Reflecting on Independent Media

I initially chose to take this class because I wanted to learn more about independent media and how I could report on it. I learned in my time at Ithaca College that the mainstream media had lost much of their credibility over the years and as the advent of the Internet provided independent media with an easily accessible outlet, and that the news media that I would enter would not be the same as the old media. I realized that it would behoove me to learn what I could about independent media in order to prepare myself for my career as a journalist.

The changes are to some degree unsettling. I had initially hoped to work for a newspaper for the entirety of my career, eventually becoming editor of the news section; my interest in that field was due to my skill as a writer, and my interest in that position was in order to combine my talents at editing with my knowledge in reporting and ensure that the paper contained the best stories. Unfortunately, it became apparent over time that not only was a permanent career at any single news outlet very unlikely, but that newspapers were declining, and that it would become harder than ever to get a job at one. After hearing about the failures of the mainstream media, I wondered if I could get a job in the independent media, and hoped to learn more about it.

This course and many of the journalism events that I attended helped me learn more about independent media and how to get involved in it. The talk by Josh Marshall and the assignment in designing and pitching an independent media outlet helped me see how news outlets could be created. Much o the readings about past independent media showed how they were often limited by how they were distributed, and how the Internet was an important benefit for such outlets. In the process, I also learned about well-intentioned independent media outlets that lost sight of their purpose or went out of business, showing that independent media are only as good as those running them, and the potential challenge in being recognized as legitimate journalists.

Despite the difficulties associated with independent media today, and the difficulty in getting a job in the current economy, I hope to work in independent media. While in it, I would less likely encounter restrictions on what I could or could not report, or attempts to let the bottom line dictate reporting, and would thus be able to report with fewer interferences. Change is not necessarily always for the worse, and while the rise of online independent media may force journalists to rethink what they learn, it also presents the possibility of making the news media fairer and more informative, a possibility young journalists should strive to make reality.

The Internet: Another Medium With Its Gatekeepers

The Internet is unprecedented among means for producing news because it is accessible to nearly anyone. While the digital divide remains a persistent problem, obtaining the means to produce a blog is as simple as purchasing a computer with internet access, making it easily accessible to ordinary people without connections or access to loans to start up a business.

Unfortunately, like many other means for citizens to express themselves, the Internet has the potential to be co-opted, either by the government or by private interests. The idea of giving access to "fast lanes" on the Internet is antithetical to the idea of universal accessibility, as it puts individual bloggers at a disadvantage by having their content processed more slowly. The plan, if enacted, would thus make it even harder for smaller news sites to maintain their online presence and compete with the larger and faster-loading pages, and would serve to exacerbate typical advantages based on money on the Internet.

Making one's content prominent on the Internet is another issue that independent journalists face. This is often accomplished by having other sites, a notable example being the Drudge Report, feature one's work, but to do so, one's work must be prominent enough to become noticed. Search engines, as I mentioned before, operate under various algorithms that people can exploit to make their site appear more relevant to the results than it should be. This process helps people who know enough about working the system more than it helps people with truly original and in-depth reporting, showing that hard work and talent do not necessarily guarantee success.

The Internet, while being accessible to everyone, does not guarantee prominence to every Internet journalist, or even distribute it in a fair way. Although search engines can be optimized and proposals to give greater connection speed to organizations that pay more can be defeated, neither can address people favoring more prominent inferior news sites to less prominent superior sites. The only way to address this is to help inform them about their decisions and help educate them about what makes a good internet news source. While the Internet's structure helps affect how people see their choices, it is up to them to make their decisions as to what sources of information are best and most important for them, and if they support the ones that do it well, good journalism will prosper online.

The Darker Side of Blog Journalism and the Danger of Romanticizing It

Blogs' presenting an alternative to mainstream journalism has made people more aware than ever of the limitations that journalism has, especially its reliance on keeping profit to satisfy owners and shareholders, potentially at the cost of journalism; its potential to be out of touch with the concerns of everyday people; its alleged biases, especially liberal; ant its access being closed to all but a highly educated and trained elite. Unfortunately, blogs also have their limitations, which some people gloss over in seeing them as ideal.

