Maynard Institute archives

Advice J-Students Can Take to the Bank

by richard0558

Black Columnists Offer Tips for Success in Changing Field

“What’s Your Propaganda?” Filmmaker Asks J-Students

In Washington Post Piece, Woman Accuses Cosby of Rape

On Net Neutrality, Could Cure Be Worse Than Disease?

Condé Nast to Pay $5.8 Million to 7,500 Ex-Interns

Suzan Shown Harjo to Receive Medal of Freedom

HistoryMakers Given $1.6 Million to Talk Up Black Success

Washington Post Debuts Interactive Project on “N-Word”

At Protest, Station Owner Defends #Pointergate

Short Takes

Black Columnists Offer Tips for Success in Changing Field

Members of the William Monroe Trotter Group of African American columnists, meeting on the campus of Jackson State University in Jackson, Miss., were asked to impart advice to mass communications students on Tuesday. What they said sprang from decades of experience and was practical, heartfelt and at times emotional.

The Trotter Group members and presenter Jackie Jones, associate professor and chairman of the Department of Multimedia Journalism at Morgan State University, were asked to summarize what they said in writing for this column.  

  • Monroe Anderson, veteran journalist, Chicago:

    I was an editor at Ebony Magazine; I was the editor of Savoy Magazine. I’ve worked at newspapers. I was the press secretary to Mayor Eugene Sawyer in Chicago. I’ve worked in TV at the local CBS station in Chicago. I’m now a political blogger. I’ve done — not all at once, but in sequence — what you’re learning at Jackson State University to do in this wonderful, cutting edge program they’re developing here. You’re learning and practicing all the media platforms you’ll need in this evolving world of online journalism. Learn it, and well, and forge on.

  • Betty Winston Bayé, Louisville, Ky., veteran of the Courier-Journal:

    (1) Never use “irregardless.” The correct word is regardless. I learned this from my first editor, Nancy Keefe [at Gannett newspapers in suburban New York].

    (2) Concentrate on learning to ask the RIGHT questions; for example, the yes/no question; the open-ended question (let your subject talk for a while. You probably won’t be able to use most of what they say but there’s almost always a kernel: something unexpected and wonderful that might be said); and, of course, the essential question, which is why you are interviewing this person/these people in the first place.

    (3) Be observant: Notice what your subjects are wearing, their speech patterns and the photos and memorabilia on the walls, on their desks and on the bookcase. You learn a lot about people by what they wear, the books and magazines on their shelves and the things they surround themselves with.

    (4) If your subject seems to think you’re stupid because they’re so deep, play to that to get your story. Remember, it’s not about you but about the story you’re trying to get. And don’t be shy about asking the person who feels superior to repeat a point that you really don’t understand or that you haven’t had enough time to write down.

  • Rodney Brooks, personal finance columnist, USA Today:

    My advice is related to personal finance and is more personal than professional. Learn everything you can about finance and personal finance. Get and keep your own finances in order. You will already likely start life with student debt. Learn about credit cards and interest rates. Sign up for your company’s 401(k) as soon as you can. And understand the importance of your credit report — and how much damage bad credit can do to you both personally and professionally. And read things you may not normally read. Grab a Wall Street Journal, a USA Today Money section or New York Times business section. You will be amazed at what you learn and what you retain.

  • Joe Davidson, Federal Diary columnist, Washington Post:

    Jesse Jackson likes to say we can be both ethnic and ethical. These are good words for journalists to keep in mind. We must be ethical. That means more than just not taking a bribe to write a story. Think of ethics as a reporting tool. Is our reporting inclusive? Have we considered many angles, many voices, many points of view? Do we go beyond conventional wisdom? Do we seek people, places, facts and situations often overlooked? Are we fair and accurate? Are we truth tellers?

    We can do this while being ethnic, while remembering those who sacrificed so we can be where we are today. We can do this while remembering that we have a responsibility to our communities. We can do this while remembering that as African Americans we bring a particular sensitivity to our craft and that is a good thing. We can do this while being black and proud and damn good journalists too.

