography, database management—even game design. The Tow-Knight Center for Entrepreneurial Journalism at the City University of New York (CUNY) is incubating journalism How journalism schools are trying to connect classrooms to newsrooms entrepreneurs who can earn master’s degrees and advanced certificates in innovative approaches to the media business. Uptown, at , the and computer science department are in the first year of teaming up to deliver a certificate program for journalists and others in data technology and using data.

Journalism education has come to the same ominous In response, some journalism schools are abruptly inflection point that journalism itself has reached—and transforming themselves to teach new forms of media the stakes are just as high. Universities are shutting and new methods of delivering the news. “We are down or proposing to shut down journalism schools, trying to blow up everything,” says Jeff Howe, head of or merging them with other departments. Enrollment the new, three-semester program at Northeastern. is falling—dramatically, for graduate programs—while Supported by a $250,000 grant from the John S. it’s rising at newer institutions and those with an em- and James L. Knight Foundation, the program phasis on digital media. New forms of teaching online will revolve around an “innovation seminar” and new credentials menace all of higher education’s in which teams of students will apply their monopoly on academic credit. newfound skills to real-world projects in news As technology advances, professionals want more delivery or reporting techniques. training, like they’ll get at programs such as Northeast- “Like journalism, education is ripe for dis- ern’s. And foundations that have filled the void left when ruptive innovation,” says Howard Finberg, media companies stopped lavishing their wealth on director of partnerships and at journalism schools are aggressively pressing for reform. the Poynter Institute. If j-schools fail to JOHN SMOCK/CUNY GRADUATE SCHOOL OF JOURNALISM SCHOOL JOHN SMOCK/CUNY GRADUATE Online media advocate Jeff Jarvis teaches entrepreneurial journalism at City University of New York

respond, Finberg says, they are “at risk of being bypassed fundamentals, and knowledge of teamwork and collab- or overshadowed.” oration they say comes from the broader liberal-arts A recent Poynter survey—which some argue demon- education many of them got—not strictly vocational strates that educators are outpacing editors in their skills, which fast-changing technology can quickly approaches to digital innovation—underlines the di- make obsolete, and which can be learned on the job. vide between j-schools and newsrooms. Educators are More than 40 percent don’t even think it’s important more likely than professional journalists to believe it’s for prospective journalists to major in journalism. important for journalism graduates to have multimedia skills, for instance, according to the survey Poynter don’t think journalists need to go to journalism school,” released in April. They are more likely to think it’s says Mizell Stewart, vice president of content for the crucial for j-school grads to understand HTML and Inewspaper division at E.W. Scripps. He argues a com- other computer languages, and how to shoot and edit bination of the liberal arts and experience in campus video and photos, record audio, tell stories with visuals, media are the best learning labs for future journalists: and write for different platforms. “I do think journalists need to have some professional More educators than editors put an emphasis on such or campus experience as a journalist … Campus media newly important skills as the ability to use computers to is really the opportunity for students to learn, in what analyze large amounts of information. More educators is for the most part a fairly safe environment, how to think knowledge of other cultures is important as the interact with folks, how to deal with people in power, how diversity of their subjects and audiences deepens. And to access records. Those experiences provide students as the industry searches for new revenue models, almost with that extra layer of skills in terms of leadership, in twice as many educators as editors think journalism terms of time management, in terms of what it means students need to learn about the business side of media, to manage up, across, and around, what it means to as they do at CUNY and Northeastern. be a good colleague. … Those are things we look for.” In that same Poynter survey, many editors said the But even as journalism schools transform themselves, most important thing they need in new employees is and as the latest crop of newly minted graduates heads a foundation of critical thinking and problem-solving into the job market, educators and editors are joining

26 Nieman Reports | Spring 2014 forces to accomplish what neither can do so easily on their own—give students real-world reporting expe- rience and provide daily and in-depth news coverage. Journalism schools “have a luxury I’m sure is not always available to editors in newsrooms, which is to stand aside from the pace of demand that media or- ganizations have been dealing with,” says Steve Coll, a -winning former newspaper and magazine reporter and the new dean of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. “In those newsrooms it’s very hard to step back and think about five or 10 years out. It’s supposed to be an advantage of a university to do that, and I do feel that happening.” Other things have changed, too. More journalists like Coll, rather than career academics, are being named to head up journalism schools. There are more col- laborations in which students produce content for real-world print and online media. “Without the pres- sure of having to grow revenue or meet budgets, we have some freedom to experiment and try new things,” says Lorraine Branham, a former journalist at The Philadelphia Inquirer and Baltimore Sun and dean of BROOKS CANADAY/NORTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY CANADAY/NORTHEASTERN BROOKS the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications Jeff Howe is rethinking j-school at Northeastern University in Boston at Syracuse University, which has established a center for digital media entrepreneurship and an endowed chair in journalism innovation. advertising revenue that traditional print newspapers People on all sides of the question over what students did—and still don’t pay much—they are also growing ought to learn acknowledge that news organizations exponentially. BuzzFeed now has 170-plus full-time have moved from needing specialist reporters to relying editorial staffers, the vast majority of whom were hired on generalists who not only report and write, but take last year. Gawker’s staff has nearly tripled, to 132, in pictures and videos and record sound. That means the last seven years, and Ezra Klein’s Vox, Nate Silver’s newly minted journalists need to arrive with broader FiveThirtyEight and Pierre Omidyar’s First Look Media skills. Yet 40 percent of 2012 journalism graduates said are all hiring. Pew estimates that around 500 digital their educations included too little technical training, news organizations have collectively produced about a survey by the Grady College of Journalism and Mass 5,000 jobs in the last 10 years—nowhere near the roughly Communication at the found. 16,000 the American Society of News Editors says have “There isn’t any possible way the school could teach been cut by newspapers alone, but a beachhead. (While you everything because things are changing so quickly,” the mainstream media continue to shed jobs, some are says Taylor Goldenstein, who graduated in Decem- hiring. has added 50 journalists ber with a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the this year alone, and Time Inc. has hired 30, mostly to University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign and is now work at Time.com.) interning at the . “But I do think that Students seem acutely aware that the way to stake a claim the schools are a little bit behind,” especially in teaching to one of the diminishing number of journalism jobs is to such things as coding. master not only writing and reporting, but videography, Newspapers have also bought out veterans with in- social media, and other increasingly complex platforms. stitutional experience, or given them so much more In the Poynter survey, more students than educators said to do that rookies no longer get the mentoring they knowing HTML, for example, is important. once did under the informal newsroom apprenticeship “I’m learning how to code and make graphics that model. “Especially in such a competitive news environ- ment where budgets are shrinking, news organizations Even as journalism schools continue to expect you to hit the ground running from day one,” says Mauro Whiteman, a new graduate of the Walter transform themselves, there remains a Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communi- cation at Arizona State University. “You’re expected to deep division over what skills future be a producing person in the newsroom.” While online media command only a fraction of the journalists actually need to learn

Nieman Reports | Spring 2014 27 Even executives who hire for new media, likeBuzzFeed’s Shani Hilton, caution against overemphasizing the importance of technical skills

RAY WHITEHOUSE/MEDILL Students from ’s Medill school of journalism cover the 2012 election

distill information in a completely different way, and journalism basics is essential: “At this school, there’s a high using video to tell more creative stories and learning degree of confidence that the values can adapt and cool editing techniques,” says Caitlin Cruz, a graduate survive.” of Arizona State’s journalism program now on a 10-week BuzzFeed deputy editor in chief Shani Hilton agrees investigative reporting internship at The Seattle Times. that what she wants to see in new employees isn’t nec- “And I really think it goes back to learning how to tell essarily specific technical skills, but “agnosticism about the story in the that you want.” format. Some of our news stories are very typical, and But even executives who hire for new media caution some are just big captions with the relevant informa- that too much specialization can be a bad thing. “There tion, and some involve quizzes. We need people who can be a problem when people think almost too prag- remember that what makes a news story isn’t necessarily matically about, ‘These are the new media companies the format, but the information.” that are hiring, so I need to tick those boxes and be a The answer is to teach both basic writing and reporting data reporter who can use social media,’ ” says Jason and technology, says Eric Newton, former managing Mojica, editor in chief at Vice News, who was invited editor of the Oakland Tribune and senior adviser to the to lecture at the Columbia Graduate School of Journal- president at the John S. and James L. Knight Foun- ism. (“That Columbia brought me in says that they are dation, a leading advocate for reforming journalism looking beyond core curriculum and textbooks,” he says.) education: “To teach journalism in the digital age you “Some of that old-school traditional j-school stuff can have to teach both journalism and the digital age—and be incredibly valuable. Can you write a script? Can you use modern tools to do it. That’s why the schools that fact-check your own stories? What you want is the best are serious about this are getting bigger, not smaller.” of both worlds.” He won’t get any argument from Coll, at Newton advocates mimicking medical schools’ so- Columbia, who says technology will change, but learning called teaching-hospital model, in which students learn

