the mind of a journalist

last week for our comms 239 class we had a guest speaker named don meyers come talk to us. don writes for the salt lake tribune, http://www.sltrib.com/, and came to tell us a little bit more about his experiences as a journalist.

at first when i heard we had a guest speaker i was honestly prepared to take a nap. (don't judge me, having a class from 4:30-7:00 makes me tired just typing that), anyways, i was going to tune him out and enjoy my sleep. however, i was awake and into the talk the whole time. i really enjoyed it and learned A LOT.

he was a funny little man, with interesting expressions and mannerisms. he told us stories about his stories he has covered and his experiences in the professional journalism world. for me, my favorite part was when he dove into a story about the crandall mine collapse.

this gives me a nice lead-in to talk about the copiapo chile mine rescue, which i have been talking about honestly since it happened.

watch THIS: it makes you appreciate the rescue even more!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fdZtDucLpTw&feature=channel

me and the other 1 billion (WOW) people who watched the rescue live were amazed, shocked, and touched. god bless modern technology, airplanes, camera crews, and the sleepy jet-lagged reporters who brought us that story. my eyes watered up with tears as the first miner, Florencio Ávalos, was pulled up out of the half mile of stone in that tiny little space capsule. he received a hug from his son and wife, and then was whisked off to the hospital. can you IMAGINE being one of the journalists covering that story?? i was sitting on my couch in provo getting teary eyed and i have never been to chile or even ever met anyone from chile. ridiculous. anyways, i am SO overjoyed they are all out and it really is a miracle.


the reason the rescue was brought up was because brother campbell asked don about the crandall mine disaster that he covered a few years back, which will nicely illustrate what exactly i got out of our discussion on the mind of a journalist.

A mining accident took place on Monday, August 6, 2007, at 2:48 a.m. at the crandall canyon mine in utah. the collapse was tragic because 6 workers and 2 rescuers died. the whole thing, of course, was a hay day for the media, including don. he told us a story about the owner of the mine, bob murray.



we watched a clip from a press conference that showed bob murray getting angry at the media for (correctly) accusing him and his business partners for being largely responsible for the mine collapse because of the type of mining they were doing and the condition of the mine. don said it was so interesting to be there and to hear the questions being asked and the answers given. the journalists involved really had an opportunity to dig deep and become investigative journalists, who, in my opinion, were responsible for the fact that bob murray fled town and declared the mountain 'evil'. i think he is evil....but whatever....

don was the epitome of someone who has the mind of a journalist and is always ready to go further than just meeting a deadline. that is what should be filling the mind of a journalist. how can they get MORE INFORMATION. how can they GET THE TRUTH RIGHT. how can they GET MORE DETAILS. how can they MAKE SOMETHING RIGHT. and the list goes on...and one....and on...and on.

it really is amazing to me how lucky we are at this school to get such great advice and such a great education on how we can accomplish this. we talk about it basically all day throughout my various broadacst journalism classes. we have been taught that we need to get our facts straight, bring the public the news that THEY need to hear, and make sure that we do it in the right way. we are not focused on who we work for, the money we make, or WIIFM. (the acronym brother johnson loves, 'what's in it for me?'. I realize this isn't the really journalism world, i mean, we aren't working for anyone or trying to make money, but what we are being taught about right now and about the mind of a journalist is so helpful for our futures.

for now, my mind of a journalist might be boggling around facts i need to remember for my comms 239 class, but overall, i hope that it it one day filled with memories and stories like don has, full of a life of hard work and story chasing to get the publics the information they need to be free and self-governing.