03172021 The Daily Beacon

Volume 139, Issue 17

The Newspaper Industry: Past and Present

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The 4,2020 2020 The Daily Beacon Wednesday, October 14, 2020 TheDaily DailyBeacon Beacon ••• Wednesday, Wednesday,November March 17, Wednesday, October 7,2021

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JOURNALISM PAST AND PRESENT: OPINIONS

Letter from the Editor: A critical turning point ALEXANDRA DEMARCO Editor-in-Chief

There is little dispute that the modern media industry has reached an existential breaking point. Gone are the days when the news and the news alone acted as society’s voice of information. With the advent of the internet and social media, every single member of society has the opportunity to share their views with the entire world.

Social media certainly has great advantages for democratic society. Everyone with access to the internet has the opportunity to participate in conversation, search for information and perhaps even go viral.

However, even the most successful, largest social media companies, such as Facebook, do not yet have a good grasp on how to monitor their own websites. As per Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, social media platforms are not responsible for what their users post, and while this legislation sometimes serves to bolster free speech, it also serves to pass off responsibility for online posts to, essentially, the void.

That being said, much of the news that originates on social media is subject to manipulation and hoaxes, such as deep fakes and photoshop.

Due to inefficient verification methods, hoaxes and false information spread like wildfire online,

COMICS

infecting the population with false information before it can be caught and corrected. And even when fake news is ousted as such, those who have viewed the information may have already made their minds up that it is real or may not have access to verification resources.

Therefore, real news outlets, with real verification methods, are still necessary to maintaining a free and open democratic society.

Newspapers have a responsibility to ensure that the public has the ability to make informed decisions based on legitimate, fact-checked information.

News will continue to change, and perhaps in the future, every single paper will operate completely online. However, fully online papers are still capable of functioning with as much journalistic integrity and objectivity as are print papers.

We cannot accept the notion that the news is dead, untrustworthy and no longer necessary. Don’t get me wrong — America has its fair share of problems in terms of bias in news and the conflation of pundits with objective news anchors.

But, let’s not accept that news is over, nor overpowered by the millions of posts made on social media each and every day. Accepting failure begets more failure. There is time for reform, and there is time to embrace journalism for its intended purpose — a Fourth Estate, existing to inform society and place checks and balances on the government.

For many journalists, this begins in student newsrooms like ours. We are training the next generation of journalists, even if that generation represents a smaller part of the population each year. Student media outlets must maintain high standards for themselves in order to, one, be recognized as the important outlets they are and, two, to train future journalists by giving them real life experience out in the field.

In this issue, us student journalists at The Daily Beacon take a look at the current state of the news industry, with the past in mind, and ask: what’s next?

JOURNALISM PAST AND PRESENT

Wednesday, Wednesday, November March 17, 18,2021 2020•• The Daily Beacon

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One year out, student media outlets still grapple with pandemic ALEXANDRA DEMARCO Editor-in-Chief

For many student media outlets, the past year has been one long learning curve. Student journalists have grappled not only with a changing college environment, but also with a transition to a fully online working environment. In a news industry that has radically changed over the last 30 years, the challenges brought by the pandemic have only further transformed student media and many journalists’ first introduction into the news world.

At The University Echo, the student paper at the University of Tennessee, Chattanooga, senior Lorena Grajales took over in January as editor-in-chief.

The Echo has been operating almost fully online for the past year; the paper hasn’t printed since spring 2020 and publishes weekly papers online, along with occasional online breaking news stories published throughout the week.

Grajales said that the paper has experienced both positive and negative side effects from the pandemic. For one, the Echo has made use of new online opportunities to build a larger social media following and reach students. Online communication has also fostered instantaneous discussion among staff members.

“It’s been kind of of cool, because we’ve been able to experience more with social media and reaching students that way, and we’ve definitely been getting a lot more interaction, especially on our Instagram,” Grajales said.

However, working with sources and finding story ideas has proved a bit more challenging, Grajales said. In the past, reporters at the Echo could more easily approach students and others on campus in-person as sources for stories, but due to social distancing procedures and general safety precautions, the paper must often rely on hearing back from sources contacted over email.

Additionally, at the beginning of the semester, UTC was still operating entirely online, and Grajales felt like that covering Zoom events was becoming a bit repetitive.

She said that it has also been difficult to properly cover more serious online events, such as UTC’s Blue and Gold Memorial, an annual event honoring students, faculty and staff who have passed away in the past year.

“It’s a very emotional event that usually people go to in-person, so having it virtual this year was a little bit difficult to cover,” Grajales said.

Grajales, who hopes to work in broadcast journalism or other news after graduation, encouraged students not to be dissuaded from joining student media because of the present challenges.

“I hope that if there’s anybody out there who is interested in news writing or going into any type or journalistic career that (they) don’t hold back because we’re in COVID,” Grajales said.

“It’s definitely hard times, but it’s still great ex-

perience that you can get, even if it’s just writing from home, doing interviews from home, you’re still reporting on news that is valuable and that

Lorena Grajales Elennie Ramirez / Southern Adventist University is credible and that your campus needs to hear.”

In Lexington, Kentucky, Natalie Parks has also been experiencing the challenges afforded by the pandemic as editor-in-chief of the University of Kentucky’s independent student newspaper The Kentucky Kernel. Parks, who is actually from Knoxville, interviewed to become editor on the day the first COVID-19 case in Kentucky was confirmed and covered a press conference about the pandemic just after her interview.

“From the day of my interview, the pandemic has defined my experience as editor of the Kernel,” Parks said.

Before UK moved fully online, the Kernel’s former editor made the call to close the paper’s office and print one final paper for the semester.

Ever since, the paper has been operating essentially fully online.

At the beginning of the fall 2020 semester, Parks made the decision to continue online operations in order to maintain the highest level of safety possible for staff members and students. The Kernel did resume weekly printing at the beginning of the 2020-21 school year, but Parks collaborates with designers and other staff members to create and send out the paper fully online. Like many student newspapers, the Kernel has scaled back its circulation in recent years, as it toggles between portraying itself as an online first or print first paper.

Parks’ top priority has been upholding safety measures, but that doesn’t make missing out on typical student media experiences — such as staying up late in the paper’s office, eating takeout and laying out the week’s pages — any eas-

ier, she said. Parks, a junior majoring in English, has plans to graduate early and attend graduate school to become a teacher and won’t be able to return to student media after the pandemic is over.

“Basically my entire experience with the Kernel has been bookended by the pandemic. ... I’m never going to have a normal college experience at a student newspaper and that has been really hard for me to deal with. … My entire experience as a student journalist will have been the hard work and the pressure and the sacrifices that I’ve made and to not have really gotten much of those rewards that make it worth it,” Parks said.

In addition to the logistical problems the Kernel has experienced, the duality of being both a student learning to cope with a changing university landscape and being a student journalist whose job it is to report on those changes has been stressful, Parks said.

“It’s been so hard to feel the pressure this year of what journalism is for,” Parks said.

“There’s so much pressure on student media this year to hold their university accountable or hold their peers accountable or to really serve in that watchdog position in a way that hasn’t been as necessary. ... It’s really hard to balance being a human being, being a human being in college, being a human being in college during a pandemic, with this extra role of being critical to the

Natalie Parks Michael Clubb / Kentucky Kernel community.”

The Kernel in particular has been forced to grapple with the legal and ethical struggles of student journalism in ways beyond the pandemic. For nearly six years, the University of Kentucky has been suing the paper over open records. The Kentucky Supreme Court heard the case in October, and the Kernel is still awaiting a decision.

The effects of the lawsuit have not gone unnoticed among UK’s student journalists.

“I, as a student journalist, have never not known what that’s like. We are openly at odds with the university, and it was a relationship that has been a struggle to maintain, and we obviously have to communicate with the university a lot, but in the subtext of all of our interactions with the university is the fact that they are suing us over open records,” Parks said.

Depending on the way the case is decided, its verdict has the possibility to radically rein-

terpret open record laws throughout Kentucky as a whole. As the leader of the Kernel, at a time when the publication has the potential to play a central role in redefining free speech, Parks has

The Kentucky Kernel Courtesy of Natalie Parks often felt responsible for the entire fate of the First Amendment.

“As student journalists, who are constantly underdogs, we are made to feel like we have to — and I have felt so much this year — that number one, the fate of student journalism is on my back completely, number two, I have often felt like I am the only thing protecting students on campus,” Parks said.