28 Nieman Reports | Spring 2014 Nurturing the Next Generation of Watchdogs

on staff for, among other outlets, The part-time jobs and hold other jobs while Philadelphia Inquirer, the Los Ange- not doing the people’s business. So a les Times, and the San Jose Mercury powerful state senator, in his off-hours, News—and I needed a pair of snow was a registered lobbyist in Cook County. boots. I also needed a good plan for how It seemed bizarre. How could public Medill Watchdog, which I was hired officials simultaneously be lobbyists? to create, could accomplish its goals. And how common was this? The initiative is part of the small but It proved a defining project for Medill growing number of programs intended Watchdog. Teams of interns worked to reshape traditional journalism school. with me and assistant director John Medill Watchdog is not a class at all; Sullivan, building a list of all the elected each quarter, we hire interns from the officials from Cook County units of gov- talented undergraduates, grad students ernment; seeing which were lobbyists; and recent graduates who apply. identifying who their clients were, and The idea is to partner on big, ambi- which of them pushed legislation that tious journalism projects—the kind seemed to benefit their paying clients. news organizations used to do on their Before long, the interns expanded the own—and let students learn by working search to include lobbyists who were alongside great journalists from both close relatives of legislators. print and broadcast. The work, at least The project ended up running over we hope, helps provide the community two days in the Chicago pages of The the kind of in-depth journalism, using New York Times. And a sign of how data sets that we create, that is harder we’ve progressed: Some of the very best to accomplish in the world of down- journalists at the Chicago Tribune and sizing. And, potentially, the initiative WGN-TV now come to us with ideas provides a model of how this journalism for big projects that, alas, they used RAY WHITEHOUSE/MEDILL can continue to flourish, as we to comfortably do on their own. The By Rick Tulsky help train and motivate the next gen- program continues to cement its place eration. in the journalism constellation, as the n my way into work at Medill But the snow wasn’t the only obstacle need for data-driven journalism to expose Watchdog for the first time, I when I arrived in 2011; the issue was how problems hasn’t vanished from Illinois. Ostopped at Hanig’s Shoe Store. It to be distinctive in Chicago’s crowded Nor, alas, has the snow. was February 1, 2011, part of a three-day journalistic landscape. Before long, I storm in which more than 20 inches of heard a story that became a model of Rick Tulsky, a Pulitzer snow fell on the Chicago area. what we could bring to Chicago jour- Prize-winning investiga- I had returned to Evanston, Illinois after nalism. The state legislators in Illinois, tive reporter, is director of more than four decades away—working like many local officials, are elected into Medill Watchdog

by doing—and which combines the emphasis editors journalism schools would become laboratories for new and many educators want to see placed on the liberal ways to cover and produce the news. While the idea is arts with some of what students get out of working for not new, its pace has been accelerating. The Cronkite campus media, as others advocate. School has a wire service, a nightly newscast, and stu- dent-staffed bureaus in Washington and Phoenix that ust as medical students, under doctors’ guidance, have created content for 30 Arizona news outlets and learn how to do everything from draw blood to The Associated Press. University of Maryland j-school Jdeliver babies, prospective journalists working students staff bureaus in Washington and in the state under experienced professionals can use new tools and capital of Annapolis that produce stories for Maryland techniques to produce real-world journalism. And just newspapers. Students at Northwestern University’s Me- as teaching hospitals also are centers for innovation, dill j-school work in newsrooms in inner-city Chicago.

Nieman Reports | Spring 2014 29 ALAN ANNENBERG MITTELSTAEDT/USC Students at the University of Southern California produce Neon Tommy, a local site covering news, sports and culture

Students at and at CUNY run raising questions about the motives behind voter ID neighborhood news blogs. Columbia’s journalism school laws in many states. News21 student journalists have produces The New York website, which traveled to Guatemala to write about the safety ofim- covers city and state government. University of South- ported food, and investigated the struggles of veterans. ern California’s Annenberg School for Communication This year, they’ll report on gun-control and gun-rights and Journalism has created the digital news site Neon efforts. The future of the project seems assured, even Tommy. Florida International University students report if its foundation funding dries up, since the Cronkite for the South Florida News Service, a collaboration with School has gradually assumed 80 percent of its cost. The , The Palm Beach Post, and South News21 stories have been published in The Washing- Florida Sun Sentinel. And in January the journalism ton Post and elsewhere, and widely cited. In addition school at the University of Kansas became the latest to to serving students and readers, they put time and add a statehouse bureau, covering the legislature for manpower behind long-term investigative projects con- newspapers statewide. ventional news organizations can no longer afford to do “You’re working so closely with a professional editor and test new ways of delivering content. The principal and you’re covering things The New York Times, is faculty, who would be teaching anyway, and the Washington Post, The Arizona Republic, the AP are benefit to students is hands-on, real-world experience. covering,” says Connor Radnovich, a recent graduate Newton has said the teaching-hospital idea is moving of the Cronkite School who worked in its Phoenix and journalism schools into the vanguard of innovation, Washington bureaus. “In Washington, there were events while the partnerships with news organizations provide where I was the only reporter there. That doesn’t really another route through which editors and educators happen to journalism students.” talk to one another, a positive development, accord- But the closest thing so far to a pure hospital model is ing to people on both sides of that divide. “We don’t News21, says Newton, under which journalism school mean that newsrooms should serve classrooms and students spend months on investigative projects. They that classrooms should serve newsrooms, but just that are supervised by faculty including former Washington they should collaborate and learn to speak a common Post executive editor Leonard Downie Jr. and Pulitzer language,” Newton says. Prize-winning computer-assisted reporting expert Steve Doig, among others. ournalism schools have long found little in com- Headquartered at the Cronkite School and supported mon with their many critics or their academic host by $10 million from Knight and the Carnegie Corpo- Jinstitutions. Higher-education scholar Abraham ration of New York, News21 has covered such topics Flexner likened them in 1930 to “university faculties of as voter fraud, finding only a tiny number of cases and cookery and clothing.” president

30 Nieman Reports | Spring 2014 DAVID GOLDMAN/ASSOCIATED PRESS GOLDMAN/ASSOCIATED DAVID

Planned cuts in journalism and other programs at Emory University in Atlanta drew protests from students, faculty and staff

Robert Maynard Hutchins said in 1938 that journal- ism had been added to universities out of the “passing Many universities have moved to merge whims of the public.” For most of their histories, j-schools have had to look their journalism programs into other not forward to the industry for which they were pre- paring students, but over their shoulders at parent majors or eliminate them altogether universities that considered them pre-professional and outside the traditional liberal arts, and didn’t entirely University is phasing out its journalism program as part want them, according to a 77-page report, “Educating of a broad reorganization that will focus on “emerging Journalists: A New Plea for the University Tradition,” growth areas,” such as contemporary China studies. And issued last year by former journalism deans Nicholas the University of Colorado at Boulder eliminated its Lemann of Columbia, Jean Folkerts of the Univer- school of journalism in 2011 and demoted journalism sity of North Carolina, and John Maxwell Hamilton to a minor, though it’s since decided to open a new of Louisiana State. Focusing on graduate educa- College of Media, Communication and Information tion, the report urged that journalism continue to be that would include advertising, , media taught in freestanding professional schools design, communication, information science, journalism in which practicing journalists collaborate with ed- and media studies. ucators. But against the backdrop of disarray in the The number of programs in journalism and mass industry, many universities have moved to merge their communication is down from 491 in 2011 to 485 in journalism programs into other majors or eliminate 2012 and the number of graduate programs has fallen them altogether. from 222 to 217 during the same period, the University The provost of Indiana University is proceeding with of Georgia survey found. It also reported that more a contentious plan to move the journalism school out than 8 percent of journalism deans say their universi- of Ernie Pyle Hall and combine it with the schools of ties are considering merging their schools with other communication, telecommunications, and film. Emory departments.

Nieman Reports | Spring 2014 31 GUS RUELAS/USC ANNENBERG

At the University of Southern California, Annenberg Radio News broadcasts provide students with hands-on learning opportunities

he journalism deans surveyed said their obstacles to change include limited resources for new hires Tand technology courses, and pushback from senior faculty and the campus bureaucracy. Merging journalism schools into larger departments layers on even more of these kinds of barriers, and further bogs down the process at the very time it needs to speed up. Newton calls this the “symphony of slowness.” Existential threats are not the j-schools’ only problem. Institutions that could once expect lavish support from cash-flush media organizations no longer can. Two in 10 have hiring freezes in place, according to the Uni- versity of Georgia survey. Undergraduate journalism SCHOOL ASU CRONKITE enrollments have started to drop, falling 2.9 percent ASU covered the 2012 Democratic National Convention in 2012, the last year for which the figure is available. That was the second consecutive decline, and the first the Brett Family Foundation, and the Wyncote Foun- time in two decades student numbers have gone down dation—urged nearly 500 university presidents in 2012 for two years in a row. Master’s degree programs are to speed up the pace of change of journalism education. seeing their enrollments decrease even faster, down by “We believe journalism and communications schools 9.4 percent in 2011 and another nearly 3 percent in 2012. must be willing to re-create themselves if they are to As in all of higher education, private foundations are succeed in playing their vital roles as news creators and stepping in to fill financial gaps at journalism schools. innovators,” the letter said. “Schools that do not update Foundations poured $146 million into journalism ed- their curriculum and upgrade their faculties to reflect ucation and training between 2009 and 2011, the last the profoundly different digital age of communication period for which the figure is available, according to will find it difficult to raise money from foundations the Foundation Center. The Knight Foundation alone interested in the future of news.” has poured about $200 million into it during the last While university-level grants have been most com- 15 years. (The Knight Foundation is a funder of projects mon, Knight Foundation president Alberto Ibargüen at the Nieman Foundation for Journalism.) recently announced a $250,000 program aimed directly The foundations are using their considerable clout at graduates. Speaking at the Cronkite School in May, to push for change. Top executives from six of them— Ibargüen said Knight would offer Cronkite graduates Knight, Scripps Howard, the McCormick Foundation, up to $15,000 to develop innovative digital storytelling the Ethics and Excellence in Journalism Foundation, and reporting techniques in their newsrooms.

