The IB of Journalists

1. The IB of Journalists Fieldwork

2. Interviewees NPR/KUOW’s Ross Reynolds NPR/KUOW’s Amy Radil Sewanee Messenger’s Jeanne Phillips (also observed) Portland Tribune’s Jennifer Anderson (also observed) Portland Tribune’s Peter Korn Thornton-Northglenn Sentinel’s Brady DeLander (also observed) Areas of inquiry General Background and Demographics Types of Sources and Search Process Writing Process: Angle & Relevance Interviews/Observations

3. “I don't know how reporters survived before the internet. When I have a question about a large construction project, I go to CDOT's website, . . . if their updates are a couple weeks old, I'll call my source and talk to somebody, but if it's within a week or close enough for me, I'll take it and run it offline.” (BD)‏ “He took me to the library and we found a yearbook from that year and he identified key people for me to talk to. I then used the alumni database to find contact information.” (JP) Background research important Archives Government websites Newspapers (own and others) Blogs Community Records Connections to people on the street. Interviewing face to face Observations of interviewing techniques The Human Connection: The Interview Process

4. Objectivity, Viewpoint and Fact Checking • Size of interview population varies depending on size of story • Balanced viewpoints necessary to presenting balanced story • Is objectivity possible? • Fact checking is essential

5. “What you’re doing creatively is finding connections, finding the thread to weave a story.” (PK) “You just focus on just one person who’s sort of emblematic of an issue . . . It kind of depends on how much information I’m trying to get across versus emotion—emotionally I can just spend time with one person.” (AR)‏ Editors v. Journalist in defining Angle Open mind when examining topic Information avoidance leads to one sided story Angle

6. Recording Information • Old Fashioned Pen and Paper • Recording Equipment • Computers for recording and inputting information

7. “You have to say [off the record] at the outset and the journalist has to agree. You can’t backtrack on that.” (AR, with strongly concurrence from BD)] Scheduling Issues Information Availability “Off the Record” Technological Anxiety Obstacles to Information Gathering

8. The Future of Journalism?? • Failure of newspapers, declining subscription rates • The number of newspaper journalists in the US fell 5% from 2007 to a low of 52,600, the lowest in 25 years and the biggest drop in 30 years (Blyth 2008). Ken Doctor estimates closer to 44,000 for 2009. • Role as gatekeepers threatened • The rise of the blog • The death of investigative reporting?

9. The Future of Journalism, Cont. • I'm getting out now because I'm worried about the future of it, it seems like an obsolete business.” (BD) • “We’re all dinosaurs. Newspapers are all going out of business. . . . The irony is that we live in the information age and it seems to be what society values now.” (PK) • The “internet blogs and all that, they’re conveying information but they’re not able or willing to do the fundamental investigative work that starts it all.” (PK)‏ • “The news thieves (the polite term is ‘aggregators,’ but I’m weary of being polite about this) are taking great economic advantage of the decision by most newspapers to make the information they gather free for the taking on their Web sites.” (Morton 2009)‏