Believe it or not 2019 is right around the corner … and so is the largest newspaper convention in New England.
The 2019 New England Newspaper Convention is shaping up to be one of the best convention’s yet. The convention is jam-packed with dozens of sessions and panels that address the latest developments, opportunities and obstacles in the newspaper industry. With over 600 attendees, the event is not only an opportunity to learn and gain some fresh ideas, but a chance to network with other newspaper professionals throughout New England.
The 2019 line up of speakers are passionate, engaging and ready to share their best ideas. Be sure to sign up early to ensure you get a seat in the sessions and panels that are most important to you.
Here are just a few of the 2019 session topics that you don’t want to miss …
Trauma Journalism: Self-Care For Journalists
50 Ideas in 50 Minutes
Alternative Story Formats: How To Shake Up Your Story
Public Trust & Misinformation
Podcasting 101
Investigative Journalism
The Real Future of Journalism
Covering Courts
Video: How To Monetize
What’s Next With Preprints?
This year the New England Newspaper Convention will be held on February 15th and 16th at the Renaissance Boston Waterfront Hotel in Boston, MA. Students pay just $29 (sessions only).
Gene Policinski is president and chief operating officer of the Freedom Forum Institute. He can be reached at gpolicinski@freedomforum.org, or follow him on Twitter at @genefac.
Unlike most of Time magazine’s “Person of the Year” designees since 1927, we can be certain none of those featured this year on that iconic, red-framed cover wanted to be there.
This year, Time has four cover images, all recognizing journalists who are imprisoned, facing charges or who died in the pursuit of news on behalf of the rest of us — collectively titled, “The Guardians and the War on Truth.”
The selectees: Jamal Khashoggi, The Washington Post contributor believed killed in Turkey by a Saudi Arabian “hit squad;” the staff of the Capital Gazette newspaper in Annapolis, Md., which saw five staffers killed by a deranged gunman; Reuters news service reporters Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, who have been jailed in Myanmar for a year; and Philippine journalist Maria Ressa, whose news site Rappler, a frequent government critic, faces dubious tax-related charges.
Time said it selected the group “for taking great risks in pursuit of greater truths, for the imperfect but essential quest for facts that are central to civil discourse, for speaking up and speaking out.”
Those words, and that task, are as good a definition of journalism as we might want. The description also puts a lie to the core untruths of those critics who find any excuse to bray — mostly for political gain — about “fake news,” or who claim “alternative facts” when faced with a reality they find uncomfortable or incompatible with pre-conditioned views.
Yes, journalists — as all of us — can at times do an imperfect job. But the vast majority set out each day on that “essential quest for facts.” And in doing so, they act on our behalf, bringing us the information we need for both the decisions we make in our private lives and for the votes we cast as part of the greatest experiment ever seen in self-governance.
These “Guardians” also stand for thousands of men and women in nations around the world who put themselves in harm’s way each day to stand up to tyrants and tyranny. As the magazine noted, at least 52 journalists have been murdered this year for simply doing their jobs. Hundreds more are imprisoned and threatened. The Committee to Protect Journalists notes 262 are now being held and 60 are “missing.”
Journalists killed in the previous year, and more than 2,300 others since the early 1800s are recognized each June in a rededication of the Newseum’s Journalist Memorial, in Washington, D.C. For those who question the motives of all journalists under misleading and inaccurate references to “the Media,” — visit and learn the stories of the men and women noted on that memorial. If your view of journalism and those who practice it doesn’t shift as a result, you’re not really thinking.
The journalists’ stories were intertwined with the second part of Time’s recognition as the most “influential” in 2018 — the ongoing effort to manipulate what is true and “the many ways information is being used and abused across the globe.” In an essay, the magazine’s editor-in-chief said it was “the common thread in so many of this year’s major stories, from Russia to Riyadh to Silicon Valley.”
