BY DAVID BUCKNER
As a high school sports reporter, stirring controversy wasn't in the job description for the Star Tribune's David La Vaque. However, the decision he was faced with while covering the 08-09 prep hockey season had the potential to raise a few brows.
Continue reading "No easy answers for prep sports reporter" »
By RYAN SWANSON
Although the mediums of journalism and news may be constantly changing and evolving over time, many people would like to think that the ethics that go with good journalism remain static. They believe that if the code of journalistic ethics continues to be followed, good journalism can continue to be produced. These values are being questioned as the popularity of the Internet news continues to grow. A study that was done by PBS's show "Frontline," shows that on a typical day, 23% of Americans get their news from the Internet. This study shows that while all other forms of media are losing viewers, the viewing trend of Internet news is on an upward climb.
Continue reading "Internet: The final frontier and the ethics of journalism" »
By ALEXANDER M. RISSE
The Washington News council is on the front-line of media ethics. Some see the organization as a revolutionary alternative to the court system; others see it as a biased obstacle to the media. It has yet to be determined if the WNC will be around in the coming years, but it cannot be denied that the council has shaped the media landscape in the region.
Continue reading "News councils offer an alternative to legal action in media disputes" »
By CARLY MCLAIN
The photographs are graphic--of a child with a cleft lip and palate, of twin boys with cataracts that stopped them from seeing, of a man whose tumor weighed over 6 ½ pounds deforming his face.
Continue reading "Magazine uses graphic images to tell story of NEED" »
By JOLI DOORNINK
Two years ago, Tom Hawley, editor of the Baldwin Bulletin, faced a decision. He had received an angry letter to the editor about a story that he had written, and had to decide whether or not to run it in the paper.
Continue reading "Newspapers debate over whether Web site comments can be anonymous" »
By CALLIE GOOD
The Society of Professional Journalists' (SPJ) Code of Ethics states that journalists should "act independently" and "avoid conflicts of interest, real or perceived." But where is the line drawn? How much of a reporter's personal life can editors and publishers control by this seemingly simple ethical suggestion? In some situations, these "conflicts of interest" are blatant and the answer is clear, no questions asked. But in most cases, there is no easy solution, no concrete line that can be set. Take Chuck Laszewski and Rick Linsk for example. One misinterpretation of a "conflict of interest" left them suspended without pay from their jobs at St. Paul's Pioneer Press.
By JAMI REINHART
In January 2007, the city administrator spot in Rogers, Minn. became open after Gary Eitel was let go after 22 years. Behind the decision to let him go was the mayor of Rogers at the time, Paul Przybilla, along with two other men from the city council.
By ABEL GUSTAFSON
Eddie Myers doesn't regret the choice his family made.
Continue reading "Families give the verdict on media access" »
By ASHLEE HARTWIG
There's always an instance that changes the way a community looks at itself
Continue reading "Verification holds truth to hostage crisis" »
By: TYLER KORBY
University of Minnesota Duluth star running back Isaac Odim had just rushed for four touchdowns in leading the Bulldogs to a semifinal win and first-ever berth into the Division II national championship, when Duluth News Tribune Staff Writer Jana Hollingsworth was sent up to campus to cover the historic season.
Continue reading "Papers wrestle with publishing story on student athlete" »
By TAYLOR HOUSLEY
The night of April 9th, 1990 was the last time a Duluth police officer was killed in the line of duty. Dennis Anderson, anchor at WDIO-TV, was a few minutes into the ten o'clock newscast when a panicked producer ran into the studio and told Anderson "two police officers were just involved in a shooting."
Continue reading "A lifetime of ethical choices for Duluth anchorman" »
By LAUREN LUNDEEN
A 19-year-old girl ran for her life to the neighbor's house after an argument with her boyfriend that sent him chasing after her with a handgun.
By TED NORGAARD
Reporting the news is an interesting business. Unlike other professions our work doesn't occur behind closed doors and it rarely goes unnoticed. Some days we go home feeling like we've done some good, other days we can't stop asking ourselves why we do it.
Continue reading "Shades of gray in a black and white world" »
By TED NORGAARD
Reporting the news is an interesting business. Unlike other professions our work doesn't occur behind closed doors and it rarely goes unnoticed. Some days we go home feeling like we've done some good, other days we can't stop asking ourselves why we do it.
Continue reading "Shades of gray in a black and white world" »
By SARAH ROSTEN
Journalists are often faced with difficult decisions; their profession requires them to walk a thin, sometimes non-existent line between right and wrong. Journalists ultimately make their own decisions as to what is right and what is not, and what should be reported and what should not.
