MURL Building Blocks Blog: Journalism and Motivating Change

Sunday, September 24, 2006

Journalism and Motivating Change

After our Thursday discussion in class, I thought it might be worth talking through more of the issues we touched. I was surprised at a few of the sentiments. Namely, I got the sense that some of you believe what we do is worthy, but doesn't really motivate change.

If we don't tell these stories and motivate the change, who will? In a way, doesn't this bring us full-circle to where this blog started? And that was the email from the guy who wrote about walking away from the neighborhoods - to give it up. We wasting our time?

I'm also curious, why are so few of you not interested in journalism as a career? Is it as one person put, "I want to make money."

1 Comments:

At 11:45 AM, Suhailah said...: We learned early on that our job is to be objective. Get as many sides of the story that exist and manipulate them into an order that captures the eye and makes sense to boot. It did get a little heated in class, but I think it was because each of us is going to be a different kind of journalist and our conflicting views are just a mirror of our individuality. Are we in the business of motivating change? I think so...if only it was that easy.
You can inspire change only if you are willing to debunk the status quo. Can we do that? I think we can...MURL is providing the perfect outlet for us to explore how we can make a difference.

Walking into ASPIRA and seeing the faces of these future leaders, knowing they're getting a good start...and then realizing the millions of other kids who aren't...and then coming to the conclusion that the only change you can bring about is one that makes sense to you and what you identify with. The news, in general, is an unpleasant thing. I stopped watching it a while ago, right after Faheem Thomas-Childs was murdered by a stray bullet in front of his school about two years ago. I cried for a while after watching that heartwrenching coverage. It even made me think about changing my major because it would be hard for me to even think about sitting in the newsroom and having to write that article. But I love being a writer and I love the satisfaction I get after completing a story and knowing that I did everything I could to do it justice. Now is not the time to do things halfway, and I believe MURL is helping us prepare for the future. We've been given the opportunity to focus on an underrepresented community and give it some attention. They deserve some recognition.

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Welcome to the MURLbuildingblocks blog and the launch of our "Building Blocks" initiative.
The Multimedia Urban Reporting Lab (MURL) is the cornerstone of Temple University's Journalism Department and its mission to better tell stories in the under-covered and under-served neighborhoods of Philadelphia.

Central to the MURL mission is exploring ways to better tell stories in our under-served and under-covered urban neighborhoods. And, in the process, give some voice to those working to make their neighborhoods a more livable place. But to do it – “give voice to voiceless” - assumes the neighborhoods have a certain ease of access to technology and the means to pull-in multimedia content, “news.” We don’t make that assumption. Gut instinct and observation tells us something different. People are focused on survival; generated a decent income; and maintaining some balance in their world and with neighbors along the block.

This year in our MURL capstone class, and in partnership with WHYY-TV, we'll experiment with some relatively new technology - "datacasting" - to deliver hyper-local news content back into targeted Philadelphia neighborhoods. Our efforts are supported by a "New Voices" grant from the J-Lab at the University of Maryland. The J-lab projects are supported with grants from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and the Ethics and Excellence in Journalism Foundation.

Over the next year, we'll select two neighborhood locations along Philadelphia’s “golden block.” In partnership with WHYY-TV and using the station’s “datacasting” system, MURL students will send out a hyper-local neighborhood newscast/program/stories targeted to that community. The “datacasting” technology will enable us to send the content directly over the air to rooftop receiving antennaes and down to desktop computer(s) located at the community centers. The program built by Temple University Journalism students - MURL students – will be a mix of multimedia stories and “service news” produced by students and neighborhood “news” stories as seen through the eyes of the residents themselves. Neighborhood residents will use a combination of disposable digital still and video cameras as well as low-end digital audio recorders to tell the multimedia stories of their neighborhood and their “block.” All of this will contribute to building a 360 degree media view of the neighborhood

This MURL brand of news provides a form of hyper-local coverage missing from our urban communities. In an environment of where Journalists are mistrusted and a media that sees the dark side of their neighborhood, a level of transparency is created by this project - we hope.

There it is. This is our start and a place to begin building blocks in the neighborhoods.

Sunday, September 24, 2006

Journalism and Motivating Change

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