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Vol. 54 No. 4 NIEMAN REPORTS Winter 2000 THE NIEMAN FOUNDATION FOR JOURNALISM AT HARVARD UNIVERSITY

4 The Internet, Technology and Journalism

Peering Into the 6 Technology Is Changing Journalism BY TOM REGAN Digital Future 9 The Beginning (and End) of an Internet Beat BY ELIZABETH WEISE

11 Digitization and the News BY NANCY HICKS MAYNARD

13 The Internet, the Law, and the Press BY ADAM LIPTAK

15 Meeting at the Internet’s Town Square EXCERPTS FROM A SPEECH BY DAN RATHER

17 Why the Internet Is (Mostly) Good for News BY LEE RAINIE

19 Taming Online News for Wall Street BY ARTHUR E. ROWSE

21 While TV Blundered on Election Night, the Internet Gained Users BY HUGH CARTER DONAHUE, STEVEN SCHNEIDER, AND KIRSTEN FOOT

23 Preserving the Old While Adapting to What’s New BY KENNY IRBY

25 Wanted: a 21st Century Journalist BY PATTI BRECKENRIDGE

28 Is Including E-Mail Addresses in Reporters’ Bylines a Good Idea? BY MARK SEIBEL

29 Responding to E-Mail Is an Unrealistic Expectation BY BETTY BAYÉ

30 Interactivity—Via E-Mail—Is Just What Journalism Needs BY TOM REGAN

30 E-Mail Deluge EXCERPT FROM AN ARTICLE BY D.C. DENISON

Financing News in 31 On the Web, It’s Survival of the Biggest BY MARK SAUTER The Internet Era 33 Merging Media to Create an Interactive Market EXCERPT FROM A SPEECH BY JACK FULLER

35 Web Journalism Crosses Many Traditional Lines BY DAVID WEIR

37 Independent Journalism Meets Business Realities on the Web BY DANNY SCHECHTER

41 Economics 101 of Internet News BY JAY SMALL

43 The Web Pulled Viewers Away From the Olympic Games BY GERALD B. JORDAN

Building New 45 Not Just a Newspaper on the Web BY ANDREA PANCIERA Homes for News 47 Broadband Technology Brings News Video to the Web BY JONATHAN KLEIN

50 The Wired Revolution BY KATIE KING

52 Multimedia Reporting in a Never-Ending News Cycle BY JACKIE BARRON

53 Protesters Develop Their Own Global Internet News Service BY JOHN TARLETON

55 Revealing What’s Happening in Schools EXCERPT FROM A SEMINAR BY JOHN GAGE

Cover illustration by Deborah Smiley incorporating incunabulum of Johann de Amerbach, printed in 1488, and an engraving of Johann Gutenberg from Joseph Moxon’s Mechanick Exercises, printed in 1683. Helping Reporters’ 57 Computers Help to Transform Statistics Into Stories BY MIKE BERENS Fingers Do Some 59 Training Journalists to Use Technological Tools in Reporting BY BRANT HOUSTON Walking 61 Looking for Help in All the Right Places BY PATRICIA A. COLEMAN

62 The Internet as a Reporter’s Tool BY JIM MORRILL

63 Gathering Context and Contacts BY BILL GRAVES

64 Training Tomorrow’s Journalists in a Global Medium BY JEROME AUMENTE

Developing a 65 It’s the Old West in the New East BY RAKESH KALSHIAN Global Interactive 67 Digital Dividends for Journalism in Africa BY TANYA ACCONE Dialogue 70 A Glimpse at Digital Resistance BY ANDRÁS VÁGVÖLGYI

71 Technology Replaces Legs and Ropes at The Bangkok Post BY SONGPOL KAOPATUMTIP

73 Coffee and Copy at Asian Internet Cafés BY PHILIP J. CUNNINGHAM

74 Journalists’ Use of the Internet Bubbled Up From Underground BY ANDREAS HARSONO

76 Le Monde Moves a Big Story to Its Web Site BY FRANÇOISE LAZARE

78 Journalist’s Trade

79 Caught in a Master Narrative BY RICHARD WEXLER 80 Child Welfare Reporting: Things Sources Say That Almost Always Aren’t True BY RICHARD WEXLER

82 Press Coverage and Public Perception BY NINA BERNSTEIN

84 Confidentiality Acts to Shield Abuse in Foster Care BY PATRICIA CALLAHAN

87 Fighting to Break the Barrier of Confidentiality BY JANE HANSEN

88 Goliath Arrives and a Few Davids Depart BY BLAIR TINDALL

90 Journalists Won’t Miss This ‘Deadline’ BY DON AUCOIN

92 International Journalism

92 Moving From Soviet Domination to Press Freedom BY JOHN MAXWELL HAMILTON

94 Political Leanings Shape Newspaper Coverage BY MICHAEL ELKIN

3 Curator’s Corner 96 Nieman Notes

96 A Photojournalist Portrays a Changing Community BY NURI VALLBONA 98 Class Notes

End Note From Carbon Copies to E-Mail BY RICHARD DUDMAN Curator’s Corner Journalism in the Era of the Web It’s feisty and combative, but is it compatible with journalism’s highest standards?

By Bob Giles

ainstream news organizations are struggling to ap- upstart dot-coms. Those with insufficient capital or marginal ply old-fashioned news standards to the Web, but journalistic reputations or weak marketing strategies are Mare discovering it is not easy to translate the virtues being weeded out. Among the survivors are the mainstream of accuracy, balance and clarity to a medium where the news organizations that have the resources to build power- advantages of speed and timeliness prevail. ful Web sites and to insure that these platforms reflect the Web technology has strengthened the traditional watch- rigorous standards by which their print publications are dog functions of journalism by giving reporters efficient written and edited. ways to probe more deeply for information. The capacity to Second are efforts by online journalists to craft standards search documents, compile background and historical con- for the Web. The Online News Association is beginning a text, and identify authoritative sources has expanded the project to develop strong guidelines, including recommen- reporter’s toolbox. It also has introduced a fundamentally dations for how they can be applied and monitored. A grant different culture built on interactivity, fewer rules, and fewer from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation will enable limits. the Online News Association to hire a project director and Speed and timeliness once were the strength of newspa- meet a deadline of October 2001 for the guidelines it pers. The wire services built their reputations on being first recommends. with the big stories, which people typically found in their Rich Jaroslovsky, president of the Online News Associa- local papers. The immediacy of television took that edge tion and managing editor of The Wall Street Journal Interac- from the printed press. Now the Web has established its own tive, says there is “a lot steam behind the project.” Too many advantages of speed and timeliness; and in doing so it has online news decisions are being made “by the seat of the enabled newspapers to come full circle by posting breaking pants,” Jaroslovsky says, “rather than having a reason for the news and extending their brands through such innovations decision. We hope to develop a document that doesn’t direct as online afternoon editions. but persuades,” not just journalists but also those who are At the intersection of traditional journalism and the Web, working in other online cultures and making distinctions attempts to apply the standards of the traditional newsroom between news and commerce. encounter such other values as freedom, irreverence, advo- The third, and perhaps the most far-reaching influence on cacy and attitude. Web journalists argue that the Olympian journalistic standards, is the interactivity that results when tones of the traditional press don’t work online. They liken journalists put their e-mail addresses on the Web. E-mail can their new medium to the true spirit of the First Amendment bring instant feedback to a story just posted as well as to one and observe that it harkens back to a time when newspapers that is read in the newspaper over coffee in the morning. were feisty and combative. Ann Compton of ABCNews.com Some reporters are constructing barriers to such engage- describes the essential difference between her online staff ment with readers, preferring instead to not have e-mail or and the network’s television journalists: “We write more to be shielded by a filter that lets through only the messages brightly. We throw in more slang. There is a richness to the they think they want to have. dot-com coverage that you really can’t do on television.” E-mail enables reporters and editors to hear from people Similar comparisons can be made between the Web and who may know something about the story and who can share daily newspapers. an authoritative perspective, provide additional sources or Is such “richness” compatible with the highest standards raise the possibility that the story may be unbalanced or of journalism? Can the freewheeling, provocative, irreverent unfair. The potential for such interactivity is that it can nature of the Web adapt to a culture whose traditions have contribute to raising the level of journalistic performance. been shaped by a more sober, structured medium? Jon Katz, a Web commentator who writes for Slashdot.com, The process of establishing standards online is moving says, “The surprising thing to me is the degree to which I am along, influenced by three developments. First is the reality held accountable by readers for what I am doing. Whatever that the dominant news Web sites will be run by the old you are writing, your column makes its way to the most media—the traditional news organizations such as daily knowledgeable people on the subject…. What you learn is newspapers, newsmagazines and network and major cable your column is not the last word, it’s the first word.” ■ television outlets. What makes this a reality is the influence of the marketplace, which has been especially harsh to [email protected]

Nieman Reports / Winter 2000 3 The Internet, Technology and Journalism

Peering Into the Digital Future Our journey into the digital future begins with an essay by Tom Regan, associate editor of The Christian Science Monitor’s Web site. His advice: Remember that technology is changing journalism, “as it always has;” wireless is the next publishing realm, and the Web—as a news distribution method—is (almost) already dead. Elizabeth Weise, who has reported on the Internet since 1993, contends the technology beat is changing. “Those of us who weren’t business reporters don’t want to become them, and increasingly that’s where this train is headed,” she writes. Nancy Hicks Maynard, whose book “Mega Media” explores the digitization of news, observes that “much about the ways we define, gather and produce news will have to change, too.” Adam Liptak, senior counsel at The New York Times, describes how technological changes might imperil “the secrets, status and swagger of the American institutional press.” Dan Rather, managing editor of CBS Evening News, urges journalists to “stand guard” against the lessening of news standards and the “balkanization of our society” when news of civic import is not commonly shared. Lee Rainie, director of the Pew Internet & American Life Project, weighs the pluses and minuses of news on the Web and finds “the Internet has been good for news….” Arthur E. Rowse, author of “Drive-By Journalism,” worries about how powerful media companies already dominate news on the Web. From the Annenberg Public Policy Center comes an article predicting greater integration of TV and Web coverage the next time Americans go to vote. Kenny Irby, visual journalism group leader at The Poynter Institute, reflects on the impact technology has on photojournalism and argues for preserving the still photograph. Patti Breckenridge, assistant managing editor at The Tampa Tribune, describes what it will take to be a journalist in the 21st century. (A hint: different qualities and skills than what most journalists possess today.) And four journalists offer opinions and evidence about e-mail interactivity with readers.

Financing News in the Internet Era Figuring out how to make quality online journalism a financially viable proposition is consuming vast amounts of brainpower. The answer, so far: have very deep pockets. Mark Sauter, cofounder of APBnews.com, writes about what happened to his site, where stories won numerous journalism awards but reporters lost their jobs because of bankruptcy. Jack Fuller, president of Tribune Company, outlines a strategy in which media converge and create financial support for “the expensive business of newsgathering.” David Weir, a vice president at Excite@Home, believes journalists should not shy away from involvement in creating the financial models for new media news companies. Danny Schechter, executive editor of mediachannel.org, describes the tension he experiences in being a journalist and having “to get down (and dirty) in the money troughs,” as he looks for a way for independent media voices to surface on the Web. Jay Small, a former journalist who manages digital services for Thomson multimedia, offers journalists advice from the world of consumer electronics: “Let the methods of delivering the news flow from the business model, not the other way around.” Gerald Jordan, professor of journalism at the University of Arkansas, ruminates on whether broadcast rights fees might be jeopardized by new technologies.

4 Nieman Reports / Winter 2000 Building New Homes for News At The Providence Journal, online editor Andrea Panciera writes that all sorts of barriers between the online and print staffs must be broken down so that “the editorial voice that we’ve been searching for” can exist on the Web. Jonathan Klein, who founded The FeedRoom (a news network on the Web), debunks arguments about the threat posed to democracy when consumers decide what stories to watch, rather than journalists. Katie King, a vice president at Reuters Media, explains that Reuters banks on the reliability of its reporting and markets it online, 24/7, in 11 languages and 18 countries. Jackie Barron, a local TV news reporter in Tampa, Florida, covered a murder trial and reported daily for three different media—TV, newspaper and the Web. She writes about multimedia reporting from the frontlines of media convergence. John Tarleton, an independent reporter, describes how protesters develop their own news sites on the Web, and John Gage, chief researcher for Sun Microsystems, suggests how the Internet provides a great opportunity for students to become education reporters.

Helping Reporters’ Fingers Do Some Walking By using new technological devices to disassemble millions of computerized records, Chicago Tribune project reporter Mike Berens unearthed patterns of fatal nursing errors and transformed statistics into investigative stories. Brant Houston, executive director of Investigative Reporters and Editors, Inc. (IRE), explains how he trains journalists to use new computer tools to enhance their reporting. Patricia Coleman, research director at IRE, Jim Morrill, a reporter at The Charlotte Observer, and Bill Graves, who writes for The Oregonian, share their reporting experiences with listservs and document searches. Jerome Aumente, professor emeritus at Rutgers, urges journalism educators to help find imaginative solutions to the new workplace demands of this digital era.

Developing a Global Interactive Dialogue

There are few places in the world where technological changes are not resulting in new approaches to how journalists do their jobs and consumers get their news. Rakesh Kalshian, an Indian journalist, describes the gold rush atmosphere created by Internet publications. But gold, he writes, has been hard to find. From Africa, Tanya Accone, executive producer of M- Web Africa, reports that obstacles abound, such as a lack of access to technology and of a wired infrastructure, but so do potential payoffs as the Web helps journalists circumvent autocratic government restrictions. András Vágvölgyi, a magazine writer in Hungary, visits Serbia and discovers that the new technology “is not just a tool but is freedom itself.” Songpol Kaopatumtip, an editor at The Bangkok Post, writes about adapting to the arrival of computers and the Internet in the newsroom. Journalist Philip J. Cunningham, who reports from many Asian countries, takes us along as he writes his stories at Internet cafés. Andreas Harsono, managing editor of a monthly magazine in Jakarta, explores how Internet publications helped to topple a corrupt president but also how today’s widespread poverty curtails technology’s potential reach. And Françoise Lazare, a reporter at Le Monde, tells how, for the first time, her newspaper used its interactive Web site to break a big story: Evidence accusing President Jacques Chirac of corruption could be seen on videotape. ■

Nieman Reports / Winter 2000 5 The Internet, Technology and Journalism Technology Is Changing Journalism Just as it always has.

By Tom Regan

ne of the clearest memories of my youth is a conversation I Ohad with my father in the summer of 1970. My dad had left his work in politics and the media to concentrate on the new phenomena of cable TV. (He would eventually go on to become the most successful cable consultant in Canada.) We were talking about why he wanted to switch careers when he said a most amazing thing. “Someday,” he told me, “you’ll be able to read your newspaper on the television.” I looked at him like he had two heads. Read my newspaper on the TV? Oh sure, dad. And that’s what you’re going to base your new career on? I told him I thought he was crazy, that nobody would ever do something so weird. My dad passed away 15 years ago, but often, as I read my newspaper, The Christian Science Monitor, on my Photo courtesy of The Library of Congress. WebTV, I’ve thought of my dad and wondered what he would think of the Internet and the new forms of journal- I want to participate in chats and fo- not. While the basic tenets of journalism of the 21st century. Actually I rums. I want to use the new tools of ism will remain the same (honesty, know—he would love new media and modern storytelling available on a fairness, accuracy), almost everything all its possibilities. And I’d be lying if I medium like the Web because they will else will change: how our work reaches didn’t say that this apple has fallen add richness and depth to any piece on our audiences/readers; the tools we pretty close to the tree. which I work. And I want to be able to use to do our jobs; the nature of the I’ve crossed my Rubicon as far as get my pieces to readers as fast as relationship we have with the people new media and journalism are con- possible, on whatever platform they who access our work, and who are cerned. Recently I thought about re- want to receive it. competitors are. turning to print reporting after work- As we enter the 21st century, pub- Welcome to the future of journal- ing in new media during the past eight lishing digitally no longer just means ism. Please make sure your seatbelts years. But I realized that my definition putting up “shovel-ware” (or legacy are fastened, your chairs are in the of what it means to be a reporter had content, as some call it) on a Web site. upright position…. dramatically changed. In the past, my We face a future in which technology newspaper work meant finding a good will change journalism, as it always story, doing interviews and research, has. Just as telephones gave reporters Getting the News Out: How and filing my stories or columns on the ability to remain on the scene of a We Will Publish Content in time. Those elements remain at the story longer or TV allowed us to tell The Future core, but new elements have been news stories using moving pictures, added. Now I want to generate audio these new media are already changing There is a very important fact that all and video along with text. I want my e- the way we do our jobs as journalists— journalists must bear in mind—our mail address on everything that I write. whether we welcome those changes or future does not lie on the Web. In fact,

6 Nieman Reports / Winter 2000 Peering Into the Digital Future if you believe some people, we should impact on the delivery of new media access in the palm of your hand— just forget about the Web altogether content. The old saw of “You can’t read which includes rich graphic and video because its time as a distribution it on a bus or take it into the can” will capabilities. You will literally be able to method is almost past. mean nothing, because hand-sized watch any TV station in the world if it That’s probably a little too pessimis- reading devices will enable you to read/ has an Internet output (as most radio tic. The truth is, however, media out- watch/hear media content any place stations do today). lets that focus only on the Web will be you like. And as these reading devices None of this is science fiction—it’s concentrating on too little, too late. drop in price, you’ll see many publish- all currently available or in a testing That’s because the Web will be just one ers start offering deals where custom- mode and will be available within the of many ways that we will get the news ers will buy/rent a reading device from next few years. to those who want it. Other methods them. You’ll still be able to access other will include e-books, wireless cell content (probably via subscription) but phones, personal digital assistance the devices’ default setting will all be Give Us the Tools and We’ll (PDA) devices such as Palm Pilots, and set to the primary publisher. (AOL and Finish the Job probably several other methods we are Microsoft are already marketing tablet- not even aware of yet. Desire by the sized devices that include wireless A couple of weeks ago, during one of public for these methods of delivery, Internet access.) those beautiful fall New England days and the cost savings they will bring to And speaking of wireless, it will be- that seem to sneak past winter’s guard the media who use them to publish, come the primary platform on which dogs just before he decides to clobber will drive these changes during the to publish digital content. Currently us, I sat in Copley Square and wrote a next decade. Sprint PCS, for instance, offers wireless column on my laptop. I didn’t dictate it The key to many of these changes access to the Internet, but it’s mostly into my voice recognition software will be improved screen resolution. text and made for very small screens. (which is how I normally “write” my Even though recent statistics from Sprint, however, has started marketing first drafts—this piece, for instance, groups such as the Pew was about half typed, Research Center and half spoken), because The Poynter Institute the background noise show that more and was a little loud. When I more people are choos- finished, I took my wire- ing to read their news less phone out of my online, few would say pocket, connected it to that it’s an experience my laptop, got a good they prefer to reading a 56 kbps connection, and newspaper or watching e-mailed the story back a TV. (Audio is an ex- to the Monitor. Then I ception to this argu- used my Instant Messag- ment, as digital audio, ing software to chat with via the Web or wireless, the editor of the piece is already comparable to about how he planned other media.) But at the to edit it. (My mother- recent Seybold Publish- in-law, who lives in Tur- ing Conference held in key, saw I was online San Francisco, people and “chatted” with me who work in this area as well.) were saying that within Also this fall I at- two to three years, small tended a conference devices like PDA’s or e- called “Being Human in book readers will have the Digital Age,” in screen resolution com- Camden, Maine. I used parable to ink on paper. Nokia, a Finnish telecommunications firm, conceptualized terminals for its my digital voice re- Only it will be better, 3G (third generation) network. 3G is planned for test marketing in Japan in corder to “tape” an in- they say, because it will 2001 and in Europe in 2002. © Nokia, 2000. terview with James be back lit (so you can Adams, the head of an still read in the dark), Internet security firm with better contrast. Larger screen tech- wireless phones with much bigger called iDEFENSE. That night, I down- nology is about five years away. screen areas and plans to have broad- loaded the digital audio to my laptop When these better screens become band access available on phones within and sent a copy of the entire interview available, it will have an enormous two to three years. Imagine broadband back to the Monitor so our audio people

Nieman Reports / Winter 2000 7 The Internet, Technology and Journalism could do some editing. I also sent back ceive e-mail, the Internet and technol- create news as viewed through their a few digital photos I had taken. I ogy are changing the face of journalism own filters. would have had sent video but I had around much of the world. (I am in- forgotten to bring that camera. debted to Adam Powell of The Free- Technology is quickly eliminating dom Forum for examples mentioned Turning a Buck—a Thousand the usual reasons reporters find to avoid below.) Revenue Streams of Light creating extra material for their new E-mail in particular is transforming media partners. For instance, the digi- newsgathering. For instance, 10 years Journalists who hate the Internet and tal audio recorder is only slightly larger ago The Johannesburg Star in South all it stands for are fond of saying that than a cigarette lighter. The video cam- Africa covered the neighboring coun- while new media might have all the era is palm-sized. Laptops are shrink- tries of Africa using the wires like The sizzle, old media has all the steak. And ing and soon will be half the size and Associated Press or Agence France- it is true that most new media compa- weight they were only two years ago. In Presse. But in recent years, as editors nies are either losing money or just other words, the barrier to creating and reporters around Africa started breaking even. more content has more to do with getting e-mail, the Star has been able to The problem of revenue for new attitude than with inconvenience. This generate its own coverage of sub-Sa- media was that for a long time we were is particularly true for print reporters, haran Africa. As one editor recently trying to pour old wine into new bottles. who love to complain about how over- told Powell, African journalists are now The models we had for revenue gen- worked they are. (I was a print reporter constructing their own journalism, and eration all came from older media. But for a long time—I remember the drill.) they are no longer dependent on an it’s becoming increasingly clear to those And while they are overworked, the American or European view of what is of us who work in new media that there reality is that most of the extra content happening on their own continent. is no one single river of revenue (like mentioned above took almost no extra And now, these same news outlets are display ads or classifieds in newspa- time to create or prepare. beginning to share digital video and pers), but many small streams that come And as much as some reporters may audio feeds. together to create a larger river. hate to hear this, creating this extra Another great example of how tech- Banner ads will generate some rev- material will soon become a part of nology is changing modern journalism enue, but it will never be the magic every reporter’s job description. That is transpiring among Arab publications bullet envisioned in the beginning of doesn’t mean the act of storytelling, in the Middle East and Northern Africa. new media. Newer revenue streams which comprises the heart of good A group of editors set up a password- include selling access to archives, new journalism, will change. But the tools protected Web site in London where syndication deals in which Web sites we will use will definitely chnge. Arab editors can file an uncensored sell their content to companies like Let me offer an example of a tech- version of stories they run in their Screaming Media and iSyndicate—who nology that most reporters will be ea- publications. The idea is that other then sell it to other Web sites or for use ger to use. Currently, voice recogni- editors around the Arab world can read on a company’s intranet—and the cre- tion software only allows the person these stories, and although they can’t ation of personalized editions. (All of who “trains” the software (to recog- run them, it allows them to know what’s these methods generate revenue for us nize their voice) to create a text file really happening in other Arab coun- at the Monitor.) And once micro-trans- from an audio recording. But Lernout tries so they can shape their own cover- actions are available in about a year or and Hauspie of Burlington, Massachu- age to reflect the truth. Perhaps an so, permitting media companies to sell setts, one of the leading voice recogni- even more interesting comment came content for pennies, rather than dol- tion companies, say they are about two from one Arab editor who told Powell lars, fee-based models will be much years away from having a system where that the Internet is finally allowing his more acceptable to readers/users. you can tape anyone you like, and it paper to cover America in depth. When But here’s something we’ve also dis- will transcribe all voices, no voice train- Powell asked what that meant—after covered at the Monitor. The Monitor’s ing needed. No more madly scribbling all, the Arab countries all get CNN and Web site, csmonitor.com, has become notes during interviews. Just tape it, such—he replied that he had been able one of the main ways for people to download it, and transcribe it with the to create a network of Arab correspon- subscribe to our print edition. In fact, proper software. dents in the United States who cover we sell almost as many subscriptions events in the United States from an online as we do via direct mail or other Arab perspective. advertising methods. And the reten- Let Freedom Ring: the Within a few years, it will be impos- tion rate of people who sign up via the Impact Technology is Having sible for authorities in totalitarian or Web site is twice as high as for those On Journalism Around the communist countries to prevent their who sign up through other methods. I World citizens from having firsthand knowl- believe this is because people use one edge of the news. Meanwhile, coun- medium to complement the other. In As journalists in North America argue tries long accustomed to an American other words, they like having a choice. about whether or not we want to review of the world are finding ways to In the future, new media outlets that

8 Nieman Reports / Winter 2000 Peering Into the Digital Future work hand in hand with old media to ruin journalism. During one par- mean we can escape it. But paying counterparts will be the ones that pros- ticular gloomy panel about the future attention to it means we can shape it. per. That’s because the secret to mak- of journalism, a man standing beside There are many battles still to be fought ing money with new media is for media me leaned over and said, “It’s like lis- on the digital battlefield—like privacy, companies to see themselves as con- tening to a group of 15th century monks access to information, and access for tent providers, and not just newspa- talk about the printing press.” all to these new media. Good journal- pers, radio stations, etc. I will never forget his words because ists will be needed to report on these And here’s the other bottom line he spoke the truth. People hate change topics, as well as all the other issues about revenue. It’s a hell of a lot cheaper and journalists hate it more than most that people are talking about. to get the news to people via digital people. We are a skeptical group by In the end, it’s all about our readers/ methods than analog ones. Ultimately nature and view all change through a viewers/audience and getting them re- this fact alone will convince many me- jaundiced eye. After all, that is what we liable information in a timely manner. dia outlets to switch to new media are paid to do for most of our profes- If we focus more on their needs, and models. sional lives. So it’s easy to understand less on our complaints, then moving why some journalists are fearful and into the new media era will be a piece suspicious of these changes. of cake. ■ And in Closing… Without sounding too much like a fatalist, it’s important that we realize Tom Regan, a 1992 Nieman Fellow, A few years ago I attended a conference that most of the changes described is associate editor of The Christian held by the Nieman Foundation on above are inevitable. But the reality is Science Monitor’s Web site at journalism and technology. The two- that the elements that make good jour- www.csmonitor.com. day conference turned into an Eeyore- nalism, and good journalists, will never like wail of how new media were going change. Ignoring the future doesn’t [email protected]

The Beginning (and End) of an Internet Beat The Net story is no longer about cultural shifts. It’s about money.

By Elizabeth Weise

n the speeded-up world of technol- teach BASIC, making me the de facto of thousands of fascinating people dis- ogy, I can only compare covering computer expert on staff. cussing everything under the sun, as Ithe Internet technology beat dur- The San Francisco overnight was a well as an e-mail link to a brand new ing the past eight years to something protective shift. It involved doing the world. Each night after the briefs pack- like covering Hawaii between when it weather report, some radio pieces and age was sent, I explored, and quickly fell into the orbit of the United States a few rewrites, but mostly one was realized what I was learning about was and now. For both assignments, the there in case the Big One hit. In the a story worth writing about. Thank- story began as one best handled by grand AP tradition of dues paying, it fully, my bureau chief Dan Day took my something akin to a foreign correspon- was where green reporters were sent word that this Internet thing wasn’t dent, but evolved into one requiring to cure for awhile. just some new CB radio-like craze, but the approach and mindset of some- Alone in the bureau from 11 p.m. to a true cultural shift that we should be thing closer to a business and real- 7 a.m., I was bored and lonely and covering. My first story was about the estate reporter. quickly began fiddling with the ’tube Women’s Information Resources Ex- I began my career as the Internet I’d been assigned. After a few days’ change, a newly begun women’s reporter on the overnight desk at the work I finally figured how to back out Internet network which much later Associated Press bureau in San Fran- of AP Edit and get the modem to dial morphed into Woman.com. cisco in 1993. I had done a few com- out to my newly acquired Internet ac- I was discovering (and covering) a puter stories at the Seattle AP and be- count on what I, at the time, did not new culture, and I frequently likened fore that some stories on an realize was an already famous online the beat to being a foreign correspon- up-and-coming company called community, the WELL. dent. But I was stuck on the overnight Microsoft as a reporter for the Seattle Coming to work at night was sud- desk, doing interviews by phone in the National Public Radio affiliate. All this denly fun, an ongoing party I was eager mornings and precluded by union rules because my high school happened to to return to. The WELL was composed from venturing out on my own time to

Nieman Reports / Winter 2000 9 The Internet, Technology and Journalism actually meet the people I talked with. ten bulletin board of the Net, and a reporter who was taking part in the And by AP rules, I couldn’t write bylined Internet Relay Chat, the grandfather of culture she was covering, I fought a stories since I hadn’t physically been to all chat and instant messaging pro- constant battle with those back home the (mostly Silicon Valley) towns these grams, which is now mostly inhabited who kept telling me (rightly so, I real- people worked in. by hackers and hacker wannabe’s. ize now) that the bulk of America would To get around this, Dan and I hatched One momentous and hysterical day have no idea what we were writing the idea of a weekly column to be was when America Online finally about. In the beginning the copy desk called “On the Net.” But the AP’s then- opened a gateway to the Internet. Thou- required that each use of the word executive editor Bill Ahearn turned him sands upon thousands of “clueless “Internet” be followed on first refer- down cold, saying it was hardly na- newbies” stumbled out the door into ence by the phrase “a world-wide net- tional news. Ever an editor to stand up alt.best.of.internet, the first Usenet work of computer networks.” Then for his writers, Dan ignored New York newsgroup on the list. Unfortunately, there were the numerous fights over and decided to run this new column on much like Columbus when he hit San the use of World Wide Web (as it was the state wire. Salvador in the Bahamas and thought dubbed by its inventor) rather than the During its first year, the AP’s own he’d found China, they thought this grammatically proper World-wide Web. computers couldn’t even handle the @ one newsgroup was the entire Internet And e-mail took forever to beat out sign in e-mail addresses, meaning that and spent several days bumbling electronic mail on first, or sometimes at the bottom of each column we had around complaining about how small all, references. (Wired magazine re- to write, “Elizabeth Weise can be and boring it was. Net “denizens,” as cently decreed the return of the hy- reached at weise (insert ‘at sign’ here) we tended to call them, sat on the phen to e-mail, after valiantly and well.com.” Half the time the papers sidelines, chuckling and baiting them. ungrammatically demanding that it be that ran the column forgot to substi- After close to a year of this, with “On email to all and sundry for years.) Then tute those words for the actual @ sign, the Net” running in a goodly number there was the ongoing struggle over and I’d get angry messages from tech- of papers on the West Coast, New York reaction stories. In the face of any ca- savvy readers wondering what kind of finally decided the Internet was a real tastrophe—say the Northridge earth- dolts we were. The AP wouldn’t have e- thing after all and that they should quake in Los Angeles or the bombing of mail for its staffers for another two actually be covering it. I was offered the federal building in Oklahoma City— years, so I had to use my private ac- the august position of national writer, the general desk immediately called count for my reporting and my ad- based in San Francisco, with a newly looking for an Internet-Reax story to dress, and none of this was even reim- created title that New York was con- accompany the required sidebar con- bursable. vinced sounded perfectly cutting taining a compendium of man-on-the- When the Web hit, at the AP we had edge—AP Cyberspace Writer. street comments from around the na- terrible trouble writing about it. It To this day I believe it stands as the tion. It took the better part of a year to turned out that the // in http:// (which oddest title ever bestowed on an AP finally convince them people online at that point was still required to actu- writer. It ran just below my byline, were just the same as those offline. In 1997 USA Today made me an offer I couldn’t refuse (not hard to do I was discovering (and covering) a new culture, with someone on an AP salary), and I and I frequently likened the beat to being a switched to covering the same beat for foreign correspondent. a newspaper. This new position was nirvana. One of the issues that always came up in the early years was where newspapers chose to run the stories ally reach Web sites) was read by some though few papers actually used it, we were writing about this new Internet computers in the system as a “Stop choosing the AP bug instead. Business culture. It seemed clear to the writers Text” message, meaning the story cut cards were a different matter, demand- that they were news or perhaps style off as soon as those characters were ing all sorts of explanations as I handed stories, being as they covered the hith- sent. It took the technicians several them out at conferences, but no matter erto undiscovered world of cyberspace. weeks to figure out what was happen- what I said the person reading the card But because they were nominally about ing and much faxing of articles to pa- almost always burst into laughter at the computers, they almost always ran in pers unlucky enough to be on those sight of the title. After I left, the AP paper’s business sections. lines. quietly changed the beat’s title to AP By a happy twist of fate USA Today’s That first year of columns was like Internet Writer. resident computer and Internet geek- writing from some distant civilization, The next two years were marked by turned-editor Bruce Schwartz hap- one now virtually extinct. The Internet a growing national fascination with the pened to work in the Life section, so in 1995 basically consisted of the digi- Internet and the online world and the the paper’s technology coverage had tal cacophony that was Usenet, the gradual coming along of the news in- always run in that section. This freed it once thriving but now almost forgot- dustry to the change. And in the way of from the problem many of my tech-

10 Nieman Reports / Winter 2000 Peering Into the Digital Future writer brethren faced. They might write truly new world order. As Howard ‘Friends’ and click on Ross’s sweater a fascinating cultural story that touched Rheingold pointed out in his 1993 clas- and buy it!” on several facets of the online world, sic, “The Virtual Community,” the Net The Internet that streams at me ev- but their editors required that end-of- wasn’t just about the possibility of one- ery day as I sit at my desk is Singapore trading stock prices be ingloriously to-one communication, it was about as compared to Borneo, and I find I the possibility of liked covering Borneo better. Most of one-to-many. It what needs to be written these days Most of what needs to be written represented the truly is a business story; it’s about chance for anyone, money and sales, real estate and corpo- [about the Internet] these days anywhere, to post rate power. And I’m not the only one. truly is a business story; it’s their own mani- More and more of my colleagues, folks about money and sales, real festo, to speak to who’ve been doing this thing for longer the world. The and shorter periods, are slipping away estate and corporate power. Internet stood to into other beats. Those of us who fundamentally weren’t business reporters don’t want change the age-old to become them, and increasingly that’s proposition that where this train is headed. shoehorned in to make the story work the power of the presses belonged to The frontier has been settled, the for the business section. those who owned them. Suddenly, you prairie’s been fenced, the sheriff has Now, three years further down the didn’t need a press to broadcast your come to town and the businesses on road, Bruce and I agree the world we thoughts to the world. Main Street have begun their move to both began covering back in the early But that time has passed. The possi- suburban malls. It’s time to get out of 1990’s isn’t the same beat we’re cover- bilities are still there, but they’re hid- Dodge. ■ ing today. We all knew this day would den behind the billboards for WalMart come—it was in the very nature of our and eGreetings. Many of the people Elizabeth Weise has recently begun reporting to bring it about. The Internet who once might have done cool things the process of switching from the wasn’t supposed to be a secret kept for merely for the sake of doing them now Internet/technology beat at USA only academics and scientists; it was a are hoping to get noticed, get bought Today to covering the scientific, worldwide communications medium. out and get rich. The word cultural and ethical issues raised by But we were there during the brief, “interactivity,” which once meant con- biotech and nanotech. heady moment when it seemed as if the nection between human beings, now Net might hold the possibility for a too often simply means, “You can watch [email protected]

Digitization and the News For better or for worse, the digital revolution is changing journalism.

By Nancy Hicks Maynard

n much the way refrigeration better chance of finding recently pub- Technology allows for more news, pro- changed food production and con- lished articles, but locating large quan- duced and available at lightening speed, I sumption, digitization potentially tities of older reporting was the prov- often at lower costs than before. And changes everything about the manner ince of scholars or pricey research firms. the process is accelerating still, facili- in which we produce and consume Now, digital databases, most available tated by equipment upgrades of Y2K news. All presumptions about its fresh- through the Internet, turn that pattern remediation and government-man- ness and perishability vanish. upside down. The public needn’t pay dated conversion to high-definition For most of the 20th century, the attention all the time. Increasingly, it television, most of it digital. Whether public had to follow unfolding news, doesn’t. or not the public embraces HDTV, tele- catching it as it presented itself or los- Convergence of information media vision stations have hardware in place. ing it forever. Any viewer who wanted on digital platforms means anyone can Journalists worry. Will quality suf- to see a local story after its broadcast be a scholar or editor. Friends are be- fer? Will commerce contaminate hard- was simply out of luck. Newspapers coming more reliable filters of infor- won integrity? and magazine readers had a slightly mation than established news brands. Actually, the end of the journalists’

Nieman Reports / Winter 2000 11 The Internet, Technology and Journalism world is nowhere in sight. But as the cycle has all but disappeared. So has grating customer databases with mail digital revolution marches ahead, much the ability of a single executive to man- room and distribution units is an an- about the ways we define, gather and age it. ticipated next step. Consumers place produce news will have to change, too. high value on choice, even in a mass medium. The Arizona Republic has Cycles of Consumption 70,000 subscribers who pay an extra Quantity, Quality and Speed dollar a week not to receive Sunday Internet users have developed a pat- advertising inserts. But its systems can’t Volumes of stories, delivered instanta- tern of news consumption that is dif- yet put together the customized print neously, have changed America’s in- ferent from adults who aren’t wired. product many readers crave. formation diet. News is now less a They watch more cable but less broad- series of discreet “meals,” a morning cast news; they read more weekly pa- newspaper, a noon radio update, and pers and specialty magazines but fewer Ultimate Convergence an evening broadcast. Rather, it’s a dailies and general interest publica- robust, all-day buffet, containing fast tions. Between these groups, distinc- In media talk, convergence refers to a food, junk food, fine dining, and every- tions intensify with time. Internet us- receiving device: the computer, televi- thing in between. The public can ers appear to be more intense sion, cable box top, telephone, or sat- choose to partake of what it wants, consumers. They catch breaking news ellite dish. But what about convergence when it wants, in any format, and con- online or on cable; they read with less of function? What about the newsroom sume as much or as little as it desires. frequency but more depth, a practice and convergence? This system challenges consumers to enhanced by hyperlinks on the World Because of regulatory waivers, the select a balanced fare of entertainment Wide Web. Users tend to bypass incre- Belo Corporation in Dallas and Tri- and public interest offerings. In turn, mental updates and common daily bune Company in Chicago own daily news organizations must decide how news fare, preferring the weekly over- newspapers, broadcast television sta- much information to collect and how view or analysis. Theirs is a rhythm of tions, cable news channels and Internet to package and present it. attention in opposition to the current sites, with overlapping staffs and facili- On its best days, technology im- production cycles. ties. More cities are seeing converged proves the news. Database reporting With this pattern falling into place news organizations as partnerships unearths important breaches of public and more than half the nation’s house- form among different companies and trust, invisible without easy access to holds plugged in, news media are due the newspaper industry challenges the raw information and knowledge about to rethink packaging and resource de- FCC’s (the Federal Communications how to use sophisticated computer ployment. Full audience capacity for Commission) prohibition of television programs to sort it out. Patterns of interactivity is a key but unknown vari- and newspaper ownership in a single police brutality, discriminatory lend- able. market. ing practices for homes or cars, and News staffs work across media. inequitable application of the death Newspaper reporters also appear on penalty are important public topics Production Costs cable news or television programs. that have benefited from computer- Broadcasters write or produce stories assisted reporting. For all the fluff Cost will determine how closely pro- for the Internet. Camera operators si- served up, the impact of these stories duction patterns adapt to these chang- multaneously shoot videotape for tele- provides more than equal counter- ing styles of consuming news. Photos vision and digital stills for publication weight, although they have become a of the winning World Series home run but both are also available for the Web smaller part of a larger, diversified in- arrived at editors’ desks within sec- site. Can a single newsroom that merges formation business. The trick will be to onds. There was no film to transport or these functions become the standard? protect enterprise journalism, to cre- processing required. Just a phone line A merged newsroom already exists ate a device akin to Al Gore’s famous or cellular connection. The savings are in Tampa. And Bloomberg, the finan- “lock box” that distinguishes them from huge. Technology also extracts large cial reporting company, was a pioneer entertainment, e-commerce and a host chunks of cost from broadcast field in setting up a single, digital newsroom of other sins that coexist in the digital operations, miniaturizing equipment for its various Wall Street and con- cauldron. and staffing needed to operate it. Trans- sumer information products. MSNBC’s On the other hand, digitization can portation and shipping expenses also cable network and Web site run con- impede quality. In quickening the jour- fall sharply as a result. vergent newsrooms in metropolitan nalistic process, layers of editing as Newspapers save untold billions New York and in Redmond, Washing- well as production disappear. As a re- automating front-end production sys- ton. They support each other, as well sult, rumors are apt to make their way tems, all but eliminating typesetting as NBC network news and CNBC, the to the public more often. Because the and page makeup departments. Now, business network. Internet allows for instantaneous, con- the industry awaits technical solutions To help prepare for this future, the tinuous coverage, the concept of a news to post-production operations. Inte- California-based Robert C. Maynard

12 Nieman Reports / Winter 2000 Peering Into the Digital Future

Institute for Journalism Education has to be a surprise. Similarly, online ad- to change but insufficient infrastruc- begun cross-media training. Here, jour- vertising on traditional media sites ture grows to support traditional val- nalists are taught to design a made sense, except there was no sales ues or providers. Preservation of jour- newspaper’s front page, produce a five- and marketing infrastructure to sup- nalistic standards will require content minute broadcast, and build a Web port it—no agencies, no accepted au- and technology to come together in a site. dience measurements, no efficient way coherent way. Will they? Stay tuned. ■ to purchase. Similarly, the single, cross- media digital newsroom makes sense, Nancy Hicks Maynard is president of Moore’s Law vs. Murphy’s but there are cultural, aesthetic and Maynard Partners, Inc., a consulting technical impediments. Not all jour- company. Maynard is the former co- Clearly, convergence will come. Un- nalists can do all jobs. If they could, not owner and publisher of the Oakland less, that is, it won’t. all should. Different skills underpin (Calif.) Tribune. She has covered Unchallenged new wisdom— effective storytelling in television and domestic policy for The New York Moore’s Law—asserts computer power print. Successful convergence requires Times in New York and Washington doubles every 18 months. Whether it deftly defined distinctions. and education for The New York does or not, Murphy’s Law shows up While digital convergence may not Post. Her book, “Mega Media,” was regularly in the news industry’s march develop as imagined today, its effects recently published by Trafford Pub- to its digital future. Often, logical out- are powerful and lasting. Best case, lishing. comes never arrive. E-commerce makes industry visions come true, or some- sense, but the bricks and mortar distri- thing approximating them will. Worst [email protected] bution support for online sales proved case, consumption patterns continue The Internet, the Law, and the Press From e-mail use to global distribution, legal decisions might hamper press freedoms.

By Adam Liptak

he Internet is a powerful jour- to upend the balance of power be- how to conduct my interview!” And nalistic tool. It is a rich if not tween the press on the one hand part of it, perhaps, was a reluctance to Talways reliable resource, an effi- and sources, competitors and liti- create a generally available record of cient way to communicate with sources gants on the other. the interview. Written questions are and colleagues and, for better and • The Internet, which democratizes tangible and lasting, and they might worse, an essentially instantaneous way speech, will therefore inexorably surface years later in libel litigation, to reach readers everywhere. But it is withdraw from journalists the spe- say, to demonstrate bias, preconceived merely a tool; it has not in any funda- cial status they have achieved in cer- notions or foolishness. mental way altered the essentials of tain kinds of accreditation and in E-mail has changed this. Written in- gathering and publishing the news. their ability to protect their sources terviews are now routine, and there is Yet, as the law starts to grapple with and resource materials. much to be said for them. While there the Internet generally, the incidental •The Internet, because it is global, is a cost in strategy and spontaneity, effects of that struggle on journalism will allow the laws of the most re- there are significant compensations for may well disturb the bedrock premises pressive nations to influence the sources and readers. There is a higher that support our understanding of the conduct of journalists in the freest rate of response, probably; more con- status and nature of the press. The ones. sidered responses, certainly; and accu- impact of the Internet on journalism in rate quotations, necessarily. this broader sense is rich in ironies. On the journalist’s side, the com- The Trouble With E-Mail pensations are fewer. Since e-mail is an •The Internet, which seems so eva- invitingly offhand and informal me- nescent, creates a durable, com- It used to be that many journalists felt dium, the sober reflection that went prehensive and difficult-to-protect put off by requests that interviews be into written questions reluctantly sup- record of the newsgathering pro- conducted in writing. Part of this was plied in the old days is diminished. The cess. This record has the potential macho posturing: “Nobody tells me result is a not always attractive record

Nieman Reports / Winter 2000 13 The Internet, Technology and Journalism of the newsgathering process, which can cause in two ways. First, some tions have as much right to free speech, can also often be said of notes. Unlike journalists’ e-mails fairly bristle with and on their own schedule, as the press notes, though, the e-mail record is typed investigative zeal and dark humor. Sec- does. But whereas an aggrieved sub- and comprehensible and is seldom ca- ond, even the most rigorous corporate ject of an upcoming exposé in the old pable of being truly expunged from the “document retention programs” (that’s days could do little more than make hard drives and servers on which it Orwellian newspeak for document legal threats and call lonely news con- resides. It is in the hands of potential destruction programs) can’t seem to ferences, the Internet era allows the adversaries from the outset in any event delete e-mails from computers and serv- hunted to scoop the hunters. and capable of being forwarded to ers. E-mail, it turns out, has the half-life countless further recipients with the of plutonium. push of a button. The problem is not confined to libel The Trouble With The press’s Achilles’ heel in Ameri- suits. News organizations have been Democracy can libel litigation is inquiry into the quite successful in protecting confi- newsgathering process. The Supreme dential sources, notes, unpublished News organizations like to say that they Court set the bar awfully high for pub- photographs, and similar materials are mere surrogates for the public who lic figures seeking to establish libel, from subpoenas—so long as only they neither seek nor deserve special rights. requiring them to prove not only the have sole possession of the informa- But they do accept a few. The press publication of a false and defamatory tion. They have been less successful in pass is one example. And shield laws statement but also that it was pub- protecting telephone and travel records protect the press—but not others— lished with at least serious doubts about held by others. Indeed, not infre- from having to comply with subpoe- its truth. This requirement was in- quently, reporters learn of subpoenas nas. Both require the government to tended to be and is close to an absolute to phone and travel companies only decide who is and isn’t a member of bar: What journalist publishes damag- after their records have been produced the press. ing statements she strongly suspects to prosecutors, litigants like tobacco This was never especially appetizing are false? In order that it not be a companies, and others. or legitimate, but it was not hard to literally absolute bar, the courts have, That is bad enough, but those sorts implement. The local police chief had understandably, allowed searching in- of records do not directly identify a pretty good idea who the press was in quiry into the newsgathering process. sources and say nothing about the sub- his town and, so long as he didn’t deny Plaintiffs are allowed to try to prove stance of what was discussed. A phone a press pass to a reporter whose work journalists’ bad faith through circum- record, for instance, shows that two he disliked, the courts were not likely stantial evidence of how the story was unidentified people talked for a speci- to interfere with his allocation of the gotten and composed. fied length of time on two identified passes. There were gray areas—stu- Snippets of evidence arising from phone numbers. It reveals nothing, dent papers, “shoppers.” But the prac- this process have caused the press directly at least, about the substance of tical appeal of knowing whom you trouble in the past. A copy editor’s what was said. E-mails are different. could allow past the police lines observation in a memo that she found They generally identify the sender and trumped the theoretical queasiness. a major theme of an article “impossible recipient and, more important, memo- The same dynamic applied to shield to believe” created substantial grief for rialize the substance of what was said. laws. In the gray areas, there were The Washington Post in a libel suit, Yet most Internet Service Providers have academics, freelancers and book au- though the newspaper ultimately pre- shown no particular reluctance in com- thors. But the importance of protect- vailed. Richard Jewell, the former Olym- plying with subpoenas for e-mail ing the core journalistic processes, and pic bombing suspect, is trying to capi- records. Here, too, there is not even particularly the confidential source re- talize on another copy editor’s remark uniformity about whether account lationship, from unwarranted intrusion to a colleague in his libel suit against holders are informed before their overrode the problems of principle. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “They records are produced. Everyone is a publisher now. And if can’t do it this way,” she said, about a The e-mail interview gives rise to a everyone has a Web site, everybody is, columnist’s comparison of Jewell to final problem. As ABC learned in its arguably, in at least some circum- Wayne Williams, a convicted child killer. investigation of the diet supplement stances, a journalist. The problem is “They” did, though, and Jewell’s law- Metabolife, there is nothing to stop the not so much that one can’t distinguish yer was delighted to learn of the editor’s subject of an investigation from post- the electronic equivalent of the lonely concerns. ing unedited interviews and other ma- pamphleteer from The Wall Street Jour- In the old days, offhand comments terials on its own Web site weeks be- nal. Clever people can surely come up like these seldom surfaced in subse- fore the journalistic piece is ready to with neutral criteria that consider sub- quent litigations. They were oral and air. ABC’s initial response was to project matter and circulation. The prob- therefore easily forgotten and hard to test this as an invasion of its editorial lem is that deciding whose speech is prove or, if written, were often simply processes. This was, as the network worthy of assistance or protection is an and irretrievably gone. The e-mail era later tacitly acknowledged, probably illegitimate function for the govern- magnifies the mischief stray comments misguided: Subjects of news investiga- ment. And it is harder to look the other

14 Nieman Reports / Winter 2000 Peering Into the Digital Future way in the Internet age. told a French court that it cannot com- scores of other countries that will un- It is, unfortunately in a way, impos- ply with a French law prohibiting the thinkingly honor the libel judgment as sible to envision a world in which ev- sale of Nazi memorabilia without with- a matter of international comity. erybody who asks nicely gets a press drawing the offending auction listings And this doesn’t involve only money. pass and everyone who claims to be worldwide. An English court recently Many countries, especially Latin Ameri- distributing information to the public instructed The New York Times to de- can ones, are not shy about prosecut- gets protection from subpoenas. One lete a passage it had held libelous from ing journalists for criminal libel. Two can certainly imagine a world, though, the Times’s Web archives and other Times journalists avoided prosecution in which no one gets either. databases. The Times was technically in Mexico a few years ago only because unable to tailor its compliance to just the authorities concluded that the of- its readership in the United Kingdom. fending article had been published only The Trouble With the World It decided to substitute this message in the United States. It’s hardly clear for the offending statement: that they would have reached the same It is not difficult to withhold controver- “PASSAGE DELETED. USERS OUT- conclusion in the Internet era. sial printed matter from countries that SIDE THE UNITED KINGDOM MAY The Internet is a wonderful thing. value reputation more highly than they OBTAIN A COMPLETE COPY OF But it may do enormous incidental value free discourse. You just don’t THIS ARTICLE BY CONTACTING damage to the secrets, status and swag- ship the book or magazine there. It’s [email protected]” ger of the American institutional press. not particularly unusual for American Of course, a foreign lawsuit is only ■ publishers to limit the distribution of truly worrisome if the defendant has their wares, even on an issue by issue assets at risk. American courts have Adam Liptak is senior counsel in the basis, from Britain, Singapore, Malay- consistently declined to enforce libel legal department of The New York sia and other countries friendly to libel judgments obtained in countries in- Times Company. He has written for plaintiffs. sensitive to our commitment to free The New York Times Magazine, The But it is, for now at least, seemingly speech. But global companies have as- New Yorker, and Vanity Fair. technically impossible to limit access sets everywhere, and a victorious libel to American Web sites from anywhere plaintiff can probably collect his money [email protected] at all. Yahoo!, for instance, recently not only where he won it but also in

Meeting at the Internet’s Town Square Will information fragmentation splinter society?

