Journalism students say they prefer the glitter to the hard news

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EL PASO – As journalism students graduate from colleges into a tough job market every year, more and more of them are straying from hard news and are instead pursuing careers covering sports and entertainment. According to Dr. Thomas Ruggiero an associate professor of journalism at the University of Texas at El Paso campus, “…reporting on breaking hard news has become lost.”

A scenario for the new bred of entertainment reporters could look like this: Microphones in hand and cameras on record, numerous reporters anxiously wait behind velvet ropes for the first celebrity to step on to the red carpet. The first interview of the night dressed in a long, tight-fitting gown and sparkling stilettos, poses for the flashing cameras, then makes her way toward the screaming requests as they point their microphones in her direction. They yell over each other’s voices to get the first interview after the star’s stint in rehab. One reporter with a single letter logo on his microphone lands the interview and immediately riddles the troubled movie star with question after question.

Sam Donaldson — The new media wields a double-edged sword

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EL PASO, Texas — Innovations in technology —more specifically the Internet— have changed every aspect of media, transforming journalism into a swift double-edged digital sword, according to veteran ABC News reporter Sam Donaldson. Donaldson told students at his Alma Mater, the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) Tuesday that, “Everyone today thinks they are a journalist. Everyone shoots off their mouths on the Internet. To some extent this is a problem. I would prefer to listen to someone who is presenting stuff that is factual.”

The borderland native attended Texas Western College, now UTEP, and began his TV career in 1977 as a correspondent for ABC News.

In a city full of ghosts Juarez newspaper takes a surprising stand

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EL PASO, Texas — A major border news daily published a jaw-dropping front page editorial this week that seems to call on drug cartels, or whichever entities are in control of crime-plagued Ciudad Juarez, to tell them what the newspaper should publish to prevent further attacks against its staff. The September 18 editorial in El Diario de Juarez, prompted by the recent shooting death the paper’s 21-year-old photographer Luis Carlos Santiago Orozco outside a shopping mall, said, in part: “Tell us what you want from us, what you want us to publish or not publish, so we will know what to do?”

In typical knee-jerk fashion, quite a few journalists were quick to condemn the feisty border newspaper for scrapping its journalistic responsibility and caving in to the drug lords, a charge the newspaper denies. It troubles me that the major media, on both sides of the Rio Grande, did not take the time to carefully analyze the fine points of the editorial, but instead focused on the attention grabbing and alarm-raising message to “drug cartels.”

It seems that most missed the point of the long and nuanced editorial statement. Narcos, like ghosts, are unlikely to visit newsrooms or call with an offer to negotiate a public truce. They use subtle tactics instead to get what they want, like threatening to kidnap a Zacatecas editor if she didn’t publish a story about a young man who was killed by the army.

Periodistas mexicanos piden asilo político en Estados Unidos

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EL PASO, Texas — Tres periodistas mexicanos, que esperan recibir asilo político en los Estados Unidos, expusieron los peligros y amenazas sufridas durante el ejercicio de la profesión en su país en una rueda de prensa en esta ciudad el 21 de septiembre. De igual forma condenaron la muerte de alrededor de 68 de sus colegas desde el año 2000 y urgieron al presidente Felipe Calderón Hinojosa para que dimitiera pues su gobierno no garantiza la seguridad de los comunicólogos, ni de los mexicanos. Durante la conferencia, en la que participaron diversos medios internacionales, los expatriados patentizaron la confianza de que el mandatario, Barack Obama, les conceda estatus legal, después de que esta semana en Washington se aprobara el asilo solicitado por el reportero chihuahuense, Jorge Luis Aguirre. “Felipe Calderón es el principal responsable de los actos criminales que ocurren en México; es, sin lugar a dudas, un genocida”, dijo, el ex-reportero de El Diario del Noreste, en Ascensión, Chihuahua, Emilio Gutiérrez Soto. Y agregó: “Debe ser llevado ante los juzgados internacionales para que responda por los crímenes constantes que se dan a diario en mi patria en donde no existe una sola familia que no haya sido tocada”.