Although student media outlets often suffer from less funding and support than many corporate-owned news outlets have, such a deficit places student papers in a unique position to stand up for press rights, Parks explained.

“We’ve got nothing to lose, so we might as well go for it, so I think that is one element of student media that is important and deserves recognition is that many times, we are the outlets standing up for First Amendment rights, student journalism protection and just different things like that,” Parks said. “When there’s something gone wrong in journalism, it is student newspapers who take the brunt of it and are the ones who have to fight back, clearly, as evidenced by a number of lawsuits against student newspapers at universities.”

Despite the many challenges Parks has faced during her tenure as editor-in-chief, she maintains that operating a student paper is the best experience student journalists can gain going into future journalism careers.

“Students who are going to go into these careers, they’re not going to get experience like this anywhere else,” Parks said. “They can have internships, they can have summer jobs, but running a paper and deciding coverage on your own and being in charge and living that life, they’re not going to be better prepared in any other way than they are at a student newspaper.”

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The Daily Beacon • Wednesday, 17,7,2021 Wednesday,March October 2020

JOURNALISM PAST AND PRESENT

The facts about ‘fake news’: Navigating through media bias JAKE YODER City News Editor

“(The media) is totally dishonest … the level of dishonesty is enormous.”

“Many of our nation’s reporters and folks will not tell you the truth …”

“The fake news media … is the enemy of the American people!”

Chances are if you’ve watched television, gone on the internet or have simply spoken to others about the state of the world in the past five or so years, you’ve probably heard quotes very similar to these. That would be no surprise, as all three of these quotes come from the former president of the United States, Donald J. Trump.

Many have come to believe that most of the mainstream media has a large amount of bias which makes its reporting untrustworthy.

According to a study from late 2020 by Gallup which asked if Americans trust trust in the media to report the news “fully, accurately, and fairly,” six in 10 Americans have “not very much” trust or “none at all.”

According to many Americans, no matter the publication, each likely has an agenda they are trying to push on their viewers.

Newspapers such as The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal and USA Today have come under intense scrutiny during the past decade, with more people than ever picking apart every article and post they make. Local and national television news has perhaps taken the brunt of criticism from

all sides, with CNN, Fox News and many more being thrown under the bus regularly online.

Does this bias really exist? Should those consuming news trust what they read?

The answer, as one might expect, is that it depends.

Professor Michael Martinez, a lecturer at UT who teaches multiple classes focusing on media ethics, noted that every journalist must do their part to set aside personal biases.

“We all have a bias of some sort, by our very nature. We all have different beliefs, traditions. … We all come from different backgrounds,” Martinez said. “The challenge in journalism is doing your best to set those biases aside.”

In most schools of journalism, journalists are taught to approach every story with objectivity. Journalistic objectivity is usually defined as the ability of one to approach a story from a non-biased position. That is, approach every story with as little bias as possible, without an agenda; simply tell the facts.

Journalistic objectivity, however, is an idea that has been under attack. Not just from the public, but from the journalistic community itself.

Narcis-Florentin Neagoe, a student getting his master’s in journalism at the University of Bucharest in Romania and a reporter for DCNews, doesn’t believe in the concept of “objectivity.”

“Being ‘objective’ about something is impossible, an absolute that can’t be achieved,” Neagoe said. “We can do our best to be equidistant between the two sides even when we are inclined to support one or another.”

Neagoe noted that simply entering the world

of journalism forces one to broaden their ideas and accept that all political sides have good and bad qualities; no one ideology is perfect.

“When I got employed at a news site and started working as a journalist, I was forced to more clearly see the truth about both sides,” Neagoe said. “Sometimes, the party I supported was doing things wrongly, and the old class of corrupt politicians sometimes didn’t get credit for things they did right.”

Martinez defines objectivity as a method — not necessarily being completely balanced, but putting ones preconceived notions aside for the sake of the story.

“Objectivity is a method, not necessarily a balance. Just because you interview someone from Black Lives Matter doesn’t mean you need to interview the Proud Boys … that’s not objectivity,” Martinez said. “It’s more about following the facts as you start discovering and let it lead you where you are going. Based on the information you find, you need to use your news judgement to report whatever that is … whatever is truly news.”

Martinez noted that there are many biased media sources out there, but they are generally easy to spot. Most mainstream, traditional media outlets, however, may have slight framing but generally stick to the facts.

“If you read coverage of the same event from multiple different sources, the framing may be a little bit different, but the information is the same,” Martinez said. “In general, the aim of most legacy, traditional news organizations is to try to keep bias out of reporting, to follow the facts and report the truth the best that they can. It’s up to the public to decide what they

take from that.”

Thus, entirely avoiding biased reporting or reporting that has a specific frame or agenda may be impossible, but audiences can combat this by reading different accounts of the same story. By finding the facts in news and using one’s own judgement, a person can find the truth in the news and come to their own conclusions about it.

Though “fake news” does exist, it might be less common in traditional media than one might think. Many journalists have responded to the attacks on journalism in the past decade with a renowned resolve to put out good, reliable reporting. Instead of feeding the “fake news” machine, kill it with kindness; or, that is, good reporting.

“In response to the distrust of the media, journalists need to mount a campaign of journalistic literacy; that is, the difference between talking heads on CNN or Fox News and factbased journalism. Many don’t understand the difference between opinion-based commentary and a news program,” Martinez said.

Doing your own fact checking and research is key to making sure you are fully informed about a story. Don’t simply believe everything you hear.

“The public must find the source of the information being given to them instead of taking everything they hear as gospel,” Martinez said. “Some sources are legitimate, and some aren’t. Knowing the difference is key to understand what is real news and what isn’t.”

Journalism as the Fourth Estate, a system of checks and balances NATHAN TOSADO Contributor

As the Fourth Estate in American democracy, journalism informs and educates the public, while simultaneously acting as a watchdog for elected officials.

The very relationship the press and the government have is something extraordinarily unique and a distinction in democracies from dictatorships and authoritarian regimes seen around the world.

While journalism plays various roles in society, perhaps its most important is how it serves as a bridge of information from the government to the common citizen.

American journalism has been bringing vital information to the public since the beginning of the nation in 1776. From local offices to the highest positions in the country, journalists have been there to cover the good, the bad and even the ugly. To many, journalism is considered to be so significant that it acts as the fourth branch of government.

In many ways, it serves as a balance of pow-

er in a democracy. It keeps elected politicians in check and holds them accountable for their actions while in office. It also prevents anyone from gaining too much power, as the press is free to criticize anyone in a governmental role.

Assistant Professor of Political Science Kirsten Widner of the University of Tennessee talked about the importance of journalism relating to the American government.

“From the very beginning of this country, the framers of the constitution saw the free press as a really important part of having a democracy,” Widner said, “They enshrined in the First Amendment the freedom of the press to make sure that there was a forum for the sharing of information and open debate that would lead to informed citizenry capable of governing itself.”

It is safe to say that the Founding Fathers knew the importance of journalism early on and knew that by encouraging freedom of speech, a successful and thriving nation would be born.

In addition, journalism and the media industry as a whole have continued to evolve rapidly. The advancement of technology, such

as television and the internet, has allowed information to be released to the public at unprecedented rates. Due to these advancements, journalism has undergone an extensive evolution to keep up with ever-changing technology.

“While the dynamics are different, the importance is still the same. I think it’s always been a critically important part of our democracy,” Widner said.

One thing that is important to realize is how the credibility of the media climate is everchanging and how it undermines the position of journalists. With so many outlets to find information from, it becomes increasingly harder to distinguish facts from opinions.

Political science professor Anthony J. Nownes, who specializes in the American government, talked about the importance of being aware of this issue in today’s climate and how it’s important to be aware of what the media is presenting, as well as its intentions.

“People often have a difficult time separating what is and what is not good journalism.

Journalism is designed to be both fact-based and opinionated. People must learn how to

Sydney Goodsell / The Daily Beacon distinguish between the two,” Nownes said.

Journalists have a responsibility to report the truth in our government and report the facts to the public. This is a role that is upheld by journalists across the country and determines the stability of the credibility and legitimacy in their writings.

From informing and educating to acting as a helping hand in the balance of power, journalism is a vital aspect of a democratic society. The media industry will forever play a dynamic role in government as it continues to evolve.

JOURNALISM PAST AND PRESENT

Wednesday,November Wednesday, March18, 17,2020 2021 • •The TheDaily DailyBeacon Beacon

When coaches and media clash: Rants, twitter attacks RYAN SCHUMPERT Sports Editor

College coaches and the media that cover their teams are usually cordial. While most aren’t buddy-buddy due to paranoia and protectiveness from coaches that have led to less and less media access over the years, both sides are generally respectful toward the other.