Dan Rather, managing editor and information our democracy needs the HealthWatch partnership at CBS that anchor of CBS Evening News, people to know. It’s a lesson known to most recently got me thinking on all addressed the World Affairs Council every college professor, to every this. on matters of the Internet and teacher—or, at least, the really good It’s an exciting development in many journalism in November 1999. ones: If you want your students to ways, this move towards interactivity— retain what you say, don’t just lean particularly in the news, and particu- Excerpts from his remarks follow. against a lectern and let pearls of wis- larly if we remember that no amount of dom drop from your lips. Engage t h e m . technological wizardry can take the ark well, I’m no expert on the Question them. Consider how much place of quality content. But there are Internet; I approach it as some- better you would remember the con- certain places where I think we need to Mone who cares deeply about tent of the evening news if you were, in stand guard at the dawn of this revolu- the news and as one who inevitably some way, a participant…. tion. Even if we take the Internet on its sees new media through the lens of The future, if we dare look into its own terms, we can’t ignore what our television. The obvious difference be- murky cloud, seems to be taking us experience tells us about the dangers tween television and the Internet is toward a marriage of television and the we might face in putting and getting that the Internet takes a step through Internet. It may not be very long at all news online. that “fourth wall,” to be interactive. For before any distinction between the two …. When everyone’s talking, you the news, I think this affords an oppor- belongs distinctly to the past. We now can’t always believe what you hear. Of tunity to not only report to the viewing have streaming video online, Web-casts, course, we should always practice a public, but to truly reach t h e m w i t h t h e and partnerships between television healthy skepticism, no matter what our information they need to know and the news programs and Web sites like the source of information. But certain news

Nieman Reports / Winter 2000 15 The Internet, Technology and Journalism programs, certain newspapers, and Certain precincts of the Internet ing. But no one foresaw a town meet- certain journals have a demonstrable threaten to be another place, like the ing where you wouldn’t have to listen record of truth telling, of accuracy in supermarket tabloids, to which legiti- to everyone in the room. their reporting. I pretend no false mod- mate news organs can point and say, While winnowing the information esty in saying that I hold CBS News “Hey, we’re not saying this ourselves, gusher to a more manageable, person- high—very high—in this regard. And but we’re going to take a look at what alized stream makes perfect sense for of course I also recognize the records they’re reporting, just so you know.” specific areas of interest, we ought to of our network competitors in this. We need to be closing these back doors be careful that we don’t all fall into the We’ve all built reliability through years for gossip to find its way into the news, habit of looking at the whole world of hard work. not opening more. We ought to make only t h r o u g h t h i s s o r t o f h y p e r - f o c u s e d The thing about the Internet is, just it crystal clear that if you feed from the lens. about anyone can set up a Web site that bottom, you’re not going to be kosher. In America, where informed citizens looks like and has the feel of news If gossip has found its way onto the are a necessity, the journalists, the organs we’ve learned to trust. Broad- news through a back door, at the front managing editors among us, have un- casting the news, especially, has tradi- door, traditionally, is the gatekeeper: derstood—not always perfectly, but tionally been an expensive almost always in good proposition. And if you faith—our role in fostering don’t cast the die for truth- …the Internet is the realized ideal of a common share of knowl- telling from the start, if edge and understanding. you don’t burnish it with the town meeting. But no one With the enormous chal- every story you do, then foresaw a town meeting where you lenges we’re likely to face you, your network, your wouldn’t have to listen to everyone in our weeks and months newspaper, your maga- and years ahead, we can zine, are throwing that in the room. afford now less than ever capital investment right to become wrapped in self- down the drain. Once configured cocoons of in- caught in a lie, or in a pattern of error, the managing editor. This is my title at formation. you will be tuned out. the CBS Evening News, anchor and Perhaps the time has come for us to As journalists, we have an ethical managing editor. It means that I, like rediscover the value of shared experi- code. This is important to us, impor- others who hold this title in print and ence, of shared information, of some tant enough that reporters have given broadcast journalism, are responsible common, daily element that keeps our their very lives to get you the real story. for using hard-won professional judg- hand in public life. The stakes are sim- But even if it were not, it would still ment to separate real information from ply to high for us to fold on this. For the obtain in large part because to do it any misinformation, the trivial from the past 50 years, television news has played other way would simply be bad busi- important, the impartial from that this role of the public square—for bet- ness. And even if the news itself is not which too narrowly serves a specific ter or worse—and it looks as if the a business, television is; publishing is. interest. Internet will play the role in some way On the Internet, a legitimate look With the Internet comes the poten- in the future, with or without televi- less often assures that journalism is tial to act as one’s own managing edi- sion. But we must make a conscious being practiced. A voice crying in the tor, one’s own gatekeeper. It’s an excit- decision that we want to maintain a wilderness of the Internet may not even ing possibility but one that we must common society within the structures care if you believe it tomorrow, let learn to use wisely. Now you can get of the new media or we risk walking alone the next day. The accountability, news from more or less traditional and talking past each other with virtual the reliability, is not, until tested, al- sources but just the news you say you blinders on. The great debates of our ways there. want. This doesn’t seem so bad, on its time might be monopolized by those The Internet as town square—a gos- face. Isn’t this, after all, a big part of with the greatest personal or financial siping, teeming hub of communica- what the Internet is all about—tailor- stake in their outcome, and all before tion—is undeniably part of its excite- ing an experience to an interest or a we know it. ■ ment. But those of us who do the news personal schedule, bringing the like- and care about doing it right must minded from across the country, [email protected] remember that we are bound to sepa- around the world, at all hours, to- . rate gossip from fact. We might hope gether in cyberspace? that journalists in established media Well, it’s a double-edged sword. And might tame this impulse on the Internet, we ought to recognize that this trend or at least aid in separating the gossip could contribute to the balkanization from the news. But we have reason to of our society and of our lives, public fear that the trend is working the other and private. In a way, sure, the Internet way. is the realized ideal of the town meet-

16 Nieman Reports / Winter 2000 Peering Into the Digital Future Why the Internet Is (Mostly) Good for News Concerns about news trends on the Web sound all too familiar.

By Lee Rainie

hen you visit a news Web site, pages that provide you stories and fea- this way: “What happened at Salon was the people who control the tures that appeal to you. And cookies an affront to all matters journalistic…. Wsite know quite a lot about allow advertisers to know how many The 20 percent reduction in staff at you. At a minimum, they know the and which readers of a news story click Salon has produced a site that, while domain you have come from (a dot- on an advertisement and how many of still capable of thought-provoking com, dot-org, dot-gov, dot-edu). They those ad-clickers actually buy some- pieces, has tended to become more have a good idea what state or country thing. This is the Holy Grail of the salacious in much of its daily story you have logged on from. They know advertising business: knowing down budget. Salaciousness drives clicks. what Web site or search engine you to the penny and down to the indi- Clicks drive page views. Page-view have come from. And they know what vidual customer which ads and which counts are shown to media buyers, features on the Web page you’ve clicked news stories generate sales. who will buy ads to run on the Web on, including the banner ads or The capacity of Web sites to tailor pages of editorial sections that get the hyperlinks to other Web pages. information and learn so much about eyeballs.” If you visited the site before, you each visitor has caused shudders among The issues here are very important: probably had a “cookie” surreptitiously journalists and social critics. Many com- Does the Web’s capacity for precise installed on your computer by the site, mentators worry that widespread and fine-grained measurement repre- allowing the site to start building a customization of information will lead sent a fundamental new threat to jour- profile of your particular tastes. Virtu- to a dystopia of atomized Internet us- nalists? And how destructive is the Web ally all news sites and other commer- ers, unaware of the world around them. to the obvious benefits that flow from cial online en- Americans’ terprises install traditional cookies without approach to notifying news, built Internet users. A on the idea cookie is a bit of of serendip- encrypted comity (“I didn’t puter code that know that!”) sits on your and a mix- June 8, 2000. The headline reads: “The Hissing You Hear May Be the Air Coming Out of computer’s ture of Salon’s Balloon.” Courtesy of the San Francisco Chronicle. hard drive and pieces that identifies your computer the next time Many reporters fear that widespread are more or less balanced between it—and you—visit the site. (If you want use of Web-tracking technologies is the those that are important and those that to see how many cookies have been final step towards turning news into an are entertaining? planted on your computer, search for a entertainment commodity where the Weighing the pluses and minuses, I file on your main drive named “cook- popularity of some types of stories privi- think the Internet has been good for ies.” Then see if you can guess where leges them over important stories that news, if not always for the news busi- all those files came from.) don’t have the same pizzazz. Indeed, ness. Let’s start with the arguments In addition to allowing sites to track the alarm took tangible form this spring about the menace posed by very spe- what users do as they click from page to when Salon.com, a respected Internet- cific readership measures. Online mea- page, feature to feature on a Web site, based news operation, made cost-cut- surements are clearly more precise than cookies allow Web operators to do a ting decisions by firing the people who previous tools, but there is no evi- bunch of other things. They can direct worked in departments that were not dence that they are being used any a site to provide personalized layouts, logging sufficient “page views”—the more aggressively or harmfully than shopping carts, and search options each number of Internet users who click on old techniques that gauged news con- time you return to the site. They can a specific Web page. sumers’ preferences. alert advertisers to put specific cus- Writing in Broadcasting & Cable News organizations have been fiends tomized ads tied to your interests on magazine, a respected trade journal, for data about the interplay of editorial the pages you visit. They permit sites to commentator Russell Shaw summed and commercial content for a very long create “mypersonalnews.com” Web up the anxiety about the Salon layoffs time. Circulation lists are probed for

Nieman Reports / Winter 2000 17 The Internet, Technology and Journalism insights into audience tastes; features precisely what they want, then they sophisticated sites have created a mid- are pilot tested in certain markets be- will all isolate themselves in info- day update or “breaking news” feature fore they are launched in the full pa- bubbles and civic life will wither even for their service to make sure those per; Nielsen ratings have been used for further. But this vastly overstates the prime-time consumers get a news fix. years to determine the fate of anchor threat and ignores the benefits of tai- Even more important in the grand folk and story selection; surveys and lored news. If individuals now have an scheme of nourishing robust commu- focus groups are often conducted to easier time finding news of intense nities is the fact that many newspapers find out everything from what kind of interest to them, but not to the general have become more engaged with stories have the most draw to what community, that is a big advance. Imag- underserved parts of their readership, kinds of graphics leap off the page or ine being a student from Thailand, thanks to Internet. A typical site now the screen; “impact” analyses are done studying in Des Moines. The local pa- has in-depth coverage of community by ad agencies and news firms’ ad sales per will never tell much of anything issues, calendars of community events, staffs to find out what kind of ads work about daily events in Bangkok, but you coverage of every conceivable sports with what kind of stories; cover sales can find out whatever you want on the team down to the peewee level, bulle- are plumbed for their meaning about Net. To the extent we judge journalism tin boards for debate about local is- what stories “work” and what stories by its ability to help people find infor- sues, features for readers to scream don’t have big appeal; letters to the mation that is useful and relevant to back at the editors, and reviews of editor are dissected as proxies for sec- them, this helps the cause. restaurants and local cultural activi- tors of the readership, and drastic What about the counterargument ties. They act as Web portals and data- changes in content are made during that this removes people from expo- bases for their communities. The most television’s “sweeps months” because sure to important information that venturesome sites, according to Jan broadcast producers know what draws doesn’t fit their mypersonalnews.com Schaffer, executive director of the Pew especially big audiences. profile? The evidence about the way Center for Civic Journalism, allow for a Those who don’t think newsrooms people get news online challenges that proliferation of voices in the news are keenly attuned to commercial re- fear. Research by the Pew Internet & through self-publishing and interac- alities and market feedback haven’t American Life Project shows that 80 tive participation on local issues. witnessed the agonized discussions at percent of online news consumers are While online news brings many ad- a news organization about what to put encountering and approaching news vantages to consumers and communi- on the front page, how to lead the on the Internet the same way news ties, it has not yet become a profit broadcast, whether a comic strip should consumers always have. Fully 42 per- center in any news organization. The be canceled, or whether a correspon- cent of those who get news on the unconcealed reality of the Internet is dent should change her hairstyle to Internet on a typical day say they chance that users expect information to be boost her Q score, a value that mea- upon and check out news stories while free and users have pummeled every sures her appeal to viewers. they are doing other things online. news operation that tried to charge for Media critic and Internet analyst This is the essence of serendipity and it its material, except the interactive Wall James Fallows argues that fear about is an indication that old-fashioned wire Street Journal. The rest of online news the new audience metrics represents a copy reports are featured on many Web sites depend on advertising to typical “Year Zero” belief about the kinds of Web sites. Another 38 percent raise pretty pitiful revenues, and none Internet—an embrace of the idea that of those who get news online click of the sites are close to breaking even. nothing happening online has ever onto news sites to learn the news— So I submit that if the leaders of jour- happened before. “They are ignoring behavior that apes the long-standing nalism want to stop worrying about the evidence that this is the latest in- practices of news consumers. incursions by advertisers—or advertis- stallment of arguments about an old If anything, the arrival of the Internet ing metrics—into newsrooms, they tension,” says Fallows. “This is a minor in the news world has increased the should get busy finding ways to pro- difference in degree from what has flow of news and has rooted many duce content that somebody, particu- come before and there is no reason yet news operations even more in their larly subscribers, will buy—and pay to think that it will destroy the balance communities—both of which are ben- for— online. ■ between stories that will draw a big eficial things to those who worry about enough crowd to keep your business social capital. Many news operations’ Lee Rainie is director of the Pew in operation—what people want to Webmasters noticed several years ago Internet & American Life Project, a know—and stories that for various rea- that their traffic jumped after the lunch research center that looks at the sons editors think readers should hour, presumably when people re- social impact of the Internet know.” turned to their desks after being away (www.pewinternet.org/). He used to The anxieties about viewership mea- and wanted to check what was happen- be managing editor of U.S. News & sures are tied to concerns about the ing in the news and in the financial World Report. impact of customized news. The con- markets. In some newsrooms, this post- nection goes like this: If the news be- lunch hour period is called the “sec- [email protected] comes a quest to give Internet users ond prime time,” and many of the most

18 Nieman Reports / Winter 2000 Peering Into the Digital Future Taming Online News for Wall Street ‘Today’s journalism has acquired a drive-by quality….’

By Arthur E. Rowse

Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose.

he cybernetic tablets inscribed from Apple in 1995 and larger sums ers were being kept or fired on the back when the Internet was be- later from Apple and Adobe, former basis of viewer “hits” on specific ar- Tginning to become a sensation— Hearst journalist David Talbot created ticles. Reality also struck APBnews.com, let’s say the mid-1990’s—promised the well written, sometimes sordid a creative webzine hooked on crime many wonderful things, including a Salon. Its Initial Public Offering (IPO) and justice. [See story about rebirth of journalistic independence, in June 1999 attracted some $26 mil- APBnews.com on page 31.] It was new media profit centers, more news lion, topped by $15 million from pri- forced to dismiss its entire staff of 140. depth, and more diversified news and vate sources. Talbot counted on adver- Web publishers were learning some discussion. There was also renewed tising to provide the necessary revenue. lessons that have long governed printed hope for salvaging representative gov- Microsoft had a different slant on fi- matter. ernment by raising the level of citizen nancing. It launched Slate in 1996 on Buffeted by similar forces, the profit- knowledge of—and participation in— the assumption that, after an initial run conscious Tribune Company fired 34 public affairs, including electronic town of free editions, quality journalism employees from its Web site, including meetings and voting on the Internet. could attract enough online subscrip- 20 at the Los Angeles Times. And with We finally seemed to be approaching tions to make a profit without the need a (third?) finger to the ill winds, The the point of disproving press critic A.J. for advertising and its pressures to al- New York Times and several other tra- Leibling’s most enduring message, that ter the true picture. ditional news producers decided to freedom of the press is limited to those By the first year of the new millen- hold back plans to solicit public funds who own one. nium, however, such dreams were fad- for their Web operations. Microsoft’s Suddenly, any common drudge ing fast. Salon’s stock price, which once window of opportunity also narrowed, could become a worldwide publisher reached $15, was flickering around $1 forcing the firm to wipe Slate clean of with his or her own Web site. Costs in October, while its operating funds any cost to viewers in favor of subsi- were no longer a problem. Infinity was were steadily disappearing. A year after dized publication. Neither ads nor sub- the limit. Nothing inspired such hopes its successful IPO, it revamped its look scriptions seemed to work for enter- more than the arrival of Salon and (to the dismay of many fans), then prising online journalism. Slate, the pioneering Internet maga- revamped the revamping and laid off The crash of dot-com stock prices zines. With only $50,000 in seed money 13 employees. For the first time, writ- last spring helped prick the bubble of Internet advertising. According to The Washington Post in October, only about Top General News Sites on the Internet five people out of 10,000 actually click “Unique visitors” counted by Media Metrix, October 2000 through ad links to other news/info sights. People also click past news that 1. MSNBC.com 9,454,000 costs money. Princeton Research Asso- 2. CNN.com 8,023,000 ciates report that only 11 percent have 3. ABC News* 4,091,000 ever paid for news on the Web. 4. Pathfinder.com 3,762,000 Reality was also catching up to indi- 5. NYTimes.com 3,644,000 vidual pioneers. Although Matt Drudge 6. USAToday.com 3,542,000 (President Clinton calls him “Sludge”) 7. WashingtonPost.com 3,021,000 was up and running for many moons 8. Slate.com 2,852,000 before he hit big time with his stolen 9. FoxNews.com 2,007,000 Monica Lewinsky scoop in early 1998, 10. LA Times* 1,719,000 he still shows no visible means of support, not to mention riches. In Octo- * Represents an aggregation of commonly owned/branded domain names. ber, he claimed some 55 million hits, though Media Metrix, the “Nielsen Rat- [AOL News Channel was counted separately because of its membership fees. Its ing” of the Internet, put his “unique total was 16,016,000.] visitors” at a more modest 889,000,

Nieman Reports / Winter 2000 19 The Internet, Technology and Journalism ranking him 18th on the news list. That meant approximately 54,111,000 were FREE NEWS AND PORN JUST A CLICK AWAY repeat visits. Yet this brash young op- Wel.com to your online newsite. Enter zipcode ——here for local portunist operating out of a tiny apart- Updated 15:27et10/31/2000. news,sports,weather ment with an outdated computer was stock quote: Dow/Nasdaq turning out to be far less creative than advertised. Despite his reputation for See CBS fall shows on prime.time: lateshow 11:30et/pt. scandalizing the political left with docu- Visit officialsite of Dave’s TV clubhouse \\http.www.html <> mented and undocumented allegations—like an Internet version of Rush Learn why NEWSMENU is “ActiveX” control for Internet Explorer* Yes, download.now; No, go directly to headlines; Limbaugh—Drudge has become almost completely dependent on mainline FAQ: Sometimes msnbc newsmenu shows only one layer of stories. Why is that? news services for his headlines since FAA: When our site is very busy, we reduce the number of stories…so we can his tipsters from the Vast Right-Wing serve more users more efficiently. Conspiracy lost their political motivation. Customize~your~page: sign.me.up AOL MAIL Go Enterprising journalism is also rare My Calendar: dot.org.anize your life. [email protected]! click>>>>>here at the sites of large news organizations. Office Depot, Your #1 Supplier The predominant America Online, with //MyCNN/video/audio,headlines/free-e-mail/feedback\\ Sign up for e-mail updates// all the output of Time magazine and Shop.USATODAY. com. Brokerage service: open your account today! CNN available to it, still relies on AP for Click here for latest headlines via AP.REUTERS.BLOOMBERG. news of the nation and world. Even big Ooops, FATAL ERROR in your hardrive: Ref:555xpr@yze//oo300pr33999zoo… gobacktostart, newspapers lean almost exclusively on click OFF. AP and Reuters for their Web sites, If you’d like to make a call, try [email protected]. If too busy, switch to C-SPAN1 OR C- SPAN2. Have a *nice* day. largely because of the need for rapid updates. A spot check of such addresses —Arthur E. Rowse, with slight embellishments in October showed that newspapers tend to offer little more news on their rate Web site on October 24 was brief: Internet sites. Naturally, TV Web sites Web sites than what they print. The “Tribune declares quarterly dividend; contain far more volume than their Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s ajc.com sets annual meeting date.” Newspa- regular news programs. Like publisher seems typical, with its use of AP for all pers don’t seem to be trying hard to sites, they also offer lots of color, ads, national and world news stories online. add depth to their Web presence. promos, links and lists, resulting in a Newspapers also don’t seem to be On network evening news shows, rather cluttered appearance. (This ar- rushing to link printed stories to their however, references to company Web ticle does not address the broadband Web sites. The Chicago Tribune, widely sites are extensive. That might be why applications of audio and video, a fur- admired for its melding of radio, TV TV-owned sites lead the list of most ther diversion enjoyed by only about and print news operations, daily tells popular ones. MSNBC.com and three million out of some 35 million readers that it “offers expanded cover- CNN.com continue in first and second users of the Web.) age of the day’s news, with content place (with 9.5 million and 8.0 million The flip side to this fractured, glitzy produced specifically for the World “unique visitors” respectively), far stuff, of course, is a motley parade of Wide Web, audio and visual enhance- ahead of others specializing in news, quirky, frenetic surfers with less and ments and other text of the portal news- according to Media Metrix data for less interest in news details even when paper.” But in the few observed edi- October. [See accompanying table on available. News sites are turning into tions, none of the stories in the main page 19.] Surprise: Of the 20 most little more than bulletin boards in- news section carried shirttails to Web popular news/info addresses, the 12 creasingly loaded with retail pitches. sites. Ben Estes, editor of offering full news menus were all parts [See box above.] The newest craze to chicagotribune.com, said merely that of traditional news organizations. The customize news to fit viewer wishes the decision varies by story. one exception, Microsoft’s Slate, has a further downgrades the potential The Cox-owned Atlanta Journal-Con- broad sweep but its coverage is not like broadening effect of the Internet. Web stitution was a notable exception, regu- the others. Three of the other seven journalism seems to be catching a viru- larly ending major stories with refer- focused on weather, two were info lent form of tabloidism. It might not be ences to outside Web addresses, not its browsers, one was the Discovery chan- long before Jay Leno and crew all have own, for more information. The Wash- nel, and one was a campaign site for their own news sites, drawing news ington Post used to carry numerous George W. Bush. seekers away from serious sites with story tag lines referring to its Web site An informal check of a week’s their own take on the headlines. They but seems to have cut back. Requests evening news programs in late Octo- already are the news anchors of choice for an explanation were not answered. ber showed that CNN, NBC and CBS all for countless dropouts from network The only item on the Tribune’s corpo- exceeded ABC in references to their news.

20 Nieman Reports / Winter 2000 Peering Into the Digital Future

The Internet is also encouraging the rather than the best. The effect can’t SPAN, United Feature Syndicate, and steady downsizing of serious news that help but diminish citizen awareness of Isyndicate. It also noted an equity and has infected mainstream media, espe- public affairs and interest in voting. content agreement with Rainbow Me- cially during the last decade. The main Media managers have become so hung dia Holdings, Inc., a subsidiary of catalyst has been Wall Street’s power to up on quick ratings and profits that— Cablevision Systems Corporation and insist that publicly owned media firms almost like mad lemmings—they revel NBC, to produce a TV series. Among toe the standards for all widget mak- in their own freedom while virtually organizations agreeing to carry Salon ers: higher profits every quarter. It’s ignoring their obligation to keep the “content” were AOL, a part-owner of basically this pressure that causes news electorate informed enough to main- Salon, as well as AltaVista, Reuters, executives to increasingly omit or cut tain a fully representative system of CNN.com and CNET. Among “advertis- serious news of the nation and the government. ing sponsors” were IBM, Microsoft and world and play up trivia and emotion Not only do the mainstream media Intel, plus 275 others. to boost audience figures and ad vol- completely dominate news on the Web. Is this the new shape of cutting-edge ume. Under such pressure, it is virtu- They are continuing their corporate journalism? With Salon on life sup- ally impossible for even the most con- consolidation and homogenization ports, Slate on subsidies and Drudge scientious editor to give full attention online with shared ownerships, mu- living off the wires, it looks as if the to what’s important for citizens to stop tual links, even the same ads, photos, future is already past. ■ democracy from hemorrhaging. news stories, typography and layout. Today’s journalism has acquired a The trend toward massive sharing, in- Arthur E. Rowse is the author of drive-by quality, as it hits on a hot topic cluding trading journalists, rather than “Drive-By Journalism: The Assault on one day, then runs away from it the competition has also been cyberized. Your Need to Know,” published this next, before anyone can digest the Forget the promises about diversity. year by Common Courage Press in meaning. The TV version is parachute The news business is using the Web to Monroe, Maine. Rowse, a veteran journalism. The Internet adds to the create the most powerful cartel of all. journalist and media critic, retired damage by creating drive-by news con- And government regulators continue from U.S. News & World Report, after sumers who skip blithely from bulletin to doze. serving on the city desks of The to bulletin while feeling they are keep- Like many other rebels, the once- Boston Globe, the Boston Herald/ ing up with things. To be sure, the proud Salon has been sucked into the Traveler and The Washington Post. World Wide Web in total offers an ever- fold. Consider its plans for growing array of news and informa- politics2000.com announced a year [email protected] tion. But its hot-button nature tends to ago. Its press release boasted of special emphasize the worst of journalism ties to CBS News, America Online, C-

While TV Blundered on Election Night, the Internet Gained Users In the next election cycle, look for greater integration of TV and Internet coverage.

By Hugh Carter Donahue, Steven Schneider, and Kirsten Foot

review of Election Day reporting all right while TV journalists got it all posted 120 million page views on the on Internet news sites reveals a wrong. Each relied on flawed data and second day out. On Election Day, the Alot of information about con- both posted wrong calls. The crucial CNN Web sites (CNN.com, sumer demand, news site performance, difference is that the news sites on the allpolitics.com, CNNFN.com, the prevalence of corporate linkage, Internet made election data easier to CNNSI.com) broke the previous record and the strategies used to attract view- find and digest and kept it updated in of volume by 150 percent. Users sought ers and display the news. Indeed, while a more timely fashion. streaming video and video on demand, broadcast journalists were reeling from Throughout Election Day and into again breaking records for video at two wrong calls on Florida, Web news the evening, demand was greater than CNN.com. USAToday.com posted 13.6 sites were better able to publish and expected. CNN.com scored 98 million million page views on Election Day and refresh accurate information. It was page views on Election Day and 156 15.8 million page views the next day. not so much that Web news sites got it million page views the following day. It The larger than expected demand

Nieman Reports / Winter 2000 21 The Internet, Technology and Journalism affected the sites’ performance. Infor- news Web sites, became standard prac- more people at faster speeds, news mation seekers overwhelmed tice at surge times immediately after seekers can readily go to a site that MSNBC.com periodically through elec- poll closings. simply links to or aggregates the voting tion night. The Drudge Report, which returns and thus bypasses print, broad- advertised that it would publish exit The Look of Things to cast, cable and Internet news sites en- poll results earlier than others, found Come tirely. This could easily take place as its site bogged down. Many people secretaries of states and election divi- could not log on. Hyperlinks will loom much larger in sion authorities increasingly move to- Performance featured all of the online election news reporting. ward common standards for Internet Internet’s synergies and collaborations. Through the use of hyperlinks, the distribution of reporting electoral out- Networks’ streaming video capability Web empowers users to mount their comes. on NBC.com and ABC.com enabled own, idiosyncratic co-consumption or News organizations might well con- broadcast video to be integrated onto co-production of various Web sites. sider forming a consortium, this one each site. CBS.com featured video clips These links then take on a narrative Internet-based and focused on vote of Vice President Al Gore and Gover- thread and energy of their own mak- returns posted to official secretary of nor George W. Bush casting their votes. ing. Users will increasingly seek to de- state or election division sites, to ag- CBS.com updated its Electoral College velop these editorial and expressive gregate voting returns. Doing so would map every minute and a half. capacities with higher broadband anticipate competition from new en- Yahoo.com, MSNBC.com, CNN.com speeds and the diffusion of easy ways trants for this time-sensitive and news- and washingtonpost.com featured real- to hyperlink content. worthy data. time reports and demographic analysis News organizations will win com- The emergence of at-home Internet of voting trends, enabled visitors to petitive advantage in the marketplace voting will pose fresh challenges to the track projections from the broadcast by publishing stories with embedded abilities of Internet news organizations networks on the Electoral College vote, links. These will provide users with the to accurately report election results on and created pull-down menus that flexibility and appearance of participa- the basis of exit polls. One potential people could use to track state races. tion that they desire. Indeed, news strategy for news organizations is to The Associated Press linked to real- organizations would be shrewd to be- develop techniques to sample the pref- time election results and state out- gin implementing more interactive fea- erences and demographics of at-home comes. Yahoo!’s streaming media ca- tures and capacities, including more voters. pacities supported live video from robust spaces on news sites that fea- In summary, the Internet creates broadcasters for state and local races; ture ongoing, real-time hyperlinked many new opportunities for print, Yahoo! also featured Reuters video re- content contributed by users. These broadcast, cable and satellite news or- ports and audio from National Public mechanisms would help to build and ganizations to add value to their con- Radio among various methods of com- sustain market share. tent and to reach more readers and munication. News organizations should be ever views with election news and results. Coordination was at the heart of attentive to disintermediation; that is, Sensible, targeted, efficient collabora- online news performance. “Constant to being bypassed by new entrants, tions between—and synergies integration and coordination with CNN which employ current information among—these organizations will en- news group is standard practice,” re- technology more capably to provide able greater accuracy of election news marks Carin Dessauer, executive edi- election results as well as other news reporting at faster speeds, thereby re- tor/Washington and election director, and information. alizing twin objectives of news report- CNN Interactive. “For election cover- Surely, some of the synergies that ing: getting the news out first and accu- age, this approach included on-air ana- took place among news organizations rately. ■ lysts contributing through chats, writ- in the 2000 election will serve as mod- ing, question and answer sessions, and els for future collaborations to cope Hugh Carter Donahue is associate ongoing coordination of incoming with such new entrants. These collabo- director, Information and Society video.” rations constitute successful efforts by Program, Annenberg Public Policy Corporate linking was discernible. news organizations to brand Election Center; Steven Schneider is editor of For example, anyone seeking political Day news. NetElection.org, and Kirsten Foot is news at MTV.com was immediately News organizations would be wise a communications scholar at the shunted to CBS.com, indicating the to understand the implications of elec- Annenberg Public Policy Center in consolidation of Viacom and CBS option results as a commodity. The huge Philadelphia. The authors wish to erations. number of hits on the Florida Division acknowledge Elena Larsen, Masaki The unexpected demand on the Web of Elections site is but a portent of what Hidaka, and Frances Mesa for their sites required adaptability. Lightening is to come. As more and more secretary research. the load of pages, either by stripping of state sites and election division sites out information like graphics or plac- become able to post real-time election [email protected] ing that information on other pages at returns and as the Internet reaches

22 Nieman Reports / Winter 2000 Peering Into the Digital Future Preserving the Old While Adapting to What’s New In today’s journalism, digital imaging tries to crowd out the still photograph.

By Kenny Irby

Amid all of this technologi- fine Danish photographers such as In fact, photojournalists from cal razzle-dazzle, one thing Claus Bjørn Larsen, Bo Svane and Tine around the world are keeping a watch- remains the same,” observed Harden. Right now, however, Danish ful eye on the ways in which this orga- Jens-Kristian Søgaard, renowned pic- newspapers are losing money. Their nization is refining its focus and recre- ture“ editor at Denmark’s largest daily high standards, short work week, gen- ating the medium of photographic newspaper, Morgenavisen Jyllands- erous wages and production costs are storytelling. Posten. “We must maintain our high to blame, according to Søgaard. “In- Dirck Halstead, Time’s former White ethical standards, mustn’t we?” deed we are accustomed to working House photographer and founder of As the 21st century dawns, it is fash- with the best materials,” he says. the Digital Journalist Web Site is often ionable to join in on the great debate When this Danish delegation arrived associated with photojournalism’s epi- about how to maintain the integrity in central Florida, they found them- taph: “Photojournalism, as we know it, and value of still photography as com- selves in a region of our country that is is dead.” Halstead’s position is rooted puter imaging tries to crowd it out in a hotbed of convergence experimenta- in the technical changes in camera cap- photojournalism. In fact, many con- tion. The Danes visited three leaders in ture systems and the movement to- tributors to critical thinking circles from media convergence—the Sarasota Her- ward full-motion video. Another view, the camps of reflective practitioners ald Tribune, the Orlando Sentinel, and held by Colin Jacobson, former maga- and practical scholars choose to write the Tampa Tribune. Each of these orga- zine picture editor in the United King- off the still photograph, declaring that nizations is jointly producing news cov- dom and instructor at Cardiff Univer- its time is past. But I argue that now is erage for a daily print publication, a 24- sity School of Journalism, argues that not the time to write off such a mean- hour broadcast cycle, and a what photojournalism needs instead is ingful form of communi- renewal and reinvention. cation. “It’s not the spirit of photo- For Mr. Søgaard and 16 Let me state this even more bluntly. journalist that is at fault here, of his colleagues repre- For American photojournalists, film but their lack of desire to senting Denmark, a coun- renew and reinvent the me- try of five million people is dead. But photography, as a vital dium,” Jacobson wrote in that until recently was form of communication, is alive and the introduction of the known primarily for its fine it needs to be nurtured. book, “The Best of Photo- quality furniture and crafts- journalism 2000.” manship, times are chang- The voices of Søgaard, ing, too. This select del- Halstead, Jacobson and egation made up of photojournalists minute-to-minute Web site. countless visual journalists seeking to (photographers, editors and one Web The Media General NewsCenter in preserve the ever-important craft of producer) journeyed to St. Petersburg Tampa, Florida offers a contemporary photographic storytelling all have Beach, Florida, to study convergence glimpse at what much of journalism something to contribute to critical dis- in photojournalism in a seminar en- might operate like during the 21st cen- cussion about photojournalism’s fu- titled, “Technology provides new pos- tury. [See stories about the Tampa con- ture. To ensure that photographic sibilities and new challenges to pho- vergence experience on pages 25 and storytelling remains a vital and re- tographers.” 52.] As one might expect, we saw many spected form of communication, I be- In recent international photojour- reporters loaded up with all different lieve that four aspects of it must be nalism competitions, the Danes have kinds of digital equipment. And this made priorities. Without urgent atten- done very well. And I know a bit about view unfolded in front of us with tour tion being paid, the medium is doomed. Denmark’s journalism culture, having guides and translators speaking Roma- traveled there to teach and consult, by nian, Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, • Content is key. Photojournalists working with numerous visual journal- Japanese and Chinese, all in the same as well as their publications must strive ists from this high quality-minded coun- day, as various journalism groups to produce and publish photographic try, and studying the recent works of toured the site. reportage that is compelling and mean-

Nieman Reports / Winter 2000 23 The Internet, Technology and Journalism ingful. No longer should the aesthetic about the technical system by which journalism and ensure its credibility. value supercede the journalistic value. images are stored, such as on a strip of We do this by holding true to our Journalistic photographs, captured by film or a digital pc-card. ethical responsibilities as journalists, courageous men and women who • Diversity is a process, rather than while also embracing changes made document life’s visages—from the pe- an experience. We live in an ever-chang- possible by technological innovation. destrian to the extreme—deserve the ing world that is condensed by the “The ethical issues are as real today as right to be seen far more than do deco- vastness of the Internet and the speed they were when I started in this busi- rative page fillers or dressing material. of telecommunications. As Americans, ness,” says Alan Diaz, the Miami-based • An ethic of integrity is essential. we think nothing of traveling to far- Associated Press photographer who Honesty and accuracy must remain the flung regions of the globe and expect captured Elian’s terror. watermark of every image, along with that photographers will deliver images Let me state this even more bluntly. the need for balance to be observed in that vicariously take us to places that For American photojournalists, film is our coverage. Balance serves as a great we never see and seldom hear about. dead. But photography, as a vital form reminder that there are often multiple Increasingly, as journalists, we are more of communication, is alive, and it needs truths to be reported in our visual thoughtful about in what direction we to be nurtured. Of course, photojour- storytelling. Photojournalists must hold point the camera and when do we nalism is evolving during these ever- fast to the purpose of informing the worry that our images might reinforce changing digital times. We live in a time of instantaneous transmission of visual imagery. Digital cameras, Adobe Photojournalists must harness the powers of System’s image management software change and use them to find ways to improve program PhotoShop, and advance tele- the quality of still photojournalism, extend communications devices like satellite dishes and digital cell phones make the their storytelling skills, and preserve the world a very different place in which to archival value of edited images for present and produce journalism. The possibilities future use. of digital delivery of images are limit- less. Photojournalists can learn a lot from the Danish approach. After a week of world about life’s wide array of facets stereotypes. Yet we should also recog- studying and measuring and fact-find- and encounters, but always with the nize that we have many miles to go ing, the Danish team returned to their intent to inform rather than to deceive before all of America is involved in the country with the intent of advancing and to help rather than to harm. There- storytelling about America. and refining the quality of photographic fore, the photographer’s quest need Therefore, as we seek to understand storytelling, sharpening the focus of be one of the conscious observer who the world around us through photo- their work and recreating their ap- has thought through his or her journal- graphs, we must refine our focus. Think proach. istic purpose in advance, rather than of photographs that have attempted to In the wise words of historian Eric acting like a pesky insect on the wall. capture the essence of, for example, a Hoffer, “In times of change…learners • Learners have an inheritance. In Broward County supervisor examin- inherit the earth and the learned are this era of swift technological advances, ing a “chad” left on a ballot to deter- wonderfully prepared for a world that “technophobia” is a posture of ruin. mine a voter’s intent. Or the photo- no longer exists.” ■ Photojournalists must harness the pow- graph showing little four-month-old ers of change and use them to find Miracle Jackson’s body, found in a plas- Kenny Irby is visual journalism ways to improve the quality of still tic bag, being removed from the crime group leader at The Poynter Institute photojournalism, extend their scene. Or the ability we had to witness for Media Studies, where he teaches storytelling skills, and preserve the ar- the triumphant expression on a gold seminars and consults in areas of chival value of edited images for present medal-winning athlete’s face. Or the photojournalism, leadership, ethics and future use. There is a tremendous debate that ensued after a photograph and managing diversity. While a need to be able to reacquire previously showed the terror felt by Elian Gonzalez photo editor at Newsday, he contrib- unpublished images. Somewhere in as Immigration and Naturalization Ser- uted to three Pulitzer Prize-winning this great debate about technology, we vice agents with weapons rushed into projects and was a photographer, must acknowledge the harsh reality his relatives’ Little Havana home to picture editor, and deputy of photog- that readers and viewers are aware of seize him. Or when we peered into raphy. the power of graphic software applica- faces of those living in the Balkans, a tions to alter images. I believe that place where there were so many heart- [email protected] readers/viewers are more concerned wrenching images of victims of sense- about the value of accurate informa- less violence in Kosovo and beyond. tion in a photograph than they are It is time now to strengthen photo-

24 Nieman Reports / Winter 2000 Peering Into the Digital Future Wanted: a 21st Century Journalist Drop the arrogance. Be interactive. Have technological savvy.

By Patti Breckenridge

hat kind of journalist will thrive in the emerging 21st Wcentury? One more adept than the 20th century version at teamwork, technology, marketing, business economics, and the anthropology of communities. No longer is it enough for reporters and editors to have a flair for language, an insatiable need to know, and a religious devotion to the First Amendment. A majority of newspaper readers consider journalists out of touch with mainstream America. They believe the media is ignorant and arrogant in its coverage of local issues. A 1998 newspaper industry self-study also showed that:

•Journalists make so many factual, spelling and grammatical mistakes that readers are skeptical about their newspapers’ ability to get anything right. •The public suspects journalists’ personal biases play a strong role in determining which stories are covered, how they are written, and how prominently they are displayed in the paper. •Members of the public who have had actual experience with the news process are the most critical of the media’s credibility.

No wonder circulation figures have declined for nearly half a century. This study by the American Society of Newspaper Editors led to an array of experiments to build reader trust. Two years later, though, concern over the Representatives from The Tampa Tribune, WFLA-TV and TBO.com reside on the future of the industry is still so deep multimedia assignment desk which is located on the second floor of the NewsCenter. that editors and publishers are under- The third floor (top) houses the newsroom for The Tampa Tribune. Tampa Tribune taking the most extensive reader sur- staff photos by Allyn DiVito. vey in history. The results of that massive study things around and about the changes One thing is certain. Today’s jour- won’t be unveiled until April. But al- media organizations must make to at- nalists must temper their arrogance. ready there is discussion about the tract and keep this new breed of jour- This is the interactive age, epitomized kind of journalist needed to help turn nalist. by the Internet. Newspapers will need

Nieman Reports / Winter 2000 25 The Internet, Technology and Journalism to move beyond their comfort zone as objectivity meant they should let people” in TV news or TV reporters masters of monologue. Today’s jour- their words speak for themselves working with “those boring people” in nalists must welcome calls from read- rather than engage in any promo- the press would have been unthink- ers, promptly answer a steady stream tion. But the economics of survival able even 10 years ago. Now it’s hap- of e-mail from the public [see pages 28- have convinced some journalists that pening here, and it’s the wave of the 30], pay attention to focus groups, and marketing can be another way to get future everywhere, as different media spend more time getting to know ev- their story out. learn to recognize and leverage each eryday people rather than just those in •They must develop products jointly other’s strengths to create greater value the towers of power. with the business side to better meet for the customer. Journalists have already stopped as- the needs of both readers and adver- For the print journalist, this means suming they know what is best for tisers. For decades, journalists feared learning new skills (talking to a cam- readers. Economics forced that shift. that working with the “money-grub- era), new language (voice-overs and Many people are finding ways to stay bing revenue producers” would re- interrupt-for-broadcast earpieces), and informed without newspapers. To lure sult in pressure to favor advertisers making decisions based on how cus- them back, journalists are striving to in news coverage. Indeed, the cred- tomers need information rather than treat the public more and more as ibility crisis at the Los Angeles Times on when the presses next roll. TV jour- advisors, not just end users. “For their earlier this year proved that can hap- nalists face similar challenges as they, own survival, newspapers have had to pen. But the best-led newspapers too, learn a new language (pagination, become sensitive to what their com- will figure out a way to make these maestro sessions, ledes), and as they munities want them to do,” says Bangor partnerships work without compro- write for a medium in which words are Daily News Executive Editor Mark mising their ethics. more important than images. Woodward. •They will be partnering with their Those who work in isolation in the That extends beyond just listening counterparts in television, radio and 21st century will fail, whether it is news more intently to the public. It means the Internet to better serve their organizations or individual journalists. journalists must begin schooling them- “shared” customers. So, too, will those who ignore the need selves in the anthropology of commu- to master a wider range of tools. No nity building. They must understand At our NewsCenter, built to facili- longer are typewriters, notepads and the nature of alienation and the need tate this kind of convergence, a multi- tape recorders enough. Journalists for bonding to provide relevance, depth media desk is the pulse of this brave need to know how to use pagination new world. workstations, spreadsheet and data- Editors from base software for computer-assisted Those who work in isolation in the The Tampa reporting, mapping programs for 21st century will fail, whether it is Tribune, graphic packages and tools needed to news organizations or individual WFLA-TV, partner with TV, radio and the Internet. Tampa Bay Where will newspapers find this new journalists. Online kind of journalist? Can they afford this (TBO.com), multi-dimensional talent? Will they be and our able to keep this new breed once they Archive & find it? These are tough questions for and analysis in a time-starved, informa- Research Center sit side by side, allow- publishers, editors and recruiters. tion-soaked, solution-craving society. ing them to make quick decisions about Many observers believe newspapers We are, after all, social animals. News- how best to share coverage of breaking have to do some changing of their own papers must feed more than our intel- news. When a massive fire broke out in before expecting to attract or keep the lect. They also must feed our hearts our downtown entertainment district, ideal journalist of the 21st century. and souls. Tribune reporters at the scene phoned First and foremost, newspapers must Today’s journalists must be team in commentary as WFLA went live with become innovators themselves. His- players in another sense as well. Not the story. In turn, WFLA video was fed torically, the newsroom culture has only must they work more closely with to TBO.com. An Internet editor helped been downright cynical about change. their communities. They can no longer gather additional information online “Most organizations are not willing to hide in their newsrooms when they are that provided depth for the Tribune’s take a risk,” says Karen Dunlap, the in the office. stories. An A & R researcher combed dean at the Poynter Institute. “They’re years of clips to provide new angles as not willing to applaud the effort. If it •They must partner with their breth- each medium’s deadline approached. fails a little bit, there’s a much greater ren in marketing to help tell their [A WFLA reporter writes about her ex- inclination to say, ‘What the hell was own story, something that in the perience filing stories across these vari- that?,’ the cynical remarks, the critical past has been viewed as selfish, as ous media on page 52.] remarks.” boorish, even unethical. Reporters The notion of newspaper reporters In other words, the very arrogance have long thought that the canon of working regularly with “those shallow that alienates readers alienates the true

26 Nieman Reports / Winter 2000 Peering Into the Digital Future innovators in newsrooms. “Almost every newspaper employee has seen some poor soul tentatively throw out an idea and have it ripped to shreds,” says Sharyn Wizda, features editor at the Austin American-Statesman. “The attempt to do something different is rarely rewarded on its own if the end result isn’t a blockbuster; because folks are too busy pointing out what went wrong.” This general lack of respect for people explains a lot of what is wrong with newspapers, according to trainer and consultant Beverly Kaye, coauthor of the new book “Love ’Em or Lose ’Em: Getting Good People to Stay.” “It is a ‘buyer’s market’ where the best journalists have their pick of where to go,” Kaye says. “And you know, what people are asking for is really so simple. They’re saying, ‘Recognize me. Praise me. Ask me what I want to do.’” Editors from the various media working together at the Tampa NewsCenter. Newspapers also must make greater strides in providing training for their Compensation will become particu- That makes bonding with the commu- journalists. This not only is key to at- larly tricky in a converged world. When nity a daunting task for journalists. In tracting the best professionals; it’s es- a newspaper reporter covers a story for an era when connecting with readers is sential to keeping them. And it’s essen- TV and online as well, should they be more important than ever, newspa- tial to creating the kind of journalism paid more than those who work in only pers must devise ways to help new that today’s Americans want and ex- one medium? Different models are hires forge those connections quickly. pect. “If newspapers think they do being explored at this stage. The most The industry need not wait for the enough training, we are completely common arrangement, and the one we April results of its massive reader sur- out of touch,” says Bill Ostendorf, man- use at the Tribune, is this: Conver- vey to begin making changes essential aging editor of visuals at the Provi- gence duties are considered part of the to regaining the public’s trust. dence Journal. “Editors have discov- job, but no one is expected to work ered this is part of the credibility longer hours. If a reporter files a report •The first target should be newsroom problem.” Errors occur because report- to Tampa Bay Online, participates in a arrogance. Better leadership and ers know too little about the subjects two-minute talk-back with an anchor more careful hiring is the answer. they cover. More than half of journal- during a WFLA broadcast, and then •The second target should be news- ists received fewer than 20 hours a year writes a story for the next day’s Tri- room ignorance. Better training is of training, according to a 1998 study bune, they simply spend less time on the answer. by The Poynter Institute. the newspaper that day, perhaps post- •The third target should be the salary Salaries are a problem as well, espe- poning work on another story. structure. It will be next to impos- cially if newspapers want to attract an The trickiest questions may arise sible to hire and keep the kind of even more sophisticated brand of jour- with photographers. Tribune photog- journalist needed to reestablish cred- nalist. The pay for reporters and edi- raphers are beginning to carry video ibility with readers without better tors is on par with nurses, high school cameras, and by next year WFLA pho- pay and better perks. ■ teachers, firefighters and telephone line tographers will use digital cameras. So installers, according to the September they will be producing images for each Patti Breckenridge is assistant man- issue of American Journalism Review other’s organization and for TBO.com. aging editor for organizational (AJR). It doesn’t come close to that of Pay and perks for those two groups are development at The Tampa Tribune. lawyers, engineers, airline pilots, and different at this point. Will there need She headed the Tribune’s online other professional groups. Gains made to be some changes? Probably. publishing group and, as the paper’s in previous years have slowed. Experi- One last issue: The larger the news- first training and recruiting man- enced newspaper reporters averaged paper, the greater the likelihood that a ager, developed the nation’s largest two percent increases this year, “the majority of its journalists come from newsroom training program. worst raises have been in at least five out of state. To get the best they can years,” according to AJR. afford, newspapers recruit nationally. [email protected]

Nieman Reports / Winter 2000 27 The Internet, Technology and Journalism Is Including E-Mail Addresses in Reporters’ Bylines a Good Idea? At The Miami Herald, the jury of journalists is still deliberating.