Blogs can update almost constantly, and deliver news more quickly than print media outlets and some television stations, but this comes at a cost. Some bloggers may choose to only do breaking news, and in the constant pressure to be first, may turn their back on analyzing the news or trying to delve deeper into issues. This results in their coverage often being uninformed or misinformed, similar to television news trying to determine how many planes were hijacked on September 11, 2001, how many people died, and where the attack came from. While people rightly want to know about events like September 11 as soon as possible, inaccurate journalism does them no good.

The other major problem that bloggers face is going against much of the professionalism that the news media are supposed to practice. While many bloggers, lacking journalistic training, are unaware of ethical issues, others scorn them out of a belief that they know how to report news better than the mainstream media, and that its way is inevitably wrong. Such blogs tend to be full of the stories that they think the media should report on more, often with less regard for how newsworthy they would be if an objective standpoint existed. For example, a right-wing blog that sees society as hostile to religion might play up a story over students being chastized by their teachers for praying in class, hoping to stir public outrage over the story rather than make the viewers aware about the issue and inform them to help them develop their opinions. Such bloggers may defend their biased reporting by arguing that there is no such thing as objectivity and the mainstream media are trying to artificially balance the sides to favor the weaker opposing side, or that the mainstream media are biased in the opposite direction. Both arguments miss the point that the bloggers set out with a goal in mind, and did not give a serious effort to consider both sides.

Rather than portray view blogging as an individualistic cure to the mainstream media forcing journalists to produce stories in line with their preferences or as a means of giving untrained people in their pajamas equal footing with people who have spent decades in the industry, people should see them both as journalists working under different frameworks. While bloggers have fewer restrictions than mainstream journalists, their responsibilities are the same, as is the human potential to skew the news according to one's own biases. Objectivity may be unattainable, but bloggers can and should make a good faith effort, and must do so if they hope to surpass mainstream journalism.

Mayhill Fowler: A Question of Journalistic Intentions

I found the presentation on Tuesday's discussion of Mayhill Fowler's coverage of "Bittergate" and Bush's response to the new book about him interesting, as the issue of identifying oneself as a blogger relates to the question of where and how bloggers fit into the news media. The troubling thing is that Fowler did not give any indication that she was a journalist, as in the Bittergate case, she donated money to enter the event, something a journalist typically is discouraged from doing, and in the story about Clinton, asked her question while describing the book as a "hatchet job," immediately making herself seem like a supporter who wanted to hear Clinton denounce the author. While public figures, especially politicians, should not let their guard down and say things like what Obama and Clinton did at these events out of the belief that they will not be recorded, the journalists should make their intent clear when asking questions, and Fowler clearly did not seem to consider that the people whom she was quoting did not see her as a reporter.

This case has interesting ramifications for the debate over whether bloggers can be considered journalists. The event where Obama made his "Bittergate" remarks was closed to traditional press, but Fowler managed to enter and upload an item about the event to the website. The Obama campaign clearly did not consider the possibility of citizen journalists entering the event, or see bloggers as on the same level as mainstream journalists, or else they would most likely have required the guests to sign agreements about publishing it online. However, as long as bloggers are not given the same consideration as mainstream journalists, they will never be given the same amount of respect, and will continue to be denied access to events where only those with press credentials are admitted. Bloggers should work to remedy this by gaining recognition, and to do so, should attempt to show that they abide by journalistic ethics, starting with making their affiliations, intentions and aims in their reporting clear to those they cover.