However, over the years, media members and coaches have clashed. Let’s look at some examples.

Mike Gundy and Jenni Carlson Mike Gundy’s Oklahoma State Cowboys had just won a thrilling 49-45 come from behind victory over Big 12 foe Texas Tech.

Oklahoma State had just improved to 2-2 in Gundy’s third season, but the former Cowboys’ quarterback was interested in discussing the second half comeback with the media.

Gundy picked up a copy of that Saturday’s The Oklahoman, which included a column by Jenni Carlson discussing the reason for Oklahoma State changing starting quarterbacks from Bobby Reid to Zac Robinson.

The story’s information came from offthe-record comments from Oklahoma State staffers. However, the piece attacked Reid’s mental toughness, claiming he was being benched not due to his physical talent but his attitude.

The piece set off a rant from Gundy that is remembered as an all time classic in the sport.

Some of the quotes from his 200 plus second rant included: “This article embarrasses me to be involved with athletics.”

“That’s why I don’t read the newspaper.

Because it’s garbage. And the editor who let it come out is garbage.”

And most famously: “Come after me, I’m a man. I’m 40. I’m not a kid. Write something about me or our coaches. Don’t write about a kid who’s done everything right and is heartbroken.”

Despite Gundy disputing Carlson’s facts and reporting, Carlson stood by her reporting in the days following the rant. Carlson hasn’t spoken much on the incident but remains a columnist for The Oklahoman covering Oklahoma State sports, stating in 2017 that she has “a solid working rapport” with Gundy.

For Gundy, the rant helped give his program national recognition and quarterback Zac Robinson’s strong play, who replaced Reid as starter that week, helped the Cowboys reach success on the field that they hadn’t since Gundy’s time as starting quarterback.

In a 2017 interview with Andy Staples, Gundy says he would have handled the situation differently now.

“Patience has become a big part of my life

in a lot of areas,” Gundy said.

Cliff Wettig and Paul Finebaum Incidents between media members and coaches have even infiltrated The Daily Beacon.

In an interview on Clay Travis’ “Wins and Losses” podcast, former Beacon sports editor and current ESPN television personality Paul Finebaum described an incident he had with interim basketball coach Cliff Wettig, who coached at UT from 1977-78.

Coming off back-to-back 20 win seasons with stars Ernie Grunfeld and Bernard King, Tennessee basketball coach Ray Mears stepped away from the team due to mental health concerns.

Cliff Wettig was named interim coach, and replacing Grunfeld and King proved even harder than expected as the Vols’ scuffled, going 11-16.

After a late January home loss to SEC bottom feeder Georgia dropped the Vols to 2-5 in SEC play, Finebaum and the Beacon got creative, writing a column on the game in the form of an obituary.

“Everything right out of an obit,” Finebaum told Travis. “And my last line, I’ll never forget, I said ‘In lieu of flowers the school has requested all contributions go to the Luden’s cough drop company for future research on choking.’”

Wettig wasn’t a fan of Finebaum’s work and arranged a meeting with the student journalist.

“I got a call that afternoon that the basketball coach wanted to see me,” Finebaum said.

“I went over there and he slammed the door and he grabbed me by the collar and threw me up against the wall and went crazy.”

After the meeting, Finebaum was no longer allowed to travel with the team to away games, a common occurrence for student reporters in that time period.

Wettig would not be retained as head coach at the end of the season, and Don DeVoe was hired as his replacement.

Finebaum would go on to have an incredibly successful career, first as a sports radio host in Birmingham and now as a TV and radio personality at ESPN. Mike Leach and Dan Wolken A little bit different from the two examples above, this rift wasn’t between a coach and a local writer but a coach and a national columnist.

The beef goes back to the summer of 2018.

Leach, then the head coach at Washington State, tweeted a video of what appeared to be Barack Obama giving a speech and asked people to respond with their thoughts. However, the video was actually a heavily edited hoax in which audio clips of Obama had been strung together to make it appear as if he was calling the average citizen small-minded.

Paul Finebaum File / The Daily Beacon Leach later deleted the tweet.

USA Today Sports columnist Dan Wolken responded in force to Wolken and Washington State, first calling the university’s response to Leach’s statement “pathetic” before writing a column on the situation.

Wolken attacked Leach, who’s known for his goofy personality and whose conversations with media often take strange turns away from football, claiming his behavior in the incident is why bigger schools wouldn’t take a risk on him.

“Over many years of being quirky and accessible in a largely humorless profession, Leach has managed to develop a cult of personality that enjoys his random musings on dinosaurs and pirates,” Wolken said in the piece. “But within the college athletics industry, he is widely regarded as a ticking time bomb of embarrassment whose usefulness as a coach is largely outweighed by the risk that he will say or do something inflammatory and unnecessary with little regard for whose reputations he’s dragging down with him.”

Leach responded on Twitter, offering to debate Wolken at any time.

“So a guy, who no one knows, Wolken, has an ax to grind,” Leach tweeted. “I’m not sure who he is, but at the risk at building his career, I am willing to debate him, anywhere and anytime. He is pathetically biased, but I think that the message of free thought needs to get out.”

No debate ever occurred, but Wolken and Leach have frequently taken shots at each other over the past few seasons, including Leach nicknaming Wolken “Big Gulp” due to Leach’s belief that Wolken would be working at a 7- Eleven in coming years.

A bigger football school finally took a chance on Leach in 2019, as Mississippi State hired him to replace Joe Moorhead. Results have been mixed for Leach in his short time in Starkville, but Wolken has been proven right in some respects, with Leach tweeting a meme including a noose that led to a Mississippi State player transferring and Leach apologizing.

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JOURNALISM PAST AND PRESENT

March 17, 2021 66 The TheDaily DailyBeacon Beacon• •Wednesday, Wednesday, October 7, 2020

Where cutthroat reporting falls short:

False reporting in sports JOSH LANE Assistant Sports Editor

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Fake news. False reporting. These have been problems in the newspaper industry since its inception, and they seem to have increased tremendously over the last few years.

These issues also exist in the sports world. Contrary to popular belief, sports are not a total refuge from every one of life’s problems. Though some of the reasons behind these issues are the same, they take a slightly different form in sports.

The most common reason false reporting happens in the sports industry is due to the speed of the modern day news cycle.

Modern technology has been both a blessing and a curse for sports reporting.

Information and content can be shared faster than ever. Readers have access to countless online stories and resources, and there is more connectivity between creators and consumers now than ever before.

Fans no longer have to wait until the next morning to find out if their favorite team won, or made a trade. And you don’t even have to get a physical newspaper or be in front of a television; you can access all the news you need right on your phone.

Yet this advancement in technology has created some difficulties. Since consumers can get content instantly, they demand content instantly. This demand has created a cutthroat race between reporters to be the first to break news.

And far too many times, the desire to be the first one to break something has cost a reporter the accuracy of fact-checking a statement or double-checking with their source one more time.

One example that comes to mind was in 2015, when ESPN’s Chris Broussard tweeted a report that Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban was driving around Houston, looking for the home of free agent DeAndre Jordan, who Cuban wished to sign.

Broussard received a good deal of backlash from this article. Cuban denied the report and called Broussard out on it, saying he should have contacted him first before publishing the report. After some back and forth between the two on Twitter, Broussard issued an apology two days later.

“Regarding my Wednesday report: I should have attempted to contact Mark Cuban before reporting what my sources were telling me,” Broussard said in a tweet. “I always try to carry myself with honesty and integrity both personally and professionally. I recognize that I tweeted hastily, I’m sorry for it, and I will learn from my mistake.”

Chris Broussard Creative Commons / Thomson202019

Another more recent example of this rush to break information without doublechecking was in February, surrounding the free agency of Major League Baseball player Trevor Bauer. As a content creator himself, Bauer had long tantalized baseball fans with where he might sign for the 2021 season, following a Cy Young Award in 2020.

As one might expect, the desire for any insight into his decision only increased as the offseason went on.

Bob Nightengale, a columnist for USA Today MLB, tweeted on Feb. 4 that Bauer had a deal with the New York Mets. Within minutes, several other leading baseball reporters tweeted that Nightengale’s report was not true, and that Bauer had not signed with the Mets.

As it turns out, Nightengale’s tweet was false and Bauer signed with the Los Angeles Dodgers the next day. Nightengale issued an apology for the mistake two days later.