In the name of those who died, who are wrongly imprisoned or threatened, and in the name of “truth,” the rest of us have an obligation to step away from partisan bickering and disgraceful sloganeering — including that bogus claim by President Trump and repressive regimes worldwide that journalists are “enemies of the people.”
Call for better reporting, but also be willing to support better journalism. Continue to call for investigations and prosecutions whenever a journalist is attacked or killed; don’t settle for a politically expedient decision to excuse or ignore such criminal conduct. Defend journalism and commit to the pursuit of truth, even when it means extra effort to separate it out from misleading and false information.
In the name of those recently recognized for their courage and sacrifice, it’s Time we all did that.
Ed Henninger is an independent newspaper consultant and the Director of Henninger Consulting. www.henningerconsulting.com. Phone: 803-325-5252.
Sometimes a design just goes stale. Over the course of even just a few years, inconsistencies creep in, color use gets out of hand, odd typefaces appear. Stuff happens.
But you can turn that around. You can bring a crisp, clean, compelling look to the tired face of your newspaper.
Here are ten steps to guide you:
CLEAN UP the nameplate. Look for those elements that have crept in, like Facebook and Twitter logos, your web address, a UPC code. All of those items can go elsewhere.
GO TO flush left for your text type. Flush left body copy helps open up the look of the page and allows you to insert elements like head-and-shoulders photos without creating poor letter spacing and word spacing adjacent to those elements.
IMPROVE typography throughout. Make sure you’re using a quality text font. I continue to recommend Nimrod, but there may be others already on your system, like Utopia or Georgia. If you’re still using Times for your text, you can do much better. How about headlines? Are you using a display face that has impact? Is it comfortable? Does it give your newspaper a sense of tradition and credibility? If not, look for something new.
SEGMENT your stories. With very few exceptions, any long story can be broken into three or four shorter pieces to create a more attractive package. Readers prefer stories of no more than 15 inches. You can do that!
USE INFOBOXES and by-the-numbers boxes. These are guaranteed “hooks” to get readers into a package. They’re a quick list of facts and interesting information that will draw readers in. Once they go through an infobox, readers will be much more likely to give the entire package a full read.
CONTROL color use. Get rid of tint blocks behind stories. Throw out color boxes. There are better ways to bring visual interest to a package, like photos, head-and-shoulder shots, infoboxes, charts, maps… Rid your paper of weak colors like pure cyan and magenta.
MAKE DEADLINE. Deadlines aren’t a design issue? Wrong! If, for example, your writers and editors don’t get the content and visual items to a designer in time, then that designer has to scramble. Yes, I understand that at many newspapers the writer, editor and designer are the same person. Still, even that one person needs to make writing deadline as a writer, editing deadline as an editor — and design deadline as a designer. If you don’t give enough time to the design, you’ll have a page that’s filled…not designed.
TRAIN staff. Don’t have anyone on your staff who has a rudimentary understanding of the basics of news design? Then the odds are your design just won’t get any better. A writer isn’t a designer, just like a mechanic isn’t an electrician. They’re different skills and they require different ways of thinking. Look for training sessions from your state press association. Perhaps a webinar will help. Check newspaperacademy.com for one.
CREATE a long-term planning process. Once you’ve been part of long-term planning, you’ll never go back. And your design will improve exponentially. The long-term process allows you to plan months ahead for those events that are a normal part of readers’ lives, like Christmas. Mother’s Day. First day of school. Start thinking and planning for these three months ahead of time. This gives you the time you need to decide how you want to approach a package focused on that event — and enough time to give it a compelling look. Long-term planning is one of the major differences between a newspaper that is assembled…and a newspaper that’s designed.
CREATE a design style guide. Without a style guide, anyone on staff can feel free to do as he or she likes with the design. There are no rules, no guidelines to keep the design on track. There’s nothing keeping your design from slipping into confusion. Those clients of mine who have kept their design under control have done so because they created — and they stick to — a design style guide.
If your design has gone stale, if it’s not where you’d like it to be, these ten steps are the road to a turnaround.
