Protect Reporters Who Protect Sources

There are numerous state and federal laws that protect workers against revenge for complaining about their employers or government agencies. The laws prohibit employers or agencies from punishing those so-called "whistle-blowers".
The same philosophy applies to journalists, who often grant confidentiality to news sources. Confidential sources have helped kick out some important stories, from Watergate to Enron and from WorldCom to Firestone. Ensuring that these sources are protected will help audience get the truth, which sometimes may not be that satisfying.

Most of us still remember the most famous confidential source --- “Deep Throat” in the Washington Post report. And now it is clear that the “Deep Throat” is a former FBI deputy director, who revealed himself in 2005.

What if he was disclosed by reporters in 1972? What kind of danger would he face? To protect those confidential news sources, we need a shield law.

In general, a shield law aims to provide the classic protection of, "a reporter cannot be forced to reveal his or her source" law.

According to the Society of Professional Journalists, 49 states (all but Wyoming) plus the District of Columbia have common-law, statutory or rule-based protections to shield journalists from compelled testimony. The state laws vary in degrees of protection and definition of a journalist, but they believe one thing: journalism would be less effective if there are no shield laws and thus freedom of the press suffers.

On March 31, 2009, the Free Flow of Information Act passed the House and now waits action in the Senate. Back in 2007, a similar bill passed the House but died in the Senate. Opponents contended that the measure could harm national security and hamper criminal investigations. But the House bill allows compelled testimony from journalists under circumstances involving terrorism, national security and imminent bodily harm and so on.

The First Amendment freedom of the press is one of the foundations of American society, and the confidential information about the world newsmen have found out influenced the society and even the history. A federal shield law will help the public have access to important information, and that is what really matters.

Investigative Reporting

When I was an undergraduate student back in China, my dream was to become an investigative reporter. Every time I watched the most famous investigative program on CCTV - "News Probe", I was impassioned by the excellent questions asked by the reporters and the meaningful silence on camera.

NPR's Daniel Zwerdling, an investigative reporter, went to the Columbia J-School one month ago. He discussed the process of creating an investigative report for radio. Zwerdling's acclaimed investigative and documentary reports appear on all of NPR's major news shows.

Here is the audio of Zwerdling's speech

Guard Cable

I read a story on LakeSun website, which said that there was only one death in the median of I – 70 in 2008 because of the newly built guard rails, while in 2006 there were 24 deaths. No face-to-face conflict is contained in the story, but in my opinion, anything about death is always a big story, at least to some individuals who might be you or me.

So I pitched the story idea to Randy. “Talk with drivers, talk with MODOT, get some video of the rails, then you are good!” said Randy.

I made a triangle trip that afternoon from Columbia to Jefferson City (MODOT) and then to Kingdom City (Petro Truck Stop). The first thing I concluded from that experience is “be proactive”. I made a phone call to MODOT, and then I was kicked from person A to person B to person C just like a soccer ball. When the last gentleman called me and was about to introduce me to another officer available to do an interview, I stopped him and asked, “Can I talk with you real quick?” “I am going to leave in half an hour at 3pm.” “I can arrive there in 20 minutes and finish the interview before 3pm. So can I come?” “If you can make it, then sure!”

Thanks to what I had done when I was waiting for the phone calls. I checked out all the gears and wrote down all the information on the blackboard. So when I put down the cell phone, I was good to go. I speeded a little bit and made it to what I had promised.

Doing stand-up for the story has a lot of fun too. Since it was about median guard cables, I wanted to do a stand-up right next to the cable. I had worries because I was not sure whether that was doable or even violating some highway rules. In order to do a better job, I stopped my car on the shoulder of the busy I-70 with the emergency flashers on, walked across the traffic lanes and went down to the median. You will never understand physically how fast the cars were on the highway if you were driving in a car. I stood in the median, feeling like I was going to be blown away by the passing-bys. I adjusted the camera and flipped the screen to record my stand-up. The noise of the cars was so loud that I hardly could hear myself! I bet all the drivers passing by must be confused about what the hell the girl was doing over there! I was not sure whether it was worthy or not until the tiger chair commented “Good stand-up!” when she did the video approval.

