ISSUE

Fall 2011

Cold Case Reporting

Cases unheard. Justice denied. These words fit many crimes committed with racial intent a half century ago. Now reporters burrow into forgotten files, locate witnesses, track down suspects, publish what they find—and write for us about their work that in some cases is resulting in justice finally being served. Journalists then explore how stories about black America are told today. Next, our focus turns to news reporting in a time of revolutionary change in Arab nations. Intriguing essays then transport us from Iran to Indonesia, from financial collapse to consensus building, from envisioning computers replacing journalists to reporting from war’s frontlines.

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Articles

Opinion

Is the Financial Crisis Also a Crime Story?

What happens when reporters pursue the wrong narrative in covering financial news? It is a personal story with deeper implications.
Danny Schechter
October 13, 2011
Diversity

Six Decades of Watching Mississippi—Starting in 1947

‘Late in 1977, we started to tackle the comeback of the [Ku Klux Klan] in Mississippi. In response, a cross wrapped in kerosene-soaked rags was set ablaze just past midnight…
Wilson F. “Bill” Minor
October 13, 2011
Opinion

War, Satire and the Way It Is—For Women Reporters

‘… being female can be an advantage in Afghanistan, in part because Western women are still curiosities there, especially outside Kabul.’
Monica Campbell
October 4, 2011
Diversity

What Often Goes Unsaid

The racial dynamic of what happens inside a newsroom is ‘an elusive if contentious subject that seldom rises to become a topic of media forums or workshops—except when minority journalists…
Amy Alexander
October 3, 2011
Opinion

Will Machines Replace Journalists?

After looking at start-ups for their book, “The Monkey That Won a Pulitzer,” two Italian journalists launched a project that uses motion graphics to tell news stories with context.
Nicola Bruno
September 28, 2011
Opinion

Evin Prison: A Destination for ‘Troublesome’ Journalists In Iran

Nicola Bruno’s provocative piece about machines replacing journalists is among the essays featured in this section of Nieman Reports. Other writers take us inside Tehran’s Evin prison, where Iran held…
Nazila Fathi
September 27, 2011
Nieman Notes

Reasons for Hope

Three journalists who report on the drug trade’s violence in the United States and Mexico compare notes during a peaceful pause.
Julia Reynolds
September 27, 2011
Opinion

Indonesia’s Religious Violence: The Reluctance of Reporters to Tell the Story

‘In an average Indonesian newsroom, most media workers identify closely with an Islamic and nationalist identity.’
Andreas Harsono
September 22, 2011
Diversity

Being There to See—With the Challenge of Being Heard

‘I learned quickly that for a black reporter to cover a civil rights story in the Deep South and live to tell about it, I had to blend in.’ 
Simeon Booker
September 15, 2011
Diversity

A Father’s Life Tugs His Son to Revisit Unsolved Crimes

‘More and more I was looking not just at my father’s story but also at the unfinished business of the civil rights movement.’
Ben Greenberg
September 14, 2011
Diversity

Carl Sandburg’s Reporting Foretold the Chicago Race Riots of 1919

‘No other mainstream white journalist in America’s second largest city was writing anything close to Sandburg’s depth about its festering racial problems.’
Cameron McWhirter
September 13, 2011
Diversity

Diversity in Newsrooms: Fresh Strategies, New Goals

“Diversity fatigue has been alive and well in America's news industry for many years,” writes Milton Coleman, a senior editor at The Washington Post and an organizer of Leadership in…
Milton Coleman
September 13, 2011
International Journalism

Arab Media: Rebuilding Trust With Their Public

Knowing where you are coming from helps in charting where you want to go. The Arab mass media, like many other sectors of society, need to gauge how to take…
Rami G. Khouri
September 13, 2011
International Journalism

Egyptian Journalism: An Oddly Connected Mix of Old and New Media

‘… in this disheartening traditional media landscape, we find encouraging signs of independent media—in the truest sense of the phrase …’
Sabah Hamamou
September 13, 2011
Diversity

Here’s What People Want to Know: Why Do Journalists Tell These Stories?

Why is what happened then considered news today? Why stir up memories of events that were long ago put to rest? Hank Klibanoff, author of “The Race Beat” and managing…
Hank Klibanoff
September 12, 2011
Uncategorized

Behold This Cliché: The Truth Shall Set You Free

Cases unheard. Justice denied. These words fit many crimes committed with racial intent a half century ago. Now reporters burrow into forgotten files, locate witnesses, track down suspects, publish what…
Roya Hakakian
September 12, 2011
International Journalism

In Jordan, Some Threats Against a Foreign Journalist Are Realized

After the Arab Spring, media restrictions tighten in ways unprecedented in Randa Habib’s 24 years as Agence France-Press bureau chief in Amman, and her life is threatened because of what…
Randa Habib
September 9, 2011
Diversity

Revealing Sex Crimes Against Black Women

Before Rosa Parks refused to move to the back of the bus, she had already been fighting for racial equality for more than a decade. She strategized with other activists,…
Jan Gardner
September 9, 2011
Diversity

