In Memoriam: Death of a Mentor

 

Francis D. "Proinsias" Faulkner, PhD

1945-2021

 

I'm not quite sure what event or thought crossed my mind yesterday to cause me to think about him. I've been having a personal "quarrel" with social media (primarily Facebook) since the final days of the annus horribilis known to almost all of us as 2020. The constant skirmishes with people that I used to remember being somewhat smart and collegial had me pull away from my primary window to the outside world at the height of the worst pandemic event our planet has witnessed since the Spanish Flu outbreak just over 100 years ago. Scrolling through countless "shares" about the coronavirus, the conspiratorial aftermath of the then-recent US presidential election, and the toxic mingling of the two into incoherent uneducated gibberish pushed me to the point where I would only give the site occasional glances to check in on the lives of those I was connected with through that platform (I would later go even farther, removing all of my personal information except for my name). Because this 21st century version of the "town square" concept was the only way to keep tabs on some family members and close friends, I could not go through the final act of deleting the account completely.

 

When I was on good terms with Facebook, one of the things I looked forward to annually was the birthday greetings that would come flooding in from a good portion of the 500+ "friends" I have on that site. If one shares their birth date with the public, members can anticipate the well wishes to start (depending on where they lived) as early as the afternoon before the actual day and they would continue sometimes up to a few weeks later in the form of apologetic "belated" felicitations. From the time that we linked there up back in 2014, one of the first ones that would arrive for me would be from Francis (Frank) Faulkner, a man that I considered a mentor, a contemporary, as well as a friend who I met through my University of Massachusetts (UMass) journalism certificate program days. This "earlieness" was due to him taking up residence in the Philippines--12 hours ahead of the US Eastern time zone--in what turned out to be the final years of his most interesting life. Since I removed my data, none of my friends were reminded about my birthday (it's a day in June) and no greetings were received. As it turned out, I would not have received one from him this year anyway because of his passing in late May.

A/V: 2016 SPJ Region 4 & 5 Spring Conference

Cincinnati, Ohio's "Queen City", served as the host for this year's Society of Professional Journalists' joint regional spring conference in April

Perhaps it was the notification I received in my email inbox on Monday that thanked me for attending. Maybe it was Tuesday's observance of World Press Freedom Day that I saw continuously featured on my Google News feed. Or perhaps I'm energized by that evening's primary election rhetoric and the historic nature of the choice made by Indiana's Republican voters. Whatever the reason, I knew I had been putting off posting about this event for far too long. Three week-long out-of-state business trips intermixed with my regular hometown office responsibilities and a slight seasonal cold have put me slightly over 30 days behind in documenting my experiences at this annual gathering of rising young stars from journalism academia. With the 2013, 2014 and last year's conference under my belt, my streak continued with this year's offering held at Cincinnati's Kingsgate Marriott Conference Center on a blustery April day.

Journalism's "Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad" Week

(NOTE: I was going to use this phrase for a post back in February when the Brian Williams career "inflation" imbroglio, Jon Stewart's retirement announcement and the deaths of CBS News reporter Bob Simon and New York Times' columnist David Carr all happened in a very short span; however, this past week's events have greatly outdone that earlier gloom and deserve the headline.)

Three separate (but unequally tragic) instances happened last week that created seismic-like waves in the journalism world

I call myself a "citizen journalist"--one who currently practices the tenets of this profession in a "when I can get to it", part-time role. I do not rely upon this activity to support myself financially and have been largely absent here over the past eight months. I also conduct it without having to put my personal freedoms, my reputation, or--as horribly depicted on live television--my life on the line. Unfortunately, all three of these examples were witnessed last week and I feel compelled to comment on all of them as a member of this extended "family".

A/V: 2015 SPJ Region 4 Spring Conference

Athens' Ohio University played host for the 2015 SPJ Region 4 Spring Conference.

The Ohio University chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists hosted members from all across the organization's Region 4 area (Michigan, Ohio, Western Pennsylvania and West Virginia) for its 2015 annual professional development Spring Conference on March 20-21 in Athens, Ohio. Over 150 journalists, educators and other associated personnel came for the unique networking and mentoring opportunities with other attendees as well as the staff of the institution's  nationally recognized E.W. Scripps School of Journalism.

A Review of My "Year of Application"

In a practice that--thanks to our ever-increasing reliance on electronic devices--is becoming less frequent, humans switch out their calendars in the annual event of "ringing out the old and ringing in the new" around this time of year. It serves as an opportunity of reflection, introspection and resolve to guide us along our paths in the new year. While I have no wall hanging to change out, I do have this blog to browse through for that same purpose. According to my first post for the year that just ended, 2014 was supposed to be my "year of application" and to spread my journalistic "wings" and, except for the tailing off near the end, I think I can claim success.

