Mormon Media Studies Symposium

Instead of class last week, I attended a session of the Mormon Media Studies Symposium.  This symposium was made up of many different sessions.  The session I attended was the Young Scholars Speed Session.  During this session, five different student-written papers were presented.

The first paper presented was entitled "People Watch Conference Like This: Male and Female Viewing Styles During LDS General Conference".  This paper described research that two students did to study the differences between the ways males and females watch General Conference.  The conclusions of their research were:

1. TV is the most used medium to view/listen to conference.
2. The topic of the address is the most influential motive for watching a certain talk.
3. Less attention is paid to the talks of auxiliary leaders.
4. Females watch more sessions of conference, pay more attention to Relief Society and Primary speakers, and  were more influenced by speaking style.

The second paper was entitled "The Salt Lake Tribune and Deseret News’ Coverage of the 1978 Revelation: An Historical Analysis".  This paper discussed how right before the revelation that allowed all worthy males to receive the priesthood, much of the media coverage of the church shifted from praise of its welfare program to highlighting its seemingly "racist" policy.  After the revelation, both the Salt Lake Tribune and the Deseret News dedicated about the same amount of space to the story.  Both portrayed the revelation as positive.  There was not much opposition to the stories.  One of the only differences was that the Deseret News had more of an LDS perspective while the Salt Lake Tribune was slightly more skeptical.

The third paper was entitled "Games Mormons Play".  It discussed two different Mormon trivia games: Celestial Pursuit and 3P2K.  Celestial Pursuit's game board mirrored the Plan of Salvation and six different categories of questions.  Many of the questions were extremely difficult which brought up the question of whether or not Mormons were expected to know such things.  In the newer game, 3P2K, the fact that it was a Mormon game is not explicitly stated on the box.  This game focuses more on gospel principles and is much simpler than Celestial Pursuit.

The fourth paper was entitled "Viral Mormonism: A Case Study in Why Videos Go Viral Using the MormonMessages YouTube Channel".  It discussed the different elements of certain MormonMessages and why they go viral or not.  It was determined that timing and topic were two of the main factors that influenced how many views a video got.  For example Thanksgiving or Easter videos posted during the respective seasons got a high number of views.  Likewise, the broader the topic, the broader the audience.  Thus, those with more general or nondenominational topics got more views.  For example, this video on the war in heaven only has 45,174 views while this video on marriage and divorce has 245,829 views.

The final paper was entitle "From Foe to ‘Friend’: Shifting the Portrayal of Older Characters Through a Religious Children’s Magazine".  This paper discussed how elderly people are depicted in the Friend Magazine.  Through research, it was discovered that in comparison to other media, the elderly are depicted in a more positive manner in the Friend.  The paper talked about how there is an "ageist" tone in much media today.  However, the opposite was found in the Friend.  Older people were often viewed as children of our Heavenly Father in the Friend.

Assignment #9: Watchdog Journalism

In last week's class, we learned about watchdog journalism.  In my opinion, one of journalism's main purposes is to be a watchdog.  I feel that without journalism, the government would be free to do whatever it wanted and would not be held accountable for its actions.  One of the main points of our reading is that journalism must serve as an independent monitor of power.  Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black said, "The press was protected so that it could bare the secrets of government and inform the people.  Only a free and unrestrained press can effectively expose deception in government."  I couldn't agree more with Justice Black.  Journalists need to act independently and need to expose any wrongdoing by the government.  In fact, the freedom of the press that allows journalists to serve a watchdog role here in America is what gives power to the people.  Orlando Sentinel editor Charlotte Hall said, "Watchdog journalism is a state of mind for the whole newspaper: Journalism that gives power to the people."  I agree with Hall.  Watchdog journalism needs to be a state of mind for a whole newspaper or news organization.  It should be the main purpose of journalism, not a secondary one.

