Journalists must get uncomfortable to move forward the Poynter way
Author: Michael Higdon | 06.14.2009In two weeks, 39 Poynter Fellows were charged with traveling to various arbitrary geographic locations in St. Petersburg, Florida to find a story after participating in classes and break-out sessions from 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. everyday.
This year, The Poynter Institute for Media Studies‘ Poynter College Fellowship for Young Journalists differed from previous years in that it lasted two weeks instead of six and there were 40 fellows instead of 25. This year we had the pleasure of working with Al Tompkins of Al’s Morning Meeting, Sara Quinn on the visual journalism faculty and other notables such as, Bill Couch of USA Today, Roy Peter Clark, Chip Scanlan and Joe Grimm of Poynter and many other faculty members, past Poynter Fellows and movers/shakers.
Of the up and coming movers/shakers in the world are the highly motivated, exceptionally intelligent fellows:
- Arcynta Ali Child
New York University - Kelly Allen
University of Central Florida - Andrew Astleford
University of Missouri - Nicolas Barajas
Ithaca College - Vanessa Bezic
Northwestern University - Colin Bridge
University of New Mexico - Matthew Buxton
University of Nebraska – Lincoln - Jennifer Canfield
University of Alaska Fairbanks - Sheila Dabu
Carleton University (Canada) - Jake Donahue
North Idaho College - Oscar Durand
Rochester Institute of Technology - Matt Eich
Ohio University - Marcey Evans
LeMoyne Owen College - McKenna Ewen
University of Minnesota - John Ferguson
University of New Hampshire - Caryn Grant
Howard University - Drew Harwell
Univeristy of Florida - Allison Hegseth
University of Florida - Jason Henry
University of Florida - Mike Higdon
University of Nevada - Maren Jepsen
Michigan State University - Diane Lee
Bradley University - Greg Linch
University of Miami - Andrew Maddocks
DePauw University - Stephanie Makosky
Syracuse University - Aaron Montoya
Colorado State University - Mark Mulligan
The University of Texas - Shelby Murphy
Ball State University - Katie Myrick
Indiana University - Ali Newton
Ball State University - Elliot Njus
University of Missouri-Columbia - Bridget O’Donnell
University of Michigan - Steven Overly
University of Maryland - Meghan Peters
University of Washington - Ashley Porter
Emerson College - Dagny Salas
Northwestern University - Herbenesha Smith
Sam Houston State University - Ryan Strong
Northern Illinois University - Sean Sullivan
University of Massachusetts Amherst - Jennifer Surgent
University of Central Florida
From an observational point of view, The Poynter Institute appears to work on the assumption that, if you do great journalism, everything else will be okay. If a news organization is full of amazing journalists willing to move forward and change, it will ensure its own survival. More specifically, Poynter doesn’t appear to describe journalism as a particular method more than a purpose.
Their Mission Statement:
The Poynter Institute is a school dedicated to teaching and inspiring journalists and media leaders. It promotes excellence and integrity in the practice of craft and in the practical leadership of successful businesses. It stands for a journalism that informs citizens and enlightens public discourse. It carries forward Nelson Poynter’s belief in the value of independent journalism.
One of the most important lessons you can learn at Poynter is that the arbitrary word many of us put in front of our profession – print, broadcast, web – is meaningless or simply describes the type of newsroom we’re in.
I came in here thinking I was a ‘print’ journalist,” one Poynter Fellow said at an emotional graduation ceremony. “I just wanted to write. Multimedia and the web were not my thing or important to me because I was ‘just a writer.’ But after finishing these two weeks, I realize there’s no such thing as a ‘print’ journalist. We’re all just journalists and we just tell stories. It doesn’t matter how.
At Poynter, above all, we learned about people – how to shut up and listen to people tell their stories. We ignored news pegs and focused on making stories about one person; rarely issues, trends or spot news. Style and news value are important, but compelling narratives are more important. And wielding powerful, compelling narratives takes creativity.
Many students I speak to agree journalism schools suck creativity out of students for four years. Though professors and curriculum think they are teaching us to make stories, many are not. It’s easier to teach style than it is to teach creativity. Some, like me, don’t believe you can teach creativity. But you can unteach creativity by showing students creativity is not valuable or necessary.
Creativity in journalism is an uncomfortable process. It involves twisting your brain into odd shapes, looking in strange places, talking to people others don’t talk to. Then you have to find ways to relate that story through complicated methods, such as writing, photographing, graphing, networking, videoing and hundreds of other new methods.
One lesson we learned from Poynter, then, is that it’s okay to be uncomfortable. Get used to being uncomfortable and spending time on the line between absolute failure and glorious success. More than that, it’s important to be creative and critically think about everything you do. Media is not a safe, happy place. If you’re satisfied with what you’re doing and comfortable, you’re not learning or working hard enough.
Journalists, like any other person, like certainty and stability. We all like to know what our job duties are and how to carry those out. Like an accountant who knows he needs to balance the books every year, journalists know they need to tell stories. But unlike the accountant whose process is always mathematical, journalists’ process is transforming.
So be like the Poynter Fellows. Students who never used tools or thought of telling stories a certain way before, embraced new methods and succeeded in telling new stories in new ways in less than two weeks. I can guarantee you almost all of us we’re uncomfortable the whole time.
My favorite advice fits most aptly with this lesson:
“Take chances, make mistakes, get messy!” — Miss Frizzle
I’ll continue to blog throughout the week of a few other lessons we learned from the Poynter Fellowship. For archived live coverage, search #pcf09 on Twitter for the Poynter College Fellowship 2009 (May 17 – May 30).
Below are links to some of the stories we published this year:
http://nicbarajas.com/bucket/poynter
http://mikehigdon.com/chapelnew
http://mikehigdon.com/astleford/castaways
http://tocobagamound.wordpress.com/
http://poynterextra.org/visualvoice/groominggulfport/
http://andrewmaddocks.wordpress.com
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