Every now and then inspiration strikes a writer like lightning and a nearly perfect news story is the result.
They’ll craft a piece with an engaging lead, a meaningful nut graph, intelligent exposition, on-point factual evidence, colorful imagery, telling details, unforgettable quotes and a kicker that lingers.
For some, it all comes together only once a year or even once a career. And yet, a few writers find such success almost every time they put pen to paper or align 10 fingers on a keyboard.
Often, those top-notch writers don’t wait to think about writing until after the reporting is complete. Instead, they plan ahead, think almost constantly how to approach an assignment, create a structure for a piece and – most importantly – use the reporting process to drive their writing. One method of planning can lead to improved writing, especially on breaking news stories or events covered by multiple reporters. I call it “Reporting to Write,” a fairly simple concept in which journalists think and focus almost constantly on the story and its structure before, during and after the reporting process.
I put this to good use in 2000 when I was the statewide general assignment reporter for a big Florida daily and drew an assignment to do a “scene piece” about tornados that had killed more than a dozen people.
As I drove to the scene (with the radio off and my thoughts fully on the job ahead) I wondered how to approach the reporting. The fact the funnels blew in at night on Valentine’s Day were both sure to be touched on by the two other breaking news reporters on our team.
I began to see debris scattered about fields and people picking through the wreckage and suddenly it hit me: One terrifying element of every tornado is how it exposes the possessions and lives of is victims for all to see.
I settled on a plan to tell the stories of some of the victims by focusing solely on their scattered possessions and by confirming those assumptions by talking to surviving family members or neighbors. I found and recorded the titles of children’s books owned by a toddler who died; I examined trophies scattered about a home where a teenaged athlete had been injure; and I found record albums and took note of the artists beloved by a middle-aged musician who was killed. I didn’t dilute my effort by attending press conferences or talking to cops or firefighters or interviewing numerous survivors who all told much the same story.
Once I had an opening sentence, the story nearly wrote itself. In fact, after my computer crashed on the way to use the modem in the public library where I wrote, I was able to rewrite the entire piece in 15 minutes. My editors loved the piece and I was home by 5 p.m. that day.
Here are some basics about Reporting to Write that can help you become a better storyteller and get you home in time to make dinner.
Consider an “angle” or “approach” to the organization of the story early in the reporting process. Talking to editors, colleagues, sources or even yourself can help reveal whether you’re on the right track.
Before settling on an angle, run the premise past a number of knowledgeable people or primary sources with different viewpoints to see if you’ve got it right. Once confident, pursue the angle or approach with vigor.
Maintain a constant focus on the critical elements of the story while in the field or on the phone. You should always be on the hunt for the lead, great quotes, colorful characters, transitions, telling details and a kicker. Always think story, story, story – how does this work into my story structure and what do I need to pull this off?
Pursue your approach with passion, curiosity, energy and watchful eyes and ears.
Always write down concrete details and specific facts or descriptions that add color and spice to the copy in order to avoid errors. Key facts and news tidbits can be worked into the overall structure.
Don’t be afraid to write a passage or portion of the story while in the field or between interviews. The best time to craft compelling copy is when the reporting is fresh.
While reporting, sketch an outline or highlight elements of your notes that might serve as an anecdote, a lively detail, a transition or a kicker to make them easy to find later.
Once you know the premise is solid, free yourself to write with authority, command over language and with feeling and voice.
Remember to consider a “to be sure” or contrarian paragraph if necessary, a quick nod to the reader that the angle you’re taking isn’t the only possible angle, just the one you’re pursuing in this piece.
Important caveats: Do not bend the reporting to meet your premise or mistakenly pursue a false narrative. Don’t create a sentiment that doesn’t exist. Don’t write to please a source or your editor. Remember that this technique is not foolproof or perfect for every story, and understand that sometimes you have to blow up your premise or structure and go back to straight news to make deadline and be accurate and fair.
