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Journal-isms March 31

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Whites Among Latinos: Innovative or Vain?

Omb Says Newsrooms Should Ask, "Can We Talk?"

Malcolm Poindexter Dies, Pioneer Philly Broadcaster

Ex-Prisoner Roxana Saberi Says Publicity Aided Her

Job Fair Uses Skype to Link Students, Recruiters

5 Journalist Killings in Honduras Raise Alarm

Short Takes

Whites Among Latinos: Innovative or Vain?

Under the headline, "Journalists abandon comfort zone, embrace a very different America," Lori Todd wrote Friday for the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation that, "Community news startups and bloggers have begun to fill in the gaps left by traditional media but is it enough?

"Two women in Los Angeles are taking a different approach: Devin Browne and Kara Mears have moved in with a Mexican family in the MacArthur Park/Westlake neighborhood of Los Angeles. They’re renting an entryway in a townhouse, shared with 8 other people. They’re learning Spanish. Their new neighbors are suspected gangsters (at least they claim to be – on MySpace). They’ve left the L.A. that’s familiar to them to fully immerse themselves in a world most don’t understand. This isn’t drive-by-reporting. It’s something wholly different."

But Daniel Hernandez, a former Los Angeles Times and L.A. Weekly writer who now blogs from Mexico City, doesn’t see much different¬†in the Entryway, which is "supported through Spot.us, a nonprofit community funded reporting startup and 2009 Knight News Challenge winner," according to the foundation.

"The authors are wasting an incredible journalistic opportunity, in the service of their own vanity," he wrote on Tuesday.

"The Entryway is not about the immigrants living there but about how two ‘white people’ intrepidly enter an unknown space – what I’d call the home of any regular working real-life Angeleno, nothing more, nothing less — and manage to ‘survive’ there."

Omb Says Newsrooms Should Ask, "Can We Talk?"

Washington Post ombudsman Andrew Alexander tackled the diversity issue¬† Sunday and Monday, telling readers, "Here’s the problem: Minorities are 43 percent of The Post’s circulation area, and a large part of the region is edging toward ‘majority minority’ status. For The Post, being "good on diversity" isn’t enough.

"Back when newspapers generated huge profits, altruism often drove diversity efforts. Today, there’s an urgent business imperative. For The Post, struggling to regain profitability and retain subscribers, reaching expanding minority audiences represents opportunity ‚Äî and perhaps survival."

On his Monday blog, Alexander wrote about differences in perception among whites and others over what is an acceptable level of diversity, and he called for more talk among both staffers and readers.

"These types of casual discussions inevitably are informative and expand awareness. They help reduce misconceptions and can foster an environment in which racial and cultural differences can be discussed openly. The result is more honest dialogue in the newsroom, which leads to coverage that is more sophisticated and, ultimately, more accurate,’ he said.

On Monday, the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism hosted an afternoon-long discussion of its "State of the News Media" report for 2010.

Neither the discussion nor the report, released March 15, mentioned diversity. Tom Rosensteil, the Project for Excellence in Journalism director, told Journal-isms that people in the news business were too preoccupied with financial concerns, not recognizing that diversity and financial concerns are intertwined.

Malcolm Poindexter Dies, Pioneer Philly Broadcaster

Malcolm P. Poindexter Jr., a groundbreaking broadcast journalist who in 1948 had to interview delegates to the Republican and Democratic Conventions in Philadelphia in the hallways because black reporters were denied floor credentials, died yesterday, four days before his 85th birthday," Sally A. Downey wrote Wednesday for the Philadelphia Inquirer.

"Back then, there were no black journalists covering major conventions," Mr. Poindexter – who went on to an award-winning career spanning more than 50 years, including more than 30 years with KYW-TV – told The Inquirer in 2000. "It never made me angry, because I expected it. I just kind of turned the other cheek. Wherever I wasn’t permitted, I didn’t push the issue. The job gave me a golden opportunity to bear the prejudice, and perhaps make a change."

Mr. Poindexter, of Center City, died of Alzheimer’s disease at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania.

In 1947, he began his career as a reporter with the former Associated Negro Press and at the Philadelphia Tribune, where he was a reporter and later a columnist, city editor, and controller. In 1960, he joined the Bulletin as a reporter.

When KYW NewsRadio was launched in 1965, he was one of the first reporters hired. To research a five-part series on the plight of migrant workers, he became one of them. The series won the station an Associated Press award and the Sigma Delta Chi Award for Community Service.

