These are Bill Densmore’s notes of the session: “What does the Role of the Professional Journalist Look Like?” which was convened on Friday afternoon by Dave Johnson.
PARTICIPANTS: Chris Peck, Cecily Burt, Bill Densmore, Scott Hall, Christine Saed, Jim Shaffer, Mike Van Buren, Matlho Kjosi, Dave Johnson, Linda Jue, Peggy Kuhr, Brian Beveridge, Stephen Silha, Azalea Blalock.
We considered:
JOURNALIST AS FILTER PROVIDES
—Fact checking and facts – a process
—Context – accumulated wisdom
—Story telling
—A definition(s) of the news
JOURNALIST AS FACILITATOR
—Helps with filter criteria but doesn’t do the filtering
—Like an air traffic controller
—Not a solo act
—A place to dialog
—A facilitator of conversations
—an aggregator
—Possible synonyms: information valet, reference librarian, convener, surgeon, conductor, weaver, navigators.
JOURNALIST AS TEACHER
Peggy Kuhr mentioned that the Online News Association is working on a recommended-curriculum guide for new media for college-level journalism education.
We talked about the definition of news:
Old-style definition: “If no grumble or rumble, no story.” Based on conflict, and based on statements by those perceived to be in authority.
Jim Shaffer: Test out this idea – does the journalist of the future have to become a marketer? Can you live with that notion?
Peggy Kuhr: John Lavine at the Medill School of Journalism is working on a new curriculum which teachers journalists to be customer centered:
http://www.medill.northwestern.edu/medill/inside/news/dean_john_lavine_unveils_vision_for_medill_2020.html
Mike Skoler: Worries that marketing implies manipulation. But the the notion of the audience being at the center of the process certainly implies needing to have a relationship with the audience and that’s good. The classic journalist is a lone wolf.
Bill Densmore: Some journalists have liked having control of the news and of the public agenda. But that control is slipping away. They traded that control leverage by giving up the right to “be involved” and to make a difference in a really direct, personal, one-on-one way. The new journalist has to be content – happy – with being more of a facilitator, convener, organizer. How does that change the type of person who choose journalism, and the skills the need? And does it mean the old role of distance, avoidance of involvement, has to change. Talks about his career as a journalist avoiding “joining” and involvements. Now helps with schools and with chamber of commerce and public issues and non-profits. It’s a very different role. Can I still be a journalist on the side?
What about the role of journalist as synthesizer of the truth. We talked about whether there is absolute truth and whether something is lost if the journalist doesn’t continue to accept a role as seeker and arbiter of the truth.
Mike Skoler: Likes the idea of the journalist as a surgeon, “taking a cut at the truth.” The “audience” is the patient. The surgeon’s role has to be respected. He makes the cut – identifies the truth – and the audience – the patient – has to be willing to accept that judgment. Somebody has to be the cutter of the truth – the giver of a sense of the importance of facts.
Azalea Blalock – It’s a two way street – just as the journalist has to respect the customer/reader/user in a marketing sense, so to the “customer” has to have respect for the integrity and competence of the journalist-surgeon.
Jim Shaffer drew a four-quadrant chart to illustrate types of stories. We discussed the “sweet spot” as being a circle at the center of the ofur corners of the quadrants the place where, as Mike Skoler put it “the radio stays on when you stop the car in the driveway” because the story is so compelling the listener can’t stop listening. The very best stories touch all quadrants:
Individual interior | individual exterior |
Collective interior | collective exterior |
Mike Skoler: The facilitator role is going to become increasingly important and requires a journalist who isn’t a lone wolf. At Minnesota Public Radio, they have created a new role called “analyst” in the newsroom. Initially it was thought of as being co-equal with a reporter editor but Skoler is now thinking of it as possibly an excellent entry-level position for beginning journalists because it forces them to learn how to be in touch with the audience.
Peggy Kuhr: Says a similar position former existed at the Spokane Spokesman-Review when she was there.
We talked a bit more about the potential role of journalist as educator – is that a required role?
Bill Densmore: Always thought of myself as a teacher during years as a reporter editor. The skills and objective seem similar. But teacher in the sense of facilitating learning, not in the sense of lecturing.
Mike Skoler: Not sure if it is right to expect journalists to be responsible for engaging citizens in a teacher-learner role. Journalists are a piece of democracy and that may not be part of their piece.
Bill Densmore: But we have a problem now. Citizens are out of practice at “consuming” watchdog journalism. They don’t see it that often, they don’t know always how to recognize it or how to demand it. There is a need for the teaching of smart media consumption and creation? Who has that role? State curriculum frameworks mandate the teaching of “civic education” and our schools claim to be about graduating good citizens, but they really are teaching to tests and the tests are more oriented to job skills. Thomas Jefferson was quoted as saying schools were about providing people sufficiently educated to be effective citizens in democratic process. Don’t journalists have some obligation – out of necessity – to make sure their customers know how to identify and use the product in a civic context?