Thursday, February 28, 2008
I’m tired of sloppy journalism. Flat out sick of it. What is sloppy journalism you ask? Being an irresponsible journalist: not researching, being bias, not providing information for some reason, coming to a conclusion to quickly, etc.
I am disappointed to say that Winthrop’s student publication, The Johnsonian, fueled my fire against this. An opinion column was written about the Bible Study, Lady in Waiting, led by a former Winthrop student held near campus. The writer discovered the group on Facebook.
Now, the statements the writer made in the column were completely opposite of what the Bible Study stands for. In fact, everything the writer criticized about the study was exactly what the study isn't.
I know it’s an opinion column, but I also know, and have learned through my classes at Winthrop, that the most important job of a journalist is to research and interview so that he or she can correctly inform the audience of the facts. And this opinion column did not do that. A wise mentor told me that opinion columnists can interpret the facts differently, but the factual information is the basis of all journalism. And that clearly wasn’t done.
Quite a few people wrote letters to the editor in response and a few were printed. The writer responded by sticking behind what she wrote. The writer claimed she had done her research because she looked up the leader, the Bible study and the group on Facebook. Are you kidding me?
Since when does Facebook qualify as an accountable source of information? I've been taught here at Winthrop, that all articles, stories and columns need at least one "real" source. A real source is someone you don't know beforehand, not just interviewing a friend, and is not from the internet, but it's a living, breathing person.
I’m not in any way saying this writer is not capable of writing wonderful, factual stories. I’m sure she is. I know she is from past articles. I just know this particular opinion column is an example of what irks me.
I hope this one example does not and will not represent our generation of writers. Being in the mass communication department, I hope that our generation will not get too accustomed to Facebook and online sources so much that we don’t get out there and do the interviews. Having all the readily available sources online are helpful, but also could be a hindrance.
4 comments:
the bible (and things concerning it, such as a bible study) is one of the few, if not the only, things in which people may criticize without credibility and get away with it. i see it happen almost daily. the word "heresy" comes to mind.
however, getting angry and criticizing the writer's credibility to the point of insult, as was the case in a response letter published in the johnsonian, does not solve anything, nor is it Christ-like. it is fine to point out things that the writer may have misunderstood, but there is an amount of tact that could have been used.
it is lame that the writer is protected by the phrase "opinion" in the title of her column, but people who do not follow Christ generally don't understand people who do. i think we(Christ-followers) need to realize this, and do our best to keep it from being the other way around, as well.
sorry this is so long deni, and i hope i made sense.
...please excuse the grammatical errors, if any. i'm just a musician.
Yes, I think you made sense, and I hope I understood you correctly. I couldn't agree with you more chan chan.
I completely agree about the personally attacking or insulting the writer. That's not Christ-like at all and actually mimics what the writer did to the leader of the study in the column. That's the main reason I took so long to write about this, I needed to time to think about it, cool off a bit, and in fact, pray for myself, the article and the writer. (I actually just did a devotion last night focused towards praying and honoring your enemies, but I wouldn't consider the writer an enemy).
Maybe I should re-word some of what I wrote on the original post, so that it doesn’t appear that I am attacking the writer, but instead criticizing the methods that are used throughout journalism today.
But I don’t think that the writer should slide by; writers should learn that this method of research, if the only one used, is not acceptable because it leads to an uniformative article.
I guess what irked me the most was that while in all my media classes and journalism classes here at Winthrop, I was being pounded with the correct way to gather information, write stories, and present the information, and this deemed, higher level of writing, seemed to disregard some of that which seems unfair to me.
Amen to your third paragraph, we do need to keep it from being the other way around.
Of course you’re response wasn’t too long. I’m just so happy I got feedback! Yey!
wow Deni! I just read this and followed your link to the Johns. and read the articles and response letters. I found it very interesting. I learned from you about real sources and the author never addresses this! I hope your semester is going well. I'm looking forward to Mother's Day for obvious reasons! :o)
dw
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