In that submission, I talked optimistically about using the skills I acquired through my then-recent completion of my Certificate of Journalism from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst in the lead-up to being laid off from a job that I held for a little over five years (that was alluded to as a "year of transition").  I initially established a schedule that I would follow for my posting of new content onto this site that was slowly cast aside based upon wavering levels of interest as well as opportunities taken (and ignored) throughout that 12-month period.

Here's a breakdown of my 52 posts last year:

My "Journo-less" Summer...So Far (Part 6 of 8)

This is the sixth installment for my personal journalism-related observations of the current summer season...as promised, Egypt wasn't the only place where governments were cracking down on journalists and their profession.

6. Government crackdown on Myanmar journalists:

Journalists protest the conviction of Unity Weekly journalists in Yangon on July 12, 2014. (photo courtesy of Reuters/Soe Zeya Tun)

While the three Al Jazeera reporters were getting most of the headlines concerning legal crackdowns on the press, the government of Myanmar (some still refer to it as Burma, its former British colonial name) sentenced four reporters and a newspaper executive to 10-year prison terms each for "disclosing state secrets" in the now closed-down Unity Weekly because of a story they wrote about an alleged chemical weapons factory back in January (their trial started the following month and their convictions and punishments were handed down on July 10th).

My "Journo-less" Summer...So Far (Part 5 of 8)

This is the fifth installment for my personal journalism-related observations of the current summer season...as promised, a posthumously released, thinly veiled "tell all" novel kept media tongues wagging for the early part of the summer but it also drew new attention to a career--and a life--that ended way too soon.

5. "The Last Magazine":

With all of the books I have set aside for reading and the many boxes I have stacked up in my garage, it would take a lot of hype and buzz to get me to read one that has just been released. Michael Hastings' posthumous "novelization" of world and personal events during his time working at Newsweek in the early 2000s was one of those books. Although he was killed in an auto accident in June 2013 at the age of 33, his unfinished manuscript was found in a desk drawer and was released by his widow with little editing on June 17th to a host of critical acclaim. Coming in at 299 pages in its electronic form (352 in hard cover), it wasn't a long read but it was one that required frequent referrals to my own recollections of that time period or visits to Wikipedia for refreshers on the circumstances Hastings was retelling.

Opinion Writing 101

Guest host--and op/ed columnist--Jonathan Capehart (far left) guides an insighful discussion about the role of opinion columns in today's news business with fellow columnists Froma Harrop, Clarence Page and Connie Schultz on MSNBC's Up with Steve Kornacki show yesterday morning.

I will try to keep my own comments to a minimum here but I was fortunate enough to watch an outstanding panel on the subject of opinion writing that was telecast on yesterday's Up With Steve Kornacki show on MSNBC. Guest host--and op/ed columnist for The Washington Post--Jonathan Capehart held a virtual roundtable with fellow columnists Froma Harrop, Clarence Page and Connie Schultz about the role of opinion writing in today's news landscape.

My "Journo-less" Summer...So Far (Part 4 of 8)

This is the fourth installment for my personal journalism-related observations of the current summer season...as promised, whether you remember it or not, this decade's influence on American culture is still evident today.

4. CNN's The Sixties:

Although my own recollection of this 1960-to-1970 period is primarily of its end years and from a very youthful perspective, I have been mostly entertained by this look back on this 10-year transformational period that produced so much news and nostalgia. This series actually started last November when they aired a two-hour special on the 50th anniversary of the assassination of President Kennedy but they premiered it in an announced 10-part episodic order on May 29th (with that earlier shown offering cut down to an hour). The final episode was supposed to air on August 7th but the scheduled end-date was postponed by one week due to the sheer volume of news due to the eruption of the current Gaza Conflict and the downing of Malaysian Airlines Flight 17 in contested airspace over eastern Ukraine on July 17th. It was almost pushed back another seven days when the episode airing on August 7th was interrupted about halfway through by President Obama's announcement of US military intervention inside Iraq due to a quickly developing humanitarian crisis involving the Sunni jihadist group ISIS/ISIL. It apparently was rebroadcast in its entirety for West Coast audiences later that same night and in weekend reruns but, unfortunately, I didn't reprogram my DVR to catch that last half hour.

My "Journo-less" Summer...So Far (Part 3 of 8)

[NOTE: I apologize for the long break between segments but I have been doing some employment-related activities with at least two potential opportunities in the journalism field. Most of the hard work--a resume and online portfolio--has been accomplished and they are now out for review by a few trusted mentors so now I can get back to writing about what I once thought was going to be a "journo-less" summer.]