“We see growing reader interest in digital and want to give our readers the best print replica experience we can. We also need our digital products on a modern platform that can provide the features and innovative products we need going forward,” said Michael Sheehan, Regional VP of Circulation for Northeast for Digital First Media.
Tecnavia’s web eEdition is built on the latest HTML code to optimize performance and user interface on the platform. Mobile apps for Apple iOS and Android use native coding to provide fully integrated features, higher performance and security.
“Another reason for moving to Tecnavia was to finally get clear metrics on eEdition readership, and see with detail how eEditions are actually being used,” said Kevin LaMagdelaine, Regional Sales & Marketing Manager for Digital First Media. “Our old setup had us pretty much flying blind. Reports we received were not measuring the data what we needed. We had to make assumptions about numbers that no one felt good about.”
With other Boston Herald projects planned for 2018, only a month was available to plan and execute the eEdition change over. Another challenge was interfacing with internal systems that had not been touched for years, and in some cases replacement was already underway.
“With all our projects going on, for us it was all hands on deck. We found Tecnavia’s customer support was fast to get back and accommodating to adapt when we were limited by systems or time by what we could supply. They set up a conversion schedule with regular web meetings to keep things on track. It was clear they had an in-depth understanding of the process, even with 3rd party systems,” said LaMagdelaine.
“Tecnavia even helped us create marketing programs to support the transition. We did emailers and even ran a contest for early adopters,” said Gerry Sher, Boston Herald Home Delivery Manager. “We had a seamless transition with no service interruptions. It’s a real achievement considering high reader activity thanks to the Red Sox, Patriots and elections.”
About Tecnavia
Tecnavia has over 20 years’ experience in e-publishing and was a pioneer in the concept of digital print editions. Today, Tecnavia manages over 2,000 titles and processes over 8 million pages per year. Services now include Total Media Apps for live news, eEditions, website meters, digital archives, eTearsheets and the new Tecnavia Ad Network. We aim to continue offering high-performance, innovative and cost-effective solutions relying on hard
work, bright ideas, and continuous research and development.
Kevin Slimp is director of the Institute of Newspaper Technology. Email questions to him at kevin@kevinslimp.com.
As far as you know, I’ve got it all figured out
Some of you will remember Facebook. If you’re over 40, you probably visit Facebook on a regular basis. If you’re like most of the college students in my life, ask a parent or older friend. They can tell you about it.
Earlier this week, I checked my Facebook notices. I generally skip the “memory” notices. Those are the ones meant to remind us of posts we’ve made on this date in years past.
There it was. Seven years ago on this date, I spent the day in Manhattan, in front of 50 or so journalists at the CUNY Journalism Graduate School, recently renamed the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at the City University of New York. Why was I there, you asked? To discuss digital journalism.
Beginning in the late 1990s, I began receiving requests to speak about the future of digital journalism at conferences and schools of journalism throughout the U.S. and Canada. Large audiences would pack rooms as I discussed online video, vodcasts, podcasts, slideshows, hardware, software and more.
Back in those days, like a lot of folks, I was enamored with the technology. I loved teaching folks how to use the software and gadgets needed to record and get videos online, create newspaper websites, and most of the hardware and software companies were more than happy to send me free samples of their products, in hopes I might include them in reviews.
Like a lot of folks, I was giddy with thoughts of how the Internet was going to change the newspaper business.
At the time, we anticipated converting our print publications to digital publications, assuming readers would gladly switch from paper to screen. We also assumed advertisers would be just as thrilled with the possibilities of digital media, and gladly pay hefty sums to fund our journalistic efforts.
It’s funny how time can change expectations. It didn’t take long to realize print wasn’t going away, at least not as quickly as we anticipated back in those heady days. It was tempting to ignore the facts and move full-steam ahead into the digital era, leaving print behind. Most of the folks I know who took that approach aren’t in the news business any more.
