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Search for True North<br />
Passion Replaces the Dullness of an Overused<br />
Journalistic Formula<br />
‘… mainstream journalism that my students abhor has become too formulaic,<br />
too cynical, and too concerned with internal standards over external truth.’<br />
BY ROBERT NILES<br />
Anyone who has taught a morning<br />
class at a university likely is<br />
familiar with the glazed, blasé<br />
look that so many students wear to an<br />
early class. But one morning last spring,<br />
I watched my students’ faces awaken<br />
and their eyes catch fire. For half an<br />
hour, they leaned forward in their<br />
chairs, talking over one another, each<br />
eager to say what they had evidently<br />
been holding back for so long.<br />
What was on their minds? They<br />
wanted me to know that they really,<br />
really hated TV news. And what these<br />
journalism majors disliked the most<br />
was feeling as though they had to<br />
follow the formula drafted by local<br />
and network television news. Give’em<br />
The Onion online, or Jon Stewart on<br />
cable. When my students were given<br />
free reign to produce their own video<br />
news stories, they gleefully churned<br />
out YouTube videos filled with sharp,<br />
snarky comment.<br />
Did such a heartfelt rejection of<br />
professional news depress me, as their<br />
journalism instructor? Heck, no! Their<br />
eagerness for something fresh gives<br />
hope that tomorrow’s citizens might<br />
be better informed about their communities<br />
than are today’s.<br />
Rejecting the Formula<br />
How, some might ask, can I feel so<br />
optimistic in the face of my students’<br />
disdain for their craft? It’s because<br />
the mainstream journalism that my<br />
students abhor has become too formulaic,<br />
too cynical, and too concerned<br />
with internal standards over external<br />
truth. My students are eager to avoid<br />
simplistic “he said, she said” stories,<br />
hyperventilated telling of crime news,<br />
and gimmicky in-studio banter that fills<br />
20 <strong>Nieman</strong> Reports | Winter 2008<br />
so many TV newscasts. Those who are<br />
majoring in print journalism also expressed<br />
frustration with third-person,<br />
institutional writing voices that they<br />
said suck the life from what could be<br />
more compelling narratives.<br />
When I asked them what they liked<br />
about “The Daily Show With Jon<br />
Stewart,” and others like it, several<br />
said its “honesty.” They admired its<br />
fearlessness in calling out newsmakers<br />
as liars and hypocrites. The heart<br />
of a muckraker beats strongly in my<br />
students and, freed from what one of<br />
them called the “mind-numbing slickness”<br />
of mainstream news reporting,<br />
their passion for journalism could<br />
again re-emerge.<br />
After I wrote about my students’<br />
criticism on ojr.org in June, many<br />
bloggers, readers, reporters and media<br />
critics commented that they, too,<br />
shared these feelings. But this does not<br />
mean that everyone is eager to move<br />
to a postmainstream media world,<br />
however. What will the alternative<br />
look like? This morning at breakfast,<br />
my wife asked, “What will life be like<br />
without daily newspapers?”<br />
Well, you’ve been seeing the view<br />
for the past few years, I told her. With<br />
our local Los Angeles Times employing<br />
just half the number of editorial<br />
staffers it did in 2001 (from more<br />
than 1,200 to a little more than 600),<br />
today’s newspaper is very different—<br />
less complete, thorough and insightful<br />
on so many beats. The same situation<br />
exists at many newspapers across the<br />
country. Yet even as circulation falls<br />
and newsrooms lay off staff at many<br />
papers, people remain engaged in<br />
their democracy. Look at the record<br />
number of people contributing and<br />
volunteering in this year’s presidential<br />
election. Pollsters and other experts<br />
predicted the largest Election Day<br />
turnout ever.<br />
As newspapers cut staff and lose<br />
market share, readers have more news<br />
sources available to them than ever.<br />
Partisan-driven online publications,<br />
such as DailyKos and RedState, are<br />
engaging a new generation of voters,<br />
while professionally staffed Web sites<br />
such as TalkingPointsMemo and Politico<br />
provide solid reporting not only<br />
about the candidates but the coverage<br />
of them.<br />
The Power of Passion<br />
I’ve been working in online publishing<br />
for 12 years now. I’ve edited Web<br />
sites for major metro dailies and<br />
launched my own start-ups. I’ve seen<br />
bosses, publications and corporations<br />
fail, while young professionals working<br />
outside the media mainstream<br />
became millionaires. The ones who<br />
succeeded brought passion to their<br />
work, the same passion that I saw in<br />
my students’ faces when they were<br />
given the green light to speak honestly<br />
about their field. Their’s was a passion<br />
that I rarely saw in the faces of<br />
executives dryly mulling spreadsheets<br />
and PowerPoints while planning their<br />
companies’ online efforts.<br />
Passion makes people work harder.<br />
It drives bloggers to post 20 times a<br />
day, seven days a week, answering<br />
e-mails and IM’ing readers throughout<br />
the day and night. Passion drives<br />
online community members to read<br />
through hundreds of online documents,<br />
to interview sources, and to organize<br />
rallies to investigate and report <strong>issue</strong>s<br />
important to their personal lives and<br />
local communities. Passion breeds