A good example of great journalism.

15 Sunday Jul 2012

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enterprise journalism, journalism, miami, miami zombie, newspapers, profiles, ronald poppo, rudy eugene

This Miami Herald story on Rudy Eugene — the “Miami zombie” shot by police in May — is, in my estimation, a good example of great journalism.

Why?

Because great journalism anticipates its readers questions and seeks to answer them. And, in doing so, it humanizes its subjects and brings the news into brighter relief and greater depth. Continue reading →

Advice for Student Journalists from Jonathan Austin — Owner of “The Tiny Newspaper that Scooped Up Journalism’s Big Awards”

14 Thursday Jun 2012

Posted by Meghan Frick in Work

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journalism, media, news, newspapers, student journalism, student newspapers

A few days ago, a story in my Facebook news feed caught my eye. It was a Q&A in The Awl with Jonathan Austin, the owner of a small weekly in Yancey County, N.C. — the Yancey County News. With his wife, Susan, Jonathan runs a paper that recently received both the E.W. Scripps Award for Distinguished Service to the First Amendment and the Ancil Payne Award for Ethics in Journalism.

The award entries exposed remarkable corruption in Yancey County: elections fraud, abuse of arrest powers and the pawning of county-owned firearms by the deputy sheriff. Judges of the Ancil Payne award called the Austins’ work “an extraordinary example of serving the public good.”

These awards are big. But Yancey County is small.

It’s not far, in fact, from the N.C. mountain town where my student newspaper operates. We’ve often used the excuse that our town is just too small for big journalism. “If we were in Chapel Hill, we could do what The Daily Tar Heel does,” we’ll say. “There’s just not enough going on here.”

The Yancey County News is proof that our excuse just doesn’t hold water. I thought Jonathan might have some wisdom to share for student journalists, so I asked him a few questions over email.

Read below for Jonathan’s thoughts on journalism in the trenches: making your own resources, finding your own stories and allowing your brain to engage. Continue reading →

The end of print isn’t the end of journalism — for the Daily Emerald, the Times-Picayune, or you.

24 Thursday May 2012

Posted by Meghan Frick in Work

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college media, journalism, media, newspapers, print journalism, student media

In the past 24 hours, there’s been a slew of announcements about newspapers reducing their print editions.

At the University of Oregon, the 92-year-old Daily Emerald announced it would move toward a 24-hour online publication and twice-weekly magazine. Hours later, the New York Times‘ Media Decoder blog broke a story about cuts at the New Orleans Times-Picayune. The storied paper will cut staff and reduce print production to three days a week.

Responses to the Daily Emerald announcement have been largely positive. Response online lines up with the way the journalists themselves framed the story; referring to the change as a “revolution” in college media. Continue reading →