“Sincerest apologies, particularly to those passionate Mets fans whose hopes were raised, for my erroneous tweet that he had a deal w/ the #Mets. Zero excuses,” Nightengale said in a tweet.

These are just two examples that come to mind of an error made in a rush to break news — countless others could be given.

Looking back, some of these examples have become entertaining stories in the public eye of a time when a reporter messed up.

In the news industry, this should serve as a reminder of the importance of accuracy in everything, even a tweet, in the demanding news cycle.

MARCH MADNESS

Wednesday, March 14, 17, 2020 2021 • The TheDaily DailyBeacon Beacon Wednesday, October

Lady Vols ready for the challenges of NCAA Tournament

77

THE PERFECT COMBO

JOSH LANE Assistant Sports Editor

The Lady Vols have overcome challenges and expectations all year and were rewarded for their effort with the No. 3 seed in the River Walk Region of the 2021 NCAA Tournament.

They will face the No. 14 seed Middle Tennessee in the first round, looking to advance to the Round of 32 for the first time since 2018.

With the selection, Tennessee becomes the only team in history to make the Tournament in all 39 years of its existence, and Kellie Harper becomes just the second woman’s coach in history to lead four different schools to the NCAA Tournament. She also did so at Western Carolina, NC State and Missouri State.

MTSU presents an interesting test for the Lady Vols. The Lady Riders are coached by Rick Insell, who is the program’s all-time winningest. His team is led in scoring by the former Lady Vol Anastasia Hayes, who averages 26.5 points per game.

MTSU brings one of the nation’s better offenses, averaging 74.5 points per game at 40% shooting, and nine three-pointers made per game. The Lady Riders are solid on defense, and force a lot of turnovers, which should challenge Tennessee. Altogether, Middle Tennessee finished 17-7 in the regular season and 12-4 in its conference.

“They are well-coached. They always have terrific game plans,” Harper said on MTSU. “Especially, given this much time to prepare, they’ll really have a game plan that their players will really buy into. They are usually really good at what they do. They don’t overcomplicate things. They make the game very simple, and they execute very well, whether that’s on the offensive end or defensive end.”

Middle Tennessee dropped its first three games of the season, but then turned a corner, winning 12 of its next 14 games. The Lady Riders slid to a 2-2 regular-season finish, before bouncing back and locking an NCAA bid by winning the C-USA Tournament.

Tennessee will take on Middle Tennessee Sunday at 2 p.m. ET in Austin, Texas. The game will be broadcast on ABC. The Lady Vols are favored to win this matchup, and should they advance, their road will only get more challenging. In the Round of 32, they would play the winner of the No. 6 seed Michigan and the No. 11 seed Florida Gulf Coast.

No. 6 Michigan finished the regular season at 14-5, before falling in the first round of the Big 10 Tournament to Northwestern.

No. 11 FGCU went 26-2 in the 2020-21 regular season and won the ASUN Tournament

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Tennessee’s Destiny Salary (2) leaps onto Tamari Key (20) after Tennessee’s win over Florida during an NCAA women’s basketball in Knoxville on Sunday, Jan. 31.

Courtesy of Saul Young/News Sentinel as the top seed, blowing past Liberty in the championship game.

Should Tennessee make the Sweet Sixteen or beyond, things would get very interesting.

UConn, Baylor and Kentucky round out the top-4 seeds in the River Walk Region, and the Lady Vols could very well see any one of those teams.

UConn (Big East) and Baylor (Big 12) both won their respective conferences, as well as their conference tournaments. Kentucky finished fifth in the SEC standings and lost in the SEC quarterfinals, but did split the season series with Tennessee.

Each one of these teams boasts superstar players. Nearly all of UConn’s starters could be mentioned, but Paige Bueckers, the Big East Player and Freshman of the Year, was arguably the best player in women’s college basketball in 2021. Baylor’s NaLyssa Smith was the Big 12 Player of the Year and is a finalist for the Wooden Award. Kentucky’s Rhyne Howard was last year’s SEC Player of the Year and is a Wooden Finalist this season.

“There are so many talented players out there,” Harper said. “I know, obviously a lot of talent in this particular region. I think this year, you can just go down the line and see how many superstars players, how many big performances that there have been. And I think it just stands out.”

Despite all the superstars in their region, the Lady Vols remain confident in their ability to compete with anyone.

“Every team has great players,” senior forward Rennia Davis said. “I’m not in particular too focused on any team, any superstar. We have superstars on this team, in my opinion, so it’s going to be all about match-ups to me.

We’re going to get out there and just play our game regardless of who we’re playing.”

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The Daily Beacon • Wednesday, March 17, 2021

MARCH MADNESS

Wednesday, March 17, 2021 • The Daily Beacon

9

MARCH MADNESS

10 The 17, 2021 TheDaily DailyBeacon Beacon• •Wednesday, Wednesday,March October 7, 2020

Tennessee arrives in big dance after up-and-down regular season JEFFREY RUSSELL Staff Writer

As Tennessee gets ready for the NCAA tournament and prepares to try and make a deep run through March, it’s important to remember how Tennessee got to where it is now. Let’s take a look back at some of the defining moments of the Tennessee season so far.

Tennessee started its 2020-2021 campaign two weeks after its intended start date against Colorado due to positive COVID-19 tests in the Tennessee program.

Tennessee was able to put together a 56-47 win against the Buffaloes.

Preseason All American guard McKinley Wright had just eight points against Tennessee and was smothered by its defense for most of the game.

Tennessee was led in scoring by Santiago Vescovi and John Fulkerson, who both had 11 points in their time on the court.

Colorado has finished the season as a top 25 team and played in the PAC-12 championship.

In the first game of the season, Tennessee gave a glimpse of how good its defense could become once it got to cultivate the talent Jaden Springer and Keon Johnson have.

“That’s what they do, they really are good at ball-hawking,” Tennessee coach Rick Barnes said on Springer and Johnson’s defensive ability.

“They will get in there and we talk about tackling the ball, getting your guy in your grasp and try to take the ball away from them and both of those guys have that ability.”

Tennessee would run through its non-conference schedule undefeated with multiple games in which it scored over 100 points, but the real test for Tennessee would come when it trav-

eled to 12 ranked Missouri to open up SEC play.

Like in the non-conference, Tennessee would inflict its will on its opponent as it dominated Missouri in route to a 73-53 win on the road.

Tennessee had four players in double digits and shot 50% from the field along with shooting 71% from behind the three-point line for the game.

Defensively, Tennessee was even better as it held a tough Missouri team to just 36% shooting from the field and 18% from behind the threepoint line.

Tennessee made a statement in its first SEC game, but for the team, it was all about playing to its standards.

“I don’t think it’s about showing people anything, it’s just showing to ourselves what we can really do,” Santiago Vescovi said. “ We showed it tonight. At some points, I think we could have done a better job. We have a lot of room to improve.”

Tennessee would go 5-4 in its next nine games. In those games, some glaring weaknesses showed themselves. Tennessee struggled to shoot the ball consistently and specifically from behind the three-point line.

This problem would lead to losses against Alabama and Missouri at home. The worst loss, however, was a 49-75 loss at Florida, in which Tennessee had its worst shooting performances of the season and turned the ball over an abhorrent amount.

Post-play would also be a problem for Tennessee, as Fulkerson wasn’t playing to his potential and Yves Pons struggled through injuries.

Tennessee would continue its inconsistent play and would earn an impressive 80-61 win against Kansas in Thompson-Boling Arena to its resume. Tennessee had an uncharacteristi-

cally good shooting day, recording 52% from the field and 61% from behind the three-point line in the win.

In the usual tradition, Tennessee followed up the Kansas game with a demoralizing road loss to Ole Miss, with a road matchup against Kentucky likely on the mind.

The trip to Lexington to face the Wildcats would bring a point of revelation to the Tennessee season, specifically the freshmen.

Fulkerson was on the bench most of the game due to foul trouble, and Pons was still not completely healthy, so the burden to rise to the occasion and come out of the game victorious was laid upon the Springer and Johnson.

Rise to the occasion they would.

Springer had 23 points on nine of 17 shooting from the field along with five rebounds. Johnson led the team in scoring with 27 points on nine of 16 shooting from the field along with nine made free throws and four rebounds. Tennessee would pull out an 82-71 win against its fiercest rival and set a course to rely more on its freshman stars as the season progressed.