Journalists' Political Activism: Putting On The Wrong Public Face

I disagree with the comments opposing typical rules against journalists participating in politics. I acknowledge that journalists have opinions and will inevitably be biased to some degree on issues, and as such, agree that there will be no such thing as truly "objective" reporting. However, I also believe that journalists' political acts have consequences beyond displaying their political opinions. Taking part in activism amounts to offering material support for political causes, and does not only show the journalists' support for them, but also their commitment to make their ideals reality, thus leading some to believe, not entirely without justification, that their reporting is intended to favor their cause.

Even if journalists claim to do their activism as individuals, they will inevitably be seen as representing their media organization. For example, if a newspaper has many reporters who participate in marches for right-wing causes, people will commonly assume that the paper hires such individuals more frequently, even if the paper has a "silent majority" of more liberal staff. The readers would thus likely doubt their motives behind publishing pieces that are good news for conservative causes, even if they are written by the less conservative writers. The paper may thus be blamed for letting these journalists do as they please, and giving the impression to their peers and the public that their actions are acceptable and in keeping with journalistic principles.

These conflicts of interest may not always reflect journalists being willing to use their positions to advance their causes, but like Mayhill Fowler's actions with Bittergate and Clinton, give every reason to believe their apparent motive and no indication of what they are truly intending to do. As long as the public believes that journalists are willing to put personal causes ahead of their commitment to journalism, they will never trust them fully. The Society of Professional Journalist thus advocates doing away with both real and imagined conflicts of interest, and to do so, journalists should completely refrain from political activism, both ones where the public would easily notice them and the ones where they would not. Journalists may not be completely objective, but they can be fair, and part of that lies in recognizing how their actions appear to the public and conducting themselves in a way that presents themselves as professional as they are.

Seven New Trends in the Internet

I found Professor Isakov's lecture on information technology highly interesting, especially because many of the technologies that were mentioned had the potential to impact my life and my internet use on several levels, and challenged some of my perceptions about the use of technology.

Part of the reason why much of the presentation was surprising was because such ideas went beyond how I typically used technology. I was initially surprised to hear that four billion people- over half the Earth's human population- used mobile computing devices to access the internet, as I found it almost inconceivable that the Internet could have become so widespread, especially given the considerable "digital divide" even in the United States. However, I then remembered that some non-profit organizations that had participated in microeconomics had lent women in developing countries cell phones, and agreed with Professor Isakov's observation that such devices were cheaper than computers. Having almost never used the camera on my cell phone, my initial reaction to hearing about the QR codes was skepticism, as I initially believed them to be little more than a gimmick. I was then intrigued to hear about the possibility of them being used to create extra space in newspapers, but upon further reflection, I am concerned that this change might potentially alienate the more traditionally-minded newspaper readers.

This may be the result of my being somewhat slow to adopt technological trends into my lifestyle. While I regularly use my cell phone and e-mail, I hardly ever access Facebook, and I do not Twitter.

These technologies may very well change my habits, which is something I often find difficult, particularly when it comes to technology. Upon initially hearing about Google alternatives, I had already known about Google's deficiencies from articles like this one, but had grown used to using it and doubted I could easily replace it. I tried Kosmix a few times, and found it superior to Google. It effectively sorted the results, giving me the ones I needed, and helping to put them into categories, but it may take me a while before I start regularly using it over Google. On the other hand, the concept of storing documents online is not a new one for me, as I occasionally e-mail documents to myself when transferring them between my home computer and my laptop, thus following a similar principle.

The Internet is a constantly changing technology, and it is important to keep abreast of the various new innovations that are out there. Such changes may force us to keep different habits, but they also redefine the way information reaches us, and open up new opportunities for those willing to take them.

Amy Goodman and Glenn Greenwald

Amy Goodman and Glenn Greenwald presented insightful talks about their experiences in independent media at tonight's Izzy Awards, and helped talk about how they report as they do and what implications it has.

