Articles

Using the Realities of the Newsroom To Train Journalists

For two days in late September, Bebe sold the crack cocaine rocks known as “Cookies” in the pouring rain—cold and alone. While other kids were in school that morning, Bebe…
March 15, 1999
Helen Ubinas

The Learning Gap: Highlighting Teachers’ Competency

Photo by Michelle Patterson, The Lexington Herald-Leader.Education writers often try to measure the success of their local schools by analyzing such things as test scores, class sizes and poverty rates.…
March 15, 1999
Linda J. Johnson

Teaching Journalism by Adhering to Unchanging Standards

Pages from Gene Graham’s Nieman year sketchbook.Confession: I actually went to journalism school. And now I teach in one. But I’ve also spent plenty of time in newsrooms, a dual…
March 15, 1999
Nancy Day

Falling in Love With Words and How Journalists Use Them

I don’t particularly like thinking about what I might do after I earn my master’s degree in journalism. J-school, for all the work and worry, is more fun than any…
March 15, 1999
Kathryn S. Wenner

When Mediocrity Beckons

A newsroom for journalism students. Photo courtesy Medill School of Journalism.Most of us know the frustration of desire outpacing ability. But what about coping with the reverse? What happens if…
March 15, 1999
William Brent Cunningham

International Journalists Use Internet Technology to Breach Borders

A journalist in Zimbabwe, researching a story with ties to Sweden, needed to contact an investigative reporter in that Scandinavian country, though he knew no one there. In Montreal, a…
March 15, 1999
Maud S. Beelman

Restoring a Sense of What It Means To Be a Journalist

Most people instinctively want to teach others what they know. And journalists are no exception. It is our job, after all, to share with our readers, viewers and listeners what…
March 15, 1999
Robin Jones

Golf Offers a Window on Our Changing World

Preferred Lies and Other Tales: Skimming the Cream of a Life in SportsJack WhitakerSimon and Schuster. 272 Pages. $24.There is a movie scene that haunts just about every serious sportswriter…
March 15, 1999
Tom Witosky

Stitching a Community Together With A Newspaper Staffed by Young Journalists

Brandon Tubbs working as a mentor to a student from the PACERS Cooperative. © Photo courtesy PACERS Photography, Program for Rural Services and Research.Shawn “Sham” Franks, a sophomore at Oakman…
March 15, 1999
Brandon Tubbs

When Numbers Talk, Journalists Help People Listen

Venezuelan reporter Carlos Subero constructed his own databases to analyze politicians’ performances.Swedish reporter Stefan Lisinski exposed questionable practices involving bankrupt companies by using a massive Swedish database of information on…
March 15, 1999
Brant Houston