Partnerships for public programming featuring journalists
The "media" is often attacked using this general form of the word. Most of the negative rhetoric against the "media" is usually based on what people see on opinion-based "news" cable shows or Op-Ed columns. The general public doesn't understand there is a fundamental difference in journalists and the talking heads they watch often yelling at each other on TV. One of the problems here is public education.
Journalists from credible institutions follow very strict ethical standards in their writing and reporting. Facts are vetted, reviewed and opposing views are shared when reporting on a story. This is most evident in local newsrooms around the country. As a former member of the media in my own community, I have done the work of a journalist and TV reporter, earning a Pulitzer Prize in 2015 for public service reporting. During my time as a reporter, I attended city council meetings, sat through hundreds of court proceedings, read through thousands of court documents or reports and ultimately acted as a watch dog in our community by uncovering facts otherwise unknown by the general public. By attacking the general "media," the public doesn't realize they are advocating to live in the dark - by attacking our fundamental constitutional right of freedom of the press and their responsibility to hold the powerful accountable.
Librarianship and journalism have many shared missions- most importantly, ensuring the public is provided access to information. Perhaps this is why I work at the library system when I left journalism and feel so at home. We must work together to highlight credible information and help the public differentiate between fact and fiction.
At the Charleston County Public Library, our Tech Team offers a course in teaching patrons how to spot "fake news." We also work to partner with local journalist on special programs as often as possible. In 2019, we worked with the Post and Courier Newspaper's Food Critic and Reporter on collecting and telling the stories of Black Charlestonian's first integrated dining experiences. Starting in 2019, we also launched our annual Girls on the Beat program during the summer, which provides a one-week boot camp for teenage girls on journalism basics. Female journalists from the newspaper and TV news stations from our community lead sessions teaching the fundamentals of journalism and participants produce their own news piece at the end of the camp, featured on the library's website. For the girls who wish to enter into journalism, this program provides a foundation. For those who don't go into journalism, it teaches them the truth about journalism and how to recognize credible reporting.
We are now working on a potential collaborative news literacy initiative, to help further highlight the importance of facts and encouraging our community to use the library in their fact-finding missions. Together, I believe we can chip away at this stigma and help our community find truth.
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Comments (5)
Hi Natalie:
As a fellow former journalist, I applaud your efforts!
Oooo you make some great points, and a really exciting suggestion for partnerships, Natalie! While I do not have a background in journalism, I do have a few close friends who do write for local papers. It is really interesting to see how varied papers are, even in one region. So often "the media" is lumped into this one, giant homogenous entity that does not reflect the many, many individuals who contribute to news across this country. Giving specific faces to journalists is a good idea to help people better understand how reporting and journalism works, as well as letting people experience the process.
As Randall mentions, the pressures on media outlets is real, and is not conducive to good reporting. I wonder if more people better understood this how their understandings would change. Trust in media is not only influenced by awareness of how journalism works, but by identity and feelings of being left behind by this country (at least for many white, rural residents). Which, in some cases, is understandable. How else can both these aspects of trust - ignorance of and feelings of abandonment by the media- be addressed by libraries? Natalie, do you think your programs do so, or need to?
Hi Hanna! I think that mistrust can be addressed in several ways by libraries. One, they can be a conduit through public programming to local journalists. My humanizing the journalists and providing opportunities of engagement with the public, understanding may grow and hopefully lead to trust. Also, having former journalists on staff helps. We have three on staff and so that is helpful when putting together media-related programming.
I do believe our programs are helping address those issues, but I am hoping we can do more. I believe journalism institutions and libraries should collaborate on special projects and partnerships to help address this issue. It also goes beyond the distrust of the media. For example, currently many communities are seeing a distrust of the COVID-19 vaccine among Black Americans. It's also important to address that issue by helping provide information from the healthcare industry. I know a newspaper that is trying to get grant funding to help in that and libraries are a natural partner as hubs in the community.
I fully agree with Natalie. As a librarian who started as journalist back in the day, I have lived in both worlds. First of all, there needs to be more understanding about the difference between journalism and opinion. Second, journalists are the ultimate liberal arts researcher. A journalist usually knows a little bit about a great many topics, but they are not experts in one topic. The best journalists seek those experts. Third, deadlines are brutal. You just do not have time to do the background that is sometimes necessary. Finally, the economic pressure of media outlets. Media needs attention. If it bleeds, it leads.
Randall, you took the words right out of my mouth and I think if people better understood how the information they are being presented through news was gathered and vetted, then one you could better spot fact from fiction.