Feature Writing and Journalism Ethics: The power of words

At the beginning of every semester, Russell Frank, Penn State associate professor of communications, tells his journalism ethics class that something big is going to blow up in the media. So big, in fact, that they will be able to cover half of the topics of the class from one media story. What Frank didn’t know was that during this semester, that story would be about Penn State.

Frank has found instructional opportunities in two of his classes, feature writing and journalism ethics. Students in his feature writing class studied scene-setting pieces that introduced State College and the mood of the town.

Frank had his students search Google for news stories about the issue. “We found countless stories using the words ‘nestled,’ ‘sleepy’ and the phrase, ‘things aren’t supposed to happen in a place like this.’ We talked about parachute journalism, where reporters drop into a town they’ve never been to before, have preconceptions about the town and write it all down before they even get off the plane.”

His writing class also found a lot of weather descriptions in articles attempting to connect those terms to the community's collective mood, regardless of what the weather was. Examples included, “The glorious blue sky and bright golden leaves of Happy Valley are a dark contrast to what is going on at the Penn State campus."

“This happens when you read about lurid crimes in the media,” Frank said. “Towns in mountains or valleys are always nestled, they’re always sleepy and you’d never expect such a heinous crime to happen in a place like this -- it never fails. It’s been a good tool in studying preconceptions made by the media.”

The bulk of Frank’s journalism ethics syllabus has played out in the past two weeks. Frank said that on Nov. 10, the Thursday after some Penn State students protested the firing of Penn State football coach Joe Paterno, he found his students were angered by the behavior they’d seen from the media and needed to talk it out.

Frank’s ethics class also examined the media’s use of graphic language that appeared in the Grand Jury report related to the Sandusky case. There’s a difference, he said, between a newspaper using the words “inappropriate behavior” and “anal rape” to describe what was included in the report. Students discussed what readers wanted to see in their morning paper over a cup of coffee, compared with the importance of describing the severity of what Sandusky has been accused of doing.

They also spoke about privacy issues in sexual assault cases, noting that the mother of one of the victims spoke to The Patriot-News of Harrisburg, Pa., but she was not named to protect the identity of her son.

Students also talked about the conflict of interest regarding Penn State employees and alumni covering the story. While these people can offer an insider’s insight on the campus community, he said they also need to be up front about their background before offering that perspective.

“We were able to cover privacy, graphic language, sensationalism and conflict of interest, most of the topics we cover each semester in this class,” Frank said. “Never have I seen students so engaged. This is happening in their own backyard. I think it’s important to incorporate this lesson, since it’s already on everyone’s mind.”