In 1967, Mr. Poindexter joined KYW-TV (Channel 3). In the 1970s, in addition to reporting for KYW and occasionally coanchoring the newscast, he also hosted the weekly program Black Edition. As KYW-TV’s editorial spokesman from 1985 to 1990, he won four local Emmys for his commentaries on such issues as urban blight and Philadelphia’s dog laws."

Fargo, N.D., station KFYR-TV shows Roxana Saberi reporting for the station as it tells viewers of her new book.

Ex-Prisoner Roxana Saberi Says Publicity Aided Her

Iranian-American journalist Roxana Saberi, who was jailed for four months in Iran last year on charges of espionage, says in a memoir that coverage of her case abroad "strengthened me to stand up to my captors," who subjected her to "white torture," or psychological "manipulation and intimidation."

Saberi was released last May and is now promoting "Between Two Worlds: My Life and Captivity in Iran."

On National Public Radio’s "Fresh Air" on Tuesday, Saberi said she learned of efforts around the world to aid her from her parents, who visited her in Iran in April 2009. She said of her interrogators, "I remember, on a few occasions, they tried to tell me or my parents, you know, this media coverage is bad for your daughter. You must know this is not to her benefit. And they threatened my parents basically that – Javan reminded my parents, you’re in Iran on Iranian passports. God forbid a problem arise for you. So tell the foreign media not to talk so much about Roxana. And if you talk to the media, make sure you talk to the Iranian media, like the state- controlled media.

"And one day, also, Javan," one of the interrogators, "brought me into the room and he was showing me all these news articles that he had printed off the Internet. And at that point, I had learned that it’s best just not to engage with these people at all and not to talk to them. . . .

"And so he was showing me all these articles like, BBC, CNN, Associated Press. He had highlighted the important parts for me, he said. And he kept reading off these headlines, like such-and-such organization has called for Roxana Saberi’s release, and he was trying to get me to be afraid that these people were speaking out for me. But on the contrary, it was strengthening me, and I felt so humbled ‚Äî a little embarrassed, too, that there was so much of an outcry for me, but so thankful. And it strengthened me to stand up to my captors."

Job Fair Uses Skype to Link Students, Recruiters

Wayne State University’s Spirit of Diversity Internship Fair usually includes roundtable discussions where students were addressed by professional journalists with additional feedback on their resumes, clips and career plans.

"When budgeting considerations curtailed the annual workshop and interview sessions, the Institute decided to make it happen anyway — virtually," the institute said.

Alicia Nails, director of the institute, said 18 members of the institute drove the concept. Walter Middlebrook of the Detroit News enlisted five recruiters to undertake three interviews each using Skype technology: Sheila Solomon of the Chicago Tribune; Will Chang of City University of New York; Brent Jones of USA Today; Don Hudson of the Jackson (Miss.) Clarion-Ledger; and Denise Bridges of the Virginian-Pilot in Norfolk, Va. The job fair took place Friday from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.

With Skype, laptops are hooked up with cameras, microphones and headsets so that conversations can take place over the Internet. The students had e-mailed 15 resumes and clip packages to the five recruiters.

While those conversations took place, the remaining students worked with Middlebrook, Detroit News reporter Darren Nichols; Desiree Cooper, a former Detroit Free Press columnist and multimedia blogger; and Frank Witsil, an editor at the Free Press and member of the Asian American Journalists Association board.

"Sharp students," Hudson said. "It forced me into getting on the Skype train!" Bridges added.

5 Journalist Killings in Honduras Raise Alarm

"Nine months after a military-led coup plunged Honduras into political turmoil, human rights groups are denouncing what they see as an alarming spate of attacks on journalists, including the killings of five in March alone," Alex Renderos and Tracy Wilkinson reported Wednesday for the Los Angeles Times.

"No one has been arrested in the slayings, and speculation on motives has run the gamut. The violence illustrates the depth to which Honduras remains unsettled and on edge, even after a new president was elected in November and installed in January amid promises to heal national divisions.

". . . The five journalists killed this month were victims of drive-by shootings in Tegucigalpa, the Honduran capital, and other cities. Some were known to be sympathetic to ousted President Manuel Zelaya; others had no public political leanings.

"Independent of politics, Honduras has a high homicide rate, and several of the journalists worked in parts of Honduras rife with drug-trafficking and smuggling rings.’

Short Takes

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