Watchdog journalism requires a lot of investigative journalism.  There are three types of investigative journalism that our text talked about:

1. Original Investigative Reporting - involves reporters themselves uncovering and documenting activities that are unknown to the public

2. Interpretative Investigative Reporting - involves bringing together information in a new and more complete context that offers deeper public understanding

3. Reporting on Investigations - involves reporting on the developments of  investigations already underway

Bob Woodward of the Washington Post shares some of his insights about investigative journalism in this video.  He shares a story (that was shared in our class presentation as well) of his experiences that highlights the importance of verification of facts especially in investigative reporting.

I also found an article that discusses watchdog journalism on the Nieman Reports website.  The author of the article, Murrey Marder, makes an interesting point.  He says that a journalist should not be listening to what is going on in an interview.  Instead, a journalist needs to be thinking about if an interviewee is answering the questions asked and thinking about whether or not more questions should be asked.  Marder says that a journalist should act as a "pseudo-surrogate for the public".  A journalist is in fact giving a voice to the public so he or she must always try to ask the same questions the public would.

Today, however, we see the watchdog role of journalists being weakened.  Recent cutbacks in the news industry have hurt watchdog journalism.  Watchdog journalism is not cheap.  It requires a lot of hard work and investigation which can cost quite a bit.  With cutbacks, news industries may try to take shortcuts in investigative journalism or just do less of it altogether.  However, in an article I found, the author, Butch Ward, explains that watchdog journalism is not only an important journalistic principle, but also a long-term business strategy.  He says that even in an age where the newspaper business faces many challenges, watchdog journalism should remain a top priority because it will make the newspaper essential in the life of the community.

With the advancing world of technology, it is becoming increasingly more possible for everyone to do investigative journalism.  Also, watchdog journalism is becoming more important not just in government but also in the nonprofit and corporate worlds.

Assignment #8: Independence and Journalism

Independence is an essential part of journalism. It is one of the factors that helps journalists remain as objective and unbiased as possible.

I found an interesting video clip in which Susan Bennet, the vice president/marketing and deputy director of Newseum in Washington D.C., shares her thoughts on the newspaper journalists staying independent from the business side of a news company.

Dr. Kris Wilson also speaks of his experiences as news director and explains the importance of keeping journalists independent from the sales side of a news company in this video clip.

Journalists must also stay independent from their sources or the subjects of their reporting for obvious reasons. If a journalist becomes too close to their subject or sources, it is going to make it extremely hard to keep their articles or news stories free from bias. Think about it. How hard would it be to write a negative article on your mom?

One of the ideas we discussed in class was whether or not it is a journalist's duty to reveal their beliefs to their audience. I personally do not believe it is essential that journalists must reveal every detail of their personal beliefs in their stories. However, if one of their personal beliefs would affect the story in some way, they do need to let the audience know. For example, I think that it is necessary for a homosexual man to reveal that he is gay if he is writing an article on Prop 8. However, it is also appropriate for a straight man to reveal his orientation when writing a similar article.

I found an interesting article that talked about journalistic independence on PoynterOnline. In the article the author, Bob Steele, includes a list of roles that journalists play and then lists the corresponding role that shows the degree of involvement or independence these roles imply. Here's Steele's list:

Independent Reporter..................Messenger

Detached Observer........................Interpreter

Advocate..........................................Watch Dog

Supporter........................................Promoter

Opinion Leader...............................Intermediary

Agenda Setter.................................Convenor

Builder.............................................Participant

Activist............................................Thinker

I also discovered a blog post in which journalistic independence was discussed in the context of war. The blog author argues that there are moral obligations that are more important than journalistic independence when trying to protect a nation from its enemies. However, the blogger goes on to discuss the difficulties and complexities of knowing who our enemies are.

Another concept that we discussed in class was whether or not a certain type of person should do stories on the same type of person. For example, should an African American person cover a story on African Americans. Or should a Mormon do a story on a Mormon event. Technically, they wouldn't be entirely independent from the story or issue considering they share common characteristics with the people they are covering. However, we discussed in class that there may be some advantages to this type of reporting. For example, a Chinese Americans might feel more open or comfortable around a Chinese American reporter. Thus, the story produced could potentially be more realistic or true to the Chinese American experience.

Journalistic independence is extremely important. However, there are many issues to deal with which makes it extremely complex.