The 2014 Izzy Awards

I had the opportunity to attend the 2014 annual Izzy Award ceremony at Ithaca College on Monday. Some students, including myself, were invited to go to a Q&A with the winners before the ceremony.

The Izzy Award (given by the Park Center for Independent Media at Ithaca College) is the only journalistic award that is given in recognition of excellence in independent journalism. This year's winners were Nick Turse and John Carlos Frey; Glenn Greenwald and Jeremy Scahill were inducted into the I.F. Stone Hall of Fame. The awards are named after great independent journalist I.F. Stone, known for his dissident coverage of politics and critique of major newspapers at the time.

To hear from these individuals was incredible. I have never met journalists of their caliber in my life - the closest I came was being able to hear two Boston Globe journalists speak about covering the 2013 marathon at the SPJ conference the weekend before in Boston.

While I was most familiar with the work of Scahill and Turse (as well as Greenwald, but he was not able to attend the awards), my favorite speaker was Frey. Frey has been reporting on the U.S.-Mexican border, covering border patrol brutalities and drug cartels. He gave up a career in acting to pursue intense, independent, investigative journalism.

I have the utmost respect for these kinds of journalists. They often put their lives and reputations on the line in order to bring a voice to the voiceless and investigate issues that are affecting the little people. Frey exposed some of the ignorance and lack of journalistic responsibility that is present in modern broadcast corporations. Even with video evidence and thorough investigation and proof, almost every program refused to air a story which detailed the beating and murder of an undocumented migrant by U.S. Border Patrol agents.

The topics that all of these journalists covered in their discussions and speeches confirmed that we need independent journalists as a society - at least for now. The established media of the U.S. refuses to acknowledge any story that could have negative repercussions for their friends in the government or in major corporations.

While I don't think I have the gall or the courage to do what these journalists do, I hold them in high esteem and will support this kind of work until the established media becomes what it should be - a voice for the voiceless and a check against those who hold power.

Cara Lemieux on Starting a Publication (Sort Of)

Cara Lemieux came to speak with the Ithaca College SPJ chapter this Monday and discussed with us about how she helped start the ShriverReport.org.

The Shriver Report website is the online companion of the actual Shriver Reports, which are lengthy published reports on different aspects of women in society. The Shriver Report launched in October 2013 and Lemieux helped make it happen.

She said that before the site even launched, she had to drum up interest in the social media world. Before it came out, the Shriver Report had around 2,000 followers on different social media. But how do you get followers without producing any original content yet? They retweeted other publications that had similar missions as they did and linked around to other sites like HuffPost Women.

Lemieux gave an interesting insight into Google +. Even though the service isn't nearly as active or popular as other social media like Twitter and Facebook, when people share stories on Google + it helps with Google page rankings in the search engine. Because of this, they focused a lot of attention on Google + and now have over 30,000 followers on the site, dwarfing their other social media numbers.

When I talk about "they," I'm referring to the three individuals who work on the website and launched it. Together, they help keep the site and social media running and come up with two to three pieces of original content to post everyday. The site gets submissions from a lot of citizen journalists who are not paid.

One of the most interesting things I learned from Lemieux was about fully understanding your idea before launching it. As Jeff Jarvis wrote in his piece about his entrepreneurial journalism class,

If you can’t describe what you’re doing — to customers as well as investors — in 17 words, then you’re probably trying to do too much or you haven’t worked hard enough to define what you are doing or you simply aren’t describing it well and you’re going to lose people.

Lemieux told us that at first, the site was way too broad. She had to sit down and come up with a mission statement that clearly and succinctly said what the site was and stood for. She then had to completely work the design and decide every single little piece of how the website worked.

If you can't stand behind and clearly explain your site to yourself, it's not going to sell anyone else.

It was so great to hear from someone who was an Ithaca College graduate that made it in the industry and even helped create a successful and interesting publication like the Shriver Report. From where they have come from and the number of people they have to make the site run, I'd say it's pretty successful. And it gives young journalists hope that one day they could make a successful website.