Unfortunately, not everyone is willing to make the risks and sacrifices associated with investigative journalism that challenges powerful individuals. For many journalists, merely going out, getting the necessary information, writing the story and filing it on time takes most of their talent and energy, and those people may not want to be bothered with reading additional documents or going the extra mile for additional sources. The publication itself may place limits on what journalists can publish, threatening them with disciplinary action if they go outside those bounds. Such journalists, concerned with keeping their jobs or obtaining desired promotions, may avoid writing provocative articles in order to avoid being labeled as a troublemaker. Far greater external risks accompany journalists on certain stories, including being arrested or being killed by governments or organizations that do not appreciate what they are uncovering.

While journalists who back down from what they know to be true for these reasons are doing so for selfish motives, it is important to acknowledge that these concerns are real. Journalism is already a very competitive job market, and the pressure to obtain a job at a respectable publication can lead people to do anything that is necessary to outshine the competition. It can be frustrating for journalists to watch people with ambition but few principles climb the hierarchy, especially when such people eventually make decisions about which stories to run.

However, while these pressures may be present and troubling, they do not change what is right or what the implications of journalists' decisions are. If journalists continue to publish uncritical articles about what the government is doing, misconceptions will spread and it will be that much harder for journalists who understand what is really going on to counteract them. That vicious cycle also legitimizes this kind of shallow reporting above and beyond what pressures do, thus making it seem acceptable to impressionable journalists.

The only real way to counteract this trend and create an environment in which journalists are able to do hard-hitting investigative journalism regardless of who is being covered is simply for mainstream news media to adopt the same kind of commitment to journalism that the independent media do. This can involve various methods, such as reducing dependence on advertisers, or by the public putting pressure on the media, but they all ultimately involve moral clarity and being willing to see issues in terms of ethical values, rather than material gain or loss. Goodman appropriately demonstrated that kind of courage at the conventions, especially when she and her producers were arrested for filming demonstrations, and it was appropriately contrasted with the NBC reporter who remained in the skybox. The best example Goodman provided of simple courage was the story of the President's Scholars who presented then-President Bush with a letter asking him to oppose torture. Some people may respond to Goodman's following argument that children best understand morality by arguing that children do such things because they are too young and naive to understand the nuances of the world- like what constitutes torture or the financial pressures the news media face- but for the most part, such children are better at seeing things in terms of right and wrong and less likely to confuse what they want with what is best for the public.

Mainstream journalism has too often become seen as a means of doing business by providing people with information, rather than a means of providing people with the best possible situation and only requiring money to stay in business and enable its employees to make a living. While Greenwald and Goodman may be "independent" journalists, journalism, as Greenwald said, journalism, by nature, is supposed to be independent, and journalists should strive to live up to their example.

Access for Bloggers: A Question of Legitimacy

Journalists exist to gather information and disseminate it to the public, and a key part of doing their job lies in getting access to sources and events for that information. Unfortunately, in many cases, bloggers are not able to get access to important events and meetings for that information, as they are not considered journalists, thus not only making their job more difficult, but signifying that they have a long way to go before they can prove themselves legitimate sources of news.

To some degree, the wariness of considering just any blogger a journalist is warranted. Bloggers often start publication without a formal education on the principles of professional journalism, if not the belief that such principles are outdated or misaimed. At best, they are effective alternative journalists that can provide stories and insights that the mainstream media would not, but at worst, they regurgitate the news with their own partisan spin on it. Unfortunately, such distinctions are not always clear-cut, and the people in charge of regulating access to events that are restricted to the people involved in them and members of the press thus have no official way of determining whether they are the better or worse kind of blogger, and would likely exclude all journalists except those from particularly noteworthy online outlets like The Huffington Post. Attempting to judge based on quality is a better idea, but invites subjective judgment, and will leave some excluded bloggers crying foul and claiming that they were excluded while lower quality ones were allowed access. Finally, allowing everyone access may work for things like school board meetings, but there are some instances where it would only be practical to only allow press representatives in, and that could not be used for every occasion.

