Steve Buttry, my journalism mentor, dies at 62

Steve Buttry

My condolences to the family of Steve Buttry, who died Feb. 19 of pancreatic cancer at age 62. I met Steve when I worked in the newsroom of a California newspaper; his employer, Digital First Media (DFM), provided management services for the newspaper’s parent company.

Our newsroom was transitioning to a multi-platform publishing strategy that placed an emphasis on “digital first,” and Steve came to our newsroom during a tour of member newspapers to share resources and strategies, and also to bring back with him any challenges we might face at our stage of implementing.

‘Fake news’: library scholars urge ‘metaliteracy’

Information via Internet. Image created with Bitstrips

Implications for digital-literacy education, more critically important than ever: Citing the role of “fake news” in the 2016 U.S. Presidential election, library and information science scholars Thomas P. Mackey and Trudi Jaccobson argue that it isn’t enough to be able to search and retrieve information from the online landscape. They advocate instead for what they term “metaliteracy,” an ability to make sense and critically evaluate this vast amount of information.

TIME author equates Asperger’s with trolling

As a survivor of bullying who has personally experienced cowardly attacks on the Internet, I share with TIME magazine author Joel Stein a concern that anonymity is a breeding ground for abuses. That said, I wish to express my concern with Stein’s portrayal of “the web” as “a sociopath with Asperger’s.”

Bullying: Arguments promote information literacy

In Matters of Opinion: Bullying (Norwood House Press, 2016), Carla Mooney presents pro and con arguments for three issues connected with bullying:

“Has the Internet Made Bullying Worse?”, “Are Schools Doing Enough to Stop Bullying?” and “Should Bullying Be a Criminal Offense?”

This brief volume encourages students to critically examine arguments, focused around a topic that bears direct relevance to their school-going experience.

Real-life example for lesson in information literacy

In my news feed this morning, I encountered a real-life example for a lesson in information literacy, specifically helping students identify possible bias in the way information is presented. I couldn’t resist sharing it, in case library media professionals wanted to use it in a class.

NPR should track disabilities among staff diversity

National Public Radio ombudsman Elizabeth Jensen has released a look at diversity among NPR newsroom staff, encompassing race, ethnicity and gender. She also addresses diversity among on-air sources for Morning Edition and All Things Considered.

Autism ‘not associated with brutality’

For the New York Times, Andrew Solomon debunks the “Myth of the ‘Autistic Shooter.’” Because it happened again; only a few days into coverage of an act of domestic terrorism — the killing of nine people and injuring of several others at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Oregon — a news outlet drew attention to posts attributed to the killer’s mother in which she claimed that “I have Asperger’s” and “I also have an Asperger’s kid.”

Autism: Letters help shape perceptions in media

At TheInvisibleStrings.com, M. Kelter offers perceptive analysis of autism coverage in the media, arguing that a wider range of stories are conveyed through the “new media” of blogs and social posts, but are limited to fragmented audiences.

Daniel J. Vance and I discuss media portrayals of people with disabilities

Daniel J. Vance

In his self-syndicated column this week, Disabilities author Daniel J. Vance profiles me for a second time as an editor on the autism spectrum.

The focus of our discussion: media portrayals of people with disabilities as occured in coverage of the Newtown, Conn. shootings.

As a woman on the autism spectrum as well as a professional editor, one area of particular concern to me is media portrayals of people with disabilities as they relate to efforts to diversify newsrooms.

I believe the Newtown, Conn. shootings and the murder of George Hodgins would have been covered differently in newsrooms with a reporter or editor on the spectrum.

Consider also the blanket condemnation of people with autism by Joe Scarborough of MSNBC when referring to the Aurora, Colo. theater shooting. These incidents underscore a need for diversity initiatives in journalism to include disability communities.

During our conversation, one area that Vance focused upon was the phrase, “suffered from,” to describe the shooter possessing a disability. For myself, I consider the effect of language used to describe people with disabilities. I use professional standards when editing to promote respectful portrayals.

Our conversation was an interesting one and I think readers will find Vance’s account of it enlightening. Read it at http://www.danieljvance.com/disabledweek564a.html.