By Mark Seibel

More than a year after The Miami Her- tion and Naturalization Service’s ac- “The vast majority of people who ald added the individual e-mail ad- tion taking Elian Gonzalez from the take the time to write are people with dresses of its reporters to their bylines, home of his Miami relatives and reunit- strong, strong, strong opinions,” Rob- the verdict is decidedly mixed on ing him with his father. les notes. “If you respond with insight, whether e-mail contact with the public The final word captures the tone of it triggers a letter-writing volley that is useful or disruptive. much of the electronic correspondence nobody has time for. It you write back There are the testimonials: Investi- Rosenberg received during the Elian something very short, people are of- gative reporter Manny Garcia calls e- controversy, so much so that she devel- fended. One reader whose e-mail I mail “invaluable,” and cites a number oped a program that automatically re- ignored sent me a snippy note months of tips that helped him flesh out stories sponded to such e-mails by suggesting later asking: Why do you bother put- on government corruption. So does the sender append his name and ad- ting your e-mail in the paper if you’re Joe Tanfani, also a member of the I- dress and send the message to the not going to write back? I had to admit: team, who says many useful follow-up editorial page for publication. Few, if She had a good point.” ideas come in after one of his stories is any, did. But how much time should a re- published. Reporter Luisa Yanez is an- I can hear some saying, So what? porter spend each day dealing with e- other enthusiast: “On several occasions, Reporters are, or should be, a tough mail? Alfonso Chardy, who wrote most I’ve gotten an e-mail that has helped lot. Sticks and stones may break your of the stories that won the Herald a me follow a big story. I did a story on a bones but words will never hurt you. Pulitzer Prize for the Iran-contra scan- state senator’s funny business and Some would even argue that it is good dal back in the pre-e-mail era, guesses someone e-mailed me more examples for reporters to know what readers he gets between 15 and 20 e-mails a of his shenanigans. And I did a story on think of their work. I’ll admit some day. The problem is not the content— an embalmer and someone who was sympathy for that position. most are innocuous—but the hour or suing him e-mailed me as well.” But the daily exposure to electronic so he spends opening them, figuring But even the fans acknowledge that insults, screeds that unfortunately they out what if any response he needs to the useful tip is the exception. The can’t avoid because they pop up on the send, and then disposing of them. He bulk of e-mails tend toward the opin- screen as soon as the reporter signs on, sighs, “It’s just like getting an addi- ionated, not the factual, and a depress- in fact takes a toll. I have seen other- tional 20 phone calls a day. There’s ingly high number of those are per- wise good reporters begin shying away nothing wrong with it. But it just adds sonal attacks on the reporter—attacks from critical stories because of the an- to your work.” that in former times might have been gry e-mail they’ve received. No one, The key, of course, is whether the directed to the editor, if the reader not even a reporter, enjoys being as- work is worth it. There’s no denying even wanted to have his opinion saulted verbally, and e-mail assaults that e-mail is a useful tool. I routinely known. Now, with the ease of e-mail, not only are inescapable—you can’t beg PR people to get rid of their fax not only can anyone’s least-thought- hang up on the insulting e-mailer—but machines and send their releases by e- out view be expressed instantaneously, they are encouraged by your employer. mail. For reporters, e-mail can provide but with the relative anonymity of the There’s another downside to solicit- access to sources who otherwise might Internet it can be done in the most ing e-mail comments direct to report- be inaccessible—our political reporter scurrilous language possible. ers: the amount of time required to regularly exchanges e-mails with the That’s something any editor should deal with them. That’s what troubles governor, who otherwise would be know before deciding to invite direct reporter Frances Robles, who received unavailable for phone calls. e-mail communication with reporters. her share of lowbrow commentary But as for unsolicited e-mails? Well, Your reporters are going to find that during the Elian Gonzalez case. One most reporters would find it more use- much, if not most, of what they receive example: After she wrote a piece on ful to spend an extra hour on the street. lacks civility, let alone utility. And it will demonstrators outside the Cuban In- ■ all require time to answer, or even to terests Section in Washington, an e- ignore. “It was a rescue. Not a raid. mailer sent this: “The burning ques- Mark Seibel is assistant managing Moron,” read one reader’s e-mail to tion, however, for me is: do the editor at The Miami Herald and a reporter Carol Rosenberg in response non-Miami Cubans also all have fat 1992 Nieman Fellow. to a story she wrote about the Immigra- asses?”

28 Nieman Reports / Winter 2000 Peering Into the Digital Future Responding to E-Mail Is an Unrealistic Expectation At The Courier-Journal, a columnist sends back postcards.

By Betty Bayé

Increasingly, newspapers are tagging likes of C-SPAN and radio and TV call- dorsements are more likely to be pub- columns, articles and editorials with in shows, which are set up to be inter- lished than ones that praise us. phone numbers and e-mail addresses active. I believe that it’s worse than not to help readers contact reporters and Finally, it’s not as if readers, dis- responding to the public at all to en- other writers. And that’s great—at least gruntled or otherwise, lack forums for courage people to write detailed, on the surface. airing their views. Many newspapers thoughtful e-mails and letters to indi- The problem is: Just when are re- have ombudsmen who are intermedi- vidual reporters and writers with the porters and writers supposed to en- aries between the newsroom and the expectation that they will receive some- gage personally any and all who wish public. They’re supposed to spend time thing similar in return. As a columnist, to debate, condemn or (God forfend) with individual readers and then con- I receive quite a bit of mail. I try to get even praise? There are just 24 hours to vey the public’s concerns to the news- back to as many people as I can. But a day, at least six to eight of which, as a room, often meeting with and inter- more often than not, I can do no better rule, are devoted to than send out printed sleeping. Even ink- postcards that carry my stained wretches are column photo and entitled to a couple of While it’s fabulous public relations for convey thanks to the hours a day to tend to newspapers to pretend that they’re part of reader for taking time family matters or to an interactive medium, they’re really not, to write and an apol- doing something that ogy for my inability to isn’t more work. at least not in terms of realistically being respond in depth. I do Moreover, most able to provide the sort of one-on-one sign the postcards. journalists don’t have attention implicitly promised to readers It’s not ideal. In the clerical assistance, end, I am convinced and their days, with when they see writers’ e-mail addresses or that people get much some variations, go phone numbers at the end of stories. more mileage writing pretty much like this: a letter to the editor They arrive in the than waiting days and newsroom, grab a cup even weeks to hear of coffee, read the wires and newspa- viewing individual editors and writers from me—and then only getting a post- pers, meet with editors, get assign- for explanations about why and how a card, which realistically is the best that ments, read background materials, and particular story was written and track- I can do. And letters to the editor do, in go out to cover events. They eat lunch ing the ways in which errors were made. fact, make a significant impact on the (often at their desks), do phone inter- At my newspaper in Louisville, Ken- reporter or writer. views and additional research to tucky, The Courier-Journal’s ombuds- Cyberspace is a wonderful inven- double-check sources for accuracy, man—who is a woman, but I am simply tion, but newspapers really shouldn’t write stories, wait for stories to be not going to call her an promise more than they can deliver, edited (and, if the editor isn’t satisfied, “ombudsperson”—writes a regular especially when doing so requires even re-write or do additional reporting), column published most Sundays, the more from the people who, in addition and plan for the next assignment. day of highest circulation, in which she to traditional reporting and writing, While it’s fabulous public relations informs the public about the process are also now having to meet new ex- for newspapers to pretend that they’re and reasoning behind certain news- pectations created by the computer part of an interactive medium, they’re room decisions. She may conclude that revolution. ■ really not, at least not in terms of real- the wrong call was made. istically being able to provide the sort Meanwhile, most newspapers have Betty Winston Bayé, a 1991 Nieman of one-on-one attention implicitly Letters to the Editor sections in which, Fellow, is editorial writer and col- promised to readers when they see at no cost, readers may express their umnist at The Courier-Journal in writers’ e-mail addresses or phone views. At The Courier-Journal, as I sus- Louisville, Kentucky. This year her numbers at the end of stories. Such pect at many other papers, letters criti- book, “Blackbird,” was published by interaction is best accomplished by the cal of our editorials and political en- August Press.

Nieman Reports / Winter 2000 29 The Internet, Technology and Journalism Interactivity—Via E-Mail—Is Just What Journalism Needs At The Christian Science Monitor, reporters welcome contact with readers.

By Tom Regan

It’s time we were brutally honest with call it) production is beginning. methods for several years at the Moni- ourselves. Journalists hate the idea of Napster, the software that allows one tor. Almost all staff, including senior regular contact with readers/listeners/ user to share music with another or editors, have their e-mail addresses on viewers. Oh, we want them to interact many other users, is an example of the Web site, including all stories. We’ve with us enough to keep our papers in peer-to-peer production. also got a “customer service response” print or our stations on the air. But we For many of us in journalism, this person who acts very much like the don’t like them, well, talking to us. We new paradigm will require that we re- filter mentioned above. In the three would just prefer that they allow us to think the definition of our jobs. years we’ve been doing this, we’ve not do stories about them and their lives Interactivity, or regular interaction with had a single reporter ask to have their and then move on. We want to tell the people who read/watch/listen to e-mail address removed. In fact, the them what to think, or what the news us, will become a key part of what every only time we hear from reporters is is, but we’re not crazy about the idea of reporter will do. when there are problems and they are them giving us feedback about our Some reporters will want constant not getting e-mail from readers. choices. interaction, such as writers like Jon Hosting forums, or taking part in But I’m here to tell you that Katz or Steve Outing, whose work de- event-like chats, will also become a interactivity is for real. And it’s the best pends on constantly conversing with regular part of every reporter’s job. thing to happen to journalism in a the people who read them. Other re- The Washington Post’s Online Live fo- long, long time. At a conference in porters will set up intelligent filters, so rum is an excellent example of this. But Camden, Maine, called “Being Human that they’ll get more of the mail that’s as the technology changes, so will the in the Digital Age,” one of the speakers important to them to answer and less ways we interact. Several sites are start- was John Perry Barlow, cofounder of spam. An interim step would be for ing to use voice chats. Video chats are the Electronic Freedom Foundation media outlets to hire an e-mail admin- about two to three years away. and an outspoken defender of the First istrator, who would screen all e-mail. The reason I believe so strongly in Amendment in all its manifestations. Most e-mail could be dealt with quickly, interactivity is that I believe it will help Barlow believes that we are entering with an e-mail template answer. Im- remove the wall that exists between the era of the relationship-based portant e-mail that should be re- media and their audience. This is par- economy. The period of one-to-many sponded to by the actual reporter would ticularly true for newspapers, the me- production is ending and the time for be sent to the appropriate party. dium the stands to gain the most from one-to-one (or peer-to-peer as some We’ve used a combination of these this kind of interactivity and contact. ■ E-Mail Deluge … A number of Web sites now make Michael Cooke, editor in chief of the Now instead of going out to lunch, I it very easy for activists to create e-mail Chicago Sun-Times, has watched the just sit there deleting e-mails.” campaigns quickly and Web petitions number of e-mails he receives “bal- The [Boston] Globe’s editor, Mat- for little or no money. And many of loon” since shortly after Election Day. thew V. Storin, reports a similar del- these sites are optimized for quick- On Monday, he received about 1,450 e- uge. Between Friday afternoon and starts on late-breaking issues, making mails, most of them urging him to Monday evening, he received 2,193 e- them ideal for instant controversies oppose any “re-votes” in Florida. At mails, the vast majority related to the like the impeachment of a president, least that’s what Cooke said, based on voting in Florida. Later, he gave an the deportation of Elian Gonzalez, or a some sampling. update: Between 11 p.m. Monday and contested presidential election. “Basically, I just delete them,” he 10:40 a.m. yesterday he received 310 e- The wide circulation of “media lists,” said. “I scroll through the list looking mails.… ■ with personal e-mail addresses of for my boss’s name. If I don’t see his prominent newspaper editors and tele- name in the ‘from’ box, I don’t even Excerpted from a story by D.C. vision news directiors, has extended look at it. Denison, The Boston Globe, the edges of the revolution directly “This is the first time I’ve been November 15, 2000. Reprinted by into the media’s e-mail in-boxes. spammed like this, and it’s annoying. permission of the Globe.

30 Nieman Reports / Winter 2000 Financing News in the Internet Era On the Web, It’s Survival of the Biggest ‘The real issue is not about the quality of journalism, but the business of media.’

By Mark Sauter

f start-ups ran on journalism awards been trying to launch a television net- Web site. As with the launch of many rather than venture capital, APB work for crime, justice and safety—a well-known cable networks and maga- IOnline would have been a business sort of ESPN for this hugely popular zines, this plan assumed a multi-year success. But they don’t and it wasn’t. genre—on cable. But the Internet’s “burn to break even,” in which inves- Instead, one of the most respected emergence as a popular medium sug- tors would fund APB until the com- news organizations to launch on the gested such an endeavor might now be pany turned profitable. But unlike those Internet went bankrupt. Shareholders possible without the interference (and earlier launches, often paid for in large wiped out. Creditors largely unpaid. onerous financial demands) of the cable part by parent media companies of Employees laid off. Millions of dollars operators, networks, newspaper some financial patience, APB had no lost. A poster child for the dot-com chains, and other traditional parent. We turned instead to other crash. gatekeepers. We decided to forsake sources of capital. Some in the press have called the cable, at least for the time being, and Back in 1998 and 1999, many ven- trials of APB a test of whether quality strike out on the Web. ture capitalists and fund managers were journalism can survive on taking a new interest in jour- the Internet. They’re miss- nalism. Some of these in- ing the point. The real is- vestors might never have sue is not about the quality considered backing the of journalism, but the busi- launch of old media prop- ness of media. At hand is erties, with their long waits whether the Internet can for profitability, relatively midwife significant, stand- modest valuations, and ex- alone journalistic institu- pensive hordes of pesky tions. The Web—the best journalists (or “content cre- medium ever invented for ators,” as they’re now some- the transmission of news times known). In contrast, and information—already the new wave of online me- offers plenty of fine jour- dia companies seemed ca- nalism and always will, pable of going public fast at from niche “zines” to the substantial valuations. Part online extensions of major of it was due to business networks and newspapers. efficiencies the Web ap- But can new mass media peared to offer, from re- players—companies ducing the cost of “publish- started outside of and in In a section of the APBnews.com newsroom, Mubashar Iqbal, ing” to providing an competition with the old APBnews.com’s chief technical officer, works on a server problem. immediate worldwide au- media’s giants—be born Photo by Hoag Levins. dience. The rest of the at- online? Can and will the traction was simpler—no future equivalents of today’s CNN’s, Our plan was simple and consistent matter the underlying logic. The stock ESPN’s and Wall Street Journals gallop with the launch of many earlier media market was assigning unprecedented in from the digital frontier, rising as brands: develop popular content, use valuations to Internet companies. The true national brands above the flotsam it to obtain distribution, win a large bigger the “space” (the niche or poten- and cacophony of the million-channel audience, and then “monetize” our visi- tial market), the better. medium? tors (in APB’s case, through sponsor- All of this attracted many sophisti- In the spring and summer of 1998, ships, e-commerce, syndication and cated investors eager to participate in my two cofounders (both ex-invest- other revenue lines). At the same time, the APB business plan. One well-re- ment bankers) and I set out to join the we would work to spread APB offline, garded firm—one of the best run and army of online pioneers trying to an- into television, magazines and other most responsible we encountered— swer those questions in the affirma- media outlets, using them to acquire invested more than one million dollars tive. Marshall Davidson, our CEO, had revenue and drive traffic back to the in APB without meeting anyone from

Nieman Reports / Winter 2000 31 The Internet, Technology and Journalism the company in person. In the end, we imagined they would drop so far, so were offered more money than we Postmortem Awards for fast. Back in 1998 and 1999, APB’s could accept under our business plan. APBnews.com founders anticipated that capital for And off we went. No wild parties, our business might one day become fancy offices or lavish salaries—just a more expensive. But we never con- In November, when nominations for detailed business plan and plenty of ceived it would disappear altogether. the first Online Journalism Awards were seven-day weeks. From the beginning, Yet that’s what happened. announced, APBnews.com had four, APB was built upon a bedrock of jour- The fund managers, once raring to the most of any Web site. These nomi- nalist excellence, not because the co- back new media brands, were now nations came despite the site’s owners founders believed in its social value hunkered down, their portfolios tum- declaring bankruptcy in the summer. (although we did), but because strong bling. Two giant media companies that In number of nominations, journalism was necessary for business had once shown interest in being our APBnews.com beat out ongoing news reasons. APB’s content had to be of partner backed away, their own Internet sites such as CNET’s News.com, unquestioned quality for us to make properties hemorrhaging value. In a salon.com, businessweek.com and deals with the major Internet portals, few weeks, it all began to fall apart. WSJ.com. APBnews.com received nomi- television networks, and print publica- Suddenly no one was interested in a nations for its breaking news and its tions. This was especially true given long “burn to break even.” Instead they creative use of the medium. These our genre, which was prone to sensa- wanted a “clear and quick path to prof- awards are co-sponsored by the Online tionalism, and our launch medium, itability.” APB did not have one. And Journalism Association and the Colum- which was viewed with suspicion by the company was almost out of money. bia Graduate School of Journalism. ■ many in old media. As they say on the street, we were We proceeded to hire (in the early “undercapitalized” for this new market days at the local Starbucks, since we This sort of work won numerous reality. Our plan to focus more on had no office) a superb team of jour- awards for APB Online, including the gaining audience than generating rev- nalists with experience everywhere first Society of Professional Journalists enue in the early going was now out of from CNN to The New York Times. SDX Award to a stand-alone Web site, favor and there wasn’t the time or cash They included: Hoag Levins, former the first Scripps Howard Foundation to change gears. The summer of 2000 executive editor of Editor & Publisher award to an Internet news company, was the longest of my life. Unable to magazine and its Web site; Karl Idsvoog, an Investigative Reporters and Editors raise capital, we filed for bankruptcy. television investigative journalist and special citation, and the National Press In early 2000, APB had been valued at 1983 Nieman Fellow; Syd Schanberg, Club Award for best journalism site. $104 million. In September of that legendary reporter and columnist; Bob Brill’s Content called us one of the top year, the company’s assets were sold Port, former AP investigative editor; news sites on the Web. for $575,000. Others can debate how Michele Riordon-Read, ex-ABC News The result: APB constructed one of much of APB’s fate was due to the producer, and many more. the best distribution networks of any decisions and skills of its management. With ink in their blood and key- Internet start-up. Our stories ran on But no one can dispute that in large boards at their fingers, the APB crew AOL, MSNBC.com and Yahoo!. They part, what the market had given in set out to apply the ethics of the old were seen in Reader’s Digest and heard 1998 and 1999, it took away in 2000. media to the technological promise of on radio stations across the country. Some of APB’s managers decided to the new, taking advantage of the We had pending agreements to air APB stay on with the new owners breadth, depth and interactivity of the reports on network, local and syndi- (SafetyTips.com) hoping the financial Web to pursue enterprise journalism cated television. An APB line of books climate would change and the site, its in new ways. For example, the day from a major publisher was planned. expenses slashed, could survive long Frank Sinatra’s voluminous FBI file was Such deals helped APB capture a large enough to find funding, albeit as a released, APB put it online live in its and loyal audience, often more than much more modest business. “I’ve al- entirety, along with numerous stories one million unique users a month, in ways believed that good journalism is outlining its context and significance. the top ranks of online news sites. good business. Wherever I’ve worked, We rated the crime risk around the By early 2000, it was time to raise delivering great content has built both campuses of all 1,497 American four- more money to continue pursuing the the ratings and the brand. But you year colleges, supported by our report- plan. Even a cable television network, can’t build either quickly. If USA Today ing, and the full, unexpurgated re- the original impetus for the idea, had had our budget, it would have sponses of all colleges that offered seemed possible. But then came April been out of business in six months,” them. We sued the federal judiciary to 2000. They called it the Nasdaq crash, said Idsvoog, APB’s vice president. get financial disclosure reports for the hours when the bloated values of Hoag Levins, APB’s executive edi- judges onto the Internet—part of APB’s Internet stocks began to nosedive. Many tor, believes the online journalism unique public records effort, which inside the industry, including us, had model will be proved over the next involved thousands of Freedom of In- always believed those valuations would several years, as increasing household formation Act and other data requests. come down sooner or later. But few access and usage take the Web to a

32 Nieman Reports / Winter 2000 Financing News in the Internet Era

“flash” point of consumer and adver- and more major corporations spend- tomers will pay for these services— tiser acceptance. “Savvy investors are ing large amounts of money on the they already do. And importantly, un- buying into the ownership of a piece of Web. But most of that money is con- like APB, Parlo can ignore the capital that ‘flash’ when it occurs. In the concentrated on the Internet’s top desti- market’s current blind pessimism about text of this unavoidable reality, Wall nations, which among the news sites online journalism. Street’s sudden demand for guaran- means those belonging to the offline Nowadays, I go to work happy. Cer- teed Web site profits next quarter is as media giants. Sooner or later, the stock tainly there are mornings when I miss shortsighted as it is ridiculous,” Levins market’s appetite for Internet compa- the adrenaline of a breaking story, the said. nies, once ludicrously large and now fascination of going through a newly As I write this in the fall of 2000, that nonsensically nonexistent, will achieve declassified FBI file, or the feedback “flash” seems far off as the valuations of some sort of equilibrium—especially from a visitor who was made safer by online media companies continue to for the New York Timeses and information on the APBnews.com site. slip. CNET and SportsLine, two fine MSNBC.coms of the world. But that Maybe I’ll try it again sometime. Internet brands that went public be- turnaround will take time and may Perhaps there will come a day when it fore the crash, have watched their mar- never fully reach the independent play- makes sense to launch a major new ket caps plunge. Salon, FOXNews.com ers. journalism brand online. But for me at and others have been laying off staff. I don’t have the heart to wait. When least, it probably won’t be anytime TheStreet.com, according to Business APB was sold, I declined an offer to stay soon. ■ Week Online, has seen its market capi- on. I’m now the chief operating officer talization drop to some $84 million, of Parlo Inc. and its Web site Mark Sauter spent most of his jour- even though it has $88 million in cash www.parlo.com, a multimedia e-learn- nalism career as an investigative on hand. In effect, the market is assigning company that provides language reporter on national and local ing no—or negative—value to the un- education and cultural information to television and also worked in print, derlying business. Even The New York customers around the world. Unlike radio and books. He was cofounder, Times has withdrawn its plans for a APB, Parlo doesn’t have to prove the chief operating officer, and execu- tracking stock to cover its digital-media need for its services—the worldwide tive vice president/content of APB properties. demand for language instruction is Online Inc. Hoag Levins is probably right. This huge and growing among consumers, drought won’t last forever. Online ad- institutions and businesses. Unlike APB, [email protected] vertising continues to grow, with more Parlo need not demonstrate that cus-

Merging Media to Create an Interactive Market New strategies are used to fund the expensive business of newsgathering.

Jack Fuller, president of Tribune boom, offering advertisers large num- the most novel. Let me tell you a little Publishing Company, addressed a bers of very high-demographic readers bit about why we think it is important. group of editors and publishers in in the three biggest cities in the coun- Ever since becoming editor of the August 2000. With the purchase of try. Chicago Tribune I have been focused Times Mirror, Tribune Company now In the interactive market, we now on trying to figure out what it will take have the spine of a national network. to preserve and strengthen our great owns newspapers and TV stations in This should permit us to deal more newspapers in the new century. Since the nation’s three top markets. Fuller effectively with whatever threats and I started working as a reporter 36 years spoke about developing integrated opportunities arise. Tribune Interac- ago and only became involved in the multimedia approaches to tive should now be a much more attrac- business side seven years ago, I confess newsgathering and distribution. An tive candidate for partnership with any that I came at the question with a excerpt follow. firm hoping to get a foothold on an primary commitment to the public ser- audience. And we should be far more vice aspect of our work. Long before attractive to the national advertisers ever thinking about national consoli- e are now positioned to take that are the biggest players in the dation, I began wondering how to build a multimedia approach in the Internet. a stronger foundation of financial sup- Wtop three markets of the coun- Among all the strategic advantages port locally for the expensive business try. Moreover, we can take greater ad- of the Times Mirror deal, the newspa- of newsgathering. It has seemed clear vantage of the national advertising per-television combination has been for a long time that, whether we like it

Nieman Reports / Winter 2000 33 The Internet, Technology and Journalism or not, in a fragmenting world there produce the newspaper, the TV news on the business scene on his WGN-TV will be increasing pressure to reduce show, radio news and Internet news show once a week. costs. Now a lot of editorial costs have services out of a single newsroom. Of Over time each medium drifted away turned out to be eminently reducible, course, there will be specialists in each from the newspaper as it established without affecting quality (which I de- medium. But certain core functions its own unique identity, sort of the way fine as how well we fulfill our social will be common and not redundant. our Internet offerings are today having mission). But we all know of many to strike off on their own. Moreover, as newspapers that have reduced edito- the federal government began to look rial costs so much that they are hollow with more and more hostility at cross- imitations of their former selves. ownership situations, the lawyers be- I know that there is a very energetic gan telling us that to preserve our belief within the journalistic commu- grandfathered status, the best thing nity to the effect that the way to avoid was to put up big stone walls between this kind of anorexia is simply for com- the newspaper, radio and TV. panies to be less greedy. I don’t think So it has really only been during the that line of argument is very useful. In last decade that we began to rekindle fact, it is a form of denial. The pressure the relationship between the newspa- on costs results from the public per and broadcast. In both Chicago market’s demand for financial results. and Orlando, the development of all- You can call that greed, or you can news cable stations in which the news- simply call it the force of a dynamic paper was a key partner helped stimu- marketplace. And the forces aren’t go- late the experimentation. At the time ing to abate. As media fragment, all we started CLTV—which is a kind of forms of journalism will be squeezed. local CNN in the Chicago metropolitan The best way to continue doing qual- area—the idea of print and television ity journalism in this kind of environ- inhabiting the same space, let alone ment, it seems to me, is to spread working intimately together, was newsgathering costs over multiple dis- thought to be a heresy on both sides. tribution platforms with multiple rev- Once we got deep into the planning, Photo of Jack Fuller courtesy of the Chicago enue sources and multiple audiences. we realized that it was important to Tribune©. In plain language, that means present- protect the sense of identity of both the ing our journalism to audiences larger print and the television journalists be- than we can get in the ink-on-paper This will give us a cost advantage over cause it turned out they were afraid of newspaper by using television, radio our competition. …[W]e won’t waste each other. The young TV reporters and the Internet. money on duplicated effort and over- saw all these seasoned print journalists There is another reason we have head and will be able to concentrate who might try to lord it over them. The worked so hard to build a multimedia our resources on newsgathering, writ- print journalists saw one more step in orientation in Tribune newspapers. ing and editing. TV’s incursion into their world. In ef- With bandwidth exploding, soon the Because Tribune Company’s own- fect, we had to solve the problem of Internet will blow through the distinc- ership of the Chicago Tribune, WGN- getting the lions to lie down with the tions between print and television, just TV and WGN Radio predated the fed- lambs by first recognizing that each as it is beginning to blow through the eral rule against cross-ownership, we side thought the other was the lion. distinctions between print and radio. have had decades to experiment with One powerful factor worked in our We’re going to need to employ people this concept. The history has been favor. And my first hint of it came one and deploy systems capable of creating mixed. At first, the relationship be- evening when my wife and I were seated news reports with all the elements: tween the newspaper and radio was at a dinner party across from Thea text, graphics, audio and video actuali- very close. Radio newscasts originated Flaum, who had been the original pro- ties. The companies that have the raw from the Chicago Tribune newsroom. ducer of the Siskel and Ebert Show. We materials and the skills to create multi- The call letters of the station, WGN, were just getting ready to go on the air media products will be best able to ride stood for World’s Greatest Newspaper, with CLTV at the time, and Thea was the waves of change. The best raw which was then the Tribune’s modest curious about how everything was go- material is still a daily newspaper, with motto. In the early days of television, ing. I told her that my biggest concern its enormous newsgathering ability. But WGN-TV began in a similar fashion. My was how the newspaper reporters video and audio content and the talent father was a journalist for the Chicago would take to the idea of being on TV. for video and audio presentation are Tribune most of his career, and I can “Oh, don’t worry about that,” Thea also necessary. remember when I was a boy watching said. “Vanity is your friend.” Not everyone at Tribune agrees with with less than complete fascination as Frankly, we have not had great diffi- me, but I can see a day when we will his boss, the financial editor, reported culties in getting TV and print journal-

34 Nieman Reports / Winter 2000 Financing News in the Internet Era ists to work together.… WGN’s meteo- confident and bold enough to adapt confidence that editors control the rologist—by far the best and most so- successfully to the radically evolving editorial content that gives a newspa- phisticated in the city—began putting information environment. per strong values. What really builds out the newspaper’s weather page, The need for grounding in the fun- great papers is when everyone in them which has been an enormous hit with damentals, I believe, goes way beyond understands “the truth discipline” and barometer junkies. the editorial staff. The whole organiza- why it is absolutely essential to live by What hasn’t happened yet is the tion should understand the unique it every day. development of a common newsroom nature of our business, the special re- We’re trying to deepen that under- serving any of our operations in Chi- sponsibilities it places on us. When I standing at Tribune. We have started cago. It is still, I think, too soon for that. visited for the first time with the edito- formal programs to do so. I believe that Certain technological developments— rial staff of the Los Angeles Times, if journalistic principals had been gen- such as digital cameras that can pro- someone asked me whether I was go- erally understood at the Los Angeles duce both video and still shots of high ing to rebuild the wall between the Times over the past several years I enough quality to reproduce well in editorial and the business sides of the wouldn’t be here talking to you about the newspaper—need to ripen to help newspaper. I took a deep breath and the acquisition. That’s pretty strong drive us closer together. Fragmenta- told them what I believe: that I don’t evidence that news values are at the tion has to proceed, too, until the writ- like walls. It’s a lousy metaphor. Walls sweet spot. The social obligation of the ing is on the wall. But the time will increase the possibility of stupid things newspaper, which gives rise to the duty come. I am pretty sure it will come. happening behind them. Better for to disclose conflicts of interest and tell The changes I’ve been talking about there to be a lot of people in the con- the truth despite them, is not in con- are, of course, unsettling. And every versation, including editors who have flict with the company’s fiduciary duty; one of them begets a new set of ques- enough business sophistication to par- it’s part of it. ■ tions—ethical questions, if you will— ticipate fully, because this makes it a lot that relate to the very purposes of jour- more likely that somebody will speak Jack Fuller became president of nalism. I believe it is absolutely neces- up and tie a can to a bad idea. That said, Tribune Publishing Company in sary in such times that newspaper en- I went on, at Tribune we have a kind of 1997. As editor of the Tribune’s terprises have a very solid grounding a simple-minded rule: When there’s a editorial page, he won the Pulitzer in the fundamentals of journalism val- debate among the departments about Prize in 1986 and, in 1989, he be- ues. They are going to need to go back what goes in the editorial columns of came editor of the paper and later to these fundamentals time and again the newspaper, the editor wins. publisher and chief executive officer. to resolve new issues. But they are also That went over pretty well, but after- He is the author of “News Values: going to need to feel the earth solid wards I realized that I hadn’t said ev- Ideas for an Information Age.” under their feet if they are going to be erything I might have. It isn’t just the

Web Journalism Crosses Many Traditional Lines ‘Why shouldn’t journalists help create a new model for financing our work?’

By David Weir

s journalists have migrated to This is just a partial list, of course, however, it is often we who seem to be the Web in recent years, we’ve and not necessarily representative. But under scrutiny. Atried to bring our traditional what has been intriguing to me has A case in point was what happened working values with us. been how these and similar values are to CNN and Time magazine when they faring in the new interactive media. published their “Tailwind” story. Vet- •Do original work; advance the story. The record is decidedly mixed. erans outraged by the report started •Be timely and relevant. One of the first things many journal- organizing a response. Within days, •Be accurate; supply attribution. ists notice when they start working they had located former servicemen •Be fair; remain independent; try to online is that somehow the tables have and were able to undermine the story’s understand all sides. been turned. We have long believed we credibility. At first, CNN-Time tried to •Maintain confidentiality; protect have a broad mandate to act as the stonewall the vets, who were lobbying sources. “fourth estate”—as a watchdog on the angrily for a retraction. Within days, •Penetrate secrecy; keep power ac- powerful institutions of government however, the media empire raised a countable. and the private sector. On the Web, white flag, issued a rare public retrac-

Nieman Reports / Winter 2000 35 The Internet, Technology and Journalism tion, and apologized to those military In fact, at the core of the new media Part of this erosion in the value of personnel, past and present, who had experience is an evolving shift in our original work might be generational, been offended by the report. relationship with our audiences. Users as the first journalists working entirely Forget for a moment that the pro- copy, cut and paste, and e-mail our in an “always on” media environment ducers of the story apparently violated stories around their own networks af- create their own set of relevant values. core values like accuracy and attribu- ter we post them. Many readers take Large Web-based media tend toward tion; what was remarkable in this case advantage of our linked byline slugs to aggregating news content from feeds was the speed with which CNN-Time tell us exactly what they think of our as opposed to investing in the expen- was brought to its knees. No long, efforts and us. While some of this is sive process of gathering original mate- drawn out court challenge, boycott, or flaming, other responses come from rial. That, in turn, places a greater pre- citizen’s campaign was necessary—just would-be sources or informers inter- mium on selection, presentation and the instant backlash via e-mail lists on ested in adding new information to interpretation of the facts. Critics often the Internet. Prior to the emergence of whatever it is we are covering. Tipsters observe that Web reporters seem much online, networked communities, this have always approached us, of course, more interested in repackaging and simply could not have happened. but not in the volume nor at the speed interpreting information they pick up Indeed, it is the overall speed of new that the Internet facilitates. People who from other sources than in developing media that differentiates it most from would not be inclined to write a letter their own. Although I’ve seen plenty of the old media. Speed is its most attrac- or place a phone call may now send a original digging at places like Salon, I’d tive yet frightening quality. It is pos- quick e-mail on impulse after reading have to agree that on the Web that is sible to post stories anytime, day or one of our stories. the exception, not the rule. There is night, on a Web site. This flexibility This can create a time management simply no proven model yet in which helped launch the 24/7 news environ- problem for some reporters, since read- original content Web publications can ment, triggering, in turn, a direct chal- ing and sending responses to all those be brought to scale and to profitability; lenge to most of our core journalism e-mail messages cuts into time they’d thus, for now, content aggregators will values. otherwise be spending on reporting predominate. How can any of us maintain our and writing. On the other hand, a jour- Perhaps the biggest challenge facing customary degree of journalists online is the care for accuracy when broad assault on the we are rushing our sto- church-state line. Unlike ries to publication so Every Web journalist—with stock options newspapers, magazines, quickly? The Lewinsky as part of the compensation package— radio or television, scandal afforded al- faces the prospect of frequent meetings where the issues involv- most every reporting ing standards and for- organization an op- with those from what used to be known, mats are long since portunity to embar- in newsrooms, as the ‘dark side.’ settled, the Web is an rass itself—and plenty open frontier from the did. perspective of market- There were public ers, salespeople, spon- retractions by newspapers like The nalist can never have too many sources sors and business development folks. Dallas Morning News and The Wall or too solid a grounding in the commu- Every Web journalist—with stock op- Street Journal; poorly sourced reports nity. Indeed, it is our awareness of a tions as part of the compensation pack- by the television networks, and ques- networked community that is closely age—faces the prospect of frequent tionable ethical calls by rumor-hungry following our work that is one of the meetings with those from what used to Web-based publications. unique features of Web-based media. be known, in newsrooms, as the “dark Meanwhile, there are plenty of ways As more journalism goes digital, a side.” in which the Web is opening up new giant, though disorganized, sortable Since nobody has yet figured out a possibilities for journalists. The writ- electronic archive is being created, and sustainable business model for online ing style online is less formal, allowing it extends throughout the world via news media, it often seems like every reporters to mix and match forms that hypertext links. This means that any- old value is being re-evaluated. Non- previously had to be kept separate. one (including other journalists) can journalist colleagues raise all the most Although critics find fault with the mix- copy or adapt our work to their own prickly questions that strike at the core ture of factual reporting, opinion, in- purposes, often without our knowl- of what we say we believe in: honest, terpretation, analysis and personal an- edge. How copyright law applies is not accurate information for our audience. ecdote that characterizes much of the entirely clear in new media. Who owns They ask about things like how to in- best online writing, there’s no denying what work remains murky. In the produce users to click on sponsor adver- that this kind of work allows writers to cess, the collective commitment to tisements, buy merchandise promoted connect with their audiences in new originality among media organizations next to our content, or otherwise help ways. might be at risk. the company meet its business objec-

36 Nieman Reports / Winter 2000 Financing News in the Internet Era tives. This kind of conversation used to audiences that media companies have of communication with our audiences be forbidden, of course, for journal- to find ways to monetize, through ad- survives in the business plans of new ists, as we stayed on the far side of our vertising revenue, subscriber income, media companies, maybe we will even- own Chinese wall. In Internet media, and newsstand sales. tually begin to rediscover where our however, we are issued stock options, One aspect that is truly new about values came from in the first place. ■ which serve as tickets to sit at the big online media is the need to figure out table, where businesses are trying to a fresh business plan. Why shouldn’t David Weir has been a magazine devise ways to survive in a fast-paced, journalists help create a new model for and newspaper reporter and editor, information-based economy. financing our work? When you think an author, a radio and TV executive, From a traditionalist perspective, about it, who is better prepared to a screenwriter and a graduate perhaps the only thing worse than par- determine the standards and values for school journalism instructor. For the ticipating in such meetings might be interactive media companies? We know past five years he has been working the prospect of not participating. My from experience that media compa- online, for the content teams at own view is that this is one of the things nies will rise or fall on their ability to Wired Digital, Salon.com and, most that make new media exciting—we are gain and maintain their users’ trust. recently, Excite@Home, where he inventing it on the fly. After all, we were And trust, in the end, is what our value currently is vice president for net- never really in the “news” business system, whatever its flaws, has always work programming and product anyway, because there was never a been about. Besides, if, as journalists, design. news business per se. News doesn’t we find ourselves in the role of helping pay for itself directly; rather it attracts to insure that an open and honest flow

Independent Journalism Meets Business Realities on The Web ‘Who is going to pay for independent voices to be heard?’

By Danny Schechter

ome with me on an appoint- Nieman Foundation, under one virtual the media world as well, fusing the ment to the well-appointed of- roof, and is now the largest online news biz and show biz to turn many TV Cfices of a major philanthropic media issues network in the world. outlets, in television writer Larry foundation. Join me on my rounds as a Our mission is to try to do something Gelbart’s words, into “weapons of mass wannabe hell-raiser turned fundraiser, concrete and continuous about the distraction.” Reporting from other parts an independent journalist by convic- declining standards of and public trust of the world has been slashed, as has tion who has had to become a busi- in journalism. much news of civic import at home. nessman by vocation. During my This is an issue that Nieman Fellows Nieman year I sat in on a business have been debating for years, in pursu- Developing a New Media school class, but little did I know then ing the foundation’s mission to “el- Constituency that my life would turn into an ongoing evate the standards of journalism.” But business school in which a failing grade today the situation is far worse. This is To challenge these practices, we are can lead straight to bankruptcy court. due to the increasing concentration of trying to develop a new constituency Today, like many days, I am out media ownership brought about by within our demoralized profession, as beating some very well endowed corporate mergers, as well as by mar- well as among the public, which in bushes for support of the Media Chan- ket fragmentation. This has fueled a every poll expresses dissatisfaction with nel (www.mediachannel.org), which growing sense—seconded by, among the quality of media coverage. That’s our company, Globalvision others, FCC Chairman William what mediachannel.org hopes to help (www.globalvision.org), created in Kennard—that our media institutions do. Our site relies on the Web’s ease of 1999. It’s a nonprofit public interest are now undermining our democracy connections to link critiques about the Web site that brings together more rather than strengthening it. Merger media to tools that can be used for than 520 affiliates, including the mania has had an internal effect within change. For example, we encourage

Nieman Reports / Winter 2000 37 The Internet, Technology and Journalism participation in campaigns to get jour- and media issues network could not discovered is that those who inhabit nalists out of jail and protest media become a commercially viable propo- the world of philanthropy haven’t yet decisions or omissions. Through a sition. We recognized that we needed totally wrapped their collective heads— simple click, we can mobilize e-mail to find ways to attract funding from or their funding agendas—around the campaigns and link users with other nonprofit, socially responsible support- notion of assisting new media online groups who share similar interests. On ers. So we decided to go the dot-org initiatives. Many have yet to warm to our site, we can create space for col- route, affiliating with OneWorld.net, a backing old media such as documenta- laborations on strategies and joint pro- large and successful global nonprofit ries or issue-oriented series, much less grams. More than just a clearing-house online network based in the United the fast-moving world of the Internet. of analyses about the problems of me- Kingdom with hundreds of civil soci- To add to our problems, few progres- dia, we report on solutions and offer ety/NGO partners. We customized their sive foundations seem to have as a resources to help achieve them. technology to become the backbone priority the issues confronting journal- To report on these developments, for our site. Like many Internet aficio- ism or to grasp the Internet’s potential debate these trends and propose re- nados, we hoped that our evolving for helping to address them. A few form strategies, mediachannel.org con- space could become a home for much invest money into making media prod- nects a wide variety of individuals and more diverse content and in-depth re- ucts, such as The Markle Foundation’s organizations. Many come at these is- porting than is found in the increas- support for Oxygen Media. But far fewer sues with differing perspectives, but ingly entertainment-oriented mass appear ready to help change the ways until now, there was no one place media, as well as in staid media rein which media operate. where journalists and consumers of views. We were also among a number Lack of knowledge and initiative on the news could find out about one of online media outlets determined to the liberal side of the funding spec- another, about the work they do, and establish a public-service beachhead trum stands in stark contrast to the the content they produce. Until there on the Internet. This would not be easy practices of conservative philanthro- was a Media Channel, no one place amid the inundation of IPO-financed pies, which for many years have made existed to find this kind of media a funding priority, reliable information from all pumping large subsidies into of these worldwide sources. right-wing publications, train- Just as public radio and Early on, it was apparent that ing journalists, and often buy- public television positioned trying to change the media with ing up media outlets. Even themselves as desirable non- a Web site and media issues Ralph Nader, who has advo- commercial alternatives to cated for media reform for the commercial broadcast network could not become a years, leaves his thoughts spectrum, we were confident commercially viable proposition. about changes occurring in that the importance of public media to the very end of his online media would eventu- just published “Ralph Nader ally be recognized and sup- Reader.” ported. Part of this confidence was dot-com sites determined to turn this This means that before we can get derived from our belief that democracy exciting new medium into a shopping philanthropists to write checks, there is at risk when the public is not well mall and hyper-commercialized arena is a long learning curve to convince informed about issues of civic import. for entertainment, pornography and them that change is necessary and pos- Therefore, it follows that the battle to the promotion of old media enterprises. sible. What I have found is that funds to revitalize journalism must, by neces- We are still believers. But after a year study these issues are often more avail- sity, become a critical component of and a half in the trenches, we now able than resources to do something the larger effort to resuscitate our ane- know how difficult it is to build and about the problem. Perhaps because of mic political culture. Despite all the sustain even well-known independent Globalvision’s track record in produc- talk about “information superhigh- media voices, particularly during this ing nonprofit programming for l3 years, ways,” we wanted our smaller roadway era of mergers and consolidation. several foundations allocated enough to emerge as a popular independent Sometimes we feel like ants in an age of money to get mediachannel.org up and destination for those looking for well elephants, but we also remember how running. They include The Rockefeller reasoned, robust discussion and com- the tortoise beat the hare. Foundation, Open Society Institute, mentary about what is and isn’t being The challenge always returns to Arca Foundation, Reebok Human covered and, then, what can be done money: Who is going to pay for inde- Rights Foundation, Puffin Foundation, about it. pendent voices to be heard? and recently we have been thrilled to Our first stop in the search for fund- add the Ford Foundation to our fund- Searching for Funding ing took us to foundations that we had ing roster. To secure each of those reason to believe would share our pub- commitments required months of pro- Early on, it was apparent that trying lic interest mission and be willing to posal writing (and rewriting), follow- to change the media with a Web site help us to succeed. But what we soon up calls, meetings and more meetings.