32 Nieman Reports | Spring 2014 Meanwhile, like every other part of higher education, Mentoring was crucial for Thomas Huang, Sunday journalism schools are being pressed to justify their and enterprise editor with The Dallas Morning News, return on families’ investments, especially considering who didn’t go to j-school but got bachelor’s and master’s the soft job market. One third of journalism graduates degrees in computer science and engineering from MIT. in the class of 2012 were still unemployed six months For journalism to survive, that kind of mentorship has after graduation, another University of Georgia survey to survive, says Huang. “What I’m worried about is, I found; of those who had jobs, 40 percent were working am seeing across many different newsrooms a lot of outside of journalism. Salaries were about flat. A quar- really bright and talented and aggressive young people ter of bachelor’s degree recipients said they regretted wanting to get into the business but finding a gap in having studied journalism. To keep j-school relevant, getting guidance and mentoring.” “the whole thing needs to be blown up,” says Amy Webb, Still, says Richardson, crowdsourced opinion head of digital strategy agency Webbmedia Group, who can substitute for the mentoring of a wise veteran spoke about the future of journalism education at the editor with institutional experience, and students University of Maryland’s recent Journalism Interactive can put their work on YouTube and other chan- conference. “Little incremental changes don’t amount nels to get the kinds of feedback many people in to the kind of changes that are necessary to prepare newsrooms no longer have the time to give them. Richardson j-school students to face the real world when they get says she plans to make her MOOC available to out of school.” journalism schools. J-schools “can no longer rest on Universities also now have to contend with much their laurels or reputations,” she says. “They do have cheaper competing delivery systems such as massive open to consistently update how and what they teach to online courses (MOOCs), short-duration professional stay relevant.” certificate programs that take the place of conventional degrees, and other new kinds of credentials. “We are locked in a model that presumes that our students are Journalism schools are being pressed to physically present and dependent on coming into the classroom, and I’m not so sure that’s going to persist,” justify their return on families’ investments, says Lee Becker, director of the James M. Cox Jr. Center for International Mass Communication Training and especially considering the soft job market Research at the University of Georgia’s journalism school. The new certificate course at Columbia in coding, databases, and other skills, called the Lede Program, Some of the journalism schools that are the most costs $13,456, not including living expenses. A daylong innovative are the newest. Housed in its own six-story, workshop hosted by Poynter News $71 million building in downtown Phoenix with 14 University, by comparison, goes for an early bird rate digital newsrooms and computer labs, two television of $95. Professional associations such as Investigative studios, and 280 digital student workstations more Reporters and Editors offer cheap roving data seminars, cutting edge than those of some of the media compa- and the Online News Association runs free full-day nies where its graduates go on to work, the Cronkite start-up, entrepreneurship, and multimedia training. School was spun off as an independent unit only in Poynter has already tested a 16-week online Journalism 2005. And while other schools’ enrollments are going 101 course and compared the results to an identical down, its numbers have been going up. So have those course taught at Missouri State University. The students at the City University of New York, which opened its in the online course did as well as, or better than, the Graduate School of Journalism from scratch in 2006 classroom group, based on their grades and how many and had a record class this year. “We don’t have a lot of stuck around to finish it. the legacy issues that some of my colleagues have,” says Even the people providing these new models say a Sarah Bartlett, dean of the CUNY journalism school. $95 data workshop, for example, isn’t yet a substitute There’s one thing many journalism educators do now for a summer-long program in a brick-and-mortar share, however: motivation born of a sense of urgency, classroom. “The serious student that wants to have and the example of what has happened to the field they a professional journalism career will still want the serve. Connor Radnovich, the Cronkite School grad, sees instruction, the networking, and to work side by side it as an opportunity: “If you want to be in journalism with professionals,” says Allissa Richardson, who teaches for the jobs that existed 10 or 15 years ago, you’re not journalism at Bowie State University and is head of MoJo going to get those. It’s changing, but there are so many Mediaworks—“MoJo” stands for “mobile journalists.” more opportunities.” She is developing a MOOC in journalism scheduled to Jon Marcus is higher-education editor at launch this fall. “That’s where the MOOC actually falls The Hechinger Report, a foundation-sup- short. The in-person experience is still superior to the ported nonprofit news organization based online experience.” at Columbia University

Nieman Reports | Spring 2014 33 NIEMAN WATCHDOG

34 Nieman Reports | Spring 2014 TALK TO THE HAND Public health reporters say federal agencies are restricting access and information, limiting their ability to cover crucial health issues

By Jenni Bergal into doctors who illegally bought contraceptive devices from outside the U.S. hen a chemical spill contaminated the “You ask to interview somebody and they send you drinking water of hundreds of thousands a canned e-mail. They won’t let you interview the of people in West Virginia in January, scientist who worked on it,” says Ward, a reporter W at the Gazette for more than two decades. “They’ve Charleston Gazette reporters Ken Ward and David Gutman repeatedly asked the Centers for Disease shown a complete lack of respect for the public in Control and Prevention (CDC) how it calculated the way they operate these agencies.” the acceptable toxicity levels. One reporter was And it’s not just reporters who are protesting. For nearly a week, the federal agency ignored unable to get Some scientists and consumer groups are extremely their requests for interviews. In the meantime, permission from concerned about federal agencies preventing infor- state officials, citing the CDC standards, lifted a “Do the CDC to speak to mation from being released or impeding experts Not Use” water order for residents in some areas. a scientist about a from talking to the media. “The best way for a Finally, when the CDC advised that pregnant women massive tuberculosis reporter to get to the truth is to be able to talk to a should not drink the water, a frustrated Gutman outbreak in Florida. scientist closest to the problem or the issue,” says called the agency director at home. The CDC chief Another reporter Celia Wexler, a lobbyist for the Union of Concerned told him to contact the press office and hung up. couldn’t get the FDA Scientists, a nonprofit science advocacy group. While much of the media criticism about the lack of to comment on a “What we want from public information officers government transparency has focused on the White federal investigation at these federal agencies is to make it easier to get House and national security, many journalists who into Rhode Island ahold of the right people, not to be the gatekeepers cover federal health care agencies say they, too, have doctors who illegally or to make it more difficult.” experienced an unprecedented amount of secrecy bought contraceptive Journalists have a long tradition of sounding the during the Obama administration, an administra- devices from outside alarm about public health issues, such as the dangers tion that describes itself as the most transparent in the U.S. of thalidomide, the Tuskegee syphilis study, and the history. Medical writers and investigative journalists Reagan administration’s lack of attention to AIDS. complain that they’ve been stonewalled, barred Reporters worry that when government agencies from talking to health agency staffers and experts, restrict their access to information, it limits the or required to submit questions in writing, only to public’s ability to get an unvarnished perspective get “talking point” responses. One reporter was un- on health care policy and public health dangers. able to get permission to speak to a scientist about Some of these issues came to light last year with the a massive tuberculosis outbreak. Another couldn’t botched start-up of the federal health care insur- get anyone to comment on a federal investigation ance website and the administration’s reluctance

Nieman Reports | Spring 2014 35 to disclose details about what was going on. But many inquiries throughout the day, working hard to health care journalists say they’ve been running accommodate deadlines. These examples [cited by into roadblocks with the Obama administration Nieman Reports] represent a very limited number long before the Affordable Care Act’s inauguration. of circumstances that the public affairs leadership In 2011, for example, the U.S. Department of addresses when they arise and are not reflective of Health and Human Services (HHS) blocked access what is overall dedicated and prolific work being to an online public database of physician discipline done by public affairs staff at HHS and its agencies.” and malpractice payments that had been used by Reporters say they understand that there has been reporters to expose flaws with the oversight of trou- a proliferation of websites and blogs and that the bled doctors. The data had been available online volume of requests for comment about health care for years. HHS removed the file from its public issues has ballooned. But that doesn’t mean press website after a doctor complained that information officers should routinely require them to submit about him had been used improperly. Following questions in writing, and then respond with “talking A South Dakota protests from journalism groups and consumer point” answers or “not for attribution,” if they re- newspaper’s legal advocates, the administration restored the file but spond at all. Felice Freyer, vice chairwoman of the battle for data put restrictions on how the data could be used. AHCJ’s right-to-know committee and a medical about food stamp writer at The Providence (R.I.) Journal, says that payments made to hat same year, the Argus Leader in Sioux Falls, while some members have had positive experiences individual retailers is South Dakota, sued the U.S. Department of dealing with press officers, many others haven’t. still alive, following a Agriculture (USDA) after it rejected a Freedom They’ve faced long delays or been ignored. They’ve T federal appeals court of Information Act (FOIA) request for data about been prevented from talking to experts, and even ruling that rejected food stamp payments to individual retailers. The when they do, there’s often a press staffer present the government’s Association of Health Care Journalists (AHCJ) or on the phone, which can impede discussion. reasoning for and other journalism groups wrote to the USDA, keeping the urging it to end the secrecy surrounding the multi- n 2012, Stacey Singer, a health reporter at The payments secret billion-dollar program. The health care journalists Palm Beach Post, spent months digging through also called for Congress to authorize the USDA to Ipublic records and uncovered information reveal- collect and make public information about which ing that Florida officials had concealed the worst products are purchased with food stamp dollars, tuberculosis outbreak investigated by the CDC in saying it was important to the public policy debate 20 years. When she sought the CDC’s permission about childhood obesity. In January, a federal ap- to talk to an epidemiologist who had written the peals court rejected the USDA’s argument that outbreak investigation report, an agency it was prohibited by law from disclosing the press staffer told her to get in touch food stamp payment information, and sent with her state health department. The the case back to the lower court. previous month, Singer had contacted an- “Having a posture of antagonism toward the other CDC scientist who had authored a published media is tantamount to being antagonistic to study describing a 2009 TB outbreak in Florida. the general public,” says Irene M. Wielawski, The scientist was willing to chat, but said Singer a former reporter who first needed to go through the CDC press office, chairs the AHCJ’s right-to-know committee. which nixed the interview. “In the past, I have “One thing lost in all of this tension and this always been able to talk to the authors of these combative stance against the media is that they papers,” Singer says. “To have the CDC press are really cutting off information that’s vital to office prevent me from speaking to scholars their mission.” was unprecedented and disturbing.” The AHCJ has protested restrictions on infor- These actions had several impacts on public mation and sent reporters’ complaints to federal health, according to Singer. The public wasn’t health care agencies. Its leaders have met with aware that many of the TB patients were homeless agency officials and it has quarterly phone calls and for at least two years, the state had placed with the HHS public information chief. them in a cheap motel in Jacksonville. If the CDC Federal health officials insist that they are commit- had informed the public about what was going on, ted to openness in government. HHS, the nation’s Singer said, it might have prevented major cuts top health care department, would not agree to an in the state health department’s budget and led interview with Nieman Reports, but spokeswoman to a public outcry for more resources to contain Joanne Peters issued a statement: “We seek to be as the outbreak. transparent as possible, strive to make subject-mat- The Charleston Gazette’s Ward said he, too, was ter experts available and provide information in shocked at the CDC’s lack of response during the a timely manner … Public affairs staff respond to West Virginia chemical spill in January. It was

