Today, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel columnist Eugene Kane paid a visit to our Seminar in Journalism class. Our main topics of discussion were what it takes to be a columnist and the Trayvon Martin shooting.

Kane has been a columnist at the Journal Sentinel since 1995, when he was offered a column upon his return to Milwaukee. Kane gave some words of wisdom to our class of budding journalists. He said if you can find your own stories, the newsroom will appreciate it; otherwise, you are at the mercy of the editor who picks your stories for you. Columnists have to choose their own stories.

Columnists do have more freedom to write stuff. "You are writing it in your voice," Kane said. "It's your audience." Kane said that most journalists are subjective anyway simply by what stories they choose to cover or not cover.

Our class discussed having a voice quite a bit, as class members asked several questions on the topic. Kane mentioned some of his journalism idols from Philadelphia, where he was born.

"Their voice was so distinctive, sometimes people could just read it out loud and you could tell who had written it," Kane said, as our professor Herbert Lowe nodded along in agreement (Lowe is also from Philadelphia)

Kane says having a column can also be difficult because of the background work it requires. It is not just writing everything off the top of your head, Kane said. You have to keep your eyes and ears open for what people are talking about. It is not hard coming up with story ideas; the difficulty lies in turning those ideas into good columns.
 
The shooting of Trayvon Martin, a 17-year-old African American, in the gated community of Sanford, Florida has caused a national media storm of coverage and editorials. Most prominent newspapers, in addition to broadcast news and cable news channels, have featured coverage of the shooting.

Mallory Jean Tenore notes that journalists need to call this a "killling" or "shooting" for the time being, not a "murder." The AP Stylebook dictates that unless there has been a criminial conviction, the only time it is acceptable to write "murder" is if there was a clear-cut pre-meditated motive for the shooting.

There have been reports of George Zimmerman, the community watchman who fatally shot Martin, having a racial bias and calling police 46 times since the beginning of 2011, often to report "suspicious activity" by African-Americans. There have also been reports that Martin punched Zimmerman to the ground and attacked him, leading Zimmerman to shoot in self-defense.

An article by Eugen Kane in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel about how wearing a hoodie should not define a person was very interesting. I was suprised by Geraldo Rivera's contention that if Martin had not been wearing a hoodie, he would still be alive. I wear my Chicago Cubs hoodie for six months out of the year, and anyone can tell you that does not make me look threatening. Nor should people assume that African-Americans or Hispanics are a threat just because they are wearing a hoodie.

I think that the Trayvon Martin story is a good reminder for journalists to be careful with what language they use in their articles, because there bias might be revealed if they do not. It is important for journalists to come across to their audiences as unbiased sources for information, or else lose respect or credibiliy from readers who disagree with their stance.

 
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Mike Gousha, Distinguished Fellow in Law and Policy at Marquette University's Law school and host of "On the Issues" and "Upfront" visited our Seminar in Journalism class on Thursday.

Gousha talked about the great distrust of the media today, but how that it is part of the landscape when you try to cover politics. Both sides, Democrats and Republicans, like to bully the media, so political reporters need thick skin.

It is also hard to cover politics because, as Gousha said, "Peoply today do not want to be informed. They want to be affirmed." This is why cable channels like Fox News and MSNBC are successful. They see themselves as news operations at night, but "when the sun goes down, they see themselves as something else," said Gousha, referring to the distinguishment between the news programs and opinion shows that these channels offer.

"I think that gets a little dicey," Gousha said.

Gousha also discussed the value of talk shows like his "Upfront" or national shows like "Face the Nation" and "Meet the Press" to candidates. Gousha believes that candidates have moved to other platforms such as Facebook and Twitter to get their messages across, but these talk shows still hold some value to them. They tend to try and go on the programs that will be sympathetic to them.

Gousha looks to have his programs be a place for serious civil discourse and "a force for public good." He likes to use "old school journalism," in which he asks the tough questions, but in a civil way. Gousha said it is not his job to be prosecutor.

"There's a lot of fire, and sometimes not so much light," said Gousha. In other words, sometimes programs become all about the ratings-friendly shouting matches and disagreements, rather than facts-full and productive debates that helps viewers find the answers.


 
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Charles Frankin, Visiting Professor of Law at Marquette University's Law School and co-founder of Pollster.com, visited our journalism class Tuesday to discuss polling and its relationship with politics.