Continue reading "Community standards dictate when to publish photographs" »
Here is a sample of the pages designed by the students in this year's JOUR 3101, News Editing class.
by Elizabeth Enke
At The Ramsey County-Maplewood Review, a subdivision of the Lille Suburban Newspapers, which focus on St. Paul suburbs, there is a strict policy regarding the release of a suspect’s identity: the identity cannot be released until they are formally charged with a crime.
In 1998, the superintendent for the Maplewood-North St. Paul-Oakdale School District (District 622) had complaints filed against him by teenage girls alleging that he displayed inappropriate sexual behavior in their presence.
Continue reading "Pressing story takes toll on editor-in-chief’s emotions" »
by Jordan Hanson
Behind him, 1,907 feet of concrete and metal fell. People he could recognize were trapped in the middle of the river. There were media all over the place and he had no idea what had happened. Larry Loeschen found out first hand what it was like to be the survivor of a major disaster and how the media respond in such events.
by Arik Forsman
Charles Ramsey had a choice to make.
Ramsey, the regional editor for the Mesabi Daily News, a small daily in northeastern Minnesota, was putting together an article on a contract dispute between local mine workers, the local unions that represented two Iron Range taconite mines, and the company that managed both locations, Cleveland Cliffs.
Continue reading "In the dark: Use of an anonymous source at a small daily newspaper" »
by Thomas L. Morgan
In the small community of the Brainerd Lakes area, where Brainerd Daily Dispatch Sports Editor Mike Bialka grew up, many people know him, read his sports columns and see him at places like the local grocery store.
Continue reading "Ethical situations involving 'shooting the messenger'" »
by Sara Hedberg
Journalists everywhere are constantly being faced with moral and ethical issues. One of these issues is conflict of interest.
Continue reading " How journalists avoid conflicts of interest" »
by Kendra Richards
The Multicultural Center at St. Cloud State University (SCSU) was defaced with swastikas. Throughout the next couple of days, more swastikas appeared on white boards and walls around campus. A student finally came forward saying the he drew one on a dry-erase white board. The St. Cloud Times got the information and began writing a story on it. Before they ran it, though, the police decided that the student was protected under free speech because the image was erasable and did not deface property—the student was never arrested, jailed or charged. The Times now had a decision to make: Should they publish the student's name in the article?
Continue reading "Journalists weigh many issues in reporting process" »
by Brittney Silewski
The Echo Press in Alexandria, Minn., is a small weekly newspaper with a circulation of just around 9,000. Al Edenloff, the editor at the paper, says that there are different situations that come up all of the time that need his utmost attention.
Continue reading "Ethical issues surface daily for journalists" »
by Veronica Wilson
A large-scale accident, tragedy, or murder takes place and the next day’s newspaper has it splashed across the front page. As the aftermath of the original incident dies down it leaves the community to question the ethics behind the journalism.
Continue reading "The publication of controversial photos: Deciding what to print" »
by Becky Edwards
The way in which people get their news is changing dramatically.
Continue reading "Blogging forces creativity in tradtional journalism" »
by Daniel Lundquist
Ethical situations happen in homes, classrooms, and offices of principals, police and journalists. The ethical dilemmas that small-town journalists face mold their relationships with the schools in their community.
Continue reading "Community journalists talk ethics and principles" »
“A good police reporter in such a city like New York is a useful reporter to society. Half the misery of the world is occasioned by secret impulses, unrestrained by public opinion. An exact and correct record of crime- not vulgar drunken brawls- is useful as a warning and a beacon for others to avoid�?
— New York Herald
by Sara Jochems
My experience as a crime beat reporter began in October of 2007 when the editor-in-chief of the University of Minnesota Duluth’s newspaper, the Statesman, gave me the job.
by Bobbie Ersland
Ever since Jason Feldman, sports writer at the Post-Bulletin in Rochester, Minn., began writing for the University of North Dakota paper while attending college there, he has followed one general rule when ethics is brought to the table.
Continue reading "Sportswriter treats high school athletes differently" »
by Arik Forsman
Mike quickly weaves between the cars, in the middle of the rows. His grey UMD sweatshirt bounces to his quick pace. The red bill of his UMD hat flicks from side-to-side, as he glances through the windshields of cars for permits and at the parking meters nearby.
Mike is a UMD parking enforcement officer. His boss insisted that he go by only his first name for this story. On the job, Mike's been called a lot of things.
“People have offered to fight,�? he says.