“I thought those guys got in a rhythm where they could be in attack mode,” Barnes said on Springer and Johnson in the second half against Kentucky. “The last couple days in practice, all we talked about was run, run, run, get out in transition, try to get easy baskets, and try to get teams on the backs of their heels.”

Inconsistency would still plague the Vols the remainder of the regular season as losses to Auburn, LSU and Kentucky would slow down the progression of the team, but a senior day matchup with Florida would still give Tennessee the opportunity of a double-bye in the SEC tournament.

Tennessee would rise to the occasion on se-

nior day against the Gators and return to the form they showed early in the season, but most importantly, Fulkerson showed flashes of what made him one of the most feared post players in the SEC last season.

Fulkerson had 14 points and seven rebounds on six-of-10 shooting from the field. He played with the tenacity and quickness he had been missing for most of the season.

“No one loves this university more than he does,” Barnes said of Fulkerson. “I think he would tell you he’s been a Volunteer his whole life, and for him it was an emotional day. For him to come out and play aggressive and with the force that he did at times is what we need. I’m happy for him.”

The great play would give Tennessee a 65-54 victory.

Tennessee would carry over its newfound rhythm into the SEC tournament, in which it would get another dominant win against Florida, winning 78-66.

In the win, Tennessee would lose Fulkerson, who sustained facial injuries and is in concussion protocol due to an elbow from Florida’s Omar Payne.

In Fulkerson’s absence, Tennessee would put together a valiant effort against top-seeded Alabama but would come up just short, losing 73-68.

As Tennessee now prepares to learn its NCAA tournament draw, Barnes is excited about what he’s seen from his team the past few weeks and how it can translate into a tournament run.

“I like where our team is right now,” Barnes said. “I’m not afraid to play whoever we got to play. This team is going to play their hearts out.

They’re going to go at it. That’s all we can ask for from them.”

Barnes confident on Vols’ NCAA Tournament outlook

RYAN SCHUMPERT Sports Editor

Tennessee enters the NCAA Tournament looking like it might have turned a corner in its last three games, earning two wins over Florida and losing a tight game to SEC champion Alabama. The late push earned the Vols a No. 5 seed in the Midwest region that will match them up with No. 12 seed Oregon State.

Tennessee head coach Rick Barnes, usually his team’s harshest critic, has been high on his team in the last week, believing he knows what he will get out of his team every night after an inconsistent regular season.

Despite blowing a 15-point second half lead to the Crimson Tide, Barnes was upbeat afterward, believing his team is starting to peak at the right time and may be poised for an NCAA Tournament run.

“The last couple weeks it’s just the attention to detail with our scouting reports,” Barnes said of the recent difference in his team. “Sometimes it takes you longer to get there. We’ve tried to get

guys to hone in on exactly the nuts and bolts of what we’re trying to do.”

Rick Barnes Kailee Harris / The Daily Beacon “A group of guys I’d like to coach for a long time. Our team was unbelievable during the (Alabama) game. The guys on the bench were locked in. They knew exactly what we were talking about. … We play hard. There aren’t many games this year— again we play hard consistently, but it was just an attitude and airiness about us on the bench. All that stuff to

where you feel like, you know what, this team gets it.”

The fifth-seeded Vols first test will come Friday at 4:30 p.m. ET when they face PAC 12 Tournament champion Oregon State. The game will take place at Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, Indiana and will be broadcast on TNT. The Beavers weren’t even on the NCAA Tournament bubble after a 14-12 regular season.

However, Oregon State hit its stride at the perfect time, winning the PAC 12 Tournament as the No. 5 seed.

“Oregon State finished as strong as any team in their conference,” Barnes said. “They beat Oregon, UCLA and Colorado — I think — in that order which that tells you how well they’ve been playing. A terrific team that’s been coached well.

They’ve gotten better, and you said it, they’re playing their best basketball at the right time.”

Tennessee opened as a nine-point favorite over Oregon State, but the Beavers proved last weekend in Las Vegas that they’ve found another gear. If Tennessee gets past the Beavers, they will meet the winner of the Oklahoma State versus Liberty game in the round of 32.

The Cowboys enter the tournament playing their best basketball of the season, winning eight of their last 10 games, including a Big 12 Tournament semifinal win over one-seeded Baylor.

Making its recent run even more impressive is that eight of Oklahoma State’s last 10 games have come against ranked teams.

No. 4 seed Oklahoma State enters the NCAA Tournament with a 20-8 record and are led by freshman guard Cade Cunningham, the projected No. 1 pick in this summer’s NBA Draft. The Cowboys will face No. 13 seed Liberty, the champions of the ASUN, who enter the big dance with a 23-5 record.

If Tennessee were to make it to the Sweet 16, they would likely face a daunting task in No. 1 Illinois, though Georgia Tech and Loyola-Chicago are also potential opponents.

No matter who Tennessee faces, Barnes is confident the Vols are up to the task.

“I think we’re good enough to play anybody and beat anybody in the tournament,” Barnes said. “I really believe that. That’s the honest truth.”

JOURNALISM PAST AND PRESENT

Wednesday, October Wednesday, March14, 17,2020 2021 • The Daily Beacon

11

The media’s complex, unique relationship with public opinion ALLIE JUSTIS Copy Chief

From the outset, journalism has always had a unique relationship with the public — that much is clear.

Journalism as an institution has always supposed to have filled the role of being a tool with which to distribute the truth to the public, so naturally, in its given role, it would have an effect on public opinion.

In a perfect world, it would only be used as a communication tool. However, in a complicated world full of politics, biases and people who wish to manipulate the system in order to gain power and control over the public, the role of the media at large and how it can sway the public’s opinion on any given topic is a very fickle thing.

Since journalism’s inception, it has gone through cycles of favor and distaste in the public eye. In recent years, the media especially has come under fire for having too much bias and has consistently been criticized for becoming a

tool for enacting change rather than being just a communicative tool. While enacting change and highlighting the problems within society has always been a pillar of journalism, this has also made allowances for things like cancel culture and the manipulation of the public’s ideologies by members of the media.

Seeing this clear cause-and-effect relationship between the media and the public, it begs the question of whether or not it is ethical for the institution of journalism to be used in such a manner.

Josh Lukasiak, a junior studying communications at Liberty University, said that there needs to be a firm line draw between truth and opinion within the American media.

“I think in the past few years the line between ‘opinion pieces’ and hard factual reporting has been blurred almost beyond repair,” Lukasiak said. “I see ‘reporters’ giving their opinions on a daily basis which I think is unethical. There is a place for opinions and a place for personal thoughts. However, the news media uses opinions and facts (as) almost interchangeable, it seems.”

For Lukasiak, the separation between the

two needs to be a categorical one in order to really achieve true journalistic integrity that the public can rely on.

“I think there should be two completely separate industries. One for simple facts that are backed up by proof, and then an opinion media that can talk and gossip all they like,” said Lukasiak. “I do not have a problem with people giving their thoughts in the news as long as it is clearly and obviously denoted as ‘Opinions’.”

Ainsley Kelso, a senior journalism student at UT, shared much of the same sentiments.

“The media, or more specifically journalists, will always have an effect on public opinion. It’s certainly the nature of the beast,” Kelso said. “In my opinion, good journalism is meant to inform the public’s opinion without telling them outright what their opinion should be. But, the stories we write will always change that opinion in some way.”

However, when it comes to the question of if the media should be used by other people as a platform to enact change, Lukasiak says that change, whether good or bad, is extremely relative.

“I think the meaning of change is up for debate in this context,” Lukasiak said. “Some people would argue that anything the ‘other side’ is against qualifies as good change, which is simply wrong. This makes me think that the news media should not be pushing the change, but simply reporting on it and allowing people to choose for themselves whether it is worth supporting.”

Kelso believes that providing the facts and helping create an informed public is the key to the problem at hand.

“Journalists are here to find the news, report the news and let the public decide for themselves what they think,” Kelso said. “Journalism has the ability to enact change through doing its job and sticking to its principles. Serving as a watchdog, informing the community and being loyal to our audience is what helps enact change. As journalists, all we can do is report the truth to the best of our abilities. We tell the stories of the people, and then it is the job of the people to take that information and do something with it.”

24-hour news, information cycle gradually changes industry KEENAN THOMAS Staff Writer

The news media has adopted a 24-hour news cycle over time, providing a constant flood of information.

Most news outlets have started covering the news close to 24 hours every day. This has come in the form of TV news broadcasts, online news websites and streaming services. The news industry has slowly changed since adopting this model.

Retired journalist and professor of journalism at the University of Tennessee Dr. Michael Martinez spoke about this model and its effects on the industry.

