Nieman Reports THE NIEMAN FOUNDATION FOR JOURNALISM AT HARVARD UNIVERSITY VOL. 64 NO. 4 WINTER 2010 The !"#$%Goes On Its &'($') Changes ENERGY • SPORTS • GOVERNMENT • FAMILY • SCIENCE • ARTS • POLITICS + MORE BEATS ‘to promote and elevate the standards of journalism’ Agnes Wahl Nieman the benefactor of the Nieman Foundation Vol. 64 No. 4 Winter 2010 Nieman Reports The Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University Bob Giles | Publisher Melissa Ludtke | Editor Jan Gardner | Assistant Editor Jonathan Seitz | Editorial Assistant Diane Novetsky | Design Editor 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. 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Box 4951 ISSN Number 0028-9817 Manchester, NH 03108 Nieman Reports THE NIEMAN FOUNDATION FOR JOURNALISM AT HARVARD UNIVERSITY VOL. 64 NO. 4 WINTER 2010 4 The Beat Goes On—Its Rhythm Changes The Beat: The Building Block 5 The Capriciousness of Beats | By Kate Galbraith 7 It’s Scary Out There in Reporting Land | By David Cay Johnston 9 The Blog as Beat | By Juanita León 11 A Journalistic Vanishing Act | By Elizabeth Maupin 13 From Newsroom to Nursery—The Beat Goes On | By Diana K. Sugg 15 Family Beat: Stories We Tell Around the Kitchen Table | By Beth Macy The Beat: The Watchful Eye 17 It’s Expertise That Matters | By Michael Riley 19 When Local Eyes Were Watching Their Lawmakers | By George E. Condon, Jr. 22 Statehouse Beat Woes Portend Bad News for Good Government | By Gene Gibbons 26 Investigative Reporting About Secrecy | By Ted Gup The Beat: The Science Angle 28 There’s Something to Be Said for Longevity | By Craig Welch 31 The Science Beat: Riding a Wave, Going Somewhere | By Charles Petit 35 Eclectic, Entertaining and Educational—The 21st Century Science Beat | By Paul Rogers The Beat: The Topic as Target 38 Modern-Day Slavery: A Necessary Beat—With Different Challenges | By E. Benjamin Skinner 41 Visual Stories of Human Trafficking’s Victims | An Essay in Words and Photographs by Melanie Hamman 46 Geographic Fortunes—and Misfortunes—Define This New Midwest Beat | By Micheline Maynard 48 Community Host: An Emerging Newsroom ‘Beat’ Without a Guide | By TBD’s Community Engagement Team Cover: Music from “Summer Days,” words and music by Gabrielle Goodman, from her book “Vocal Improvisation: Techniques in Jazz, R&B, and Gospel Improvisation.” Goodman is a singer, songwriter and professor of voice at Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts. Design: Diane Novetsky | Nova Design The Beat: The Sports Reporter 51 The Sports Beat: A Digital Reporting Mix—With Exhaustion Built In | By Dave Kindred 54 Frank Deford: Sports Writing in the Internet Age | Excerpt from a speech by Frank Deford 56 The Sports Tweet: New Routines on an Old Beat | By Lindsay Jones 58 The Sportswriter as Fan: Me and My Blog | By Jason Fry 60 It’s a Brand-New Ballgame—For Sports Reporters | By Malcolm Moran 63 A Shrinking Sports Beat: Women’s Teams, Athletes | By Marie Hardin Words & Reflections 65 From Journalism to Self-Publishing Books | By Fons Tuinstra 67 Figuring Out What a 21st Century Book Can Be | By Dan Gillmor 69 Creating a Navigational Guide to New Media | Excerpt from a book by Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel 71 Measuring Progress: Women as Journalists | By Kay Mills 3 Curator’s Corner: Expanding the Vision of the Nieman Foundation | By Bob Giles 73 Nieman Notes | Compiled by Jan Gardner 73 Returning Home to Sri Lanka to Face Difficult and Delicate Questions in Perilous Times | By Suvendrini Kakuchi 75 Class Notes 86 Letters to the Editor 88 End Note: Unforgettable Characters Encountered in Covering the Civil Rights Movement | By Wayne Greenhaw Teaching Journalism? Turn to Professor’s Corner—Nieman Reports’s companion website. Here we combine stories from our pages with fresh articles and useful links. We bundle these resources in ways that provide ease of access to ideas for planning curriculum with content that works well for classroom teaching. Here are two highlights: • J-School Partnerships: Engaging Students in Producing News: This is a collection of resources and stories about universities that are partnering with media outlets; stu- dents’ coverage of news is published and broadcast to an audience far beyond the campus. • Visual Journalism:!Here we offer a valuable combination of insights from photographers, multimedia producers, and professors about ways to teach photojournalism and the production of multimedia reports.! 