38 Nieman Reports / Winter 2000 Financing News in the Internet Era

You never know how much work goes editorial space, but it is no secret that grantees become more businesslike and into raising money until it’s your turn editorial priorities often reflect calcu- find other ways of supporting them- to try. Two axioms sadly hold true: “It lations about what funding might be selves. One reason: Those willing to takes money to raise money,” and available. A media site such as ours give you start-up money do not want “Those that have money tend to get aspires to be above reproach when it you knocking on their doors again and money.” come to accountability and ethics, but again. So they insist on seeing real We quickly discovered that we live in a real world where we can’t business plans and sustainability strat- fundraising itself is a demanding and operate without making tough deci- egies as a hedge against over-depen- frustrating business. Folks I thought sions dictated by budgetary consider- dence on their grants. would and should support what we’re ations. When I worked for ABC News, When I’m in a mood to grumble that doing didn’t for reasons that range I once saw a sign that said, “Definition the world owes me a living, this ap- from trivial to arbitrary. Let me cite an of network news: When you care the proach seems pernicious. When I rec- example. A foundation known for sup- least and spend the most.” In our shop, ognize that, in fact, it doesn’t (which is porting innovative media projects re- it’s often, “When you care the most but most of the time), I appreciate that jected us, despite staffers there telling can only spend the least.” grantees are encouraged to be more us over the course of a year how much The good news is that we were suc- focused and disciplined. On the posi- they liked what we are doing. They cessful in our first round of foundation tive side, this has had the effect of listened and listened. But when we grant-seeking. The site is up and run- forcing us do to more planning about tried to present a well-thought- through ning. Our hope now is that our achieve- hard-nosed business models and to revenue and content model that they ment will inspire more foundations to develop multiple revenue streams. On asked us to submit, we spent months focus some of their resources in this the negative side, it leads to producing just trying to secure a meeting. They area of media development. It is ironic business plans that are then evaluated were too busy reassessing their priori- that the independent and critical me- by risk-averse program officers who ties. We read about their plans for dia in Belgrade, Yugoslavia receive often make lousy venture capitalists backing public interest media in The more subsidies than their counterparts because of inexperience and naiveté New York Times only to find out that is in Boston, Massachusetts. Much of their about what it takes to run a business. not what they really had in mind. (So money comes from organizations out- They often impose a higher bar of due much for media accuracy!) We watched side that country and from private do- diligence than even the private sector. as this foundation invested millions in nors, but there always seems to be Their questions can sometimes sound one of Oprah Winfrey’s commercial much more of it available for those like the Spanish Inquisition as they ventures. (Does one of America’s battling oppressive governments probe for details on the capitalization wealthiest entertainers really need abroad than corporate monopolies of the venture before you have even foundation support?) In the end, they here at home. started reaching out for financial assis- turned us down without even letting Because no foundation ever pro- tance. As you listen to their concerns us make the pitch we had spent months vides all of what is needed, a lot of time shift from social values to financial fine-tuning. This experience was like is invariably devoted to reaching out to bottom lines, our noble mission can the scene from the film “The Shawshank many different sources just to get start sounding pretty fuzzy-wuzzy. Soon Redemption” in which prison inmates enough money in the bank to prepare our mission seems to get lost in con- are rejected for parole before they even a budget, hire a staff, and pay the bills. cepts such as “monetization.” have their hearings. Since support is usually doled out one Sure, to stay in business a venture year at a time, staff time and resource has to function like a business; we The ‘Wall’ Comes Tumbling issues often get twisted around by the must earn more than we spend. On the Down necessity of keeping the money pump other hand, some foundations have to primed. be reminded that there are two bottom In big media, there is (or used to be) I’m not alone in this kind of struggle. lines: One is about money; the other is a wall between editorial and business An old buddy of mine, now in Con- about public service. units. In a small media business like gress, tells me that every day he is ours, it is often hard to keep these two forced to devote hours to dialing for Fusing Our Goals sides of our work as separate as we’d dollars, a prerequisite in politics that like. I might be a journalist who prefers distorts how our democracy functions. To blend these two goals, we have writing to begging for funds, but run- I can testify that working in indepen- shaped mediachannel.org as a public- ning a venture like ours offers me little dent media isn’t all that different. And private partnership, or in the words of choice but to get down (and dirty) in foundations realize this, too, which is Jonathan Peizer, the thoughtful tech- the money troughs. This means that why some of them have started to take nology chief of the Open Society Insti- time that could be spent on enhancing on the trappings of venture capital tute, a dot-corg, a fusion of dot-org and our editorial work has to go into criss- funds. Maybe it’s the market logic of dot-com symbolizing the integration crossing the world looking for money. our times seeping into every crevice of of our mission-oriented nonprofit work We may not be bartering any of our public life, but most now insist their and meticulous business strategy. (For

Nieman Reports / Winter 2000 39 The Internet, Technology and Journalism more on Peizer’s thinking, read his ally help Globalvision achieve its com- important work. But can we continue essays on mediachannel.org.) Our busi- mercial aspirations through a global to grow? We hope so, especially if and ness model envisions providing ser- news service designed to report unre- when other media mavens who share vices for those who want to improve ported and underreported stories— our values decide to leave their un- the media. On the site we provide “news not in the news”—by mid-2001. happy media sinecures, loosen their services for media reformers and policy Our investors put their money where golden handcuffs, and throw in with a advocates worldwide and also services their convictions are. They, like us, socially responsible media venture like for journalists. Though not all of our want to do well and, in the process, do ours with colleagues who want to make proposed services are up yet, plans call good. These investors also introduced a living and a difference. for a section of classified ads, online more businesslike approaches to us, As much as we may want to marry courses offered through affiliate which we hope will lead to higher money and meaning in our media work, we’ve learned not to minimize the importance of running a business capable I might be a journalist who prefers writing to of making money. But in this age of begging for funds, but running a venture like “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?” and ours offers me little choice but to get down in this new virtual market called cyberspace, this isn’t always easy. As a (and dirty) in the money troughs. friend of mine recently joked, “How does an independent journalist end up with a million dollars?” Her answer: “Start with two million.” schools, discounts on professional levels of financing (in the short term), We are determined not to let that purchases, and access to tiers of fee- and a possible merger with one of our happen. Economic strength helps any based, specialized information, to cite affiliates, a leading high quality global company become more successful in just a few. Other sources of potential media outlet, down the line. Who could whatever it does, but as the demise of revenue are still in development, and have thought that a loud, self-styled so many once cash-rich Internet start- we know that if the site is to survive, it critic of media mergers like myself might ups demonstrates, money alone is never will, in time, need to be self-sufficient. one day be involved in attempting a enough. Capital is necessary, perhaps, The problem is that no business can media merger? But the reality is that but rarely sufficient. Good ideas mat- achieve sustainability overnight, as so independent media have to build syn- ter as do values and commitment. In many dot-com businesses have discov- ergies just like big guys in order to our years as journalists turned media ered, as so many have fallen like domi- survive. entrepreneurs, we have had good times noes. We believe it will take us three As mediachannel.org demonstrates and bad, been upwardly global and years to get to the point of sustainability, its global reach and editorial range, downwardly mobile. But we are work- and we are proceeding step by step to corporate underwriters are being ap- ing to change that equation as we also get there in a phased-in development proached in a way that echoes the try to be an innovative force for change cycle. Our bottom line is that we trust public broadcasting model. One lead- in journalism. ■ that there is a viable market for what we ing transnational corporation is already are “selling.” on board and others are in discussion Danny Schechter, a 1978 Nieman Mediachannel.org is produced by with us. Many companies want to reach Fellow, is the executive editor of Globalvision New Media, a company the opinion leaders in the audience we mediachannel.org and the author of that was established with the idea of are developing, and this makes our site “The More You Watch, The Less You critiquing news as well as generating appealing from that perspective. Know,” (Seven Stories Press); an e- coverage of it. We have plans for a new book, “News Dissector: Passions, syndication service, and we’ve found Creating a New Business Pieces and Polemics l960-2000” some investors in Europe where, not Model (electronpress.com), and “Falun surprisingly, there is more openness to Gong’s Challenge to China” (Akashic projects critical of the U.S.-dominated What we now have is an evolving Press). media culture. Those investors brought new business model. Will this strategy in—first as a consultant, then as the succeed? Nothing is forever, but [email protected] chairman of our board—James Globalvision has been in business for Rosenfield, the former president of an 13 years since being cofounded by me American television network. Soon and Rory O’Connor, who also had Walter Cronkite was invited to join us worked for years as a print, radio and as an advisor along with other respected network television journalist. So far, journalists. These investors recognized we have done more than simply sur- that by aggregating content and affili- vive, even if we have yet to fully thrive. ates mediachannel.org could eventu- We are proud of a prolific body of

40 Nieman Reports / Winter 2000 Financing News in the Internet Era Economics 101 of Internet News Supply expands, but has demand been adequately nurtured?

By Jay Small

ssss…bzzfft…whine…screech…“Eighty- such as CNN, either. News-oriented est comes in over the air. This isn’t like nine, WLS, Chicago.” World Wide Web sites number in the the Web, where you must go out and S Ahh, I’m dialed in. thousands, operated by legacy print pull down the information you want. It In the mid-1970’s, even in a hazy and broadcast media companies, and comes to you, when you want it, in a coal town in deep southern Illinois, more than a few Web-only upstarts. format you choose. (Copy desk chiefs: any youngster with a decent AM radio Anyone using a computer with Web How do you edit for an intelligent could pick up distant stations such as capability can go to the site of that little agent?) WLS. It was fun to listen to John newspaper in southern Illinois as Further still, those devices may be “Records” Landecker and others spin- readily as the site of the mammoth components of a larger home or office ning Top 40 music from the city. Be- Tribune. “sphere” of interconnected electron- tween the likes of Wings and The Steve Even as we contemplate the sheer ics, synchronizing data with each other Miller Band, WLS sometimes played a volume of Web news content, engi- and with servers on the Internet at certain memorable commercial. neers are developing methods to clear large. (Designers: Can you break that In it, to the tune of Olivia Newton- the next hurdles, permitting faster de- richly illustrated features cover into John’s saccharine hit, “Let Me Be livery to people at home, in the office data components for a multi-platform There,” a chorus extolled the virtues of or on the go: faster wireless networks, user interface?) “the new 24-hour-a-day Chicago Tri- bune.” Did they say 24-hour-a-day? The idea that there could be enough jour- With today’s Web, we have greatly expanded nalists—enough news—in one place the supply of news and related information. to write, edit, print and sell newspaper But—and this is the question journalists should editions throughout the day was tough to grasp. ponder most intensely—have we adequately Mind you, at that time the Chicago nurtured the demand? Daily News was dying, and the remaining papers in the city postured to fill the void. But I grew up watching my dad and his dad put out a Monday- advanced home networks, and low- This explosion of access and distri- through-Saturday newspaper, The cost, portable devices that draw on bution points has its risks. Daily Register, in Harrisburg, Illinois. both for communications, entertain- In elementary economic terms, It was only one edition per afternoon ment and information. when the supply of any good or service and it almost never exceeded 20 pages Consider the nature of news reports greatly exceeds the demand, the mar- or 6,000 circulation. and the effects on newsrooms and busi- ket value of that good or service falls. So this small-town boy was dazzled ness managers once cellular phones, With today’s Web, we have greatly ex- by the big-town ways: all-night radio touch-screen “tablets” and the like can panded the supply of news and related you could pick up from 300 miles away send and receive data over the air- information. But—and this is the ques- and all-day newspapers fresh off the waves—from just about anywhere— tion journalists should ponder most press. much faster than the analog modem intensely—have we adequately nur- Today, no one is amazed by AM you probably have on your home com- tured the demand? radio, especially not its endless banter. puter. (Assigning editors: Do you have The evidence, again in economic And no one is amazed that news and enough reporters to promise your news terms, suggests we have not: information are available from myriad content is always up-to-date?) sources day and night, though the “24- Further, imagine using “intelligent •Consumers, with a healthy assist hour-a-day Chicago Tribune” and other agent” technology to behave like per- from content providers, have pushed all-day papers of that era have pulled sonal valets: beeping, flashing, vibrat- the hard-money value of news con- back somewhat from their ambitious ing or otherwise getting a user’s atten- tent on the Web to near zero. A few print cycles. But 24-hour news isn’t tion when a fresh copy of a favorite newspaper-run sites tried paid sub- just the domain of broadcast networks magazine or a news item of likely inter- scriptions in 1995 and 1996, but

Nieman Reports / Winter 2000 41 The Internet, Technology and Journalism

almost all converted to free sites, enough just to get on the Web, then content that can be picked up through ostensibly to boost their dismal traf- worked too hard just to find the stuff a variety of devices, places and uses. fic enough to justify higher prices they want to read. They view ad mes- Think about a device that looks and for advertising. The Wall Street Jour- sages as barely tolerable and hardly feels like a book—maybe it’s “War and nal still makes users subscribe to its compelling. So ad space on Web pages Peace”—but with a swipe of a smart Web site, but few other newspapers is an almost unlimited, but much less card, the text on its pages becomes charge for access to the articles they desirable resource. Advertisers know articles from the Sunday New York post. (News archives don’t count— this, so most Web ad inventory is un- Times. Think about pulling your it’s one of those strange Web phe- sold and the rest goes for fire-sale prices. minivan into a gas station and having nomena that people seem willing to Good journalism—the sum of skilled the latest movies or TV programs in- pay a small sum for old news but newsgathering, writing, editing, pre- stantly downloaded into a player the nothing for current news.) sentation and general management— kids can use in the back seat. Think •The Web economy, meanwhile, has is an expensive series of steps taken to about being able to read, hear or see also driven the hard-money value of produce quality content. The Web digital media (books, music, video) Web advertising to near zero. It’s economy just can’t afford it. Thus, with- from your home collection while 1,000 too much supply (a half-trillion Web out subsidies of capital and content miles from home. pages, most with available ad space) from the core organization, you’d be Sure, newsrooms will need to adapt. and too little demand (the Web is hard-pressed to find any so-called Tweak all you want. Experiment with not effective at delivering commer- “online newspaper” that could survive nonlinear storytelling, or three-shift-a- cial messages serendipitously; just financially on its own. Indeed, media day news teams. But remember the ask yourself when you last clicked groups have started trimming back their fundamentals. Journalism largely as we on a banner ad). largely Web-focused interactive divi- know it today—without core changes sions. The Tribune Company reduced to newsgathering techniques, writing Compare the Web model to the tra- staff count in its Tribune Interactive style, news judgment or story priori- ditional ways newspapers make the division as part of absorbing Times ties—has a place in that world. So does cash registers ring. It’s expensive to Mirror. Other entities are quietly turn- advertising. It’s reasonable to assume print and deliver each page of quality ing their attention from experiments that the two can continue to live closely content in high fidelity to household with Web-specific news content toward together to mutual benefit in the next doorsteps. People know this, but they online activities with a clearer return generation of digital devices. want one or more parts of the end on investment—such as Web/print ad- This time around, I’d humbly sug- product enough to pay a portion of vertising bundles. gest that friends in my old world of that cost. Ad space on such delivered And all this would be depressing if journalism take a cue from friends in pages is a limited, desirable resource. the World Wide Web were the end my new world of consumer electron- Advertisers know this, so they more game for getting journalists’ work into ics: Let the methods of delivering the than cover the rest of the cost of mak- consumers’ hands. It isn’t. news flow from the business model, ing and delivering the end product. In the mid-1990’s, we all glommed not the other way around. ■ The cost to generate quality content onto the Web because it was the easiest stays pretty much the same even if the way yet to combine the depth and Jay Small grew up in a newspaper distribution method changes. Besides breadth of print journalism with the family and worked as a journalist that cost, however, it is much less ex- instantaneous availability of broadcast. for 15 years before joining Thomson pensive to make one page of content We loved to experiment with hyper- multimedia, maker of RCA consumer available on a Web server than to de- linked nuggets of text, audio and video electronics, in April 2000 as man- liver it in print. And once a server is set clips, and rapid redesigns of our direc- ager of digital media services. He led up to house the first page, it costs tory pages. Writers enjoyed unlimited the development of Internet services almost nothing extra to post the next space and the absence of finite dead- at The Indianapolis Star, amid stints thousand, or million, pages. lines. Finally, a TV station had a me- as an industry consultant and The Web represents mass aggrega- dium where it could act like a newspa- technology columnist. tion and availability of content, like a per, and a newspaper had a medium library, not mass distribution, like a where it could act like a TV station. [email protected] newspaper. Web “demand” consists of What fun! We just forgot to ask if that’s people hunting for individual bits of what our bread-and-butter constitu- information from a diverse collective ents—consumers and advertisers— using inadequate, even maddening needed us to do. tools. That’s not the same as Jane down Luckily, the Web is just a first taste of the street ordering specific compila- what the larger Internet might yield as tions of content for periodic delivery to a future platform for journalism. Think her home. ahead to that world of widely available Web readers feel they’ve paid network access to deep, rich media

42 Nieman Reports / Winter 2000 Financing News in the Internet Era The Web Pulled Viewers Away From the Olympic Games From Sydney, it was a tale of two technologies, yesterday’s and tomorrow’s.

By Gerald B. Jordan

he way in which Americans lege students could get an instant look With the 15-hour time difference, “watched” the 2000 Olympic at athletes from their schools. the Sydney Games were the perfect T Games from Sydney raised a sig- Information no longer will wait. games for the Internet, Kevin nificant question: How much longer News can’t be contained. There simply Monaghan, NBC vice president for will exclusive broadcast rights hold are too many sources. And with the business development, told the Atlanta sway over the way that viewers take in Internet, what once was a fountain- Constitution in a July interview. So these events? What these Olympics re- head is now Niagara Falls. perfect for the Internet that the com- vealed is the emerging wired world, as NBC television was the U.S. focal pelling Nielsen Web numbers con- people went to the Internet for results point of the Sydney Games, but a world- trasted with the tepid Nielsen TV num- rather than await a prime-time revela- wide audience went to the Internet for bers read like a tale of two technologies, tion from NBC. And ratings—for a vari- Olympics news. Cruel though the cir- yesterday’s and tomorrow’s. NBC paid ety of reasons—suffered. cumstances might have seemed, the $705 million for the broadcasting rights This truly is the era of the storied Jim NBC Web site (nbcolympics.com) drew to the Sydney Games and attracted, on McKay introduction to the ABC sports more than 66 million page views from average, slightly more than 14 million anthology series in which he beckoned home audiences surfing the Net. That’s households, the lowest rated Olym- viewers to come along as cameras an average of more than four million pics since Mexico City in 1968. The spanned the globe for athletic compe- page views daily tition. Only now, viewers at home are during the Olym- doing so increasingly at their conve- pics, according to Information no longer will wait. nience, giving rise to the prospect that The Nielsen// News can’t be contained. as video and audio get easier to trans- NetRatings Web mit and hand-held computers make Olympics Index. that information easier to receive, any- (The survey of time, anywhere, consumers will be their 165,000 United States and foreign 13.8 rating the Olympics broadcast own programmers, and will not wait Internet users was conducted Septem- drew over 17 nights was well below the for scheduled programs. For example, ber 16 through October 1 through a 17.5 to 18.5 ratings forecast by execu- a TV crew without broadcasting rights partnership formed by NetRatings, tives at NBC Sports. (NBC promised to the Sydney Games could not have Nielsen Media Research, and sponsors a 16.1 rating, according to sent images and audio from the com- ACNielsen.) The Associated Press.) Cable channels petition up to a satellite for broadcast More than 56 million page views MSNBC and CNBC both averaged a .7 at a local station. But if someone with were recorded for olympics.com, the (seven-tenths) on their Olympics cov- a digital camera sits in the stands and official Olympic Web site, and erage. (Each rating point represents transmits streaming video back home, sports.yahoo.com/olympics garnered about one million U.S. homes with can that be prohibited? More and more, more than 46 million page views. On television. For the cable channels, a situations like these are going to need Yahoo!, interest built as the site docu- point equals 760,000 households for to be addressed. mented a 650 percent increase in traf- CNBC and 650,000 for MSNBC.) The rapid advancement of technol- fic during a four day period at the start Don’t cry for NBC. Even with the ogy is going to make transmission easy of the Olympics. Because of the expo- rights fees, another $100 million in and so widely available that all the nential growth of the Internet, these production costs, and an agreement to video cameras now capturing images figures will prove significant to those extend additional commercial time to might soon be quite capable of send- who are planning coverage of the 2004 sponsors to make good on audience ing those images to Web sites, e-mail Games in Athens. In 1996, NBC had exposure, NBC still projects profit in accounts, home TV’s, and enough two full-time staff on its Web site for the tens of millions of dollars, execu- sources that exclusivity won’t hold up. the Atlanta Olympics. For the 2000 tives told AP. But the trend suggests So local track clubs might get immedi- Web site, NBC had 40 full-time staff that as technology becomes more avail- ate coverage of events. Aficionados of and 100 part-time staff in Sydney and able for individual use, the networks’ events not considered widely popular 150 staff in San Francisco to drive the capacity to deliver big audiences will might arrange their own loosely oper- network site as well as MSNBC.com, continue to be diminished. That could ated network of presentation. And col- the cable affiliate. change expectations for what is paid

Nieman Reports / Winter 2000 43 The Internet, Technology and Journalism for exclusive rights and even draw into question whether broadcasting rights can continue to be exclusive. In this age of new media and technology, there is clearly a lack of monopoly. NBC presented “the wait-and-see Games,” wrote Mark Hyman in Business Week. It’s reasonable to presume, then, that the Athens Games will be Internet- observant (as will the Salt Lake City games during the winter of 2002.) In 1999, the number of online households exceeded 40.5 million, and by 2004, 67 million U.S. households will be online, according to Veronis and Suhler’s Communica- tions Industry Forecast. The International Olympic Committee A Web story from The (Raleigh) News & Observer, September 29, 2000, reporting Marion Jones’s win in (IOC) will be discussing the 200 meters. The story appeared on the Web before the race was seen on U.S. television. Internet coverage plans for the 2004 Games at Athens at a contends that will mean a big differ- ers showing a streaming video of events. December meeting. In Sydney, the IOC ence in media use and preference. Al- The 2000 Olympics offered a glimpse prohibited athletes from sending their ready a study by Cyber Dialogue re- into the information future. That own stories or journal entries out to ports that one-third of Internet users glimpse must be terrifying for some, Internet sites. This time, one issue is say they watch less television as a result including those who rely on enormous whether real-time video can be posted of Internet use. The Internet is by far rights fees to stage events such as the on the Internet. With so many Internet the fastest growing media technology: Olympics. For others the glimpse is users at home and in offices with the 38 years passed before 50 million Ameri- exciting, even exhilarating, as technol- ability to use broadband communica- cans had access to radio; 13 years be- ogy will no doubt emerge in ways not tions, streaming video and RealAudio, fore 50 million Americans bought tele- even imagined by those who now jog keeping an embargo on Olympics re- vision. Yet 50 million Americans had with CD stereo sound, drive while us- sults—not to mention on event cover- access to the Internet in five years, ing cellular telephones, and are always age itself—will present daunting chal- according to the Information Technol- plugged in through their laptop com- lenges to those who have a stake in ogy Association of America. In 1996, puters. Who knows? By 2002, skiers in retaining the exclusivity of coverage. only three percent of U.S. classrooms New Hampshire might be watching a Think of the IOC trying to control a were linked to the Internet. Now more downhill Olympic race on their technology that no one can control. than 90 percent are. handheld Webs while sitting in a gon- What comes to mind is that little Dutch Live coverage has been the staple of dola going back up the mountain for boy’s finger. sports broadcasting for a generation. another run. ■ President Clinton’s promise of a Will a nation of computer-outfitted computer in every classroom has im- households ever again be content to Gerald B. Jordan, a 1982 Nieman plications far beyond lessons learned watch prime-time events that end hours Fellow, is associate professor in The for school. There will certainly come a before they are telecast? The pace of Walter J. Lemke Department of time when kids no longer need to teach new technology development means Journalism at the University of their parents about using a computer. that audiences might be able to catch Arkansas. And when that day comes, Dean Jutilla, live events while they, too, are on the public relations manager at Yahoo!, run, by using their palm-size comput- [email protected]

44 Nieman Reports / Winter 2000 Building New Homes for News Not Just a Newspaper on the Web At projo.com, value is added when newspaper and Web staffs work together.

By Andrea Panciera

bout five years ago, as newspa- resources to implement it. So we they have become more demanding. pers began to launch themselves plowed along, teaching ourselves We all hear the same questions. Where Aonto the World Wide Web, a loud HTML, all the while regarding our pro- is all that editorial innovation you’re disclaimer arose from the online staffs: grammers as demigods and trying to supposed to be generating in this new, We’re not just the newspaper on the convince many on the print side of our expansive medium? How come you Web, we asserted indignantly. We’re organizations that we weren’t out to don’t have all the stuff The New York different, we insisted. We’re interac- devour them, but to lead them to the Times or Washington Post or some tive. We do more. We do it faster. future of publishing instead. other fill-in-the-blank Web site does? Friendlier. And, on top of all that, we’re We had to start bringing in revenue, And, jeepers, you can’t even give us free. too. Those Web programmers—and some of what your own paper can— All of that was probably true. Espe- producers and designers and the hard- like the brides, the comics, the sports cially the free part. ware and software they work with each agate, the daily Jumble or a copy of a Yet, despite our look and feel, most day—are certainly not free. We created story from 100 years ago. of us were indeed the newspaper on niche content areas such as health and Sigh. Just when I was feeling good the Web. Maybe we packaged it differ- travel to attract niche advertising. We because the server decided not to break ently, adding archival depth or searches. redesigned our original designs. We down. But after six years as an online Maybe we got the news online faster struggled to maintain content areas editor, I have to admit that the ques- than it hit the street. And maybe we such as restaurant and lodging listings tioners have a legitimate point. It’s added programming that let our read- that became dated almost immediately time for all of us to be doing more with ers more easily interact with us and after they launched. We upgraded com- our new medium, to shape the direc- with each other. But if you looked puters and servers, and we tossed out tion of both newspaper Web sites and hard, it was painfully clear: From news old code and did it all over again with newspapers. It’s a very big job. Despite stories to classified ads, the bulk of our new code. We added breaking news extraordinary efforts, it’s more than content continued to be harvested from without having a staff of online report- most tiny online staffs can handle as the pages of the paper itself. ers to write it. And, before the cables quickly as the market requires or as Across the country and around the were even laid down for broadband perfectly as the print side might de- world, journalists experimented with delivery, we started thinking about how mand. The requirements of speed un- approaches. Should we, like our paper to do wireless. der which our new media enterprise parents, lead our home pages with news? And, if so, what kind? Should we become portals of useful information It’s time for all of us to be doing more with our to our communities? Should we adapt new medium, to shape the direction of both ourselves to beat our broadcast com- newspaper Web sites and newspapers. petitors by valuing speed, perhaps a bit too much? Or should we let our users determine what we published, in part because it was so easy for them to tell All of this was usually done with a exists means that we don’t always have us, either by their e-mails or by us bare minimum of staff. It wasn’t un- the luxury of time to perfect our prod- tracking their traffic patterns on our usual for our half-dozen or fewer uct before we put it out for public sites? people, often working in pods isolated consumption. Many of us wondered: Where was from the rest of the company and des- What’s the answer? Though hard to and what should be our own coherent perate for bigger operating budgets, to accomplish and, at first blush, seem- editorial voice? be fueled by a drive to do something ingly contradictory, the answer lies in At this early stage, finding such a new and the desire to make it a success. finding ways for these entities to work voice was wishful thinking. Why? We Still, it has not been enough. As together. What makes this hard is that simply didn’t know enough about our more and more people—from our uncomfortable clashes between tradi- new medium to use it to its best advan- online readers to fellow print employ- tional and emerging cultures will inevi- tage. Even if we thought we had the ees to the industry at large—tune into tably occur across a range of issues and knowledge, most of us didn’t have the the efforts of newspaper Web sites, attitudes involving editorial control,

Nieman Reports / Winter 2000 45 The Internet, Technology and Journalism the speed of change, and competition In our market, where broadcast com- like “the newspaper on the Web.” We’re for tight financial resources. But the petitors feed off Journal stories and no ready to stop doing that. And I think result can also be an enlivening of an wire service could fill the bill, we made our timing is good. old culture through the infusion of a commitment to breaking local news Our parent company, A.H. Belo, is fresh ideas and a sharing of resources on the Web. This resulted in a dedi- one of the publishing organizations to benefit the long-term good of the cated online reporter being transferred now introducing bar-code technology entire news organization—and its au- from the print staff, one who would be to its newspapers and TV stations that dience. aided by reports from print reporters will point to pages of related content How does one go about doing it? on the scene or in the know. on the Web. Using a scanning device, While I don’t have sure-fire solu- During the past year, we’ve made readers will be able to capture the URL tions, I do know one thing: It doesn’t more strides, bumping the number of of a specific Web page embedded in happen overnight. A foundation needs online reporters to two in order to the code. Software installed on their to be laid to encourage cross-depart- provide backup and expand hours of computers will then interpret the code mental communication, generation of coverage. A year ago my own desk, and call up the Web page automatically ideas and, eventually, sharing both the along with those reporters, was moved on the computer screen. burden and the rewards of transform- to the middle of the print newsroom, By its very nature, it aims to bring ing the best of those ideas into con- next to assigning editors and city re- the two mediums together by adding a structive action. porters. value to the original while bringing Here’s a look at how we’ve been Sometimes it feels like we’re strad- attention to the new one. The move building that foundation at projo.com dling an old wooden fence, uncom- also coincides with projo.com’s most and The Providence Journal: fortably balancing between the ever- recent efforts to increase news updates, We began by removing physical bar- developing methods and new services experiment with telling stories in mul- riers between online and print staffs. of the online staff and the set patterns timedia form, and expand its advertis- No longer are we in separate rooms, or and daily duties of the print staff. But ing sales. As a result, it’s been the even separate buildings. About two the online reporting staff is not alone biggest impetus to date for the print years ago, online production staff took anymore. This summer, we narrowed and online staffs to coordinate their up residence in one end of the main the focus of two online production efforts as they push to make sure that a newsroom. Online advertising staff staffers to features and sports, chang- reader who makes the effort to scan gained cubicles in the newspaper’s ing seating and hours so they can com- those codes gets a good deal in return advertising department. It was this in- municate more directly with their print on the Web. your-face tactic that forced print staff counterparts. That helps us keep on As a start, we’ve promised each other to recognize our existence while giving top of what that department has up its that we will seek out projects that lend them the chance to see how we oper- sleeve, while making it easier to brain- themselves to Web enhancements and ated and to use us as teachers of com- storm on how the Web can play off that work together to make them happen. puter basics, from how to browse the print material. That might mean a print reporter needs Web to online sales techniques to an- We’re looking at instituting similar to learn how to gather digital audio or swering e-mail. links with other editorial departments. a Web designer must figure out ways to And we’re working on a redesign of the emphasize his artwork and animations Examples of recent projo.com entire newsroom that will make the as the entry point to a series. Or it projects done in tandem with online staff an integral part of daily might be as simple as crossing the Providence Journal staff: operations, while anticipating the newsroom to have a little creative growth of news coverage and delivery chat—something we couldn’t do two Rescuing the Right Whale in a variety of forms, around the clock. years ago. http://projo.com/specials/rightwhales/ We’re also increasing the number of Despite advances, we haven’t yet special projects and series that we’ve figured out how to make it a smooth An Upstream Fight brought to the Web from the paper, crossing. At times, it’s been downright http://projo.com/business/tourism/ adding online-only features as we’ve painful as we coordinate projects learned them, such as production of geared toward print deadlines, staffing A Nearly Perfect Summer existing audio and video or animation and audiences, with both groups do- http://projo.com/specials/newportsummer/ of graphics and photos. ing things we’ve never done before In the past, we’ve had to wait for while promising in that oh-so-inflex- Os Deportados: such projects to be proposed by news- ible print that the Web version will be America’s Unwanted paper staff and be added as an after- there, live and on time. http://projo.com/specials/deportados/ thought to the planning, reporting and That’s when we need to remember editing process. It’s a system where the to look at the results. Recently, we Near-Miss at Green Airport paper has led the parade. It’s reactive, produced online versions of a series http://projo.com/news/nearmiss/ not proactive, and it can result in documenting efforts to save the right projects that essentially look and feel whale, explored the potential for tour-

46 Nieman Reports / Winter 2000 Building New Homes for News ism along an old mill river, and shared accommodate the growing number of Andrea Panciera has been the online the summer with wealthy Newport so- ways our audience gets its informa- editor for The Providence Journal ciety. [See box on page 46.] All have tion. Perhaps some day that will be a Company since mid-1994, starting aimed at bringing stories to life by primary function of the newspaper, with the development of its first providing the voices of real people or letting it serve as a pointer to other online service via Prodigy and showing the Web viewer the scene as if forms of information and communica- remaining through several incarna- he were there himself. Our stories have tion, while remaking its pages to focus tions on the Web. She began her merged in-depth print narratives with on what it can do best, such as summa- newspaper career as a reporter and action, all the while maintaining the rizing the news and providing post- editor for her hometown paper, in editorial standards and sensibility that event analysis. Westerly, Rhode Island, leaving to print journalists say set them apart The approach we are now taking is, attend the Columbia Graduate from most of their broadcast counter- to me, the editorial voice that we’ve School of Journalism. She worked at parts. been searching for on the Web. This is New York Newsday and as an ad- We’ve given those online versions how we can be more than “just the junct professor at Columbia before special attention in the pages of the newspaper on the Web.” This may also joining the Journal, where she held a paper by labeling them as “Digital Ex- be how so-called print journalism sur- variety of assigning and desk posi- tras.” It’s a move that not only helps vives. For when it comes to telling a tions before assuming her current promote the Web site but, just as im- good story that serves our community, post. portantly, adds a “digital” element to it doesn’t matter whether it’s on a the paper, making it seem more cur- press web or a worldwide one. All that [email protected] rent and more willing to recognize and matters is that we are one. ■ Broadband Technology Brings News Video to the Web Consumers—not journalists—decide what stories will be watched.

By Jonathan Klein

ome of my best journalist friends with associated text and Web links to when I was voted out as class president think I’ve become a threat to de- more information. and peacefully handed over the reins Smocracy. This is not some para- As I understand the argument, the of power. But The FeedRoom did not noid rant—The New York Times found threat to the body politic arises from invent viewer choice: We’re simply the accusation fit to print. Others have the fact that in The FeedRoom, ordi- embracing it as the most significant expressed their concern privately. nary citizens—not professional jour- trend in communications over the past It’s all because, after 16 years as a nalists—decide what news they will 20 years. We did not invent the high- producer and executive at CBS News, I watch and, more ominously, what they speed broadband Internet, either— have just launched a broadband news will not watch. My sister could spend we’re simply using its fat pipes to bring network, The FeedRoom, backed by a half an hour immersed in the latest television news to the computer. $30 million investment from NBC, Tri- crisis from the set of “Friends” while We’ve learned that viewer choice bune Company, and Warburg Pincus. completely missing news about the lat- leads to less dumbing down and more The FeedRoom aggregates the latest est crisis in the Middle East. My mother depth than television producers have news video from NBC and Tribune’s could follow every implant, transplant chosen to offer in a long while. On the local television stations, among oth- and bypass story in our Health chan- day I write this, The FeedRoom’s Cam- ers, from wholesalers like Reuters and nel, but accidentally bypass what the paign 2000 channel offers 21 different The Associated Press, and from a wide new Congress intends to do about election-related news videos from 10 range of print entities that are begin- Medicare. The citizenry, swept up by a different mainstream sources, as well ning to broaden their offerings into blizzard of choice, becomes woefully as related wire copy and links to cam- multimedia, such as USA Today, Good misinformed about the real issues with paign Web sites. Broadband offers my Housekeeping, and Consumer Reports. which they must grapple as active par- television brethren, perplexed to the Viewers with high-speed Internet con- ticipants in a deliberative democracy. point of paralysis by eroding audiences nections can browse a menu of thumb- That’s a disturbing prospect, espe- and increasing marginality, an invita- nail-size still photos; click on the photo cially to someone like me, whose devotion to the interactive party that has and the corresponding video begins to tion to democracy was amply demon- been closed to them so far. All they play on a large central screen along strated as far back as the 11th grade, have to do is R.S.V.P.

Nieman Reports / Winter 2000 47 The Internet, Technology and Journalism

It turns out that broadcast television According to the latest Pew study of jerky nickelodeon shows of was the Alexander Kerensky of the com- American news habits, the number of narrowband—the stage is set for televi- munications revolution, brushed aside Americans who go online for news sion news over the home computer. by the Bolsheviks of cable and the Web. every day has risen nine percent dur- Broadband viewers want news, ac- Two decades ago, Ted Turner made ing the past two years. But more of that cording to a new study by McKinsey & news available any time, raising the bar audience goes to the online wire ser- Company that compared narrowband beyond broadcasters’ reach. Then, even vices of Yahoo! or AOL News than to all and broadband user behavior. News more significantly, Steve Case made of the branded television providers’ and information sites show the largest information available anywhere — e v e n sites (CNN.com, ABCNews.com, gains among broadband users of any on your desk at work—and Americans MSNBC.com, et al.) combined, and type of online site; perhaps because had literally millions of different infor- local newspaper sites outdraw local broadband connections are always on, mation sources at their command television sites two to one. Meanwhile, like a dial tone, they are ideally suited online. Pew reports, during that same two- for the constant updating of informa- Internet One, as we’ll call the year period network and local televi- tion. Jupiter Communications has narrowband, slow-speed, text-intensive sion news viewing dropped six per- found that among the millions of online Web that exploded in popularity dur- cent, with the youngest and best users who stream video, news is even ing the past six years, favored stodgy educated viewers deserting in droves more popular than entertainment or print providers like wire services and for online news. sports video, and news sites encourage newspapers, eager to reuse the oceans But Internet Two has now squealed the longest visits of any category. of ink their core businesses pump out to the curb—a video-rich, multimedia The FeedRoom enables the 35 tele- every day. The indexers of this ink— roadster to Internet One’s Model T— vision stations in our network—which the Yahoo!’s and AOL’s—did even bet- and television news organizations have belong to NBC, Tribune Company, ter. In this environment, television sud- a chance to hop on board and leave the Granite Broadcasting, and Journal denly found itself the stodgy one; competition’s jalopies in the dust by Broadcasting—to offer 24-hour news stations’ Web sites offered pitifully little offering “television, only better” to the coverage over the computer, via co- content compared to information- 38 million broadband viewers whose branded local FeedRooms. In addition, laden print outlets, and online users, ranks are growing by 500,000 per the national www.feedroom.com site more mercilessly results-oriented than month. Given the high quality of video aggregates all of the local stories as General Electric’s CEO Jack Welch, ig- streaming available today—between well as a slate of national content. View- nored them. two and 10 times faster than the herky- ers watch the latest news video presented on an atomic level; that is, the individual one-minute-30 news segments that comprise a newscast made accessible in any order they wish. As one viewer put it, “This is like television that I control.” The advantages of choice are apparent upon arrival. Say you’re looking for the weather report, one of the main drivers of local news viewership. On television you have to wait 13 minutes for the weather segment and then you’ve got to sit through all kinds of computer-generated legerdemain to get to what you really want to know: what to wear tomorrow morning. In your local FeedRoom,

48 Nieman Reports / Winter 2000 Building New Homes for News you can click right away on the five-day In fact, despite all that choice, or terrestrial digital, wired homes—all of forecast thumbnail and play only that perhaps because of it, our viewers tell whom are hungry for content. News part of the weather segment that inter- us that they still want an editor. There’s departments are content factories and ests you, delivered by an on-air person- just too much information flying will be in a position to dictate the terms ality you have come to trust. around out there for any one indi- of sale. Certainly, there is a danger that Narrowband users click an icon and vidual to make sense of it all. They’re commerce and editorial content could get weather data; broadband viewers too busy to cull through the myriad become confused by viewers or com- can click and get Al Roker, all day. satellite feeds beaming this way and mingled by overreaching sales execu- What’s more, viewer control turns that; they couldn’t possibly take the tives, especially because online view- passive viewers into active participants. time to link video to text or to hunt ers tend not to be offended by How many times have you walked into down related Web sites. Our viewers advertising residing nearby editorial the office on Monday morning and want to make the final choice as to content. That calls for extra vigilance asked a coworker, “Did you see that what they watch, but not the initial by the managers of broadband news story on ‘60 Minutes’ last night?” In choice. They want more options—not sites. broadband, you could actually discuss infinite options. Yahoo! made a mint— Fragmentation has been a fact of that story with others who have watched and made itself an indispensable infor- American life throughout our history. it, drill for more information on the mation source—by making sense of The idea that there was ever one mono- subject, send a clip of the story to a the Web; now television news organi- lithic American audience engaged in friend, or even watch unaired portions zations can do the same by making an ongoing national conversation is that were left on the cutting room sense of the world once again for a new comforting but inaccurate; even dur- floor. “60 Minutes” could stretch for generation of viewers. ing the Washington Administration, endless hours, as your immersion in Democrat-Republicans read one pam- the subject matter grows deeper and phleteer and Federalists another, and more rewarding. That kind of multi- The audience is most people simply pulled a plow, dimensional experience would be good calling from the oblivious to it all. There have always for news divisions and good for their been as many audiences as there are viewers (and good for democracy, for other side of the audience members, a reality that FM that matter). digital divide. radio and then cable television and The FeedRoom’s technology engine ultimately the Internet were nimble allows the most precise knowledge of enough to exploit but that broadcast news viewer habits and interests ever television could not—until today. obtained. The video database that pow- And there is money to be made in Give up trying to inform everyone ers The FeedRoom records every click doing so. The same targeting technol- about everything and you begin in- every viewer makes—anonymously, ogy that lets you create your own 24- forming more people about the truly unless they want to volunteer their hour news channel can also inform important things—important as de- name or e-mail address in order to you of products you are most inter- fined by them. Address each viewer’s receive customized traffic reports or ested in buying. That type of targeting individual interests and needs and be news updates. We’ll know that Viewer is worth a lot more to advertisers than freed from the guesswork that leads to 3675Sigma goes right for the sports banner ads that everyone ignores, silly sweeps series and Sansabelt news- channel every time, calling up every which is why the FeedRoom sales team casts—one-size-fits-all. new Yankee story; then she scans the is seeing broadband advertising rate as Heed the inner voice whispering Money channel followed by the latest high as $100 per thousand viewers, that television news is no longer quite movie review. We can make sure that compared to the $15-25 norm for tele- the calling you thought it would be 3675 gets her fix every time by present- vision and five dollars or less for ban- right out of journalism school. The ing those stories upon her arrival, mak- ners. As broadband penetration con- audience is calling from the other side ing it more likely that she will return. tinues to soar—it has more than tripled of the digital divide. Respond, please. And every time she does, her visit will in 2000 alone—news departments will ■ begin with a quick set of headlines generate revenue several times over culled from the day’s top stories, as from the same piece of news footage. Jonathan Klein founded The determined by our editorial staff of 40 Because media companies own more FeedRoom in September 1999, fol- former television, radio, print and of their news footage outright than lowing an award-winning 16-year online journalists. We have not surren- they do other forms of content, news career at CBS News, where he was dered editorial judgment—but we have divisions can become much more sig- executive vice president (1996-1998) stopped creating a “lineup,” because nificant corporate players in the digital and for many years worked as each viewer creates her own, choosing world. executive producer, producer, direc- a unique path through the thicket of The FeedRoom is constantly called tor, creator and documentary film- video generated by the world’s most on by the builders of tomorrow’s deliv- maker on a variety of news shows. dogged journalists. ery platforms—set-top box, wireless,

Nieman Reports / Winter 2000 49 The Internet, Technology and Journalism The Wired Revolution At Reuters, journalists package multimedia news to fit consumers’ needs.

By Katie King

ast spring, Reuters’ top war corre- But Schork’s reports from these war Deutsche Presse-Agentur (DPA), and spondent Kurt Schork was killed zones did reach an incredibly wide others have become household names Lin a rebel ambush in Sierra Leone. audience because of the Internet. The as the work of extraordinary wire jour- Reuters Editor in Chief Geert month Schork died, 34 million people nalists like Schork becomes widely avail- Linnebank, in his eulogy honoring saw Reuters’ news stories online able for public consumption. Schork, said the pragmatic reporter around the world, according to Reuters The Internet has pumped lots of might have assumed that because he Media Research estimates based on positive change into the world of jour- wrote for a “wire,” his byline did not government reports and professional nalism and the wires. I can only speak reach the public at large. online data collection companies. By for the revolution at Reuters, a 150- “Kurt Schork was Reuters’ finest war fall 2000, that number had grown to 50 year-old international news and finan- reporter. He shed a lot of light on a lot million people each month. cial information company, whose Brit- of awful places. He wanted to, and At its most basic, that is the revolu- ish roots anchor its commitment to often did, help bring about change. tion the Web has wrought for the wires. accuracy, freedom from bias, global Actions were hastily reversed, official It is about access, with little or no breadth, and speed. (Our Web address policies changed, public opinion mo- filtering, for a vast number of end us- is www.reuters.com.) bilized under the sustained battering ers, general-public news consumers. In the early 1990’s, as the Web was of Kurt’s incontrovertible reports,” From relative obscurity outside of news- putting forward its public face with the Linnebank said. “Kurt, the pragmatist, paper copy desks and financial trading launch of user-friendly browsers, some knew that if his byline did not gain rooms, wires like Reuters, Dow Jones, forward-thinkers at Reuters noticed the fame with a broad public audience, it The Associated Press (AP), United Press strong synergy between the Internet, really did register with those of influ- International (UPI), France’s Agence described as a global network of net- ence and power.” France-Presse (AFP), Germany’s works, and Reuters, which is a global network of news production. Com- mon characteristics included the ability to make news available in real time, 24/7; the ability to be at once global and local; the ability to present news in a nonlinear fashion, and the ability to showcase multimedia, multicultural and mul- tilingual content. And they noticed that, with the glut of unreliable information out there, reliability was a premium. At Reuters we call this sea change the “News” Millennium. It means that technological change is challenging our old perceptions of how news is delivered and consumed. The Internet is a medium without limitations. Newspapers and magazines publish only daily, weekly or monthly. Television and radio have time limitations and have no choice but to present their news in an unchangeable linear order. But the Internet provides real-time, multi- A screen grab showing the demo home page of the Reuters’ Chinese Online Report, a real-time media news around the clock with multimedia publication edited and filed by a team of Reuters journalists in Taiwan. no technological limits on story 50 Nieman Reports / Winter 2000 Building New Homes for News length and nearly unlimited access to respond to clients and readers. testing NewsML, a news encoding lan- related content of interest to the news Typically, the online clients will re- guage based on the established XML user. The technology allows the user to quest additional topics of multimedia format. create a unique news experience that news presentation, based on their own The U.K.-based International Press is personal, interactive, nonlinear and readers’ feedback. One client might Telecommunications Committee, a multimedia capable. want more about technology or news industry standards body, ap- To complicate matters, online news Internet news. Another might ask for proved NewsML in October. One of its consumers want it both ways. They specialized “top picture” displays or key features is that it uses “metadata”— need experienced newsgatherers and specific favorite sports news publica- information about a story such as its publishers to help them sort through tions, which vary dramatically from author, subject, content, coding, etc.— the information overload on the Web. country to country. The Online Re- to match up elements for a multimedia But in a multi-channel universe, they ports’ journalists also act as a global package and also to categorize text, also want to be their own publishers, team, sharing information about the photos, video and graphics for histori- taking part in deciding what news is packaging process and “best practices” cal databases. Metadata is invisible to most relevant. So the question for news for multimedia development and fil- users but it is essential for enabling organizations like ours is how to create ing. clients to search for our news quickly high quality, appealing multimedia Reuters employs more than 2,300 and easily in a Web environment. news publications for online clients correspondents in more than 160 coun- Segmentation and NewsML will al- and end users. tries. Each day they produce between low us to adapt our Online Reports’ At Reuters, one answer has been our two and two and a half million words— news stories to the new information multimedia Online Reports product the equivalent of three copies of the delivery mechanisms, including mo- suite. It features packages of news, Bible—in 24 languages. Hundreds, bile telephones and other hand-held segmented into channels. Typical chan- sometimes thousands of pictures and wireless devices that are burgeoning, nels would resemble sections of tradi- hours of video accompany that text especially in Europe. We are actively tional publications: top news (the front output. Before the Internet, Reuters developing products that address these page), business, entertainment, sports, delivered this vast stream of content client needs across platforms, includ- science, health, technology, etc. Each down wide pipes to wire editors at ing audio for voice portals, video on category lists stories by priority with client sites. A limited amount of this demand, and live streaming video. XML (Extensible Markup Language) content found its way into newspa- All of this innovation is still based on tags. These tags indicate what is the pers, magazines or TV or radio broad- the basics, which means solid report- number one story and continue casts. ing, writing and editing and quality through number 10. Pictures, news Now, the Internet has forced us to news picture and video coverage. The graphics, and video clips are tagged as reinvent how we package our news revolution lies in thinking about how well to indicate which stories they are content and present it for online pub- the technology makes it possible for associated with. These publications lishers and their end users. Client pub- the important work of fine “wire” jour- feature careful editorial selection and lishers can be anyone who has an online nalists to reach as many end users in as prioritization of content by experienced site. From the smallest new dot-com to many ways as possible. ■ Reuters journalists around the world. the largest portal, these publishers The format can be adapted to any lan- understand how important it is to pro- Katie King, a 1994 Nieman Fellow, is guage and any combination of content. vide quality breaking news on their vice president, general news at From just a handful of Online Reports sites to attract and keep the end user, Reuters Media. She has worked with desks 18 months ago, we now have 22 the news consumer. But few of them Reuters for 15 years as a foreign of them publishing multimedia news can afford news staff to publish 24/7. In correspondent, multimedia editor, in 11 languages across 18 countries. fact, many of our traditional clients are and Internet news specialist. She What has been especially exciting now also taking advantage of our new joined Reuters NewMedia, Reuters’ for journalists at Reuters with the de- real-time multimedia products for their founding Internet news development velopment of these new publications online sites in addition to subscribing division, in 1994 and launched the for the Internet, is that each desk has a to the wire service products. company’s first daily multimedia group of specially trained multimedia One of our critical challenges to news publication later that year. journalists/producers who “own” their continued success in global news pub- Since January 1999 she has been publication. They become “local” publishing is adapting to the continually coordinating Reuters’ global multi- lishers, whose online publications sell changing technologies. Internet pub- media product strategy and develop- worldwide. Our Arabic-language lishers require Internet delivery, so ment. Online Report, for example, is selling Reuters added that option to its deliv- well in the Middle East and in the ery suite in early 2000. The Reuters [email protected] United States. These Online Reports Internet Delivery System offers clients teams are empowered to continually multimedia products with content work to improve their publications and tagged in XML but we are also now

Nieman Reports / Winter 2000 51 The Internet, Technology and Journalism Multimedia Reporting in a Never-Ending News Cycle A Tampa reporter covers a murder trial for TV, newspaper and the Web.