While I was doing my pkg and trying to make some progress, I heard the good news from Stacy that Scott and Sarah won some awards again. I checked out the winning story of “Mr. Treelighter” and was impressed by the crafted way they merged sound bites and the narration. And the memorable shots prove again how excellent and talented Scott is as a photographer.

A Columbia business owner fired up

Last Friday was my first real reporting shift at KOMU. Nervous and excited like every B2er else. I found a bunch of story ideas from newspapers and internet. By a coincidence, nearly all of them are related to legislation and laws. Later, I was asked by Matt Jeffery that, “Don’t you know all the legislators are not in the office on Friday afternoon?” I really have no idea about that. But, lucky enough, before I talked through my story ideas with Randy, the assignment editor that day, he printed me an email he received that morning and passed it on me as a story idea.

It was a letter full of anger and strong words, with pictures and pdf files as evidence. It was written by Arnie Fagan, a business owner in the downtown Columbia. He complained about the director of the Columbia Special Business District Carrie…. He thought she didn’t do a good job as an ambassador or representative of them. So he called on the media and other owners in his shoe to compel Ms. Gartner to resign. The pictures he sent to us were taken by Fagan’s cell phone when he found Gartner wrongly parked her car on the street during office hours.

So, here is my first story. I felt like cheered up in the heart by such a controversial story as a journalist. Boring and lame stories are nightmares for ambitious reporters. I started contacting the owner Mr. Fagan and the other side of the story Ms. Gartner. As imagined, the lady was ill out of office that day, but I can talk with Ms. Wilkerson who is the chair of that group.

All the shooting and interview went pretty well until I got back and started writing. There were so many facts in my head that I didn’t know where to start with and what to include in my package. Whether to put the pictures Fagan sent to us as a graphic? Which sound bites from 20 minutes’ interview to use? In what order should I fabricate the confrontation? ... I spent at least one hour to figure it out and make it clear in my mind. But the final piece I made was still a little bit longer than I was expected to feed. That recalled me the classic saying, “I am sorry for writing this long, because I don’t have time.”

Here is my ultimate pkg link. Please check it out and let me know what you think about it. Thanks!

http://blog.sina.com.cn/s/blog_4a2248490100di3m.html

Headlines and VO patrol

From this week's reading in the book "Advancing the story", I was told how critical a good headline is to invite readers, especially on the news web sites. Before using a good writing, good web extra to impress audience, we need to persuade them to click on our stories first.
Headline seems less important when we do stories for broadcast. Our audience doesn't pay that much of attention to the headline popping up as a super at the bottom of the screen, neither do I. For that media, good sound bites, good visuals, good writing and good structure are of most importance. But when it comes to Internet, we really need to decorate the headline to attract eyeballs.
In the book, the author says the best headline should be straightforward, using action verbs and indicating exactly what the story is about. Here are some examples I found:

Counties hike sales tax, feds hike tobacco tax (KOMO)
Valley smokers fume over tobacco tax hike (KBCI)
Tobacco Tax Increase Hits Smoke Shops Hard (KVEX)
New Tax Causes Tobacco Costs To Skyrocket (WFSB)
Tobacco users stockpile products before new tax (Cherokee Phoenix)
Tobacco Tax Puts People and Businesses Up In Smoke (KFSM)
New taxes on tobacco to burn big hole in consumers’ pockets (Youngstown Vindicator)

Which headline appears most eyecatching to you? As to me, I am going to click on the last two ones. Neither are they explicit about the content, nor are they lame.

Another group of headlines about dirt bikes and lead ban:

Lead rules unfairly target dirt bikes (GoErie)
Fears of lead in paint and batteries stall kids' dirt bike sales
Lead law eats at kid racers (Online Athens)
Lead ban goes overboard on small motorcycles, ATVs (Mid Columbia Tri City Herald)

The first one and the last one have almost the same meaning, but are put in different ways. They are both subjective, going against the lead law. But I prefer "goes overboard" to "unfairly". It is not so directing, but conveying the same load.