36 Nieman Reports | Spring 2014 only after his colleague called the CDC director were different. Trudy Lieberman, a health reporter at home that a press officer responded and set up at Consumer Reports, recalled when she used to an interview with a top medical official. The CDC “waltz into” the FDA general counsel’s office to get also held a by phone, and public information: “Now, at FDA, you are lucky if you affairs director Barbara Reynolds apologized to get somebody to return your call. They tell you to Ward. Reynolds said there was a breakdown in go to the website.” communication on her office’s end, and she has Kathryn Foxhall, a freelance health reporter who taken steps to improve the “triage system,” especially has been writing about federal agencies for nearly when reporters call about an emergency. 40 years, became so outraged that she and two “It’s just utter nonsense when they talk about being other journalists formed an organization called so transparent,” Ward says. “I have not found any Stop the New American Censorship, which is trying journalist who thinks federal agencies are more open to raise awareness about the issue. “When reporters now than they were under the Bush administration.” are blocked and blocked and blocked, there’s In early March, the agency denied Ward’s petition this huge amount of information and per- for an expedited review of a FOIA request about the spective that the public is not getting,” chemicals’ effects on pregnant women. CDC officials Foxhall argues. wrote that there was no “urgent need” to inform the public about the issue. That month, David Cuillier, oxhall says the transparency con - president of the Society of Professional Journalists troversy is getting some attention in (SPJ) board of directors, cited Ward’s case when he FWashington. In August, the National testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee Press Club sponsored a heated debate be- in Washington about the lack of transparency in tween reporters and press officers that was the Obama administration. covered on CSPAN-2. Foxhall says Congress The SPJ is especially concerned about transparency also needs to “step up” and take a more active because “huge cuts” in the industry have weakened role supporting government transparency because journalism, Cuillier says. “Newspaper companies “they write the money bills and the powers-that-be are less willing to sue over secrecy. Without the have to come before them.” watchdogs barking and biting as hard as they did In the meantime, journalists offer some tips for in the past, I think we’re seeing government taking Ken Ward, a reporter colleagues facing government roadblocks: advantage of that.” for The Charleston • Find out who you want to talk to within an agency ’s Freyer cites her own Gazette in West and try to contact them directly. experience in 2010, when she tried to get infor- Virginia, was shocked • Refuse to submit questions ahead of time or let mation about a Food and Drug Administration by the CDC’s lack of a press officer moderate an interview or dictate (FDA) investigation into more than two dozen response during a who to interview. Rhode Island doctors who had illegally obtained major chemical spill • Write about it whenever an agency thwarts or hundreds of intrauterine devices (IUDs) from outside in January. He said, “I manages an interview. the U.S. After Freyer sought comment for a week, have not found any • Document every incident of stonewalling or denial a FDA press officer said only that the agency was journalist who thinks and keep a running list. “continuing to look into these cases.” Four days federal agencies are • When calling or e-mailing the press office, be after Freyer’s story was published, the FDA web- more open now than clear about the information you’re seeking and your site mentioned the Rhode Island controversy and they were under the deadline. If someone promises to get back, ask when warned consumers not to use unapproved IUDs. Bush administration” that will be; follow up every call with an e-mail. Erica V. Jefferson, the FDA’s acting assistant • If a press officer is unresponsive, contact his or commissioner for media affairs, says her agency her superior and work your way up the chain of is not allowed to disclose confidential information command. during an investigation, which can be frustrating • Complain to members of Congress or top agency to reporters. She says that in Freyer’s case, her officials. office also may not have been able to quickly get • Contact the FOIA ombudsman at the Office of information from technical experts. Government Information Service. The FDA press office does allow experts to speak “The problem isn’t going to go away, and our directly to reporters who call them, but asks that efforts are absolutely not going to go away,” says they at least notify the press office, according to Freyer. “We’re going to continue to fight.” Jefferson. However, she said, many experts have “discomfort and suspicion” dealing with the media Jenni Bergal, a freelancer in the Wash- and prefer to have reporters go through her office. ington, D.C. area, has been a reporter Journalists who’ve been covering federal health at the Sun-Sentinel in Florida, and care agencies for decades remember when things an editor at NPR

Nieman Reports | Spring 2014 37 NIEMAN JOURNALISM LAB

The Mobile Majority Smartphones present the next big challenge: engaging mobile users

By Joshua Benton News outlets are all the mobile advertising revenue world- wide in 2014. They can do so because they t almost seems unfair—a case of double watching their have the best data about individual users: jeopardy. Google knows what you’re searching for, Traditional news organizations have audiences move rapidly Facebook knows who and what you like. Ispent the past decade responding to an to a new platform— That advantage is almost impossible for enormously disruptive piece of technology: a small news outlet to beat. The News- the Web browser. Their old monopolies, one where they have a paper Association of America estimates their old claims on the audience’s attention, that mobile ads contributed less than 1 were broken by a platform that let anyone number of competitive percent of all newspaper revenue in 2013. publish—no printing press or broadcast disadvantages and where So: News outlets are watching their tower required. The impact on their busi- audiences move rapidly to a new plat- ness models, particularly at newspapers they have a hard time form—one where they have a number ... well, you know all about that. of competitive disadvantages and where But just when news organizations were making money. Sound they have a hard time making money. starting to feel more at home on the familiar? Sound familiar? You can be excused for Web—just when, in many newsrooms, thinking 2014 sounds a lot like 2004. digital was no longer being treated as a Part of the problem is that many news sad sister to print—along comes another a mobile majority. organizations, seeing this new generation blow-up-the-model moment: mobile. But those numbers hide the fact that of devices, made a bad bet. They decided It would be an exaggeration to say that traditional news outlets are being out- that tablets, not smartphones, were the the rise of the smartphone is a shift on par competed for mobile users’ attention. Data place to invest. Magazines, in particular, with the rise of the Web. But it wouldn’t from comScore show that while consuming spent many millions building interactive be that much of one. Seven years after newspaper content takes up a mere 0.9 iPad apps that promised to transfer the the iPhone, smartphones have moved percent of total connected time on desk- magazine-reading experience to a flat from a tool of the tech elite to a handheld tops and laptops, the total’s even worse piece of glass about the same size. computer in everyone’s pocket. They’re on phones—just 0.2 percent. These apps were often lovely. They were radically changing how people are getting Aren’t phones just Web browsers with also often slow to download, clunky to use, their news. And I fear that many news smaller screens? Not really. Smartphones and papered over with only the thinnest outlets still haven’t wrestled with how are personal, social machines, optimized layer of interactivity. big a change they represent. for communication and entertainment. Publishers thought tablets would be a New data from eMarketer estimates that, Offered the choice, there are lots of people chance to retake control of the publishing in the , about 23 percent of who’d rather spend time with Flappy Bird channel. Anyone can publish on the Web, Americans’ total media consumption in than The Fresno Bee. The tap-and-scroll they thought, but not everyone can create 2014 will come on mobile devices. That’s interface works beautifully with social an experience like this; it’ll be a recreation counting all media formats, including networks like Facebook and Twitter—less of the old evening newspaper, a lean-back television, radio and print. Mobile’s al- so with old-fashioned news presentation. read that they’re uniquely able to provide. ready ahead of the total for laptops and And an interface built around apps and That tablet boom never came. Most of desktops, 18 percent. And its share will icons can make it a challenge for any those fancy magazine apps sunk into disuse, keep growing as networks get faster and single news source to earn a prominent never attracting the kind of subscription devices get cheaper. spot on someone’s home screen. numbers publishers hoped. Sales of the It’s not uncommon for major news or- The other big challenge is—surprise, iPad, the most popular tablet and the one ganizations to see 40 percent of their surprise—money. Online advertising has most publishers targeted, fell this spring, online audience on mobile devices, most long been dominated by a few big players, year-over-year. Cheaper Android tablets of them smartphones. And at peak mobile but their market power is even stronger keep selling, but there’s little evidence times—mornings before work, weekends, on mobile. Just two companies—Google people are paying for news on them en evenings—their digital audience is often and Facebook—will earn 68.5 percent of masse. Research from Ball State Univer-