By Jackie Barron

onvergence. Multimedia. Web done my first live shot for the station. life in print. And these usually hidden reporting. The juggling act that came with meet- pieces of color did eventually cross C These are the new buzzwords ing three deadlines during the same over into television and improved my heard in newsrooms everywhere. 24-hour period meant that I had to broadcast stories, making them stand Heard, but not always well understood. establish a pecking order early and out in the way that a well-written sen- And what these words imply about stick to it. Broadcast obligations were tence pulls a reader in. Other print change can seem overwhelming to the always my top priority, so Channel 8’s journalists covering the trial patiently traditional broadcast journalist whose deadlines came first and received my answered my nearly student-like ques- reporting focus and style had remained greatest attention. I focused first on my tions. For example, I would ask some pretty much the same during the past five and usually six o’clock live shots. of them how often they went into de- decade. What has changed for us is the My second priority was The Tampa tail explaining the legal maneuvers of expectation that we will be able to Tribune. Calls to the newspaper editor the day as opposed to just focusing on cover more stories within the same began by mid-afternoon and usually by the people involved in the story. Each deadline constraints. Now, in the mul- seven o’clock, just after I finished with morning I went online to compare timedia news environment that has the six p.m. news, I filed a story from their lead with mine. arrived in Tampa, Florida, these expec- my laptop computer. But it didn’t end In time, I came to appreciate this tations are exacerbated as journalists there. I worked with an editor/mentor opportunity to explore this new terri- are forced to master and put into prac- for at least another hour making the tory called convergence. tice time-consuming new skills. The Tribune article work for the paper. When people hear about this assign- real concern is that while we are busy Finally, around nine o’clock at night, I ment, a lot of them want to know how expanding the quantity of our report- finished my day with a quick call to the I got paid for this extra work that I did. ing, its quality might suffer. Channel 8 evening producer to file a My answer: I didn’t. I didn’t receive Recently I reported on a federal quick story for the 11 p.m. news. At this separate compensation from the paper murder trial that took me from Florida point I bordered on brain meltdown! or from the online work. My supervi- to Texas for the conclusion of a case I Trained as a broadcast journalist, sors did give me some extra time off. had followed for three years. What made the greatest challenge for me was writ- But what is becoming increasingly clear this assignment different from any I’d ing for print. Several times a day hun- is that as this new effort at convergence done before was that in this era of dreds of thousands of people watched evolves, management must also evolve. “media convergence” I was expected my reports on TV but I felt real fear Sharing resources may mean pooling to not only do my television reports, when I thought about writing for Tri- budgets. The same goes for reporters. but also write for The Tampa Tribune bune readers. Federal courthouses They need to prepare to do more and and the paper’s Web site. I’d spent don’t allow cameras inside the court- expect to start doing so tomorrow. But plenty of time gathering background room so I could not rely on dramatic they should also remember to hold reporting for this story, so I thought pictures to tell the story, which left me those higher up to the same standards. preparing for live shots, writing at least to do the descriptions. If management intends to rally its news two television stories a day, a newspa- I had to approach the story a little staff to a new level of service, then per article and a daily online journal differently from the moment I took my there has to be more motivation than just might be possible, if I was ready to seat in the courtroom. I wrote down just a pat on the back. go without sleep! What kept me moti- every facial expression, described in The only way to provide this type of vated was the knowledge that this kind detail who came in, who went out, product is with hands-on support from of multimedia reporting had never been what they wore, how the jurors re- management. My assistant news direc- done before at our station, and I wanted acted, how often the defendant tor, Deb Halpern, was ready with feed- to accept the challenge. scribbled notes to his attorneys, and back and guidance on a moment’s no- My coverage of the month-long when he smiled at his wife. The judge, tice. Critical help came from Tampa murder trial ritual started each morn- who was prone to making jokes, be- Tribune Editor Martha Durrance, who ing at six. That was when I wrote a daily came an element in my newspaper gently walked me through the rules of Web journal describing my perspec- story. Details that often died under a newspaper, occasionally making tive on the courtroom drama from the television time constraints, buried be- room for a little broadcast wisdom. day before. By 10 that morning I had hind background information, came to This experience made me a better

52 Nieman Reports / Winter 2000 Building New Homes for News journalist. My TV stories on the mur- Convergence might mean that the old left staring at one another with ques- der-for-hire trial didn’t receive Emmy rules governing television and news- tions that we can only find the answers award-winning attention. But solid, paper reporting will need to be altered to by working together. ■ often entertaining information reached as journalists construct this new me- people across three forms of media, dia. And editors, news directors, re- Jackie Barron is a reporter at Chan- providing different stories on each. In porters and photojournalists—work- nel 8, WFLA-TV in Tampa, Florida. time, as the different media become ing together—can become parents of Her beat is Sarasota and Manatee comfortable with one another, creativ- innovative forms of newsgathering and counties with an emphasis on crime/ ity won’t have to make way for compre- transmission. courts and education. She worked at hensive coverage. Right now, I believe Across the board, from top to bot- WWSB, the ABC affiliate in Sarasota, that reporting on a story for broadcast, tom, multimedia convergence poses and prior to that at WHAG-TV in print and online means less time to an inspiring challenge. The walls sepa- Hagerstown, Maryland. approach a story from different angles rating newsrooms of differing media and still meet staggered deadlines. have come crashing down, and we are [email protected]

Protesters Develop Their Own Global Internet News Service ‘The IMC was an end-run around the information gatekeepers….’

By John Tarleton

was soaking wet and sitting near world are going to die of hunger to- corporate media. Their goal was not to the back of a bright yellow school day!” he’d yell. “24,000 children in this create one more alternative lefty publi- I bus when another round of spir- world are going to die of hunger to- cation but to lay the infrastructure for ited singing broke out. Though I was morrow! 24,000 children in this world a multimedia peoples’ newsroom that not wearing my IMC press badge (nor are going to die of hunger on Wednes- would enable activists to come together any other ID), I had been filing daily day….” and disseminate their own stories to a stories for the Independent Media Cen- He was on his way to jail. And so global audience without having to go ter (IMC)—a Web publication in which were the rest of us. through the corporate filter. coverage of news events emphasized With $30,000 in donations (includ- issues and included voices not fea- ing a hefty amount from an ex-Microsoft tured in mainstream reporting—dur- Launching a People’s employee) and lots of borrowed equip- ing the week leading up to the April Newsroom ment, the Seattle IMC was able to oc- protests against the World Bank and cupy a small storefront office in down- International Monetary Fund in Wash- The IMC (www.indymedia.org) town Seattle. Our news might not be ington, D.C. emerged in the fall of 1999, midwifed televised, but now it was ready to be Now I couldn’t reach the ballpoint into existence by a core group of half a downloaded. pen and soggy notepad that were dozen media activists in the Seattle The IMC was an end-run around the tucked in my inside jacket pocket. So I area. The rationale for its emergence information gatekeepers, made pos- tried to memorize the scene around was the globalization and centraliza- sible by the technology of the Internet. me—how it felt, what people were tion of media organizations. By then, The IMC Web site uses open-source saying and doing, the uncertainty about six huge media conglomerates held software that allows people to instantly what lay ahead. As the singing sub- control of the majority of the news and upload stories and clips onto the site. sided, a discussion broke out about information outlets in this country, and And the news that was uploaded was Monsanto’s genetically engineered the mergers of major companies made evidently what a lot of people wanted foods and the privatization of the the advertisers who paid the publish- to read. During its coverage of the world’s water supplies. Police looked ing bills equally powerful entities. What weeklong “Battle of Seattle,” on indulgently as a scruffy young man concerned the IMC organizers was that indymedia.org received 1.5 million hits, calling himself “Dionysius Gonorrhea” the upcoming World Trade Organiza- and its audio and video clips were periodically filled the bus with his in- tion protests in Seattle would be poorly rebroadcast on community radio sta- dignant rage. “24,000 children in this covered (if at all) by the mainstream, tions and cable public access channels.

Nieman Reports / Winter 2000 53 The Internet, Technology and Journalism

While tens of thousands of protesters journalists such as Eric Galatas (pro- It has been a long time since young disrupted the WTO meetings, hundreds gram director of Free Speech TV), people have filled this country’s jails in of IMC volunteers braved the tear gas Michael Eisenmenger (of Paper Tiger the name of justice. There were 1,353 and rubber bullets to record history in TV) and Eddy Becker (formerly with arrests in Washington. The best way to the making with pens, notebooks, tape the National Security Archive) worked cover the story, I felt, was to be right in recorders, and video cameras. Images side by side with those who had little or the middle of it. I was in custody for 24 of police assaults (which began several no experience. hours before I unexpectedly found hours before the sporadic window It was my first time working in a myself released at arraignment with all smashing that erupted on the fringe of newsroom since I’d left my job as a charges dismissed. However, 155 of the protest) and festive but determined news reporter at the Ottumwa (Iowa) the protesters stayed in jail another protesters moved swiftly around the Courier a decade earlier. I ran all over four days—singing, hunger striking, planet. town doing stories on “puppetistas” refusing to give their names, stripping and Lesbian Avengers and high school off their clothes en masse and going kids who were banned from putting up limp or tying themselves to their cots— Back on the Beat A16 posters because school authorities until they were able to collectively bar- thought “politics shouldn’t be in the gain the terms of their release. Another IMC Web site opened up in schools.” I followed a squad of Penn- It was a helluva story. And I ended early April. Based out of Washington, sylvania Teamsters through the halls of up telling it (“Adora’s Story: 19-Year- D.C., it was created to cover the A16 Congress as they lobbied against the Old Protester Arrested for First Time at Mobilization for Global Justice. A16, China Free Trade Bill, and I was in IMF Demonstrations; Does 5 Days in which targeted the IMF and the World front of the protesters’ headquarters Jail”) through the eyes of a talkative Bank, was the sequel to Seattle. Our when more than 100 police raided it young woman who was in for the full work area was in a small art gallery in and shut it down for alleged fire code ride. The insights I gained while in northwest Washington. Striking Paci- violations. Later, I ended up on the bus custody were invaluable. fica Radio stringers and other seasoned with Dionysius Gonorrhea.

An Expanding Network

The IMC continues growing as it both covers and helps to create the movement against corporate globalization. It is now, in the lingo of our times, “a diversified global media group.” It has thousands of workers/participants, a catchy logo, and 37 sites scattered in cities across the United States and Canada and in countries including Mexico, France, Italy, Israel and India. Dozens more are in the queue. At this fall’s IMF/World Bank demonstrations, 500 people from 32 countries participated in the Prague IMC. And discussions are well underway about everything from whether to adopt 501(c)(3) nonprofit status to how to best set up a global IMC “spokescouncil,” with each local IMC represented by an empowered representative. As a product of the anti- corporate globalization

54 Nieman Reports / Winter 2000 Building New Homes for News movement, the IMC shares both its public debate. Every notion that falls ing how power is used and abused. It’s strengths and weaknesses. It is defiant, outside of those parameters, such as about asking hard-hitting questions that angry, hopeful, chaotic, creative, gen- the possibility of having universal health shed light in dark places. It’s about erous and, at times, painfully naive. It care as every other Western industrial communicating information that not is a voluntocracy that operates mostly democracy does or the risks of genetic only gets the who, what, where and on youthful enthusiasm. And in true engineering or the buildup of a prison when correct but tries to put stories in anarchist fashion, it is decentralized industrial complex or the deepening a fuller context, often by asking and and highly participatory. All decisions misery of the Palestinians, just to cite a trying to answer the “why” questions, are made by consensus. few examples, is generally either de- as well. And it is about seeking out the The heart of each IMC site is the rided or ignored by the mainstream stories of those who live on the mar- newswire that runs down the right- press. It also appears that corporate gins and lack power within the system, hand side of the screen. The best sto- journalists rise through the ranks not which includes most people in one ries are culled from the newswire by only because of their abilities and their way or another. If this is how journal- editorial collectives and placed in the work ethic but also because of their ism was practiced, it would be the center column of the page. Links to uncanny ability to always ask the wrong beginning of an American glasnost. other IMC sites appear in the left-hand questions. To what extent this is done The IMC is still a long way from column. Since anyone can upload a consciously (self-censorship) or uncon- fulfilling this ideal. But at least the will story onto the newswire, what arrives sciously (internalization of institutional to do so is there. ■ makes for an interesting brew. Here is values) is impossible to say, and it a sampling of headlines from stories really does not matter. The result is the John Tarleton writes for that appeared on the main newswire same: journalism as the monologue of www.cybertraveler.org and the New one day in late October: power. York City Independent Media Center. I believe journalism is not about • “Breaking News! Major Coal Sludge applauding the powerful but challeng- [email protected] Spill Threatens Kentucky” •“Nader LEADS in Time Poll…VOTE!” •“Call to Action on N7—Everywhere in the U$” •“Ichetucknee Earth First! Road Revealing What’s Happening in Blocks Removed by Police After 16+ Hours” •“N16—Protest the Trans Atlantic Schools Business Dialogue in Cincinnati, USA” By using the Web, students can become frontline • “2,000 Protest in NYC Against Po- lice Brutality” reporters. •“U.S. Cannot Be Honest Broker in Israeli-Palestinian Peace Talks” In October, John Gage, chief There are about 13,000 schools in •“A Global Call for Freedom of Speech researcher for Sun Microsystems and California, 1,050 school districts. If you Everywhere—Everybody’s Box!” currently a Shorenstein Fellow at try to read about schools in the Los Angeles Times, the paper might cover Is this a bulletin board for the far left Harvard, met with the Nieman Fellows one school, they might cover the Los or a robust annex to the marketplace of at Lippmann House and talked about Angeles unified school district—that’s ideas? Some will question whether IMC the convergence of technology and the 700 and some odd schools—but they’ll journalism is real journalism since it is press. During the question and answer never cover all of them. They can’t. So, not “objective,” in the traditional sense period, he shared his vision of one they won’t. And they don’t have any- of that word, and it doesn’t pretend to way that newspapers could use these body on the ground [at all of these be. After all, can those of us who are schools] anyway. politically motivated have the objec- news tools of communication. They So, there is all this tension between, tive distance to question our own as- could have students report and write “Get the local news; news is local,” and sumptions? Time will tell. Yet we would about what’s happening in schools. He you could try to do that and it could fail argue that many corporate journalists began by using California as an because people don’t want to pay for have their own deeply ingrained bias example because of his experience in [the kind of reporting it would take to toward retaining the status quo. wiring schools for the Internet and do] it. Now we have something brand Relying heavily on official sources new [in terms of technology], and within government and business, cor- developing a Web page for each somewhere there’s going to be a shift. porate journalism sets the narrow pa- school. We have a way to make a free, uni- rameters that actually are put forth for versally readable newspaper for every

Nieman Reports / Winter 2000 55 The Internet, Technology and Journalism school in the world. California and wired 4,000 schools in the school, and they’re going to tell me Four years ago I did a project. I just the morning. They just brought the one thing. Let’s get the kid in school got fed up because I wanted to get my wire; it cost the schools nothing. People actually involved. kid’s school wired to the Internet. Well, sold cakes. The Web page for every How can we cast this in a way that gosh, you talk to the contractors, it’s school, that cost nothing, had turned might work? I mean, this is something $50,000. And you talk to people who into the tool to organize the neighbor- that we’ve got to do. I went to The New run the school, and they’re worried hood, the parents. It became a mini- York Times and said, “You’ve got the that they don’t have the money or the newspaper for the school, where you foundation; let’s do this for the Times.” expertise or the permission. could write what you wanted about the Kids in the service area of The New But the parents do. It struck me that school. York Times have T-shirts that say, “New the two million people in California News emerged that otherwise none York Times Technology Reporter.” At that had downloaded Netscape by Janu- would see. At one school, I heard about each elementary school, teachers pick ary 1996 had all the expertise needed. girls developing bladder infections. A one student, and we end up with 6,000 All it would take was finding a way, a parent told me, “There was attempted kids with T-shirts and they all file a cheap way, to allow them to organize rape in the bathroom, and the princi- story every week about what’s in their to go wire their own kid’s school. That pal, who has no budget, locked all the school. “The dog did this. The roof way was the Internet. bathrooms because they had no secu- leaks. It’s boring. Of the 20 computers So I said, “We have 13,000 schools rity to keep the bathrooms safe. There we have, 10 don’t work, and the math in California. I’m going to order every aren’t any bathrooms. The girls don’t teacher won’t let anyone not in math engineer in California to go to their have a bathroom.” touch the one that does work.” kid’s school on Saturday and, eight You must be joking. “No, we’re not Of the kids who file, 52 kids a year, o’clock in the morning, bring one each week, will appear in a ladder, bring the reel of wire, the real paper. At the end of and go in and wire the school, the year, The New York Times, and I give you permission.” ‘Write it on the Web page for we’ve got 52 new journalists I lied to everybody. I said, your school, because when it’s out there. They’ve been in the “Saturday morning, March written down there’s a story paper, so they’ve written 9th, everybody has permission something, and the other to go to the school, bring a there that can change people’s 6,000 kids file on The New ladder, and wire the school.” lives. You’re a little newspaper.’ York Times’s Web site, which It took me two hours to make costs nothing. They’re writ- a Web site for every school in ing about local news in a com- California, so the parents munity. Now we can use the could go to their kid’s school and vol- joking, that’s exactly the problem. We editorial function, which is to find in- unteer, so other people could see them. can’t get the school board to listen. We teresting stories, and then figure out if A lot of parents said, “Really?” “Yes, get no money for police or security. any of them is true, and it generates absolutely.” “No kidding?” And they There’s no money in the school. Some some new kind of journalism that called the school and said, “Guess what? of the parents try to volunteer to help comes from the place up. And since we We’re going to come over on Saturday make the place more secure, but that’s can see these things suddenly it’s new, morning.” The principal would say, our big problem.” it’s different, and the kids, by the way, “No you’re not. It’s my school.” The I said, “You know what you ought to are all going to have cameras. Figure parents say, “No, no, this guy said that do? Write it on the Web page for your that out. So now the kids are all run- we could do it, and we’re going to school, because when it’s written down ning around taking pictures. come and we’re going to bring the wire there’s a story there that can change And then there will be great law- for free and it doesn’t cost anything.” people’s lives. You’re a little newspa- suits, because the principal will try to Well, in the 1,050 school districts, per.” shut down one of these things because about 50 school districts said, “It’s a “Oh my God,” she said. And she he said that the principal is having an communist plot,” or “It’s the devil com- wrote a long thing about it, big scandal, affair with a teacher, and then there ing.” In other places they [school ad- and stuff started to happen. will be all these freedom of the press ministrators] said, “We better get in So that’s the idea. What we need is lawsuits. It will be great. It will be front of the troops because they’re our to get every school in the world linked chaos. ■ parents and they all work, and they to the Net, and then get the kids to have computers at their work and report on conditions in the school in they’re going to come and wire it.” So their community. If I want to find out it ended up that we did this project to in rural Japan if the NTT project to get get all the schools wired, and on that bandwidth into Honshu or someplace March day, 100,000 people got up in really worked, I could ask the head of

56 Nieman Reports / Winter 2000 Helping Reporters’ Fingers Do Some Walking Computers Help to Transform Statistics Into Stories A Chicago Tribune reporter unearths patterns of fatal nursing errors.

By Mike Berens

Chicago boy’s tiny lips turned dark from a lack of oxygen as his Amother’s scream echoed through the hospital. A registered nurse dashed to the examination table, cradled the boy’s limp body and ran down the corridor, panic gripping her voice, as she began to yell, “Blue baby! Blue baby!” An elderly Kansas woman gasped for breath as she hoarsely called out for help, repeatedly pumping the call button for assistance that never came. As the minutes became hours she stopped breathing and her damaged brain began an irreversible shutdown. A pregnant California mother struggling to give birth was given Pitocin, a common labor-inducing drug, but a miscalculation sent 35 times the ordered dose into her bloodstream, le- thally coursing into the body of her Mikey’s mother and grandmother visit his grave on what would have been his sixth unborn daughter. birthday. When he was two years old, Mikey’s parents took him to the hospital as a Each of these cases—and thousands precautionary measure after he bumped his head. He was accidentally given a sedative of other previously unacknowledged overdose by a nurse before a CAT scan at Rush Presbyterian Hospital in Chicago. Photo victims of nursing errors—were first by Stephanie Sinclair, Chicago Tribune. uncovered as computerized statistics, anonymous clerical entries often ob- scured from public view by coded iden- •Since 1995, at least 1,720 hospital hospitals rely on machines with tities or confidentiality laws. Yet, after patients have been accidentally killed warning alarms to help monitor pa- many months of additional reporting, and 9,584 others injured from the tients’ vital signs. At least 216 pa- these cases became the foundation of a actions or inaction of registered tient deaths and 429 injuries have three-day series published September nurses besieged by cuts in staff and occurred in hospitals where nurses 10-12, in which the Chicago Tribune other belt-tightening in U.S. hospi- failed to hear alarms built into life- reported that overwhelmed and inad- tals. saving equipment, such as respira- equately trained nurses kill and injure •At least 418 patients have been killed tors. thousands of patients every year as and 1,356 others injured by regis- •At least 119 patients have been killed hospitals sacrifice patient safety for an tered nurses operating infusion and 564 others injured by unli- improved bottom line. pumps. All lacked training, or they censed, unregulated nurse aides Nurses provide first warning and claimed to be overwhelmed with who are sometimes used to elimi- rapid intervention for those too sick to too many patients. In many cases, nate or supplant the role of regis- help themselves. Analyzing more than harried nurses punched in the wrong tered nurses. Under a cost-savings three million computerized records, dosage amounts on the pumps, turn- program at some hospitals, house- the Tribune embarked on a 10-month ing an order for 9.10 milligrams to keeping staff assigned to clean rooms effort to quantify and document a na- 91.0. Lethal calculation errors have have been pressed into duty as aides tional crisis of substandard nursing become so prevalent that some to dispense medicine. care. By themselves, the numbers nurses call them “death by decimal.” proved stunning: •To compensate for understaffing, In all, I relied on more than a dozen

Nieman Reports / Winter 2000 57 The Internet, Technology and Journalism state and federal databases, which were device failures. Conversely, the data dozens of file cabinets as each Illinois painstakingly culled for nursing-related can also be used to track instances of disciplinary case was copied—I brought cases, then compiled into a custom human error. Each record detailed a a portable copier that fits under the database. Computerized records were date and generic place, such as hospi- arm to facilitate the task. Then the cross-matched to paper files, such as tal or nursing home, but did not in- information was entered into a spread- court cases and death certificates, and clude victims’ names, name of the facil- sheet program. supplemented by information obtained ity, or even the state. Like most Files documented that drug-ad- through hundreds of interviews. computer databases, MAUDE data was dicted nurses roamed from hospital to The computer—and the raw statis- a beginning for my reporting, not an hospital without punishment. Nurses tics—were just a beginning. Informa- end, a signpost to major thematic is- with serious felony convictions—from tion yielded patients such as Miguel sues, such as patients who died be- child molesting to aggravated drug traf- Fernandez, the two-year-old Chicago cause there were not enough nurses to ficking—continued to work with im- boy who received a fatal overdose of properly monitor their conditions. punity. Illinois officials, as well as other drugs from his nurse who would later A second notable database was a agencies nationally, agreed to with- dash down the hospital hallway yelling national list of nurses disciplined by a hold information that patients had died “blue baby.” Another entry identified state licensing agencies. Data are com- from public files if nurses agreed to the victim only as #56893. Research piled by the National Council for State quickly settle the cases. In one Chi- later revealed that the five-digit code Boards of Nursing and include the cago-area case, state officials erased was Mary Heidenreich, 78, who was nurse’s identity and type of violation. references of a patient death from pub- accidentally killed in 1999 by a mor- The council will not allow public ac- lic files; the nurse had been found phine injection incorrectly adminis- cess. However, files are mailed to each guilty of administering an overdose of tered by a registered nurse in Denver. state, which means the data become chemotherapy. In a Utah case, a nurse Just 15 states currently require hos- part of the public record. Even so, who was found guilty of negligently pitals to report medical errors, no mat- Illinois licensing officials balked at turn- killing a patient returned to work with- ter how egregious the circumstances. ing over the list, but acquiesced after a out suspension or additional training. Of those, only two states make the brief skirmish with Tribune attorneys. In all, 10 months were spent disas- information fully public. Information from these two data- sembling millions of computerized Two databases proved most useful bases was cross-matched with dozens records, then combining and reassem- in tracking nursing errors. The first is of other public records, from court bling the information to create an un- the MAUDE database compiled by the records to divorce files to home own- flinching, quantitative analysis that ex- U.S. Food and Drug Administration, ership. In many cases, records were amined medical errors from a unique which contains more than three mil- found only on paper. Two weeks were perspective. Associate managing edi- lion records detailing possible medical spent sitting in a musty room with tor Robert Blau, who oversees projects, and deputy project editor George Papajohn meticulously dissected my methodology of computer analysis— an essential component of the vetting process. Each case was built blank by blank—spreadsheet cell by cell—with the goal of assembling an incontrovertible story that detailed the issues to the number and to the person. The computer provides reporters access to information that can’t be seen in any other way. Increasingly, public information is stored exclusively in computers. Those who don’t know how to enter these electronic vaults remain modern-day illiterates. Would anyone hire a reporter who refused to use the telephone? Yet, in the early days of this groundbreaking technology, there were undoubtedly those who argued that face to face information gathering Registered Nurse Janet Dotson readies the crib for a newborn at Rush-Copley Medical was the only proper way to do the job. Center in Aurora, Illinois. The Department of Professional Regulation charged her with Fundamental reporting skills are still gross negligence resulting in the death of a patient, when Dodson worked for a tempo- essential. A computer will not make a rary agency. Photo by Stephanie Sinclair, Chicago Tribune. bad reporter good. But the computer 58 Nieman Reports / Winter 2000 Helping Reporters’ Fingers Do Some Walking empowers journalists to go beyond the Each year, hospitals file these cost re- Illinois task force is investigating staff- press release. Few interview techniques ports with the U.S. Department of ing trends and disciplinary issues. Also, are more potent or fruitful than con- Health and Human Services. My analy- following the series, Food and Drug fronting officials with computer analysis clearly showed that fewer nurses Administration officials acknowledged sis of their data. were assigned to patient care. My con- that the Tribune analysis of its data- This proved true during the first clusion: The AHA data was misleading bases uncovered new cases linked to weeks of my research. The project be- and flawed. nursing errors and inadequate staffing gan with little more than a realization When presented with my findings, or training, proving that more patients that the nation’s 2.6 million registered an AHA spokesman made a stunning had died preventable deaths than had nurses comprised the nation’s largest admission: The statistics included reg- been publicly acknowledged. A FDA healthcare profession. For my first in- istered nurses who didn’t provide care official said, “You found things we don’t terviews, nurses emphatically warned to hospital patients. These nurses were know about. We’d like to see your me that unprecedented staffing cut- either desk-bound or were assigned to data.” backs were endangering hospital pa- remote nursing homes and home health With the aid of computer analysis— tients. However, the American Hospi- agencies. In fact, the AHA didn’t ask built on electronic data, paper records tal Association (AHA) maintained that a hospitals how many nurses were as- and interviews—the Tribune series record number of registered nurses signed to patient care. This meant that took readers beyond the official expla- were employed by hospitals, a position the AHA’s staffing statistics created a nation and into a disturbing, hidden bolstered by a Bible-sized book of sta- public smokescreen. part of the health care industry where tistics. Public response to the series was patient care is all too often measured Using the association’s published swift and overwhelming, flooding Tri- by dollars. ■ data, I entered it into a spreadsheet bune voice mail and e-mail systems. program, then I cross-matched these Thousands of nurses across the coun- Mike Berens is a Chicago Tribune totals with information about staffing try continue to weigh in with compli- reporter on the project team. levels that I gleaned from nurse union ments and criticisms. In response to contracts and Medicaid cost reports. many issues raised in the series, an [email protected]

Training Journalists to Use Technological Tools in Reporting The proof of how well this works is in the story.

By Brant Houston

t’s all about “the story.” It doesn’t Here is an outline of the steps: •Make the real resources and data matter what element of Web re- easily available. Isources, databases or computers is •Show dozens of stories, both print •Provide follow-up training and in- involved. When you are training a work- and broadcast, that resulted from house adviser/mentors. ing journalist the focus must be on “the using resources available on the Web story.” A working journalist doesn’t or sorting and grouping electronic During the training, the application have the time or encouragement to records with basic software. of these techniques to the story needs learn for learning’s sake, so each new •Do a walk-through demonstration to be discussed and debated. Using a technique must be seen as useful for of those resources and techniques— specific situation, an instructor can walk newsgathering, and its usefulness must a how-to overview. journalists through a mock assignment. be quickly proved. •Conduct hands-on training exercises In one instance, a reporter used the These are just a few of the lessons of those techniques on information Securities and Exchange Commission I’ve learned as I’ve run more than 350 and data pertinent to journalism. (SEC) database (www.sec.gov/edaux/ seminars and conferences with jour- •Go from exercises to the real data, searches.htm) to report a story about nalists during the past six years. Call it and discuss the perils and pitfalls in how a company run by a former de- “reverse engineering” or “decon- using the new techniques. fense department official has extensive struction,” but the basic principle for •Review how to find and obtain elec- government business. With the SEC training is to start with the story. tronic data. Web site on the computer screen, the

Nieman Reports / Winter 2000 59 The Internet, Technology and Journalism instructor navigates through the site’s selling of these techniques’ immediate release by Congress (via the Internet) Web pages to the “10-K” report that value and underestimating of the time of the Starr Report on the Clinton- predicts an increase in the amount of investment needed to master them; Lewinsky investigation. business from the U.S. military. the lack of follow-up, lack of adequate The increase in Web connections, “The Engineering and Construction equipment and software, and a dearth however, re-emphasizes the need for Group has continued to expand its of training and support for mid-level training. Without guidance, many re- services to the United States military. editors. porters waste time trying to find infor- The group sees improving opportuni- Today’s newsrooms are often insu- mation on the Web and then deter- ties to provide similar support services lated environments. Staff cutbacks, the mine—wrongly—that it has no value to other United States agencies and to convenience of using the telephone for them. Training in basic research government agencies of other coun- (and now the Web), and increased time skills and free “lean and mean” Web tries, including the United Kingdom…. pressures exacerbate the problem of indexes with information that every In 1999 the group increased logistics journalists not finding the time and journalist can use are helping to rectify support services to military peacekeep- flexibility to grapple with new ideas this problem. [Web indexes include ing efforts in the Balkans and increased and techniques. In addition, fearful The Reporter’s Desktop at activities at the Devonport Dockyard in information technology departments www.reporter.org/desktop, by Duff the United Kingdom.” have prevented many newsrooms from Wilson of The Seattle Times, and the The report also shows the former having direct and easy access to the NICAR NetTour at www.ire.org/train- defense official is the company’s CEO. Internet because of worries about hack- ing/nettour.] These indexes provide (The company is Halliburton Company. ers. essential starting points for using the The former defense secretary is Rich- A 1998 survey of newsroom trainers Web. ard Cheney. And this report was used by Scott Maier, a journalist then work- Another hurdle has been the con- extensively in a front-page story in The ing on his doctorate at the University of servative nature of reporters—they New York Times.) North Carolina, found that half of the prefer to stick with what has worked The instructor asks the journalists, reporters at newspapers do not use the for them—and their phobia about math. who each have a computer connected Internet routinely for research. And Journalists are, as a rule, cautious about to the Web, to repeat the steps. Then Maier found that trainers estimated using new techniques because of the each journalist applies these research only 10 percent use any kind of com- fear of corrections and the ensuing steps to examining a local publicly held puter analysis. As recently as 1999, IRE public embarrassment. If they aren’t company. The class then discusses what (Investigative Reporters and Editors, certain of how to apply these new tech- other resources are available to dig Inc.) and NICAR (National Institute for niques, they worry that mistakes will into a company’s background, what Computer-Assisted Reporting) trained find their way into stories. Some also verification methods need to be used, at several of the largest newspapers in worry about appearing too “nerdy” and and what kind of stories can be pro- the United States where only a few not enterprising enough. Even when duced. computers in the newsroom could Web resources or databases might pro- In another training session, an in- reach the Web. Maier also observed vide critical information for a story, structor shows a series of stories on that some of the most effective training some journalists feel the need to em- campaign finance. The instructor then involves examining the work of fellow phasize old-fashioned “shoe leather” teaches the journalists how to down- journalists. “Peer leadership has been reporting. Journalists also have not load campaign finance data from the key in the spread of computer-assisted received (or refused to receive) the Web for the presidential election and reporting,” Maier said. most basic training in math, although place it in a database manager such as The slowness to connect to the Web they often cover stories involving bud- Microsoft Access. The next lesson infor newsgathering has led to a situa- gets, salaries, population growth, tax volves ways of filtering and sorting the tion where ignorance is not bliss but rates, and crime statistics. “I didn’t get information. Once the basics are un- irrelevance. Reporters have been asked into journalism to do math,” is an oft- derstood, the journalists download to write stories about the Internet and repeated refrain from reporters. How- information from a local congressional databases although they had never been ever, training on spreadsheet software race and repeat the steps. Discussion on the Internet nor ever used a data- such as Microsoft Excel—the next step of possible stories follows. base. (The lack of familiarity with data- after calculators—works best when While the structure of a successful bases is currently most on display in journalists are persuaded that official computer-assisted training program stories being written about computer- numbers are easier to scrutinize with emerged fairly quickly, many obstacles based threats to privacy.) Because so this assistance and the accuracy of their persist, and these make it difficult to much valuable daily information has stories can be improved. make the kind of headway that journal- moved from hard copy and faxes to For some journalists, the challenge ism, as a practice, should. Among these availability on the Web, newsrooms are of training revolves around their reluc- obstacles are the insularity of the news- now becoming connected more widely. tance. But for others, just the opposite room; the natural cautiousness and One of the noteworthy leaps for jour- is true. They are too enthusiastic about math phobia of journalists; the over- nalism and the Web was spurred by the what this kind of training can offer

60 Nieman Reports / Winter 2000 Helping Reporters’ Fingers Do Some Walking them. Some trainers play into this ea- University of Minnesota. “The other puter skills that their editors have never gerness by promising instant results. issue is giving training but then not seen or used. This has spurred some But new skills in research and data giving the opportunity to really use it editors to raise questions about the analysis require practice and time, as on a routine basis.” accuracy and reliability of the report- many journalists discover as they try to But even follow-up training won’t ers’ information. “We don’t know the master even the basic skills of this kind be enough if the proper equipment questions to ask,” some editors tell us. of reporting. “Even if you have the data isn’t available for journalists to use. But what is becoming clear to them, on the Web or on disk, if you’ve never Until recently, some journalists re- and to us, is that they, too, have a need used it before, you’re bound to run ceived training and then returned to a to learn. ■ into glitches,” wrote Heather Newman newsroom that did not have the most of the Detroit Free Press in an article basic computer equipment and soft- Brant Houston is executive director this year in the NICAR newsletter Up- ware. Since these skills require prac- of Investigative Reporters and Edi- link. And journalists need follow-up tice, unless journalists are willing to tors, Inc. and the National Institute help after the initial training. make private investments in their home for Computer-Assisted Reporting, “I think one of the biggest psycho- computers they will quickly forget how which has conducted more than 350 logical challenges is overcoming the to use what they learned. seminars conferences with journal- mindset of ‘I’m too busy now. I don’t Belatedly, perhaps, newsrooms are ists during the past six years. He is have time to do what I have to do, to do recognizing that editors who are re- the author of “Computer-Assisted the reporting I do now, so why would sponsible for assigning reporting also Reporting: A Practical Guide.” I add more to the plate?’” observed need this training. At some papers, Nora Paul, a long-time expert in com- reporters are delivering stories devel- [email protected] puter-assisted reporting, now at the oped using electronic sources and com-

Looking for Help in All the Right Places In an online community of journalists, help can be just a click away.

By Patricia A. Coleman

t 3:20 on a Monday afternoon in ing the question to a group of experi- human sources, directions to informa- August, an e-mail arrived at the enced journalists avoided reinventing tion-packed Web sites, and techniques A NICAR-L [National Institute for the wheel. to solve data analysis problems. As a Computer-Assisted Reporting listserv], Replies from the listserv were quick member of these self-moderated and the subject read “Gun Permit Ques- and concise and helped Wilkerson by listservs, I am able to offer suggestions tion—Quick Reply Requested.” James stopping him from investing more valu- to reporters based on the resources E. Wilkerson, a reporter at The Morn- able time into chasing a dead-end lead. available at IRE. On various occasions, ing Call in Allentown, Pennsylvania, Although initial responders suggested I’ve referenced morgue stories we have was looking for online resources to potential information sources, within on file or offered tip sheets on this kind advance a crime story on deadline. 30 minutes two reporters with Penn- of reporting. At times, I’ve suggested “My boss wants to know if we can get sylvania experience confirmed that not books that IRE sells that might be re- gun permit info in PA for an individual. only were the gun permit records con- lated to the question posed by a jour- We know only his name and present fidential, state legislators had at one nalist. Generally speaking, what I can address. We want to know whether he time made it a crime even to request do to help reporters is most apparent had a permit for a gun he is accused of them. during “big” stories—such as the bomb- using in a crime,” Wilkerson’s e-mail “Thanks for those who responded,” ing of the USS Cole—when journalists said. “A State Police officer refused to Wilkerson wrote. “You confirmed my who might not be knowledgeable about give us any info, said it wasn’t public vague understanding of the situation.” topic-specific issues of a breaking story record.” Members of IRE-L [Investigative Re- need resources to cover the news This reporter could have started from porters and Editors listserv] and NICAR- quickly and effectively. scratch. But wading through the legal L have been offering immediate feed- But usually reporters who contact language of a state’s open-records leg- back, guidance and resources since us know their subject matter well. Of- islation and assessing the legitimacy of IRE launched this service in July 1994. ten it’s a new beat assignment, an un- a local official’s interpretation of the Help comes in a variety of forms, such expected story development or the law would be time consuming. Offer- as phone numbers to contact helpful need to quickly find solutions to tech-

Nieman Reports / Winter 2000 61 The Internet, Technology and Journalism nical problems during the computer working. Any ideas?” the listserv saved him from spending analysis of data that draw journalists to By 10 o’clock the next morning, more time digging through software our site. Jon Leiberman, an investiga- members of the listserv had diagnosed manuals to learn how to solve data tive reporter at Fox 45 News in Balti- Leiberman’s data problem. He also had problems. more, wrote to say that he faced data- received cautionary advice about the “I came here three and a half months analysis challenges when working on a possibly poor accuracy of sex offender ago. We basically started from the computer-assisted story about regis- registration data and the need for more ground up,” Leiberman said. The tered sex offenders living near elemen- precise mapping information than sim- listserv “was really helpful. I got so tary schools. “I have a database of ply matched zip codes. When he did much feedback.” ■ schools and sex offenders. I’m trying to complete the analysis, Leiberman did a run a query that matches the sex of- two-part story, one part focusing on Patricia Coleman is Eugene S. fenders in each zip code,” said the sex offenders’ locations and the Pulliam Research Director at Investi- Leiberman in an e-mail that he posted other focusing on Maryland’s incom- gative Reporters and Editors, Inc. to the NICAR-L listserv at 5:28 p.m. plete and incorrect registration infor- October 10. “For some reason it’s not mation. Leiberman said advice from [email protected] The Internet as a Reporter’s Tool ‘I’d be lost without it.’

By Jim Morrill

s I left for my Nieman year in August 1999, we were just get- The Internet may yet cost us our jobs, ruin our A ting desktop PC’s to replace an lives, and wreck our democracy. But I’ve been old system. The Internet was still the constantly amazed at how much it’s helped me new guy in the newsroom. We said hello and tried to be friendly. Occa- do stories…. sionally we picked his brain and let him entertain us. Since my return this summer, he’s gram that let people cast ballots up to cessing our own archives was still a become a valuable pal. three weeks before November 7. When slow, tedious process. Accessing oth- The Internet may yet cost us our I needed statewide registration figures, ers wasn’t much easier. Nexis, for ex- jobs, ruin our lives, and wreck our I found them on the state board of ample, was available on just a few ma- democracy. But I’ve been constantly elections’ Web site. So were the phone chines in a corner. Now we have Nexis amazed at how much it’s helped me do numbers of election directors in all on our PC’s, and our archives are an stories and even find them since I got 100 counties. A couple of years ago, the easy click on the paper’s Intranet. Re- back. This may be old news for a lot of search would have involved at least a searching stories has never been easier. journalists, but it’s been new to me. long phone call and some faxes. Then, A couple months before leaving for I cover politics in North Carolina. when I needed somebody in Texas to Cambridge, I’d written a piece about When finance reports came out just talk about how early voting had worked how the Internet is changing the way before the election, I saw that execu- in that state, I e-mailed a friend at the people interact with government. I still tives from one company had accounted Austin American-Statesman. I had my wasn’t aware of how much it was chang- for a third of the money raised by one contact a couple of minutes later. ing the way we did business, too. Of candidate for state labor commissioner. Four years ago it was hard to tell course, there’s a lot of the Internet not I checked with the labor department to how much money Carolinians were to trust. But there’s an increasing see if they had a file on the company contributing to the presidential candi- amount of information that’s accurate and was directed to an OSHA Web site. dates. This year it took a few clicks. I and accessible. I’d be lost without it. ■ There I found the company had a series went to FECInfo, a site that tracks cam- of outstanding fines. They happened paign spending, and called up a state- Jim Morrill is a reporter for The to add up to about the same amount by-state sort of Bush and Gore con- Charlotte Observer. He was in the the executives had given the rival party tributors. It turned out Bush was Nieman class of 2000. candidate. sweeping up money as well as votes in Before the election, I did some sto- the Carolinas. [email protected] ries about our new early voting pro- When I left Charlotte in 1999, ac-

62 Nieman Reports / Winter 2000 Helping Reporters’ Fingers Do Some Walking Gathering Context and Contacts A listserv is an invaluable resource for education reporters.

By Bill Graves

eporters can hardly cover the and other stories about Edison will pher staked out the board and got a education beat today without also be forwarded to me. photograph of the candidate going to R computer and online technol- Here is an example of a recent ex- the interview. The reporter didn’t know ogy. They must know how to use change on the list: who the candidate was, so she put his spreadsheets if they are to have any Julie Poppen, higher education re- photo on the list and asked if any of the hope of making sense of the heaps of porter for Denver Rocky Mountain other reporters could identify him. information that states and districts are News, sends an e-mail to the list to ask, Another reporter identified the photo, amassing under the nation’s relentless “I wonder if any of you are aware of and the reporter was then able to write push for more accountability in our school districts that require students her story about the “secret” candidate. schools. They need to know key Web to attend mandatory summer school if Having the ability to connect and sites on the Internet to keep up with they fail to get adequate scores on immediately tap the expertise of the the research reports that are pumped standardized tests.” nation’s education press online would out nearly every day by the nation’s “Greenville, S.C. does it,” replies have been hard to imagine a decade enormous education industry. one reporter. ago. Technology allows us not only to But no technological change has “Illinois does,” writes another. “Con- move faster on stories, but also to probe made a bigger impact on the day-to-day tact Lee M. at the state DOE. Also, deeper. Our education team at The work of education reporters than the Davenport, Iowa, schools required all Oregonian now almost routinely takes Education Writers Association’s listserv, second graders to go to summer school a new batch of test data released by the an invaluable communications tool or receive special help if they didn’t state Department of Education in the used by most of the daily education make the grade.” morning and, with the help of com- reporters in the country. “Richmond Public Schools had its puter spreadsheets, sorts it by school This listserv, which became active first mandatory summer program this on charts for each of our six zoned about four years ago, provides a conve- year,” writes Robin Farmer, a Rich- editions by deadline. We give readers a nient way for reporters to exchange mond Times-Dispatch reporter, who quick analysis that identifies weak and sources, tips, opinions and insights by then provides a contact. strong schools, compares scores to e-mail. Occasionally, reporters even “Yes, Chicago does—at 3rd, 6th and those in the previous year, and shows discuss ethical concerns, such as how 8th,” writes Linda Lenz, editor of Cata- how each school stacks up to others to handle reporting about children. lyst, a magazine on school reform. “It with similar demographics. When a reporter sends an e-mail to the has for the past three summers.” Technology helps us connect and list, everyone sees the message. Each Within minutes, the reporter gets organize, but we still need to rely on recipient then has the option of reply- plenty of context and potential con- good journalism to produce thought- ing personally to that reporter or to tacts for her story. ful stories. We still need good sources everyone on the list. Almost any reporter on the list can to uncover fresh information and ideas. The list is particularly useful for re- give examples of how it immeasurably We still need good editors to help us porters who need good sources on a helped him or her on filing a deadline organize our work and tell our stories. tight deadline. For example, what if I story. Even off deadline, the list can And I know the listserv wouldn’t be so had just learned the Portland School offer ways for every reporter to draw useful without so many good reporters District decided to approach The on the collective knowledge of the on the other end of the line. ■ Edison Project about running one of its nation’s education press to pursue re- schools, and I don’t know a thing about search and background information Bill Graves, 1999 Nieman Fellow, this organization? I can find key sources about an idea that hasn’t yet formed writes about education and other (and resources) by asking my colleagues into a story. One of my favorite ex- social issues for The Oregonian’s on the listserv. Within minutes, I’ll get amples of this happened about two family and education team. He is replies. Some will tell me how to con- years ago when a reporter at the Des immediate past president of the tact the executives at Edison, a private Moines Register was covering her local Education Writers Association and business that operates public schools school board’s secret search for a new co-author of “Poisoned Apple,” a for profit. Others will put me in touch superintendent. The board was inter- book about school reform. with researchers who have studied viewing a job candidate, whom it Edison schools. Information about rel- wanted to keep secret. But the [email protected] evant Web sites that include studies of newspaper’s reporter and photogra-

Nieman Reports / Winter 2000 63 The Internet, Technology and Journalism Training Tomorrow’s Journalists in a Global Medium This digital era demands new imagination in education.