Part 2.
I have finished my two VO patrol shifts at KOMU, which went pretty smoothly. I arrived at the station at least one hour earlier to get geared up. The attempt paid off permitting me more time to write and edit, which is always good.

When I did the second story about zootoo.com's contest, I set up an interview with the two zootoo.com girls in a local restaurant. Along with them are staff from Central Missouri Humane Society and also a driver from Toyota, which raffle off a FJ Cruiser to benefit the shelter. And when I was setting up the camera, the driver forced me to make the Toyota Cruiser as the background. The lady from CMHS didn't say a word about that, just standing aside watching. I was so reluctant and tried to persuade him with my professional points and concerns. The confrontation ends up with my compromise and anger.

What should I do when I encounter this kind of situation next time? Does the interviewee have the right to choose a background, esp when it works as an advertisement?

Business and economic reporting

I have heard a thousand times that we journalism students had better have a minor major, which at best we are interested in. We need knowledge in some specialties to stand us out when the competition is fiercer and fiercer in the media world. And one guest speaker once gave us a suggestion: business and economy, the two fields that will never vanish, but prosper.

Every time I read the New York Times, I skip the business block, even though I know the information there is importantly connected to our daily life. But it is the stereotype that keeps me away from the stories: business and economic reporting must be filled with tons of boring figures, which make the stories confounding and not understandable. Also, in my previous opinion, business and economic reporting is all about GDP, rude oil price fluctuation and inflation. But after browsing the latest business block of the Time, I found the concept of business enlarged: the iPod or iPhone in your pocket, canned good and condoms, Youtube, Bollywood and its movie industry...All those hot topics can be included in business and economic reporting. Sounds more fun?

I read the story in the Time: What Sells in a Recession: Canned Goods and Condoms. I try to trace back how the reporter formed up this story idea when there were no hard facts in this story. We all know we are in the midst of a bad economy period and hear about layoffs almost everyday. But what else can we cover during this time besides the frustrating news? Watching and thinking about the world more carefully, we may come up with some curious ideas about trivial details in the life, like when we are wandering in a Wal-mart supercenter. But most of the time, we only focus on shopping. We ignore the possible story ideas only because we lack discovering eyes.

Business is everywhere, and business reporting can be interesting and inviting.

I like the words in the introduction of the Business and Economic reporting class in NYU: to be a great reporter, no matter what you [end up covering, you have to be able to follow the money.

Bring Mercy in Motion

Last week, I handed in a story idea to our Broadcast 2 adviser, Greeley Kyle. I was so glad to find such a good story in a magazine and expected to get a positive response. The story is about a volunteer group which actively sent relief supplies overseas to those in needs. The group has distributed more than 16,000 PETs (personal energy transportation) in 69 countries. I thought it was humanized and emotional. However, on the grade sheet I retrieved, the adviser left one remark, saying "Story's been done many times."

I was a tad frustrated just like my favorite food has been sold out. I then looked up the internet and found the series done by Sarah Hill from KOMU. I was fully impressed by the high quality of the masterpiece. The fabulous visual, the moving music, the elaborate narration and the pitiful people in Vietnam put the story to a record-high level.

I want to talk about one session of the series today, Bringing Mercy to Motion, which I think is really well done. It’s link is:
http://www.komu.com/satellite/SatelliteRender/KOMU.com/ba81393f-c0a8-2f11-0198-36158e12b6c6/efa2c114-ac18-6b6e-0215-b47040d94b01

1.In the anchor lead, Sarah used an analogy between the snow in Missouri and the typhoon in Vietnam. Smart writing!
2.Good graphic of map. Animation starts from Columbia, Missouri and goes to Vietnam on the other side of the world. It just emphasizes the distance and thus the sincerity from the volunteers.
3.Good transition shot of the cloud shot from a plane laid with some background music and soundbites.
4.Good sequence shot of an old man riding a PET in the street, but the last shot crosses the axis line.
5.Very experienced use of nat sound and close-up shot.
6.The photographer Scott is marvelous at shooting. His lens is close enough to the subjects and beautiful.
7.One flaw of it is the standup in which Sarah was standing against the sunshine, therefore her face was dark.
8.Sarah really wrote to the video, like “holding their hands”.
9.I guess Sarah was limited by the language to interview the Vietnamese.

