A National Endowment for ... Journalism?

After our JOUR599 phone conference with Jon Sawyer from The Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, I started checking out some of the folks he works with, as I would like to be one. Low and behold, on his list of reporters I found some fellow Seattlites; Sarah Stuteville, Alex Stonehill and Jessica Partnow, along with several others, make up 'Common Language Project,' a wonderful new model for international investigative reporting. As I was exploring the C.L.P. site (check them out facebook) , I came across a blog by Alex arguing for the creation of a National Endowment for Journalism. This is something I've been thinking about myself, and frankly I was a bit jealous that Alex beat me to it. But I have to say, that his editorial is really interesting and well written. Check it out if you care about the future of journalism in the United States. I think he's onto something. My question is how do we get Washington to pay attention in the middle of an economic crisis? Although creating a National Endowment for Journalism may seem indulgent in the middle of a recession, it is precisely at this moment when we need serious investigative reporting. Creating such an endowment would put laid off journalists to work and keep the Fourth Estate alive during this critical time in American history. What do you think?

A Reason to Want the Big Guys on Your Side

The idea of freelancing is romantic, until you end up sick in a foreign country, struggling with a story without an editor to guide you, or kicked out because you offended a government official. All this is to be expected at one time or another. But one of the worst situations we have seen lately, besides foreign journalists becoming casualties of war, is foreign countries throwing them in prison for no apparent reason. This is the case with Roxana Saberi who is being held in Iran's most notorious jail, Evin Prison, where it is rumored there is a torture chamber. I don't know about you, but this is when I would want 'The Big Guys' on my side. I commend NPR, ABC, BBC, FOX, WALL STREET JOURNAL, PBS AND FEATURESTORY.COM for their joint statement and their negotiations on behalf of Ms. Saberi. But I'd also want all the little guys on my side too. I actually found out about this story through facebook. I think I'd noticed the story while scanning the papers, but skipped over it, as I was busy with midterms. However, when I saw my old KUOW friend, Sara Lerner, had posted the official letter from the networks on her facebook page, I had to take a look. Why? For one thing, I trust Sara and find what she has to say interesting. Another major reason I read about Ms. Saberi was that I thought to myself ... that could be me, and I would want my fellow journalists to be interested in my fate. Ms. Saberi is a freelance journalist, but she is established and has lived in Iran for years. As more and more foreign correspondents are laid off and the ranks of freelancers swell, I hope the networks continue to defend the rights of freelancers who run into trouble for doing nothing more than their job. The spread of news about Ms. Saberi's situation through facebook is also hopeful. But somehow I don't think a letter from Facebook users would have the same impact as one from the networks.

Below is the letter I read on facebook.

MAJOR WORLDWIDE NEWS ORGANIZATIONS PRESS FOR INFORMATION

REGARDING AMERICAN JOURNALIST ROXANA SABERI BEING HELD IN IRAN

NPR, ABC, BBC, FOX, WALL STREET JOURNAL, PBS, FEATURESTORY.COM ISSUE JOINT STATEMENT

Washington, D.C.; March 10, 2009 – On behalf of the family, friends and colleagues of Roxana Saberi, and the many American citizens who share our concerns, we urgently request a series of steps be taken in the case of Roxana Saberi, an independent journalist and dual citizen of the United States and Iran, who is being held in Evin Prison in Tehran, Iran.

We now ask that one or more international organizations that have responsibilities and rights under the Geneva Conventions be permitted access to Roxana immediately to ascertain her health and well-being and to determine the conditions under which she is held.

We now ask that the specific charges against Roxana Saberi be made public. If no charges are filed, we now urge her immediate release and ask that she be given permission to return to her home country, the United States.

For the past six years, Ms. Saberi has resided in Iran, where she is an established and respected professional journalist. She has filed for NPR, ABC, BBC and others. Before her arrest, she was pursuing a master's degree in Iranian studies and international relations and writing a book about Iran.

On Thursday, February 26, nearly a month after the actual event, we learned that Roxana was detained by Iranian authorities in late January. Since then she has been denied contact with family, friends and associates. On February 10, briefly and under apparent duress, she contacted her family to inform them of her arrest and detention and requested their silence. On Sunday March 1, her family revealed the story to their home town press in Fargo, ND and to NPR, given their growing concern over the lack of contact from Roxana.

