Arbor Day & Other Things Journalists Do

Yes indeed I do have a chip on my shoulder and feel at least a tad resentful that journalists don't get the respect they deserve. Just in case you were wondering. 

So, here: a few examples off the top of my head (or Wikipedia) of things Journalists do or have done that make them quite worth your respect, and appreciation, even.

So, there.

Journalists Rock Holidays, Space Exploration

In 1872, Julius Sterling Morton, a journalist, politician, and tree-hugger, started setting aside one day a year to celebrate trees. The first Arbor Day was celebrated in Nebraska in 1872 and became a national thing (as much as it is today, I guess) by 1885. Arbor Day - in case you want to make a cake or climb a tree or something, and aren't quite sure when to plan your party - is celebrated the last Friday in April. 

Sarah Josepha Hale, a magazine editor, is hailed as the "Godmother of Thanksgiving." Her letter to then-president Abraham Lincoln spurred him to proclaim the third Thursday of November a National holiday. 

A handful of journalists (actually, folks in the even-more-maligned PR industry) had more than a bit of influence on getting the US to the moon. 

Public Opinion & History

Lest you think I revere only the "old school" journalists, I'll toss this in the mix: journalists have always, and will always, shape opinions. Like you, I think some opinions are more worth shaping than others - so I revere some and revile others. (Hey, journalists are nothing if not human.)

One I revere: Anderson Cooper for coming out publicly AND matter-of-factly, simultaneously saying, "maybe you should know" and "not that it matters."  

Who I revile: Sadly, a growing list, heavily populated by those who report on the rich and famous with an apparent belief that what Kim Kardashian wears is relevant to anyone other than Kim Kardashian. 

On the list of folks I admire: anyone who provides solid reporting (I like those three-sources types). Journalism - good or bad, I'll admit - provides the first draft of our history. One good example I'll point to this year: MtV's study on the racial undercurrents of 2014. While it will never enjoy the level of respect conferred on The Wall Street Journal or Rolling Stone, Viacom's aging bad-boy brand deserves major kudos for that.

Hats off to those who write it right. 

 ~Diane Stresing

How many professional organizations do we need?

I understand and feel the sadness shared by many as the American Press Institute closes, but I challenge those who were so quick to jump into the OMG, it's another nail-in-the-coffin discussion.

Is it? Or perhaps should at least some of those headlines be rewritten to include the word merge? This is one of the many times I want to jump up and down and scream, "what were we taught in J-school, anyway?!" See, API didn't whither away; it merged with NAA. And the merge wasn't a last-gasp; API had five years (at least) of operating expenses in the bank when it merged with NAA. Five years to re-invest, reinvent itself, or look around and realize that there are a dozen or so professional organizations offering education, direction, and memberships to journalists and maybe it makes sense to combine the talents of those organizations.

I think that's how I'd write the story.
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On a related note, at least one astute Washington Post reader asked a question I'd like to hear the paper's response to. Why did that article run in the Lifestyle section? File that under "things that make me say, hmmm."
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Look, API was a highly respected, unquestionably professional organization, and much as it will be missed, I repeat, it just might not be needed - thanks to several other, similarly professional and well-respected organizations. RIP API. RIP, indeed.
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~Diane Stresing

Fellowship for Mid-Career Editorial Writer

SPJ does it again - here's an outstanding opportunity for professional editorial writers:

What the fellowship provides, straight from SPJ's description, is $75,000 "to an outstanding editorial writer or columnist to help broaden his or her journalistic horizons and knowledge of the world...(it can) cover the cost of study, research, and/or travel in any field."

The application deadline is June 22, 2012. More information at SPJ.org.

Also note: SPJ's High School Essay Contest deadline is March 8.

Carl Hiaasen talks to CJR

Hoot, Scat, Flush, Team Rodent (How Disney Devours the World), Skinny Dip, Nature Girl, Paradise Screwed. Need further introduction, dear readers? Carl Hiassen started with The Miami Herald when he was 23 years old. Three decades and about a dozen books (and three movies) later, he still writes for the paper because:

"I've always felt fortunate and privileged, first of all, to write for a newspaper I grew up reading - learned to read on, actually - and secondly, to live in the place I grew up, where my roots are, and to have a platform for expressing my opinion. ... To walk away from the column would be to walk away from the fight."- Carl Hiaasen in Columbia Journalism Review

Be still, my heart.