38 Nieman Reports | Spring 2014 JOACHIM LADEFOGED/VIIJOACHIM Phone-first start-ups and tablet emigrants are serving up news in ways that engage mobile users sity found that, among college students, Breaking News, the app-centric outfit run Now offers a far better news experience the percentage owning a tablet actually as an in-house start-up by NBC News, than the Times’ regular iPhone app or declined between 2012 and 2014. has done creative work to take advantage mobile site. Meanwhile, social networks took over of push notifications and to increase It’s not hopeless; the smartest news the phone. Journalists spend a lot of time customization. Atlantic Media, home companies will adapt. Bright journalists on Twitter, and everyone knows about to a 157-year-old magazine, has found will figure out how to shape their work Facebook. But other platforms—YouTube, early success with Quartz, a business site for a mobile audience; smart developers WhatsApp, Instagram, Vine, Snapchat— built around social content and designed will build new experiences to delight are also huge competitors for readers’ with mobile devices in mind. (Quartz was readers; entrepreneurial businesspeople attention, and increasingly important originally targeted primarily at tablets, will come up with new ways to make for news discovery on mobile. The in- but it’s found smartphone users are three money on it all. But for traditional news terconnection between mobile devices times as common.) companies, the rise of smartphones is and social media has been a powerful And The New York Times’s new iPhone as big a challenge as they’ve seen since one, fueling the rise of new outlets like app, NYT Now, rethinks the news app the early days of the Web. It’ll be up to BuzzFeed. New phone-first start-ups like paradigm in interesting ways—including them to see if the story plays out any Circa and Inside, products like Facebook a scroll-friendly presentation, smart differently this time. Paper and Yahoo News Digest, and tablet aggregation, and twice-a-day summa- emigrants like Flipboard are all presenting ries of the day’s most interesting and Joshua Benton, a 2008 news in mobile-friendly ways. It’s hard important news. Even though it only Nieman Fellow, is found- for the old guard to compete. includes a fraction of the Times’s stories, ing director of the Nieman But hard doesn’t mean impossible. I’m not the only person to think NYT Journalism Lab

Nieman Reports | Spring 2014 39

Quiet Human Moments Amidst Great Strife

Photographs by Anja Niedringhaus, NF ’07, killed in Afghanistan while covering election preparations

Guarding the home in Mingora, Pakistan of Kainat Riaz, 16, who was shot alongside Malala Yousafzai by the same Taliban gunman, 2012 Listening to music from a German soldier’s iPod in Yaftal e Sofla, Afghanistan, 2009

By Kathleen Carroll

Many years ago, I asked Anja to show me her favorite picture, the one she liked the most. The photo she sent showed an elegant older man sitting on the wreckage of a large destroyed vehicle as if it was a park bench, his legs crossed, one hand resting on the curved handle of an umbrella, the other holding a cigar at his lips. It was a very Anja kind of picture. She was focused on calm while all around was chaos. And I believe that is why her pictures from terrible places resonated with so many people around the world. She found their dignity. She found the quiet human moments that connected people in great strife with all the rest of us: A father tenderly kissing a baby. Children playing ball on a dusty street. A young girl reaching way up to help her brother down from a high place. Afghan Shiite ahead of the Ashure holiday in Kabul, 2013 Many who have written and talked about Anja in the sad days since she left us have mentioned her great laugh and her great joy for life. She may have been the only

42 Nieman Reports | Spring 2014 Serena Williams after winning her fifth Wimbledon singles title, 2012

completely happy journalist in the world; she certainly tightly. And she gripped it tightly back. And with her was a truly happy person. And she did infect all of us other hand, she picked up her camera and made a with her boundless joy, even, and perhaps especially, picture. And several more. And eventually, he passed when things were difficult. into unconsciousness and he let go of her hand. The work she did required enormous preparation. She made more pictures and noticed a little piece of Not just work in conflict, but in the sporting events wheat caught in his uniform. And she plucked it off that she covered. of him and put it in her vest. And when I saw her, she Many hours were spent preparing her cameras, the was looking for him. wiring, the angle, making sure that she, above all others, After six months, she found him. He looked at her was going to get the very best shot. And she so often did. pictures and they talked for many hours. They hugged. Anja was also known among us all as a great teacher. And they cried. And she gave him back the piece of wheat. Many of us have heard her say “Nein! Nein! Nein! Don’t Anja, dear Anja. The days since you left us have been do it that way. Try harder. You can be better.” so sad. But we are grateful for all that you have given Then, encouragement. “I believe in you.” us. And we will always hear your voice in our ears. And, sometimes, the words that were very precious “Nein! Nein! Nein! You can do better … ” when they came from Anja: “I’m very proud of you.” “I am proud of you.” Several years ago she and I had lunch while she was on her way to look for a young soldier. She had photo- This is a lightly edited version of remarks made by graphed him in a helicopter ambulance, gravely wounded. Kathleen Carroll, Associated Press senior vice president As he lay on the ambulance floor being treated, she and executive editor, at the funeral of Anja Niedring- reached out and held his hand and he gripped it very haus, NF ’07, in Hoexter, on April 12, 2014

Nieman Reports | Spring 2014 43 A U.S. Marine’s good luck charm in Fallujah, Iraq, 2004

Injured Afghan girl in a U.S. Army medevac helicopter, 2011

Afghan boy on a hill overlooking Kabul, Afghanistan, 2013

44 Nieman Reports | Spring 2014 Afghan boy holds a toy gun on a merry-go-round in Kabul, Afghanistan, 2009

Nieman Reports | Spring 2014 45 U.S. Marines on Christmas Eve in Kuwait, 2002 PETER DEJONG/ASSOCIATED PRESS DEJONG/ASSOCIATED PETER

Anja Niedringhaus in Rome, 2005

46 Nieman Reports | Spring 2014 A bus, once used as an anti-sniper barricade, in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, 1995 BOOKS In Praise of Digital An excerpt from the new edition of “The Elements of Journalism”

Since its publication in 2001, “The Ele- Similarly, many early studies suggested “The Elements ments of Journalism” has been the indus- that people would never read long-form of Journalism” try-standard text on the ethics and practice material on digital screens. The average time of journalism. In this edited excerpt from people spent on Web pages tended toward By Bill Kovach the third edition, published this past April, about 30 seconds, according to studies by & Tom Rosenstiel co-authors Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel the Poynter Institute. The advent of the Three Rivers Press explore ways that journalists can harness smartphone, tablet and e-reader began some of these new tools in service of the book’s to dispel this illusion. The short attention seventh principle: Journalism must make span had less to do with anything inherent effect, is a data point. These data points, in the significant interesting and relevant. about the screens than it did with the fact turn, can be combined to tell other stories that the people in the studies were using over time, like charting the overall truth- ngagement requires that journalists desktop computers, and often in their offices. fulness of Barack Obama’s statements and understand a new, deeper structural The good news is that the same technology comparing his to other officials’. reality: In the old order, audienc- that devastated the economic foundation Homicide Watch, a website that tracks E of commercial news in the beginning of es had to adapt their behavior to fit the crime in cities at the street level, does some- rhythms of the . They had to the new century has also unleashed a pro- thing similar. Information is logged as data be home at 6:30 to see the newscast, or found new wave of creativity. The tools points, not just narrative, and that data can be sure to read the morning paper to be include new ways of using data, graphics be sorted, mapped, filtered and analyzed current with the news others had seen. and technology, involving the community, in a comprehensive way over time. Now the news media must adapt to fit the and more. The level of experimentation is The potential here is far greater than behavior and curiosity of the community probably unprecedented in at least a century, most news organizations realize. When that new technology has created. Now that and while dizzying to many older hands, it print publications went digital, every story offers the potential necessarily transformed from words on a to make journalism page into a data record in a CMS database. Turning news into data opens up more engaging, Generally, however, few of these stories were more relevant, and treated as data that could be related to one profound new potential for creating a more empowering another and analyzed programmatically. than in generations. As an example, when newspapers posted deeply informed and engaged audience Here are [two] con- to the Web real estate transactions that ceptual approaches were printed in the paper, the different data to doing so: points about location, price and buyer could audiences can go elsewhere with ease, they have been entered into different data fields, will increasingly demand that journalists News as structured data such as school districts, tax assessments, make the best choices about how much The rich new wealth of data made possible access to public transportation. If they and what kind of information to provide by the Web can be rendered in ways that go had been, the potential for understanding and not provide, given that arbitrary space beyond narratives about data or even the and analyzing that data would have grown limits are not an issue. largely visual representations of numbers. exponentially. The paper would no longer Rethinking is required in part because One of these alternatives is to structure just have stories archived. It would have some of the conventional wisdom about the information into new constructed data knowledge about the community that could shortened attention spans was misguided points that tell the story. This is data that be used in different ways. and has hurt journalism. A multiyear study is organized and analyzed into points of Turning news into data opens up pro- of local television news we designed at the meaning beyond raw data. found new potential for creating a more Project for Excellence in Journalism, for PolitiFact, a website run by the Tampa deeply informed and engaged audience. instance, found that stations that ran more [Bay] Times, the focus of which is political Even news operations with fairly limited short stories—under 45 seconds—tended “fact checking,” is an example. Rather than resources can analyze the data to do more to lose audiences. Stations that did more write stories, the site rates the veracity of insightful, efficient reporting. The data can stories over two minutes, on the other hand, statements by political figures on a meter, be made sortable and interactive, for users tend to gain viewership. from true to utterly false. Each rating, in to manipulate. News organizations can build