By Jerome Aumente

ournalism education and the con- curriculum and training. In many in- universities can and ought to play in tinued training of news media pro- stances, they see the Internet as a way determining the future direction of Jfessionals are affected profoundly of accessing the books, training materi- journalism on the Internet. Faculty and by the massive growth of the als, and latest advances in journalism students can research what works and Internet and the various digital tech- and mass media that they cannot oth- what fails in this new era of communi- nologies mushrooming around it. It is erwise afford. At the University of cations and do applied projects with a rolling thunderstorm of change that Sarajevo, where Rutgers has a joint the news media. By joining forces, both the universities and the mass program, many of their library re- scholars and practitioners can explore media practitioners are riding, some- sources were destroyed in the war, so some of the vital questions that are times uneasily. a computerized linkage to the world is raised by the emergence of this new In the United States, many journal- even more essential. With more than media. How do members of the public ism schools have broadened their of- 5,000 newspapers worldwide now of- decide where they will get their news, ferings to include course work involv- fering online editions, the Internet is for example, in choosing among ing the latest technologies. A good an essential link for scholars and stu- Internet news sites and newspapers? number of multidisciplinary schools of dents studying journalism. The Web How are they reallocating the time they communication and information ap- sites of MSNBC, CNN, CBS and ABC spend consuming news? How can news- peared a decade or more ago, often provide a living laboratory of converg- papers combine their print activities comprised of traditional journalism ing multimedia. During my recent lec- with digital technology to enhance the departments affiliating with or creat- ture tour at Russian universities in St. news experience for consumers? How ing other units. Petersburg, Novgorod and is television using the Internet? Can Overseas, universities in Poland, Yekaterinburg, the journalism schools this younger, digital generation find Bosnia-Herzegovina, Russia, Spain and were determined to put new media reasons to read newspapers or watch Latin America are determined to use and the Internet at the forefront of our news on TV? the Internet and the digital technology meetings with students and faculties. Such research, conducted by stu- as a centerpiece in modernizing their There is a constructive role that dents, would be a valuable learning tool for them and a critical source of information for those already in the Needed: Help From Journalism Schools business. By using this approach of collaborative investigation, even the Anders Gyllenhaal, Executive Editor of The News true research and development in jour- smallest daily or weekly could engage & Observer in Raleigh, North Carolina, made nalism. How do we take these con- in this essential exploration. the keynote presentation at the Pew Center for cepts and make them work in the news- The agenda for journalism educa- Civic Journalism luncheon on August 10 at The room? How do we turn some of these tion in this digital era demands imagi- Association for Education in Journalism and commercial technologies into journal- nation, not just a linear adjustment to Media Communications’ annual convention istic tools? Almost every university renew technology. The digital age of the in Phoenix, Arizona. His topic: “What’s Com- search project that comes through my Internet is still in its infancy and both ing. Will We Be Ready for It? Equipping Journal- newsroom is on more theoretical top- professional journalism and the acad- ists for the New Communications Era.” Ex- ics, like measuring credibility or study- emy must work hard together to see cerpts from his remarks follow. ing the history of diversity. What news- that the new technology reaches a rooms are thirsting for right now are mature and productive adulthood. ■ …Another question I started to won- solutions for how to deal with this der about is whether the role technol- whole e-mail question, or a better ap- Jerome Aumente, a 1968 Nieman ogy plays in newspapers doesn’t give proach to public records, or how about Fellow, is distinguished professor journalism schools a new opportunity an online weather package that will emeritus and special counselor to that hasn’t existed before. In the same help newspapers compete with TV? the dean, School of Communication, way that medical schools, science de- With so much need for training, why Information and Library Studies, partments and business schools lead aren’t more journalism schools pro- Rutgers, the State University of New their industries with applied research, viding continuing education in tech- Jersey. ©Jerome Aumente 2000. there’s more need than ever before for nology for newspaper staff?… ■ [email protected]

64 Nieman Reports / Winter 2000 Developing a Global Interactive Dialogue It’s the Old West in the New East In India, dot-coms create a gold rush for journalists but so far not much gold.

By Rakesh Kalshian

hen an affair turns sour or dithering reporters to this new media. authenticity of the news reporting. In- bland, most of us tend to Saibal Chatterjee, 40, a writer and com- dian consumers aren’t necessarily go- Wphilander afresh in our quest mentator on culture and sports for ing online to get their news. Many are for the romantic ideal. In the early more than 15 years, recently left Out- there to use e-mail and chat. As a result, 1990’s, when familiarity with the print look, an up-and-coming Delhi-based some of what might have seemed prom- media was turning into boredom, if weekly newsmagazine, partly because ising Web sites are now disappearing: not contempt, the Indian journalist of what he describes as “an editorial A portal called indiainfo.com, which found currency, celebrity and, of impatience with serious, thoughtful hired about 200 journalists, appears to course, a new canvas to paint old reporting.” It is certainly true that com- be on the verge of shutting down. themes on, in the arms of television. petition from television has forced Indians have established themselves Today, a decade later, a new pied piper newspapers to react more to market as leading computer software profes- is in town, luring journalists, this time forces, and this can mean that they sionals in the world. Now they are with beguiling overtures of greater clout, a grander canvas, and bigger bucks. One irony is that, at least for now, journalists If you live at the cutting edge of who rush to take a job at Web sites find that modernity, surely you must have heard very little original news reporting is used and of this international charmer. Dot-com is his name. His mission: to redefine few bylines appear. and refashion the way news is gathered and disseminated. His hope: that one day the entire world will be transformed into an electronic village. His premise: pander to obsessions of the urban elite. clambering onto the dot-com band- In an increasingly global world, the Saibal is now the sports editor for go4I wagon with the frenzy of an El Dorado World Wide Web would be a quicker, and is handsomely compensated. mercenary. It’s impossible not to no- more efficient, and more democratic Lucre and disillusionment on the tice the relentless, in-your-face dot- engine of news. part of journalists aside, some dot-com com propaganda carried in Indian And in this game of mass seduction, converts also find the medium refresh- newspapers, displayed at conferences journalists have become the coveted ingly different and challenging. Says and on billboards, in cyber cafés, on handmaidens. It would be a hyperbole Tarun Tejpal, former managing editor radio and television and, of course, the to call it an exodus, but reporters are of Outlook and now chief editor of Web. Everybody, it seems, wants to being poached all the time. Sudeep India’s only e-zine called tehelka.com start a dot-com. Offering a smorgas- Mukhia, 28, a history graduate of New (Hindi for furor): “There are these in- bord of services, including e-mail, e- Delhi-based Jawaharlal Nehru Univer- built constraints of print journalism. I commerce, chat, entertainment and, sity, a hotbed of leftist politics, made was tired and weary of doing the same of course, news, dot-coms are enticing his journalistic debut six years ago as old thing. On the Net, you can innovate India’s galloping middle class. rural reporter with an environment endlessly. You can write a 5,000 word Sanjay Baru of the Economic Times, journal. His salary was $150 per month. article and compress it into 500 words an Indian financial paper, calls this Today, he edits news for a dot-com if you like. You can never do such a dot-com boom the “third wave” of mar- called go4I. His emoluments: $1400 thing in print.” ket expansion in the Indian media. The each month plus a company car. That’s One irony is that, at least for now, “first wave,” he says, came in the late a phenomenal jump by any standard. journalists who rush to take a job at 1970’s and early 1980’s, soon after the Had he remained with print, Mukhia Web sites find that very little original emergency crackdown imposed by would have been earning a little more news reporting is used and few bylines Indira Gandhi’s Congress Party. Re- than $400 a month. appear. On most news sites, the “con- newed media freedom and the revival For most dot-com converts, big tent” is essentially a cut-and-paste job of economic growth resulted in the money might have been the deciding using material from other sources. At a print media boom. New economic poli- factor. But given the precarious nature few of the leading Web sites, such as cies and the post-Gulf War boom in of dot-com ventures, disillusionment tehelka.com, bylines are accorded im- satellite television unleashed the “sec- with print media also helped push many portance and, by inference, so is the ond wave” during the early 1990’s.

Nieman Reports / Winter 2000 65 The Internet, Technology and Journalism

This wave involved a mass migration of emerging entities, its promise is pro- phone bills, and narrow bandwidth talent from newspapers to the elec- moted with a lot of hype. By 2005, make online reading not a very reliable tronic media. “But while the first two estimates of Internet users in India or pleasurable experience. And the waves were driven, for the most part, vary between five million and 50 mil- Pavlovian ritual of reading newspapers by domestic demand,” Baru observes, lion (out of a population of more than is too entrenched to expect a commit- “the dot-com tsunami is fueled by the one billion). Indeed, even figures of ted following to materialize for dot- increasing global demand for Indian the number of current users, between com news. The required cultural trans- infotainment software, on the one 1.5 and two million, are probably exag- formation necessary for such a switch hand, and global business interest in gerated. After all, there are about three is likely years away. the Indian infotainment market.” million personal computers in India, In play, too, is the question of cred- Tehelka.com announced its arrival of which about two million can be ibility. Even though dot-coms might with an exclusive on the match-fixing connected to the Web. Even so, a claim that they strive to uphold jour- scandal in cricket, India’s nalistic values of fairness, most popular game. With honesty and accuracy, the its original investigative For some reason, dot-com editors intelligent consumer still stories and experimental scrutinizes information re- sections, such as Indian have come to believe that snippety ceived through Web sites. erotic writing or Indian po- and sassily written copy goes over The dot-com journalist, too, etry, it has managed to at- well with the Web reader, whereas faces a similar problem of tract a relatively good fol- credibility when it comes to lowing. However, Tejpal’s long reflective essays arouse getting information from the Web experiment, compa- boredom. government or the industry. rable to Salon.com in the Only reporters from the most United States, remains an well-known sites—such as exception as a freestand- Rediff and Tehelka—receive ing news e-zine. All other dot-coms in McKinsey-NASSCOM (National Associa- the same recognition as print report- India are horizontal portals; along with tion of Software and Service Compa- ers from officials in the government. news, they offer other features such as nies) survey predicts that India will Perhaps because of the peculiar for- e-mail, chats and entertainment. have an estimated 23 million online by mat in which it appears, online writing Rediff.com, India’s only dot-com 2005 and possibly 100 million Internet tends to be short on analysis. For some listed on the Nasdaq, is Indian surfers’ users by 2008. reason, dot-com editors have come to favorite stomping ground. With its Also, a large slice of venture capital believe that snippety and sassily writ- neatly packaged news section, divided for Indian dot-coms is drawn from ten copy goes over well with the Web into themes such as sports, foreign and abroad. This makes their long-term reader, whereas long reflective essays health, it registers about 30 million survival uncertain, at best. Recently, arouse boredom. Indeed, the chang- page views per month. Compared to the global dot-com shakeout resulted ing character of market-driven news- other online news vendors, rediff.com, in the closure of many Indian ventures papers and television demonstrates that oldest in the business, invests a lot of and mergers with larger companies of there is nothing novel in this formula. its resources in newsgathering and of- others. Internet analysts predict that It is clear that the media, in all its fers a fair amount of original stories in over the long run only one out of 10 various forms, are pandering to the addition to regular opinion columns. dot-coms will survive. impulses of India’s rising affluent Indeed, it is opinion writers, more Since Web sites’ long-term survival middle class by including a heavy dose than reporters, who are profiting most hinges on revenues from advertising, it of Bombay (rechristened as Mumbai by by this change. Never before did they is imperative that they amass a large revivalists) films, fashion and gossip have, so to speak, such an embarrass- following. But with insecure futures, about the glitterati. Even tehelka.com ment of columns. Aside from the words companies are likely to be wary of couldn’t resist including a section of they write for dot-coms, columnists investing in online advertising. Besides, erotica on its site that is presented with pontificate on the Web sites of newspa- e-commerce, once considered the great style and sophistication. pers and television news channels, too. hope of the Internet economy, is still a Because most Web readers reside in And with newspapers now recognizing distant dream in India. Given this land- urban areas, news on dot-coms tends the need to put more original content scape, even interesting experiments to focus mainly on city and national on their Web sites, reporters, too, can such as tehelka.com might not survive. issues. For that reason, people who hope to expand both the number and Indeed, after the recent shakeout, dot- live in rural areas and the issues they reach of their bylines. In Outlook, for coms are hiring fewer reporters and at care about are pushed further to the instance, reporters can post their opin- much reduced salaries. fringe of national consciousness as Web ion pieces on the Web site. In India, as in other developing na- sites define the parameters of what Nevertheless, dot-com journalism tions, technological obstacles such as constitutes news. Of similar concern has serious limitations. Like other slow and erratic connectivity, high are the ways in which the technology is

66 Nieman Reports / Winter 2000 Developing a Global Interactive Dialogue defining the space within which re- speaking middle class who number a succumb to market pressures. porters now operate. Dot-com jour- little more than 100 million. Given This might still occur, but it is un- nalists hardly move out of their cyber marketplace realities, dot-coms have likely to happen soon. Right now, In- holes. The result is that their copy little choice but to appeal initially to dian journalists are busy reaping the tends to be highly imaginative and styl- this ready-made audience. benefits of this new market. Yet, if they ishly written but low on the substance It would have been good for India if don’t plant the roots of solid journal- and gritty detail that is the hallmark of this new medium would have provided ism in these fields of news and enter- field reporting. As long as their patron a fresh counterfoil to the pulp and tainment, the harvest in future years readers remain metropolitan it appears, deadwood of the nation’s print and TV might not treat so kindly the fruits of unfortunately, that the journalistic journalism. While it is probably still their labor. ■ ambit of dot-coms will stay narrow. too early for a final verdict on the Language also remains a great bar- outcome, it is important to remember Rakesh Kalshian, a 1999 Nieman rier in reaching large masses of the that dot-coms exist to make a profit, Fellow, is a journalist with a New Indian population. To serve the cause not for the sake of doing social good. Dehli-based weekly newsmagazine of good journalism, dot-coms will need Even so, dot-coms can no doubt enrich called Outlook. He writes about to overcome their linguistic prejudices. and empower journalists in exciting science, the environment, and devel- But here lies a Catch-22. Those with and powerful ways, provided journal- opment issues. access to modern communication tech- ists are able to keep in mind that ser- nologies are, in large part, the English- vice to the public good ought not to Digital Dividends for Journalism in Africa While obstacles abound, the potential Internet payoff could be huge.

By Tanya Accone

See that building across the expression have been applied to the elite. Even in the most populous and square?” the content manager Internet, and users practice stringent developed Web nations in southern of one of Zimbabwe’s leading self-censorship in the firm belief that Africa, journalists’ access to the Internet news-driven Web sites asked me on a their electronic communications are remains a privilege rather than an ac- recent“ visit. “That is where we keep the being closely monitored. All Internet cepted norm, both in gathering the getaway car in case of emergencies, traffic passes through the single state news and getting it out to consumers. like an unscheduled visit from the se- telecommunications network, and Africa constitutes less than one per- curity police.” Internet Service Providers (ISP’s) are cent of the global Internet population, That may sound like something required to pass on lists of users and but every country on the continent has straight out of a Bond movie, but it is a their details to the government on a access to the Internet. However, in reality in many countries throughout monthly basis. most nations it is only used in the Africa where the media—in all its old That is not to say that low rates of major metropolitan areas. Even though and new incarnations—still have to literacy or erratic supplies of electricity its use is still scarce, the Web, rather play a careful game of cat and mouse are not big obstacles, too. Or that cost than other emerging technologies, in- with governments. factors typically associated with state- cluding cellular phones and satellites, Someone from outside of Africa controlled telecommunications mo- is driving fundamental changes in the might imagine that training, access to nopolies are not limiting factors. In production and consumption of news. the technology, and the required infra- fact, just the mere act of connecting to New media is changing and chal- structure themselves are the most sig- the Web is significantly compromised lenging the face of journalism on the nificant stumbling blocks that African by problems such as diesel shortages in continent. It gives Africans new ways to journalists must surmount in order to countries such as Nigeria, where die- deal with old problems and provides take advantage of the emerging forms sel-powered generators often satisfy a new opportunities for expression, de- of communication. But high on the list greater proportion of power usage than bate and debunking, while simulta- of hurdles are wary and restrictive gov- does the national provider. neously giving old problems new ways ernments. Tunisia, for example, argu- Until these issues are adequately of manifesting. The Web enables Afri- ably has the most extensive legislation addressed, being able to label oneself can journalists to utilize three impor- governing the Internet in the world. an “African online” will remain the tant resources: free access to informa- Laws that specifically limit freedom of preserve of the academic and business tion, the ability to tap into experts

Nieman Reports / Winter 2000 67 The Internet, Technology and Journalism anywhere on the globe, and the capac- further afield. Being able to access this sis. Computer-Aided Research and Re- ity to monitor alternate reporting and kind of content, often presented from porting (CARR) is recognized as an perspectives on a variety of issues. an alternate point of view, has proved essential tool for journalists across the Many African governments have to be empowering for both journalists different media, and therefore this sub- been confounded by the impossibility and ordinary users. ject has become a third-level course of being able to police the Internet, Pan-African organizations such as taught in universities. both in terms of what information is the Senegal-based African Women’s While a laptop, digital camera, and a accessible and what news can be pub- Media Center and Namibian-based so- satellite phone are enormously helpful lished. State sanctions have been im- cial action information provider, in getting stories out of hot zones like posed on journalists in some countries WomensNet, were established to meet the Democratic Republic of the Congo, because of their use of pieces it is the humble e-mail service of Web-sourced information in that is proving to be the most which facts contradicted the powerful modern tool for jour- official line. In Tunisia last year, nalists. This fast and effective online journalist Taufik Ben communication tool, with its Brick was beaten up for his low bandwidth and basic hard- criticisms, and authorities con- ware requirements, makes it tinue to block Web sites criti- an ideal solution for infrastruc- cal of the state, including Am- ture-poor environments like nesty International, the Africa. Add to that the benefits Committee to Protect Journal- that free Web-based e-mail ser- ists, and Reporters sans vices can offer—accessibility Frontières. Two journalists and the security of being rela- from Sierra Leone’s The Inde- tively untraceable with no in- pendent Observer were ar- criminating copies harbored on rested for “illegal online activ- your hard drive—and these of- ity,” and earlier this year, fer journalists here a winning Senegal-based journalist option. Journalists have used Daniel Bekoutou was forced e-mail to issue alerts on crises, to flee to France after his life to mobilize support for col- was threatened because of his leagues suffering unjustly as a support to have the former A Web page from M-Web Africa. result of their pursuit for the Chad president, Hissene truth, to share and distribute Habré, prosecuted for torture. His these needs with specific focus on so- information and, of course, to file their story, “Hunting the Dictator,” was fi- cial issues affecting women. Both orga- stories and make them available to the nally published on the Internet. nizations have a very strong current world beyond their borders. Even access to data such as popula- focus on HIV/AIDS and design their In Nigeria, e-mail has proved to be tion statistics can be contentious de- training programs and support services “mightier than many swords.” Journal- pending on the country concerned, to put female journalists in touch with ist Omololu Falobi, from that country’s not to mention the red flags that get accurate, useful and otherwise unavail- Sunday Punch publication, was recently raised when journalists are able to ac- able information about this disease. recognized for his initiative, a monthly cess freely available satellite images via These organizations focus specifically e-mail compendium of news and infor- the Internet, which often tell a tale of on female journalists because, as mation about HIV/AIDS in Nigeria, unreported events or denied circum- women reporters, they have been pre- which provides the most comprehen- stances. Attendees at a recent African viously disadvantaged and tend to re- sive coverage of the issue available. new media conference saw satellite port on the disease, which claims, as its Most importantly, e-mail has enabled images taken over southern Angola that primary victims, women and children. journalists to network among each showed a large area of the country Numerous media training initiatives other across the continent. The infor- ablaze with numerous fires. It is pos- throughout the continent are aimed at mal and spontaneous information ex- sible these fires are linked to political equipping journalists with Web skills. changes formed via e-mail are often conflicts in the area; however, nothing Workshops are designed to enhance more effective in disseminating infor- about the fires had been reported in their ability to find sources of data that mation and alerts and amassing sup- any media. are relevant to the stories they are port than any of the traditional wire Ironically, one of the major needs of reporting. Journalists also learn how services could be. Through the act of African journalists and media consum- to manage, manipulate and interpret being able to share experiences, offer ers is regional and Pan-African infor- information and also to hook up to advice and pool knowledge, powerful mation, as people often know less about networks of experts whom they can tap alliances have been formed. neighboring countries than those much for independent comment and analy- Some of the success stories include

68 Nieman Reports / Winter 2000 Developing a Global Interactive Dialogue the Southern African Broadcasters As- rected the daily Internet operations of access to or facilitating the transmis- sociation and the Media Institute of South Africa’s largest newspaper across sion of unflattering information. In Southern Africa, both of whom have both Web and mobile platforms, and I Zambia, ISP’s have been threatened launched e-mail-based news services had a team of three that burgeoned with the revocation of their licenses if covering the affairs of 14 countries. into five. they host sites which carry information These reports are reliable and viable Skills, infrastructure and advertis- which is too critical of the government, sources of regional information. In ing support are critical success factors, while in other nations in northern Af- many instances, e-mail is the distribu- along with the encouragement of en- rica the Internet can only be accessed tion mechanism of choice. terprising initiatives such as the site using government facilities. In addi- The impact of the Internet has been built by a Tanzanian, Majaliwa Nyenzi. tion, many governments order ISP’s to as significant on media consumption Nyenzi, a self-taught Web journalist, block specific Web addresses for a vari- as it has on production. Traditional won an award for innovative use of ety of reasons. print and broadcast houses in East Af- new media for his Web site. Using his Many of the most important chal- rica, for example, have established a portal, journalists and Web surfers alike lenges lie ahead as access becomes strong online presence during the past can get a firsthand look at all aspects of more widely available and liberalized four years and have discovered that life in Tanzania, ranging from news, economies lead to improvement in in- their online audience is completely shipping data, tourism information and frastructure and the costs of using it. different, with unique needs and de- city guides to business directories and Governments are becoming smarter mands. Media that were previously rec- chat rooms. His site attracts a huge about using the Internet for their own ognized only in their region have trans- amount of attention and has become information dissemination purposes formed into news providers to the the country’s virtual de facto port of but also in their attempts to police the world, and such sites have become call, since no other Web site currently medium. It is also yet to be seen whether some of the virtual meeting places for provides this kind of aggregated infor- mobile phones, with their incredible expatriate communities worldwide. mation on Tanzania. penetration and growth rates, will be- One of the most radical transforma- The anonymous nature of this new come the next platform of choice, which tions of a media outlet is that of South medium also encourages debate. The itself could spawn a new kind of new Africa’s Sunday Times. In three short kind of discourse that would never journalism. As news organizations in years, it went from re-publishing its grace the pages of local newspapers South Africa are discovering, journal- weekly business section online to flourishes online, because users are ism for cellular technology rides on the launching a separate Internet team who comfortable expressing themselves art of the precis—the concise and pre- publish content throughout the day via freely under the guise of non-traceable cise conveying of information in 160 the Web and mobile platforms. Some nom de plumes. On M-Web Zimba- characters. 20 percent of those who view these bwe, for example, the simple act of Despite these challenges, African pages are from outside South Africa. having multiple stories of the same journalists should hardly be viewed as Other media throughout the continent news event equally presented and care- second class Net-izens. They have have also made Internet-specific in- fully juxtaposed has generated elevated molded Internet tools to suit their spe- vestments, including Kenya’s Nation levels of debate about how a single cific needs, devised ingenious techni- Group, Senegal’s Le Soleil, Nigeria’s issue could be so differently repre- cal solutions to overcome the idiosyn- Financial Standard, and many media sented. In fact, discussion forums, bul- crasies of their situations, and continue houses in southern Africa. letin boards, online polls, and listservs to apply the medium as an effective There is still, unfortunately, a dearth are becoming an effective means of means to foster a culture of freedom of of African-created content on the Web. checking the true pulse of society, or at expression. If journalists’ use of the The majority of Web sites containing least that of the e-fluential elite. Dis- Internet in Africa pays its digital divi- local content and which are also hosted cussion forums in Zimbabwe have been dends in democratic values, then we locally are in South Africa, followed by abuzz with very critical commentary on will have truly achieved the key objec- Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia. Full-scale the state’s leadership, fiscal policy, land tive of our profession. ■ Web operations are costly to build and reform issues, and police brutality. maintain, and even in South Africa’s These are precisely the critical issues Tanya Accone is the executive pro- advanced Internet market, where that concern Zimbabweans, but which ducer of M-Web Africa, where she money spent on online advertising is are not easily accommodated in the oversees the development of Internet in the millions of dollars, the human, traditional media because of govern- businesses and content portals technical and financial resources for ment censorship and harsh reactions throughout the continent. Prior to most initiatives is minimal. to negative or critical publicity. this, she was the internet editor of When I worked at The Washington But just as new media is fostering a South Africa’s largest newspaper and Post, there were more than 100 people culture of debate and criticism, so too worked at The Washington Post. employed to run their daily Web site, it is fostering a culture of new censor- with a significant amount of automa- ship. ISP’s are the hardest hit, targeted [email protected] tion. In contrast, until recently I di- by governments for hosting, providing

Nieman Reports / Winter 2000 69 The Internet, Technology and Journalism A Glimpse at Digital Resistance ‘…new technology is not just a tool but is freedom itself.’

By András Vágvölgyi

t was 1993. I was in Sarajevo. Spo- mirror is necessary if one is to accept as gether), the alliance of anti-Milosevic radic shellings could be heard all true such cruel things, even in a city in parties, had won. At the time, Oxford Iaround me as I walked the stairs up which on certain corners there are signs scholar and Balkan expert Timothy to my room on the eighth floor of the saying “Beware of snipers.” Garton Ash, writing in The New York Holiday Inn. Since the unrest had be- As I think back on this moment, I Review of Books, quoted a 23-year-old gun, this hotel had been burned out 17 think about how all of this happened student demonstrator as saying, “I just times. I was returning from a live talk during what turns out to be the last want to live in a normal country. I want show on Radio Zid (Radio Wall), the sigh of the age of television. to get up in the morning, go to a city’s independent radio station. On In our brave new digital world, al- normal shop, read my books, and have my way upstairs, I decided to drop by most everything is different. Digital the rule of law and democracy. And the BBC’s office on a lower floor. This communication provides us with more travel. I’m not a child of the Internet stop offered me a good excuse to make of an arena then a mirror. In Serbia, the but I’d like to be.” a break in my climbing, since there was last Balkan republic to have remained Maybe this particular demonstrator no functioning elevator in the hotel. in the grip of a dictator, media in gen- wasn’t “a child of the Internet” in 1997. But I also had a reason. Before I’d left eral, and the Internet especially, pre- But this year, after several years of my office in Budapest, I had agreed to sented immense challenges for the being away, I traveled to Serbia again, send dispatches for the Hungarian Ser- authorities. When students and oppo- revisiting Belgrade and Novi Sad. I was vice of BBC. So this gave me a justifica- sition parties marched in 1996-97, the very surprised at the changes I found tion to use some of BBC’s facilities and Internet was the most effective com- there. My old friend, ethnic Hungarian information. munication tool in the hands of those writer Laszlo Végel, chairman of the When I walked in I sensed immedi- who were defying President Slobodan Novi Sad chapter of the Open Society ately restlessness in the air. News had Milosevic’s power. It was easy for Foundation, is now treated like a hero just come in from London that some 35 Milosevic to command what appeared in a William Gibson novel. He spends Croatian peasants had been slaugh- on television and in much of the print most of his time working at his com- tered—their throats cut—in a village press. With radio, in particular the in- puter, using a lot of cell phones with 30 miles away from Sarajevo. At this dependent B92, Radio Index and Ra- different digital chips. Power from his point, nobody knew who could be dio O21, which insisted on reporting computer comes from a generator. blamed for these dreadful crimes. The what was actually happening, Milosevic When I asked why, he told me with a lead BBC correspondent and his local relied on jamming their broadcasts. smile, “If they disconnect electricity in assistant were working the phones, But Milosevic was never able to con- the city, I still have six hours to go!” squeezing information out of militia trol the Internet. Both in the hands of For free media to exist in Serbia members who might know something his opposition and members of the means that the new technology is not about the massacre. All they were hear- independent media, the Internet played just a tool but is freedom itself. This is ing back was denial that such a thing an important role in what has hap- why the pressures aligned against them had happened. The story wasn’t be- pened in Serbia. After radio station B- were so far-reaching. The alternative lieved. 92’s reports were banned, the pro- media have integrated Serbian society That evening I told a colleague about grams could still be heard through the in new ways, and this powerful new this story. The next morning he Internet. And independent journalists force was unacceptable to the powers pounded on my door. He was shouting in Serbia could find information on that be. The Internet strengthens the “Turn on CNN! Your story from last Internet sites that was prohibited from country’s civil organizations since, by night is the top news.” I did, and as I appearing in the local press, as well as geography, members are spread out gazed at the dead bodies of the villag- communicate with one another. and otherwise isolated. The Internet ers with their throats cut and at their The new opposition of Serbia was helped to connect these little cells. dead dogs, I listened to the shelling born out of the long demonstration According to my friend Végel, the re- outside and I thought about how bi- that followed the local elections in sult of all of this is that, during the zarre everything seemed. Here things 1996. They were protesting the fact recent federal presidential election, became real when they were seen on a that Milosevic’s party had annulled the neither the annulment of results nor screen, a strange mirror indeed. It is results of municipal elections in most cheating could be achieved. odd, but sometimes looking into a of the 15 cities where Zajedno (To- In September I sat on the terrace of

70 Nieman Reports / Winter 2000 Developing a Global Interactive Dialogue a café with 20-year-old Jelena Kleut, booklet on how to behave against the in its clandestine form. Frequent au- who is an Otpor (Resistance) activist police. It suggests, if cops are about to thor and world famous writer George and in charge of foreign relations for approach a group of young people— Konrad said, “Okay, it seems there’s the Vojvodina region. The presidential which means arrest is almost sure to gonna be freedom of speech and me- election’s first round would happen take place—to put one hand in your dia liberty from now on, but I advise the next day. She was anxious and pocket and have the mobile phone on, you to keep some of the stencil print nervous. Her mobile phone was con- staying on last call. That way it’s enough machines in a safe place!” stantly ringing: Anything could hap- to push only one button and someone The opposition won in Serbia, and pen, the callers were telling her, in- trustworthy will hear that friends are in some changes are starting to occur cluding the possibility of shootouts. trouble and possibly pick up some other there now. But the advice is still sound: Frequently she looked around to see details as well. Demonstrators, stu- Don’t throw away those cell phones. ■ whether police were watching. dents, activists and parents then sur- Her boyfriend, Nebojsa, arrived, well round the police station and shout András Vágvölgyi, a 1995 Nieman equipped with Gotov je! (He’s fin- until the arrested, but nonviolent, re- Fellow, founded and edited Magyar ished!) leaflets, banners, badges and sisters are released. Narancs, a trendsetting Budapest bumper stickers. He is one of the most This struck me as the first step in weekly. He spent many years in the frequently arrested Otpor activists; it digital resistance. Hopefully, such in- United States and Japan and is now happened 17 times between March and structions won’t be needed in Serbia senior writer for Élet es Iroldalom, September. He is also 20 years old, anymore. the Hungarian equivalent of The never been abroad, never seen the sea. I remember well a situation that New Yorker, and cultural columnist He was seven when this madness be- happened in Budapest 12 years ago. of Index.hu, the primary Hungarian- gan in his country. They ask my pa- The most important Hungarian language Internet portal. tience while they settle something in samizdat (a self-published political un- Serbian, and I take a look at Otpor’s derground magazine) ceased to exist [email protected]

Technology Replaces Legs and Ropes at The Bangkok Post But fortunately, publishing the news still relies on human interaction.

By Songpol Kaopatumtip

still remember the scream. In fact, became all too aware. would hover around the paste-up sec- everyone at the weekly feature sec- One of my reporters was putting tion of the newsroom, waiting for the Ition still remembers hearing it. finishing touches to her 2,000-word typesetter—a formidable-looking ma- It happened early in 1999. A team of article when a “dongle” flashed across chine that churned out glossy paper— foreign computer experts was in the the screen. Wham! Her hard day’s work to give the paste-up artists the bits of editorial department training report- instantaneously disappeared into thin paper needed to finish the job at mid- ers, rewriters, sub-editors and editors air. Her scream bounced off the walls night. Sometimes they had to wait 15 to use a new computer system—pagi- and reverberated around the news- to 30 minutes to correct one spelling nation—that would enable us to write room. mistake. and edit copy and lay out pages on the Now, nearly two years later, we have The old editing and page-making screen. Odd words like “dongle” and learned to live with the strange com- system also required a lot of running “Dr. Watson” were unknown to us at puter coding, workflow charts, and a around. In the pre-pagination days, this time, since these are technical terms terrifying string of unexplained events The Bangkok Post editorial area spread familiar only to computer experts. Nor that, fortunately, has now become less out over three floors in the atrium-like were any of us yet aware of the hidden frequent. Today, when reporters “lose” main office. The news section was lo- hazards that we’d soon learn were as- their copy, our production team knows cated on the top floor. After the copy sociated with these seemingly harm- how to trace and retrieve it. was edited, the layout sub-editor would less sounding words. Indeed, we have come a long way gather the stories and pictures, sketch On that hot Thursday afternoon, we from the days when the sub-editors out the page on a sheet of paper called

Nieman Reports / Winter 2000 71 The Internet, Technology and Journalism a “dummy,” and put it in a basket. The sible. We hounded politicians, inter- mation from before 1995 often must copy boy would pick up the dummy viewed people on the streets, and ob- be located elsewhere. And all the lead- and walk down three flights of stairs to tained crucial information by nurtur- ing newspapers also have Web sites, the paste-up section on the other side ing personal connections with inside though it is unclear how many people of the building. The proofed pages sources. In short, we did all the things here actually rely on the Internet for would then be brought upstairs for the good reporters are trained to do, and their news. A lot of the more popular chief sub-editor to sign. All this re- the personal touch of our reporting sites offer entertainment, gossip, horo- quired an awful amount of stair climb- was crucial because government agen- scopes, contests, chat rooms and dat- ing. One day somebody finally dropped cies tended to withhold state informa- ing services, and though news is of- a pair of strings down from the third to tion, and we were often led to believe fered, it isn’t what drives traffic on the the first floor. Stories, pictures, press that statistics were not systematically site. kept or simply did not At Perspective, even in this age of exist. the Internet, we still adhere to the old Imagine my de- tried and tested ways that journalists light when I found have always gathered information— out that such infor- through personal contacts with mation is available sources. I still take time on a regular online from state basis to meet with news sources for agencies. The Budget lunch. After all, you cannot e-mail all Bureau now has a da- your potential news sources in a coun- tabase of information try where fewer than five percent of derived from govern- households have access to personal ment expenditures. computers. The Royal Thai Police And it is still a great joy for me to Special Crime and preside over the weekly news meeting, Transnational Crime where we confront issues without be- The author at a Bangkok Post computer. Center has its own ing confrontational. There were times Web site where I can when a reporter and a sub-editor nearly releases—and sometimes a box of read profiles of transnational crimi- came to blows over a few missing lines, pizza—would be hoisted up and car- nals, and I can e-mail the Office of but eventually someone would buckle ried down by rope instead of legs. National Education Commission for down to listen to others. It is fortunate Now these amusing routines are information about home schooling, that this human proactive exercise is gone, as machines have replaced rope learning reform, and the licensing of alive and well despite the onset of the and shoes. And, not surprisingly, the teachers. All this information can be Net-mania. I can’t imagine what life pagination system has instilled a new obtained with a few clicks of the mouse. would be like if we had to conduct our work pattern. Stories are assigned and When a former Thai deputy finance news meeting online. You simply can- edited on the same screen. Simple page- minister was arrested in California in not talk to the computer as you can a making can be done with a few clicks of March, we had to rely on foreign wire human being. Besides, if we carried on the mouse. The ubiquitous typesetter services to keep abreast of the news. our conversations by computer, some- is gone, and we no longer have to wait Then someone gave me the e-mail ad- body would just need to push the wrong 30 minutes to change “oo” into “o” in dress of a Thai journalist living in Cali- key and “dongles” would steal our “loosing my way.” And, yes, we have fornia, and I assigned him to interview words away. ■ learned to use the Internet—the ulti- the ex-minister. The story was mailed mate information superhighway that to me along with photos as attached Songpol Kaopatumtip, a 1987 many of us had started to travel even files. There were no diskettes that could Nieman Fellow, is editor of the before the “dongle” came along. be damaged in the mail. No waiting for Perspective section of The Bangkok At first, we were ignorant of the the mail at all. Nor was there any need Post, a leading English-language Internet’s potential, and we were also to travel thousands of miles across the newspaper in Thailand. Perspective afraid. But within three years, the globe to do this interview. And I was is a weekly Sunday section involving Internet has proven to be very popular able to get this story into print within investigative reporting, analyses and in the newsroom—even for older jour- one week. commentaries. A Perspective article nalists who may not have felt they’d be The speed of the Internet is truly on human consequences of the especially comfortable with doing com- amazing, and it is what makes it such a failure to protect the environment puter research. At the Perspective sec- powerful tool for communication. The was named the second winner of the tion, where I’ve worked for six years, most difficult part of using the Internet Lorenzo Natali Prize for Journalism we practiced investigative journalism is in finding the best and most credible in 1998. long before the Net and computer- information. Most Thai government assisted reporting became easily acces- agencies have Web sites, though infor-

72 Nieman Reports / Winter 2000 Developing a Global Interactive Dialogue Coffee and Copy at Asian Internet Cafés Keeping the keys to the electronic office out of government hands.

By Philip J. Cunningham

started writing in Beijing cafés not He lived with his wife and son in the are heavily censored for political con- so much inspired by Hemingway two-room aluminum shack—a safety tent but useful to study as a barometer Iand the Paris literary crowd as by measure to protect the 10 valuable of how far American companies are the harsh realities of information con- computers and printer—nestled on the willing to kowtow in order to compete trol in the Chinese capital. edge of a quiet tree-lined lane adjacent in the China market. Small Beijing- When I tried to get my home com- to the “Experimental Dining Hall.” He based e-zines such as “Beijing Scene” puter online I went to China Telecom, ran a clean ship and served a decent and “ChinaNow” shy away from touchy where I was told to come back with my cup of coffee in a smoke-free environ- political material in order to survive, passport and a mountain of forms tell- ment, which made the sunny café nicer perchance to thrive, but they are basi- ing the authorities everything they than a hotel business office at a fraction cally lifestyle Web sites run by and for needed to know to monitor my com- of the price, about a buck an hour. expatriates. It is far more disappoint- munications more efficiently. As a Police questioned the café manager ing to observe that a big American gun freelance writer without press creden- from time to time, and on two occa- such as Yahoo!, known for competent tials or a press visa in Beijing, handing sions some fugitive dissidents looking news coverage and hotlinks to The them the keys to my electronic office for a safe house on campus were po- Associated Press, Reuters and other didn’t seem like a good idea, so I litely asked to leave. As comfortable as wire services, self-censors the Chinese shopped around for other services. the university café was, I knew that language version of its popular portal. Journalists with official press cre- some of my work, reporting on Falun The advantage of sending e-mail dentials are generally required to live Gong in particular, would have to be from a randomly chosen Internet café and work in designated buildings done elsewhere. Luckily for the with a free Internet e-mail service reg- barred to ordinary citizens. Life in the freelance journalist, Beijing has hun- istered under a pseudonym is that one’s “fishbowl” means putting up with dreds of Internet agents of the state in the form of gov- cafés that compete ernment interpreters, drivers, workers with sleazy bars and cleaning ladies. Telephones, faxes for dimness of and locally based e-mail accounts are lighting, thickness easily monitored, and offices and rooms of cigarette are sometimes bugged. The passive smoke, and deci- gaze of Big Brother is not necessarily bel blast of Chi- obtrusive, but it can have a chilling nese pop. In the effect on Chinese friends and contacts. more grungy I soon discovered one could get down-market online in Beijing by dialing a three- cafés, customers digit number advertised by some playing video cheaply priced Internet Service Provid- games and boy- ers (ISP’s) without offering any identi- girl chat room us- fication at all. I could send and receive ers outnumber e-mail almost anonymously using my Web surfers and The author at an Internet café in Phuket town, southern Thailand. U.S.-based accounts, but service was those using e-mail spotty. Worse yet, logging on by about 20 to one, so most of the name and the name of one’s corre- someone’s home phone leaves an elec- activity is below the radar screen of the spondents are not easily revealed dur- tronic record, putting the entire onus politically minded authorities. ing governmental investigations, elec- on the owner of the phone. Beijing bans some English news sites tronic spot checks, and e-mail records. The Internet café at the local univer- such as The New York Times and CNN, Articles intended for publication are sity turned out to be a good place to but I could find most of the research less of a problem, just a zap of the e- work. A cheerful former lifeguard at information I needed from the wire mail button will do, since they are for the local swimming pool ran the café services and other online publications. public consumption and will sooner or and, true to form, not much happened Chinese language sites, including Ya- later be recorded by press monitors in in the café that escaped his eagle eyes. hoo! China and other big-time portals, Chinese embassies abroad.

Nieman Reports / Winter 2000 73 The Internet, Technology and Journalism

China’s October 2000 crackdown at Beijing airport when my computer as when I post stories on The Freedom on the Internet means it will be tougher was discovered and examined during a Forum’s International Web site, the to report from Internet cafés without spot check. Scott Savitt, editor of Pacific News Service newswire, or zap someone facing the consequences. It “Beijing Scene,” had all of his office an e-mail to a mass e-mail publication has been ruled that content providers computers confiscated during a crack- called Z-net. Other times it’s digital in, must to stick to the party line in posting down on entertainment weeklies. analog out, such as e-mailing pictures content and, more ominously, ISP’s Laptops are more secure than desk- and stories to paper publications such will have to police the content trans- tops, but it’s hard to beat having no as The Japan Times and The South mitted and viewed by customers or computer at all when it comes to trav- China Morning Post. face fines and possible closure. eling light and unobtrusively. It’s handy None of this should lead one to Despite the stringent new rules, the to travel with a floppy disk for backup, conclude that hanging out in cafés sheer volume of traffic on the Internet though in a pinch sending an e-mail to makes a journalist’s life any easier. As I makes it a good conduit for news infor- yourself will do the job of saving and tap keys to compose this e-mail from a mation, but individuals can be singled filing text. busy Internet café on Sukhumwit Road out. Selective monitoring puts at risk Working in an Internet café can be in Bangkok, a live band starts belting the freelancer or local informant who cheaper than logging on with one’s out pop tunes next door, and I’m start- piques the attention of the public and own computer in places like Beijing ing to lose my concentration. ■ state security services. Hotel business and Bangkok, where the hourly rate offices are usually monitored and prob- (outside of big hotels) is less than a Philip Cunningham, a 1998 Nieman ably best avoided. Sending encrypted dollar an hour. The café strategy also Fellow, is a lecturer in the faculty of e-mail and/or using anonymous free e- works fine in Seoul, where Internet communication arts at mail accounts at randomly chosen com- café culture has taken firm root, but it Chulalongkorn University in mercial cafés offers some protection to doesn’t work as well in Hong Kong Bangkok. He writes on Asian poli- both sender and receiver. despite free Internet kiosks in some tics, culture and media issues. He is The advantages of reporting from a cafés. Japan is by far the most expen- the author of “Reaching for the Sky,” café go beyond the virtue of anonym- sive; logging on is costly and Internet a memoir about covering the ity. There is no laptop to lug around cafés are few and far between. Tiananmen student demonstrations and no fear of its confiscation or abu- This year I have filed dozens of sto- for the BBC. sive customs fees. I had to leave a ries by e-mail from cafés around Asia. deposit of $100 with customs officials Sometimes it’s bytes in, bytes out, such [email protected] Journalists’ Use of the Internet Bubbled Up From Underground It helped to topple a corrupt president, but now poverty prevents its spread.

By Andreas Harsono

very other day Akhmad Nasir goes less than $100 per month. This means Internet specialist Wisnuhardana of the to an Internet café in the north- that Nasir spends between 10 and 20 Jakarta-based “Info Komputer” maga- Eern part of Yogyakarta, Indone- percent of his meager earnings just for zine told me in October that this year sia. He is there for an hour or two, the Internet. “It’s cheaper than buying he helped the Manila-based Philippines sending stories, checking e-mail, brows- a computer and having a telephone Center for Investigative Journalism or- ing Web sites, doing his research, and connection at home,” said Nasir. “Any- ganize journalist training in Indonesia. making appointments. “In busier days way, no telephone line is available in “I remember not more than 15 of the I work there every day,” Nasir says. For my village yet.” average 40 participants use the Internet renting an Internet-connected PC in Across Indonesia, lots of journal- and are familiar with e-mail,” said one of three cafés he frequents, Nasir ists—from writers in the head offices of Wisnuhardana. pays 3,500 Indonesian rupiah per hour hundreds of news organizations lo- Gradually more and more Indone- (around 40 cents). cated in the capital, Jakarta, to string- sian journalists are using the Internet. This might sound cheap to an Ameri- ers in medium-size cities in remote Stringers of Jakarta papers, which usu- can, but most young Indonesian jour- areas of Kalimantan or Sumatra—fol- ally have no bureau offices, spend hours nalists, like the 25-year-old Nasir, earn low work patterns similar to Nasir. at Internet cafés to send reports or to

74 Nieman Reports / Winter 2000 Developing a Global Interactive Dialogue receive instructions from their Jakarta figure now is around 800,000 but mul- be published again later that year. More editors. Only journalists of rich news tiplies to four million or so when the than 1,000 new publications immedi- organizations can access the Internet use of Internet cafés is factored in.) ately entered the market. However, 24 hours a day from their office desks. Even so, these numbers are relatively most them are sex-and-crime-driven The arrival of the Internet among small when compared with the Indo- newspapers or yellow political tabloids. Indonesia’s journalists happened in a nesian population of 210 million. Private radio stations were also allowed, way that is a bit different than the Two arguments were made. for the first time in Indonesia’s history, American experience. It did not arrive Goenawan Mohamad, the editor of to produce their own news reports. with the formation of dot-com firms. Tempo, one of the three banned week- Alas, their news reporting quality is Nor did it have an Amazon.com-styled lies, believed that the most important extremely poor, but it could be under- stock explosion. Rather it emerged from facet of what we were doing was to stood. Five new television stations are the underground media during the late create an understanding that “some- going to enter the market. Locally de- 1990’s, not through the emergence of one is watching” over the unbridled veloped dot-com news providers, commercial Web sites. Indonesian jour- corruption in Suharto’s Indonesia. owned by both Indonesians and for- nalists were most probably among the Since there was no law regulating this eigners, are also appearing to offer first group of people in this country new media, Goenawan went ahead and Indonesians minute-by-minute news who extensively used the Internet. In published an Internet version called developments. fact, the name “Internet” was initially Tempo Interactive (www.tempo.co.id). But the fall of Suharto came with a associated with the alternative media. The second argument is well reflected very high price. His departure occurred The Internet’s emergence occurred by a slogan that journalists often quote, during the Asian economic crisis. Dur- after President Suharto closed down “Let’s not just curse the darkness; let’s ing that time, the Indonesian rupiah three of Indonesia’s most important light the candle.” lost about 70 percent of its value to the newsweeklies in 1994. Suharto not only Both perspectives proved to be right. American dollar. At the height of the closed down these magazines but also Some of these alternative news Web crisis, 15 million people lost their jobs put pressure on editors not to hire sites recorded an amazing number of in a single month. Prices of basic food- journalists who were protesting the hits. Many journalists were puzzled stuffs, such as rice, cooking oil and closure. In an authoritarian country and amused when people gave them sugar, skyrocketed. Prices of imported such as Suharto’s Indonesia, it was not photocopies of their downloaded sto- goods, like computers, catapulted sky difficult to ask executives of the gov- ries. Street protesters distributed pho- high. As the economy sank, 58 million ernment-sanctioned Association of In- tocopied stories to the public and put people slipped below the poverty line. donesian Journalists to ask editors to the stories at bus stops and train sta- “In Indonesia, we have no govern- fire their “recalcitrant journalists.” tions. These Internet journalists used ment welfare system. On average every Journalists who used to work for the no bylines. employed person has three depen- banned weeklies, as well as colleagues Many East Timorese students, who dents—a spouse, children and parents. who formed a journalist union to pro- were studying on the Indonesian main So if 40 million are unemployed, it test the banning, soon went to work island of Java, where Jakarta is located, affects more than 100 million people, underground. Some of them published also set up an Internet-based news at least half of the population. That print magazines, but others chose to network. Several joined hands with creates a big potential for social unrest. write on mailing lists, channeling their their Indonesian colleagues and It can heat up any time,” said econo- work to the Internet rather than the learned how to make a laptop into a mist Laksamana Sukardi of the Indone- usual print or broadcast media. I joined powerful and mobile Internet server sian Democratic Party of Struggle. these groups of journalists. I helped and how to automatically encrypt their Journalists are not immune from set up the union, lost my job, and stories. Others joined the Indonesian this economic crisis. Friends of mine joined the Internet publication. I re- underground network from the once stopped their Internet connections to member one night in a safe house a occupied island of East Timor, feeding cut their expenses. Worse than that, colleague and I had an informal talk daily reports about human rights abuses more and more journalists are receiv- after work. “Who will read our stories?” and other political developments. One ing “envelopes,” or bribes. Some sur- he wondered aloud. “How many list of them is now a founding editor of an veys revealed that between 70 and 80 subscribers do we have? It’s only the East Timor-based newspaper. percent of Indonesian journalists take elite, isn’t it?” The climax of the anti-Suharto move- the “envelopes” from government of- The answer was yes. With their news, ment came in May 1998, when hun- fices or corporations. ranging from the corruption of the dreds of thousands of student protest- Journalists such as Nasir, Suhartos to breaking news from East ers dramatically occupied the Wisnuhardana and me are a part of a Timor, and the method of transmis- parliament building, forcing President violent and poor culture. Every day we sion, they were reaching primarily the Suharto, who had ruled the country read reports about people being killed elite. In the mid-1990’s, there were not since 1965, to step down from power. in ethnic, religious or political violence more than 200,000 Internet users reg- A new freedom was in the air. Tempo in this vast archipelago. Aceh in north- istered in Indonesia. (The comparable and another banned weekly began to ern Sumatra is now fighting for inde-

Nieman Reports / Winter 2000 75 The Internet, Technology and Journalism pendence just as people are in West He was editing a student tabloid in of journalism. He chooses to light a Papua on the easternmost part of Indo- Yogyakarta. I found him to be a polite candle instead of curse the darkness nesia. The Maluku Islands are notori- person and an idealist. As soon as he that is so much a part of this nation’s ous because of their Muslim versus finished his undergraduate degree, he poverty. ■ Christian conflict. These are shameful went to work at a Jakarta newspaper. facts and yet, to the extent that they After some months he decided to quit, Andreas Harsono is the managing indicate lives lived on the very edge of going back to his village outside editor of the Pantau monthly maga- precipices, I have no doubt that they Yogyakarta to publish a very small com- zine about the media and journal- are also part of what makes our archi- munity paper that recently won an ism published in Jakarta. pelago compelling. award for its pioneering effort. Nasir is I met Nasir in late 1998 when he among a generation of journalists that [email protected] asked me to give a talk on journalism. keep hope alive in Indonesia’s world .

