Young ReadersWhy I Don’t Like Mainstream NewsYoung people find a lot not to like about the way news is oftenpresented.<strong>Nieman</strong> Reports invited some of YouthRadio’s student journalists—past andpresent—to tell us what they don’t likeabout mainstream press.“I don’t watch mainstream news,but I do stay informed. Even if I didn’twant to know what’s in the news,friends or family would tell me. Myparents have TV news chattering awaywhile they’re in the kitchen preparingdinner. When I check my e-mail, headlinespop up everywhere. But when Iwant to find out what’s happening hereand around the world, I turn to smaller,independent news sources. They don’thave the kind of skewed priorities thatmainstream news does, with so muchof it being more entertainment thanreal news and stories reported overand over again.” — Margarita Rossi, 20years old“There might be a difference in thedetails, but the stories are the same,and all the news anchors look likeclones of each other. What they say isso predictable; they make a fake compassionatestatement about a bad incident,a very stupid joke, and then signoff … with voices that sound like theypractice faking them all day. When amultimillion-dollar news companywastes money and airtime to talk aboutCollaboration andAuthenticityYouth Radio’s success with mainstreammedia outlets is built on this kind ofcollaboration. And to do this successfullyrequires balancing young producers’insights and new ideas about contentwith the professionalism andknowledge of their adult counterparts.At Youth Radio, youth and experiencedstaff producers work together throughoutthe editorial process. We set thePrince William’s first girlfriend or BenAffleck’s birthday, it turns me off as aviewer. They really don’t address orquestion the real problems that leadup to big stories, like the terrible jobthat Oakland mayor Jerry Brown isdoing.” — Josh Clemmons, 18 yearsold“I still read the paper almost everyday, but it’s just to get the basics. Iknow there’s a lot they’re leaving out,printing only the news that is consideredacceptable when it comes to <strong>issue</strong>slike the Middle East or the realitiesof the juvenile justice system. All in all,I just try to look at any mainstreammedia with a critical eye because Iknow there’s so much more than whatwe are presented.” — Sophie Simon-Ortiz, 17 years old“If I rely on the dominant newssources like NBC, CBS, Fox or ABC togive me all of my information, I won’tlearn about a lot of the <strong>issue</strong>s that arerelevant to my life. Mainstream news isjust like another ‘Friends’ or ‘ParadiseHotel’: fun to watch, but nothing tolearn from. I’d like to see an alternativethat I can trust, but I don’t know whatit would look like, since it doesn’tseem to exist.” — Nora Harrington, 17years old ■highest standards of quality, explainingto the students that programmingby and about youth must be better thanfirst-rate to compete in today’s verycompetitive media markets. With thisemphasis on journalistic quality andcutting-edge youth style, Youth Radiois in the fortunate position of receivingassignments from major news organizationsincluding National Public Radio,the San Francisco Chronicle’s opinionsection, Public Radio International,Marketplace and CNN.com.Because Youth Radio’s goal is tobring diverse voices to the largest andmost diverse audiences possible, weproduce lots of different kinds of programming.Our presentations run fromone minute to two hours; they involvemusic, commentary and features as wellas talk shows; they appear mostly onradio (public and commercial), but alsothrough the Web, TV and in print.Youth Radio’s senior producer,Rebecca Martin, believes audiencesrespond to our programs because of“the unique sensibility that youngpeople bring to their reporting, givingaudiences access to perspectives, truthsand trends that adult reporters justcan’t reach.” When a Youth Radio reporterdid a bedside interview with aU.S. soldier who lost a leg in a battle inIraq, the soldier’s comments are revealing;what comes through is thesense that this soldier is especially atease with the approach of a reporterwho is just about his own age.Youth Radio’s production and editorialprocess becomes longer and a bitrockier (not to mention more fun!)because of the side-by-side work of theyouth-adult team. If young people collectedthe tape, then handed it over toadult professionals to write and produce,getting the pieces broadcastwould no doubt be easier. The “youthonly”and the “adult-only” producermodels each have value and are criticalmodels in expanding the involvementof youth voices. But we find that thecollaboration brings excitement andauthenticity to the work. For YouthRadio, collaboration is the way to gobecause of our commitment to trainingthe next generation, who reflect adiversity of economic and ethnic backgrounds.■Ellin O’Leary is president and executiveproducer of Youth Radio, anaward-winning youth media organization,founded in Northern Californiain 1990 and with bureaus in LosAngeles, Atlanta and Washington,D.C.ellinol@youthradio.org46 <strong>Nieman</strong> Reports / Winter 2003
Journalist’s TradeReporting California’s Recall ElectionWith its unusual purpose and Hollywood celebrity, California’s autumn recall election becamean archetypal mix of entertainment and news reporting. Lessons from its reporters shed light onsome of the changing realities of political coverage.After a 13-year break from political reporting, former San Francisco Chronicle columnistMark Simon was back on the campaign trail. He reflects on changes he observed, moststrikingly the impact of the Internet and the self-absorbed way the political press perceive theirrole and work. We are, he writes, in “an era in which the reporter has become more importantthan readers or voters.” Jim Bettinger, director of Stanford <strong>University</strong>’s John S. KnightFellowships for Professional Journalists, contends that political reporters—by savoring andrelying on the established political process—risk becoming irrelevant “to a political processthat may be undergoing fundamental change.” The consequence: “the established media areseriously disconnected” from citizens, whose profound anger they failed to understand.In nine weeks of campaign coverage, Marjie Lundstrom, a senior editor and columnist withThe Sacramento Bee, never saw or spoke with a candidate. Her assignment was to “go findpeople” and learn from them what this election was about. With photographer José LuisVillegas, whose images appear with her words, Lundstrom’s series illuminated “the essentialtruth about this election: Voters were steamed. The anger was palpable.” Meanwhile, the Bee’sveteran political columnist Dan Walters was seeing how Arnold Schwarzenegger’s campaigncapitalized “on his celebrity … to go around us scribblers” and “convey his message of savingCalifornia so effectively.” Also at the Bee, Daniel Weintraub, the paper’s Weblogging politicalcolumnist, was finding the fast-moving campaign to be “a perfect marriage of medium andmessage,” as his blog continuously passed along “political scuttlebutt and speculation.”Cecilia Alvear, NBC News producer, and George Lewis, NBC News correspondent, whobrought the campaign to a national TV audience, admit frustration at how “the image of thesmiling superstar candidate was more powerful than the words.” Dan Morain, who reports onthe influence of money on politics for the Los Angeles Times, writes about the enduring value ofthis watchdog beat. “Tracking money was an essential part of covering the recall race or,indeed, any campaign,” he writes. Pilar Marrero, political editor and columnist at La Opinión,reflects on how often journalists relied on her to report on what Latinos thought about theelection, instead of reporting the story themselves. As she writes, “I’ve never seen a colleague ofthe mainstream media being asked, “What do Anglos think about this?” Photographers from LaOpinión covered the campaign, and their images appear in this section.And Ellen Ciurczak, a longtime radio reporter, describes her difficult transition tobecoming a freelance political journalist during the recall. “I found myself watching some of theworst partisan politics, hypocrisy and grabs for power I’d ever seen while covering state politicsin California,” she writes. “This stirred strong feelings in me, feelings that caused me to losefaith in my news judgment.” ■<strong>Nieman</strong> Reports / Winter 2003 47