Roxana Saberi is a U. S. citizen, born in New Jersey, raised in North Dakota and educated in Minnesota. She has many friends and colleagues across the nation. We are deeply concerned about her well-being and the deprivation of her rights, and we will continue to press for action until we are successful.

Signed,

Vivian Schiller
President & CEO, NPR

David L. Westin
President, ABC News

Jon Williams
World Editor, BBC News

Paula Kerger
President & CEO, PBS

Robert Thomson
Editor-in-Chief, Wall Street Journal

Narrative, The Soul of Journalism

This week we had a fantastic speaker at our weekly specialized journalism luncheon, Celeste Freemon, who teaches literary journalism at UC Irvine and is a Senior Fellow for Social Justice/New Media at the USC Institute for Justice and Journalism. She spoke about the relevance of narrative journalism in the digital age. As I listened to Freemon describe the importance of narrative in a time of great change in the media and society, I was moved. In our discussion I found the answer to a question I had been asking myself for some time; how can I have the most impact as a journalist? I believe it is through a combination of the oldest form of story telling and the most cutting edge technology offered by the internet. At Annenberg I've discovered my passion for social justice journalism. I'm interested in how we can use literary tricks to draw the masses into stories they might ordinarily avoid, compelling American's to care more about international news. Narratives ask us to invest in characters. In the case of narrative journalism those characters are real live people. Wouldn't it be great if we could use the techniques of narrative storytelling to mobilize people to act on issues like the genocide in Darfur? Some journalists are doing this, but it takes an investment of time and money to do these types of stories and an experienced, skillful storyteller. Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times and Ann Curry of NBC have both done their best to convey the stories of ordinary people in Darfur. Ms. Curry recently accompanied Mr. Kristof to Darfur to report on the ongoing genocide. I found out about this through Krisof's blog, 'On the Ground.' My question is, can citizen journalists really do this type of reporting ... the kind that moves us to tears, that helps us hope, that makes us angry enough or inspired enough to act, or to pressure our government to act? I searched the web for citizen journalism about Darfur -- serious journalism, but I couldn't find any. I expect that's because it's very difficult for someone without the resources and the know-how to do such work. Citizen journalism sites such as Huffington Post simply post links to articles about Darfur. Demotix offers still photos and a short text description of them. This is not storytelling. Compare that to Curry's reports and judge for yourself.

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Citizen Foreign Correspondents?

After a bout with the flu I am now re-joining the bloggosphere. Thanks to our classmate Nikki Usher for sending me a link to Nicholas Kristof's recent blog about a new citizen journalism website where we can all become foreign correspondents. In his blog Kristof introduces us to a site called Demotix. Demotix, which set up shop in January 2009, is essentially an online, international, multimedia, newswire service. The site is named after 'Demotic,' the form of writing used and most easily understood by the man on the street in Alexandrian Egypt in 200 BC. The word Demotic meaning, 'of the people.' The people behind Demotix say they hope to open up journalism to the people in the modern age, just as the demotic script opened up writing in Ancient Egypt. They say they're filling the void left by the death of newspapers and old-fashioned on-the-ground reporting. With only four U.S. newspapers maintaining a foreign desk, they may be onto something. Their goal? To provide a place for anyone -- freelance journalists, citizen journalists, and people who just happen to be at the right place at the right time to upload world news photos and video, search for it and comment on it. The good news for freelancers is that they pay you. It works like this; you retain the copyright, they broker the photos and videos across all platforms for you and then Demotix and you split the fee, 50/50. They say they can get anywhere from $50-$3,000, depending on demand. And if you just happen to get something really hot, like say a great photo of a historic moment, they claim the pay could potentially range into the $100,000.00 range! Demotix also has an interesting blog where they invite people to discuss the pluses and minuses of citizen journalism. I was only down with the flu for about a week, but it feels as if in that short time the fault lines of journalism could have made some massive fundamental shifts. And Demotix might be ahead of the game.