However, there still needs to be a way for bloggers to be recognized as journalists. Bloggers may not be officially trained or have the backing of reputed organizations, but they still have the ability to produce timely and insightful journalism, and cannot all be dismissed as ordinary citizens with websites. They can act as a check on the mainstream press and potentially correct them whenever they make mistakes by investigating the stories on their own. Limiting access limits the number of people who report on a story, and if only a few people do it, misconceptions and lies are more likely to circulate.

There should be a way for bloggers to register their websites with an organization after proving that they are able to report well, and be allowed the same degree of access to events as members of the mainstream press so long as they continue reporting and adhere to professional standards of conduct. This would thus enable them to have the same freedom that members of the mainstream press do, and give them reason to abide by professional codes of conduct. Journalists have rights and responsibilities in their search for their truth, and bloggers who play the part should be acknowledged as real journalists and be given both.

Censorship on Google: A Troubling Way to Keep Information Out of the Public Eye

The Internet provides more content than any previous medium has, and search engines are essential to sort through the content to find what the user wants. Unfortunately, by helping filter the sites, they limit our awareness, and we end up finding only what the search engine deems relevant to our queries. This capacity can be abused to limit access to certain information, and prevent it from reaching the public eye, as Yahoo and Google have done.

While Fox News may well have a political ax to grind in exposing Matthew Lee's anti-UN articles, possibly hoping to discredit the UN, the idea of his articles not appearing on Google News because of their tilt is troubling. While it may seem as though they were only suppressed on one site, Google News is supposed to be a repository for the day's news online, and the story's absence is especially noticeable given his stories' previous popularity. Google's citing his site as a "one-man" operation despite the volunteers taht work for it seems to be at best a faulty application of standards, and at worst, an impromptu justification for delisting him.

There is also the case of Guo Quan, a dissident Chinese blogger whose blog was removed from Google and Yahoo's search results in China. In doing so, Yahoo and Google prevent people from even gaining awareness of these issues, as people searching about the Communist Party would not be able to see his work. The reasons given are even less justified than those in Lee's case, since Google justifies this by acting under Chinese law and for the interest of doing business in China, which suggests that Google willingly upholds China's censorship policy merely to retain access to China.

This type of censorship is especially troubling, as while under more traditional forms of censorship, people might be able to notice what the government is not talking about, removing it from the search engines severely hinders people from even gaining awareness that the issues are out there, much less finding them by searching. Even if people are still able to access those websites, often by way of a special browser window that enables them to search and surf without restrictions, those people will be a minority, usually only those who are already aware of the degree of censorship or what is being censored, thus limiting the spread of the information and allowing the misconceptions to continue being seen as legitimate and true. The Internet should be more than a large repository of information, but should also be accessible, and by helping keep news that they or those they have connections with out of browsers' sight, Google and Yahoo are detracting from the Internet's purpose as the "information superhighway."

Revenue Streams For Independent Media: A Look at Advantages and Disadvantages

Independent media often struggle with finding a way to keep themselves funded, especially when they are less popular and less likely to have a large amount of money on hand than mainstream news media. They often seek money through three ways- advertising, fees or donations, and try to search for a fourth.

Requiring people to pay for access to the publication is the most reliable way of raising money, as it results in the publication not being beholden to any individual or organization. While the publication would need to constantly work to expand its reader base, that is a goal it should already be following, assuming that it is doing so by articles that convince people that it is an interesting and informative publication. While any of the articles that happened to offend individuals or groups of people would result in the magazine losing viewers and money, the effect would only be proportional to the number of people offended, thus lowering the risk for publishing a controversial article. While this stream of revenue potentially results in the publication pandering to readers, publishers can avoid this by staying with the style that enabled the publication to initially gain popularity.

