One tenet of the Society of Professional Journalists’ code of ethics is to seek truth and report it —  holistically. Aspiring journalists are taught everyday in classrooms across the country to tell the story of diversity, seeking news on all levels of public life.

It is the duty of journalists to provide citizens with honest and comprehensive news. But somewhere along the way, many journalists lose sight of this goal.

Oftentimes in the race to be the first to report a government scandal or latest international news, combined with time constraints to put out the news, journalists forget about the “little people.”

Instead, we search for hype and controversy. We chase glamorous, sexy headlines and stories and communicate to the public that if it’s not hot, it’s not news.

And this crime I was guilty of myself. This summer I fled my hometown of Jackson, Miss., to intern in our nation’s capital. I thought it a must to go where “the action” was, thinking it was not enough to learn from local anchors and reporters.

But amid the thrill of site briefings at the Capitol Building, reporting for the National Crime Prevention Council and my studies at Georgetown University, I found that the most poignant example of reporting on all levels came from home.

Just as I was sure that my summer in Washington, D.C., was proving to be the best professional experience of my undergraduate career, media big wig Tom Brokaw proved me wrong.

I was watching his NBC investigation, “Separate and Unequal,” which revealed the capital city’s history and ever-present struggle with race and poverty. 

As a Jacksonian, I was brought to tears as I watched the piece. I felt Brokaw’s reporting was so magnanimous, and I was truly touched by his accurate and decent account of my hometown.

As a journalist, I was instantly inspired. Without having time to process the standards the SPJ’s code of ethics, I knew at once that this investigation had successfully upheld “telling the story of diversity and magnitude of the human experience boldly, even when it is unpopular to do so.”

World tragedies in the last few years have seen wonderful reporting. More isolated issues receive local coverage, and where local issues reach national levels, Mississippi is often seen on the fringes of coverage, if at all.

I was motivated by Brokaw, a prominent figure, taking on a national trend in a location that is by no means sensational. Any other city could have been selected, especially one with more notoriety. But Brokaw did not conform to more typical means of reporting.

This is a lesson I will never forget, as it impressed in me an appreciation for reporting news on all levels. Never before has my journalism education or professional experience given me that. Now, I understand it is not enough for me to rest on my laurels, and I challenge other journalists with this charge.

 

April Reynolds is a senior journalism major from Jackson, Miss., and serves as a news editor for the Tech Talk. E-mail comments to akr011@latech.edu.