Would You Give Up Your Source?

This week I was Posed an interesting question. It all started when my Communications Law class started talking about Media and the Law/ Ethics. Well, being the only broadcasting major in the class I was singled out and as this question: Would you give up your source in a trial if they brought you into a court case? ....
Talk about being caught off guard. Up until now i never gave it much thought. It something you don't think about until you are put in that situation. Well i had to give and answer the professor was waiting on me. My first response was that it depended on the situation. Because I'm not one to rat someone out that has helped me I'm also not the type of person who would let a rapist or terrorist go free. Well, that answer did not go over to well. So I said No. I would not divulge my sources for a trial. The way I see it is this: these people trust me which is why they tell me information. If I loose that trust then I loose my Information. Not only do I suffer but the public will suffer because they will not have the information that i have to give them anymore. So I chose the "don't bite the hand that feeds you" route.
That seemed to please my professor for about a 30 seconds and then she throws at me this ... what if it was between that and going to jail? Well I'll be honest I'm no martyr. I will do the right thing as I see it but even though I still feel that every situation should be handled in its own way is still had to answer. Again this is a lot to decide in a matter of 30 seconds... at least i felt that it was. I was deciding whether to end my career as a reporter (essentially) and possibly get marked by the party which I handed to the police or go to jail. So either way its just not a good situation. Plus, I would say I have pretty god morals. I don't like innocent people going to jail and certainly disapprove of a criminal going free. But if there is one thing that I have learned in life is that sometimes you have to make decisions based on your own personal needs.
In the end of the massive debate in my head I came to one conclusion... I would not let myself go to jail for someone Else's mishap even if I was threatened my by source. After all at least I could have a job and a life.... even if witness protection gave me a new name and place to live.
I came to all of these conclusions but i can't really say if they are right or wrong. In the end who is to say they are or aren't anyways. I started really thinking about them after class and wondering if my answers were something I would stick by. I have decided that they are but again I'll never really know until I've been faced with it. I am also still in school and don't really know exactly what its like to get a story that would have such drama associated with it. So its interesting to see what people would do.... so i pose this question to you.... What would you do if the police came to you and asked you to hand over information regarding your source, would you do it or refrain?

From Place to Place

From Miami to Pittsburgh the news is constantly informing people. Even thought the basics all seems to be the same there are several Differences from region to region. I recently traveled to Miami for vacation. Now normally on vacation I don't spend my time pouring over the local news, but when there are flood watches and you are on the beach the best thing to keep you updated is the local news. I also grabbed a newspaper in the morning for leisurely reading so I would say I got a nice fill of news while I was on vacation.
Of all the things I read there was one thing that stuck out in my mind. This was the culture of the newspaper and TV. I understand that I live in a very small town with a very specific audience and a limited cultural span. However I have lived in a Atlanta and seen the differences between the two. There is much more of a cultural aspect to the news . Obviously there are more people in the city and therefore there are many more events to choose from. Also Atlanta is an international hub in the united States and so the audience is much wider then it is here. One thing that I notice when i watch the news or read the Atlanta Journal Constitution compared to the New Castle news a lot of the focus is on the community versus the schools. Here is western PA a lot of the news stems from what is going on at the schools ... plays, sports community service. For a small town like New Wilmington much of the news deals with the college campus. Even though New castle is down the road what is going on with the young adults and students in schools and out of schools is a big part of the newspaper... well that and obituaries. The audiences are older in PA compared to Atlanta. Atlanta is more hip and younger. The audiences are more interested in what events are going on compared to the going on of a school. There is also more crime and such in a city but that is mostly population based. Even when the audiences are different there is a big cultural difference. While her in New Wilmington we might mention Kwanzaa or the Hanukkah, in Atlanta they will have articles upon articles about it. The audience is more interested in those sorts of things whereas in PA they are not.

So you can tell the difference between a big city and a small town media but what really stuck me in when I went to Miami is the fact that they had essentially two different newspapers in one. What do I mean by this? Well, the newspaper was a full paper and then it had a duplicate of the same paper just in Spanish. Now there are a lot of Spanish, Mexicans, Koreans and Chinese in Atlanta but never have I seen the morning paper delivered with two different languages. And is is the audience of the media because they had various all Spanish channels as well as English. I must say I have never been in a place in America where I didn't understand the lady in the McDonald's .. they all spoke Spanish and I was so very confused. But the Newspaper was the part that surprised me the most.
After sitting back and taking a look at all of this I realized how beneficial it would be to have a background in another cultural and possibly be bilingual. I always thought that understanding other cultures were important but you really don't think about it until something like a bilingual newspaper swings your way. It makes you think about the benefits learning different cultures.

Story Ideas

The hardest things about reporting is coming up with a story. This past Friday class did an excercise that ended up giving us a ton of story ideas. This is great for me beause while i have a fair amount of ideas I am always afraid that it won't hit our target audience. As a college news station you would think that our target audience would be the students. While i do know a bunch of people who watch The County Line, there are just as many if not more more community people who watch the news show as well. For the stationx this is great because it means that we are reaching out to more then just the college. unfortunately for the reporter it is hard because then you have to try and find things that are more community related then college related. Granted the people who are watching The County Line outside of the Westminster are probably watching to keep up with new things going on at the college, we would still like to keep up with the event s of the community as well.
So back to our class discussion. I technically wasn't there because i was working on a package... surprise, surprise. But i talked to one of my classmates and asked her how class had went. She said it was one of the best classes yet. I just thought it figures i miss the best class because of a package. But wither way it got me thinking. I started thinking of all the different angles you can go about finding a package and filming a package. When you stop and think of doing a package most people think "oh i need a person or an event." They miss out on the fact that a news story can be about ANYTHING. For instance, one girl in my class told me she wanted to do a package on how to pronounce the word "VOLANT." As silly as it sounds when you think about it, it is very informative and entertaining at the same time. This story didn't call for an event for or even for a specific person it is based of of a community. I love it because it kind of brought things to a new perspective for me. Telling me i didn't have to do a profile or find an event was very invigorating for me . While i love to film events, it is hard for me because i am usually participating or running the event so its kind of hard to do both at the same time. This new way of thinking about reporting has given a new outlet.
Now as a broadcaster finding a story is apart of what we do. For those outside of our field, they love to ask questions about it. And my favorite question is "how do you come up with he stories?" It's not such an odd question but it is hard to answer. I like to think that we have to be "in the know" about most things in and around campus but what it oils down to most is communication. Communication between peers and faculty between the reporter and the rest of the world. WE talk to people and we ask questions and sooner or later we'll find something to spark our interest