Le Monde Moves a Big Story to Its Web Site A national uproar leads to criticism and concerns.

By Françoise Lazare

or decades, Le Monde has main- main stories of the printed version. readers. Because the reporters had the tained its reputation of being an Now the Web site has some autonomy, videotape, the editors decided to also Faccurate newspaper, the kind publishing some of its own reporting put the unedited tape on the site so people count on as a reference for facts and offering interactive services to the viewers could hear and see the accusa- and stories. It is a newspaper that has 15 percent of the French population tions that were being reported. retained its old-fashioned style almost who have access to Internet, as well as The videotape was an autobiographi- as a guarantee of its independent news to foreigners. cal text of Jean-Claude Mery, edited by voice and ownership. In September 2000, when Le an independent journalist, Arnaud In 1990, when so many technology Monde’s investigative reporters got Hamelin, now under judicial scrutiny changes had come to other papers, access to a videotape containing accu- for “concealing a violation of profes- there were no computers in Le Monde’s sations that President Jacques Chirac sional secret.” However, with prosecu- newsrooms or the printing offices. The had supervised a corruption scheme tors harassing Hamelin about meet- newspaper would not publish photo- generating big funding for his political ings he had and information he graphs, only cartoons. The journalists, party, the Rassemblement pour la received, the Societé des redacteurs du mostly men, would gather information République (RPR), the Web site itself Monde (journalists are the majority through private conversations and in- became national news. Hard copy read- stockholders of the newspaper) issued vestigations. They would dictate their ers of Le Monde could learn this news a statement expressing its concern. The stories to secretaries or maybe use their in the Friday edition dated September statement called these judicial efforts own typewriters. Even in 1995, when a 22 that was available for sale in Paris “an impediment against the freedom new management team lead by former starting at one in the afternoon on of information and the protection of political journalist Jean-Marie September 21. Subscribers and read- sources as guaranteed by European Colombani launched a revamped, more ers from the provinces, or from abroad, legislation.” dynamic version of Le Monde, it man- would, in theory, not discover the story Mery was a real estate promoter and aged to increase sales while keeping its until the next morning’s mail distribu- party fundraiser, who died of cancer in reputation and values intact. tion and kiosk openings. 1999. On the videotape, back in 1996, But during the later years of that Editors at Le Monde knew its pub- he explained how Chirac had super- decade, computers, electronic equip- lished accusations were so serious that vised several corruption schemes when ment, and the Internet began to sur- other media organizations (radio and he was the mayor of Paris. Back in face in the newsroom. By 1997, Le TV) would refer to the scandal before October 1986, Mery claimed he had, as Monde had opened an interactive Web the next day. So, for the first time, Le an adviser to Chirac, conveyed mil- site (www.tout.lemonde.fr) though no Monde’s editors decided to publish its lions of French francs in kickbacks as one seemed quite sure of how it would story online first. The story went up on political contributions from big firms. be used. Very few people used the the Web site on Thursday morning, a Just as Kenneth Starr’s impeachment Internet at the time and, at first, the site few hours before the printed version of report on President Clinton was put on simply was another way of reading the the same story would begin to reach the Web in the United States in 1998

76 Nieman Reports / Winter 2000 Developing a Global Interactive Dialogue and created a national uproar, our “tape of disgust towards the political world? dence, nor has it weakened its journal- scandal” did the same. Internet pub- In the midst of this, Le Monde was istic role of filtering news to the public. lishing, used in this way for the first accused of wanting to weaken Chirac, On the contrary, using the Web site time, pushed sales of printed copies of a conservative. But on the very evening seems to have increased the the newspaper 30 per- newspaper’s audience and cent higher on Septem- opened new arenas of in- ber 22, and 39 percent vestigative reporting. Gov- higher on the 23rd, the ernment offices sometimes two days on which rev- make some long-term elations were published. trends and statistics avail- The Web site and the able online which, when newspaper carried the analyzed correctly, can be same information about very revealing. “Convers- Mery. But the fact that ing” on the Web about spe- people could directly lis- cific issues can also bring ten to the tape gave the the journalist a lot of new story instant credibility information that can then and seemed to increase be worked with and veri- their desire to know more fied. through access to the In the videotape story, printed editorials. the interactive Web site At first, legal special- helped to move the revela- ists questioned the legal tions more rapidly to the status of a videotape, general public, and hearing compared to a written the voice and seeing the document. But since ev- images increased their cred- erybody could freely lis- ibility. However, these ac- ten to the Web, this accu- tions were closely moni- sation soon went away. tored by all the editors in Then several politicians chief, which hopefully will and firm representatives always be the case at Le claimed that the opera- The translation: Tapes, lies and video—“Yes, okay, I will talk to you, Monde and other publications being denounced but give me those tapes.” tions as this type of publish- were too old. Back in ing increases. In the years 1986, they said, there was no legisla- of the referendum, the French weekly ahead, Le Monde, like other newspa- tion defining the financing procedures magazine L’Express revealed on its Web pers, will need to find ways to ensure of French political parties. (Several laws site that Dominique Strauss Kahn (a that the news delivered through either were passed starting in the late 1980’s.) socialist and former minister of finance) print or the Web are equally sound and Observers also questioned the tim- was the owner of the original tape by accurate. ■ ing of the tape’s release: It came right Mery (Le Monde had a copy), a fact he before an important poll, organized by never mentioned. Françoise Lazare, a 1998 Nieman Jacques Chirac, asking French people The story also raised some ques- Fellow, has been a reporter for Le if they agreed to shorten the presiden- tions about Le Monde’s traditional Monde since 1989, where she now tial mandate from seven to five years. position within the French press as the specializes in global international Obviously, the hot corruption story news organization that could be lifestyle issues. She started as an was more appealing than the dry con- counted on to retain a focus on sound economics writer after graduating stitutional law question. In the most and important international issues. from the Institut d’Etudes Politiques massive case of absenteeism ever, only With France governing as president of and from the School of Advanced one-third of French citizens showed the European Union until December International Studies at Johns up at the polls, and 70 percent ap- 2000, with Serbian unrest and tensions Hopkins University. In 1988, she proved the shortening of the mandate. developing in the Middle East, Le worked in the newsroom of The Wall That outcome was not surprising, but Monde’s decision to dramatically high- Street Journal as a correspondent for what shocked people was that so many light this scandal by releasing the vid- La Tribune de l’Economie, then French citizens seemed so indifferent eotape on its Web site made some affiliated with the New York publica- to democracy that they wouldn’t even wonder about the newspaper’s “Pari- tion. vote anymore. Had the “tape” story sian bias.” had such an impact that this amount of The use of this new technology has [email protected] voter absenteeism was becoming a sign not threatened Le Monde’s indepen-

Nieman Reports / Winter 2000 77 Journalist’s Trade

Richard Wexler, a former reporter and journalism professor, now executive director of the National Coalition for Child Protection Reform, contends that journalists’ usual coverage of child welfare revolves around a “master narrative.” This familiar story line, he argues, is wrong in its portrayal of the problem and results in dire consequences for the well-being of children as more children are placed in foster care. “The master narrative holds that when children ‘known to the system’ die, it must be because that system bends over backwards to keep children in, or return them to, dangerous homes in the name of ‘family preservation,’” Wexler writes. He cites evidence to support his claim that journalists highlight stories when children die in parental care, but barely acknowledge deaths in foster care. Wexler offers journalists an alternative narrative. Nina Bernstein, a metropolitan reporter for The New York Times who has reported on child welfare for more than a quarter of a century, describes her attempts to escape the master narrative and replace it with more balanced coverage of the child welfare system and its impact on children’s lives. She says her ability to do this was best realized in her soon-to- be-published book, “The Lost Children of Wilder: The Epic Struggle to Change Foster Care,” in which she uses narrative journalism to explore through one family’s experience the actual impact of both public perception and policies. Patricia Callahan, a Wall Street Journal reporter, writes about an investigative series of stories about abuse and death of children in foster care that she worked on while at The Denver Post. She and her Post colleagues battled agencies to get “confidential” records and crunched computer records of various databases. They then published stories that exposed the selection of foster parents who had criminal records and the shoddy and illegal practices by private companies contracted by the state to oversee children in foster care. Their reporting demonstrated how confidentiality rules can harm children and led to suggested changes in the system by a special committee of the state legislature. Jane Hansen, a reporter with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, describes the consequences of her newspaper’s efforts to get state agencies to release to journalists the records of children’s deaths in foster care. Stories about these deaths—and the difficulty of getting records—have resulted in the passage of Georgia’s Open Records Act. Journalists can now receive the records of individual children who died while in the custody of the state. Blair Tindall, a reporter for the Contra Costa (Calif.) Times, shows what happens to small ethnic newspapers when a large newspaper chain—in this case Knight Ridder—wants to gain a sizeable market share. Vietnamese owned and operated newspapers are losing readership and advertising and some are ceasing publication. And the Vietnamese community is losing its independent media voices. Don Aucoin, a television critic for The Boston Globe and current Nieman Fellow, lets us know why the TV drama about journalism, “Deadline,” came and went so quickly in this fall season. Turns out the show’s portrayal of a newspaper columnist was more sleuth than truth. ■

78 Nieman Reports / Winter 2000 Journalist’s Trade Caught in a Master Narrative It’s Why Many Stories About Child Welfare Get It Wrong.

By Richard Wexler

eath did not come quickly for able borders.” The master narrative is well parents in a futile effort to reunite four-year-old Caprice Reid. She not the result of conscious decisions or parents and children. Dwas tied to a chair. She was edicts from above. (One of the few By the mid-1990’s, the status of these denied food and water. She was beaten times I ever agreed with my former statements in news stories had evolved with sticks. It took four days for her to managing editor at the Albany Times- from claims attributed to named die. Union was when he wrote that “there sources to statements of “fact,” appear- She died in Brooklyn. But New York are no media conspiracies—we’re not ing without attribution in a kind of City’s newspapers paid remarkably little that well organized.”) boilerplate synopsis in story after story. attention. It made the front page of The In child welfare, the master narra- It is now the case that when reporters New York Times only once and then tive springs from several factors. It call me about child welfare stories, only as a news peg for a broader story. seems to make sense intuitively. If a they often start off by asking me about Among the tabloids only Newsday gave child is left in danger, there must be “the conflict between child protection it much play, and only briefly. some policy that calls for it. Then there and family preservation.” But before I A recent search of the Nexis data- is “the Nexis effect,” in which the same respond to that question, I need to base finds 36 stories that even mention people are quoted saying the same challenge its premise and explain (and Caprice Reid. For another New York thing in story after story. Combine that yes, sometimes argue) that, in fact, City child who died a horrible death, with the outrage and revulsion that the child protection is impossible without Elisa Izquierdo, there are 1,006. abuse of a child produces in all of us, family preservation. Ask some of the same journalists and you have all the ingredients for a The term “family preservation” was who vividly remember the death of narrative that is unlikely to be ques- invented in the 1970’s to describe one Elisa Izquierdo about Caprice Reid, as tioned before it gets into print or is specific type of intervention, a pro- I have done, and what you’ll get back broadcast. gram called Intensive Family Preserva- are mostly blank stares. But the master narrative that under- tion Services (IFPS). This approach to In Florida, I ask reporters who can pins this coverage of child welfare is improving child welfare challenges cite chapter and verse about the death wrong. And journalists’ tenacity in cling- more than a century of orthodoxy and of a child named Bradley McGee if ing to it has had tragic consequences thus provoked a lot of hostility within they’ve ever heard of Corey Greer, who for children. It has led to the creation the mainstream child welfare estab- died a horrible death of dehydration as of policies that have torn thousands of lishment. Yet those within the estab- an infant. I get the same result. children needlessly from safe and lov- lishment who were hostile to it essen- Why are Elisa and Bradley remem- ing—but poor—homes. And it has set tially hijacked this very narrowly defined bered while Corey and Caprice are off “foster care panics,” in which huge term and slapped it onto any decision forgotten? Because the deaths of Elisa numbers of additional children are that was made to leave any child in any Izquierdo and Bradley McGee fit the needlessly removed, decisions that home under any circumstances, even if “master narrative” of much of what endanger children’s lives. My point in that family had been nowhere near a journalists report and write about child raising these issues is not to persuade real IFPS program. In fact, there is welfare: Each of these children was journalists of an alternative narrative, plenty of evidence that, for most chil- killed by a birth parent. Corey Greer only to provide one and suggest that it dren most of the time, genuine IFPS and Caprice Reid don’t fit the master deserves to be a part of the public child programs are safer than foster care, narrative: They died, inconveniently, welfare debate. both because the programs have so in foster homes. The master narrative holds that when many safeguards built in and because In a recent issue of the Columbia children “known to the system” die, it study after study has found that foster Journalism Review, Trudy Lieberman must be because that system bends care is very dangerous. (Space prohib- wrote that “Much self-censorship over backwards to keep children in, or its listing the studies here, but they are springs from what former St. Louis return them to, dangerous homes in discussed on our Web site, Post Dispatch editor William Woo calls the name of “family preservation.” Fur- www.nccpr.org.) the ‘master narrative,’ which he de- thermore, the master narrative tells us The real reason children “known to fines as the template reporters bring to that children are forced to languish in the system” sometimes die is almost an event or issue.… Editors and report- foster care for years because family always because an under-prepared, ers absorb the conventional wisdom preservation fanatics insist on lavish- under-trained, underpaid caseworker and often don’t stray from its accepting services on the children’s ne’er-do- with an overwhelming caseload made

Nieman Reports / Winter 2000 79 Journalist’s Trade

a life-and-death-decision, and blew it. adoption once a child was removed. away and forgotten as overwhelmed Scapegoating family preservation actu- Indeed, it was the first federal law to set caseworkers rush on to the next crisis. ally worsens this problem, since it sets time limits on children’s stays in foster Children don’t languish in foster care off “foster care panics,” bringing many care. because the system does everything for more children needlessly into an al- For a very brief period, it worked families. They languish because the ready overburdened system. Workers well. But the law was one of the last system does almost nothing for fami- become so busy with these children initiatives of the Carter administration. lies. that they have even less time to assist The Reagan administration refused to But the myths about the system be- children in real danger. After such “pan- enforce it, sending a signal to the states came powerful enough to prompt Con- ics” in Illinois, Connecticut and New that they could go back to business as gress to pass a new law in 1997, the so- York City, child abuse deaths actually usual. They did. Since 1985, the foster called Adoption and Safe Families Act, increased. care population has doubled. So the which effectively makes “reasonable The master narrative goes on to place second paradox journalists might want efforts” optional, and pushes adop- blame for children languishing in fos- to clarify is: “If family preservation has tion-as-panacea. There already is ample ter care on a 1980 federal law that so dominated the system, how did all evidence that this new approach is required “reasonable efforts” to keep those children get into foster care?” failing. families together. But in the late 1970’s, The real answer is that children got When I offer this information to there were as many children stuck in there because family preservation has journalists, what I often hear in re- foster care, relative to the total child never dominated the child welfare sys- sponse is, “But everybody says the sys- population, as there are today. So the tem. Often, children are removed not tem emphasized family preservation.” first question an informed reporter because their parents were brutally But a close look at three recent in- might want to ask is: “If the problem is abusive or hopelessly addicted but be- depth stories and series suggests a con- with a 1980 law, why were all those cause their family’s poverty led to con- stricted definition of just who “every- children in foster care years earlier?” In ditions such as a lack of adequate food, body” includes. fact, the 1980 law was the first legisla- clothing and shelter, and those condi- No reporter would do a large-scale tion intended to prevent children from tions were confused with “neglect.” overview story or series about criminal languishing in foster care by emphasiz- Other cases fall on a broad continuum, justice without talking to a single de- ing both keeping children in their own the parents neither all victim nor all fendant or defense attorney. Yet when homes and increasing the likelihood of villain. Once taken, children are filed the Traverse City (Michigan) Record-

Child Welfare Reporting: Things Sources Say That Almost Always Aren’t True

1. The Child Protective Services doesn’t get involved until a few days made a case because they’re terrified of (CPS) agency administrator says: “We later. At that point she is faced with a the publicity if they send a child home can’t take away children on our own. A lawyer for CPS who does this for a and something goes wrong. judge must approve everything we do. living and has had days to review the The administrators who tell journal- Families are protected by due process.” file, versus an overwhelmed, impover- ists about due process know all this, of ished parent who, if she has a lawyer at course. Why not ask the lawyers who The truth is that untrained, inexpe- all, just met him five minutes ago. As a represent parents in your family court rienced, overwhelmed CPS workers can report from the New York City Public if judges wield gavels or press rubber take away children on their own, and Advocate’s office points out, it’s impos- stamps? they often do. In all 50 states, case- sible for that lawyer to mount a defense workers have the authority to remove a without seeking a postponement. The 2. A spokesman for child welfare child from the home on the spot. In child stays in foster care. That report agencies says there is hardly any abuse about half the states they can do it and others have found that representa- in foster care, based on “official” statis- themselves, in the rest they must call tion for parents typically ranges from tics. law enforcement, but the decision rests shoddy to nonexistent. with the worker alone. In New York City parents win their Even the official numbers show at In theory, this is supposed to be cases just 1.6 percent of the time. A least as much abuse in foster care as in done only in emergencies. In fact, in second report, from an independent the general population. But for abuse New York City, to cite one example, the advisory panel of national experts, in foster care to become “official,” a child welfare agency has admitted that found that the city’s family court judges child has to confide in a worker, often this is their typical procedure, whether admit they routinely remove children the very worker who put him in the there is an “emergency” or not. A judge even when they don’t think CPS has home. The worker, who often works

80 Nieman Reports / Winter 2000 Journalist’s Trade

Eagle published a five-part series on one. The reporter goes on to portray posed revolved solely around tough- foster care in May, the reporter in- the 1980 law precisely backwards, de- ening licensing requirements, adding cluded the views of not one birth par- claring that “federal law [formerly] fa- inspectors, and adding a few more cat- ent. Nor was there any comment from vored placing children in long-term egories of felons to the list of people any lawyer who represents a birth par- foster care as long as it took for parents who can’t be foster parents. Foster care ent, nor from a lawyer or advocate who to take control of their own lives, then as an institution remained unques- regularly deals with the problems of their children.” tioned. Nobody was quoted as advo- poor people (one of the better sources Similarly, a front-page child welfare cating the abolition of foster care or for reporting on the widespread prob- story in The Boston Globe declared even that there be less of it. In contrast, lem of the confusion of poverty with that “family reunification” has been the near uniform response when a child neglect). Instead, the journalist de- “the concrete goal” for generations. It dies in the home of birth parents is to clared that “some parents and others quoted only foster parents, an adop- condemn the whole idea of family pres- disagree with the shift away from fam- tion attorney, and a spokeswoman for ervation and call for its elimination or ily preservation at all costs….” (I’ve the state Department of Social Ser- drastic curtailment. seen that “at all costs” line in at least a vices. No editorial writer or op-ed author dozen stories, falsely presented by re- Reporters also sometimes object to would opine that “Caprice Reid is dead. porters as incontrovertible fact.) my claims of a dichotomy in coverage She was a foster child. We’d better This problem is not confined to small of deaths depending on where a child abolish foster care.” (Nor should they— newspapers. dies, noting that they have “covered” for some children, foster care is essen- The (Raleigh) News & Observer ran abuse in foster care. Certainly, the story tial.) But no cycle of coverage of the two lengthy stories about foster care in is not ignored entirely. Indeed, within death of a child in his own home is May. Displaying no evidence of having the past year the Dayton Daily News complete without the mandatory “See, talked to anyone who would question and The Denver Post [See story on it’s all the fault of family preservation” the master narrative, the reporter flatly page 84.] did excellent series on the op-ed, newspaper editorial or column. declared that “some people believe topic. But there is a huge difference in Much child welfare coverage also is that children and parents belong to- stories about abuse in foster care and characterized by a double standard of gether no matter what” [emphasis abuse by birth parents in the category skepticism. Often I have pointed out added]. I have never met such a per- best called “lessons learned.” In The that after foster care panics, child abuse son, nor does the reporter produce Denver Post’s series, solutions pro- deaths actually increase, and reporters

for a private agency that oversees the official numbers know this, of course. of Washington State Governor Gary home, has to report to her bosses her But they represent agencies, not chil- Locke after a child “known to the sys- own failure in putting the child in an dren. Accepting such data from them tem” died in Tacoma in May was a abusive home. The agency has to turn without question is like accepting data threat of “full disciplinary action” itself in to the government that gave it on abuse of the elderly from a trade against any worker involved who may the contract, and the government has association for nursing homes. have erred. The caseworker who left a to “substantiate” a charge against an two-year-old Iowa girl in a home where agency that it hired. So it should come 3. The CPS worker says, “We’re she died was quickly named and vili- as no surprise that whenever research- damned if we do and damned if we fied in quotes given to The Des Moines ers seriously study abuse in foster care, don’t.” Register. And after Elisa Izquierdo was the rate of abuse vastly exceeds the killed by her mother, the (New York) “official” numbers. In 24 years of looking at child wel- Daily News editorialized that the worker Furthermore the official data don’t fare as a reporter and then as an advo- who handled the case should be even count foster children abusing each cate, I have never read a news story in “flogged, then fired.” other. Thus, a lawyer representing chil- which a CPS worker is criminally The CPS workers who give you the dren in Broward County, Florida could charged, fired, suspended, demoted, “damned if we do, damned if we don’t” become personally aware of 50 cases of or even slapped on the wrist for taking line know this, of course. But the truth child-on-child sexual abuse involving away too many children. Yet all these is, when it comes to taking away chil- more than 100 foster children in just things have happened to workers who dren from their parents, they’re not 18 months, even though the “official” leave children in their own homes when damned if they do and damned if they number was seven. something goes wrong. don’t. They’re only damned if they The people who fall back on the The very first words out of the mouth don’t. ■—Richard Wexler

Nieman Reports / Winter 2000 81 Journalist’s Trade

have asked pointed, skeptical ques- There is excellent work being done Richard Wexler is executive director tions about cause and effect, as they on child welfare issues all over the of the National Coalition for Child should. But where is this skepticism country, sometimes by reporters who Protection Reform, based in Alexan- when the panic begins? Where is it have to fight not only a system shrouded dria, Virginia. Wexler was a reporter when officials promise that drastically in secrecy but lack of interest and sup- for 17 years and a journalism pro- curbing family preservation will reduce port from higher-ups at their newspa- fessor for three. He spent much of child abuse deaths? To be fair, The New pers. But excellence in child welfare that time covering child welfare, York Times reminded readers of these reporting is like excellence in journal- work that culminated in a book, promises when child abuse deaths in- ism in general: It requires questioning “Wounded Innocents: The Real creased in that city. But to the best of the master narrative. Victims of the War Against Child my knowledge, no newspaper in Illi- Journalists in Chicago might want to Abuse.” He is a graduate of the nois or Connecticut reported that in begin by considering two questions: Columbia University Graduate those states the “panics” were followed •Who was Joseph Wallace? School of Journalism. by more child abuse deaths. •Who was Antonio Moseley? ■ [email protected] Press Coverage and Public Perception In child welfare reporting, even good daily coverage can be distorting.

By Nina Bernstein

arly in 1990, researching an ar- possibility of righting social wrongs lies that needed help. ticle for Newsday on New York through the courts. The Wilder case I wanted to dig deeper, and I was ECity foster care, I spent a morn- engaged the passions of three genera- convinced that the way to do it was ing with a stack of documents in a tions of social reformers even as it fell through the story of Shirley Wilder’s longstanding class action lawsuit short of helping three generations of son, Lamont—a story unfolding in se- known as Wilder. In 1973, the lawsuit, children in foster care. cret while the lawsuit, settled in the citing the First Amendment’s separa- Halfway through the legal papers, I 1980’s through unfulfilled promises of tion of church and state and the Four- found a fact that haunted me: In 1974 change, was waged in court and at city teenth Amendment’s guarantee of Shirley Wilder, then 14, had given birth hall. When I found Lamont, he was equal protection, challenged New York to a son and placed him in foster care. aging out of the system he had entered City’s 150-year-old foster care system I wanted to know what had happened as a newborn. Partly because reform- for giving private, mostly religious agen- to that baby. ers had been pushing adoptions in the cies control of publicly financed foster As a reporter for newspapers in Des late 1970’s—as they are again today — care beds. The dominant Catholic and Moines, Milwaukee and New York City, this bright, outgoing black child had Jewish charities were by law allowed to I had written about foster care for about been abruptly removed at age five from give preference to their own kind. as long as Wilder had been litigated, his first foster mother and had been Black, Protestant children—like the with increasing frustration. The prob- sent to Minnesota to be adopted by a named plaintiff, Shirley Wilder—had lems seemed to be redefined by reform white couple. They had changed their to wait or do without. The system did movements and newspaper exposés, minds within a year, as did a second poorly by all children, the suit charged, not remedied. Cases we highlighted white family. Not yet seven, he had because it placed them according to were by definition aberrations, like been labeled unadoptable and shipped creed and convenience, not according child abuse deaths, or court battles back to New York to spend the balance to their needs. between two sets of parents for one of his childhood in institutions. In the marble and mahogany splen- child. Larger debates were typically My two-part series on the case, which dor of Manhattan’s federal courthouse framed in false dichotomies—say, child ran in New York Newsday in July 1993, in the 1990’s, lawyers often likened the protection versus family preservation. won the Mike Berger Award from the Wilder case to Jarndyce and Jarndyce, Regardless of shifts of philosophy, I Columbia University Graduate School the suit in Dickens’ “Bleak House,” knew the same systems erred in all of Journalism. But I felt I had only that dragged on so long people forgot directions, leaving children in abusive peeled back a few layers in a story rich what it meant. Wilder’s course paral- situations—in their own homes, in fos- in continuing human drama and his- leled a national trajectory from great ter homes, or institutions—while tory that revealed the racial, religious optimism to great skepticism about the snatching children from loving fami- and political fault lines of America’s

82 Nieman Reports / Winter 2000 Journalist’s Trade child welfare system. A 1994 Alicia be taken from their parents into a fos- unworthy parents repeatedly slams Patterson Foundation Fellowship and ter care system in disarray, often with against unyielding truths of child de- then a book contract allowed me to damaging, even fatal, consequences. velopment: the need for intensive hu- continue my research until 1995, when Furthermore, the case played into the man attachment, the traumatic effect New York Newsday was shut down. demonization of poor mothers, then of childhood separations, the rapid Within weeks of joining The New reaching a crescendo with the federal transformation of yesterday’s children York Times, I was drafted to lead an welfare overhaul. By this point I was into today’s child-bearers. It defies hard investigation into the case of six-year- acutely aware of the contradictions economic realities, too, like the fact old Elisa Izquierdo, a child beaten to between policies that punished “the that even mediocre substitute care for death by her mother while under the undeserving poor” and pledges to help children (foster home or institution) system’s protection. Like most report- all needy children. costs much more than family subsi- ers trying to gather the facts about such The history of American child wel- dies, and that adoption, ideally both a case, we were faced with state confi- fare is littered with programs once cost-effective and humane, is also gov- dentiality laws that had been designed hailed as reforms and later decried as erned by unforgiving laws of supply to shield troubled children and fami- harmful or ineffective, only to re- and demand. lies, but were used by child welfare emerge in the guise of new solutions to There has long been an iron rule in officials instead to hide the system from past failures. Why do these problems American social welfare policy: Condi- public accountability. Police and pros- seem so intractable? tions must be worse for the dependent ecutors typically became primary Historical amnesia has shielded us poor than they are for anyone who sources in these situations, which rein- from a full understanding of our child works. The less acknowledged corol- forces a tendency to recount the events welfare dilemma. For three genera- lary is that the subsidized care of other in terms of individual blame and child tions, “child welfare” has been a cat- people’s children must be undesirable martyrdom. egory that covered child abuse, child enough, or scarce enough, to play a In Elisa’s case, child welfare sources neglect, foster care and adoption, but role in this system of deterrence. In old and new helped provide a deeper not “wel- understanding of how the system had fare,” or Aid failed her. New York has among the to Families But I felt no matter how nuanced we strongest child welfare laws in the coun- with Depen- try, including an around-the-clock sys- dent Chil- tried to be in our front-page articles, tem for receiving reports of abuse or dren. In the we had reinforced a ‘master neglect, investigations required to be- media and narrative’ that once again distorted gin within 24 hours, and detailed pro- public policy cedures for taking children into pro- presenta- public perception. tective custody. But suspicions tions, deviant reported by school officials, a doctor, parents and and a private social service agency— unlucky chil- some suggesting Elisa was a disturbed dren from families of all income groups periods of widening inequality, the child in need of mental health ser- comprise the universe of child welfare, result of this invisible law becomes so vices—were lost or poorly investigated while “welfare” was a program for poor harsh for children that it is difficult to by overburdened caseworkers feeling folks. This division tends to downplay reconcile with the rhetoric of benevo- new pressures to close cases. the reality that children in foster care lence. Colleagues and I won a George Polk and at risk of foster care are over- Whatever the successes of the wel- award for the coverage. And confiden- whelmingly the children of the poor. fare overhaul of 1996, it has only been tiality laws were significantly modified During long periods of American tested in a good economy. For the first as a result of the case’s coverage, and history, the relationship between pov- time since the New Deal of the 1930’s, the mayor appointed a new commis- erty and family break-up was unam- federal law no longer guarantees basic sioner to overhaul the child welfare biguous; with no public relief, parents economic support to children living in agency. But I felt no matter how nu- too poor to support their children had their own families. It does still guaran- anced we tried to be in our front-page to put them into orphanages or up for tee financial support for poor children articles, we had reinforced a “master indenture or adoption. The old and placed outside their homes because of narrative” that once again distorted familiar conviction underlying such inadequate care. That means the next public perception. This powerful story policies, that parents who cannot rear real economic downturn could bring a line suggests that the only real danger their children without public aid are flood tide of children into the foster to a child is an abusive parent, and the almost by definition unfit to bring up care system, in which well over half a key systemic mistake is leaving chil- the next generation, still holds sway in million children already live today. dren in parental custody. So in reac- this age of welfare reform. That is what happened in New York tion to the Izquierdo scandal, in the But the effort to sever the destiny of City after 1875, the year relief to poor name of safety, more children would needy children from the fate of their families was drastically cut to end “pau-

Nieman Reports / Winter 2000 83 Journalist’s Trade

perism.” At first the change was de- child were turned away in the name of even more important, writing the book clared a success. But as recessions hit welfare reform. More recently, Lamont freed me as a journalist from the tyr- during the next two decades, more and himself spent a night in jail for failing to anny of today, to recognize and ex- more children went into orphanages pay $1,500 in child support arrears— plore the deeper patterns at work in run by private religious charities, where an impossible sum on his meager the events we are bound, as reporters, public money would still flow to sup- wages. “My mommy put my daddy in to showcase as departures from the port their care. By 1909, everyone jail,” his five-year-old son cried in class past. I hope, too, that it informs the agreed that the orphanage boom was a the next day, so disruptive that school understanding of reporters and reform- disaster for children and taxpayers alike. officials threatened to call in child pro- ers in ways that serve the welfare—that Foster home care was championed as tection services. is, the well-being—of children like an alternative, and so were mothers’ My forthcoming book, “The Lost Shirley Wilder’s grandson. ■ pensions, the state stipends that be- Children of Wilder: The Epic Struggle came the precursors to the Aid to De- to Change Foster Care,” is a quest to Nina Bernstein, a 1984 Nieman pendent Children provisions of the understand what went wrong—in one Fellow, is a metropolitan reporter Social Security Act. Only with its pas- family’s entanglement in the foster care for The New York Times covering sage in 1935 did the number of chil- system and in recurrent crusades to poverty and social services. Her dren in care decline dramatically and make American child welfare fulfill its book, “The Lost Children of Wilder: stay down during 25 years of narrow- promise of benevolence. Because of The Epic Struggle to Change Foster ing income gaps. the book’s sustained focus on one Care,” will be published by Pantheon By the 1990’s, new welfare rhetoric family’s experience during some 26 in February 2001. Previously she demanded personal responsibility for years, I had an opportunity to make worked for New York Newsday, the adults and modern orphanages for readers care about a child, who then Milwaukee Journal (before it became unadoptable children whose parents becomes a young parent, and to show the Journal Sentinel), and the Des failed the test. In 1998, when the mother the real life impact of interlocking so- Moines Register & Tribune (on the of Lamont’s three-year-old son, unem- cial and legal policies in the ways that Tribune side, when there was still a ployed and facing eviction, applied for time and space constraints of newspa- Tribune). emergency food stamps, she and the per reporting do not allow. Perhaps

Confidentiality Acts to Shield Abuse in Foster Care At The Denver Post, reporters reveal what is happening to foster children.

By Patricia Callahan

n Super Bowl Sunday 1999, more disturbing details about Miguel’s two-year-old Miguel Arias-Baca foster parents, Ricky and E’von Haney: Olay dying on the bathroom floor They both had criminal arrest records. of his suburban Denver foster home. Foster care was their sole source of Miguel’s foster father, who had been income. They hopped from one pri- drinking at a Broncos victory party, vate foster care business to another, was upset that Miguel had soiled his once after Ricky Haney’s stepdaughter diaper. He smeared the toddler’s face accused him of abuse. in his own feces and threw him to the Reporter Kirk Mitchell and I decided ground. As Miguel’s brain swelled with to find out if the problems were sys- blood, his foster parents waited more temic. We were shocked by what we than four hours before they took him found during our seven months of in- to the hospital. The child, whose body vestigative reporting. Foster children, was covered in bruises, never regained who are wards of the state taken from consciousness. He died in the hospital abusive or neglectful relatives, often before his biological family could be suffered again in homes that meant to located. keep them from harm. Each abuse case When I looked into the case for The seemed worse than the next. One fos- Sharon Cramer, who admitted dealing Denver Post, records revealed even ter child was forced to have sex with a drugs in the past, became a foster parent.

84 Nieman Reports / Winter 2000 Journalist’s Trade dog. One foster father promised his 13- tives. The computer analysis, in turn, abused and neglected children. year-old foster daughter he’d leave his pointed us to court records, police At the same time, changes in both wife for her, then had sex with her in reports, and nonprofit tax returns, foster care policies and laws made it the basement. One foster mom forced which filled in many details either easier for the emerging businesses to her kids to use a bucket for a toilet. omitted or redacted from state foster evade state rules. In 1994, the Colo- Still, private, for-profit and nonprofit care records. rado Legislature passed an industry- foster care companies were making Even news got in the way of our backed law that made it more difficult millions as they were paid with tax- series. The day I was supposed to meet to crack down on problem foster care payer subsidies as compensation for with Assistant Managing Editor Frank businesses. Faced with high caseloads, placing these children and overseeing Scandale to plan the investigation was state foster care officials asked busi- their care. Once some of these stories the same day that Eric Harris and Dylan nesses to evaluate themselves by filling were confirmed, it didn’t take much Klebold opened fire on their classmates out a “self assessment” form. What busi- for us to convince our editors that this at Columbine High School. That meet- ness was going to turn itself in for mistreatment of children was a topic ing didn’t happen. The project was put breaking state rules? And it got more worthy of an in-depth investigation. on hold for six months while we all absurd. One inspector told us that her Projects Editor Dan Meyers and Assis- focused on Columbine. department was so strapped for cash tant Projects Editor Jeff Roberts made While the business of foster care has that the state didn’t send the busi- sure we had the time to report and boomed in Colorado, our investiga- nesses assessment forms every year. space to publish the five-day series, tion—which was the first of its kind in Instead, the inspector asked business which ran in late May. our state—showed that the state has executives to reuse the old forms with As we tried to learn more about the made it easier for the industry to skirt a different color pen. Even when state private foster care businesses—a $37 million-per-year industry in Colorado— Kirk and I ran into one confidentiality roadblock after another. Colorado laws, like those in many other states, keep confidential the names of foster children and the circumstances surround- ing their care as government wards. While the state contended that confidentiality rules protect foster children, we found the laws often shielded the various agencies and the state from outside scrutiny. This absence of over- sight meant that foster children who were maltreated often went unnoticed. Added to this were reporting problems associated with trying to unearth information from private companies; it was difficult enough to get the public agencies to release public records (with the claims of confidentiality) but the involvement of private companies made our job that much more difficult. With Jeremy sits with his mother. At eight years old, Jeremy (not his real name) was sexually some of the for-profit agencies, for assaulted by a foster brother. Photo by Craig F. Walker, The Denver Post. example, we were never able to learn how they spent the money they received from the state. (At least non- rules that were created to protect chil- officials discovered problems, they profit agencies need to file a Form 990 dren. Foster care businesses have be- rarely used the laws available to disci- that gives financial disclosure.) come “cash cows” in Colorado, one pline companies that put children in In our work to connect what scarce state official admitted. During the last harm’s way. information there was on this largely 14 years, the number of foster homes Colorado officials poured more than unregulated industry, we crunched 1.8 recruited and supervised by private three-quarters of the state’s 47.2 mil- million computer records from five businesses increased by more than 800 lion foster care dollars into private state databases. We created computer percent. Colorado businesses have re- businesses, even though our investiga- tables to track inspection reports, abuse cruited foster parents who they some- tion showed that they didn’t know how complaints, related companies, and the times knew had criminal records—in- the money was being spent. We found assets of company directors and execu- cluding violent records—to care for that much of that money was not spent

Nieman Reports / Winter 2000 85 Journalist’s Trade

on children. Through our tracking of ally convinced the state to do exactly by two different foster care businesses. financial records of both the foster care that. We used similar arguments to get And a man who spent more than half of companies and their officers, we dis- data on state payments to foster care his adult life in prison for robbery and covered that the director of one foster businesses and entrance to a databank assault convictions became a foster dad. care business used state subsidies to of foster parents. One foster care business executive even pay the mortgage of his newly con- The first goal of our reporting was to argued that having a criminal back- structed “home office” in the foothills confirm a hunch. The foster parents ground might make someone a better of the Rocky Mountains complete with who cared for Miguel—the child who foster parent. a three-car garage, slate entryway, a was killed—both had criminal arrest When we researched the businesses sunny living room with a cathedral records. We suspected that many fos- that hired criminals, we found that ceiling, and arched windows. At the ter parents had rap sheets, so we took shoddy background checks were just same time, he sent foster children to a a database of foster parents and merged the beginning of the industry’s woes in home with bro- Colorado. Li- ken windows, censing files only one toy showed that the and insuffi- state routinely cient food, allowed these clothes or fur- businesses to niture. Other break rules de- nonprofit signed to pro- agencies cre- tect children. ated for-profit Some compa- arms. One non- nies had no profit diverted records to show more than they had ever $600,000 of visited their fos- state foster care ter homes to subsidies into check on the their for-profit children’s wel- arm, which was fare. Some controlled by companies the same ex- amassed hun- ecutives. The dreds of viola- leaders of an- tions, and the other foster state did noth- care business Anita Baca poses with a portrait of her grandson, Miguel Arias-Baca, at his christening. Miguel ing to stop made six-figure was killed by his foster father, Ricky Haney, who pleaded guilty to child abuse caused by negli- them. The incomes off of gence resulting in death. Photo by Craig F. Walker, The Denver Post. state’s frac- taxpayer subsi- tured system al- dies while children in their foster homes it with a database of Colorado crimi- lowed troubled foster parents to hop were molested and assaulted. nals. Jeff Roberts, the paper’s com- from one agency to another—even if To get around confidentiality walls, puter-assisted reporting guru, also used another agency pushed them out be- we turned to computer databases. a third commercial databank of motor cause of abuse allegations. And chil- Colorado’s Department of Human Ser- vehicle, voter and property records to dren were getting molested and as- vices kept extensive computer records find other criminals living at the ad- saulted in their foster homes either by on each foster child. Initially, we were dresses of foster homes, such as live-in foster parents or other foster kids. told that those records were closed. boyfriends or adult children of foster But the search for detailed records We persisted: If the intent of the confi- parents. With that list, we pulled court was frustrating. The state files were dentiality laws was to protect the iden- files and police records to make sure woefully incomplete. Often we’d find a tity of abused and neglected children, the foster parents and the criminals cover sheet to a county abuse investi- why shouldn’t those records be pub- were the same people. gation that listed only the date of the licly available if the children’s names What we discovered is that just about investigation. We complained that the were removed? With some basic pro- anybody could become a foster parent. rest of the reports were missing but gramming, we knew the state could One foster mom got her job even were told that the details were kept assign each child a unique number, though she had pleaded guilty to so- confidential to protect the victims. One allowing us to track kids through the licitation for prostitution. Another goal of our story became to prove these system while keeping their identities woman charged with selling drugs out bureaucrats wrong. secret. While it wasn’t easy, we eventu- of her daycare home was later recruited It wasn’t that tough to do. An inter-

86 Nieman Reports / Winter 2000 Journalist’s Trade nal company memo we uncovered of the legislature without them know- greater scrutiny. One senator scolded showed how confidentiality rules can ing about it in advance? My God, we’d the state for allowing foster care busi- harm children. One foster child mo- kill ourselves.” Once the series ap- nesses to “line their pockets on the lested the eight-year-old biological son peared, Hammons wrote defensive and backs of children.” Lawmakers will vote of his foster mother. The foster mother sometimes misleading letters to the on these proposed bills when the for- had not been told of the child’s record editor claiming her department had mal session begins in January. ■ of molesting younger children at previ- taken steps to fix the problems. And ous foster homes. Had the case records Governor Bill Owens refused to grant Patricia Callahan, who was part of been open, she never would have taken us an interview. His spokesman said The Denver Post’s Pulitzer Prize- the boy into her home. Her son never the governor was confident that winning Columbine team, now would have become a victim. Hammons was fixing the flaws. writes about the newspaper and Before our series was published, But the Colorado legislature didn’t biotechnology industries for The Marva Livingston Hammons, buy it. Legislators convened a special Wall Street Journal. Kirk Mitchell Colorado’s Human Services chief, committee to scrutinize the state’s role continues to cover the foster care wrote a memo to certain state legisla- in what has become the foster care fallout for The Denver Post. tors outlining the major points of our “scandal.” They crafted nine new laws investigation. “That’s for our survival,” that would overhaul the private foster- [email protected] her spokeswoman told us. “Jesus, do care system, subjecting both the busi- you want us to have it hit the front steps nesses and their foster parents to

Fighting to Break the Barrier of Confidentiality When children in the child welfare system die, reporters work to find out why.

By Jane Hansen

In 1989, my newspaper, The Atlanta tracked federal confidentiality regula- for the first time puts the records of Journal-Constitution, and I went to tions. these deceased children under the court to gain access to the records of Ten years later, we decided to look state’s Open Records Act. Since the law children who had died after coming to at how well these decade-old laws were went into effect, reporters from my the attention of our child welfare de- working. newspaper and others in Georgia have partment, the Department of Family Again, I asked DFACS for the records requested the records of individual and Children Services (DFACS) in Geor- of all children in Georgia who had died children and received them. Perhaps, gia. We did this only after being told after someone had reported them for this time, the law will work. federal confidentiality laws and regula- abuse or neglect. I assumed that based I was very fortunate to have the tions forbid the release of the files. We on the 1990 law, and the previous luxury of time and a newspaper that argued in court that they did not. We court decision, we would have no prob- backed my efforts to get these records. furthermore argued that the public’s lem. I was wrong. DFACS fought harder But over the years we have also re- need to know what happened to chil- than ever to keep the records closed. ceived a lot of support from the public, dren who had died after coming under So again we sued, and after a pro- legislators and two governors who be- the state’s protection outweighed any tracted legal battle we won a second lieved that confidentiality did more to privacy interests of a deceased child. time. In the end, the state turned over protect the department from public The court agreed and ordered the state to me the unredacted records of 844 scrutiny than protect children from to give me the complete files. children who had died during a six- abuse or neglect. I personally believe In 1990, in response to a series of year period. that confidentiality and the lack of ac- stories I wrote based on the records, This time I wrote another series of countability it breeds contribute di- the governor and legislature passed articles that were published last year. rectly to the deaths of children. ■ seven laws to reform the child welfare And again, the governor and legisla- system, including one that was to loosen ture passed new laws, this time four of Jane Hansen is a reporter for The confidentiality laws when a child had them. One law created the position of Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Her died. Specifically, it set in law a process an ombudsman to oversee the Depart- series on child welfare can be found by which a reporter could go to court ment of Family and Children Services. at www.accessatlanta.com/partners/ and argue for the records as part of But most significantly, in my view, the ajc/read/children/index.html. “bona fide research.” The language governor pushed through a law that

Nieman Reports / Winter 2000 87 Journalist’s Trade Goliath Arrives and a Few Davids Depart In a Vietnamese enclave, community publications feel pressure from Knight Ridder.