Advertising has long been a supplemental source of income for publications, but potentially opens the publication to conflicts of interest. Advertisers can bring in significant amounts of money to the publication, but often only continue featuring their ads if they have favorable coverage. They often realize that the publications need the money they pay for their ads than they need the exposure the advertising contract gives, and thus use their leverage to force the publications to suppress stories that portray them in a negative light. This results in the publishers realizing that while they may lose viewers if they compromise their principles, the advertisers have greater sway, and thus censor their reporting and betray their ideals to stay in business. Advertisements can be helpful as a supplemental source of revenue, but they should not be an independent media publication's only source, or even its main source. Independent media not only must stay financially solvent, but remain independent from outside influences, and cannot rely on a single source of revenue.

Donations is a slightly better source of funds than advertising, but it shares many of the same flaws. With donations, viewers can determine the amount they pay by how much they can or are willing to pay, thus enabling the publication to be affordable to those who might not be able to pay the subscription fee. Unfortunately, by this system, "free riders" can pay nothing, or the minimum amount for the subscription, thus depriving the publication access to revenue. Large donors have a similar degree of influence as large advertisers, and can jeopardize the publication's financial health if they withdraw their donations. Donations are a good way for viewers to voluntarily support a publication's continued existence, but are too unreliable to be a sole source of revenue.

While the best way to fund an independent publication would depend on its content, audience and market, independent publications should mainly rely on subscription fees, and supplement it with small advertisers who would not likely appear in their reporting. While donations might be ideal for online independent news sites, which do not often require visitors to pay, they are otherwise not as steady a source of revneue as subscription payments and, like advertising, vulnerable to conflicts of interest. No matter what a publication's mission is or what its principles are, it must continue to stay true to those principles, and setting up their revenue so that no single well-conceived journalistic decision is unaffordable is necessary to provide its consumers the best possible journalism.

Mark Finkelstein

I found Mark Finkelstein's presentation on Tuesday to be an interesting discussion on blogging the news. His presentation went more into how he blogs about the news than last time, and I found the discussion on the way his website gained hits important information for those who are planning to establish their own websites. His noting that some of his hits came from anti-semitic "wacko" sites was a fascinating detail, especially given that I had spent part of my internship at The Ithaca Journal last semester creating spreadsheets based on data about where traffic to the website came from. It was interesting to hear about him making money from his blog, but it would have been worthwhile for him to note that he works as a landlord, and that not all bloggers can post on their sites for a living.

I wholeheartedly agreed with Finkelstein's advice to write outside of class. In addition to my work for The Ithacan, I am considering writing a blog on living in Ithaca, per former Ithaca College professor Michael Scully's advice at last semester's job search workshop. The blog would serve as a way of hosting my writing, provide links to some of my articles, and enable me to continue writing while I am searching for a job.

However, I still disagree with his opinions on the political bias. While the story on Sarah Palin's daughter's ex-boyfriend was a clear case of wasting news resources on a story with no news value, it does not necessarily reflect liberal bias on the media's part. It is more due to the news media seeing the Palin story as what Project Censored terms "junk food news"- news that does little to inform the public, but is popular among news consumers, particularly most celebrity news. While Finkelstein admits that he is a conservative republican, he was not as willing to concede the possibility of the media being influenced by conservative biases or conservative influences. While I may not agree with this part of his ideals, or his blogging to expose only the liberal tilt of the mainstream media, I personally found his talk informative and a good look how to blog full-time.

Margaret Sanger's Journalism: Expanding Awareness About Birth Control

Journalism's first and foremost duty is to provide people with information, and an important part of that duty is finding otherwise obscure but important events and issues and bringing them to the public's attention. Margaret Sanger striving to perform that task for birth control

Not knowing about safe alternatives to illegal abortions had a great cost for women. Sadie Sachs became ill from blood poisoning after having an illegal abortion, and after her doctor refused to tell her about ways to prevent herself from becoming pregnant, died after having another abortion. Sanger's own mother died from chronic tuberculosis, having lost much of her strength after 11 births and seven miscarriages. As Sachs and Sanger's mother were not the only victims, spreading information about birth control was critical for preserving the lives and health of women who did not want to become mothers.