  • Wayne Dawkins, associate professor, Hampton University:

    You are witnessing what has been for us a violent transformation of traditional news media into something new that you will now inherit.

    How many of you are sophomores? [most of the 20 students’ hands shoot up]

    Well, because many of you were born in 1993, you are the first group of digital natives. All you’ve known is that there is good Internet service and good cell phone reception. When we talk about landline telephones and typewriters, you must think we are odd.

    Anyway, you’re now in charge of this new medium.

  • Jackie Jones, Morgan State University, veteran journalist:

    I cannot stress enough the importance of getting the basics. When it comes down to an employer choosing between you and someone else, don’t give him a stick to beat you with. Your written and verbal skills, the way you dress, your preparation for the interview speak volumes.

    And remember why you are in this business. It’s to tell our stories. Don’t let others define you, your culture, your heritage, your legacy. You are being brought into this country’s newsrooms to provide diversity, to tell readers, viewers, listeners something they don’t already know. Make sure you know and make sure you bring it — every day.

  • Askia Muhammad, WPFW-FM, Washington; Final Call; Washington Informer:

    I am senior editor of the Final Call newspaper, news director at WPFW-FM radio, and a columnist for the Washington Informer newspaper. My advice to students is this: Perfect your craft! Learn correct English grammar, spelling and punctuation. Take a speech/elocution class and learn to articulate correctly. The word is “ASK,” it is not “AXE.” It’s pronounced “li-brary” not “li-berry.” Because you are Black you will be stereotyped anyway, but you never want some smart-aleck to whisper about you in your newsroom: “She’s dumb. She can’t even spell ‘opportunity.’ ” Perfect your craft now, while a mistake won’t ruin your career.

  • Richard Prince, “Journal-isms” columnist:

    Learn as much as you can. We’re now in the era of “backpack” journalists and the elimination of copy editors. You’ve got to learn to do it all yourself. Being technologically competent is a given, but knowing the basics — reading, writing, speaking well — remains the foundation of journalism.

  • Rochelle Riley, columnist, Detroit Free Press:

    Rochelle Riley stood and praised the students who were alert and paying attention, telling them that they would never know what person they met might be the one to get or give them a job one day. And, she said, one never knows who’s watching.

    Then she asked questions about what the other Trotter members had said to them, offering $20 prizes to those who paid attention.

    “Knowledge and awareness,” she said. “Know who you are and know everything you can. You can’t know too much, and you never know when you’ll use what you learn.”

  • Tonyaa Weathersbee, columnist, Florida Times-Union:

    My advice to aspiring black journalists is to get some mentors, particularly African-American mentors, early in your career, and to invest in yourself. Never believe that the company you work for is as concerned about your success and your fulfillment as you are. Also, never hesitate to take advantage of any free opportunities being offered to learn something new.

“What’s Your Propaganda?” Filmmaker Asks J-Students

The picture of Saartjie Baartman flashed on the screen during a Power Point presentation by the actor and filmmaker Tim Reid.

Baartman was also known as the Hottentot Venus, “with buttocks of enormous size and with genitalia fabled to be equally disproportionate,” in the words of the New York Times. Baartman was a black South African who was put on display for the amusement of Europeans at the beginning of the 19th century. “When she arrived in London in 1810, this young woman from South Africa became an overnight sensation in London’s theater of human oddities. Her body was the object of prurient gaze, scientific fascination and disturbed bewilderment,” the Times reported.

Reid paired photos of Baartman with those of rapper Nicki Minaj on all fours, rear end raised, along with some of her contemporaries, and asked, “What is your propaganda?”

Quoting the legendary sociologist and intellectual W.E.B. Du Bois, Reid said all art is propaganda.

It was part of a presentation Tuesday before mass communication students at Jackson State University and members of the Trotter Group of African American columnists.

“What is your propaganda?” Reid said, was the question asked him by William Paley, the “father of television” who built CBS from a handful of struggling radio stations in 1928 into a powerful network.

Reid, co-creator and star of the beloved CBS show “Frank’s Place” in 1987-88, said he told Paley, “I have not seen my culture as I know it on television.” He told the students, “We have forgotten our power. Once you understand your power, you are more conscious of your message.”

