AJR in the Classroom

Discussion questions for the October/November 2005 issue, along with suggestions for further readings on hurricanes and disaster coverage, reporter-source relationships and gun-toting journalists:

 

 

Stories 1 and 2: Essential Again and Apocalypse in New Orleans | Story 3: Uncharted Terrain | Story 4: Gun-Toting Journalists 

 


Hurrican Katrina aerial image / Courtesy of NASA

STORIES 1 and 2: “Essential Again: As the tragedy of Katrina unfolded, the battered mainstream media elevated their games, challenging inaccurate statements by public officials and providing crucial information to an audience that needed it desperately,” By Marc Fisher;  and "Apocalypse in New Orleans: A firsthand account of how a small band of Times-Picayune journalists covered devastation and misery in their shattered home," By Brian Thevenot.

 

MORE INFO: From Marc Fisher: "Once again, we understood the power of mass media, the shared experience of a nation gathering in its living rooms to see momentous events on television, to feel the satisfaction of reading a newspaper's first shot at making sense of difficult and complex times. ... what connected most effectively was what much of the blogger world had so derided: firsthand reporting by professional observers." In New Orleans, the Times-Picayune led the way. Reporters evacuated from the downtown building survived on adrenalin, camping out at a staffer's house on high ground and dictating scribbled stories over borrowed phone lines to editors in Baton Rouge.

 

 CLASS/PANEL DISCUSSION AND RESEARCH ASSIGNMENT:

  • Major news organizations generally have detailed plans in place for how they will cover major news (such as presidential elections and major trials), tragedies (plane or train crashes, terrorist strikes) or natural disasters. Invite in editors and news directors from your area TV stations, daily newspapers and Web sites.  Ask them to discuss their disaster coverage plans: When disaster strikes, what reporters and editors are expected to immediately report to the newsroom? Who would be in charge? How would responsibilities for reporting/editing/shooting pictures be divvied up? In the event of bombs, floods or electrical outages, how would the publications get their products out? And would reporters and photographers be expected to wear or carry any special gear (such as flak jackets, gas masks or guns)? Have these plans changed significantly in the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist strikes and Hurricane Katrina?

  • How well did the news media cover the race issue in New Orleans, where the hardest-hit in the hurricane tragedy were African Americans? Assign a 1,500- to 2,000-word research paper, exploring this topic. Encourage students to use LexisNexis to cite specific articles in major publications.

ADDITIONAL READINGS AND LINKS:


STORY 3: “Uncharted Terrain: While it's too soon to gauge the extent of the damage, the Judith Miller/Matthew Cooper case already has clouded source-reporter relationships and impelled news organizations and journalists to reexamine practices ranging from negotiating with sources to taking and storing notes.” By Rachel Smolkin

  

MORE INFO: According to Smolkin: "The reviews of standard journalistic techniques have raised sensitive questions, including ... Who owns a reporter's notes? Should news organizations hand out laptops or external hard drives to give individual journalists - rather than the company - control over their work? How long should a reporter save notes?" At some papers, Smolkin notes, editors and reporters have detected greater hesitancy among some sources to disclose information. Other reporters are noticing a greater reluctance among sources to send or receive e-mails.

 

CLASS ASSIGNMENTS AND DISCUSSION:

  • Assign each of your students to contact editors at different newspapers or TV stations - including those on campus - to determine what their policies are regarding the use and protection of anonymous sources. Students should be sure to ask if those policies have been revised in light of the Judith Miller and Matthew Cooper cases, and if reporters at those publications are noticing any changes in their interactions with sources. Students should type up their responses and be prepared to both turn them in and share them with the class.

  • According to Smolkin, the Newspaper Association of America reports that within the last 18 months, more than two dozen reporters have been subpoenaed or questioned about their confidential sources in cases before the federal courts. Ask each student to research details of one of those cases and to write an 800-word summary, discussing the reporters and news organizations involved, the reason for the subpoena and the outcome.

 ADDITIONAL READINGS AND LINKS:


STORY 4: “Gun-toting Journalists: It's long been taboo for reporters to carry weapons. But what do you do when you're in constant danger, your colleagues are being gunned down and the authorities can't protect you?” By Sherry Ricchiardi  

MORE INFO: In the Philippines, where the Committee to Protect Journalists reports that five journalists have been killed in 2005, and 22 have been slain since 2000, some journalists decided the time had come to arm themselves. The decision has stirred discussions in the United States, where editors traditionally enforce rules against newsroom personnel carrying guns. U.S. editors have argued gun-toting reporters in war zones could be mistaken for spies or soldiers. They also say carrying weapons could force journalists into being participants in stories, rather than neutral observers.

CLASS DISCUSSIONS:
  • Split the class into two teams for a debate on whether or not it's OK for journalists to pack weapons. Ask the teams if they need to draw distinctions between the situation in the Philippines - where the danger zone is the whole country - and the United States, where it would be more typical for a reporter to be tempted to carry a weapon while covering a war overseas. (See AJR Drop Cap, "Guns Under Fire," in the April/May 2004 issue for a discussion of the controversy over reporter Dexter Filkins' decision to carry a gun while reporting from Iraq.) Also ask the teams to touch on the recent situation in New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina: Times-Picayune reporter Brian Thevenot wrote in a first-person account ("Apocalypse in New Orleans," October/November 2005 AJR) that, on the advice of police, the tiny band of reporters who stayed behind in the evacuated city carried weapons to defend themselves against looters and thugs.
  • Invite war reporters in from local newspapers and TV stations for a discussion on whether they think it's ever appropriate to carry a weapon while on assignment.

 

ADDITIONAL READINGS:
 

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Teachers' guide written by Chris Harvey, online bureau director at the University of Maryland Philip Merrill College of Journalism and former managing editor of AJR.
First two items published Oct. 9, 2005; additional items added Oct. 10, 2005, and Oct. 12, 2005.

Copyright © 2005 University of Maryland Philip Merrill College of Journalism. Permission is granted to freely print, for classroom use, up to 100 copies of the most up-to-date version of this document, as long as the document is not modified.