While many people sought to keep information about contraceptives away from working-class women, Sanger persisted and often managed to turn it to her advantage. When the authorities shut down her speaking appointments, she resisted, and while she was often arrested, she managed to get a greater audience and spread more awareness of the issues than she would have otherwise. She was willing to continue publishing until a warrant was issued for her arrest and she had to flee abroad. New ideas often encounter considerable resistance, and Sanger's perseverance enabled her to spread awareness to reach many more people.

The Internet presents many new opportunities for this kind of journalism. The lack of gatekeepers prevents people like Anthony Comstock from censoring this journalism or taking action against the producers, although it also lessens the possibility of oversight over such journalism. The Internet has a worldwide audience, which enables more people in more places to hear about obscure issues, making it a topic of discussion more easily. The Internet's capacity for two-way communication enables users to share their thoughts and spread the information, thus ensuring that the people who initially bring up the issue are not the only ones disseminating the information.

The mainstream media often fail to explore aspects of certain issues, like solutions to the economic crisis that have not been up for consideration in Congress, or fail to report others, like soldiers testifying in Winter Soldier sessions and the acts that many of those soldiers committed or witnessed. While it behooves the mainstream media to become more proactive in searching out the stories that matter, spreading awareness of obscure issues should not solely be up to them, as ordinary people with access to the proper information can and should help shed light on lesser known issues. As the Internet presents a platform to people with unprecedented accessibility and audience, and Sanger was able to make a considerable impact without that source, the time is right for citizen journalists to educate others about the issues that matter.

The Liberator: Courage Absent from Today's Press

While reading about The Liberator and other abolitionist publications, I had known that abolitionists faced considerable and often violent resistance to expressing their beliefs. Such bravery and persistence often stands in stark contrast to the modern day press, which often abandons the principles it is supposed to hold and backs down from publishing important stories under the slightest hint of pressure.

Garrison was repeatedly threatened with death, and once was nearly killed by a lynch mob for the stories he wrote. The corporate news media often do not apply the same scrutiny to conservatives that they do to liberals in order to avoid being associated with the "liberal media". Garrison put forward his strongly anti-slavery opinions without any hesitation or regret, and welcomed being criticized in an opposing paper's editorial page. By contrast, President Rochon apologized for Emily McNeill's article on the Israeli-Palestinian article, which did nothing more than explore a lesser-known side of the issue.

The difference between the Liberator and modern media in how they respond to attacks on what they publish is a matter of intentions. The Liberator primarily existed to end slavery, and thus, if it had compromised its principles out of fear or desire to ensure profit, it would have gone against the very reason it was created. By contrast, the mainstream press are often owned by companies that expect profit out of them, and thus are willing to put pressure on them to censor stories that would alienate advertisers too often to be merely for the outlet's survival. As a result, editors often confuse the decisions that are necessary to stay in business with the ones they do to avoid taking a risk on a principled stand. They are essentially no longer doing true journalism, but doing business, and have betrayed their principles out of fear of survival.

Keeping to one's journalistic principles requires keeping sight of them, and this can be a difficult task when competing needs come into play. The nonprofit press is less constrained by financial and advertising-related burdens than the mainstream press is, but they are still not free of ethical dilemmas and difficult decisions. It is ultimately up to the journalists themselves and the people in charge of them to remember why they are producing articles, and the Liberator provides a good example of the resolve that modern journalists should show.

Matt Taibbi: An Interesting Look at Alternative Journalism

I found Matt Taibbi's lecture on journalism to be an interesting look into alternate ways of getting into and writing journalism, which I had not considered doing in my more conventional entry into the profession, as well as the current nature of the mainstream and alternate press. Although I sometimes disagreed with his points, I found his talk to be informative, comprehensive and humorous.

