JOURNALISM, THE LANGUAGE OF SPECIFICITY

Columbia (Missouri)

"How do you know about it?" and "what do you mean by that?"

These are first questions any journalist needs to ask to his source. We've been discussing that here in the school of journalism, University of Missouri, Columbia, the whole of past week. Journalism, as our course coordinator John Schneller keeps reiterating, is the language of specificity. Accuracy is paramount.

Classroom theories could be idealistic at times especially in the context of journalism that we practise today out in the field; but they are basics. And it was indeed rereshing to go back to the basics in the first week of the Orientation Seminar at the school before and do some fact-checking. There were a couple of talks by guest speakers - Charles Davis of the National Freedom of Information Coalition, who's at the forefront of Freedom of Information Movement here in the US, and Pulitzer award-winning journalist Jacqui Banaszynski, who holds the Knight Chair in Journalism. We also had Associate Professor Michael Grinfield talking to us about coflict and war reporting, trying to decode the ethical dimensions attached to it.

The coming week we'll spend at the Missourian, Columbia's only community newspaper that is professionally run by the School of Journalism and where the students work through the semesters as journalists training in various departments as reporters, desk editors, graphic designers and what all.

It's one of the best newsrooms I've ever seen other than my own at DNA, which still remains, for me, the best. We participated in their business meetings for a couple of days to find the process very exciting.

Students brainstorm their story ideas with the editors, and also reflect upon the published stories and the space they got or deserved. Not many newspapers around the world have this tradition of brainstorming the story ideas or reflect critically upon the already published stories. It came as a good lesson. Indian journalism schools lack in the practical training that is so very critical.

The topics we are exposed to range from media ethics to reporting practises and tools in the US newsrooms. The weekends are off, which means you are free to do anything. I chose to roam around and get the feel of this beautiful university town.

Saturday morning, I spent some time at the farmers' market, which are making a come back all over the US, as the consumers get more and more inclined to locally grown fresh food. It was heartening to see farmers are the same here as they are in India; willing to share and give. More of that, I'll share some other time.

Afternoon, we went to see an American Football match at the university. Like our IPL, this game means big money here. I couldn't figure out the game. So kept my focus on the lovely cheergirls. That was cool! Guess what: for what seemed like a trivial intra-varsity practise match, the turn out was 20,000, or more may be! The Americans are mad at their football, and they spare no opportunity to back their men. In this case, the University team is known as Tigers. Missourian Tigers. More the madness, better it is for business: sale of souvenirs, apparels etc. I couldn't find any trace of recession or meltdown at the store that sold this stuff. There was one complete page of coverage of this match in the Missourian. Find it weird!

Coming back to journalism: It's interesting that while the newspapers are folding up or firing people mercilessly in the US in the time of recession, Hollywood is celebrating the idealistic journalist. The newly released movie, the State of Play, another Russel Crowe classic, goes on to celebrate the essense of journalism in the time of down turn. It's pulling the crowds, which means the subject is doing the business at the box office. We watched it at a movie theatre on the outskirts of the town and I liked the film. Preaches at times, but okay.

Must watch for journalists, especially the budding ones.

The story line is simple (won't tell it here) but the journalist asks the basic question to his first source when he gets the info: How do you know about it? And he goes on to investigate the next question: What did he mean by that? But the film raises the ethical issues about the conflict of interests and answers the question.

As we learn here: Truth is incredibly elusive. As journalists we could do our best to get as close to it as possible, and explain the abstract through the facts that are the glue that holds the story together. After all journalism is the story telling of meaning. Question is how many of us are doing that today.