48 Nieman Reports | Spring 2014 Caption JACOB HARRIS/ASSOCIATED PRESS HARRIS/ASSOCIATED JACOB

Audiences used to have to adapt to the media’s publication cycles; today, media must find ways to adapt to readers’ schedules news apps and mobile apps that leverage Zeega.com, for instance, is a website that range. The rich and skilled rendering of the the data, and news coded and treated as enables anyone to easily combine animated incident that trapped and killed experienced data can be leveraged into new revenue. GIFs, audio, images, text and video from skiers indicates the promise of multimedia, Both PolitiFact and Homicide Watch, for across the Web. Cowbird is another site but it is hardly alone. Prison Valley is the example, are making money by licensing that does something similar. Explore them interactive Web story of a town in the mid- their technology platform to other news and you will find video of the space race, dle of Colorado with 13,000 people—and organizations. narrated by astronaut Frank Borman, which 13 prisons—that is almost the meeting of users control by clicking, and collages of television documentary and video game. Multimedia that’s multi-media images with written text in different fonts, NPR’s Picture Show, a daily curation of A growing number of places are experi- and animations with audio narration. There photos from around the Web, produced a menting with Web-native storytelling forms are no set norms, and most visitors will special report called “Lost and Found” that that blend video, audio, images, text, ani- find some stories stimulating and others blended rare color photographs shot by mations and interactive graphics into one flat. Whether it’s work by professionals amateur photographer Charles Cushman integrated narrative. such as Alexis Madrigal of in 1938 with audio narration and the story In this new form of storytelling, each piece or work by amateurs of all ages, there is of how his lost photos were discovered. of content involves multimedia dimensions. only a single common denominator on As we discuss technique, it is vital to It’s not a text story with a video embedded, Cowbird: creativity. take care to remember that form never or slide shows with text. Rather, these are The New York Times received wide praise determines substance. Technique should new kinds of narratives that can’t be clear- for its 2013 blending of elements in telling never alter the facts—the journalist’s ly defined by their components, or even, the story of the avalanche at Tunnel Creek use of narrative forms must always be admittedly, described here with words. in Washington State’s Cascade Mountain governed by the principles of accura- cy and truthfulness. Regardless of the

Reprinted from “The Elements of Journalism,” Revised and Updated 3rd Edition, form of presentation, the most engaging by Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel. Copyright © 2014 by Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel thing of all must be kept in mind: The story is true.

Nieman Reports | Spring 2014 49 NIEMAN NOTES

Introducing the 77th Class of Nieman Fellows

wenty-four journalists, including the first from , social media, and other collaborative ventures designed to have been selected for a 2014-15 Nieman Fellowship. In transform and strengthen the news industry. Since its founding Trecent years, as journalism has changed, the fellowship in 1938, the Nieman Foundation has supported and mentored has encouraged innovation, experimentation with digital and more than 1,400 journalists from 93 countries.

U.S. Fellows

Melissa Bailey Farnaz Fassihi Ann Marimow Managing editor of the Senior Middle East Reporter at The Washington New Haven Independent, correspondent, based in Post who covers legal a pioneering, nonprofit Beirut, for The Wall Street affairs and the criminal community news website Journal, will study the rise justice system, will study in New Haven, Connecticut, of Iran’s Revolutionary the law and its intersection will study how online learning is Guard Corps, focusing on how they and with politics and journalism, looking at redefining higher education, with a other Islamic militants on both sides of conflicts between U.S. national security particular interest in competency-based the sectarian Sunni-Shiite divide are interests, privacy protections, and press programs and the impact on the nation’s utilizing modern technology to organize, freedoms. class divide. recruit, spread their influence, and crush opponents. Denise-Marie Ordway Gabe Bullard Senior reporter focusing Director of news and Jason Grotto on higher education at editorial strategy at Investigative reporter for the Orlando Sentinel, radio station WFPL News the Chicago Tribune, will will study performance- in Louisville, Kentucky, study finance, accounting based funding models will study the changing and economics to sharpen for state universities to understand their perceptions of American history in politics his investigative reporting effect on instructional quality, tuition and culture. skills. rates, and degree completion and how these models affect universities with Henry Chu Maggie Koerth-Baker large minority enrollments, including London bureau chief for for The New historically black institutions. the Los Angeles Times, York Times Magazine will study the rise of a and science editor at Alicia Stewart global middle class and BoingBoing.net whose Editor at CNN.com, will why, in major developing work has appeared in study entrepreneurial countries such as China and India, the Discover and Popular Science, will study and editorial models group has not become the engine of the process, history and ethics of medical for nuanced reporting significant political change that it has development and human testing, with a on under-covered been elsewhere. focus on the flu vaccine. communities, with a focus on women and people of color. Kitty Eisele Celeste LeCompte Supervising senior editor Co-founder of Climate Dawn Turner Trice at NPR’s “Morning Edition,” Confidential, who writes Columnist and specialist will examine the ways about innovation, and reporter with the Chicago in which both journalists entrepreneurs, will study Tribune, will study and citizens use a visual motivations for news creative nonfiction writing vocabulary and what they mean media consumption, with an eye toward and screenwriting for for radio. developing media business models. documentary films.

50 Nieman Reports | Spring 2014 International Fellows

Abeer Allam David Jiménez Vladimir Radomirovic EGYPT SPAIN SERBIA Gulf correspondent for Asia bureau chief for El Editor in chief of Pistaljka, the Financial Times, will Mundo, will study the role an online investigative study the impact of social of foreign correspondents journalism outlet, will media on accelerating in the digital era and study business models of reforms in closed societies the development of nonprofit organizations, and how the 2011 uprisings in Arab online platforms to extend the reach the use of online and video tools countries influenced Saudi Arabia. She of freelancers’ work, especially in for human rights activism, and how will also study the role of religion in developing countries and authoritarian whistleblowing organizations and media Western democracies. regimes. outlets can interact.

Wahyu Dhyatmika Seung Ryun Kim Elaine Díaz Rodríguez INDONESIA SOUTH KOREA CUBA Investigative reporter Editor at Channel A in Journalist, blogger and for Tempo magazine Seoul, will study national professor at the University in Jakarta, will study security with a focus on of Havana, will study how digital media can U.S. policy in China, Japan Internet-based models provide the platform for and Korea, and news of journalism that could a collaborative network of independent industry transformation, including media serve a plurality of voices in Cuban investigative local and national media, management and marketing. civil society, with a focus on political supported by crowdsourcing. consensus-building and national Miguel Paz reconciliation. Irina Gordienko CHILE RUSSIA Journalist, former Johanna van Eeden Correspondent for the Knight International SOUTH AFRICA Russian newspaper Center for Journalists Senior newsroom executive Novaya Gazeta, will Fellow, and president of with the Volksblad Group study the role of Poderomedia Foundation, in South Africa, will study jihadist ideas in armed which promotes transparency and leadership in a digital conflict in Dagestan and assess digital innovation, will study new data economy, with a focus on their potential for either dramatic visualization models, innovative news the importance of commercial skills in radicalization and marginalization or start-ups, and civic media approaches to editorial management roles. moderation. building sustainable journalism models. Nabil Wakim Luo Jieqi Laurie Penny FRANCE CHINA U.K. Digital editor in chief of Le Senior legal reporter Contributing editor at The Monde, will study for the Caixin Media New Statesman, editor at how legacy media can Company, will study how large for The New Inquiry, adapt their business investigative journalism and a contributor to The models and internal in the Chinese media Guardian and The Nation, organizations to benefit from the digital can contribute to the public decision- will study the economic history and revolution, with a focus on political making process. theory of social movements. journalism.

In selecting the Nieman class of 2015, Nieman Foundation Street Journal and a 2013 Nieman Fellow; Robert Faris, research curator Ann Marie Lipinski, a 1990 Nieman Fellow, was joined director at Harvard’s Berkman Center for Internet & Society; by Rohit Deshpandé, Sebastian S. Kresge Professor of Marketing Rebecca Tabasky, Berkman’s manager of community programs; at Harvard Business School; David Skok, digital adviser to the James Geary, Nieman’s deputy curator and a 2012 Nieman editor at and a 2012 Nieman Fellow; Jane Fellow; and Joshua Benton, director of the Nieman Journalism Spencer, editor for digital projects and innovation at The Wall Lab and a 2008 Nieman Fellow.