While Taibbi was able to become a reporter without having studied journalism or worked for student media in college, I personally believe that an undergraduate degree in journalism can be very useful for journalists. Journalism students can learn the theory, professional skills and ethics of reporting in a classroom setting without being forced to learn on the job while being judged by their bosses. In this way, they can avoid some of Taibbi's early mistakes, such as not realizing what tone "hard news" outlets require leads to be. They can also realize far earlier whether journalism is an ideal career for them after getting some experience in the industry via internships, their coursework and student media.

Then again, if Taibbi had pursued this path, he may have internalized the values of objective journalism, and most likely would not have written as he did. I found his humorous writing style to be an intriguing way of pursuing journalism, and found his reactions to some of the press's flaws and absurdities amusing. One example is when he conveyed the viewers' shock that the "Great Democrat" displayed in a portrait was Boris Yeltsin by comparing it to the wedding of a death row inmate and cocktail waitress. Bits of writing like those are amusing ways of conveying the story, albeit ones not suitable for "hard news" media, and not ones that I would regularly use.

Taibbi brought up some highly concerning anecdotes about his reporting in Russia. He mentioned reporters who made fictitious man on the street interviews with the same person, knowing that their editors could never fact-check them, showing that they were wiling to break a fundamental journalistic taboo against fabrication to save time.

Taibbi's mentioning people internalizing the poor journalistic integrity of media outlets raises one of my primary concerns as a journalist to mind. While I recognize that it is natural and often necessary to question and re-evaluate one's principles, as I have done over time in the past, I sometimes fear that the pressures of the news industry, as well as employers who place profit before journalism, will slowly erode my resolve and ultimately leave me unable to make principled decisions.

Matt Taibbi's event was interesting because it helped me to look at the way the press works and the way we do journalism differently while still being humorously conveyed and containing much of his career story in it. Throughout my time at Ithaca College, much of the way I perceived journalism and the media has been redefined, and Taibbi's speech, by showing me a way of journalism I had not considered before, thus had its unique impact on my perceptions.

Dean Lynch's Talk

Dean Lynch's lecture on independent media on Tuesday was an interesting and comprehensive exploration into the various forms of online journalism that helped address many of my doubts about the changes to the news media.

I had initially been somewhat apprehensive of the rise of online journalism for a few reasons. Part of this was due to the belief that it would give rise to bloggers with little experience or training who believed that they could do better reporting than the media- although such people often criticized the media as "liberally biased" and ignored the true flaws- and people would stop believing in traditional journalistic values. The prospect of the rise of journalists who worked without pay concerned me, as I hope to do journalism for a livingI was also somewhat concerned about the possibility of having to change jobs, partly due to having to move and potentially not having a salary for a while, and partly because I hope to become a news editor, and having to switch jobs would hinder proving myself to my employers and learning how the newsroom operates.

However, the talk reminded me of how beneficial the Internet could be. After hearing about many of the ways Internet sites helped reporters, I remembered that I often did background research for my stories over the Internet, and came to appreciate how it could be useful for all journalists. Seeing the many ways internet journalism could add new dimensions to the story through multimedia, like simulating how airport security checks bags, in addition to what I learned in Digital Journalism Workshop last year, convinced me that even traditional media must make use of the Internet in order to survive. Dean Lynch's comment about how Walter Cronkite told it "how it was" surprised me, as I found it surprising how an entire generation could rely on a single news source. I came to the conclusion that the traditional media could benefit from citizen journalists watching over them, providing alternatives and reporting on subjects they do not, although this is partly dependent on media consumers exercising good judgment.

The Internet has not only provided a new means of transmitting news, but it, more than ever before, has forced traditional news media to reconsider how they do journalism. It also forces journalists to develop new skills and change how they do their work in order to remain able to deliver the most in-depth and effective reporting possible. While such a change can be daunting to journalists, if they are able to come to terms with it and adapt, they will realize that despite its challenges, it offers many new opportunities that will not only benefit the readers, but also benefit them.