Inner City Journalism

The suburb is Scarborough and it is the most easterly part of the Greater Toronto Area. It has a high proportion of immigrants, minorities and working poor. Like a number of European cities, Toronto has consigned much of its immigrant population to the outer suburbs, while the center of Toronto - which used to house the waves of immigrants - is now filled with a more affluent and whiter population.

Ryerson University (where I teach journalism) will host a boot camp for kids from a Toronto suburb at the end of June. The kids who will be part of the program known as "Verse City" will come to downtown Toronto (where Ryerson is located) for four days and nights. Some - I'm told - have never been to central Toronto before. They will be given some of the rudiments of journalism, production, writing and interviewing. But these kids (aged 12 to 24) already have a considerable amount of media savvy under their belts. They've been involved through school and after-school programs with video, print, radio and especially online journalism.

They address the issues that concern them: violence, poverty, lack of opportunities and the ghettoization of Scarborough. At the same time, these people have tremendous pride in their community. Scarborough is also known as "Scarberia" to downtowners and the kids resent this snobbery.

I'll be speaking to the group about interviewing techniques, which is mostly about listening and listening carefully. Interesting enough, in this week's New Yorker magazine, there is a profile of CNN's Larry King. The NYer's Lauren Collins decided to interview King using his own approach which is mostly to never ask a question that doesn't begin with the word "WHY."

But will the kids from Scarborough find Ryerson's "professional" approach useful? Relevant? Or will we just ignore their own journalistic values in order to reproduce younger versions of ourselves? Is there a way to incorporate the best of what they have experienced with the most useful tools around?

Doug Mitchell, who used to lead training programs at NPR until the recent cutbacks cut him loose was very good at finding ways to help his kids blend the insider culture of NPR with the best of what would-be journalists can offer.

Time to apply the "Mitchell Method" at the Ryerson boot camp.

A Media Lynch Mob in Toronto

As I write this, the body of Victoria Stafford has yet to be found. The eight-year old girl disappeared six weeks ago on her way home from school in Woodstock, Ontario. Since then through southern Ontario, the sound you hear most these days is the howling of the Toronto media mob, calling for justice.

Without question, this appears to be a horrendous crime: an eight year old girl from small town Ontario, snatched off the street by a man and his female companion. Much has been written and aired about the squalid backgrounds of the two alleged perpetrators and the dysfunctional parents of the victim.

But nowhere in the coverage - especially in the Toronto Globe and Mail or on CBC Radio and TV - has there been any perspective around the nature of the crime, whether this is a trend or an aberration or even if the two suspects are given the benefit of the doubt in order for them to have a fair trial - assuming they are formally charged with the murder of Victoria Stafford.

What this coverage does is heighten the sense that our society is surrounded by sexual predators who are just waiting to abduct defenseless little girls.

American media and its Canadian imitators have perfected this scenario: a young, attractive woman or girl – usually blonde – disappears. Police are baffled. Local townspeople are fearful and angry. The media milk this story from every possible angle. Rarely do we hear about an abducted girl or young woman of color who has been kidnapped.

Part of the hysteria around child abductions has been exacerbated by a well-financed organization based in Alexandria, Virginia called the Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Celebrities such as Jamie Lee Curtis have been part of the Center’s lobbying efforts in Washington, DC. The media are usually only too eager to help.

The Center has also claimed that annually more than 750,000 children go missing in the United States. The media repeats this without checking with the US Department of Justice. In 1999, there were 115 so-called “stranger abductions” in the entire country. Most abductions are committed by a parent in a custody dispute. But the vast majority of missing children – almost 90% - are runaways who return home within 72 hours, but whose disappearance has been reported to the police.

In Canada, the RCMP runs a National Missing Children Service and the statistics here are remarkably similar to those in the US: “stranger abductions” account for very few of the missing children in Canada. Yet this angle to the Victoria Stafford is ignored or downplayed.

While crime rates in both the US and Canada continue to fall, crime reporting continues to rise in all media. The Stafford murder has come at a time when all media are looking for ways to boost ratings and circulation and all Toronto media are taking full advantage.

The sad story of Victoria Stafford will inevitably end, and the aftermath will be a heightened sense of our own precariousness and insecurity. What we will likely see more of is our media choosing to concentrate on crime reporting because of its powerful emotional resonance. In the news business, fear can drive the audience to buy newspapers and turn on the TV. So far this seems to be working.

Crime reporting is more cost-effective than other kinds of reporting and that’s especially true at a time when all media organizations are struggling to survive financially. So the ease of reporting has its own appeal: the daily routine where the police give out a briefing and reporters act as stenographers. It’s 9 to 5 journalism at its best. And it’s a proven winner because the kidnapping and murder of a little girl is as old as the Lindbergh Kidnapping. And we, in the audience, keep demanding that the same old story be retold.

The details of the case are horrifying enough; the media’s treatment of this story has only made it worse.

Can Ombudsmen Survive in a Digital Age?

The Organization of News Ombudsmen met last week in Washington, DC in the midst of the most uncertain time for journalism in a generation. The ranks of ONO have been seriously thinned especially by American newspapers, where layoffs have been particularly severe.

Of ONO's 60 or so members, 13 ombudsmen have been dropped by US newspapers. So the mood in Washington was particularly sober.

Sober, but not depressed because amazingly enough, the spread of ombudsmanship outside of North American and UK media continues to grow. Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, India and Australia are all seeing renewed interest in the idea of a news organizations having an independent public agent who can act on behalf of citizens.

While news organizations around the world adopt the ombudsman, the concept remains strong especially in the United States in all public and educational sectors. Only news organizations seem curiously indifferent to the idea. In fact, the list of colleges and universities, hospitals and other public agencies are rapidly hiring ombudsmen both for internal purposes and external relations.

One of the more interesting ideas I heard while in Washington came from two longtime advocates for ombudsmen to be located inside financial institutions. Jon McBride and Jim Hostetler are pushing the idea that any business that accepts a federal government bailout must, as a condition of acceptance, create an ombudsman who can assure the staff and the taxpayers that the money is being well spent. So far, no one in the Obama administration has picked up and run with this idea. But there are some encouraging signs that some in the administration are finally listening.

Many media organizations seem to have a tin ear when it comes to acknowledging the need for public accountability. Many of us at the conference kept wondering why.

Some may be found in the litigious culture of America. Lawyers too often have final say in what can and cannot be printed or broadcast, despite the brilliance of the First Amendment. That powerful disincentive to acknowledge public concerns keeps much of journalism in a defensive crouch.

Yet studies at The Guardian in London demonstrated that once a readers' editor was hired, legal work by the newspaper's general counsel dropped by 30%. This more than paid for the cost of the ombudsman, plus an assistant. Other studies show that the credibility of news organizations rises whenever an ombudsman is hired. Overseas ombudsmen are seen as key elements in maintaining journalistic independence in a self-regulatory environment. In short, government and lobby pressures are minimized when an ombudsman can invoke readers' and viewers' concerns.

ONO has a future, but it remains cloudy. Full disclosure: ONO has asked me to its first executive director to help evangelize the concept. While there is an eager audience for ONO abroad, we will have our work cut out for us in North America as media organizations seek ways to survive.

Ironically, we are now in a time when media criticism has never been more robust. In the meantime, the ombudsmen will continue to defend the interests of the public. And ONO, as an organization will have to seek its future as much in the growing blogosphere as in the legacy media who are struggling to survive.