Nieman Reports | Spring 2014 51 NIEMAN NOTES

had scholarships from San Francisco State University and 1962 Southern Illinois University John Hughes‘s memoir when he arrived in the U.S. in Our Man in China “Paper Boy to Pulitzer” will be 1957. He chose Illinois because released by Nebbadoon Press it was a shorter trip from The late William Worthy, NF ’57, on his reporting trip this summer. Hughes has New York. Beginning in 1977, that angered U.S. officials been editor of The Christian he was editorial page editor Science Monitor and the of the Courant for 27 years. William Worthy, NF ’57, a foreign correspondent who fought with Deseret Morning News in During his tenure, he hired the U.S. government over reporting trips to China, Cuba and Iran, Salt Lake City, Utah, as well as the paper’s first full-time died at a nursing home in Massachusetts on May 4. He was 92. director of Voice of America editorial cartoonist, expanded It was during his Nieman Fellowship in 1956-1957 that Worthy, and a U.S. State Department the range of views expressed a reporter for the Baltimore Afro-American and correspondent spokesman. In 1967, he won a on the editorial page, and for CBS News, defied the State Department’s travel restrictions by Pulitzer Prize for his coverage increased the size of the flying to China during winter break to report for CBS. He and two of an attempted coup in Sunday opinion section. In other American reporters on the trip became the first to enter China Indonesia and the purge that 1981, he led a delegation of since 1949. In this excerpt from the Summer 1957 issue of Nieman followed. He is a professor of editorial page editors on a trip Reports, Worthy discusses some of the story ideas he found there. international communications to the Middle East where they at Brigham Young University. interviewed Palestinian leader he question often asked me is how much news could be gath- Yasser Arafat. Six years later, ered by permanent U. S. correspondents in China. Most news, Zakarian received an award Tas of now, would have to be feature and background material. 1966 from the Overseas Press Club Much of it would be speculative and based on the “feel” of things James F. Montgomery died for a series of editorials he which, in the present total absence of any Chinese censorship, August 15, 2012 in Atlanta, wrote about the Middle East. could readily be communicated. During my six-week stay hardly a Georgia. He was 84. Mont- He retired in 2004. Zakarian is day passed without some little story or insight or inkling of a story gomery was a reporter, then survived by his wife, Kay, two coming my way. Hurrying one Sunday morning to tape record a business editor during his sons, and five grandchildren. church service, my interpreter and I listened to five or 10 minutes 16-year tenure at The Atlanta of song and prayer before an usher informed us that we had stum- Constitution. Subsequently, he was a correspondent for 1972 The Wall Street Journal’s R. Gregory Nokes is the Atlanta bureau for 16 years. author of “Breaking Chains: Democrat Times in Greenville, Whether writing about Slavery on Trial in the Oregon Mississippi and was editor of 1976 economic or social issues, Territory,” a 2014 Oregon Book The Charlotte (N.C.) Observ- Raymond J. White, a Wash- Montgomery was fair-minded Award finalist. Published in er’s editorial page for 25 years. ington-based journalist for and supportive of the 2013 by Oregon State Univer- much of his career, died of underdog, recalls Nieman sity Press, the book examines leukemia on February 14 in classmate Wayne Woodlief. a landmark Oregon court case 1974 Bethesda, Maryland. He was Montgomery retired in 1985. in which an illiterate ex-slave Patricia O’Brien‘s new 79. After serving in the Marine He is survived by his wife, sued his former master and historical novel “The Daring Corps, White worked as a Florence C. Montgomery, two won freedom in 1853 for his Ladies of Lowell” draws on the print and broadcast journalist daughters, and two grand- three children. murder of a millworker in 1832 in Syracuse; New York City; daughters. and the trial that followed. Scranton, Pennsylvania; and The book tells the story of a Baltimore. In 1973, he moved 1973 22-year-old woman, working to Washington to work for 1969 Ed Williams‘s new book “Lib- in a Lowell, Massachusetts Post-Newsweek Stations, John J. Zakarian, longtime erating Dixie: An Editor’s Life, textile mill in the 1830s, who formerly owned by The Wash- editorial page editor for The from Ole Miss to Obama,” a becomes an advocate for ington Post. He was later a Hartford Courant, died of Lou selection of his work from a workers’ rights. The novel, producer of the PBS program Gehrig’s disease on March 28 half-century career in journal- published in February by “Wall Street Week.” In 1979, in Hartford, Connecticut. He ism, was published by Lorimer Doubleday, is O’Brien’s White was named editor of was 76. Born in the Armenian Press in March. He started second written under the the Washington Journalism quarter of Jerusalem, Zakarian out as a reporter at the Delta pseudonym of Kate Alcott. Review, now the American

52 Nieman Reports | Spring 2014 Oregon home on February 14. kok, Thailand, he worked for He was 71. At the Post, Walsh the Bangkok Post from 1976 bled into the wrong building. This was a covered Maryland politics until 2012. decrepit Salvation Army structure with just and the Carter administration a handful of worshippers rather than the before working as the Jeru- well-attended carefully maintained church salem bureau chief from 1982 1990 around the corner to which visitors are to 1985. In 2004, he left the Ann Marie Lipinski, curator steered … Post and moved to Portland, of the Nieman Foundation, Inside the Shanghai Drug Store I could his wife’s hometown, where has been elected to the Amer- not help but notice the continuous crowds he covered politics for The ican Academy of Arts and

JACOB HARRIS/ASSOCIATED PRESS HARRIS/ASSOCIATED JACOB around the counter which features the Oregonian until retiring in Sciences, an honorary society William Worthy birth-control literature and unblushingly 2009. His colleagues admired and research center based in sells to men and women the unpackaged, him as an old-fashioned Cambridge. She was among unwrapped contraceptive devices. The literature was also for sale, reporter in the best sense of 204 new members, including but the display copies were chained to the counter in the way of the word. “He wanted people 16 from Harvard, elected this our post office pens. to be straight with him and he year. Across the street from the drugstore at Wing On Department would report straight,” said Store I sensed the undiminished admiration for American products Dan Balz, who worked with when I was shown consumer goods, from “Singers” to “Florsheims” Walsh at the Post. “His work 1992 to “Parker 51s,” which retain their private capitalistic names al- was fast, thorough, accurate Stan Grossfeld, an associate though manufactured now in state-owned factories of the People’s and cleanly written.” Walsh is editor and photographer at Republic of China … survived by his wife, Michelle, The Boston Globe, won the A visiting correspondent under the whiplash of a limited visa has two children, and one grand- 2013 Sigma Delta Chi Award no choice but to soak in and later try to check a mass of secondhand child. for best sports photography in reports during interviews and dinner parties at the various embassies. a newspaper with circulation A permanent correspondent could do his own strolling and follow above 100,000. His photo— leads that come his way from diplomats and others. Needless to 1985 showing the legs of a Detroit add, any reporter in China who planned to rely on leaks of secret Philip Hilts, director of the Tigers ballplayer in the air information would be singularly unproductive of copy. Knight mirroring the upraised arms Program at MIT since 2008, of a Boston police officer— will retire in June. Under his drew accolades from several leadership, the number of media outlets as “the photo Journalism Review. From remembrances by Nadine science reporters applying for of the year.” 1984 to 1986, White served Gordimer and Pippa Green, the year-long Knight Science as Washington bureau chief NF ’99, who covered Mande- Journalism fellowships, mod- for Fox News and he was an la’s release from prison. eled on the Nieman program, 1995 adjunct professor at American grew from about 80 a year Lorie Hearn, along with two University from 1985 to 1995. to about 150 a year. A former colleagues at inewsource, won He is survived by his wife, Bar- 1982 science reporter for The New a 2013 Investigative Reporters bara Dubyak, two daughters, Steve Oney, a contributor to York Times and The Wash- and Editors, Inc. award for and three grandchildren. many publications including ington Post, Hilts is writing a “Money, Power and Transit.” Esquire, Playboy, Los Angeles book about new approaches The judges commented: Magazine, and The New to solar energy. “inewsource filed 40 open 1978 York Times Magazine, was records requests and pro- Danny Schechter is the a Shorenstein Fellow at duced 30 stories making the author of “Madiba A to Z: The Harvard’s Kennedy School 1987 most of video, audio and the Many Faces of Nelson Man- for the spring semester. He Songpol Kaopatumtip written word to reveal layer dela,” published by Seven is working on a book about has launched a website, upon layer of bureaucratic Stories Press in November NPR for Simon & Schuster. insideasean.com, that covers arrogance, corruption and 2013. Informed by Schechter’s political, economic, social and ineptitude at the [San Diego] many documentaries about Edward Walsh, a reporter education issues affecting transit system.” Hearn is Nelson Mandela, the book for The Washington Post for the 10 member nations in founder, editor and executive comprises short reflective more than 30 years, died of the Association of Southeast director of the nonprofit essays that include personal lung cancer in his Portland, Asian Nations. Based in Bang- inewsource.

Nieman Reports | Spring 2014 53 NIEMAN NOTES

April by Farrar, Straus and Gir- oux. Photographs by Seamus 1996 Murphy accompany the two- Tim Golden is managing line poems called landays that Boston Strong editor for investigations and Griswold collected and trans- news at The Marshall Project, lated. For Afghan women, David Abel, NF ’13, on the year that followed the an online nonprofit news many of them illiterate and Boston Marathon bombings organization that will cover rural, landays have been a the U.S. criminal justice sys- powerful means of expression year ago, I was lapping up all Harvard had to offer, from tem. It is expected to launch and communication for more poetry criticism with Helen Vendler to economic policy in the second half of 2014. than 1,000 years. with Larry Summers. Even more compelling were my Golden joins former New York A fellow fellows. Times colleague Bill Keller, Craig Welch received the Last April, with the daffodils and tulips in bloom at Lippmann who is editor in chief of the Overseas Press Club of House, I didn’t know how abruptly my fellowship would end. On site. America’s Whitman Bassow April 15, I was up before dawn to meet Juli Windsor, who at 3-foot- Award for his Seattle Times 9 hoped to become the first dwarf to run the Boston Marathon. series “Sea Change: The Making a documentary about her was the final project for my film 1997 Pacific’s Perilous Turn.” In class. After following Juli along the marathon course, I set up my Paige Williams, who writes collaboration with a photog- camera at the finish line. She was due to cross at any moment. for The New Yorker, has been rapher, Welch exposed the Then I felt it. The street shuddered. I saw a flash of light and a named an associate professor widespread consequences of cloud of smoke erupt fewer than 20 steps from me. I smelled sulfur at the Missouri School of ocean acidification, which is and the shock wave pushed me back several steps. Journalism, where she’ll caused by the absorption of Twelve seconds later, as I struggled to make sense of the growing teach longform narrative. For carbon dioxide produced by pandemonium, I heard the second blast. Instantly, I knew what the past four years, she has the burning of fossil fuels. had happened. taught narrative writing at the In those fraught moments, my respite in academia ended. My Nieman Foundation, and for hands shook as I filmed the horror and called in the first story the past three she has been 2008 about the attack to my colleagues at The Boston Globe, who posted the editor of Nieman Story- Raúl Peñaranda received my words, sentence by sentence, editing out my anger. Afterward, board. She’ll begin her new the LASA Media Award at the between calls from the BBC, CNN, and networks from posting in the fall. end of May. Given annually to Chile, I wrote a first-person account for the paper. My footage by the Latin American Studies was viewed by tens of millions of people around the world. Association, the award honors Sleep wasn’t easy over the coming weeks, especially as I edited 2004 reporters covering the region my film. Masha Gessen is co-editor who “have accuracy and Over the following year, I told stories of the profound impact of of “Gay Propaganda: Russian reliability in their reporting, that day. For six months I followed one family who suffered the worst Love Stories,” published and have produced one or of it. Their 8-year-old son died and their 7-year-old daughter lost by OR Books in February. more exceptional stories in A response to government the course of the year.” His efforts to demonize homosex- new book about government uality, the book is a collection interference in media in a public conversation about of personal accounts of gays Bolivia, “Remote Control: race. Members of the public 2010 and lesbians coping with How Evo Morales’ Govern- have submitted tens of thou- Janet Heard has been political and social discrimi- ment Created a Network of sands of six-word statements appointed parliamentary nation in Russia. The stories Para-Governmental Media related to race and identity. editor at Media 24, which appear in English and Russian and a Plan to Harass the Inde- The judges lauded the proj- includes a range of daily in the same volume. pendent Press,” was released ect, which has been featured and weekend English and in April. on NPR’s “Morning Edition,” Afrikaans news titles. Her for “encouraging public dis- appointment coincides 2007 Walter Ray Watson is the cussion about diversity with the establishment of the Eliza Griswold’s book “I am producer for “The Race Card in ways that cut through fifth parliament in post-apart- the Beggar of the World: Project” which won a 2014 obvious differences to present heid South Africa. She previ- Landays from Contemporary Peabody Award. The project unique and individual lived ously worked at Afghanistan” was published in was created in 2010 to start experiences.” the Cape Times.