Overall, it is a well done story which brings reporters awards and reputation. Also, the photographer is a big contributor to the cooperation, making the same story fruitier.

Lead law story

Before I went to Jefferson City to do the interview last Friday, I thought it would be a good story. A new lead law was enacted last week to ban children's products containing lead. However, it affects a lot of motor dealers in a bad way. I found some conflicts in it and also found a central compelling character. I thought the pkg would be easy to finish.

But, after I arrived at the Larry's Motor Sports, I realized there was a big problem: no action in the story. The story is about a law, a ban of sale and kid-size vehicles, none of them containing movement. The worse thing is my CCC, the general manager of the dealership, just stood in the store chatting with customers without any movement. I really don't want my piece full of static pictures just like wallpaper, but the whole store is so quiet and tranquil.

Although the manager is extremely nice, I don't think it is ethically acceptable for me to stage him. So I spent a lot of time hanging around in the big showroom and waiting. Luckily enough, a father brought his son to the dealership. I did the interview with the father, who is very proud of his riding family. He said their whole family had ridden to a lot of states so far, such as Colorado and Illinois. And then he offered to let me shoot his son riding. I was so grateful to him and started shooting.

Another problem popped up: I had no idea where the little boy was going so couldn't catch him! I wish I could ask Scott about how to shoot this kind of situation beforehand! So there is only one sequence shot in the final pkg, which looks not so inviting. It just proves to me how important sequence shots are.

Since the visuals are not great, I want to make the script better. Sometimes, I don't know how to express my meaning in a conversational manner. So I googled the topic and found some similar stories covered by reporters from everywhere. I read them loudly and try to find some better ways to put words.

Below are some examples.

"A new law is putting the brakes on youth dirt bikes and ATV’s. "

"A new federal ban on ATVs and dirt bikes for children under 13 is putting a dent in local businesses. "

"Until they get the OK to sell them again, dealerships in the F-M are either keeping their youth bikes on display or are wiping them off the floor completely."

"He said if the new law isn't reworked, then an entire sector of his business could fall flat."

I am so eager to improve my writing. Is there an efficient way to learn?

Tragedies: plane crash and unwanted horses

The biggest tragedy in the past week is definetely the plane crash. At the moment when the Continental Airlines plane hit a residential house near Buffalo, New York, late Thursday, I can only imagine the catastrophe vaguely. Althrough from tons of feed news that I received, I was pretty clear about the 5 W of the tragedy. The infomation was more like a statistics to me: all 49 people aboard were dead, a person in the home were killed. So abstract.
Right away, I opened a new tab to visit NBC Nighly News out of a habit.There were already some clips about the event. I was amazed by the speed of the reporters there. It was shortly after the crash, but the reporters have already found some families of victims. I even don't know how they could make that. I opened one clip of an interview with a man whose younger sister was on the plane. After watching the video, I was totally stunned by the power of a good soundbite and the magic of asking questions.
The brother was very very sad at that moment. He told the reporters he was on his way to the airport to pick his sister up when he heard about the crash.
"What has been through your mind the last minutes?"
"I am just think about my mother. They are on vacation in Florida.I have to call my father down there to tell them what's going on."
"How was she taking it?"
"Um...to tell you the truth, I heard my mom making some noises that I've never heard before."
The details the young man revealed can easily strike viewers down. It is so imaginable, sorrowful and impressed. A good soundbite can make people cry.
In the reading, Shook says soundbites can be categorized into two kinds: informational and emotional. That is why I am so fond of the soundbite I used in my second package. It is from Dr. Haden, MFA vice president of livestock operations. He said, “This is a real problem and if you've ever watched one starve, it's not a good picture. It's one of the saddest things you can see."
This is another sad story in this week. Some horses are abandoned in the street, starving to death. The reason for this bad situation is really complicated. I did have difficulty squeezing so much information into a 1:30 piece. The first version of my script is about 2:20 long. The trick is I have to chop off a lot of words without diminishing preciseness. That is not easy. Now I can understand why someone wrote this at the beginning of a long letter, "I am sorry I don't have time to write a short letter."

