ISSUE

Spring 2005

Water: A Life Force Harnessed as News

Water is the essence of life, and its cleanliness, availability, and our use and abuse of it are stories meriting reporters’ and editors’ attention. Yet as Stuart Leavenworth, who covered water issues for The Sacramento Bee and describes the wide array of issues he took on, reports: “To my chagrin, I had the beat largely to myself for four years. Across the country, papers have tackled problems of water pollution and degradation, but have overlooked fundamental issues of supply—and sustainability. This is curious.”

Download PDF

Articles

Opinion

The New York Times’s Travails in the Reign of Raines

‘As the ship veered onto the rocks, those who voiced warnings were ignored, while the bosses told each other how smart they were.’
David Nyhan
March 15, 2005
Opinion

Freedom and Liberty: Tough Stories to Tell

‘When freedom and orthodoxy collide, it’s interesting to note how the press behaves.’
William F. Woo
March 15, 2005
Opinion

‘Perilous Times’ for First Amendment Rights

Editors must ‘send the clear signal—and offer the necessary support—to make the coverage of government secrecy a priority in their newsrooms.’
Maggie Mulvihill
March 15, 2005
Opinion

Documenting Government Secrecy

Secrecy in the Bush AdministrationRep. Henry A. WaxmanU.S. House of Representatives Committee on Government Reform-MinorityStaff Special Investigations Division,September 2004www.democrats.reform.house.govIn this 81-page report staff members of the Committee on Government Reform…
Sarah Hagedorn
March 15, 2005
Journalist’s Trade

Reporting on Water as a Global Story

A network of international journalists produced multimedia reports on the consequences of privatizing water.
William Marsden
March 15, 2005
Opinion

An Indefatigable Investigative Reporter

Seymour Hersh ‘still comes through as an outsider hungry for the latest scraps of news.’
John Herbers
March 15, 2005
Opinion

The Precarious State of Television News

‘We’re going to have to completely reinvent it—not only the substance, but the way in which we interact with our audience.’
Rebecca MacKinnon
March 15, 2005
Opinion

Technology Might Return Journalism to Its Roots

Two books set forth causes for concern about U.S. news media, and one of the authors speaks to the Internet’s possibilities for rejuvenating journalism’s promise.
David DeJean
March 15, 2005
Journalist’s Trade

Creating Digital Newsbooks

Newspapers use them to bring enterprise reporting to a new audience on the Web.
Roger Fidler
March 15, 2005
Journalist’s Trade

Motion and Sound Tell the Online Story in New Ways

After seeing some online videos I did for an independent study project to complete my masters in documentary filmmaking, Carol Hanner, the project editor for “Dividing the Waters,” suggested I…
Sonya Doctorian
March 15, 2005
Journalist’s Trade

The Story of Water Told in a Tale of Two Towns

Developing the narrative thread relied on finding key characters and weaving their experiences into the article’s focus on water.
Todd Hartman
March 15, 2005
Journalist’s Trade

Monitoring Colorado’s Ongoing Feuds About Water

With a drought and expanding population, coverage of water gains importance.
Jerd Smith
March 15, 2005
International Journalism

Global Journalism About a Regional Catastrophe

The need for cross-cultural sensitivity is one lesson a journalist took away from his coverage of the tsunami.
V.S. Sambandan
March 15, 2005
Technology

Arriving at the Digital News Age

‘It is in this fusion of old and new that the future of journalism most probably lies.’
Simon Waldman
March 15, 2005
Journalist’s Trade

Managing the Army of Temporary Journalists

Eyewitness online reporting about the tsunami complements coverage by mainstream news organizations.
Steve Outing
March 15, 2005
International Journalism

Reporting From a ‘Calamity That Defies Description’

A tight focus on individuals allowed a U.S. journalist and photographer to present ‘these people in scenes that began to form chapters in a narrative.’
Richard Read
March 15, 2005
Journalist’s Trade

Investigating Washington, D.C.’s Water Quality

With lead levels endangering health, public agencies kept test results from consumers.
D’Vera Cohn
March 15, 2005
International Journalism

Media Bias in Covering the Tsunami in Aceh

‘Indonesian journalists do not understand Aceh stories from the Acehnese perspective.’
Andreas Harsono
March 15, 2005
Journalist’s Trade

Finding Necessary Evidence to Back Up a Tip

A 17-month investigation about drinking water pollution prompts action.
Scott Streater
March 15, 2005
International Journalism

A Question of Representation

‘When no reporters, photographers or news editors come from the fishing community, it is unlikely this community’s problems will be understood ….’
S. Anand
March 15, 2005
Journalist’s Trade

Taking on a Traumatic Reporting Assignment in Southern Thailand

‘… the smell of the dead bodies is something you just don’t know without having been through it before.’
Kavi Chongkittavorn
March 15, 2005
Journalist’s Trade

By Its Absence Water Becomes a Big Story

‘I try to focus my coverage on people whose lives intersect with water.’
Seth Hettena
March 15, 2005
Journalist’s Trade

Why Journalists Need to Cover the Water Story

It’s the economy, stupid.
Stuart Leavenworth
March 15, 2005
Journalist’s Trade

Educating Journalists in Nepal About Sanitation and Water Issues

By bringing awareness and information to reporters, stories about these topics are starting to be told.
Soniya Thapa
March 15, 2005
Journalist’s Trade

Covering Water When It’s a Commodity

‘Tracking the battles over water isn’t a beat—it’s a career.’
Mark Grossi
March 15, 2005
Opinion

