Mormon Media Symposium

Today I had the great opportunity to attend the Mormon Media Studies Symposium, a festival of speakers and presentations on Mormon media and a history of the media as it relates to our faith. I chose to attend two presentations, one was called: "Out of Obscurity, Heber J. Grant's Communications and Public Relations Efforts to Bring the Church into a National Positivie View," given by BYU Department of Communications Professor Edward E. Adams. This presentation was really interesting. He spoke a lot about how the church was so negatively portrayed in magazine and newspaper articles, as well as in movies during the early 1920's. People loved to write about the "crazy Mormon polygamists" that were out to corrupt society and steal your children and sell them off into the Mormon polygamist trade. That simply was not true, and President Grant realized that he had the duty to turn that image around by using public relations and the media. Professor Adams talked about how a few celebrities of the time who were LDS, as well as things happening in Utah that caused the attention of the nation to turn to them. I believe that President Grant had the divine responsibility to make the church seem more "normal" and "welcoming," and I think he did a great job of it.

The other presentation I attended was given by BYU church history professors, Susan Easton Black, and it was about the St. Louis Luminary, a paper published for the saints living in the Midwest during the latter half of the 18th century. President Brigham Young sent people over for the sole purpose of starting the St. Louis Luminator. The paper helped the thousands of saints that were on the way over to Utah and ended up settling in St. Louis for various reasons stay connected. This paper was one of the first successful papers that the church had that reached millions of people. Sister Black told us that jokes, recipes, marriage announcements, and other church news were included in the paper. The paper was so informational and important, that Sister Black took it upon herself to digitize it so that everyone has access to it. She said she was tired of squinting through a magnifying glass to read the paper. What a great service Sister Black did for everyone who is interested in seeing what the St. Louis Luminator has to offer.

I am really happy I was able to attend the Mormon Media Studies Symposium. It was a lot more entertaining that I was expecting, and I learned a lot about the media in this church and how it has helped shape us into the powerful world religion that we are today.

watchdoggie

lois lane is one of my heroes. maybe it's the hopeless romantic in me coming out. the one who wants to be swept off my feet or rescued from falling off a tall building by superman. that could be one of the reasons why i love her...but i think the main reason is that she is one incredible journalist. i love this quote from lois lane:

lois lane is a great example of my blog topic today: WATHCDOG JOURNALISM. she is a great investigative journalist. watch this clip:

watchdog journalism is one of my favorite topics to discuss. the idea of journalists being a protector of the human race and an investigative force for the common man makes me SO excited.

we, as journalists, have so many duties and responsibilities. this class has really opened up my eyes to that. we have to:

-decide what the public needs to know

-report accurate information

-decide what portions of interviews or what footage we will use

-keep our opinions on the down low

-be investigative journalists....

i think that the duty we have to be investigative journalists truly is a duty and a privilege. it may not always be the glamorous detective work like we see in the movies, but by asking the right questions and choosing the right stories we have the potential to solve a lot of problems.

i have loved investigative journalism since i was a child because it was huge part of one of the major stations in las vegas, where i am from. they had an "i-team," a team of reporters that did stories only on investigative topics. this news station had a huge hand in many major changes that happened in las vegas in regards to unsanitary restaurants, faulty schools, government spending scandals, and many other topics. i was so fascinated every time i would watch one of these stories.

one of their main reporters is named george knapp. george knapp is one of the coolest people ever. his stories are so intense. he always knows the right questions to ask, the right documents to look at, the right places to go for a story. he always gets the answers he is seeking. here is an example of one of his stories:

i love his usage of government documents, interviewing, and investigative journalism to get answers to his questions. as a broadcast journalism major here at BYU, i want to be like george knapp and do good for the general community.

another topic that the group discussed during their presentation last week was the subject of journalism as an independent monitor of power. i love their quote that they used for their handout:

"the press was protected s that it could bare the secrets of government and inform the people. Only a free and unrestrained press can effectively expose deception in government." -pg. 142 supreme court justice hugo black

in my opinion, this statement perfectly summarizes what it means to be an independent monitor of power. we have to comfort the afflicted, afflict the comfortable, and all things in between. in order to properly do this....we need to be free and unrestrained. in this modern world of money and self-interest, this can be hard. but we can do it. i know we can! we can keep journalism as the founders of the constitution originally intended it to be: a ways of keeping this country free and self-governing and helping people out. we have such a great gift in this nation to be free and have free presses. this is a great article that summarizes what i am talking about:

http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/data/constitution/amendment01/06.html#1

one of my dreams in life is to be a reporter who gets put on an assignment involving investigative journalism. that is a major reason why i wanted to go into broadcast journalism in the first place. i believe in the power of the press to help people and to influence a community for good.

woof woof.