Here are the links to prototypes for magazines and newspapers designed by the UMD Fall 2008 Editing Class. Note: These pages are for classroom exercises and educational purposes. They are not intended for distribution or sale.
Continue reading "Students design newspaper, magazine prototypes" »
by Sarah Doty
For UMD sophomore Sina Richert the expense of college today is a reality.
But tuition prices aren’t the only thing causing Richert to expect that she will graduate $40,000-$50,000 in debt. Add her monthly bills of rent, utilities, groceries and gas to the tally and it’s easy to see how it all adds up.
However, this scenario hasn’t always been the case for college students.
“My grandpa and I were just talking [the other day] and he only spent $300 for a whole year of college,�? said UMD sophomore Sina Richert. “That gets you one credit now, maybe not even a credit … It’s depressing talking to grandparents, even my dad, he didn’t pay anything near what we have to pay now.�?
Continue reading "For college students it's not just tuition that costs more" »
by Chris Olwell
Nobody has smoked in the Kozy since last year, but the SmokeEater above the bar still serves a useful purpose: it’s the bar’s memory.
To the front of the machine are scotch-taped a plastic flower, a haggard old cigarette, several tattered and worn American flags, and about half-a-dozen obituary clippings and funeral prayer cards—all memories of residents of the Kozy apartments who’ve died there.
by Sarah Hasselquist
by David Buckner
As the spring semester winds to a close, construction on the new Labovitz School of Business and Economics building is finishing as well. But this new addition to UMD isn’t your average box of brick and concrete.
The LSBE building has used construction methods that will have a positive effect on the environment, and will also help to save UMD money.
Continue reading "New UMD Business building promises to be green, save green" »
by Kendra Richards
Should I live on campus or off campus?
This is a question that comes up for probably all freshman when coming into college, and even many upperclassmen when they advance from year to year. Many consider convenience, where their friends are living, and price. However, choosing where to live should be considered on more serious grounds: research shows that students who live on campus are more successful in school.
Living on campus has its obvious benefits, especially for freshman. It allows new students to fully engulf themselves into the environment so they can make new connections and get used to this huge change in lifestyle.
Continue reading "Dorm living and better grades appear linked" »
by Jami Reinhart
Readership trends have not remained the same for all newspaper publications, and deciphering between publication size and circulation trends fills in some of the unanswered gaps as to which newspapers are just surviving compared to those that appear to be almost thriving.
"The small town paper is where the residents can read about what is happening with their city council, schools, friends, neighbors, crime. As for advertising, they want to see the ads for their community or neighboring areas," said Barbara Trebisovsky, Assistant Executive Director, Minnesota Newspaper Association.
by Emily Eshelman
Smile and say cheese, a blinding flash and a short later, your U Card prints in seconds. Nearly 6,000 U Cards are printed each year. New, lost, or broken cards are made in the U Card office every day. With more than 11,000 students enrolled and 1,500 faculty and staff, the university wants to make sure everyone has an identification card.
To open up space in students’ wallets and have one less thing to be responsible for, UMD encourages students to put money on their U Cards, but the question that arises, what is happening to all that money left on student U Cards?
by Abel Gustafson
Once a day, Mark Stodghill crosses the street and descends a flight of stairs to the front desk of the Duluth Police Department. He pages through a hefty clipboard full of the summaries of all the recent arrests they have made. Stodghill asks for copies of the arrests that he deems newsworthy, and he returns to his desk at the Duluth News Tribune to write crime news for the next morning’s paper.
My classmates and I in the Journalism program at the University of Minnesota Duluth have been studying the Minnesota Data Practices Act, which mandates that specific data from every arrest made by a Minnesota law enforcement agency must be open to any member of the public and be “available at all times�? at that agency.
This public arrest data is what is on the clipboard at the Duluth Police Department front desk.
Out of curiosity, our class journalism class set out to determine just how accessible this same information is at other agencies, optimistic that we would find convenience and accessibility like that of the Duluth Police Department. We couldn't have been more wrong.
Continue reading "Arrest data proves elusive for student reporters" »
by Kathleen Grigg
When looking at Mars through a telescope, the first thing you notice is the red shade of dust covering the surface. Beneath the dust, a span of water ice may contain clues about the planet’s past. The Phoenix Mission may be able to dig up that story.
Phoenix is scheduled to land May 25 in Mars’s northern polar region. Back on Earth, scientists will spend several days preparing its onboard instruments, which include an 8-foot robotic arm, ovens, wet chemistry labs, cameras and a weather station.
Continue reading "Phoenix set to begin search for water on Mars" »