Will the Times print edition be dead in May?

The most impressive thing I learnt at KOMU last Friday is from the producer Jason Bent. He told me he made it a habit to watch news programs in bigger market and learn how those reporters tell a story. He also gave me the name of his idol: Tom Costello, an NBC Nightly News reporter. His work is not only with high-quality, but also with consistency of quality. It reminds me something I read in Shook’s book: There is no bad story, only bad reporters. Back in China, when I started to learn journalism as a sophomore, I was told to tell good stories. But how? It is a question that I haven’t figured out yet. I don’t believe there is a certain template that fits all kinds of stories. So currently, there are two things I can do: 1. practice; 2, read more and watch more.

On last week’s Time Magazine, there is one article discussing newspaper industry: How to save your newspaper.

It says, “It is now possible to contemplate a time when some major cities will no longer have a newspaper and when magazines and network-news operations will employ no more than a handful of reporters.”

Earnings reports released by the New York Times Company in last October indicate that drastic measures will have to be taken over the next five months or the paper will default on some $400million in debt. The paper’s future doesn’t look good. What is worse, the Atlantic even predicts the Times print edition will be dead this May.

NYT, the newspaper I read on a regular basis will disappear? I even don’t want to accept the possibility. I would feel heartbroken if it comes true. But giving a second thought, I find I read the print version less and less. As is often the case, I read the news stories on my laptop. For readers all over the country, why don’t they choose the free media instead of the traditional paper?

Most likely, The Times will move to internet-only distribution. Although, The Web site, nytimes.com, has already have a 20 million users for the month of last October, making it the fifth-ranked news site on the Internet.

Then what about the traditional TV media? What is their future? If I will be a TV reporter in 2 years, what kind of industry change I am going to go through? In Missouri School of Journalism, “convergence” is more and more popular. Our Broadcast 2 class requires us to write a web-version of every story we cover. Those all seem like dangerous signs that we are going to experience some jolt and pain.

My first Package is about the overpass on the Providence Road in Columbia. Its fact is pretty simple: the city of Columbia is going to redo the overpass. It is not a “hard” story apparently, but I like it because in the process of shooting the story, I found some new facts and met Robert King, the disabled man living in that area. He was very nice to tell me his feelings, thoughts and suggestions. Also, he showed me how dangerous it is to go across the busy street. You can tell it is really dangerous from the “WOW” uttered by the viewers of this B-roll. Without the chance of covering this story, never will I notice there is no handicapped accessory on the overpass, nor will I realize what kind of inconvenience the old bridge brings to disabled people.

Unbelievable Fact

There is something that you may think ridiculous, darn coincidental or even unbelievable, but when it comes to HISTORY, you have to buy it.

I am reading the most famous case in the history of the United States: Marbury V. Madison. This case is so important and meaningful for the current law system because it set up the foundation that the Supreme court has the power of judicial review.

Back to the point, the legendary fact. From that case, we can see how bad the relationship between Thomas Jefferson and John Adam is. But something that would be unbelievable if included in a novel happened—Adams and Jefferson had been dear friends, and then came their falling out. They didn't even speak to one another for eleven years. But they both died on the same day—July 4 (Independence Day), 1826. Adam's last words? "Thomas Jefferson survives."

To begin with

I am kind of nervous about this blog, after I am told there would be a possibility that my future boss may get an access here. I don't know what the viewers will get from this so-called journalism blog, but I am sure that I will try to observe deeply, think seriously and ask questions wisely, just like a real journalist, and hopefully, a good one.