He said that he believes this shift began with “Ted Turner and CNN.” Turner started by broadcasting sports games before expanding to other forms of entertainment, and he began covering the news within the broad spectrum of cable television.

Martinez said that CNN’s constant coverage of the Iraq War in the early 2000s helped to create this current model.

UTK journalism professor and senior media relations specialist at Piper Communications Gerald Witt spoke about this news cycle as well.

He elaborated that most news outlets run closer “to a 20-hour news cycle,” at least on the local level. He said that the larger “national or international” outlets “have a true 24-hour cycle.”

“Every news outlet that I’ve worked at has slowly lengthened their news cycle,” Witt said.

“Their day starts earlier, and their reporting goes later. And a lot of that was trial and error to try and meet the people who were primarily getting their information via the internet, which is now the primary conduit through which people get their news.”

Witt highlighted large changes in the news industry.

“Print is dead and broadcast is out the door,” Witt said. “Everything is shifting toward online, and that shift is what’s truly driving a 24-hour news cycle as we observe it.”

Both professors agreed that most aspects of journalism have remained consistent, as most journalists have continued to strive toward reporting news that is objective, fair and accurate.

Witt talked about how this cycle has altered where outlets place their focus and the perception of objectivity.

He said that most outlets have “been able to remain objective, but they’re listening to the consumption patterns of their audience more closely.” Outlets pay more attention to “what people are clicking on, how long they’re spending on an article” and where they browse on the news site.

Witt said that this has led an appearance of less objectivity, as news outlets focus on what drives people to their platforms. This creates a feedback loop of stories and articles, which damages reporting and accuracy.

The constant feed of available content for audiences has led to an increase in commentary, time allocated for pundits and opinion pieces, which may confuse audiences, Martinez explained.

“They conflate … pundits with news,” Martinez said. “And they just lump it together like Fox News or MSNBC or CNN or whatever and they don’t differentiate.

Even when I try to ask them (his friends) to differentiate, they don’t understand that there is a difference between a news journalism program and a talk show pundit. ... It doesn’t register.”

This constant news cycle has amplified such opinion voices, and online outlets, and online platforms have propagated opinionated news commentary and analysis. These websites have also increased the availability of general news outlets and sources.

“The internet age has introduced, for better or for worse, more people into the conversation,” Witt said.

The future of news rests online, Witt said; print and broadcast numbers have dwindled over time and audiences have moved online.

Reporters need to adapt to the online infrastructure to keep producing newsworthy content, he explained.

“You just shift your skill set to a different medium, which opens up more storytelling opportunities for the journalist,” he said. “It opens up more opportunities to be able to consume information for the consumer. It does open up more opportunity for bad actors to enter the picture, but it’s incumbent upon jour-

Ted Turner and Jane Fonda Creative Commons / Alan Light nalists to do good work and be fair, balanced and all those other things. Just cause it’s a different medium it doesn’t change the rules.”

Witt encouraged audiences to seek a balance of news and read trustworthy sources, adding that it’s okay to read “garbage news” as long as the reader doesn’t make it a habit.

Although many journalists still strive to produce objective and accurate pieces, the 24hour news cycle that most outlets have adopted has led to an increase in opinion pieces and a conflation of news and commentary.

Both Martinez’s and Witt’s main words of advice for readers are to find good news sources, learn to discern between news and opinion and to support the news.

12 12

The Daily Beacon • Wednesday, 17,14, 2021 Wednesday,March October 2020

JOURNALISM PAST AND PRESENT

Foreign interference in social media: Changing public opinion CALISTA BOYD Managing Editor

In the past decade, the public experienced a growing mistrust of news sources, as the political climate of the U.S. continues to be increasingly polarized, with media sources oftentimes reflecting this polarization.

Social media became a new way to gather news, with apps like Twitter and Facebook offering many articles and news updates, while also being easily accessible. Yet how is anyone sure what they are reading is unbiased? What other actors play a part in affecting public opinion?

Since the 2016 elections, it is common knowledge that foreign actors, such as Russia and China have participated in confusing the American public. Infiltrating social media platforms provides an easy way into the minds of U.S. civilians, and spreading misinformation can create chaos and confusion, which destabilizes the country.

In an interview with NBC’s Richard Engel, William Evanina, former director of the National Counterintelligence and Security Center in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, discussed how the 2020 riots protesting the mail-in ballots were influenced by foreign actors fueling rumors of fraudulent ballots to confuse American people.

“We see all three countries — Iran, China and Russia — all engaged in enhancing and exacerbating protests on the West coast,” Evanina said in the interview. “We are worried about influence of the American voter to understand where they should get real information, especially when they are vot-

ing.”

Evanina’s description of the interference suggested that the harm to the public is not physical, but it is psychological. It affected the public’s comprehension of the situation at hand, leading people to chaos and taking action without understanding they were being misled.

When asked if Russia contributed to pro-Trump ads and if China contributed to pro-Biden ads in order to sway the election, Evanina replied that they were involved.

“I would throw in Iran there as well. Vladimir Putin, at the end of the day wants our country to eat itself. He wants mass chaos here in the U.S. As does China, but not from an economic perspective,” Evanina said in the interview.

Evanina explained that the reason that the infrastructure of the U.S. election is such an appealing target to foreign actors is because it plays into the pre-existing political divisions among the public in our partisanbased multi-party system.

This leads to the question: Why can’t social media platforms stop foreign governments from infiltrating the feeds of millions of Americans? The biggest argument against this is free speech. However, how does social media distinguish free speech from misinformation that affects the democratic integrity of the election process?

In a TED talk, former CIA agent and diplomat Yaël Eisenstat spoke about her experience working as the head of Facebook’s elections integrity operations for political advertising. Eisenstat expressed her disappointment with the efficiency of the company’s efforts at guarding the American public.

“There’s no way to reward listening, to

Protestors at the Capitol support the Mueller investigation into possible Russian interference in the 2016 election. Creative Commons / Lorie Shaull

People in London protest against Trump’s immigrant ban.

Creative Commons / Alisdare Hickson encourage civil debate and to protect people who sincerely want to ask questions in a business where optimizing engagement and user growth are the two most important metrics for success,” Eisenstat said in the TED talk. “The unfortunate reality is lies are more engaging online than truth, and salaciousness beats out wonky, fact-based reasoning in a world optimized for frictionless virality. As long as algorithms’ goals are to keep us engaged, they will continue to feed us the poison that plays to our worst instincts and human weaknesses.”

Foreign actors that want to destabilize the public play into this aspect of social media, so they aim to increase engagement by tapping into anger, mistrust and the culture of fear.

Eisenstat linked the way social media improves engagement to the way extremist groups foster support.

“The modern information environment is crystallized around profiling us and then segmenting us into more and more narrow categories to perfect this personalization process. We’re then bombarded with information confirming our views, reinforcing our biases and making us feel like we belong to something,” Eisenstat said in the TED talk. “These are the same tactics we would see terrorist recruiters using on vulnerable youth, albeit in smaller, more localized ways before social media, with the ultimate goal of persuading their behavior.”

The nature of social media is the very tool that other states use to affect national security by tapping into individual human minds in order to have a larger impact, when that individual is hundreds of thousands of people that all use social media on the daily to inform themselves of current events.

Eisenstat did not completely blame social

media for the susceptibility of many to conspiracy theories, hate groups and misinformation circulated by foreign governments.

However, Eisenstat said that the companies running social media could be doing a lot more to protect their users.

“They could stop using the same personalization techniques to deliver political rhetoric that they use to sell us sneakers.

They could retrain their algorithms to focus on a metric other than engagement, and they could build in guardrails to stop certain content from going viral before being reviewed,” Eisenstat said in the TED talk. “I want these companies held accountable, not for if an individual posts misinformation or extreme rhetoric, but for how their recommendation engines spread it, how their algorithms are steering people towards it and how their tools are used to target people with it.”

Eisenstat recommended that companies forego a little bit of their profit to help protect their users from the malevolence of foreign actors aiming at sparking violence and confusion.

Eisenstat’s recommendation to the public for avoiding being targeted by harmful social media posts included is to stay educated and outspoken.

“My message to you is simple: pressure your government representatives to step up and stop ceding our public square to forprofit interests. Help educate your friends and family about how they’re being manipulated online. Push yourselves to engage with people who aren’t like-minded. Make this issue a priority,” Eisenstat said in the TED talk.

In order to fight against external threats, our internal issues need to be approached as a society.