Net Neutrality and Balanced Service

Net neutrality is a relatively new term that has been thrown around a lot in the past few years. Free Press' Save the Internet blog has the best rundown of what exactly net neutrality is and what is happening with it.

In a quick summation, net neutrality stops big corporations like Verizon and Google from creating fast lanes and slow lanes for Internet content. Big names with lots of money can pay their way into fast lanes, while content creators that can't pay up or don't fit with the big owners' status quo get stuck in slow lanes.

In 2010, the FCC passed a rule that allowed them to enforce net neutrality. But then in January of this year, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals struck down the FCC's rule and opened up the Internet's infrastructure to corporations.

So what happens if Verizon decides to implement its once-proposed two lane system? Independent media get left behind.

The Internet brought with it an astounding surge in everything independent. Musicians can distribute music easily without the cost of CD production. Photographers and filmers can post their work cheaply (or free) to be seen by anyone. Journalists can start their own independent publications and write without restrictions set upon them by the massive corporations that pay their salary.

But if we let those big corporations take control of the Internet, independent creation will be stifled significantly.

Striking down net neutrality goes against the foundations of the First Amendment. For the success of independent producers, whether they be musicians, painters, bloggers, poets, game designers or jewelry makers, net neutrality needs to be reinstated.

As I have said before, journalism needs a constant flow of new independent journalists to keep a real check on the government and corporations. A corporate Internet goes against this completely.

Sensationalism Held Higher Than Ethics

In this stunning timeline from USC's Online Journalism Review, we can get a good look at just how unethical mainstream journalism outlets can be.

In short: A woman had declared that Bill Clinton was the father of her son, Danny Williams. She claimed that their resemblance was uncanny and had been getting a DNA test to see if they were really a match.

The Rupert Murdoch conglomerate picked up the story and ran with it, which can be seen as suspicious since the story was not fully developed and Murdoch is known for having politically right views. Does every person who claims a celebrity is the parent of their child get a soapbox and major media attention? No. And if they do so without any evidence, that is unethical.

The Drudge Report picked up the tale and posted their own article claiming that they had seen video of the mother confessing what she had been claiming. Does that constitute as proof? Again, no.

If some of these journalists at these tabloids and mainstream publications came in with purest intentions, they certainly would come out with a whole different view of journalism. I'm sure that some people in these publications did not want to write about rumors and wild claims but were forced to comply to the higher ups. And that's the problem with corporate news - the politically-fueled millionaires and billionaires that have their hands in journalism will want to skew it to fit their own agenda.

In journalism school we learn about the Society of Professional Journalists' Code of Ethics. The very first pillar of journalism ethics is "Seek Truth and Report It." These stories, while they might have been true at the end (they were not), were just rumors. You can't know the truth of it until the tests come back, so you should not report on it until you know the facts.

The second pillar, "Minimize Harm," would also go against the reporting of these damning rumors. These publications created buzz around an event that made Clinton look unjustifiably bad. Sure, people in the media spotlight have to have tough skin but there's no need to help spread false rumors about them. It's unethical.

If you make these mistakes, at least follow the last pillar and "Be Accountable." Admit to your mistakes, and  maybe think about the actual impact of your stories before reporting on whatever new rumor has your political opposite in the hot seat.

Access for Indie Journalists

A strange thing has happened with bloggers. Because bloggers have been dismissed as being non-journalists, they have been shut out of events. The distinction that bloggers are in fact journalists was recently seen in a court case that gave journalists' rights to a blogger, even though the debate started years ago.

But if bloggers have a hard time getting into major press events, what can they do? I.F. Stone was noted as saying that he preferred to read the press transcripts after the fact because then he could better analyze and understand what was being said. So bloggers have that advantage, but how big of an advantage is that really? I don't think it's too big.

If bloggers aren't defined as "the press," then they can get into non-press events. Mayhill Fowler, a fresh face in the blogging world in 2008, exposed two of the biggest presidential campaign blunders by getting close to campaigners in non-press settings.