54 Nieman Reports | Spring 2014 country for longer than any Blair Kamin‘s e-book “The other Western correspondent. Gates of Harvard Yard” a leg. The husband The book offers evidence that inspired the Harvard Club of had severe ringing in Pakistani military and intel- Chicago to raise money to his ears and the wife ligence forces had a much fund the planting of trees and was blind in one eye. greater role in supporting the other landscaping improve- My two-part narrative Taliban insurgency than the ments around Johnston Gate. about the Richard Afghans. Gall, now based in The gate is named for Chi- family, among the Tunisia, is the Times’s North cago native Samuel Johnston, longest ever published Africa correspondent. who funded it. in the paper, ran the Sunday before the Souad Mekhennet is co-au- anniversary and trig- 2013 thor with Nicholas Kulish gered thousands of Ludovic Blecher, Borja Eche- of “The Eternal Nazi: From

SUZANNE KREITER/THE GLOBE BOSTON messages, a response varría de la Gándara, Alex- Mauthausen to Cairo, the Juli Windsor and David Abel, behind her unlike any other story andra Garcia, Paula Molina, Relentless Pursuit of SS Doc- I’ve written. and Hong Qu received fund- tor Aribert Heim.” Published The following day, my colleagues and I won the Pulitzer Prize for ing from the Knight Prototype in March by Doubleday, the Breaking News, which felt more like a Purple Heart and sparked Fund to develop innovative book chronicles how more sadness than celebration. The next day, on the anniversary media projects. Qu’s project, a concentration camp of the attack, I interviewed spectators, runners and others who Keepr, is designed to connect doctor escaped justice for had come back to stand where they had been the year before. That journalists with credible his war crimes. Mekhennet night, “25.7: In Twice the Steps,” the film I made as a fellow, was information and sources as was one of 214 people from broadcast to a national audience on cable. they follow breaking news on 66 countries honored by For the Marathon, the next Monday, I was up at dawn to meet Twitter. Blecher, Echevarría the World Economic Forum Juli. This time I accompanied her every step of the way. Our de la Gándara, Garcia and in 2014 as a Young Global hearts raced as we passed where the bombs had detonated and Molina created !nstant, a Leader. we crossed the finish line together, holding hands. mobile app that verifies and The next morning, despite the throbbing in my legs, there was one contextualizes news stories Betsy O’Donovan is the new place I wanted to be more than anywhere else. Back at Lippmann as they are reported on social social media strategist for House, the daffodils and tulips were in their full glory and I felt media. Each of the two proj- the Association of Inde- at peace as I limped inside. ects received $35,000. pendents in Radio, a Boston-based global social The staff of The Boston Globe, including reporter David Abel, NF Borja Echevarría de la and professional network of ’13; columnist Kevin Cullen, NF ’03; managing editor for news Gándara has been appointed producers. Christine Chinlund, NF ’98; and city editor Stephen Smith, NF vice president of digital at ’00; was recognized with a 2014 Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News. Univision News. In this newly created role based in Miami, 2014 Florida, he will direct strategy Anna Fifield will be The for Univision News’s digital Washington Post’s Tokyo high-profile resignations and platforms. In addition, he is bureau chief, starting in July. 2011 legal investigations on four charged with creating a state- Fifield previously worked for continents, “awe-inspiring by Stefan Candea was assistant of-the-art data journalism the Financial Times, most every measure.” project manager for “Secrecy unit for Univision News. recently as U.S. political for Sale: Inside the Global Echevarría de la Gándara was correspondent, and before Offshore Money Maze,” a most recently deputy manag- that as a correspondent multiplatform project of the 2012 ing editor of El País, Spain’s covering the Middle East International Consortium Carlotta Gall‘s book “The largest daily newspaper. and North and South of Investigative Journalists. Wrong Enemy: America in Korea. “Secrecy for Sale” won an Afghanistan, 2001-2014” was Daniel Eilemberg is now chief award from Independent published in April by Hough- digital officer and senior vice Tim Rogers will join Fusion as Reporters and Editors, Inc. ton Mifflin Harcourt. Gall president of Fusion, a joint homepage editor in June. He The judges called the inves- covered Afghanistan for The cable and digital venture of will be based at its headquar- tigation, which has led to New York Times, living in the ABC and Univision. ters near Miami, Florida.

Nieman Reports | Spring 2014 55 SOUNDING

Mosaics and Marginalia In search of a narrative arc, from the Caucasus to Cairo

have lived most of my adult life out of a single to tell me stories. I discovered the magicalness of suitcase, zigzagging a career through the Caucasus discovery: the station down the line, the Jewish Iand the Middle East. But I had never plumbed cemetery in Prague I came across by chance. Olo- for inspiration or reason. In the introduction to my mouc taught me a method of reporting: immersion, first book I wrote: “In any case I got on a plane.” friendship, engagement, conversation, hanging out. Whenever autobiography came up, I reused this Sometimes I say that I have been moving East neat little formula, self-plagiarizing, with a shrug. ever since. I have lived in many places: London, I started to write my story from the beginning: WENDELL STEAVENSON Georgia (no, the other one), Nagorno-Karabakh, I was born in … Regular narrative footfalls: And Tehran, Baghdad, Beirut, Jerusalem … Find apart- then and then … Until the Wall came down ment, unpack books. I don’t mind the glitchy things and I flew, alone and 19, to Czechoslovakia. Here We are all that don’t work. Two Tbilisi winters and no heat the paragraphs slowed and thickened with details, a bunch of cured me of that. I never miss something that is and I realized that this very first lone voyage had somewhere else. Wherever I am, I am. set a template for my whole life. contradictions, Along the way I veered between stringing and I had a single phone number in my pocket. A magazine features, books and a screenplay and business associate of my father’s had left Czecho in and it turns out mustered the courage to call myself a writer. My ‘68, and his family still lived in Moravia. With some that dictators books, including the one about the Egyptian revo- and a knot in my stomach, I boarded a lution I have just finished, have all been collections train to the provincial capital, Olomouc. The light and presidents of stories that hover between short story, travelogue, in the carriage blinked and buzzed, the window and revolutions reportage and memoir. Chapters are friends and was jammed open to a bracing draft and I sat very characters, incidents and anecdotes, conversations stiffly, not daring to find another seat. and civil wars and musings, juxtaposed in a structure I can best I stepped off the train and saw a man holding describe as mosaic. We are all a bunch of contradic- up a sign, V-E-N-D-I. I was warmly ushered into are no different tions, and it turns out that dictators and presidents a bashed-up red Skoda with the carcass of a wild and revolutions and civil wars are no different. boar in the boot and ferried into the bosom of the Reporting for The New Yorker on the Egyptian family, where I was fed schnitzel and strudel and revolution taught me this lesson well. plum brandy and introduced to everyone in town. My current working theory is that all theories One of the brothers, Ales, was a dentist and he and are wrong. Cause does not lead in a straight line his friends were in Obcanske Forum, Vaclav Havel’s to effect. History does not know what it is doing. party, and they had taken over the municipal ad- Sometimes I have the sense that the fragmented ministration in Olomouc with a borrowed basement structure of my books mirrors the hopscotch of room and a single typewriter. He took me to see my own progress—life as a series of scenes, not as it, various people coming and going, handshakes, a narrative arc. For a long time I had the idea that another bottle of plum brandy opened in defiance at some point I would come to a fixed point, like a of the snow falling outside. An Englishman arrived, summit maybe. But now I understand that life is a baldy itchy mousey man, a correspondent for The really only one uphill footfall after another. Daily Telegraph. Someone gave him some quotes Life and us and them and every country I have and they politely sent him on his way. seen are infinitely more beautiful and complex, When I got back to Cambridge University I wrote more brilliantly absurd and ironically twisted and an article that was published in the only issue of jaw-drop hilarious than even Tolstoy could write it. the student newspaper ever produced during my And yet, in any case, I try to write it. I am the girl time there. I realized—and this was my first sense sitting by the side of the road scribbling marginalia of self as a writer—that my story was much better in history’s notebook. than the dull copy the Telegraph man had printed. In Czecho I had time to walk and think and read Wendell Steavenson, a 2014 Nieman Fellow, is a and the happy happenstance intrusions of strangers staff writer for The New Yorker

56 Nieman Reports | Spring 2014 TO PROMOTE AND ELEVATE THE STANDARDS OF JOURNALISM Nieman Reports The Nieman Foundation for Journalism Harvard University One Francis Avenue Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138

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