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I'm writing about California, regional stories of national interest, women’s issues, and the evolving role of the media and today’s journalist.

Please check it out, comment and become a fan!

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/pamela-tom

Media Technology Summit

I attended the Media Technology Summit at Google in September. The attendees included news organization executives, technology experts, and a sprinkling of journalists from print, radio and online -- no TV.

Highlights:

• Online news sources are building topic-driven sites, using tech to drive readers to regional sites.
• Focus on consumers and the changing audience.
• How to create revenue: advertising as an integrated, valuable part of the experience rather than an annoyance.
• Berkeley J-School dean Neil Henry talked about the Bay Area News Project, the new venture in community-based news.

We learned about new programs and evolving technologies but the lessons from the now defunct Rocky Mountain News resonated ... John Temple said,

Know your competition. Know your goal. Know consumer needs.

Keep new ventures free from rules of the old.

Watch the webcast.

Hope in N. Korea: Bill Clinton meets with Kim Jong-il

News that Bill Clinton is in North Korea negotiating the release of Current TV journalists Euna Lee and Laura Ling hit the NY Times Monday night.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/05/world/asia/05korea.html?_r=1&hp

Already, there are nearly 100 reader comments -- most applaud the former prez's efforts.

Interesting timing given the San Francisco Chronicle's article, also yesterday, citing the US's hypocritical behavior toward foreign journalists.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/08/03/MNN4189PDP.DTL

Bottom line, Lee and Ling need to come home. Go Bill!

In the trenches

I'm blogging from New York today. On the front page of The Times, a story of courage and conviction, "Times Reporter Escapes Taliban After 7 Months." 

(http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/21/world/asia/21taliban.html?_r=1&hp)

The kidnapping of 41 year-old David Rohde; an Afghan reporter, Tahir Ludin; and their local driver, Asadullah Mangal never made the headlines before now because The Times feared for their safety. Rohde was conducting researching for a book when kidnappers snatched the trio outside of Kabul. Rohde and Ludin escaped their captors by climbing over the wall of a compound in the the North Waziristan region of Pakistan. 

Rohde, a history major and graduate of Brown University, is described as "not one to regale colleagues with war stories, instead saving his storytelling for articles." In 1996, he won a Pulitzer prize for international reporting for exposing the killings of Bosnian Muslims in Srebrenica. The year before, Bosnian Serb authorities held Rohde for 10 days after he was caught photographing mass graves. After the 9/11 attacks, he worked as a co-bureau chief for The Times in South Asia. He had travelled to Afghanistan before, most recently, last November.

Rohde is the kind of journalist that makes me both cheer and cower. We can't all be on the front lines of war but exposing the truth, regardless of the risk, is the journalist's creed. It's the essence of all that I ever set out to do but haven't even come close. I applaud Rohde's conviction to find the truth. I feel disappointed with all of us who call ourselves journalists but have never truly tested our limits.

It's not a matter of fear. It's a matter of responsibility. In local news, my most risky work involved sitting in an interrogation room with a murder suspect and knocking on the door of a suspected rapist. This was back in the one-man band days; just me and my camera. Any fear was quickly outweighed by my assignment and admittedly, my own curiosity. It's those adrenaline-infused moments that send caution to the wind. 

At the same time, I'm a mother of two and my responsibility to be safe for "them" takes priority; it must come first. When American troops first entered Kuwait, I recall being jealous that the station's anchor was going to go with my usual cameraman, instead of me. It was a relatively safe, if not uncomfortable, assignment, but for years, there had been no overseas situation big enough to warrant sending local crews. So, I never went. The war continued, and stories of journalists abductions, executions, and deaths began to mount. 

Rohde's responsibility to write about the Taliban clearly outweighed any sense, on his part, of personal responsibility. The article says he was married nine months ago; and in captivity for seven months of that time. To his bride: this is one marriage where "he (definitely) won't change." Get ready for a lifetime of dangerous overseas assignments by your new husband.

Ludin, the local Afghan reporter who was working as Rohde's interpreter, is also not to be ignored. The Times says he is a father of seven children and responsible for an extended family of 17. Was he being a journalist or trying to earn a living for his family? Probably both.

