"Another One Bites the Dust"

Unfortunately, print media suffered another loss this past week. Elle Accessories, a spin off of the popular Elle magazine, has temporarily halted publication. Anne Slowey, the editor of the magazine, shut down the production because she lost four key writers. Supposedly, Elle Accessories will return next fall.

To read more about what happened to Elle Accessories, check out this article on Fashion Week Daily Dispatch.

Of course I never like to hear that a printed publication is shut down, but I am especially sad to hear about this situation. I can accept that perhaps newspapers will eventually all be online; however I had more faith in magazines. I really thought that since magazines cater to a specific audience, i.e. fashion accessories, they will stay alive because they supply the pubic with information that generalized newspapers do not. On a more selfish level, I would be extremely upset to see magazines die out because next to a great book, they are my favorite things to read. Does this mean that all printed media, despite how specific, are on the downfall? Will every magazine we know of today eventually “bite the dust?”

Business Writing

This week was my first meeting with Lynn Holley who is my mentor in the College of Media this year. I decided to talk to her on occasion because as a graduating senior, I am in desperate need of finding a job.

I thought the hardest part would be starting to look for a job. I am still a little unsure of what kind of journalism or writing career I want to pursue, and it seems like an impossible task to get started on my own. However, the conversation that Ms. Holley and I had went a different direction than I had imagined. She encouraged me to look into the Dow Jones internship opportunities.

I am not going to lie, I have not been planning on taking the Dow Jones test. An internship in copyediting does not appeal to me, and I took the test last year and did horrible. But I forgot about the opportunities Dow Jones has in business writing, which is why Ms. Holley and I started talking about the subject anyway.

Business journalism seems like it is the fastest growing area of journalism right now; it is where the jobs are at. I showed Ms. Holley my cover letter for Sheila Solomon, the recruiter who is coming from the Chicago Tribune, and Ms. Holley said to focus on the writing I am doing for the College of Business. She said Ms. Solomon would be most interested in seeing those writing samples because that is now an important area of journalism.

Click here to check out one of the articles I wrote for the College of Business.

Despite the fact that I do not really want another internship after I graduate, I think I might just have to bite the bullet. Ms. Holley said that Dow Jones loved the intern they had in business writing last summer and offered him a job. So as much as I dread the days in class where I have to crunch numbers and practice for the Dow Jones test, I think keeping my options open my actually lead to a career in business writing.

Check out the Dow Jones News Fund website if you want to learn more about the internships opportunities.

The Bail Out Plan, Part Two

The most recent problem that our country has been battling is the financial crisis. After being rejected the first time around, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the revised $700 billion bail out plan; Bush signed it Friday October 3.

A CNN article posted last week describes the issue in greater detail: “Bush thanked all those involved and said the bill was essential to stopping the crisis on Wall Street becoming a crisis in the wider economy. Bush said it sent a message to the rest of the world that the U.S. was ready to take action to ease the credit crunch. He said it would take sometime for the bill to have an impact on the American economy.”

The bail out plan seems like it was a necessary precaution, however, I could not help think: When, or will, newspapers ever have to be bailed out?

In the CNN article, Bush said that he was glad the financial crisis could be stopped early on before spreading to the entire economy. Couldn’t there have been a way to stop the downfall that newspapers are facing sooner? Yes, I understand that it is a very different situation, but our country forgetting about the printed word and newspapers apparently forgetting how to appeal to their audience are problems that also need to be addressed. Of course, a financial crisis is solved with money. But what would it take, that is what law would need to be passed, to save newspapers? Maybe we need a law stating that the entire adult population in the country needs to pick up a newspaper everyday. Or a law that forces newspapers to cater to smaller, more specific audiences besides only running the obvious headline news, such as the bail out plan.

I also smiled to myself when I read the line that stated Bush said the bail out sent a message to the rest of the world that our country was fighting the credit problem. Well, what kind of message does the rest of the world get when part of our country can not get money to battle illiteracy, or the fact that slang is taking over our language and soon it may never be the same? Again, I understand the imminent danger of the financial crisis, yet perhaps a bail out should be considered for other parts of our country as well.

To Run or Not To Run

Would you run these photos?

The only photos that I would run are the first and last; the one of the boy and his dog and the Fat Tuesday celebration. If any of the others ran, I would feel like I violated my own code of ethics.

What criteria did you use to make a decision?

I thought about the code of ethics that we discussed in class and the 10 questions that journalists should ask themselves when publishing a story/picture. The following three questions really got to me: “What are the possible consequences of my actions,” “What are my ethical concerns,” and “Can I explain my thinking to colleagues, shareholders and the public at large.” I do not know how I could explain to the family in the second photo why I thought the picture of their deceased son had any journalistic value, or why the public needed to see a young boy with a fence post going through his chin. For photos like these, I try and put myself in the place of the person who is being featured or his or her family and friends. If I can not imagine having that picture published of myself or someone I love, I can’t bring myself to publish the photo.

Under what circumstances would you run the photos?

I would be strongly opposed to running the photos, regardless of who else wanted to publish them. The only reason I would publish the photos were if after consulting with others, I was the only one who felt strongly about not publishing, or if someone contacted the person or the family of the person in the photo and they insisted the photo be published. Otherwise, I would still not run the photos since I do not think the public needs to see them to understand the severity of the story.

Would your decision be different if the events were local?

No I don’t think so. I would still use the same criteria, which would lead me to not run the photos. Actually, a local story would make me even more likely to not run the photos because even more people would know the person who is in the photo.

Does where or how you play the photo have any bearing on your decision?

No, once again I would use the same criteria, despite how the photo was being played. I would certainly not allow for any of the photos to run on the cover of any paper, not only because it goes against my own ethical standards, but also I would never want the public to think I am using someone else’s misery to sell papers.

With which photo did you struggle the most? Why?

I had trouble deciding whether or not to publish the Fat Tuesday photo. I ultimately decided to run it because the girl's face and identity are hidden, and in the rest of the photos, the person featured can clearly be seen. I also thought that I could explain why I published the photo. In my opinion, all the other photos only showed pain and misery and taught or informed the public of nothing. In the Fat Tuesday photo, I think that it shows how out of hand Mardi Gras celebrations can get, and might cause people to think about their actions more closely, or at least draw more security to the event in future years.