Like many things in life, most healthy papers came to realize the newspaper business isn’t an either/or proposition. For most newspapers, it became quickly evident that digital advertising dollars couldn’t sustain their publications without a serious reduction in staff and other resources.
Sure, there’s the Wall Street Journal and New York Times, but those are exceptions to the rule, not the rule itself.
As recently as last week, a publisher of a very successful community paper emailed me to let me know he was significantly reducing his newspaper’s digital emphasis. In his words, he put pencil to paper and came to the conclusion there was very little financial return based on the number of hours his staff was putting into their website and social media presence.
I still visit a lot of community newspapers. Heck, I still visit a lot of all types of newspapers. What I’m seeing is no increase in the digital efforts at most newspapers, especially community papers. Most have a website, with highlights of news. Most have a paywall for readers who want to see full stories. Most engage with social media, primarily Facebook and Twitter, to promote stories, share late-breaking news and attempt to draw readers and
subscribers.
In the past, I noticed the majority of the publishers I visited felt like they were missing out on something. There was a feeling that “everybody” else had a handle on the whole digital thing, yet they were somehow left behind.
This seems to be another area where time seems to alleviate many of our misconceptions. Sure, newspapers still try to determine the right “mix” of print and digital efforts. Metro and many dailies might have a hard time existing without income from their online presence.
Most – notice I wrote “most” – community papers have come to the conclusion that digital media isn’t going to be their savior, at least not anytime in the near future.
So they offer subscriptions to their newspaper online. They get a little income, usually not much, from online advertisers. They use social media to promote subscriptions. I’ve seen a few community newspapers make significant income by livestreaming area high school ballgames and other events, with sponsorships from local advertisers.
It’s becoming more common, as I visit community papers, to see live broadcasts of news or news-makers, usually on a daily or weekly basis. In many cases, the focus of the effort is to enhance what is happening in the local newspaper, not replace it.
Do I think print will totally give way to digital in the near future? No, as I first wrote ten years ago, print is going to be around for a long time. Do I think newspapers will give up on digital efforts? No, of course not. Heck, even the cupcake shop down the street has a website. It’s a normal part of business.
Then what do I think is going to happen? I think newspapers will continue to look for ways to incorporate digital efforts in ways to enhance their current products and, as time moves forward, find even more ways to benefit from their digital presence.
It’s my educated guess that we will continue to search for ways to benefit from the digital side of our business, without throwing out the products that still bring in the most revenue and reach the widest audience.
Just a reminder: In the latest Newspaper Institute survey of U.S. and Canadian newspaper publishers, more than 90 percent indicated print advertising is still their number one source of income. What was number two? Print subscriptions. Income from digital sources came in at a little under one percent.
So here’s my advice. Keep putting out a great newspaper. If it’s not great, figure out how to make it better. Look for ways to use your digital presence to increase readership and advertisers, but don’t think they will replace income from your most profitable product.
You’re not alone. Just about everyone is still trying to figure this digital thing out. Look at me. I started writing and speaking about digital news more than 20 years ago, and I’m still trying to figure it out.
John Foust has conducted training programs for thousands of newspaper advertising professionals. Many ad departments are using his training videos to save time and get quick results from in-house training. E-mail for information: john@johnfoust.com
Jodi is a sales manager with an interesting philosophy. “We’re all familiar with win-win,” she said. “It’s a common cliché these days. In business relationships – especially any kind of negotiation – each side should benefit. I help you win, and you help me win.
“Win-win is a noble objective, but I don’t think it covers all the bases in the advertising business.
I’ve heard people say that we’re dealing with four wins, not two. We talk about this all the time in staff meetings. As long as we focus on winning in four areas, we’re on the right track.”
Let’s take a look at Jodi’s four wins:
1) The advertiser.
“It all starts here,” she said. “Advertisers and prospective advertisers want results. The purpose of advertising is to generate sales and market awareness, so we go into every presentation with that in mind.