Los sicarios toman la palabra en México

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EL PASO, Texas — Emilio Gutiérrez quiere tener voz, sin embargo, sufre una afonía inusual. Un padecimiento que ni médicos, ni sociólogos, ni siquiatras pueden resolver. Y es que desde hace un tiempo para acá intentaron cortar sus cuerdas vocales (su libertad de expresión). Aunque en honor a la verdad, tuvo mejor suerte que muchos de sus colegas. A ellos, cerca de 30, no solo les truncaron las palabras, también los borraron de sobre la faz de la tierra.

Assassins gun down two young journalists in Juárez

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Borderzine contributor Jago Molinet wrote this story in the newsroom of El Diario of El Paso a few hours after two young colleagues were gunned down in Juarez, Mexico. Molinet told me he wrote this in anger and frustration and as he wrote, his anger and frustration only grew. As I translated the article into English, I saw that he also wrote this lament with love, love for his fallen brothers and love for a profession that too often in Mexico today demands a journalist’s life. —David Smith-Soto, Borderzine Executive Editor

[Lea esta historia en español]

EL PASO, Texas — The news spread like wildfire through the newsroom —two young photojournalists from El Diario gunned down in Ciudad Juárez… one dead, one wounded. They went to lunch and ended up splashed in their own blood, riddled by bullets blasted from the empty minds of unscrupulous assassins.

Dos jóvenes periodistas caen baleados en Juárez

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El fotógrafo de El Diario de Juárez Luis Carlos Santiago Orozco, de 21 años, fue asesinado  y su acompañante, el fotógrafo Carlos Manuel Sánchez de 18 años, resultó herido de dos impactos de bala en la tarde de Septiembre 16 en el estacionamiento del centro comercial Río Grande Mall en Ciudad Juárez. Hay golpes en la vida, tan fuertes… ¡Yo no sé! Los Heraldos Negros  de César Vallejo. (1918-“2010”)
[Read this story in English]

EL PASO, Texas — Fueron por comida y los cubrió la sangre.

Investigative journalism in decline in U.S.

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EL PASO, Texas — The economic gloom continues to loom over the media industry. With major U.S. media companies dealing with decline in revenue and diving into bankruptcy, news publications have been forced to cut costs to maintain profit margins. Among the hardest hit are those staff in the newsroom, particularly those involved in public investigative and accountability reporting.  During this dismal economic climate, the expense to fund a potentially lengthy, time-consuming investigative story, the reluctance to engage potential legal consequences, and their possibility to be fruitless endeavors are often the reasons why media companies are still reluctant to keep funding investigative issues, media critics say. According to the American Society of News Editors’ annual newsroom census approximately 5,900 positions were eliminated during 2008, and 5,200 full-time newsroom positions where eliminated in 2009. This means the total employment in American print newsrooms has dropped by around 14,900 since 2000.

La narcoguerrra sigue matando periodistas y la libertad de prensa mexicana

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EL PASO, Texas — Siempre disfrutó el olor de los burritos. Los prefiere de nopales con huevo, de carne deshebrada, de chile rojo y verde. Jamás imaginó que tendría que dejar el periodismo para confeccionar platillos mexicanos. “Después de casi 30 años como reportero nunca pensé que los burritos salvarían mí vida”, dijo. Y agregó: “Aquí me vez, vendiéndolos entre mis amigos y viejos colegas”.

Media Report – March 1st 2010

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COVERAGE OF LATINOS
Although the Hispanic community is receiving news coverage in major media outlets, the information listeners and readers receive is often “event-driven,” with Hispanics just one of many elements. An analysis by the Project for Excellence in Journalism and the Pew Hispanic Center covering Feb. 9-Aug. 9, 2009, found that 18% of the stories studied (645 out of 34,452) “contained substantial references to Hispanics. The nomination of Sonia Sotomayor to the U.S. Supreme Court gained the most news coverage, followed by the Mexican Drug War, H1N1 outbreak and Immigration.