12 The Daily Beacon • Wednesday, October 14, 2020 JOURNALISM PAST AND PRESENT

Wednesday, March 17, 2021 • The Daily Beacon

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JOURNALISM PAST AND PRESENT

The 17, 14, 2021 TheDaily DailyBeacon Beacon •• Wednesday, Wednesday,March October 2020

Journalism professors detail crisis of Americans’ media illiteracy DANIEL DASSOW Staff Writer

It’s likely happened to every person in the UT community: a friend or family member shares a news story on social media that looks a little suspicious. On further examination, the story proves to be outright false, with photoshopped images, a clickbait headline and quotes from fake “experts.”

But the person who shared it believes that every word is true.

How do smart people fall for such blatant misinformation? According to professors in the School of Journalism and Electronic Media, the problem is that Americans of all backgrounds and ages are missing what’s called media literacy, or knowledge of how news is created and how best to consume it.

It used to be that media literacy was less vital for democracy than it is now, because much of the work of sifting out bad information was done by news organizations themselves. Now, news is consumed mainly on the internet and there are tens of thousands of media personalities writing and speaking without any editorial oversight.

The job of rooting out fake news has largely fallen to individual Americans sitting on their phones, who do not know enough about how news media works to tell the good from the bad.

Mark Harmon, a professor of journalism and electronic media who teaches courses in public opinion and media and democracy, says that misinformation on the internet is particularly seductive when it supports our preconceived opinions.

“The great thing about the internet is it’s unedited and the horrible thing about the internet is it’s unedited,” Harmon said.

“So what happens is all the gatekeeping mechanisms for checking on, for example, the truthfulness of the story may be missing and so you have sort of a Gresham’s law of information where the bad tends to spread faster and be more accepted than the good, and this is especially true if the bad information fits with your existing point of view.”

According to Harmon, the reason that false information is able to spread so quickly and fool so many Americans of good faith is not only because it is tailored to confirm our beliefs, but also because most Americans are not equipped with the necessary knowledge to recognize it for what it is.

“What we need in our lives and in our educational system is a good sense of media literacy,” Harmon said. “We need to know how to evaluate claims, we need to know that well done studies are better than one person’s anecdote, we need to know how to use fact-checking sources ... if we don’t know that and we don’t know how to argue, then we’re just going to be a cacophony of

yelling past each other.”

Joy Jenkins, an assistant professor of journalism and electronic media, says that she was duped when she took a research survey on recognizing trolls, or internet users who intentionally spread false and hateful information.

“I went and took it and I did not do well and I thought I understood that stuff pretty well,” Jenkins said. “Some of the trolling that goes on and the fake profiles and things are really difficult to discern, and not to mention things like deep fakes and what’s happening with visuals and videos and images. You know, it’s really some effective technology that’s being used, but it’s also kind of scary how easily it can fool people.”

The great thing about the internet is that it’s unedited and the horrible thing about the internet is that it’s unedited.

MARK HARMON JOURNALISM PROFESSOR

As media literacy becomes more important in the digital age, it also becomes more elusive. Technologies like so-called “deep fakes,” in which faces are superimposed on images or videos to make it appear that someone said something they did not, are making it more difficult to tell when a story is fake.

In order to combat the spread of misinformation, Jenkins and her fellow journalism professors advocate for media literacy education at a young age. In a recent survey that Jenkins took of journalism students and faculty, a majority reported that they did not receive education in media literacy until they were in college.

This survey and others like it suggest that, if they receive media literacy education at all, Americans are not being taught how to properly use search engines, how to determine if a news article is credible or not and how the work of journalism is even conducted until their internet habits are already formed.

“Having those conversations at a young age is so vital because now kids are on their tablets when they’re really little and that never goes away,” Jenkins said. “None of us are above or beyond it. I think that media literacy is a lifelong effort we have to be a part of.”

A crucial aspect of media literacy is the ability to differentiate between the kinds of media we consume on a daily basis. For his

part, Harmon does not even like using the term “media,” because of its potential for broad generalizations that put fake news stories and trustworthy journalism on equal footing.

Harmon, who has written opinion pieces for various local news outlets for decades, is concerned that many people cannot tell the basic difference between fact and opinion.

This, he says, is another issue that has been exacerbated by the internet.

“People often do not understand the difference between an opinion piece and an analysis piece and a straight news story and it’s very difficult to maintain that when they’re all appearing on the same screen at the same time in the same place,” Harmon said. “You have to notice the little clues about what you’re encountering.”

The category of “media” covers much of the content that can be found online, including advertisements, podcasts, music, films and tweets from random people, as well as responsible journalism. Jenkins says that any discussion of media bias must take these differences into account.

“When we talk about shifts and trends and things that are happening, we have to look at those industries specifically, and particularly look at the goals of the producers and what it is they’re trying to do,” Jenkins said. “To lump media under a single umbrella and then critique it isn’t super productive, doesn’t do a whole lot.”

It is fair to say that distrust of the news media has seldom been greater than in the present moment, and according to Jenkins, not all of the distrust is unfounded. News outlets have often not engaged with the stories or issues facing especially more rural and conservative Americans, a phenomenon that former President Donald Trump used to undergird much of his anti-media rhetoric.

In order to gain back that trust, Jenkins believes that journalists should make certain that their work is transparent to the public.

“I think in particular for journalists, it’s really thinking about the value of transparency and helping their audience to see what it is they do, how they go about doing it, how they make decisions, how they choose sources, how they choose to present a story in terms of framing and photos and headlines,” Jenkins said. “I think there’s a lot of aspects of (the process) that journalists assume audiences understand, and they don’t.”

Catherine Luther, a professor of journalism and the director of the School of Journalism and Electronic Media, also believes strongly in the power of transparency as a solution to problems of media bias and distrust.

“The digital world has allowed journal-

ists to provide links to their sources and even the data that they accessed for their stories,” Luther said. “I believe providing such information is important and might lead to the rebuilding of public trust in the news media.”

It has become a popular refrain in recent years to say that the “liberal media” has never been more biased than it is right now, perhaps even too biased to be useful.

Even accounting for the fact that much of this critique is aimed at cable news and social media, two sources long known for their entertainment value, journalism professors say the charge is untrue.

Julie Andsager, a professor of journalism and electronic media who specializes in health and medicine reporting, said that media bias used to be much more prominent and acceptable than it is by today’s standards of journalistic objectivity.

“History shows us that the news media were far more biased than they are today back in the 1700s and 1800s,” Andsager said. “Today, we’re used to the TV news system from the 1950s onward, where ABC, CBS and NBC had to compete with each other and therefore couldn’t maintain biases.

Since we have 24/7 news and many more outlets, that presumption has faded away, and it does seem to appear that news media are ‘biased,’ whether they actually are or not.”

If we concede that ‘facts don’t matter,’ that means science doesn’t matter.

JULIE ANDSAGER JOURNALISM PROFESSOR

All of the media illiteracy and distrust of the news media has led to a chapter of American history that some have labeled as “post-fact” or “post-truth,” where the truth matters less than opinion.

Andsager rejects the notion that facts no longer matter and said that in a time of COVID, when the public relies on the news media for health messaging, media illiteracy can become especially dangerous.

“Science reporting has clearly taken a big hit in the last couple of years, as political framing sought to overcome facts,” Andsager said. “If we concede that ‘facts don’t matter,’ that means science doesn’t matter.

Look at the Idahoans who encouraged their kids to burn face masks last week (or so) – they’re teaching those children that science doesn’t matter. I hate to think about possible ramifications for the future.”

JOURNALISM PAST AND PRESENT 12 The Daily Beacon • Wednesday, October 14, 2020

Freelance writing: The gateway into the world of professional writing SETH CHAPMAN Staff Writer

Every aspiring writer has their dream of publishing their breakout hit. Whether you are a journalist, magazine writer or a blogger, you want to get your name out and have an audience for your work. It can be tough to figure out where to start your writing career, but there is a way you can write about the things you want to and make money: freelance writing.

As the name suggests, freelance writing allows you to operate as a freelancer for different organizations, meaning that you will be your own boss and determine when and with who you work with. However, this isn’t as easy as it sounds, as it will require a great deal of patience and time management skills. Good for you, though, we are going to break down the things you need to know to start off your freelance writing venture.

The first step to freelancing is getting your name out there. That means coming up with story and article ideas to pitch to any interested parties, whether it’s a small business or an online publication. You might feel, understandably, pretty shy about your first pitch or so, but remember that this is all a growing experience for you. You are bound to make mistakes, so don’t sweat it if things don’t go according to plan.