First, Fowler unleashed a stinging quote from Barack Obama into the world. She managed to get into the Obama non-press dinner and was openly recording it along with other people. When you aren't a recognizable face in the journalism crowd, I guess you can get in anywhere.

The left-wing blogger then posted a rant from Bill Clinton on Huffington Post. These two instances lit up the blogging world and helped boost the conversation around journalism and bloggers.

So bloggers might give up major press event action but they can get into places where nobody has ever heard their name before. This is a great way for bloggers to break major stories and get their names out there, but once they become known they won't be able to keep doing the same trick over and over. At best you can get away with it twice but after that you won't be getting into any non-press events.

This is why journalism needs a constant flow of independent writers and reporters, to get into places and events that normal and well-known journalists can't.

Breaking In through Indpendence

Yesterday I went to Ithacon and attended a panel called "How I Broke In," where people including Roger Stern (Marvel writer) and Will Dennis (DC/Vertigo editor) talked about how they got into the comic book industry.

One of the most resonant ideas during this panel was that of working independently. Times were different in the '70s when some of these guys started, and even in the '90s. Comic books have largely been dominated by Marvel, DC and a few other giants up until recently. If people wanted to produce a comic and have it read by more than their friends and family, they had to constantly be sending samples to these few dominant companies in the hopes that they will be hired.

One of the panelists, Storn Cook, talked extensively about what has been happening today in the art world. He was urging artists to just work and post their work up online for free. Because of the Internet and the ability to post things online for little-to-no cost, the independent comic industry has boomed.

Instead of the few publishers that existed up until the aughts, there are now hundreds of small little publishers and even more people putting their work up online. Cook was a freelance artist for several tabletop game companies but is now currently teamed up with Justin Evans and creating his first comic book with the help of Kickstarter.

I met several other writers and artists outside of the panel who were working independently. One was Camilo Nascimento who gave me a free signed print of one of his online comics, which is available for free at ArhantaComics.com. Not only can he post his work for free online and get people to view it, but he can also expand the medium of sequential art into something much greater and more diverse than was ever possible on paper. This comic has dynamic coloring on the panels as you hover over them and a track that can play to fit the story.

There are so many parallels that can be drawn between the comic book industry and the journalism industry thanks to the Internet. Working independently on something you love is now a completely viable way to sustain a living, whether its through an online comic or a blog, whether revenue is made through advertisements, donations, merchandise, or all three.

Impossible Objectivity

"I asked Pulitzer-prize winning journalist Walter Mears whom he was supporting for president. He replied (paraphrasing!), 'If I tell you, how can you trust what I write?,' to which I replied that if he doesn’t tell us, how can we trust what he blogs?"

David Weinberger wrote this in a piece about objectivity in journalism on his blog, which details the shift from objectivity to transparency that was caused by the advent of blogging. Is it because people have just stopped trying to be objective? Not necessarily.

When independent journalists started gaining a wider audience through the medium of the Internet, and more unorthodox and non-professionally trained writers set up their virtual soap boxes, the face of journalism started changing. We still have our regular mainstream writers and reporters but bloggers have added a new twist on an old tradition. New journalists are just wearing their hearts on their sleeves.

As David Carr wrote for the New York Times, these new journalists are looking a lot more like activists than the old media would prefer them to. The old media want people to think they are perfectly objective and take no sides, but in reality there is no such thing as objectivity. Just because a writer doesn't tell you exactly what to think and how to act, they push you in that direction through subjective coverage.

What a writer chooses to cover is the act of putting that topic on a higher echelon than other issues. We see it all the time — a topic gets little-to-no coverage on mainstream news even though many could see it as very important. In this day and age, it's easier to trust publications when they tell us exactly what their views are.

The idea of transparency over objectivity has gained a lot of ground because bloggers really brought it to light, and through the freedom of the Internet it has spread far and wide. Everyone has opinions, so just tell us what they are instead of hiding them and trying to seem like you're someone you're not. It's unethical.