"How do we know what the public wants otherwise?" This is the question Franklin asked us as to why polling is so important, especially in politics. However, polling is not very cheap, and many newspapers will only publish polls if they get it for free.

Franklin created Pollster.com in 2006 with Mark Rosenthal in 2006 after finding an investor. His relationship with Pollster.com ended when it was bought by the Huffington Post, but he was still around when the website received 20 million hits in November 2008, the month President Barack Obama won the presidential election.

Franklin discussed some of the duties of a pollster. For one thing, polling is journalism and it gives real information to people, but they can be misused. He gave the example of Bush approval ratings from February of one year to May of that same year. The reports in May said that his approval rating had been falling since February, but in reality, his polling had reached a low between those months and had been rebounding. So while his approval rating overall was down from February, it had actually been going up at the time it was reported his approval ratings have been going down since February.

Franklin also shared some debates in polling, such as whether or not "don't know" should be provided as a choice or if pollsters should just note when respondents says they do not know. He used this example: When asking who is prime minister of Britian or Speaker of the House, men seemed to be more knowledgeable than women. This is because so many women were choosing the "don't know" option. However, when the polls were repeated, and the don't know answer was taking away, and women were encouraged to take a guess, they proved just as knowledgeable on the topic.

 
Marquette University students are enjoying spring break this week, but students in Professors Lowe and Scotton's class have some researching to do.

Thankfully the links to everything we need to read up on were provided for us. Our class is to have a distinguished guest next Tueday: polling expert Charles Frankin. We had to read up on Franklin's bio, some of the polls he has conducted, and various other information on what goes into polling.

After reading up on Franklin and polling, I am excited to here him speak to us next week. As if that is not enough, veteran reporter Mike Gousha is to visit our class two days after Franklin's visit. It should be a fun and informative week in our Seminar in Journalism class, and come back next week to read blog posts on how each visit went and what I learned from them.
 
Ten GOP primaries and caucuses were held on Tuesday, known as Super Tuesday for how many delegates are at stake, and Mitt Romney took home six state victories and and 212 of the 419 delegates.

The Denver Post did cover Super Tuesday, but with minimal, unoriginial, and sometimes hidden coverage. Prior to Super Tuesday, the Post had an AP article on its website that tied in social issues and the Rush Limbaugh controversy into the night's primaries.

As the Super Tuesday action picked up at night, the Post moved its constantly updating AP article and an accompanying carousal picture to the homepage. However, later in the night and the next day, readers had to work to find this article and the Post's standard photo photo slideshow, this time featuring 53 photos from Super Tuesday.
Despite the quality of the slideshow, it was never featured on the homepage or even the homepage of the Post's Media Center, where viewers access the photo slideshows.

When I have to click three seperate links and deal with three pop-up advertisements to read one AP article on Super Tuesday, I will not be impressed by that paper's coverage. I can only hope that the print version of the Denver Post has more prominent coverage of the GOP primaries. If not, the Post is doing a disservice to its readers.
 
Michigan and Arizona held their GOP primaries Tuesday, and Mitt Romney came away with two much-needed victories. The Denver Post had light coverage of the primaries heading into the night. Around 1 a.m. Tuesday, an article was published on the main page previewing the upcoming night. What was interesting about this article was it was written in past tense. For example, here is the lead:

Republican presidential rivals Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum collided Tuesday in a rancorous Michigan primary that tested the clout of the GOP establishment against conservative and tea party rebels as well as the candidates themselves.Arizona Republicans voted in the second primary of the night, and Romney was favored by far in that race that drew scant attention.

If I did not know any better, I would have said that this article was written after the primaries, but it was on their website the entire day. I felt like this was bad coverage by the Post, to have just one AP article on their website,  written the way it was.

Later in the night, the Post had two videos in its website, one less than a minute highlighting Romney's win in Michigan, and one under three minutes, focusing on the close race in Michigan. The Post also had a photo slideshow from the Michigan primaries, as I have come to expect from them.

The coverage did not last long, as it was removed from the homepage the next day, and replaced with nothing about what Romney's wins mean for the GOP race or previewing Super Tuesday. Overall, I was disappointed with the Denver Post's coverage on an important night for the GOP primaries, especially in regards to the lone AP article on its website for much of primary night.