Spring 2005: Words & Reflections Introduction

Arguments for journalistic quality typically assert the importance of First Amendment responsibilities. In his book, “The Vanishing Newspaper: Saving Journalism in the Information Age,” Philip Meyer, Knight Chair in Journalism…
Melissa Ludtke
March 15, 2005
Journalist’s Trade

Spring 2005: Tsunami Coverage Introduction

“When the tsunami hit Thailand’s coastal line … nobody in this country would have thought that Mother Nature could inflict such casualties to the land of smile.” With those words,…
Melissa Ludtke
March 15, 2005
Journalist’s Trade

Mainstream News Reporting Ignores Critical Water Issues

In India, ‘reportage on this complex subject has regressed to its earlier character—unsophisticated and immature.’
Rakesh Kalshian
March 15, 2005
Journalist’s Trade

No Agua, No Vida

A photographer chronicles the slow death of the Colorado River Delta.
John Trotter
March 15, 2005
Journalist’s Trade

Water Surfaces as a Story Only When It Floods

Three years after the Elbe River flood, ‘it is even harder to get these topics back into the news.’
Dagmar Dehmer
March 15, 2005
Journalist’s Trade

When Coverage of a Water Crisis Vanishes

‘Unless there is a real and apparent danger … reporters will find it hard to convince editors to dedicate time and space for water stories.’
Zafrir Rinat
March 15, 2005
Journalist’s Trade

Reporting From the Nation of the Nile

A journalist describes approaches to and experiences with coverage of Egypt’s water issues.
Nadia El-Awady
March 15, 2005
From the Curator

Continuity of Change at the Nieman Foundation

‘While its ideals are deeply rooted in the core mission, the foundation could never afford to stand still.’
Bob Giles
March 15, 2005
Journalist’s Trade

Reporting on Dams in Dictator-Run Countries

Journalists’ access to construction sites is curtailed, so environmental effects and population displacement can’t be easily reported.
Supalak Ganjanakhundee
March 15, 2005
Journalist’s Trade

Engaging Viewers in Conflicts About Water

Filmmakers invite ‘viewers to commit themselves for a while to the characters on screen and the choices they make.’
Alan Snitow
March 15, 2005
Nieman Notes

A Photojournalist Returns to Vietnam

‘… I finally got to make some peaceful and quiet pictures.’
Steve Northup
March 15, 2005
Journalist’s Trade

How to Read Digital Newsbooks

Unlike the Web, Digital Newsbooks are designed to be downloaded and read offline. Here’s what you need to read a Digital Newsbook: A computer with Microsoft Windows 2000 or XP…
Roger Fidler
March 15, 2005
Complexity Makes Ocean Fishing a Tough Story
Journalist’s Trade

Complexity Makes Ocean Fishing a Tough Story

‘… the more I learned about fishing, the less clarity there seemed.’
Beth Daley
March 15, 2005
Journalist’s Trade

Connecting Coastal Growth With the Gulf of Mexico’s Decay

‘Not everything is black and white, nor do the words legal and illegal do justice to these issues.’
Eric Staats
March 15, 2005
Nieman Notes

Frank del Olmo’s Words Are a Tribute to His Life

While he ‘wrote through Latino eyes, the core themes he explored in his columns—the quest for truth and justice—are universal.’
Frank O. Sotomayor
March 15, 2005
Nieman Notes

‘Commentaries on His Times’

Here are some excerpts from columns that appear in the book, “Frank del Olmo: Commentaries on His Times:”“A Dissenting Vote on the Endorsement of Pete Wilson,” October 31, 1994… Unfortunately,…
Frank del Olmo
March 15, 2005
Journalist’s Trade

Local TV Investigates Who Is Polluting the Water

A series of news reports found city agencies ignoring their own regulations and illegally polluting water in Dallas.
Paul Adrian
March 15, 2005
Journalist’s Trade

The Owens Lake Project

Areas on the lakebed that generate dust must be controlled with one of three approved dust-control measures: flooding with shallow sheets of water, establishing native salt-tolerant vegetation, or covering the…
David Maisel
March 15, 2005
Opinion

When People’s Suffering is Portrayed as Art

Sebastião Salgado’s photographs ‘represent everything that is meaningful, controversial and difficult about “concerned photography.”’
Michele McDonald
March 15, 2005
Opinion

Iraq War Documentaries Fill a Press Vacuum

‘… filmmakers have become a source of alternative explanations for the war in Iraq and the news coverage of it, as well as critics of the administration’s policies.’
Lorie Conway
March 15, 2005
Journalist’s Trade

Using Narrative to Tell Stories About Water

‘The imperatives of narrative nonfi ction carried me like a current to the book’s last words.’
Jacques Leslie
March 15, 2005
Opinion

Strong Narrative Writing Features Character

‘Like all the great narrative journalists, [Mark] Bowden must be a relentless asker of questions, a painstaking gatherer of minute detail.’
Russell Frank
March 15, 2005
Journalist’s Trade

When Water and Political Power Intersect

A journalist probes the story of water privatization in Jakarta, Indonesia.
Andreas Harsono
March 15, 2005
Opinion

A Prayer for Quality Journalism as Public Media Corporations Focus on Margin and Financial Return

In crunching the numbers, an author argues that investment is necessary to secure a future for news—in newspapers or on the Internet.
Lou Ureneck
March 15, 2005
Journalist’s Trade

Spring 2005: Introduction

Water is the essence of life, and its cleanliness, availability, and our use and abuse of it are stories meriting reporters’ and editors’ attention. Yet as Stuart Leavenworth, who covered…
Melissa Ludtke
March 15, 2005