10th annual 2012 Photography, Writing camp

10^th annual 2012 Photography, Writing camp

     The 10th annual Cornerstone Journalism Institute extends an invitation to home, charter, Christian and public school students now in 8^th, 9^th, 10^th, 11^th or 12th grade to participate in this educational summer camp.

     CJI will also provide a $20 discount to any high school student who registers and pays by/before May 31. Optional university credit is also available as well.

     Students experience what it would be like to be a professional photographer, videographer, a writer/reporter during this overnight camp at Cornerstone University, in Grand Rapids, Mich.

      Instructors include Russ Pulliam, associate editor and columnist, Indianapolis (Ind.) Star, along with a number of other professional photographers, writers and editors.

      For more information, contact Prof. Alan Blanchard at 616.222.1504 or go to this website: www.cornerstone.edu/events/cji

Signing on the dotted line

I knew this day was coming.

The email arrived a week ago, alerting Ann Arbor News employees that, within the next day or two, a letter containing the details of our severance package would be coming in the mail.

Two days later, two envelopes – one containing a letter from publisher Laurel Champion, the other holding the terms of my severance – came in the Saturday mail.

There, in contract form, where the specifics of my departure from the newspaper where I have spent nearly the past five years of my career.

In previous weeks, I had done my best to focus on life after The Ann Arbor News. What would I do? Where would I work? Where would money come from?

But as I read through the contents of the two envelopes, one thing came to mind. 

This was a short-term fix. Short-term meaning a matter of weeks that I could expect to continue receiving money from the newspaper.

Within five weeks, the money would stop, the benefits would disappear and if, I hadn't found my next career stop, we would be on our own.

Earlier this week, I sat in an hour-long meeting. My co-workers and I sat in a large conference room having our severance packages explained to us by the publisher and head of human resources.

There were questions. Concerns. Frustrations.

Ah, to be right in the middle of limbo once again.

NY Times blows it on McCain article

http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/thebigblog/archives/132415.asp
(Seattle-Post Intelligencer editor's blog on topic)

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/21/us/politics/21mccain.html
(New York Times article on McCain)

By Alan Blanchard -- www.cornerstone.edu/journalism

From my perspective, and you can read the article for yourself in the NY (see other link above for access to article) Times, there are several problems with the story:

1. Sources are not identified other than as former aides to Sen. McCain ... whatever happened to reserving anonymous sources for individuals who risked physical harm or job loss for offering up real information with real news value?

2. All the anonymous sources could say amounted to unverified concerns about a possible relationship between the senator and the female lobbyist. No proof, just innuendo, and innuendo without any on the record sources.

3. Why wait until now to release the story as opposed to month or years earlier? While it may not have been politically motivated, it sure gives legs to that kind of criticism by onlookers.

4. While the article starts out with what amounts to titillating innuendo about a "rumored" relationship between the senator and the lobbyist, much of the article is a recap of the senator's past career, including his involvement with the Keating 5, which would have been substance enough for a standalone profile or feature story on McCain.

Seattle Post Intelligencer (see blog entry above) Managing Editor David McCumber explains why his newspaper didn't jump on the bandwagon and run the N.Y. Times story, which raised the issue last week of whether Sen. John McCain, GOP primary presidential candidate, R-Ariz., had been romantically involved with and/or intervened on behalf of a Washington, D.C., lobbyist.

McCumber writes in part:
"For a story that dealt with the maybe, looked-like-to-some-people, nobody-knew-for-sure dalliance in an extraordinarily elliptical fashion, it sure had a lot of impact. People read between the lines just fine, thank you. This story seems to me not to pass the smell test. It makes the innuendo of impropriety, even corruption, without backing it up. I was taught that before you run something in the newspaper that could ruin somebody's reputation, you'd better have your facts very straight indeed."

Political candidates should be scrutinized for ethical lapses or worse actions in their past lives, but newspapers with the resources and talent that the New York Times has should refuse the temptation to deal in rumors and innuendos. Their willingness to go down this tabloid journalism path sure does blur the lines between the old grey lady and the National Enquirer.

Alan Blanchard is assistant professor of journalism at Cornerstone University, editor and publisher of The Clare (Mich.) Sentinel and president of The Blanchard Group, LLC.

Rupert Murdoch adds Wall Street Journal to media stable

Critics of the buyout have said Rupert Murdoch would destroy The Wall Street Journal if a News Corp takeover were successful.

The Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones are already a successful, profitable organization, with an editorial page known for its conservative slant.

Predictions of demise of The Wall Street Journal under Murdoch's ownership are as premature as the obituary of Mark Twain that published prior to that author's death a century or so ago.

Zell lands Tribune Media Company

It's very interesting to see a company the size of Tribune go private ... it'll be even more interesting to see how the newly privately held Tribune goes about maximizing revenues and controlling costs.

On the plus side, no longer being publicly traded should give the company some breathing room. On the minus side, the amount of debt that's being taken on with this acquisition is staggering.

It'll be interesting to see how involved Mr. Zell will be with his new news operations, which include the Los Angeles Times and Chicago Tribune, and how soon he will insist on making the company more profitable. At least in Chicago, the Tribune is still far ahead of its weaker competitor, the Chicago Sun-Times.

National broadcast news has morphed into video version of "National Enquirer"

Gone are the days of serious broadcast journalism, as typified by Edward Murrow's ground-breaking radio coverage of World War II in the 1940s and by his singularly brave coverage of Sen. McCarthy's Communist-scare-mongering of the 1950s.

Gone are the days of Walter Cronkite who, in spite of some left-leaning biases, maintained a sense of decorum and had a clear sense of the difference between news and entertainment.

Today's fixation on Anna Nicole Smith's death day after day after day shows how far broadcast news companies have fallen in their race to the bottom of the barrel in search of ratings and audience share. Tabloid journalism is alive and well today on the airwaves of the major networks, not just in the tabloid papers at your neighborhood grocery store checkout lane.

When will broadcast news see the error of its current way of putting gossip on par with news and return to covering news?

Do people under age 25 read newspapers? Why or why not?

As the owner of a weekly newspaper in Clare, Mich., and a journalism professor at Cornerstone University in Grand Rapids, Mich., I am keenly interested in the newspaper reading habits of folks.

Do you think people under the age of 25 nowadays read newspapers on a regular basis? Why or why not?

Also, what do you think newspapers could do to increase readership among today's young adults under 25?

Republicans turn away from "bias" in network TV news

Perception is reality, right?

Well, according to the following study, Republicans have quit viewing network TV news in droves because of what they perceive to be liberally biased news coverage. What is interesting in the study is that these disgruntled Republicans have turned, not to objective alternative news media, but rather to purveyors of admittedly conservative political commentary such as Rush Limbaugh, Bill O'Reilly, etc.

In a newspaper, the difference between news and opinion is clearly defined by the latter being confined to the Editorial and Op-Ed pages. In TV news, the line between objective news and opinion seems to be blurred from the perspective of the lay viewer, who tends to incorrectdly think that political commentators are journalists; and from too network news reporters and anchors, who seem to think that providing commentary along with the news is part of their job.

If newspaper reporters were to share their opinions in stories in print like TV reporters and anchors share their opinions, there'd be a lot reprimanded newspaper reporters.

A 2004 Pew study finds:
"Conservative claims of a liberal media bias are having an impact upon public perceptions of news coverage. According to research by the Pew Center, this led to an overall audience decrease for many of the major broadcast and cable television outlets and a perceived decrease in credibility for the news as a whole. Republicans have turned from traditional news sources to additional media such as Rush Limbaugh's radio program, Bill O'Reilly's TV and radio programs, and the Fox News Channel, while Democrats' viewing habits have remained mostly unchanged. This shift by the Republican audience has led to an overall polarization between where Republicans and Democrats obtain their news, with Republicans, and more specifically conservatives, becoming increasingly distrustful of the mainstream media.

Do you think that TV news reporters and news anchors go beyond "just the facts" and share their opinion and biases in their jobs?

O.J. Simpson fails to outfox FOX

FOX's Rupert Murdoch made a good decision to pull the plug on the O.J. Simpson TV special ... if the show had aired, it would have made FOX News "Fair & Balanced" over into a FOX News "National Enquirer" wannabe, look-alike.

It just goes to show that even in our seemingly values-neutral culture, there is still a line over which normal citizens know it is improper to cross.

If profits or ratings are the only motive for whether to do a story on network or cable television, then anything goes.

For now, at least, Mr. Murdoch has confirmed that there is still a line in the sand that FOX will not cross over.

Clear Channel radio is taking itself private

If Clear Channel Radio ends up going private, will that the change the quality of this radio chain for the better or the worse?