Reid said he asks contemporary entertainers, “What is your purpose? A lot of them don’t know.”

Reid also said, “Until lions have their historians, tales of the [bush] will always glorify the hunter. That’s who I am, a lion. It’s time for the lion to have his story told.”

Reid’s credits include playing Venus Flytrap in the 1978-1982 series “WKRP in Cincinnati,” playing Ray Campbell on the 1994-99 sitcom “Sister, Sister” and directing the 1995 movie “Once Upon a Time . . . When We Were Colored.” He is also one of the few African American actors to own his own studio, built in Petersburg, Va.

What his industry needs, Reid said, are journalists with wit. “News writers who know how to condense stories are worth their weight in gold,” he said. “That kind of discipline is important.”

He continued, “Where are the opportunities? So few people do anything well. The level of mediocrity in our business now is unbelievable. Quality and class and well-written stories still are important.” He pointed to Will Rogers and Richard Pryor as able to craft their life experiences with wit as well as pathos. For too many other comedians, he said, “I see victimization.”

They’re not asking Paley’s question, Reid said.

Barbara Bowman, an artist and married mother of two who lives in Scottsdale, Ariz., talks on camera about her allegations against Bill Cosby. (Credit: Washington Post) (video)

In Washington Post Piece, Woman Accuses Cosby of Rape

“In 2004, when Andrea Constand filed a lawsuit against Bill Cosby for sexual assault, her lawyers asked me to testify,” Barbara Bowman wrote Thursday for the Washington Post under the headline, “Bill Cosby raped me. Why did it take 30 years for people to believe my story?”

“Cosby had drugged and raped me, too, I told them. The lawyers said I could testify anonymously as a Jane Doe, but I ardently rejected that idea. My name is not Jane Doe. My name is Barbara Bowman, and I wanted to tell my story in court. In the end, I didn’t have the opportunity to do that, because Cosby settled the suit for an undisclosed amount of money.

“Over the years, I’ve struggled to get people to take my story seriously. So last month, when reporter Lycia Naff contacted me for an interview for the Daily Mail, I gave her a detailed account. I told her how Cosby won my trust as a 17-year-old aspiring actress in 1985, brainwashed me into viewing him as a father figure, and then assaulted me multiple times.

“In one case, I blacked out after having dinner and one glass of wine at his New York City brownstone, where he had offered to mentor me and discuss the entertainment industry. When I came to, I was in my panties and a man’s t-shirt, and Cosby was looming over me. I’m certain now that he drugged and raped me. But as a teenager, I tried to convince myself I had imagined it. I even tried to rationalize it: Bill Cosby was going to make me a star and this was part of the deal.

“The final incident was in Atlantic City, where we had traveled for an industry event. I was staying in a separate bedroom of Cosby’s hotel suite, but he pinned me down in his own bed while I screamed for help. I’ll never forget the clinking of his belt buckle as he struggled to pull his pants off. I furiously tried to wrestle from his grasp until he eventually gave up, angrily called me ‘a baby’ and sent me home to Denver. . . .”

The Post wrote in an editor’s note, “A representative for Bill Cosby did not return multiple calls and e-mails from Washington Post staff for comment on this piece. Elsewhere, Cosby repeatedly denied separate sexual-assault allegations by Andrea Constand.”

[During an interview with Cosby and his wife, Camille Cosby, at the Smithsonian Institution on Saturday’s “Weekend Edition” on NPR, host Scott Simon asked Cosby whether he wanted to respond to the allegations. Cosby shook his head no without uttering a word, Simon told listeners.]

On Net Neutrality, Could Cure Be Worse Than Disease?

“On Monday, President Obama urged the Federal Communications Commission to set stringent net neutrality rules to ensure the free flow of content on the information superhighway,” Eduardo Porter reported Tuesday for the New York Times.

“The regulations, he said, should ensure that ‘neither the cable company nor the phone company will be able to act as a gatekeeper, restricting what you can do or see online.’ To do so, he suggested classifying consumer broadband as a public utility — like telephone service or the company that delivers electricity to your home — allowing the F.C.C. to set precise proscriptions covering quality of service.

