Centennial wrap-up
There was no shortage of discussion topics, both general and esoteric, at the Missouri School of Journalism Centennial events. But while variety abounded, common themes emerged.
The ubiquitous questions:
- Why is the world’s first/best journalism school in the middle of Missouri?
- Is journalism a profession?
The debate/dissertation-sparking subjects:
- Discrimination and bias, objectivity and fairness.
- Everything is so different, but nothing has really changed much.
My condensed conclusions:
Why CoMo?
This first question seems easy enough to answer. While more academic and philosophical theories surface, pragmatists agree: A Boonville, Mo., journalist named Walter Williams had a vision for a journalism school. He was in the middle of Missouri, and the nearest land-grant university was in the middle of Missouri, so here we are. (As Steve Weinberg and Fred Blevens point out, though, if Joseph Pulitzer had gotten a plan in place earlier, Columbia University would have beaten MU to the punch. You snooze, you lose.)
Profession?
There was much talk of online “citizen journalism.” Some people tout it as a utopian, Benjamin Franklin-esque free exchange of ideas; during this morning’s technology summit Current TV’s Amy Grill presented an innovative integration of viewer-created and “professional” content. Other people are horrified by the notion; during this afternoon’s roundtable, CNBC President Mark Hoffman equated “citizen journalist” with “amateur physician.”
Of course, Walter Williams never earned a journalism degree.
(Does anyone remember underground newspapers? Or ‘zines?)
William Taft, the 93-year-old J-School alumnus (BJ ’38, MA’39) who, without question, stole the show during the first day of seminars, says journalism is not only a profession but also an important profession. In Heaven, he speculates, no one will need doctors and lawyers, but journalists will be in high demand, since the people on the east side of Heaven will want to know what the people on the west side are doing. Asked whether those new to Heaven start on the police beat, Taft quipped, “They write obits.”
Fairness, etc.
Can a media entity separate itself from its advertisers? Do political interests drive content? Can an investigative journalist who’s a J-School insider write a fair book about the history of the J-School? Can a young reporter who’s a member of a racial minority cover race-related stories?
Here’s what I (Karen Pojmann, BJ ’94) garnered from journalism school back in the day: True objectivity is an unattainable goal, but unwavering pursuit of it improves the practice of journalism.
Another perhaps-unattainable goal of the profession (or “trade” or whatever) is an environment free of discrimination. On Wednesday, the authors of the book Journalism — 1908: Birth of a Profession addressed racism, sexism, xenophobia and glass ceilings of the past, while audience members offered up parallel stories from recent years. On the second day, the large multigenerational group packed into a small RJI classroom for “Then and Now: Learning and Doing Journalism as an African American in Mid-Missouri” discussed (with varied degrees of candor) varied experiences with racism that occurred in years ranging from 1970 to 2008. The problems take different forms, veteran journalists said, but they persist. Art Holliday (BJ ’76) of KSDK-TV in St. Louis offered a sliver of optimism: The fact that we have to deal with racism in 2008 sucks, he conceded. “But the fact that we recognize that we need to have a conversation about it — that is progress.”
Everything old is new again
There was a lot of talk about new technology and what it means for traditional media. People said:
- Blogs are a danger to “real” journalism.
- Community journalism is alive and well; blogs, message boards and social networking sites are the new small-town newspapers.
- Addressing the smart-phone/PDA-laden “second wave” of the Internet in the J-School is just like starting the TV station KOMU; things worked out then, and they’ll work out now.
- New media will not destroy traditional media, just as the telegraph did not ruin the newspaper, TV did not take down movie theaters and video did not kill the radio star. (OK, that last part was my own contribution.)
- Stop worrying about the medium and concentrate on the message. The appropriately named media force Brian Storm of MediaStorm suggested “platform agnostic” content and said “It’s not about the delivery mechanism; it’s about journalism.”
Where do we go from here? A young person in Wednesday’s 1908 discussion innocently asked this question of the 93-year-old Taft. In 2108, she wondered, when people are celebrating the 200th anniversary of the J-School, what will they be talking about then?
Taft’s response: “Who cares?”
