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Oh, hey man! I used to work for the Southeast Missourian just a couple hours away. Way to go, small-town Mizzou Crew buddy.  With all that's being said about "the decline of print," did you really notice much of it in your area? Down in Cape, at least, the newspaper and KFVS12 is so ingrained in local culture that it didn't seem like our news was losing viewership as much as the doomsayers would say. It'd be interesting to see how other small towns and their cultures still rely on local news. How much do local politics affect what you can/can't run? Are you guys wary of some stories if you know the people involved are running ad space? Were there any stories that really justified why you got into journalism? I know it's hard sometimes with smaller towns, but when you get that one story, it's all worth it, you know?
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Jun 12, 2014 01:18
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Anne Whateley posted:Why. My question is why. Gotta start somewhere.  In all seriousness, traditional print journalism is still pretty heavily set in old ways. Start at a small paper -> work towards a larger venue. The internet and blogging has changed some of that since you can find good writers by surfing around the net a bit, but then you run into the problem of people who are good writers but not necessarily good journalists (see Gaming "news" in its current state). Sometimes working for a smaller paper shows you know how to handle reporting crime, business, politics, and a variety of other things you might be assigned while still remaining objective and without risking a major company's credentials in a national spotlight. Keep in mind, most of the big names in National Geographic's photographer pool started by working together at tiny-rear end regional papers in Kansas and Nebraska. Big News like CNN or AlJazeera aren't going to hire some random blogger unless they are extremely talented. They still want reporters that have shown they can do this on a daily basis and not just on big Feature stories. Bluedeanie posted:So I'm lucky in that the actual policymakers don't get too lovely with us, so long as they feel our coverage is accurate and fair, which everyone there currently strives for. Man, you're lucky. Cape Girardeau is Rush Limbaugh's hometown and oh man does his dad and family have a lot to say. Naturally, David Limbaugh is a major, regular contributor to the S.E. Missourian and most of the readership eats it all up. It's gotten worse since I left almost a decade ago, and I wasn't even in one of the major news divisions. When they named the federal courthouse after D. Limbaugh Sr. it was above-the-fold news. I try to keep reading it to keep up to date with the paper and recently saw some young gun had dared to write a positive article about gay couples in the area. It did not go over well. 
Axel Serenity fucked around with this message at 04:30 on Jun 12, 2014 |
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Jun 12, 2014 04:24
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Anne Whateley posted:I don't get this point of view. You could be competing for 1 of 3 jobs in Kansas, or 1 of 5,000 jobs in New York. Really, who's like "hot drat, Kansas!" It's more that the small Kansas papers are likely where you have connections immediately after college. Most of my fellow Mizzou alum pretty easily got local jobs right out of the gate before moving on to the bigger cities once they'd built their portfolio. Plus, if you are a local to begin with, working in an area you know has its advantages and allows you to be a little more passionate about the going-ons of the area. As for why? Well, it's definitely not the money. I'm more on the photojournalism end, so maybe my perspective is a little different than the OP, but I like being able to outright show the world to people. I love telling stories the general public maybe had no idea about or showcasing simple stories in a way that makes them interesting. Where I'm from out in the sticks, people like to stay in their own little bubbles with the rest of the world only being seen in brief, touristy glimpses. I want to burst that bubble sometimes and remind people "Hey! This is happening! This actually exists!" Like, I can't really explain why I love sifting through Washington Post, CNN, and Aljazeera every morning. I guess it's the honesty of it all (when it's done right, anyway), and that I'm able to keep up with these incredible stories that are actually going on in the world right now. It feels like our culture here in the U.S. is leaning more and more towards escapism and shorter attention spans on a lot of fronts, so it's nice to be able to go into a field that showcases how amazing our real world is. Journalism done right is just the honest, and sometimes harsh, truth. Which is refreshing and extremely fascinating. Axel Serenity fucked around with this message at 07:32 on Jun 12, 2014 |
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Jun 12, 2014 07:30
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