Nieman Reports Fall 2005 Vol. 59 No. 3
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NIEMAN REPORTS THE NIEMAN FOUNDATION FOR JOURNALISM AT HARVARD UNIVERSITY VOL. 59 NO. 3 FALL 2005 Five Dollars Covering Indian Country Journalist’s Trade Changing Newspapers, Changing News Comparing National and Local Campaign Coverage Words & Reflections War Photography to Opinion Journalism “… to promote and elevate the standards of journalism” —Agnes Wahl Nieman, the benefactor of the Nieman Foundation. Vol. 59 No. 3 NIEMAN REPORTS Fall 2005 THE NIEMAN FOUNDATION FOR JOURNALISM AT HARVARD UNIVERSITY Publisher Bob Giles Editor Melissa Ludtke Assistant Editor Lois Fiore Editorial Assistant Sarah Hagedorn Design Editor Diane Novetsky Nieman Reports (USPS #430-650) is published Editorial in March, June, September and December Telephone: 617-496-6308 by the Nieman Foundation at Harvard University, E-Mail Address: One Francis Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138-2098. [email protected] Subscriptions/Business Internet Address: Telephone: 617-496-2968 www.nieman.harvard.edu E-Mail Address: [email protected] Copyright 2005 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College. Subscription $20 a year, $35 for two years; add $10 per year for foreign airmail. Single copies $5. Second-class postage paid at Boston, Back copies are available from the Nieman office. Massachusetts and additional entries. Please address all subscription correspondence to POSTMASTER: One Francis Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138-2098 Send address changes to and change of address information to Nieman Reports, P.O. Box 4951, Manchester, NH 03108. P.O. Box 4951, ISSN Number 0028-9817 Manchester, NH 03108. Vol. 59 No. 3 NIEMAN REPORTS Fall 2005 THE NIEMAN FOUNDATION FOR JOURNALISM AT HARVARD UNIVERSITY 5 Covering Indian Country 7 Challenges Native and Non-Native Journalists Confront BY JODI RAVE WATCHDOG 10 The Difficult Path of a Tribal Watchdog Reporter BY BONNIE RED ELK WATCHDOG 13 Freedom of the Press in Indian Country BY TIM GIAGO 15 Covering Indian Country: How an Outsider Gets In BY STEVE MAGAGNINI 17 The Healing Power of Well-Reported Words BY LArrY OAKES 21 Taking Time to Understand the Story to Be Told BY MICHAEL MOORE 23 Attitudes and Mindsets Hinder Journalists in Their Coverage BY MARY ANN WEstON 25 When Reporters Lack Access and Knowledge BY DOrrEEN YELLOW BIRD 28 Cultures Clash in Coverage of a School Shooting BY DAN GUNDErsON 30 Broadcast News: The Absence of Native Storytellers BY MARK TRAHANT 32 The Internet: Continuing the Legacy of Storytelling BY VICTOR MERINA 34 Finding a Different Path Into the Newsroom BY DENNY MCAULIFFE 36 Native News Honors Project BY CAROL VAN VALKENBURG 38 A Student’s Most Memorable Story BY ANNE E. PEttINGER Journalist’s Trade 42 Changing Newspapers, Changing News WATCHDOG 44 A Newsroom’s Fortress Walls Collapse BY STEVEN A. SMITH 48 A Newspaper Talks With Readers in a Cyber Town Square BY PAtrICK DOUGHErtY 50 A New Journalism for Democracy in a New Age A SPEECH BY BILL KOVACH 53 Transforming the Gathering, Editing and Distribution of News BY FRANCIS PISANI 56 The Transparent Life of Newspaper Blogs REMARKS BY JOHN ROBINSON 60 The Ascent of Blogging BY DAVID D. PERLMUttER AND MIstI MCDANIEL 65 Traditional Media in the Digital Age BY DOUGLAS AHLErs AND JOHN HEssEN Cover photo: Mecalita Wystalucy, 102 years old, a Zuni religious elder from Zuni Pueblo, New Mexico. Photo by © Lee Marmon. 68 The News Media’s 30-Year Hibernation BY DAVID CARLSON 72 Reinventing A Newspaper’s Web Site BY BArbARA A. SErrANO 75 Griping About Newspaper Editorials Doesn’t Change BY MICHAEL GArtNER 78 Getting Acquainted With Newspapers and Journalism BY SUSAN E. TIFFT 80 Organizing the New News BY PHILIP MEYER 83 When Major News Has a Very Short Shelf Life BY RUssELL FRANK 43 Comparing National and Local Campaign Coverage 85 Looking Behind the Scenes of Political Coverage BY SHANTO IYENGAR, WILLIAM F. WOO, JENNIFER MCGRADY 90 Words & Reflections 91 Opinion’s Place in Journalism BY RAY JENKINS 92 The Silent Takeover of American Journalism BY GILBErt CRANBERG 95 Going to War With a Camera as Artillery TEXT AND PHOTOS BY DAVID LEESON 98 When What War Is About Becomes Invisible BY STEVE NOrtHUP 99 Probing the Successes and Failures of the Washington Press Corps BY JAMES MCCArtNEY 101 Blending Economic Ideas With the Persuasive Power of Journalism BY JOHN GEDDES 102 When Media Create the Message BY HOWARD SHAPIRO 104 Time and Techniques Define A ‘New New Journalism’ BY MADELEINE BLAIS 3 Curator’s Corner: Mainstream Media and the Survival of Journalism BY BOB GILES 106 Nieman Notes COMPILED BY LOIS FIORE 106 Shahla Sherkat Receives the 2004 Louis M. Lyons Award SPEECH BY ROZA EFTEKHARI 107 Class Notes 111 End Note: A Long Journey Home TEXT AND PHOTOS BY LEstER SLOAN 2 Nieman Reports / Fall 2005 Curator’s Corner Mainstream Media and the Survival of Journalism In March, Nieman Foundation Curator Bob Giles welcomed country facing difficult challenges, the public needs our skills, to Lippmann House the participants in a symposium