 

As I sit here in a Tribeca loft, I look outside and see the big buzzing city to my right. To my left, I spot my host's Emmy award on the bookshelf. It's for writing a PBS documentary about Andy Warhol. Awards are an affirmation of recognition. They represent more than hard work. One hopes a measure of passion goes into every award-winning piece.

So where is my passion? As I read about Rohde and monitor the imprisonment of the two Current TV journalists in North Korea, what am I doing to call myself a journalist?

Well, these days, I'm off the streets and working in public relations to earn a paycheck. Yeah, it's that responsibility thing again. Have one kid in college, another going next year. Cha-ching! But the gnawing won't let up. I will be back. 

Rohde's family and colleagues say he never wants to be the story, just the storyteller. Well, despite his intentions, his personal story is one I will remember. He shines a light where we all need to be looking. He gives readers a window to the world. And for those of us who call ourselves journalists, it's this kind of reporter that gives us fresh motivation to aim high. 

Local TV News & The Fight for Ad Dollars

The San Jose Mercury News reports on Bay Area television stations and declining ad revenues as more viewers switch to web content as their information source.
Check it out:
http://www.mercurynews.com/business/ci_12424461?source=email

Spreading the swine flu ... story by story

Ever since the swine flu pandemic hit the news, we've watched it grow and multiply. Front page headlines, team coverage, the latest at eleven. The media infected the public with a deluge of facts, reaction and speculation. It's as if the first few gasps of the swine flu outbreak broke out into a contagious cough that every news outlet caught and spit back out. I kept up on the plethora of perspectives until the swine flu hit home.

No, no one here has the flu but I felt its effects when my daughter's school just canceled its parents weekend. My daughter is attending school out of state and parents weekend is held twice a year. It's a much anticipated time to visit your kid and enjoy special events on campus. I've been looking forward to my daughter's dance concert for months. Now the concert and other activities have been called off; parents are discouraged from visiting the campus because if even one swine flu case is detected at the school, administrators say they will be forced to cancel classes.

I understand the concern but is it warranted? Is it reason enough for us doting parents to miss that long-awaited dance performance, musical concert or sporting event? I think not.

Today the San Francisco Chronicle discussed the media scare, "The Swine Flu Outbreak - Some describe media coverage as overblown" - http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2009/05/03/MN3B17CKP7.DTL

Writer Joe Garofoli adeptly points out how the 24-hour cable news outlets have covered the outbreak using details and visuals that "inspire fear." Garofoli says, "No detail about the flu -- often delivered without context -- has been too tiny to go unreported ... "He acknowledges some insightful coverage by CNN and NPR but he adds all too often, journalists themselves don't know what to do with all of the information or perhaps, misinformation if you look at the abundance of ink, or airtime, devoted to the virus

Yes, health-related stories sell, just like animal stories do, but I don't want my front page or tonight's top stories to be homogenous. I also don't want to learn about the 'tiger attack at the zoo' or the 'inhumanely treated chickens' through the voice of paranoia or fear. Just the facts will do, thank you.

I'm still going to visit my daughter this weekend. Whether it's an official parents weekend or not. After all, it's Mother's Day.

Wanted: A Super-Journalist

When I became a journalist, the galleys had to be waxed before pasting them onto a page mock-up. When I transitioned to broadcast news, we wrote scripts on triplicate, carbon copy sheets.

The UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism has been seeking a new dean for two years. One newspaper says the final two candidates most recently under consideration pulled out because the J-school is seeking a multimedia dean, a seasoned journalist who is also current on the latest communications technologies: web news, online editing, social networking, the works.

The new standards also apply to everyday street reporters like me. It’s not enough to deliver an informative, accurate story. These days, journalists need to know how to produce content for the web, from blogs to shooting and editing video to using ‘facebook’ and ‘twitter’ to spread the news. How do you keep up and keep your job? There’s a long waiting line for multimedia training workshops. Recently laid-off journalists have to do more than send out resumes and clips. You must learn and invest in new skills to even be considered for a new job.

Lucky for me I now have an empty nest and technically, more time to make myself marketable, but becoming a super-journalist is a super challenge. I question how the time I’ve spent becoming “plugged in” takes away from my true calling: to find and tell the story, the old-fashioned way.