This might be a no-brainer, but think of topics that you personally want to write about. Your best work comes from writing about the things you are passionate about.

Whether you love creating scrapbooks of different tree leaves or taking photos of historical locations, it doesn’t matter. All that matters is that you write about something that you are personally invested in sharing with others.

When pitching an article, think of exactly where you would like to see it published.

Maybe you’ve been really interested in writing about restoring old furniture that has been tossed out; brainstorm websites and businesses that are related to your topic.

Then, do the research about who you want to pitch to. Figure out their goals, who is in charge and any further information about the publication that can give you an advantage when you pitch directly to them.

When you pitch, be sure to introduce yourself, how you came to learn about their organization, and sell your story idea. And remember — unless the publication you are pitching to prefers to look at fully fleshedout pieces, don’t start writing until you land a gig — otherwise you just run the risk of doing a whole lot of unpaid work.

It is okay to pitch to multiple groups.

However, be honest with them that you are shopping your story in other places. Some similar publications may be in communication with each other, so be clear up front whether the story is being marketed to more than one media outlet in order to maintain your professionalism.

Pitching isn’t just one way of selling a story; it’s also a way to build up connections with other publishers and writers. If you have a good standing with people in those industries, they will be more willing to work with you in the future and maybe even provide you further opportunities.

The key to success in freelance writing is effective time-management. Once you have a project with a publication, you will have to meet their requirements and their deadlines. Since you are a freelancer, you won’t have a boss breathing down your neck, but that doesn’t mean you should slack off.

Plan out your schedule and when you will have time to work on your project. More importantly, commit to your schedule. Plans are only as good as you decide to execute them. No one else knows your schedule and your limits better than yourself. Plan accordingly.

It is also important that, starting off, you will want to ease into these projects. Try only taking one or two assignments at first. It can be very easy to overwhelm yourself,and it may reflect poorly on your work ethic if you can’t deliver your assignments on time.

Take the time to figure out your own pace and how freelance work affects your personal schedule. Once you gain more experience and confidence, then you can consider doing multiple projects at once.

The final bit of advice for freelance writers is to be open to criticism. Everyone makes mistakes, so don’t let failure make you seize up. Your pitches will be rejected, and your writing will get criticized. However, as stated earlier, this is all part of the process of becoming a better writer.

Be open to your clients’ thoughts on your work and how you can improve on it. It doesn’t matter what skill level you are; any writer can learn how to improve their craft.

Feedback is a key part of growing as writer, so don’t shy away from it.

Freelance writing not only provides writers, new and experienced alike, with a way to share their work and make money, but it can also help creators build connections with other writers and publishers, as well as grow in their craft.

Wednesday, March 17, 2021 • The Daily Beacon

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JOURNALISM PAST AND PRESENT

The Daily Beacon Wednesday, 17,14, 2021 The The Daily Daily Beacon Beacon• •Wednesday, Wednesday,March October February 10, 2020 2021

Digitalization of media a double-edged sword, future of print SARAH RAINEY Campus News Editor

The state of media today is much different than it was in the past, with the accessibility of news being much greater than ever before, and things continue to change as time progresses.

But, is this entirely good, entirely bad or, perhaps, is the answer much more complicated?

At one point in time, news was quite literally hot off the presses – physical newspapers were everywhere, mass produced and distributed throughout cities for everyone to pick up by hand, flip through and read every line.

Now, news can be accessed by simply picking up an iPhone and tapping on an app. People no longer need to walk to their front door to pick up the paper that the local newsboy has thrown on their lawn, and physical subscriptions to newspapers such as The New York Times are now simply sent in emails for people to scroll through.

The question lingers: will the news industry become completely digitalized? Will physical papers become a thing of the past?

What does this mean for the future of news?

Joy Jenkins, assistant journalism professor UT, offered insight on the changing news industry and the future of print media from what she has seen firsthand over the years.

Jenkins’ experience in media all started with a copy-editing position in Oklahoma.

At her second paper, she worked her way up to senior editor.

Jenkins started her undergraduate career in 2000, and over the last 21 years, things have certainly changed regarding the digitalization of media.

“It’s amazing to think about how different the news industry is. … When I was an undergraduate student starting in 2000, we talked a lot about media convergence,” Jenkins said.

It seems that digital media was always looming in the background.

“A lot of us had no idea how big it was going to be; we’ve gone from a time where we got the newspaper at a certain time of day … now it’s a 24/7 media environment, and there’s an expectation,” Jenkins said.

“No matter whether you’re a newspaper or broadcaster or magazine reporter, (there’s an expectation that) you have a constant presence, and that you are covering news constantly, making content available on many, many platforms. A lot of that has just expanded in ways that I know I didn’t expect.”

In this day and age, consuming media in-

volves more than just reading something and getting information. It is an entirely different ballgame, and individuals who have grown up in the digital age are expecting a different approach when it comes to how they consume content. “(Now) people are primarily getting sources from socials and apps rather than news sources. We have to ensure we are where our audience is. … Media is so interactive now … the structure has changed; audience expectations have changed. It’s not just words on a page … it’s changed storytelling,” Jenkins said.

The future of the news industry is hard to predict, though, in Jenkins’ words. A digital presence is basically required for news outlets now, but at the same time, the digital version of news and media is simply not the same as holding a real, physical copy of something.

Reading a physical newspaper, magazine or book is an experience that simply cannot be accurately replicated through a digital format.

It’s amazing to think about how different the news industry is. ... When I was an undergraduate student starting in 2000, we talked a lot about media convergence.

JOY JENKINS JOURNALISM PROFESSOR

“There’s research that shows when people read a magazine at home, they spend a long time with it. … When I ask my students, ‘how do you prefer to read magazines,’ a lot of them say ‘print.’ I think it’s one of those forms that will persist, but it probably won’t reach circulation levels that it had in its heyday,” Jenkins said.

Jenkins also touched on the fact that many people still prefer reading hardback, bound books rather than reading them digitally. However, it seems that newspapers may be more likely to go fully digital before magazines or books do.

“Some national magazines mainly do online and special print issues ... I have a harder time seeing newspapers in print for a long time. … I think it will get to a point where newspapers are just going to continue to scale back that print distribution, and also because it’s expensive,” Jenkins said.

This semester, even The Daily Beacon has

The Daily Beacon has shifted much of its production online.

Sydney Goodsell / The Daily Beacon switched to only printing one special issue per month.

As a whole, though, Jenkins does not believe that the print distribution of news and media will completely go away.

Associate Professor of Journalism Nick Geidner also shared his experience within the news industry, stating that he started his career as a photojournalist and then worked in television news as a videographer and then newscast director.

Geidner mentioned that the rise of digital media has been a strong presence since it was introduced “Digital media has changed the ways individuals select, use and understand media.

It has also changed the ways in which journalists find, create and distribute media,” Geidner said.

“There is literally no part of the news and media world that has been untouched by the rise of digital media.”

According to Geidner, print still has a future, albeit an altered version of how things have been.

“I don’t think print will fully disappear anytime soon, but we have seen print products shirk in many ways, such as circulation and number of print days, and that will continue,” Geidner said.

Meanwhile, although some may see the digitalization of media to be a negative transition as a whole, Geidner sees it as a double-edged sword.

“Digital media is a tool, and like any tool, it can be used in responsible ways or in terrible ways. Because of this, there are both great benefits and great pitfalls to digital media. We have access to more informa-

tion now than at any point in the history of humanity, but we can also easily and widely spread misinformation, rumors and lies,” Geidner said.

The digitalization of media is a complicated concept, and this “widely spread misinformation” has shown itself time and time again as the years go on and digital media becomes more and more accessible.

Moreover, Jenkins views the interactivity and accessibility of digital media to be a significant advantage.

“I think it is good thing in a lot of ways. … I think a positive side of it is the access …

I can read news from anywhere; any news in any country, it’s available. You can read an article and click 10 links to learn more,” Jenkins said.

“You can comment directly on an article, share it, respond easily … I think it has opened up a line of communication that is challenging but productive. There are positive aspects with being able to connect with your reader.”

She added that there are both benefits and disadvantages to the news industry becoming more digitalized when it comes to journalists, as well.

“It means that journalists and news organizations have to adapt and change all the time, but it makes them better journalists and more well-rounded,” Jenkins said.

While the digitalization of media has both its benefits and disadvantages, only time will tell how the future of media will come to be.