Cristi Hegranes is from Santa Fe, which means everything she does is spot on. This place produces only the most sophisticated of human being, and I’m not biased at all. I am a trusted source on this people. Trust me. Hegranes brings us “Byline: How Local Journalists Can Improve the Global News Industry and Change the World.” Unconvinced? Watch a lot of Fox or MSNBC? Read the Times or the Post? But Hegranes doesn’t just talk the talk, she walks the walk and has for many, many years.
Seventeen years ago, Hegranes founded Global Press to address the very issue of local journalism. This I find commendable, especially when you dig in to what that means and what it entailed. (All female reporting staff.) Me, I mostly spent the last seventeen years complaining about the media. It was much easier and I could do it from anywhere. This book not only brings stunning data in regard to “big media,” but also brings data about what consumers want but can’t get. Namely, international news from people who actually understand it. On the ground, local reporters.
The book also goes after the horrendous “parachute” practices of major media sources. She interviews reporters who practice this style of journalism, and discusses others who were eventually outed for their shoddy reporting. Journalism is a thankless job in many ways, and this too is covered in a chapter about salaries and the destruction caused by C19.
I love this book but I also was a photojournalism major and spent the first five years of my career in journalism. I loved my time but it truly is a train wreck of a business these days. There is one thing I did not read in this book that makes me wonder how Cristi feels. We now live in an era when a certain generation spend much of their time looking for things to be upset by. Over the past three years, I have routinely encountered those who say “Oh, you are white, you can’t do stories in the Native American community.” “You can’t do stories in the African American community.” My response is always, “Yes, I can.” Do not for one second let some hipster snowflake tell you othewise. Hegranes herself points out that good journalism CAN come from parachute style reporting. Is it the best option? Maybe, mabye not, but a good reporter, regardless of skin, gender or language ability has the potential to make things right if given the time and resources.
If you are one of those people who say “it’s all bad,” or you are one of those people who think “your side” is right and the “other side,” is wrong, well, you just aren’t that bright. There is amazing reporting being done. And sure, big media knows there is profit in preaching to the choir. (Fox, MSNBC) If you are a “us vs them” person just know you have been radicalized, my friend. But this is perhaps the most important takeaway from this entire book. Page 167. “Anyone can read the news. But too few people have the skills to truly assess a piece of journalism.” Ain’t this the truth. Like Aaron Rogers claiming “He reads,” and that “He did research,” to come to his conspiracy soaked conclusions about Sandy Hook, or COVID or Jeffry Epstein, etc. Or my radicalized friends quoting things they read on Facebook not knowing they are being played for profit. This…is…not…news. And this is killing us. Get it, read it.
Comments 8
I am not a pie-in-the-sky optimist by any measure. But I do find it interesting that many of the articles I read in https://reasonstobecheerful.world/ never make it to mainstream media. This may have the net effect of a rain drop in the ocean, may become a movement and more likely something in between: journalism students stepping up to fill the gap. But these “kids” certainly aren’t sitting on their hands and complaining without doing anything about it:
https://reasonstobecheerful.world/student-journalists-fill-local-news-deserts/?utm_source=Reasons+to+be+Cheerful&utm_campaign=5ffe8996e9-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2021_11_22_04_40_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_89fb038efe-5ffe8996e9-389931434
Author
I think there are so many artificially angry people now, at least here in the good old US of A. I’ve said this many times, our education system is lacking which means millions of people will listen to a podcast and think they are getting the news. And we live in an age when people invent whatever narrative most fits their ideology, the facts be damned. Yesterday, I was speaking with someone who is now all in on Robert Kennedy. I said, “I can’t get past the antisemitic tropes and conspiracies.” They said, “Oh, he never said anything antisemitic.” When I explained what he said this person replied, “Well, he hasn’t said anything recently.”
Yes.
Related to your last point: I read Stop Reading The News by Rolf Dobelli this year. I hadn’t much thought of the difference between “news” and “journalism” prior to that.
Author
Oh yes. Great point. And a podcast isn’t journalism. Something a hundred million plus Americans seem to have a hard time processing.
Another book added to my way to long list. Currently I’m reading Extraterrestrial by Avi Loeb, just passed first quarter and it’s really going down easy, very interesting read, makes you wonder
Author
Stupid question. What is it about?
I wonder why there is no reply option for your answer..
But back to the Extraterrestrial! It’s the first book of Avi Loeb I touched. He is an astrophysicist whose background is in philosophy. This makes for a good combo as he is discussing very complicated things in a very approachable way for non-scientists like me for example. I just passed half of the book last evening and by now it’s a very interesting internal dialogue about us as humans, science, and search for other intelligent forms of life. The trigger to all of this was an object named Oumuamua which passed our solar system in 2017. It was the first observed object which came from outside of our cozy Milky Way and it raised a lot of questions as it didn’t behave quite as expected while passing close to our sun. The book touches also topics of education, curiosity, life-changing decisions, and many others that make you think, reflect, and dream. At least it does that for me.
Author
That sounds awesome. Gonna reserve it. Thank you.