This is the third installment for my personal journalism-related observations of the current summer season...as promised, hard-hitting reporter, truth seeker, Curves membership. Nothing yet? How about justice hunter, philanthropist, has a Gmail account? You'll be shocked!

3. News Glance with Genevieve Vavance:

One of Roger's latest personas is news anchor Genevieve Vavance, a made-up character very much borrowed from a true-life television personality. (graphic courtesy of Fox)

- News Glance with Genevieve Vavance: after what I described in the last posting in this series, one of my few vices I will freely admit to doing is watching animated shows during the Fox television network's prime time and their re-airing on the Cartoon Network's after-hours Adult Swim channel. My favorite of the current selection has to be American Dad!, the story of the day-to-day antics of a fictional CIA agent and his immediate family (as well as a gay gray alien and a talking fish who live with them--his son-in-law, slacker/stoner Jeff Fischer, appears to have been written off near the end of this past season). For this post, I will go through the episode in-depth and then provide my own specific and generic critiques. (SPOILER ALERT! If you haven't seen the show, don't go any further because I do provide details in my review.)

My "Journo-less" Summer...So Far (Part 2 of 8)

This is the second installment for my personal journalism-related observations of the current summer season...as promised, here's a new television program that involves a familiar face from a "fake news" show:


2. Last Week Tonight with John Oliver:

Jon Stewart, Comedy Central's potentate of puerile political punditry, unleashed upon the American television viewing public yet another fake news presenter (Stephen Colbert being the first and Larry Wilmore waiting in the wings for his January 2015 debut when Colbert moves over to replace David Letterman on CBS) who appears to be more passionate and focused than the news anchor choices on television today.  Although this show started in April, I'm including it into this "summer-y" piece because, in its short run, it has quickly become my "must see" program.

My "Journo-less" Summer...So Far (Part 1 of 8)

Constantly consumed by numerous unsuccessful attempts at securing a new employer (and trying to end a 6-month long jobless stretch), I haven't had a chance to really enjoy the promise of relaxation that the summer season brings around this time every year. Since I finished my journalism program last December (and receiving my certificate the following month), this is the first one since 2011 that I do not have any schoolwork to work on so I have been occupying some of my limited "down" time with entertainment and activities related to that field. The items that I already posted here (the Clinton booksigning, the Dayton festival) might have been the only the things I considered "newsworthy" but there has been much more going on related to past, present and even fictional news.

Over the next few weeks, I will provide these observations in a chronologically ordered, multi-part series. The first installment deals below with one of a journalist's greatest fears--being jailed for simply doing your job (or, in this case, being convicted on trumped-up charges).

Dayton Daily News' Ideas & Voices: "Balance" is Not "Equal"

After reviewing items over a recent 4-week period, the evidence shows that liberal bias does not exist on the paper's editorial pages and, in fact, it shows quite the opposite (perhaps due to a lack of oversight).

If you are a frequent visitor to this blog, you will know that my local newspaper, The Dayton Daily News, and opinion writing/columnists have been the subjects of several of my entries during its run. So it would not come as a complete surprise to see a confluence of the two in order to answer a long-standing question I've had over the years: just how liberal is this paper? Although the graphic above foreshadows my conclusion, I would hope that you continue reading after the break for a short overview of the genesis of this marketing ploy and to see how I was able to make that determination (I also voice some strongly held opinions on my local opinion pages).

My Year of Application

Greetings to all of my readers, followers, former classmates and friends on this first day of 2014, or as I am branding it "My Year of Application".  As I said at the close of my last blog update of 2013, I declared completion with my Certificate in Journalism program through the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and the physical certificate is in the process of being delivered to me sometime in the next five-to-ten school business days.  Over the past 28 months, I've become formally acquainted with the fundamentals of journalism, did some newswriting and reporting, learned about the current online environment, reviewed ethical considerations, practiced some public relations writing, expanded my photojournalism confidence levels and, lastly, dabbled in opinion writing (to supplement my near lifelong following of these subjects).  Throughout that period, I posted some of my coursework submissions here to serve as waypoints to measure my personal progress towards the certificate completion goal. 

My Opinion of My Opinion Writing Class

John Lithgow's 2012 Broadway portrayal of Joseph Alsop, one of America's most influential newspaper columnists

In probably my most fractious experience as a University of Massachusetts student, I was able to successfully navigate my way through the school’s recently concluded JOURNAL 392S, Opinion Writing: Columns offering.  It wasn’t easy to apply a kind adjective to the semester because a combination of events and issues made it a very unenjoyable 14 weeks for me and ended my certificate program on a negative note.