Self-advocates and allies need to combat autism prejudice

Lydia Brown has posted a photo on Facebook of herself displaying a sign that reads: “I’m not afraid to say I’m autistic.” She explains:

“I posted this because of the unfortunately legitimate fears that many members of the Autistic community and parents of autistic children have about being visibly and openly Autistic in the wake of the tragic and baseless conflations of autism with violence. It isn't safe for everyone (particularly those who can pass) to be openly Autistic right now, but I'm doing so anyway because I'd rather not be afraid (even if I have every right to be).”

I think media coverage like that directed toward the shooting in Newtown, Conn. makes it more difficult -- and yet so much more essential -- for self-advocates and their allies to combat misinformation and prejudice.

Why were unidentified sources permitted to ‘diagnose’ Newtown, Conn. shooter?

Why were unidentified sources permitted to “diagnose” Adam Lanza, identified as the gunman in Friday’s Connecticut school shooting?

Voices must speak to be heard

In the spring 2012 issue of Yes! Magazine, Joseph Torres urges support for independent media as part of the issue’s “9 Strategies to End Corporate Rule.”

Favoriting ≠ endorsement

A Poynter report on the Associated Press updated social media policy highlights an exchange on Twitter that addresses its position on retweeting.

Blanket condemnation of people with autism

Photo from Twitter user @AspieSide during March 30 #vigilforgeorge
List of people with disabilities who were killed by parents or caregivers

 In a Monday morning broadcast, Joe Scarborough of MSNBC grossly stereotyped people (like me) who are on the autism spectrum.

You get the media you deserve

Looking at past articles and columns that appeared in our local newspapers, I can’t help but wonder why readers didn’t weigh in on topics as important as Ramsay Clark’s effort to impeach President Bush. Or a revelation by Greg Palast that U.S. intelligence and facts were “fixed” to justify the invasion of Iraq.

Project Censored appearance benefits public radio

An appearance by Dr. Peter Phillips drew a packed house on Saturday, Dec. 16, with attendees turning out in support of non-profit community radio.

Book review: ‘Censored 2003’ by Project Censored

It’s been several years since I finished my schooling -- for the time being, anyway -- but I find that I’m still devoting considerable time to what I call my “homework.”

The only difference is that the required reading I’ve assigned to myself has more of a career focus, rather than an academic one. Hence, the subscription to “American Journalism Review.” And likewise, the purchase of Censored 2003: The Top 25 Censored Stories by Peter Phillips and Project Censored (Seven Stories Press, 2002).

Project Censored is an investigative sociology and media analysis project that is managed through SSU’s Department of Sociology in its School of Social Sciences. Each year, Project Censored compiles 25 important stories that were under-reported in the mainstream news media during the preceding year. It’s a long process, that involves the screening of several thousand stories by Project Censored students and staff.

About 700 stories are selected for evaluation, and the whittling-down process involves input, in stages, by about 150 people -- students, staff, faculty/community advisors and self-selected national judges.

As a newspaper writer, I consider it essential to be as informed as possible about the world around me -- particularly in areas that don’t always get as much attention as they should. And so, for the past the past three or four years I’ve faithfully obtained each volume as soon as it was available. (Note to the similarly faithful: There is no Censored 2002. Censored 2003 covers 18 months of under-reported news, including an analysis of various stories related to Sept. 11, 2001.)

This series of books is invaluable for the attention they bring to important news stories, the journals that cover them and the news outlets that don’t. Among this year’s line-up, two of the stories originally appeared in “Mother Jones” -- which is quite possibly one of the best magazines in existence. Its continued appearance in Project Censored’s pages was one of the influencing factors in my decision to purchase a subscription.

Also of value is the analysis this series offers concerning grassroots and independent movements within the area of information gathering and dissemination. Each volume provides a glossary of independent publications and activist organizations for people who want to get a more complete picture of the world around them.

In a way, these books serve as snapshots into the alternative media’s continued evolution. And sometimes, re-reading earlier volumes, the sense of history astonishes me. In Censored 1999, for example, Project Censored profiled Free Radio Berkeley -- a forerunner in the campaign to bring low-power radio into local communities. What was civil disobedience then is now duly licensed, and Lake County’s own KPFZ-LP 104.5 FM is a beneficiary of those pioneering efforts.

Published Nov. 9, 2002 in the Lake County Record-Bee