“After all, that’s how they judge the value of running ads with us. They constantly ask
themselves, ‘Are the ads working?’ If they can’t answer ‘yes’ to that question, we have a big problem. If there’s no win for the advertiser, the other wins don’t matter.”
2) The newspaper.
“When we tell prospects we’re working for a win-win, they automatically
think of their business and our newspaper,” Jodi explained.
“We work for the newspaper, and everybody understands that we’re expected to keep our employer’s interests at heart. When our advertisers get good results from their campaigns, they’ll naturally run more ads. That boosts our business as well as theirs. By helping them win, we win right along with them.”
3) The consumer.
“This is the first of the additional wins,” Jodi said. “Even though it doesn’t apply to every industry, it’s a big part of what we do in advertising. In a lot of ways, you could say we’re a bridge between businesses and their customers. If it weren’t for advertising, a lot of people wouldn’t know what’s available in the marketplace.
“Around the office, we joke about being consumer advocates, but that’s our way of saying we work to take care of our audience. We’re obligated to help advertisers package their messages to help readers make good buying decisions. If an advertiser hands us a bad idea, we don’t hesitate to say it’s a bad idea. Our ad team knows principles of effective advertising, and they do everything they can to steer clients away from weak ideas.”
4) The sales person.
The fourth win hits close to home. “We want the people in our ad department to enjoy their work and celebrate their successes,” she said. “When someone lands a new client, renews a contract or sells a campaign, it gives their confidence a big lift. We believe each victory is a stepping stone to more accomplishments.
“The better our team members feel about their work, the more valuable they become – to the paper, to advertisers, to our readers and to themselves.
“In our business, two wins are not enough. We go for the win-win-win-win.”
COPYRIGHT LINE
(c) Copyright 2018 by John Foust. All rights reserved.
The legal battle between CNN and the White House over the suspension of Jim Acosta’s press credentials is done, at least for now. But it is likely that the larger war—in which NENPA has lined up with other press advocates to ensure fair and open access to press conferences—will continue.
On Monday, the White House returned the press pass to the CNN chief White House correspondent, but announced new rules of governing White House press conferences. In response, CNN dropped the lawsuit it filed last week, which received overwhelming support from news outlets and press organizations throughout the country.
“Today the @WhiteHouse fully restored @Acosta’s press pass. As a result, our lawsuit is no longer necessary,” CNN Communications wrote in a Tweet on Monday afternoon. “We look forward to continuing to cover the White House.”
NENPA was one of 75 news organizations that had quickly rallied behind a friend-of-the-court brief supporting CNN’s challenge to the revocation of Acosta’s credentials. Because CNN has dismissed its case, the amicus brief will not have to be filed at this time—although many expect that the same coalition may need to reunite to protect other incursions on reporters’ First and Fifth Amendment rights.
A statement from Press Secretary Sarah Sanders and Deputy Chief of Staff for Communications Bill Shine detailed the new press conference rules: Reporters may only ask “a single question.” Follow-up questions will only be permitted “at the discretion of the President or other White House Officials.” And reporters must “physically surrender” the microphone when directed. “Failure to abide” by any of the rules may result in ”suspension or revocation of the journalist’s hard pass.”
The White House’s decision comes after Judge Timothy J. Kelly of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ordered the White House to temporarily restore Acosta’s hard pass, determining that CNN had shown a likelihood of proving that Acosta’s due process rights were violated by the arbitrary pulling of his press pass. The Trump Administration initially threatened to revoke Acosta’s credentials once the temporary restraining order expired, but it ultimately decided to restore his hard pass on Monday.
“NENPA is proud to stand side by side with other news organizations in protecting the rights of our members,” said Executive Director Linda Conway. “We will remain vigilant to ensure press freedom not only in Washington, D.C., but also at the state and local level throughout our six-state region.”
Gene Policinski is president and chief operating officer of the Freedom Forum Institute. He can be reached at gpolicinski@freedomforum.org, or follow him on Twitter at @genefac.
