Shannon McEnerney | Jan. 25, 2010
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| The Associated Press |
| In this Jan. 15 image made from Channel 7 in Australia, a Channel 7 journalist holds a 16-month-old baby girl after she was rescued from the rubble in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Students have been discussing reporters’ roles as they examine coverage of the earthquake in Haiti. |
“We have plenty of days when we can talk about more historical items, traditions or fundamentals,” said Pieratt, who teaches J200 Reporting, Writing and Editing I and J343 Broadcast News. “When these things happen, you jump on it, and the students usually respond to it.”
The breaking story has served as a hands-on learning tool for many of the classes in the School of Journalism. Instructors like Pieratt are using the earthquake as an opportunity to show breaking news at work and how professional journalists are reporting and conveying the most up-to-date information.
The situation in Haiti fits perfectly with associate professor Steve Raymer‘s semester plan, as J460 Reporting War and Conflict addresses covering war, terrorism and humanitarian efforts. And, Raymer can provide first-hand descriptions of the country. While working as a photojournalist, Raymer covered Haiti’s hurricanes in the 1980s as well as covered the country’s one-time dictator, Francois "Papa Doc" Duvalier.
“What happened in Haiti has presented us with a case study,” Raymer said. He said he wants his students to think about the role of the correspondent as a superhero, to think about the role of TV doctors, and to think of why the U.S. military is equipped, qualified and trained for this type of role in Haiti, among many other things.
Raymer’s class also has discussed compassion fatigue, which is something that happens when people become desensitized to pictures of violence.
“What kind of tools do we need to open people’s hearts?” Raymer asked.
He said he has been heartened by how many students have been following the story.
“It’s a good thing that students know what’s going on,” Raymer said. “All semester, we’ll probably look at Haiti.”
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| The Associated Press |
| Several classes have looked at doctor-reporters’ level of interaction with Haitian earthquake victims. Here, doctors, including CNN’s Sanjay Gupta, third from left, prepare a victim for surgery. |
“I remember one child screaming and that described the devastation more than any words could,” Pieratt said. “To hear that sound and see that video was incredible.”
Ralph Winslow Visiting Professor Jim Bright’s J560 Communication for Nonprofits course is discussing the crisis in Haiti, but largely from the nonprofit perspective. The class, which meets at 5:30 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays, started just 35 minutes after the earthquake had hit Haiti Jan. 12.
Bright said the earthquake shook up the style of the course schedule.
“How could you not talk about it when you are talking about media coverage and nonprofits?” Bright said.
Bright’s class teleconferenced on Jan. 14 with journalist Jacqueline Salmon, who has covered the aftermath of events such as Sept. 11, Hurricane Katrina, the Southeast Asia tsunami and Hurricane Gustav.
Bright said he asked Salmon if she could teleconference with his students because he knew she would have “strong, strong thoughts” about Haiti.
The class focuses on nonprofits in the media, and how both journalists and nonprofits interact with each other in daily media coverage. One of the assignments is for the students to pick a nonprofit and track its media coverage during the course of the semester. Bright’s course is focusing on Haiti’s situation not only by examining the media, but examining the media portrayal of the nonprofits involved in assisting Haiti.
Graduate student Jennifer Pocock is enrolled in Bright’s class and said that students have a bet underway to see how long it will take before media coverage will turn negative against nonprofits such as Red Cross, a shift Salmon predicted as part of any disaster news story cycle.
Pocock said that having Salmon teleconference with the class was beneficial to hear a first person perspective on covering the aftermath of disasters.
“If and when we are in these situations, what are we going to do to get the most valuable information as fast as possible?” Pocock said.
And while Haiti is a prominent story and still appears on the front page of The New York Times, its coverage already is starting to fade, Pocock said.
“I hope the media keeps running coverage,” she said. “It’s really interesting to have all these talks about the ethics of covering it – what would it be like, sitting on a pile of rubble? And do I go and break up a fight or do I stand by and cover it? Until you are in a situation like that, you can’t arrive at a solution. It definitely makes me think about my journalistic goals, and that’s really valuable in the long run.”
Adjunct lecturer Gena Asher’s J201 Reporting, Writing and Editing II class looked at Haiti from an ethical perspective, discussing the role of the doctor-reporter as many broadcast news organizations’ medical reporters who also are physicians have treated earthquake victims as the cameras rolled. Students talked about reporters becoming part of the story in this way and the difficulty all reporters have in remaining uninvolved in while covering catastrophe, Asher said.
Pieratt said that the reality of reporting in a disaster zone sparked discussion in his classes, too.
“What if you were there? How do you put yourself into somebody else’s shoes and cover it?” he asked.
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| The Associated Press |
| The Communications for Nonprofits students are looking at how nonprofits, such as the Red Cross, are portrayed in the media. Here, a Canadian Red Cross worker tends to a child’s wounds. |
“Haiti is going to be a story for a long time to come but the shine is going to wear off, the drama will wear off,” Pieratt said. “It’s too bad, but it’s human nature and journalistic nature: what’s the next big story?”
Even though Haiti may lose its prominence in the media, Pieratt said it is important to keep a constant eye on the coverage, even while the media moves on to other stories.
“You can’t just forsake the story because it is not as shocking anymore,” Pieratt said. “It is part of social responsibility to stay with it.”
Haiti’s earthquake disaster was more than a chance for professors to teach their students about breaking news and how to cover a crisis as it unfolds. It was also a chance to remind students of journalistic values.
“One thing for sure that we want to give the students is sharing the heart of the journalist, the conscience of a journalist, and the responsibility of a professional journalist,” Pieratt said.
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