Nieman Reports

Summer 2004

The Energy Beat: Complex and Compelling

Cover for Summer 2004

To a journalist’s ear, the words “energy” and “crisis” belong together, in part because coverage of energy issues has been fueled largely by episodic coverage of difficulties people confront when sources of energy diminish—such as gasoline price hikes and shortages—or they vanish, as in electricity blackouts. To some degree this approach is changing as better-trained journalists pursue stories about energy and keep watchful eyes on a wider range of critical energy issues. – Melissa Ludtke, Editor

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Journalist’s Trade: The Energy Beat

Summer 2004: Journalist’s Trade Introduction

By Melissa Ludtke• Journalist’s Trade• June 15, 2004

Watchdog reporting resides at the core of what journalism does. Its roots dig deeply into the common ground uniting the muckrakers’ unearthing of public and private scandals a century ago with what investigative reporters are illuminating today. Though reporting and distribution of this news is very different in the digital era, unfortunately the human conditions requiring press scrutiny are not. These include patterns of corruption and malfeasance among those holding powerful positions of public and private trust. – Melissa Ludtke, Editor Read more

Words & Reflections: War and Terror

Summer 2004: Introduction

By Melissa Ludtke• June 15, 2004

War and Terror “Government has no legitimate claim to sole control of secrecy decisions, even on matters of common defense,” Barton Gellman, a Washington Post project reporter observed when he spoke about reporting on stories … Read more

‘Avoiding the Cross Hairs’: Excerpts

By Rod Nordland• June 15, 2004

Newsweek, April 12, 2004 “They live in hiding. They move around Baghdad by stealth. They sneak into and out of the country by gloom of night, and when challenged by strangers for their nationality, they’re ready with a practiced lie. Read more

Digital Photography and News Images

By David D. Perlmutter• June 15, 2004

Another issue to emerge from the Iraq War coverage, as noted in recent Congressional testimony by no less than Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, is the omnipresence of digital photography. Amateur pictures have always found their way into the news … Read more

Resources for Reporting on Violence

By Roger Simpson• June 15, 2004

Much of what we have learned, and of what we teach, is included in the book I co-wrote with William Coté of Michigan State University called “Covering Violence: A Guide to Ethical Reporting about Victims and Trauma,” published by Columbia … Read more

Words & Reflections: Books

International Journalism

Curator's Corner

Nieman Notes

Masthead

Publisher
Bob Giles
Editor
Melissa Ludtke
Assistant Editor
Lois Fiore
Editorial Assistant
Elizabeth Son
Design Editor
Deborah Smiley
Cover Story
One of the offshore windmills set up in the North Sea, about nine miles west of the small village of Blavandshuk near Esbjerg, Denmark in October 2002. Standing 363 feet tall, the electricity windmills cover eight square miles of water. Heribert Proepper/The Associated Press.

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