cohosted experience and most of all our professionalism to give them by The Media Center at The American Press Institute. Called the vital information they need to make good decisions about “Whose News? Media, Technology and the Common Good,” their lives and our nation’s future.” this two-day event brought together people whose professional A study released recently by the Knight Foundation re- lives intersect with the changing environment in which news flected on what’s happening with the readers and viewers of is being gathered and disseminated. Edited excerpts from tomorrow. It uncovered what has been described as “a shock- his remarks follow. ing level of student ignorance about the First Amendment, particularly its free speech and free press guarantees.” More ne question we will address in this symposium is than one-third thinks the First Amendment gives too much whether the traditions of journalism will survive. This free press protection, and most students don’t understand Ois a question of critical interest to the Nieman Foun- what free speech is. dation because our educational purpose is directly linked to A report from The McKinsey Quarterly questioned whether elevating the standards of journalism. It is hard not to be aware the answer to dwindling newspaper readership might be a of the controversies and conflicts swirling around mainstream move to the tabloid format. It noted that several important journalism. Just how timely this gathering European broadsheets have been con- is can be seen in recent stories that reflect verted into tabs, and the format has on the state of journalism. Or what Bill ‘If journalism is seen proved popular, with rising circulation Berkowitz of AlterNet refers to as “the sorry in the next year. But changing formats state of journalism these days.” as just another hungry carries the big risk of influencing more This month the Columbia Journalism special interest, the public churn because U.S. papers are heavily Review devoted an editorial to the idea dependent on home-delivered circu- that “it’s time to reconnect the press and will toss the good out with lation, and these readers are more the public …. If journalism is seen as just the bad. That may already resistant to change. another hungry special interest, the public Lou Ureneck, a teacher of business will toss the good out with the bad. That be happening.’ and economics journalism at Boston may already be happening,” the edito- — Columbia Journalism University, writing a Nieman Reports rial warned, as it cited a “plaintive letter” Review Editorial review of “The Vanishing Newspaper,” posted on Romenesko last month by Da- a new book by Phil Meyer at the Uni- vid Cay Johnston of The New York Times: versity of North Carolina, summed up “Just what has gone wrong in American the current business culture of many journalism? Fewer people pay attention. More of those who newspaper companies: “In a period of declining circulation do … reject all or part of the news. There is hostility and and public trust, it is a commentary on our times that budgets suspicion that reporters and editors and producers detect …. have become the key point of contact between editors and What does it mean for our democracy that so many people publishers (or corporate CEO’s) …. The concept of increasing ignore or disbelieve the people whose job it is to watchdog the investment in editorial quality, or even moderating the our government? What does it mean that trust seems to be impulse to cut newsroom budgets, has become a battlefield. under broad assault?” On one side: editors with a blind faith in the power of potent A commentary on Barron’s Online focused on the crisis of journalism to win readers and improve society. On the other confidence confronting the mainstream media, combined with side: business-oriented managers with an unbending com- a technological revolution and structural economic change. mitment to controlling costs and hitting the numbers that Has this created “what can only be described as a perfect reward investors.” storm, especially for newspapers and broadcast outlets?” the In her new book about broadcast news called “News Flash,” Barron’s article asked. “Print’s business model is imploding as Bonnie Anderson, a former executive at CNN, wrote that younger readers turn toward free tabloids and electronic media “It’s all about money, a desperate attempt to hang on to the to get news. It has become fashionable these days for many in huge profits news had earned over the years. And that is far the media to indulge in self-flagellation, hail the emergence more important to the corporations than the people’s right of ‘citizen journalists,’ and applaud the death of dinosaurs to know, even more important than a healthy democracy.” In who ‘don’t get it.’” The Barron’s commentary concluded on a review of Anderson’s book for Nieman Reports, Rebecca a supportive note for the mainstream media: “In a polarized MacKinnon, a former CNN bureau chief, writes that “Anderson Nieman Reports / Fall 2005 3 Curator’s Corner does not paint a pretty picture of American TV news.