Alex Leedy’s Blog

By Alex Leedy:

Elon University’s all-male acapella group Rip Chord performed for about thirty minutes at Midnight Meals to a room packed with students.  They performed several songs, culminating with their grand finale medley of Disney songs.  The group frequently performs at Midnight  Meals to the delight of  many students.

“One reason that I love to see Rip Chord is that my roomate Greg Flis is in it, but they’re also really good and Midnight Meals is a great way to hang out with

your friends and get some free food,”   said sophomore Billy O’Riordan.

Usually students are offered free pizza while attending, but they were ecstatic  to learn that chicken wings were being served instead of pizza.  This change most likely accounted for the line for food being out the door.

Rip Chord has been performing at Midnight Meals for several years  and recently released an album entitled “Resisting Arrest.”

By Alex Leedy:

The first three chapters of “The Investigative Reporter’s Handbook” offer many insights into the world of investigative journalism.  The first chapter focuses on conveying the importance of working from the outside in.  That means not always trying to get information directly from the source right away, but to work towards it.  You always have to interview a wide range of people to get different perspectives on the story you are covering.  This chapter basically relays the need to get secondary sources to gain new perspectives and reinforce the sources you already have.

The second chapter focuses on gathering the most reliable evidence possible in order to make your story as credible as possible.  One instance of sloppy reporting can ruin a journalist’s reputation for life.  For instance, a few years ago a journalist came out with a report about “rainbow parties.”  At these parties high school girls reportedly wore different colored lipstick and then performed oral sex on their male peers, with the males seeing who could get the most colors of lipstick.  Because the idea of this being truthful was far more likely than this being the fantasy of a 14 year old boy with raging hormones, the story was wide circulated and even Oprah did a show on it.  When sociologists researched the so-called “huge fad” not a single high school student out of thousands questioned had ever been to a rainbow party or even known someone who went.  Had the journalist in question waited to print their story until getting hard evidence that the parties were in fact occurring than they would have realized their story was flawed and not have made a fool out of himself.

The third chapter discusses the importance of utilizing computer technology in journalism.  One important strategy when writing online is to make sure that all of your stories are search engine optimized.  This means using key words in your title so that when people search for a subject on a search engine your story will pop up.  Another way to use computers to your advantage when reporting is to use online databases to help back up your stories.  Whereas years ago you would have had to go to a library to find facts and figures, this same information can now be accessed in seconds.

With recent advances in technology the future for journalism is very bright. Reporters can now relay new information sooner and more efficiently. However what is good for most reporters in not necessarily good for all journalists.

A journalist is someone who can do more than just tell the facts, they must also write well. All journalists are reporters, but the opposite is not true. Journalism requires getting the facts while also delving deeper into the story and evoking emotion from the reader through clear and effective writing.

In a society that continues to value brevity and style over substance, it is easy to see how technological advances and flashy graphics can cover up poor journalism. Evidence of this can be seen when looking at the 2008 newspaper circulation statistics (courtesy of www.burrellesluce.com).

The “USA Today,” known for its huge front page pictures and graphics sells more than twice as many newspapers as “The New York Times.” Since 1994 writers from the Times have won or been a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Investigative reporting six times while writers from the “USA Today” have gone empty-handed. In fact, while the “New York Times” and its writers have won countless Pulitzer Prizes in many categories the “USA Today” has not even been nominated this century.

Why, then, is there such a huge circulation discrepancy between the two newspapers opposite of reason?

Simple.

The American people value their time and knowledge of events existence over understanding of events. Reading the “USA Today” for ten minutes over coffee in the morning would give someone a much broader look at world happenings than ten minutes with The Times. But reading through The Times, although taking longer” would provide the reader with a better understanding of world happenings.

People nowadays are busier than our ancestors could ever have dreamed of being. Because of this, most people do not have the time, or necessary attention span, to sit down and read a lengthy news article. It is also for this reason that the media currently focuses on the “who, what when, where” and less on the “why” and “how.”

For instance, it is common to see the poor state of the economy on the front page of a newspaper using scare tactics to entice readers without delving much into what is causing the problem or how it should be addressed.

The future of journalism will center around covering key facts and then allowing the reader to decide whether or not they want to find out more. This is already evident on most major news web-sites. CNN.com has short blurbs surrounding the main story, allowing the reader to click on whichever few words most interest them. It is scary to think that journalists will have to convince readers to view their article using only a couple of words.
The future of journalism will also rely heavily on “citizen-reporters.”

There are only so many journalists that a company can hire and they have to try to spread those as evenly as they possibly can. CNN found a solution to this quickly when they developed their “I-reporter” program. Now, in addition to the hundreds of journalists working for them, they have anyone with a phone, camera, or computer.

The idea caught on very quickly and will undoubtedly expand the role of the common man in media. When looking back at past media everyday people were not deemed worthwhile sources, After JFK was assassinated news agencies rushed their reporters to the hospital to follow the president, and it was not until the next day that parade-goers were interviewed.

Now the very first thing that news agencies try to do is find an eye-witness.
Instead of hearing the reporter’s take on what is occurring, the American public has come to expect finding out from those who were there. Now the public does not even have to turn to eye-witness interviews, they can go right to the eye-witnesses themselves.

It would have been possible, using an internet capable cellular phone, for passengers on US Airways Flight 1549 to post online their feelings and observations about their plunge into the Hudson River while being ferried ashore. This would mean that direct eye-witness reports could have been available almost twenty minutes before the passengers were interviewed on land. When a story that big breaks every second is valuable.

If any news agency had gotten their hands on eye-witness accounts before the passengers were even off the boats than it would have been a landmark in the advancement of the “citizen-reporter.”

In conclusion, the future of the journalist is uncertain, while the future for journalism seems wide open. As hard as journalists try to keep a collar on the neck of information, the public is gaining ground. Now that anyone with a computer can blog about anything they want, the American people must act as their own gate-keepers.