Journalism's Role in "The Panic Broadcast" of 1938

Orson Welles and his Mercury Theater on the Air show scared the bejeezus out of many Americans 75 years ago last week

There aren't many people around today that have a first-hand account of the Halloween Eve radio offering that was dubbed "the panic broadcast" when it first aired in late October 1938.  Orson Wells, the multi-talented actor, director, playwright and prodigy, transformed H.G. Wells' late 19th century novel The War of the Worlds into a live-action radio drama that transfixed portions of his audience in their chairs with a ring-side seat to the destruction of the human race by Martian invaders.

Second Season of "The Newsroom" Starts Tomorrow Night

One of the posts that I had sitting on the "back burner" was to be a critique of last year's premiere season of HBO's The Newsroom, a show that was supposed to give its viewers an inside glimpse into the personnel, logistics and purpose behind today's cable news programming.  Set at the fictional Atlantis Cable Network, we follow the lives of News Night's on- and off-air personnel in their complicated professional and personal lives.  I won't attempt to cover all of the season's highlights and plot lines but I'll let series creator Aaron Sorkin and others provide an overview.

I'm Certified!!!

Although it is not yet official (my grades for the recent public relations course I took have not been posted but I earned 97 out of a total of 100 available points), I have met the requirements of certification through the University of Massachusetts Amherst's journalism program and can cross it off of my "bucket list".  It's hard to believe that almost two years have transpired since I found their online offering and signed up for my first class back in the fall of 2011.  Looking back over that time, I've learned a lot about this profession and got a real taste of what its practitioners encounter on a daily basis.  In addition to the basics (overview/history and writing/reporting), I dabbled into today's online media trends and learned about the ethical constraints that must be adhered to in order to present an unbiased yet informative submission.  Once I see this most recent grade updated, I will contact the school to start the process of obtaining the actual certificate that will formally document my accomplishment.

While I have taken (and passed) their minimum requirements, I am planning on virtually attending more courses (if the VA is OK with that) to further expand my overall awareness and narrow my focus concerning a future career in journalism.  Next Monday, I am starting their abbreviated summer photojournalism course and I just saw that a class on opinion writing and columns is being offered in the fall.  I've become more comfortable with my camera over the months and I'm hoping to learn more about its capabilities over the next six weeks in order to improve my visual products.  If the truth be told, my "dream job" would be as a weekly/periodic columnist so I would enthusiastically welcome formal instruction and professional critiquing on my submissions in order to solidify my current writing skills.  Registration for that class doesn't open until July 17th so I'll have to set a personal reminder to do that as soon as possible.

Reflecting back on this accomplishment, I'd like to take this opportunity to thank the instructors, fellow students, professional journalists and others that have inspired me and touched my life over the past 23 months.  Early on in my reporting class, I soon learned that restrained enthusiasm might get you to an event or a location; however, you also need to develop relationships and connections with others both inside and peripheral to the profession.  Such linkage facilitates access to the subjects and stories that need to be made available to a worldwide community of media consumers.  I could not have gotten into some of the places that I did last year without the benevolence of several people who took a chance on accrediting a college journalism student and blogger who wanted to cover presidential politics.  I hope that I can someday be in a position to repay that debt to another person in my same situation.

Back to School!

With apologies to Thorton Melon (Rodney Dangerfield) and Grand Lakes University--Home of the Hooters!

Yesterday was the official end of my "hiatus" from my online journalism classes with the start of UMass Amherst's 2013 summer semester.  It began on May 20th with the first of their two CPE sessions and I will be utilizing both of them to meet my class attendance requirements for their Certificate in Journalism (JOURNAL 392P, Writing for Public Relations, will run through the end of June and JOURNAL 333, Introduction to Digital Photojournalism, will carry me all the way through mid-August).  I opted for this "turbo" strategy because the classes are shorter (six weeks versus the 14 weeks during the traditional fall and spring semesters) and this compacted schedule will allow me to stretch out my Post-9/11 GI Bill educational benefits for future classes through this school or, perhaps,to pursue another certificate with another institution. 

SPJ Region 4 Spring Conference -- Dayton, Ohio

As the days of my self-imposed "hiatus" from online courses come to a close, I had been searching for an event that might "jump-start" the passion I had when I took up this initiative just 18 months ago.  Being a member of good standing in the Society of Professional Journalists (in a student capacity), I was already receiving email notifications about their annual Excellence in Journalism conference scheduled for late August in Anaheim, California.  Given several months notice, I would be able to set aside the shekels required to get me there plus a few days for sightseeing in the greater Los Angeles area to boot.  I was all ready to make the arrangements when I received another mailing in late March about an SPJ event that was happening practically in my backyard.