Fall 2010 - St. Cloud State University

a
First Amendment Forum
War Stories
Panel for “Protecting Journalism in the Era of Changing Newspapers and Social Networking.” (Vick, Bile, Collins, Espinoza, Hammer, Fryer)
Photo courtesy of Michael Doyle
By Michael Doyle and Bill Huntzicker
War correspondents Karl Vick of the Washington Post
and Mark Brunswick of the Star Tribune said staying
alive and protecting colleagues often trumped journalism
as their major concern in covering the wars in Iraq and
Afghanistan.
Vick and Brunswick were among journalists who
discussed the question, “Is Journalism Safe? Lives,
Jobs, Ideals,” April 16 at the 38th annual SCSU First
Amendment Forum.
A panel with experience in crime and combat reporting
joined them for a discussion of keeping reporters safe.
In the afternoon, Vick, who has since become Time
magazine’s Jerusalem bureau chief, joined reporters
with multimedia experience to discuss news values in the
social networking era.
Karl Vick
As Baghdad bureau chief, Vick said journalism was
his third priority behind security and management of a
40-person staff in difficult situations.
Brunswick and Vick said they could endanger local
residents in Afghanistan and Iraq simply by talking
with them. “Everybody we visit is in peril because
we’re Americans and occupiers,” Vick said. “We’re
radioactive, so we have to be discreet.”
“Important stories, like whether parents felt safe sending
their children to school, were difficult to do. Schools
were often targets for bombings and terrorist attacks, but
they were a barometer of whether things were improving
since the invasion,” Brunswick said. “We felt a sense of
accomplishment just coming back.”
Iraqis helped because they could go to places that would
not welcome Americans. “Every time you sent an Iraqi
out to cover something, you worry about whether it was
worth it because they might not be coming back,” said
Brunswick, who was in Iraq in 2006 when civil war
was looming. On other tours, he was embedded with the
Minnesota National Guard.
Vick, a Little Falls native, said he became a war
correspondent because he survived his first assignments
in conflict-torn Africa. “In covering a conflict; if you
don’t die, they figure you know how to stay alive and do
the work,” said Vick. (Visit the SCSU YouTube page for
a highlight from the discussion.)
On the afternoon panel, Vick worried about the future
of war reporting. “The ability to operate effectively in
a place where it costs a lot to work, either to get there
or just to stay safe is getting harder and harder to do. That’
s a conundrum,” Vick said. “As we saw in Iran, social
media and cell phone video showed us what was happening
in the street. Then the absence of professional reporters
is not felt so acutely. In understanding what’s happening
and why it’s happening, however, trusted sources may be
harder to find.”
Minneapolis reporter Ramla Bile (pronounced be-LĀ)
encouraged students to expand their skills and knowledge.
“Diversify your skill sets as much as you can,” Bile said.
“The social media – images, video – all of them are
interconnected. Have what you’re good at and then
diversify.”
Adam Hammer, online editor at the St. Cloud Times, agreed.
“The main reason I have s job right now is my multimedia
background,” he said. “What got me the job was that I
could be a one-man army.”
He demonstrated a website he created alone on the history
of rock ‘n’ roll in February 2009 on the 50th anniversary
of the plane crash that killed Buddy Holly in Mason City,
Iowa. He sent home video of a concert along with his frontpage
story for the newspaper.
Bile also emphasized news content. Become an expert
on a subject, she suggested. “I cover the immigrant and
refugee beat and it’s helpful when you become sort of an
expert in an area.”
Some small websites, like Twin Cities Daily Planet
and Mshale, allow freedom to pursue your research
and reporting interests, she said, and they have devoted
audiences. When some Somali men disappeared in
Minneapolis, she said, Hiiraan Online that carries Somali
news received as many as 750,000 hits a day. “National
media followed our lead with sources and themes,” she
said.
Bile said reporters make mistakes and build resentment
by returning to the same sources every time they report
on minority communities. East Africans represent varied
cultures and religions, even in Minneapolis. “I also wish
journalists would develop relationships within these
communities,” she said.
Minnesota Public Radio reporter Ambar Espinoza
recently used Facebook as both the subject of a story and a
reporting tool. She used Facebook to contact the students
to set up interviews on the problem of race and hatred in
St. Cloud high schools. Like other reporters on her panel,
she said she uses Facebook and Twitter only for contacts
and tips. In-person
or telephone
i n t e r v i e w s
are necessary
for reliable
information.
Ramla Bile
K A R E - 1 1
television reporter
Joe Fryer said
Twitter allowed
him to locate
people who took
all the different
forms of transit
to a Twins game
and it helped him
contact and then interview people in a St. Paul College
classroom during a lockdown after a bomb scare.
Fryer said the Internet has changed his job in other
ways. “There was a time we went to a meeting at 9 in
the morning and all we worried about was the product
that aired at 9 p.m.,” Fryer said. “Now everybody has
an iPhone or Twitter and we update stories constantly.”
At the scene of a story, he said, they send 30 seconds
of video to get something online right away. “With the
35W bridge collapse, we go a lot more video online
faster than before. I write a Web script for my television
story, perhaps throughout the day. And that’s a different
style of writing.” Social media, like Facebook, can also
provide contact information for people in the news and
they may provide pictures so reporters won’t have to
bother family members for pictures during a crisis.
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