We’d all like a “better” internet in terms of privacy, politeness, taste and safety. And who would oppose eliminating false or misleading information from social media sites, or preventing online bullying and such?
Last week, some of the world’s most significant, influential and powerful figures around such issues — in the words of The Wall Street Journal, “the giants of the web” — gathered at the 2018 Web Summit in Lisbon, Portugal and in Brussels at an international conference on data privacy and policy.
At the Lisbon meeting, an audience reportedly cheered for a proposed international institute to propose regulations worldwide on social media. United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres warned in a speech that “the weaponization of artificial intelligence is a serious danger” and Microsoft President Brad Smith called for “a digital Geneva Convention” to end state cyberattacks against civilians.
Web inventor Tim Berners-Lee called for private companies, governments and internet users to unite around what he called a “contract for the Web,” a nine-point plan with goals to protect personal privacy, create online methods to counteract harassment and hate speech and for universal access to the web.
In Brussels, Apple CEO Tim Cook advocated for the U.S. to adopt the European Union’s strict data privacy law, enacted in May, allowing consumers to review, edit and delete personal information on the web. Cook warned that technological advances are leading to a “data industrial complex” and that “our own information, from the everyday to the deeply personal, is being weaponized against us with military efficiency.”
So much for the once-hoped for era of “peace, love and harmony” that the World Wide Web was supposed to usher in on behalf of all humanity.
Still, we’ve been here before — and need to keep in mind we’ve overreacted to the threats, real and imagined, posed by new technology before dialing down regulations and codes to a reasonable compromise on free expression, privacy and safety.
Early concerns about privacy noted that the new-fangled telephone could ring into a home at any hour of the day, while proper guests of the day would knock on the door and announce themselves.
Content on radio was relatively unregulated, with government attention directed more to the actual problems with frequencies and interference — until the Communications Act of 1934 gave the Federal Communications Commission power not only to govern the technology but what was said over the airwaves via the so-called “Fairness Doctrine.” Intended to ensure that all voices were heard on public airwaves, the doctrine was abandoned in the 1980s as no longer needed in a world of virtually unlimited cable and satellite channels, but also with the realization that it actually diminished discussion on matters of public interest.
In movies, the “Hays Code” was adopted by Hollywood filmmakers in the early 1930s to head off moves to have Congress set strict standards for what movies could show across a wide range of topics and issues — from comments about the law and drug use to sex and violence. One silly example of the code’s restrictions: Childbirth was considered a “taboo” subject. In the acclaimed film “Gone with the Wind,” as a character was giving birth, actors in the scene could only be shown as shadows on a wall.
The code was on the books for decades but was weakened in the 1940s and 1950s — particularly in 1952 when the U.S. Supreme Court, considering a case involving the movie “The Miracle,” extended First Amendment protections to films.
Likewise in television, the “Television Code” was adopted by the National Association of Broadcasters under threat of a government council to set rules. From 1952 to 1983, the code ruled on everything from how actors dressed to references to religion, sex, family life and more. Famously, the code resulted in married couples shown on TV only using double beds and in 1952, when the star of “I Love Lucy,” Lucille Ball, became pregnant, that word was not permitted — the show was allowed to say only that she was “with child” or “expecting.”
When the sound of a flushing toilet was heard in 1971 in an episode of the groundbreaking sitcom, “All in the Family,” it reflected a growing demand by the public for realism rather than the unrealistic depictions of everyday life that the code had encouraged.
Note that all of those overreactive attempts to regulate came early in the development of those mediums of expression.
The web is barely out of its teenage years, in effect, and social media megaliths such as Facebook and Twitter are even younger. The web’s revolutionizing impact extends from newly accessible public records to instant global communication. And our reliance on social media as a means of reporting news, recording our lives and relaying our views is unlike anything seen in generations, if anything before.
But if history is a guide — and it is — we need to temper calls to “protect” ourselves from that which we do not like or find dangerous, lest we replace such with censored, sanitized and government-regulated messages or content intended to pacify rather than provoke and inform.