2 Nieman Reports | Winter 2010 Curator’s Corner Expanding the Vision of the Nieman Foundation ‘Ten years later, as I prepare to retire in June, the foundation has a respected voice in the vibrant conversations about the future of journalism.’ BY BOB GILES hen I arrived at Lippmann House in early August presence in the world of narrative. 2000 to begin my tenure as curator, I had only In 2004, Barry Sussman, who edited coverage of Watergate an inkling of the sweeping changes that would at The Washington Post, joined us to create the Nieman Wwash over journalism and mainstream news organizations Watchdog Project (niemanwatchdog.org). It strengthens during the coming decade. reporters’ ability to ask insightful questions by publish- My predecessor, Bill Kovach, in announcing his retire- ing essays by experts with a deep knowledge of pertinent ment, had a clearer picture of what the Nieman Founda- issues—a process similar to the learning experience of tion needed: a leader who was closer to the technological Nieman Fellows in Harvard’s classrooms. revolution sweeping the profession because of the Internet. In the fall of 2007, I told the Nieman Foundation Advisory Instead of a curator with a Web 1.0 grasp of the new Board that it was important for the foundation to find its digital world at that moment, Harvard hired a man who place in the critical discussions about how technology was was, at best, a Web 0.0. Ten years later, as I prepare to changing journalism. We spent a year investigating the retire in June, the foundation has a respected voice in the idea before deciding to launch a project that became the vibrant conversations about the future of journalism. Its Nieman Journalism Lab (niemanlab.org). Joshua Benton, online presence has built a large and growing audience who was just completing his Nieman year, was hired as while enriching the experience of Nieman Fellows. director. Through a mixture of original reporting and In my last years as a newspaper editor, I understood research, analysis and commentary, and the input of a that an emerging culture of innovation and experimenta- vibrant community of innovators and thinkers, the lab has tion would reshape journalism. I pushed my staff at The become a core resource for those who are trying to figure Detroit News to launch detnews.com in 1995. I couldn’t out how quality journalism can thrive and survive in the tell you how they did it, but I loved what my role as Internet age. By its second anniversary this October, the editor empowered me to do: Hire talented people, give lab had generated 2.4 million page views. them freedom to carry out their responsibilities, encourage The expansion of Walter Lippmann House in 2003 creativity, and enable them to bring the best ideas to life. enabled the foundation to introduce an era of Nieman Meeting with the Nieman staff on that first day, I conferences. Fellows meet for seminars with policymakers, recognized that change wouldn’t come quickly but that scholars and other journalists in this enlarged space, which new thinking had to begin. Nieman Reports (nieman is where we host dinners, soundings, workshops and con- reports.org) existed on the foundation’s website, though ferences. In her role as special projects manager, Stefanie in rudimentary form. Through the years, the magazine’s Friedhoff, NF ’01, organizes a range of events for fellows, digital footprint has grown considerably—with slideshows, the Harvard community, and targeted audiences where audio and curated links supplementing its content—and reporters and potential sources meet in an environment its global audience continues to expand via social media. that lessens tensions and misunderstandings and where Editor Melissa Ludtke, NF ’92, and her staff serve journal- they are exposed to authoritative knowledge and fresh ideas. ism educators through Professor’s Corner, where original The Nieman Foundation’s capacity for change and growth content is paired online with stories from the magazine has been supported by a solid financial base built on an for use by faculty and students. endowment that has grown substantially as part of the The first major innovation was establishing the Nieman university’s investment portfolio. Over the past decade, the Narrative Journalism Program. Mark Kramer came from foundation itself has raised $9 million from grant givers Boston University in 2001 to build an annual conference to underwrite fellowships and programs and from friends that drew many hundreds and associated the Nieman and alumni whose gifts helped pay off the investment in Foundation with the best in journalistic storytelling.