“In principle, this makes sense. It is hard to overstate the importance of broadband to America’s economy and society. Free to do as they pleased, the clutch of companies that control access to the Internet would have enormous power to determine what information reaches Americans online.

“But would the cure be worse than the disease, entangling the Internet in an endless fight over regulation and perhaps slowing investment in one of the nation’s most vital services? To some extent, it depends on how you view the threat. . . .”

Tim Wu, the Columbia University Law School professor who coined the term “net neutrality,” is to be interviewed by Gautham Nagesh, Wall Street Journal technology policy reporter, on C-SPAN’s “The Communicators” Saturday at 6:30 p.m. Eastern time and Monday on C-SPAN2 at 8 a.m. and 8 p.m.

Condé Nast to Pay $5.8 Million to 7,500 Ex-Interns

“Condé Nast agreed on Thursday to pay $5.8 million to settle a class-action lawsuit brought by thousands of former interns at the publisher who said they were underpaid for work at the company’s high-end magazines,” Mica Rosenberg reported Thursday for Reuters.

“The settlement agreement, filed in U.S. District Court in New York, covers around 7,500 interns at Condé Nast magazines like Vogue and Vanity Fair. The case is one in a wave of recent suits brought against media and entertainment companies that pay little or nothing for internships.

“Condé Nast canceled its internship program soon after the lawsuit was filed in June 2013. . . .”

Suzan Shown Harjo to Receive Medal of Freedom

“Suzan Shown Harjo may be best known for her work on the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, or the American Indian Religious Act, but the writer, curator and activist has advocated for much more in the improvement of Native American lives,” the Indian Country Media Network reported on Thursday.

“Her name is also synonymous with the fight against the NFL’s Washington football team over its use of the term Redskins and its mascot.

“Now, the president of the Morning Star Institute and former member of the Carter Administration, will be known as a Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient.

“President Barack Obama named 19 honorees (including: Alvin Ailey, Isabel Allende, Tom Brokaw, James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, Michael Schwerner, Mildred Dresselhaus, John Dingell, Ethel Kennedy, Abner Mikva, Patsy Takemoto Mink, Edward Roybal, Charles Sifford, Robert Solow, Stephen Sondheim, Meryl Streep, Marlo Thomas, and Stevie Wonder) on November 10 to receive the nation’s highest civilian honor. . . .”

Harjo, Cheyenne and Muscogee, also represents the Native American Journalists Association on the board of directors of Unity: Journalists for Diversity.

Washington Post Debuts Interactive Project on “N-Word”

“This year the NFL instructed game officials to penalize players who used the n-word on the field of play. David Sheinin and Krissah Thompson, write about how the policy, met by widespread criticism, followed a year marked by several incidents of players deploying America’s most divisive racial slur,” the Washington Post said in an announcement on Monday.

“As the league wrestled with the issue, a team of Washington Post journalists spoke with more than 70 people over the last eight months examining the history of this singularly American word and its place in American vernacular today. Hear from former NFL players Donte Stallworth and Leigh Bodden; Byron De La Beckwith Jr., Ku Klux Klansman; Neal Brennan, co-creator of ‘Chappelle’s Show,’ and more discuss the nuance of the n-word in an interactive project here. . . .”

At Protest, Station Owner Defends #Pointergate

“Communications mogul Stanley Hubbard, speaking at Augsburg College on Thursday, was forced to defend a controversial story that aired last week on one of his Minneapolis stations,” Libor Jany reported Friday for the Star Tribune in Minneapolis.

“About 30 protesters, some waggling large red foam fingers typical at sporting events, stood up and roared at Hubbard, whose television station, KSTP-TV, had come under fire for airing a story claiming that Mayor Betsy Hodges was making a gang sign in a photograph with a young black canvasser. The story, which triggered a wave of criticism across social media calling for an on-air apology from the station, has been held up by critics as an example of racial bias in the media. . . .”

Short Takes

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