There may well be a need to rein in the wild web, to set privacy boundaries and fight real misuse. But we must be certain that the control over what we see, hear, say and access remains as close to our own fingertips as possible — and not handed over to some “National Nanny” claiming to act on our behalf, lest we be confined to a future of shadows on the wall, double beds and a view of life where no one ever uses a toilet.
Believe it or not 2019 is right around the corner … and so is the largest newspaper convention in New England.
The legal battle between CNN and the White House over the suspension of Jim Acosta’s press credentials is done, at least for now. But it is likely that the larger war—in which NENPA has lined up with other press advocates to ensure fair and open access to press conferences—will continue.
Time to Stand up for Journalists, for the Pursuit of Truth
Unlike most of Time magazine’s “Person of the Year” designees since 1927, we can be certain none of those featured this year on that iconic, red-framed cover wanted to be there.
This year, Time has four cover images, all recognizing journalists who are imprisoned, facing charges or who died in the pursuit of news on behalf of the rest of us — collectively titled, “The Guardians and the War on Truth.”
The selectees: Jamal Khashoggi, The Washington Post contributor believed killed in Turkey by a Saudi Arabian “hit squad;” the staff of the Capital Gazette newspaper in Annapolis, Md., which saw five staffers killed by a deranged gunman; Reuters news service reporters Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, who have been jailed in Myanmar for a year; and Philippine journalist Maria Ressa, whose news site Rappler, a frequent government critic, faces dubious tax-related charges.
Time said it selected the group “for taking great risks in pursuit of greater truths, for the imperfect but essential quest for facts that are central to civil discourse, for speaking up and speaking out.”
Those words, and that task, are as good a definition of journalism as we might want. The description also puts a lie to the core untruths of those critics who find any excuse to bray — mostly for political gain — about “fake news,” or who claim “alternative facts” when faced with a reality they find uncomfortable or incompatible with pre-conditioned views.
Yes, journalists — as all of us — can at times do an imperfect job. But the vast majority set out each day on that “essential quest for facts.” And in doing so, they act on our behalf, bringing us the information we need for both the decisions we make in our private lives and for the votes we cast as part of the greatest experiment ever seen in self-governance.
These “Guardians” also stand for thousands of men and women in nations around the world who put themselves in harm’s way each day to stand up to tyrants and tyranny. As the magazine noted, at least 52 journalists have been murdered this year for simply doing their jobs. Hundreds more are imprisoned and threatened. The Committee to Protect Journalists notes 262 are now being held and 60 are “missing.”
Journalists killed in the previous year, and more than 2,300 others since the early 1800s are recognized each June in a rededication of the Newseum’s Journalist Memorial, in Washington, D.C. For those who question the motives of all journalists under misleading and inaccurate references to “the Media,” — visit and learn the stories of the men and women noted on that memorial. If your view of journalism and those who practice it doesn’t shift as a result, you’re not really thinking.
The journalists’ stories were intertwined with the second part of Time’s recognition as the most “influential” in 2018 — the ongoing effort to manipulate what is true and “the many ways information is being used and abused across the globe.” In an essay, the magazine’s editor-in-chief said it was “the common thread in so many of this year’s major stories, from Russia to Riyadh to Silicon Valley.”
In the name of those who died, who are wrongly imprisoned or threatened, and in the name of “truth,” the rest of us have an obligation to step away from partisan bickering and disgraceful sloganeering — including that bogus claim by President Trump and repressive regimes worldwide that journalists are “enemies of the people.”
Call for better reporting, but also be willing to support better journalism. Continue to call for investigations and prosecutions whenever a journalist is attacked or killed; don’t settle for a politically expedient decision to excuse or ignore such criminal conduct. Defend journalism and commit to the pursuit of truth, even when it means extra effort to separate it out from misleading and false information.
In the name of those recently recognized for their courage and sacrifice, it’s Time we all did that.