In case that doesn't fully expose my J-school geekiness, I'll go on. The Q&A with Hiassen was just one of the articles I savored in the January/February issue of CJR. I'll admit I should have stopped reading  the next article, The Times and the Jews, to look up invidious (you too?) but I was too engrossed in that article by Neil A. Lewis. I would have looked it up when I finished the magazine, but by then The Algorithm Method had given me a headache, thanks to its too-lucid description of the frustrating ways in which measuring reading material in clicks and visits changes the course of the writing of said material. Sigh. You'll have to subscribe to read the whole thing. Which, of course, I highly recommend.*


*Subscribing. Not the headache.

Ohio's Best Journalism: the SPJ Awards

This isn't news; the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) Awards I'm referring to were presented last year. This is love letter, to SPJ and all the journalists that are, really and truly, professionals.

Each year when it's time to renew my SPJ membership, I have some qualms. They're fueled by feelings of inadequacy. Oh, on paper, I look pretty good. I have a journalism degree in my hip pocket, 20+ years of professional writing experience and clips a-plenty. But dare I stand shoulder to shoulder with REAL JOURNALISTS? When was the last time I made some muckety–muck quake because of one of my investigative reports? (sigh - never) And the last time I sweated a daily deadline in a newsroom? (same answer - repeat sigh.) 


I renew anyway. The real journalists who produce Ohio's Best Journalism, according to Ohio SPJ, deserve my support. Plus, I get to sit back and read their winning pieces, and bask in the glow of their excellent work. 

Links to a few samples of the most recently winning work are below. A complete list can be found here. 

The winners' circle wasn't full of just the usual suspects, by the way. Columbus CEO picked up three awards, Angie's List was honored for its consumer reporting, and the capital's entertainment publication, The Other Paper, garnered investigative honors for Lyndsey Teter's Tarmac Transgressions. (No wonder John Kasich doesn't like pesky newspaper reporters - he's surrounded. Thank goodness.)

Best Healthcare Reporting, first place:
How Valuable is Your Child's Brain. Tom Groeschen of The Cincinnati Enquirer delves into new laws designed to protect young athletes from additional concussive injuries.


Best Investigative Reporting, first place:
A Raid at Fair Finance. Jim McKinnon, Cheryl Powell, Akron Beacon Journal. (Original article not available; read McKinnon's follow-up here.)

Best Consumer Reporting, second place:
Utility Choice: Company Promises Easy Cash. Dan Gearino, The Columbus Dispatch.

Broadcast journalists are well-represented by SPJ, and many of the honored pieces can be heard on their respective stations' websites. (Like Vivian Goodman's Dana and Desiree, which took first place in Best Minority Issues Reporting for Goodman's employer, WKSU.)


Besides being impressed with the reporters' outstanding (and important) work, I like to support SPJ because I believe it's a highly professional organization, providing clues for new journalists who want to cover the system the right way, offering scholarships and contests for blossoming young people who will no doubt reveal things about our world that may not be pretty, but should be uncovered. 


Mired in my copywriting assignments and surrounded by the family commitments that I've allowed to push aside (some) career ambitions, I am not the "real journalist" I planned to become. But I'm thrilled to stand on the periphery, ever grateful those professionals are out there, doing their jobs. 


Write on.

Copywriters: Good question

Thanks to Bruce Felber for sharing this article. The question I focus on is not, is advertising a respected profession, but is it a profession at all? I worry about this question because I don't want to see a rush to certification programs. Sure, many certifications indicate education has taken place or experience/success has been earned, but rarely do certifications - or any letters following a person's name - tell you anything about a person's character, abilities, or professionalism.

Writers??? Please join the discussion, here or there ->Fuel Lines: Is Advertising a Respected Profession?

I worry about the news hole

You know the old adage about 'sunlight being the best disinfectant?' It's meaningless without news coverage.

-- Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, in SPJ's The Quill.

Want to further World Peace and Improve Global Economy? Be a Journalist

Journalism is a noble profession, darn it, and we can help wipe out ignorance. Articles like this one remind me that somewhere, out there, other people think so too. My hat's off to the entrepreneur who is willing to bet on it! Thank you, Muqim Jamshady and Jessica Wanke.