By Blair Tindall

sign in the desolate parking lot of a growing market that now makes 100,000. The newspaper is operated identifies Calitoday. It is a three- up 10 percent of San Jose’s popula- and distributed separately from its par- A year-old daily San Jose Vietnam- tion: Vietnamese residents in this city ent newspaper; last year, its operating ese newspaper with seven staff mem- have doubled since 1990 to 120,000. profit beat that of The Miami Herald. It bers and an average circulation of 6,000. The Mercury News is uniquely posi- is also the most rapidly growing of Editor Nam Nguyen answers the door tioned to serve the Vietnamese. Since Knight Ridder’s 31 daily papers, ac- in slippers, while columnist Hoa Pham the U.S. trade embargo was lifted in cording to its editor and publisher, types at one of three computers in the 1994, the newspaper has had a Hanoi Carlos Castañeda, and the fourth fast- $500-a-month rented office. Inside, a bureau. Also, by discounting ad rates est growing of all U.S. dailies. Buddha statue, a bowl of pears, and an for all three Mercury News publica- Comparing the Viet Mercury with El incense burner under a banner of Ti- tions (it also publishes a five-year-old Nuevo Herald is only natural, says Tran. betan calligraphy comprise a shrine. Latino paper, Nuevo Mundo) the Viet Both papers serve communist exiles Another Buddha, this one a lithograph, Mercury is bolstered by its parent cor- who want their opinion represented in hangs over the drafting table where poration while it develops a loyal ad- a dateline from home. Since the Viet- Nam Nguyen will finish his regular 16- vertising base. namese and Cubans are, as a group, hour work day by pasting up the paper San Jose’s Vietnamese are a wealthier and more politically power- at nine in the evening. marketer’s dream. Nearly a third of ful than many other immigrant com- Across town the next day, Viet Mer- their households earn more than munities, developing such markets cury Editor De Tran relaxes over a cup $65,000 per year and, as a community, might represent the latest niche strat- of French roast after putting his paper they spend $1.5 billion each year. Ac- egy for newspaper chains to maintain to bed. Outside, sunlight dapples the cording to market research, San Jose’s their local markets. San Jose Mercury News grounds. Since Vietnamese read three or four newspa- But for these two immigrant popu- its inception nearly two years ago, his pers per day and can choose among lations, it’s become more than a David free weekly’s circulation has grown four local Vietnamese dailies and 10 and Goliath war over attracting adver- from 18,500 to 25,000. Tran’s 20 full- weeklies. “At one time newspapers tising dollars. Like many journalists time Vietnamese-speaking staff mem- tended to write off immigrant popula- who write for Cuban audiences, the bers are employees of Knight Ridder, tions as too small and poor to be of Vietnamese writers brought adversarial this country’s second-largest newspa- interest to advertisers,” said media ana- traditions of news reporting with them, per group, with 52 daily newspapers in lyst John Morton. “But the populations says Miami Herald publisher Alberto 28 markets and a gross income of $3.2 no longer are small, and many immi- Ibarguen. They consider that the lack billion last year. grants move up rapidly into the middle of presumed bias—the kind of objec- In San Jose, some in the United class and become attractive to advertis- tive journalism embraced by the Viet States’s second-largest Vietnamese en- ers.” Mercury—actually presents a different clave regard the arrival of the Viet Mer- Reaching out to specific ethnic kind of bias. cury as a sign of its community’s pros- groups is not an entirely new publish- A vocal segment of San Jose’s South perity. Others say the paper’s presence ing phenomenon. Newspapers such as Vietnamese who, as a whole, consti- is killing its independent ethnic press The Washington Bee and The New tute 65 percent of the city’s Vietnamese by undercutting ad rates while its edi- York Age that were targeted at various population, are upset with what they torial content misrepresents the black audiences were available during call the Viet Mercury’s glamorization of community’s culture and politics. the 19th century. Indeed, the Ridder the North Vietnamese regime. “I used Until now, the few newspaper chains Group began in 1892 with Herman to respect [Mercury News publisher] launching foreign-language papers set Ridder’s purchase of the German-lan- Jay Harris, but now I am angry that he their sights on this country’s large His- guage Staats-Zeitung. In 1976, Knight doesn’t respect our community,” said panic audience. Now, Knight Ridder’s Ridder’s Miami Herald broke ground Tran Chi, former editor of Vietnam San Jose Mercury News is courting an- in the ethnic press with its El Herald, a Family, a weekly that failed three other large ethnic group, in what Tran few pages of material translated from months after the Viet Mercury’s incep- believes is a chain’s first foray into a and distributed with The Miami Her- tion. In a prepared statement, Harris non-Spanish-language ethnic paper. ald. Today, El Herald has evolved into asserts that the Mercury News set out The Mercury News is taking advantage El Nuevo Herald, with a circulation of to capture the Vietnamese market by

88 Nieman Reports / Winter 2000 Journalist’s Trade creating an American-style newspaper, difficult to determine a direct correla- pers as cable TV once did.” an approach that differs from Times tion with the Viet Mercury’s success. Koreans, Filipinos, Malaysians and Mirror’s 50 percent purchase in 1990 Yet Tran Chi’s 6,000-circulation Viet- other Asian nationalities will likely bear of the nation’s oldest Hispanic news- nam Family shut down in the spring of individual scrutiny by chains. Together, paper, Los Angeles’s La Opinion. 1998 after half of its advertisers de- Asian-Americans have a collective pur- But American style hasn’t been uni- fected to the Viet Mercury. chasing power of $101 billion and a versally accepted in San Jose. “It was SaigonUSA still operates, but Tam rate of new business ownership nearly friendly cooperation in L.A. They Nguyen says that his publication lost three times the national average, ac- opened their hearts and doors to the 50 percent of its advertisers as its circu- cording to Kang and Lee Advertising, community and invited them in,” said lation dropped from 8,000 to 5,000. an Asian marketing firm. But they are Tam Nguyen, editor of SaigonUSA. “But Total pages in SaigonUSA fell from 24 not a monolithic ethnic category, and with Publisher Jay Harris and the Mer- to 12, while in March of 2000 the Viet nationalities are fiercely committed to cury, it’s slash and burn journalism.” Mercury contained nearly 200 pages, retaining their language and culture in The Mercury News’s reporting by its 75 percent of which were advertise- the new world, unlike immigrants of Hanoi bureau chief, Mark McDonald, ments. “We are bleeding,” says Tam 100 years ago, who encouraged their seems to anger just about everybody, Nyugen. “Newspapers are the single children to speak English exclusively. whether they are American or native most important instrument to build a Kang and Lee find that Asian-Ameri- Vietnamese. “I try to keep my head community,” he says. “We must do our cans prefer to read in their native lan- down and the stories straight, and then job. When people in the community guage at rates that range from 42 per- I listen to everyone scream,” he said in don’t read English, we must come to cent for Japanese to 93 percent for an e-mail interview. Some Vietnamese, them.” Vietnamese. like Tran Chi, even accuse the Mercury Media experts predict publishing What is next? Probably not the Chi- News of editorially placating the North Vietnamese government to keep its bureau open. Though its coverage is slanted by the ideology of its publishers, the independent Vietnamese press might have an edge in its newsgathering abilities. Calitoday’s Editor, Nam Nguyen, gets news and photos sent to him instantaneously via e-mail from correspondents all over Vietnam, whereas McDonald must request permission five days before he wants to make a trip outside Hanoi. Regions in Vietnam that are populated by ethnic minorities are completely off-limits to him. Because of concerns such as these, a lot of Vietnamese set out to create their own news venues. And it is this voice, Tam Nguyen says, that the Viet Mer- cury is silencing. He blames the failure of two of San Jose’s 14 Vietnamese Vietnamese reading in San Jose, California’s Quang Da Café, a central distribution point papers that were operating in 1998 on for all Vietnamese papers. Photo by Blair Tindall. the emergence of the Viet Mercury. And he accuses that paper of unfairly undercutting ad prices to gain market chains will become savvier in the subtle- nese, since Chinese-owned global me- share by selling full pages of ad space ties of connecting with ethnic markets. dia chains operating U.S.-circulated for $90 when he contends the market “I think the Viet Mercury signals a newspapers are formidable adversar- rate should be $400. trend,” said Sandy Close, founder and ies. But other Vietnamese communi- In a written statement, Harris de- director of New California Media, a San ties in Houston, Dallas, San Diego, fends his paper’s ad rates as competi- Francisco association of 140 ethnic Oakland and Seattle, and Korean popu- tive, saying they were not the lowest- news organizations. “Ethnic newspa- lations in Washington, D.C. and Los priced Vietnamese newspaper ads avail- pers are caught between the ‘old me- Angeles are likely targets, says John able at the time. And De Tran points dia’ dailies looking rapaciously for niche Morton. In addition, California Filipi- out that independent ethnic newspa- markets and the dot-coms which in- nos and New York Asian Indians con- pers come and go frequently, so it is creasingly threaten to replace newspa- stitute substantial markets.

Nieman Reports / Winter 2000 89 Journalist’s Trade

This language-based approach to observed that dot-coms have not ad- Heim, the state’s assistant chief of de- reaching ethnic populations doesn’t vertised in the ethnic press, and the mographic research. Finding ways to always conform to the geography dai- San Francisco Chronicle’s recent list of tap into an ethnic community’s spend- lies have pursued. For example, Knight 133 “best” Web sites didn’t mention a ing power by reaching them through Ridder recently abandoned its Miami single ethnic Web page. But the Viet distribution of news is likely to be a headquarters and headed for San Jose’s Mercury gets print subscription re- trend among newspaper chains. But Silicon Valley, citing the necessity of quests from Sydney, Australia to Biloxi, how well their coverage serves that staying current in the Internet Mississippi as well as substantial hits readership, and what important voices economy. Now that Knight Ridder on its Web site. Nam Pham, publisher might be silenced in the process, is an maintains 45 Web sites in various cities of the failed Vietnam Family, recently issue that ought to be moved onto the (each under the umbrella of its Real spent $500,000 to develop his Web radar screens of journalists as this Cities outreach), the chain is positioned presence [vietnameselink.com], claim- country’s ethnic profile changes. ■ to reach ethnic communities, whether ing this is one way to compete on equal regionally concentrated or far-flung. footing with Knight Ridder. Blair Tindall, a former business The ethnic press is watching closely. California is now the Ellis Island for reporter with the San Francisco As director of a San Francisco-based many ethnic groups. By next year, its Examiner, is now an arts reporter ethnic press association, Close is not white population is projected to be- for the Contra Costa Times in Wal- optimistic about the future. She has come a minority, according to Mary nut Creek, California.

Journalists Won’t Miss This ‘Deadline’ TV drama’s portrayal of a newspaper columnist was more sleuth than truth.

By Don Aucoin

elevision is the medium that in- vide a revealing glimpse of television’s viewers on that score by loading up its vented the rerun (or, in the ris- attitude toward its longtime rival, print plots with eye-rolling incongruities that Tible coinage favored by the net- journalism. “Deadline” suggested that undercut any claims it might have made works, the “encore presentation”). So when it comes to depicting the world to verisimilitude. perhaps it’s not surprising that TV usu- of the ink-stained wretch, these days Initially, there was reason to be fairly ally goes looking for drama in all the TV doesn’t bother to sweat the details. optimistic about “Deadline” if you were old places: hospitals, police stations, It’s not that “Deadline” was a com- a journalist eager to see a televised courtrooms, law offices. plete dud. It boasted a topnotch cast, treatment of your trade. It was pro- What is surprising, though, is how and it might eventually have devel- duced by Dick Wolf, the redoubtable deeply the best dramas delve into their oped into, if not must-see-TV, at least force behind “Law & Order” and its milieus. Week after week, “ER” takes us might-see-TV. Some analysts believe spinoff, “Law & Order: Special Victims literally into the guts of the medical “Deadline” failed because it immersed Unit.” Veteran film actor Oliver Platt profession: cracking open chests, ram- viewers too deeply in the unloved realm headlined as Wallace Benton, the star ming tubes down patients’ throats, and of newspapers. But I think it possible columnist at the New York Ledger, a describing it all in polysyllabic jargon that the reverse is true and that “Dead- tabloid newspaper modeled on the New that virtually dares the viewer to keep line” was undone by the fatal paradox York Post. Benton was portrayed as a up. Courtroom dramas like “The Prac- at its heart: This was a show about a jaundiced crusader for justice, a con- tice” often immerse their plots in ar- journalist that had little interest in jour- tradiction that is one of the things cane legal strategy, while cop shows nalism. “Deadline” got right about newspaper like “NYPD Blue” don’t hesitate to show Ever since “Hill Street Blues” inau- life. The corpulent Platt, with his hel- what a painstaking, step-by-step pro- gurated the era of the “quality drama” met of jet-black hair and cocksure man- cess a police investigation can be. in the early 1980’s, discerning viewers ner, cut a suitably Breslinesque figure. By contrast, the newsroom has his- expect TV dramas to be grounded in a But it’s difficult to picture Jimmy torically gotten short shrift as a setting recognizable—albeit exaggerated— Breslin (or any of the other big city for TV drama. That changed this season professional reality. The implicit prom- columnists who inspired the character with the debut of “Deadline.” Or did it? ise was that if they tune in each week of Wallace Benton) gathering block- Canceled after just five episodes be- TV will repay them by shining some buster information through interviews cause of weak ratings, this NBC drama light on the arenas inhabited by its with cops, district attorneys, medical nonetheless lasted long enough to pro- protagonists. “Deadline” shortchanged examiners, witnesses, suspects—while

90 Nieman Reports / Winter 2000 Journalist’s Trade almost never taking notes! Was Benton would care about them, other credu- Show,” a classic 1970’s sitcom set in a afraid of getting writer’s cramp? Wor- lity-straining moments cropped up local TV news operation that somehow ried about a subpoena down the road? throughout “Deadline.” For example, functioned with about five employees. Benton was seldom seen without a cup the tabloid’s Murdochian publisher It starred Ed Asner as a gruff city editor of coffee while conducting interviews, (played by Tom Conti) sat in on morn- of a Los Angeles daily, Mason Adams as but he couldn’t exert himself to jot ing news meetings, where he not only the managing editor, Robert Walden as something down in a notebook. This made Page One calls but even dictated a hotheaded reporter, Linda Kelsey as seemingly minor flaw suggested a big headlines. Didn’t he have a business to his newsroom rival, and the late Nancy disconnect with the world “Deadline” run? Equally implausible was the pres- Marchand as Mrs. Pynchon, a Katherine purported to represent. Heaven knows ence at those meetings of a gossip Graham-like publisher. “ER” takes liberties with hospital real- columnist (played by Lili Taylor). What, Perhaps because it debuted in the ity, but it wouldn’t fill the TV screen no obit writer in the room? heady afterglow of Watergate, when with doctors who never wear stetho- During one episode, the managing journalists were lionized rather than scopes. Even the most mundane cop editor (portrayed by Bebe Neuwirth of reviled as they often are today, “Lou show alludes to the necessity of obtain- “Cheers” fame) delivered a lecture on Grant” seemed to believe that the in- ing a search warrant or informing sus- conflicts of interest that journalists must herent drama of journalism was enough pects of their right to remain silent. beware of; in the next, she plunged to hook viewers. The show actually Nonetheless, “Deadline’s” indiffer- into a whirlwind affair with a political seemed interested in how newspapers ence to such basic, nuts-and-bolts jour- candidate. Then, the gossip columnist work: Its reporters cultivated sources, nalistic details was probably no acci- printed an item about the dalliance. clashed with editors over story play, dent. In an appearance before TV critics Displaying a remarkable insouciance followed paper trails, raced to meet last summer in Pasadena, California, in the face of her boss’s fury, the col- deadlines, and even took notes. Ethical Wolf said he made the character of umnist breezily informed the manag- issues were explored through story Benton a columnist instead of a re- ing editor that “You play the hokey- lines that illustrated the tension be- porter because, in his view, the latter is pokey with a public figure, and it’s tween the newsgathering and business a “passive protagonist because he is going to end up in the paper.” The sides of the paper. And “Lou Grant” reporting on events that have already editor shouted: “Not my paper!” took the time to get the atmospherics taken place. A columnist is somebody It turned out that her paramour, the right: That newsroom pulsed with re- who is not bound to be objective, candidate, had a secret in his past: He porters pounding the phones or ago- doesn’t have Miranda warnings, can was a fugitive from justice who’d been nizing over their ledes. Even “Murphy unearth whatever he can unearth, and living under an assumed name since he Brown,” at least in its early years, was a can write about it from a personal struck a policeman with a rock during more faithful mirror of contemporary slant, which makes him an incredibly an antiwar rally in the 1960’s. The journalism than “Deadline” was—and active protagonist.” Ledger published Benton’s story dis- that was a sitcom about a superstar What Wolf didn’t say, but what be- closing that past, but the columnist, anchor/reporter of a TV newsmagazine. came apparent as the show debuted, the managing editor, and the oddly Who knows, it could be that “Dead- was that Benton’s notebook-free ways influential gossip maven insisted that it line” accurately read the public mood. allow him to be depicted as a Co- run under this howler of a headline: With survey after survey ranking the lombo-style sleuth. Further distancing “Good Man Does Wrong Thing for Right media just below amoebic dysentery the columnist from workaday journal- Reason.” Puh-leez. Tabloids may stoop, on the public’s list of their favorite ism, Benton moonlighted as a college but never to piety. things, maybe a realistic show about professor; each week, the columnist In the final episode to air, “Dead- journalists wouldn’t fly. Or maybe enlisted his students as junior line” made clear how far it was willing “Deadline” is a symptom of the con- gumshoes who helped him crack a to go so that its journalist/protagonist tinuing rivalry between television and case. In fact, if it weren’t for the fleeting would be the story rather than just print, TV’s way of saying: We will dra- newsroom scenes, it would have been cover it, as Benton became a suspect in matize you, but only on our terms, by possible to forget that Benton was a the murder of a mobster’s girlfriend fitting you into the prefabricated for- newspaperman at all as he lumbered with whom the columnist had a one- mulas of our medium. Either way, from clue to clue. Whereas medical or night stand. watching “Deadline” made me wish legal dramas use their settings as back- All of this was a far cry from “Lou Lou Grant had been Benton’s boss. I’d drops for life-and-death scenarios, char- Grant,” which ran from 1977 to 1982 like to have seen the old curmudgeon acter development, or romantic in- and was the last significant TV show tell the fancy-pants columnist to put trigue, “Deadline” used its setting as a about print journalists. (“New York down that damn cup of coffee and kind of camouflage. This was a detec- News” and “Ink,” two misbegotten ef- open up his notebook. ■ tive show masquerading as a newspa- forts to portray the newspaper world, per show, and viewers have plenty of expired almost as quickly as they ar- Don Aucoin is a television critic for detective shows to choose from. rived in the mid-1990’s.) “Lou Grant” The Boston Globe and a 2001 Though perhaps only journalists had origins in “The Mary Tyler Moore Nieman Fellow.

Nieman Reports / Winter 2000 91 International Journalism

John Maxwell Hamilton, a veteran correspondent and now dean of the Manship School of Mass Communication at Louisiana State University, recently traveled to the former Soviet republic of Georgia to train journalists. He writes about how difficult it is for independent media to survive financially and describes a proposal for government financing, a heretical notion to Americans but an idea not rejected out of hand by those in this new democracy. Hamilton urges journalists to be patient instead of agreeing to be subsidized by government funds. Michael Elkin, a writer living in Spain, uses the issue of whether all classes in Catalonia will be taught in the region’s native language to highlight the ways in which political leanings of newspapers shape their news coverage. “This can make it difficult to tell where the op-eds end and more objective reporting begins,” Elkin writes. ■

Moving From Soviet Domination to Press Freedom Creating an independent and financially viable press is hard.

By John Maxwell Hamilton

oman Gotsiridze, head of the dia that provide reliable social, politi- the problem is the media’s lack of ex- Georgian Parliament’s Budget cal and economic information. perience selling ads or providing fair, ROffice, has a brainstorm for sav- The best place to start looking for balanced reporting. Journalists often ing the independent news media in problems is in the economy. The early see newly won press freedom as an this fledgling democracy: government transition to a market-driven system opportunity to express their own opin- financing. To Americans this is heresay. eliminated government-guaranteed ions, not facts. By definition, a strong press is not jobs, health care, and housing. Nearly Several newspapers in the capital dependent on government. But after two-thirds of Georgians now live be- city of Tbilisi had a circulation of several years of training journalists in low subsistence levels. Few can afford 300,000 or more during the first heady former Soviet-controlled nations, it is 20 or 25 cents for a newspaper, let days of freedom. Today, none of this easy to see why reformers like alone the products sold in them. Ad- city’s eight newspapers has a regular Gotsiridze embrace such chimera. vertisers have little incentive to buy readership of more than 5,000; a dozen The easy part, it is now clear, was advertising space. Four or five years or so have even smaller audiences. “We toppling communism. The hard part is ago, the newspaper Droni appeared were very independent four or five creating a functioning democracy on six times a week with three or four years ago,” a worried newspaper edi- top of the rubble. Georgians must build pages of ads in each issue. Now it tor says. “But now we are hardly surviv- virtually every institution from appears four times a week with a page ing.” Reporters’ salaries typically scratch—and that includes news me- or less of ads each time. Compounding amount to less than $150 a month,

92 Nieman Reports / Winter 2000 International Journalism hardly a wage to inspire dedicated service. It is less surprising that some journalists take bribes than that some do not. While media are not profitable, business and political leaders are eager to invest in them. These “dark forces,” as Gotsiridze calls these owners, finance news organizations in order to promote their own agenda. When bosses want access to the press, he says, they buy one. This summer a government official raised a furor by suggesting that a television journalist leave the country to avoid assassination. Heavy-handed press treatment by the government, however, is rarer in Geor- gia than in some nearby countries. Belarus’s President Aleksandr Lukashenko pines for the good old days when he ran a collective Trainer Robert Tonsing leads a workshop for Georgian journalists in Tbilisi in May. Tonsing farm. The head of his state Com- presented his workshops as part of the ProMediaII-Georgia program, sponsored by the U.S. mittee on the Press, whom I inter- Agency for International Development and administered by the International Center for Jour- viewed in 1998, reprimanded nalists. Photo by Irina Abjandadze. newspapers that accurately reported unpleasant statements by the weak political opposition. After collectors often pocket revenues. Fear Both Georgian and foreign critics three warnings, he said, the courts of becoming visible to the taxman dis- say the bank’s venture sets a bad ex- could close the paper. Meanwhile, courages businesses from advertising. ample. The best outcome, Jaques ad- Russian journalists critical of the gov- Because he believes that an inde- mits, is for a private investor to buy ernment have been beaten or killed. pendent press is crucial to curbing EcoDigest and build on its solid ap- Georgia, however, epitomizes the corruption, Gotsiridze concocted his proach to news. dysfunctional, uncivil society that media-financing scheme. Parliament, Meanwhile, Gotsiridze remains in emerges when journalists cannot do however, cannot possibly sustain ev- his cramped but tidy office thinking of their jobs adequately. Without accu- ery worthy news operation. And who is ways to bolster a free press. Parliament rate and timely news, rumor and suspi- to say who is worthy? Members of Par- could vote to exempt media from taxes, cion rule. The euphoria over freedom liament will do the sensible thing and although he worries that might en- gives way to cynicism. When foreign support newspapers that support them. courage media companies to do what organizations make grants to local The World Bank, which is promot- the tax-free Writers’ Union does. It good-government associations, the ing economic reform, tried its own imports beer, cigarettes, mushrooms common Georgian reaction is that version of Gotsiridze’s idea through a and gas, which it then sells at a hand- someone had a special in. Jockeying loan to the Georgia government to some profit. His plans to curb the Writ- for a place at the foreign aid trough is create an English-language newspaper, ers’ Union include stopping direct fund- intense—and creative. One of the most EcoDigest. Ken Jacques, a former re- ing for that body and giving the money novel new organizations is the Associa- porter for Congressional Quarterly and to individual writers. tion of Young Grandmothers. Outright CNN who became a bank-paid consult- The only true road to a free press is corruption is rampant. Police officers ant to the central government, is the not government financing but patience. shake down motorists in front of the author of the idea. EcoDigest provides In the early United States republic, the Parliament. President Eduard better than average salaries, aggres- press was wild and irresponsible. The Shevardnadze is widely seen as tolerat- sively advertises itself on bus billboards, turning point did not come until the ing corruption and helping his family and concentrates on sound economic mid-19th century, when media owners get its share. reporting. Even so, circulation is only realized that the best way to sell news- Taxation, as new to Georgia as a free 2,000. Many Georgians are suspicious papers to the burgeoning middle class press, is haphazard and dishonest. Tax of ties to the government. was through fact-based reporting. Even

Nieman Reports / Winter 2000 93 International Journalism

then, sensational journalism contin- lisher would give them financing in John Maxwell Hamilton, a veteran ued in many newspapers for decades. exchange for better entree to Telavi. foreign correspondent who has Young Georgian journalists, espe- Enterprise like this was the engine trained journalists throughout cially, are hungry to learn the skills of of our own press system. With a little Europe, is dean of the Manship factual reporting and eager to find ways luck, Georgia’s will mature faster than School of Mass Communication at to sustain it financially. On my last day our own did. Louisiana State University. in the regional city of Telavi, three “What I have learned,” the World enthusiastic young women showed me Bank’s Jacques says, is that “if you chip [email protected] a plan for creating a local news report away at it, you have done a damn good that could be inserted into a newspa- job.” ■ per. They hoped that a Tbilisi pub- Political Leanings Shape Newspaper Coverage In Spain, the language used in schools is a journalistic hot potato.

By Michael Elkin

asque terrorism is the most vis- Partido Popular (PP). ABC, Spain’s third to the dictatorship of General Fran- ible example of regional nation- national newspaper, favors strong right- cisco Franco, when speaking or teach- Balism in Spain, but another dis- wing views. So readers here can’t count ing Catalan was illegal. In response to cordant battle is being waged here, on their newspapers to provide a clear this ethnic oppression, the new Franco- too. This one is being fought over lin- picture of Spain’s language “polemica,” free government in Catalonia chose to guistic choices and the significance they or controversy, as the Spaniards call it. revive its native language in the class- hold. As I observe how the press in The problem is this: In both 1993 room. Other regions in Spain, such as Spain reports on this struggle about and 1998, Convergencia i Unio (CiU), the Basque country and Galicia, are which language teachers should use in the governing coalition of Catalonia reestablishing their regional tongues the schools (Castellano, say those in (an autonomous region of Spain), pro- as well. Catalonia, however, is the only Madrid; Catalan, argue those in posed reforms in the public education region in which teachers exclusively Barcelona), outlandish headlines, sto- system. All classes will be taught in the use the native language in classrooms. ries based on one source, and political overtones are fogging over any attempt there might be to practice objective What happens on Page One? It depends on journalism. Depending on a particular who is in power and which newspaper a newspaper’s political agenda, the conflict ranges from catastrophic to non- Spaniard is reading. existent. In Europe, media outlets and political parties often work together, blur- ring the line between spreading propa- Catalan language (except Castellano What creates controversy is that the ganda and reporting from a distance. classes) until the end of high school. population of Catalonia is only half In fact, many European newspapers CiU believed that Catalan culture Catalan; the rest of the population be- print their editorial sections on the needed protection from extinction. longs to other ethnic groups. And ev- first inside pages; this can make it diffi- Madrid felt that the Catalans were try- ery family who moves to Catalonia, cult to tell where the op-eds end and ing to eradicate the national language whether from Madrid, Chicago or more objective reporting begins. Spain and impose their nationalistic views on Botswana, is going to have to send is no different. Its major socialist party the regional population. their children to a Catalan-language (PSOE) always has been the favorite of CiU’s leader, Jordi Pujol, has en- school. Rumors circulate of teachers the El Pais newspaper. On the other joyed almost 20 years in office on a being threatened to teach only in hand, another daily newspaper, El strong nationalistic platform, all to the Catalan and even of teaching Castellano Mundo, despises the socialists and sneers of his counterparts in Madrid. in Catalan. The children, it is said, are backs the governing conservative party, Pujol’s rationale emerged as a reaction not learning proper Castellano. Catalan

94 Nieman Reports / Winter 2000 International Journalism supporters, however, believe that the But, Strubell said, after the conser- papers inflate this issue. omnipresent Castellano (used in the vatives won the 1996 elections, El “Of course there’s no problem,” said press, on television, in movies and Mundo abruptly stopped the Catalan- Frederic Porta, spokesman for El music) is strangling Catalan, and that bashing. El Pais, now backing the los- Periodico, a Barcelona daily that pub- only through these measures will their ing socialists, picked up the slack, giv- lishes both Catalan and Castellano edi- language survive. ing a lot of press to Foro Babel, a tions. “The truth is here; the lies come What happens on Page One? It de- Barcelona-based intellectual group that from Madrid.” Porta has reason to be- pends on who is in power and which believes the immersion system violates lieve this. One of Madrid’s newest news- newspaper a Spaniard is reading. Add civil rights. Full-page spreads outlined papers, the conservative La Razon (The to the major three national dailies the the exploits of Foro Babel and its co- Truth), published headlines about this numerous regional papers and the dif- founder, Francesc de Carreras. He be- issue using words such as “discrimina- ficulties multiply, even more so when lieves there are children who learn tion” and “racism.” In one article, La the CiU aligns with a national political perfect Catalan through the immer- Razon grouped this language situation party to form a working government. It sion system, but that there are also with Basque terrorism and neo-Nazi becomes a maze of “who is friends with some who don’t. Catalan should be violence, as though they are equiva- whom,” and these combinations protected, he said, but nationalism can- lents. On the other hand, local change with each election. not be imposed by law. “Languages do Catalonian newspapers such as Diari In 1993, the CiU (the governing coa- not have rights, people do,” Carreras de Tarragona and Avui attack oppo- lition of Catalonia) aligned with the said. nents of the immersion with the same socialists to form a working govern- Carreras also writes a regular edito- ferocity, often repeating in their head- ment. According to Miquel Strubell, a rial column in El Pais. Whether a news- lines the word “suppression.” Barcelona university professor and for- paper should use news sources as col- La Vanguardia, Barcelona’s major merly head of various linguistic minis- umnists is a serious question raised by daily, has some of the best and most tries for the Catalonian government, El Pais’s coverage. But that issue shrinks extensive coverage of the debate. The the PP (the conservative party) wanted in comparison to the paper’s overall paper’s reporters convey what is said to drive a wedge between the CiU and coverage during Pujol’s winning 1999 and done and usually leave opinions PSOE (the socialists). The language electoral campaign. In October 1999, about this issue to the editorial pages. issue suited this desire nicely. PP “be- El Pais reporters went after Pujol for In a 1996 article, a reporter went to the gan a ‘Let’s get hysterical about this never speaking in Castellano before schools, interviewed students, and issue’ campaign,” Strubell said. the elections (a charge that is not true) learned what the law actually says. Al- For the next three years, newspa- and linked him to the state-sponsored though seemingly routine for an edu- pers such as ABC and El Mundo blasted terrorism scandal during PSOE’s gov- cation story, this journalist is one of the socialists and highlighted the lan- erning years. “The message is clear,” few to actually visit a school instead of guage issue. In 1993, Strubell noted, the article said. “More money and simply parroting the party line. ABC ran a full front-page photograph power in the hands of the Catalans.” In Catalan should be taught in schools, of King Juan Carlos I in full military an El Pais article from last April, a said Josep Playa, another education garb, with a headline declaring that reporter interviewed one of the reporter at La Vanguardia, but he ac- Catalonia was erasing Castellano. Catalonian government’s university knowledged that the current system is “From reading ABC, it seems as if it’s ministers. Each of the questions con- ripe with trouble. But when he boils prohibited to speak in Castellano,” said cerned “polemica” (and received the down the problem, it appears still far Vicent Partal, an editor of Vilaweb, a usual vague political responses) until less severe than the newspaper cover- 24-hour Catalan news Web site. “Its the minister gave the reporters the age would indicate. “The press in vision is deformed.” answer they were looking for: “All this Barcelona have accepted the immer- In 1996, PP barely won the general is driven by the extreme right inside sion system in the schools,” Playa said. elections and reluctantly aligned with the PP, with whom you people are “The Madrid politics behind the news- CiU to form a working government. playing.” After getting this perfect papers exaggerate the conflict.” ■ ABC nonetheless continued its assault. quote, implicating the newspaper’s In a 1997 article on national politics, enemy, the reporter switched subjects Michael Elkin reported this story an ABC journalist wrote: “We are fac- and never returned to the topic. To use during a Fulbright Grant in ing a change that intends to strengthen as the headline on the story, the editors Barcelona. Recently he worked for the Catalan language and culture and chopped off the last part of the quote Bloomberg News in Madrid and condemn Castellano as something ille- about the paper’s political motives. “El currently is a freelance writer in gitimate.” ABC even publishes intoler- Pais doesn’t correspond to reality,” Spain. ant letters to the editor. “The world Vincent Partal said. “It’s pure fantasy.” knows very well the racism that we Partal’s views are the same as the opin- [email protected] Castellano speakers suffer in ions of many Barcelona journalists, who Catalonia,” writes one Barcelona man. say that Madrid’s politicians and news-

Nieman Reports / Winter 2000 95 NiemanNieman Notes Notes Compiled by Lois Fiore

A Photojournalist Portrays a Changing Community

These photos by Nuri Vallbona After a long day of arresting crimi- to move in to start the trade all over appeared in The Miami Herald in 1999 nals, many officers would trade their again. Because many of the officers and were finalists in the Pulitzer Prize uniforms for street clothes and coach knew the residents, the tough tactics competition. children, preach in the streets, or help they used in dealing with the drug with other community needs. Many of dealers were accepted and even wel- he Liberty City area in Miami is a the officers had grown up in the area comed by residents. neighborhood that was plagued they were serving and had a special Eventually statistics showed an im- Twith drug violence and aban- interest in its improvement. provement in the area as homicides doned crack houses. However, through They also had to make sure that they and shootings dropped significantly. a combination of strict police enforce- kept pressure on the drug dealers by ■ ment and community involvement by targeting drug holes over and over. If Nuri Vallbona is a 2001 Nieman officers and residents, drug dealers they relaxed in one area, gangs from Fellow and a photojournalist for The were run out of the neighborhood. outside the neighborhood were poised Miami Herald.

As residents begin to trust officers, the fight against drugs picks up momentum. Lebonah Israel ponders her future after she asked Sgt. Frank Dean to drive her to drug rehabilitation, telling him she is “ready” to fight her addiction.

96 Nieman Reports / Winter 2000 Nieman Notes

Fueled by outrage that innocent children were getting caught in the crossfire of drug turf wars, residents and activists began to fight back. The MAD DADS of the NAACP began patrolling the area on Friday nights hoping to become role models to children who previously idolized drug dealers. As they enter one housing community, a youngster enthusiastically greets their arrival.

Officer Gregory Pelham barks out orders as he gets children in the neighborhood to warm up prior to baseball practice. He and other officers started a baseball team as part of their strategy to get children involved in positive activities.

Nieman Reports / Winter 2000 97 Nieman Notes

—1961— —1979— —1988—

John Herbers is one of the two Michael McDowell is co-director of Eileen McNamara, a columnist for winners of the 2000 John Chancellor the Overseas Development Council’s The Boston Globe, is the first recipient Award for Excellence in Journalism. major project on bipartisanship in of Massachusetts Citizens for Children’s Herbers and Claude F. Sitton won for American foreign policy and joint au- Eli Newberger Media Award. The award, their groundbreaking coverage of the thor of the project’s report, “America’s which will be given annually, is named civil rights movement in the South National Interests in Multilateral En- for the pediatrician and author who during the late 1950’s and early 1960’s. gagement,” which is available on the teaches at Harvard Medical School. At Herbers, who began his career as a Web at www.odc.org. The project spon- the awards ceremony on October 26, reporter for the Mississippi Morning sored private conferences at Harvard Massachusetts Citizens for Children Star in 1949, went on to lead United University and the Baker Institute in- praised McNamara for her “passionate Press’s civil rights coverage. After his volving key foreign policy advisors to advocacy for disadvantaged children.” Nieman year and a short stint working the Bush and Gore campaigns, Clinton for United Press in Washington, D.C., Administration officials, and interna- —1989— Herbers returned to the South as a tional affairs specialists. McDowell’s New York Times reporter. In 1965, he partner in the project is Princeton Cecilia Alvear, a producer for NBC went to Washington to write about Lyman, who has been Assistant Secre- News in Los Angeles, was elected presi- enforcement of the new civil rights tary of State and Ambassador to South dent of the National Association of His- laws. Herbers covered Robert F. Africa and Nigeria. panic Journalists at their annual con- Kennedy’s presidential campaign and McDowell went to the Carnegie En- vention in Texas last June. Alvear Watergate for the Times, and eventu- dowment after his Nieman year and received 75 percent of the vote of the ally became that paper’s national cor- then returned to journalism with the 1600 member group. The two-year post respondent. He retired from the Times BBC, Globe and Mail in Toronto, and is keeping her very busy and, Alvear in 1987. the Canadian Broadcasting Corpora- says, “she needs all her Nieman broth- tion. He made the transition from jour- ers and sisters to help.” —1974— nalism to the think-tank world once Alvear also was named to Hispanic again three years ago. McDowell re- Business magazine’s list of “100 Most Paul Bichara brings us up-to-date mains deeply involved in the American Influential Hispanics—2000.” In the on his activities: “I am writing, teaching side of the Northern Ireland peace pro- announcement, published in the Octo- political science and fiction writing at cess from his Washington base and can ber issue of the magazine, Alvear says universities, and also painting. I shall be reached by e-mail at that “it is an exciting time to be a Latino be exhibited in a theatre-gallery in the [email protected]. and a journalist. Just as we are chang- center of Paris from the beginning of ing the demographics of the United March until mid-April, 2001. This time —1986— States we will change the demograph- I will be showing 50 new paintings. ics of the U.S. newsrooms.” Also, my travel stories are published in Yvonne van der Heijden left China several languages (French, English, in March of 2000 after working for Bill Kovach is Colby College’s 48th Spanish and soon Brazilian) by the eight years as a freelance correspon- Elijah Parish Lovejoy Fellow. Lovejoy, a daily Le Monde and by a French Institu- dent in Beijing. She returned to the Colby graduate, wrote against slavery tion comparable to the British Council Netherlands, purchased a house in in Missouri and Illinois. He was killed called L’alliance Française.” Loon op Zand, and has been writing in Alton, Illinois in 1837 while defend- articles on economics and finance for ing his press from a pro-slavery mob. Ron Gollobin retired after 24 years newspapers, magazines and Internet Kovach received the award at the with WCVB-TV (Boston) and eight years sites. Waterville, Maine school on November on four newspapers and is writing a Van der Heijden writes that she’s 9, 2000. A Colby College press release novel about terrorism. “Terrorism’s eager to begin covering cultural and described him as “a staunch defender reach into the continental United States historical topics, as well as economics, of press freedom and a crusader for in the not-too-distant future will trans- for English-language media in Europe high standards of integrity in journal- form this country, and not for the bet- and Asia. She plans to return to South- ism.” In his convocation address, ter,” he predicts. Gollobin is a media east Asia as a reporter and analyst at Kovach discussed what he called the consultant specializing in crisis situa- some point in the next couple of years, unprecedented “rise of a market-based tions and lives in Brookline, Mass., and she particularly wants to be in journalism divorced from the idea of with his wife, Helen, a librarian. E-mail Hong Kong in 2002. Van der Heijden civic responsibility,” and urged that him at [email protected]. can be reached by e-mail at the new technology of the Internet be [email protected]. used to combat this tendency.

98 Nieman Reports / Winter 2000 Nieman Notes

However, Kovach also argued that he’s gone through with float-by pho- service for financial news, as some be- technology is ultimately neutral and tos, called a “Flash Movie.” Then, they lieve. Woolner is still based in Atlanta, cautioned against investing excessive took additional photos and made a but will be writing on national and hope in any technological advance. He “Slide Show” with the transcript of his perhaps international legal matters. Be- closed his address as follows: words underneath five or six photos. fore going to Brill’s Content, Woolner “Civilization has produced one idea It’s the first time the techno staff had wrote a column for American Lawyer more powerful than any other, the attempted this and, of course, my first Media. Her e-mail address is notion that people can govern them- attempt using a digital audio recorder. [email protected]. selves. And it has created a largely (I was the one recording him so that’s unarticulated theory of information to why it is definitely not A-1 quality.) —1997— sustain that idea called journalism. The Anyway, it’s a good example of how a two rise and fall together. newspaper story can now be launched On October 25, Maria Cristina Ca- “Our freedom in a digital century in many media outlets. (And how much ballero and John Lengler celebrated depends upon not forgetting the past, more work is created for the lowly their recent marriage at a reception or the theory of news it produced, in a reporter still overseeing quality con- held in Cambridge, Mass. Caballero is surge of faith in technological and cor- trol of her precious project.) The site a Mason Fellow at the Kennedy School porate rebirth. should stay up on this URL: http:// of Government and Lengler is director “For, in the end, if the life and death www.accessatlanta.com/partners/ajc/ of publications at Harvard’s Office of of Elijah Parish Lovejoy teaches us any- reports/keonepenn/index.html.” Communications and Public Affairs. thing, it teaches us that freedom and democracy do not depend on technol- Ann Woolner recently left her job —1999— ogy or organization so much as they as an Atlanta-based senior correspon- depend upon individuals who invest dent at Brill’s Content. “I’m returning Masaru Soma has a new book out: themselves in a belief in freedom and to writing law-related columns and fea- “I would like to inform you that my human dignity.” tures, this time for Bloomberg News,” book on my experience at Harvard has Woolner writes. She adds that just been published by one of the big- —1991— Bloomberg is much more than a wire gest publishing companies in Japan,

Tim Giago, the former owner and publisher of Indian Country Today, launched a new weekly newspaper last The Murrey and Frances Marder Fund January. The Lakota Nation Journal made its debut in February. Giago also The Murrey and Frances Marder Fund, established in November 1996, has was recently inducted into the South provided the Nieman Foundation with support for three Watchdog Journal- Dakota Hall of Fame along with former ism Conferences (May 1998, May 1999 and October 1999). It also has paid South Dakota Senator George for the costs related to publishing excerpts of the conferences and articles McGovern. Giago’s weekly column, on watchdog journalism in five issues of Nieman Reports and on the “Notes from Indian Country,” is syndi- Nieman Web site. An accounting as of 4/15/00 appeared in the Summer cated by Knight Ridder Tribune News 2000 issue of Nieman Reports. An accounting as of 10/15/00 follows: Service. Income: $151,299.46 —1996— $73,911.63 —Balance at 4/15/00 3,982.05 —Interest on balance at end of FY’99-00 Patricia Guthrie writes: “On Sun- (6/30/00) day, October 29, The Atlanta Journal- 73,405.78 —Income from endowment for FY’00-’01 Constitution published one of my RBS’s (7/1/00-6/30/01) (Really Big Stories) that has been two Expense: $ 13,102.33 years in the works. I document the $ 6,225.33 —Nieman Reports/Summer 2000* struggle of a kid going through an 1,030.00 —Nieman Web site* experimental procedure to cure sickle 5,847.00 —Misc. related activities cell disease. It’s three pages in the newspaper version that leaves you with Fund ink marks, and additional photos and Balance: $138,197.13 story are on the Web at ajc.com. Also on the Web they created an audiovisual (*The amounts listed represent the portion of the costs that were segment with the boy’s own voice de- devoted to watchdog journalism.) scribing (in sound bite fashion) what

Nieman Reports / Winter 2000 99 Nieman Notes

Shincho-sha, on October 10th, titled book focuses on the United States’s ‘Japan Is Taught So at Harvard Univer- viewpoints on Japan, China and the sity.’ The account of my experience at Korean peninsula, based on my Nieman U.S. Postal Service Harvard includes lectures, seminars, year research. The book is written in Statement of Ownership of course, Nieman seminars, and per- Japanese, not English—so sorry I am Management and Circulation sonal exchanges among Nieman Fel- not fluent enough in English to write a lows and staff. Another theme in my book in that language.” Title of publication: Nieman Reports. Publication no. USPS 430-650. Date Nieman Seminar on the Mount of filing 9/26/00. Frequency of issue: Quarterly. No. of issues published annually: 4. Annual subscription price: $20. Complete mailing address of known office of publication: One Francis Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138-2009 Middlesex County. Complete mailing address of the headquarters or general business office of the publishers: One Francis Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138-2009. Full names and complete mailing address of publisher and editor: Bob Giles, One Francis Avenue, Cam- bridge, MA 02138-2009; Melissa Ludtke, One Francis Avenue, Cam- bridge, MA 02138-2009. Owner: Nieman Foundation at Harvard Uni- versity, One Francis Avenue, Cam- bridge, MA 02138-2009. Known bondholders, mortgagees, and other security holders: none. The purpose, function and nonprofit status of this organization and the exempt status In the icy bowl of Tuckerman Ravine on Mount Washington. From left: Nieman affili- for Federal income tax purposes has ate Sebastian Fixson, Nieman Fellows Stefanie Friedhoff, Ken Armstrong, Mark Pothier, not changed during preceding 12 and Ignacio Gomez. months. Extent and nature of circulation (first number is average num- A group of 18 Nieman Fellows and affiliates from the class of 2001 left Cambridge ber of copies of each issue during for New Hampshire’s White Mountains on an unusually balmy October 26th. preceding 12 months, and second is Twenty-four hours later, we found ourselves on 6,288-foot high Mount Washing- actual number of copies of single ton, buffeted by hurricane-force winds, horizontal snow, and temperatures issue published nearest to filing dipping below 20 degrees. And most of us would do it again. date): Total number copies: 6,625; We stayed at the Appalachian Mountain Club’s Pinkham Notch headquarters, 6,000. Paid circulation, sales through at the base of Mount Washington, the highest peak in the Northeastern United dealers and carriers, street vendors States, and a place where drastic weather changes are an everyday occurrence. and counter sales: none; none. Mail The night before the rugged climb into Tuckerman Ravine (an impressive subscription: 381; 370. Total paid glacial cirque on the eastern face of Washington), AMC officials, led by information circulation: 381; 370. Free distribu- director Rob Burbank, conducted a seminar on the preservation of open land in tion by mail, carrier or other means, northern New England. samples, complimentary and other After a hearty family-style breakfast and safety briefing the next morning, the free copies: 6,126; 5,502. Total dis- Nieman group was joined by AMC trail guides for the trek through thick forest to tribution: 6,507; 5,872. Copies not scrub pine and into the wintry conditions above tree line. Along the way, the distributed, office use, left over, un- guides pointed out conservation and trail maintenance measures employed by the accounted, spoiled after printing: AMC to allow access to the mountains without disturbing the natural environ- 125; 100. Return from news agents: ment. none; none. Total: 6,632; 5,972. I By Saturday evening, we were back on the flat landscape of Cambridge, with certify that the statements made by sore knees, soaring spirits, and a greater appreciation for the power of nature. ■ me above are correct and complete: —Mark Pothier, 2001 Nieman Fellow. Bob Giles.

100 Nieman Reports / Winter 2000 Nieman Notes End Note

From Carbon Copies to E-Mail In 45 years, the way journalists send words has changed. By Richard Dudman

echnology has shout, “Working! Working!” changed my life as a over and over again to keep T journalist. How to get the operator from cutting me a story, of course, has off. changed a lot. But how to Reporting from Washing- get the story to the paper is ton, I could punch my stories what I want to discuss. in the daytime on a dedicated Forty-five years ago, when teletype line to St. Louis or I was a young Washington else hand them to Estie or correspondent for the St. Helen-Marie or Peachy, who Louis Post-Dispatch, then a would punch them and often p.m. paper, I would type my would catch my errors. story at night at my upstairs Everything has changed desk on my old Underwood since then. I’ve been retired upright. I would keep a car- for 20 years and know nothing bon copy, tape the original of the portable phones which to the front door, and tele- enable foreign correspondents phone Western Union. Early to connect instantly with their the next morning, I would editors by satellite. telephone the wire desk in But the new high-tech era St. Louis to be sure the story helps me at our summer place had gotten there. Richard Dudman in Laos in 1959, his first assignment in on an island three miles out in On my first foreign assign- Southeast Asia. the Atlantic. I have been writ- ment for the paper, the Gua- ing two editorials a week on a temalan revolution in 1954, freelance basis for the Bangor I would type my stories on my portable at the top of my lungs. But of course Daily News. I type them into my Apple Olivetti and hand them to some kid the paper wouldn’t print such a thing. iBook, cut and paste them onto an e- who for a few bucks would promise to Covering the Vietnam War, I often mail message, and send them instantly carry them on horseback to the RCA had to make two carbons, one for my- to the editorial page editor. Each day office in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, where self and the second for the censor. At around noon, after the mail boat has I had shown my credit card to a clerk. the telegraph office, a Vietnamese man, arrived, I can pick up my paper at the Most of the stories got through, includ- who could speak only a little English, village post office and see whether one ing my account of the decisive battle of would punch the story into a Telex of my editorials has made the page. If Chicamunga. machine. If I was lucky, I could see a the mail is late, I can check the On an assignment to Northern Ire- printout and send corrections. What morning’s editorials on the News’s land, I dictated my story over a poor with errors in punching and trouble Internet site. phone connection in a Belfast kitchen from the censor, my stories sometimes If it were not for the Internet, I to the managing editor’s secretary in were badly mangled. would be out of a job. I doubt that the St. Louis. He kept telling me my voice On presidential campaigns and for- News would be able to provide a was fading. I spoke louder and louder. eign presidential trips, I would dictate dictationist, and it probably would find He couldn’t seem to get the part about stories to St. Louis out of my head, a fax too cumbersome. ■ the three little Protestant school girls paragraph at a time, relying on a few who were chanting, “Buy a penny rope scrawled notes to remind me of points Richard Dudman is a 1954 Nieman and hang the fucking Pope.” To get it I wanted to cover. When an overseas Fellow. through to him, I finally had to shout it phone connection was bad, I had to

Nieman Reports / Winter 2000 101 “…to promote and elevate the standards of journalism”

—Agnes Wahl Nieman, the benefactor of the Nieman Foundation.

Vol. 54 No. 4 NIEMAN REPORTS Winter 2000 THE NIEMAN FOUNDATION FOR JOURNALISM AT HARVARD UNIVERSITY

Publisher Bob Giles Editor Melissa Ludtke Assistant Editor Lois Fiore Editorial Assistant Adam Reilly Design Editor Deborah Smiley Business Manager Cheryl Scantlebury

Nieman Reports (USPS #430-650) is published Please address all subscription correspondence to in March, June, September and December One Francis Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138-2098 by the Nieman Foundation at Harvard University, and change of address information to One Francis Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138-2098. P.O. Box 4951, Manchester, NH 03108. ISSN Number 0028-9817 Telephone: (617) 495-2237 Internet Address (Business): Second-class postage paid [email protected] at Boston, Massachusetts, and additional entries. Internet Address (Editorial): [email protected] POSTMASTER: Send address changes to WWW address: Nieman Reports, http://www.Nieman.Harvard.edu P.O. Box 4951, Manchester, NH 03108. Copyright 2000 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College. Subcription $20 a year, $35 for two years; add $10 per year for foreign airmail. Single copies $5. Back copies are available from the Nieman office. NIEMAN REPORTS THE NIEMAN FOUNDATION FOR JOURNALISM AT HARVARD UNIVERSITY

VOL. 54 NO. 4 WINTER 2000 Five Dollars

Technology Is Changing Journalism Just as It Always Has