When Lawyers and Journalists Share Common Cause

‘Our dual approaches keep steady attention fixed on the [Frank] Morris case and they pressure local and federal law enforcement to thoroughly investigate it, with a spillover effect of bringing…
Janis L. McDonald
September 9, 2011
Diversity

Black Journalism Takes Root in Contemporary Times

When Harvard University professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and The Washington Post Company CEO Donald Graham launched The Root in 2008, their ambitions were anything but modest. “We wanted to…
Jack E. White
September 9, 2011
Diversity

The Case of the Supposedly Sealed Files—And What They Revealed

‘I continue to pore through 40,000 pages of FBI records, the entire FBI case file in the Klan’s 1964 killings of [James] Chaney, [Andrew] Goodman and [Michael] Schwerner. Two suspects…
Jerry Mitchell
September 9, 2011
Opinion

Compelled to Remember What Others Want to Forget

‘… I realize that the way forward is through doing what we do best. We tell stories. We are journalists. And if we, as journalists, don’t tell these forgotten stories,…
John Fleming
September 9, 2011
Nieman Notes

Fall 2011: Class Notes

Cases unheard. Justice denied. These words fit many crimes committed with racial intent a half century ago. Now reporters burrow into forgotten files, locate witnesses, track down suspects, publish what…
Jan Gardner
September 9, 2011
Opinion

What Mediation Looks Like for Journalists

I am developing a framework for consensus-building journalism, what I call the C-bJ model. I believe it can be a starting point for collaboration with media outlets. For such meshing…
Gilda C. Parrella
September 9, 2011
Opinion

Consensus-Building Journalism: An Immodest Proposal

‘What this country could use is an enormous mediation session, and in the unique role they hold, journalists are logical people to lead it.’
Gilda C. Parrella
September 9, 2011
Nieman Notes

The Smart Move Was in Reverse

A typical career trajectory for a reporter begins with local news, but sometimes there’s another road to travel first.
Kate Galbraith
September 8, 2011
International Journalism

The Revolutionary Force of Facebook and Twitter

‘Social media now hold a vital place in this media ecosystem, filling informational voids left by the still bridled state and traditional media.’
Jillian C. York
September 8, 2011
International Journalism

The Ups and Downs of Two Pioneering Magazines

TelQuel (“As It Is”), the French-language weekly I founded in 2001, has been the best-selling newsmagazine in Morocco since 2004. Time magazine mentioned its history of “breaking press taboos,” The Guardian commended its “brave, pushy…
Ahmed Benchemsi
September 8, 2011
International Journalism

Morocco and Press Freedom: A Complicated Relationship

A visibly corrupt government but a wide space for journalists to denounce it, relentlessly harassed newspapers but still a vivid, daring and popular press—welcome to the kingdom of paradox.
Ahmed Benchemsi
September 8, 2011
Visual Journalism

Stories His Images Told: Charles Moore

Charles Moore’s photographs shocked a nation by pricking its conscience. In the early 1960’s, Life magazine carried into millions of American homes his unforgettable images of white lawmen wielding clubs…
Jan Gardner
September 8, 2011
Diversity

Familiar Patterns of Minority Exclusion Follow Mainstream Media Online

‘The parallels between the legacies and online media are as stark as they are disheartening.’
Jean Marie Brown
September 7, 2011
Diversity

Roi Ottley: An African-American Journalist Covers World War II

Old World War II movies usually included the standard cliché of a United States Army unit serving as a microcosm of American diversity. As the soldiers trudged along muddy roads…
Cameron McWhirter
September 7, 2011
Diversity

To Be a ‘Negro’ Newsman—Reporting on the Emmett Till Murder Trial

In 1956, Nieman Reports published Simeon Booker’s account of his Jet magazine coverage of the Emmett Till trial: Millions of words were written about the recent Till murder trial, but the most…
Simeon Booker
September 7, 2011
Features

The Bonds of Our Reporting: The Civil Rights Cold Case Project

Cold case reporting is one of those endeavors that require friendly, trustworthy support and collaboration. This can be hard to find on back roads while chasing stories that some people…
David Ridgen
September 7, 2011
Features

It Takes a Hard-Driving Team to Uncover the Truth of a Cold Case

‘… Thomas Moore and I became an indivisible army of two on the [Henry H.] Dee and [Charles E.] Moore case. We created a critical mass of trust that carried…
David Ridgen
September 7, 2011
Who Killed Frank Morris?
Opinion

Who Killed Frank Morris?

Hearing of a racial murder that happened 43 years earlier, a reporter starts digging. Four years and more than 150 stories later, a grand jury was convened.
Stanley Nelson
September 7, 2011
Features

The Enduring Ambition of the Civil Rights Cold Case Project

‘What I didn’t know going in was how inspired I’d feel by hearing these journalists share fragments from their work that spoke to why telling these stories mattered to them—and…
Robert J. Rosenthal
September 7, 2011