Study Hall Digest 8/3/2020

On J-school in the age of coronavirus, Defector, self-publishing, and the Portland protests

By Study Hall staff writer Allegra Hobbs (@allegraehobbs)

A NOTE ON THE STUDY HALL COMMUNITY With the ongoing discussions in the Study Hall community about visibility and transparency, we’ve decided to work on a larger update about where Study Hall stands given our recent growth and new website launch. We’ll address staff diversity, community, and our future development plans. Please email any particular questions or concerns to [email protected] so the full staff can see them. Stay tuned for that in the next week or two. 

CUNY Faculty Rethink How to Teach Journalism During a Pandemic

Journalism has changed with the coronavirus pandemic: interviews have been swapped for Zoom calls, and health and safety restrictions have limited in-person reporting. At journalism schools, these challenges have posed questions about student safety and managing risk as pupils prepare for a changing industry in a time of crisis. Schools everywhere are grappling with whether to reopen campuses, mandate online classes, or allow some middle ground, but journalism schools face the dual challenge of figuring out how best to safely educate students in a profession generally dependent on in-person interaction. 

At CUNY’s Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism, this has meant a constant re-evaluation of curriculum and class safety policies, according to associate dean Andrew Mendelson. In March, as students were still in their spring semester and under a new stay at home order, the faculty voted to prohibit any reporting outside the house at all. “We said we weren’t going to allow any work produced outside of peoples’ homes for a grade,” said Mendelson. “I think that was probably more restrictive than other J-schools.” 

In April, the policy was revised as it became clear it was especially restrictive for photography and visual journalism students. The school created a waiver system, wherein a student could apply to excuse them from the ban — they had to explain the assignment, the necessity of in-person reporting, and the precautions they would take. 

As of last week, as students enter the fall semester, the faculty created a broader waiver that allows outside reporting, while a more restrictive system has been put in place to allow in-person reporting indoors. It requires permission from the subject and an explanation of precautions the student journalist will take. All classes will remain online, with the exception of those requiring access to a TV studio — which will be guided by stringent distancing protocols — and a drone class that takes place outdoors. 

The whole process has been a pandemic-era extension of considerations around ethical reporting, said Mendelson — how does the project impact the subject? How does it impact others? It has also required students to think outside the box. “[Before], you could just go out and get your person-on-the-street interview,” said Mendelson. “Now you have to build rapport in a different way, usually through a video chat. It’s a slower process. It takes a little more effort by the student to get stories.”

Mendelson said there has been pushback from faculty and students — though mostly from students. “It’s been a good conversation and my guess is, in a few months we may revisit it again,” said Mendelson. “Maybe we get rid of the waiver process completely. If there’s an increase in COVID over time, we may become more restrictive.”

The Self-Publishing Revolution

Last week, 18 former Deadspin journalists, who last year quit their jobs at the irreverent sports blog in protest against leadership at G/O Media, launched a site and media company called Defector, with subscriptions available at $8 a month or several tiers of yearly options. Defector, like Deadspin, is a sports blog — but its writers are now free from the G/O “stick to sports” mandate that incited the mass walkout.

Then there’s Substack, which is starting to resemble a genuine media company more than a newsletter platform. Two of the pieces most buzzed about on Media Twitter last week were self-published on the site. Freelancer Luke Winkie (who has written for Study Hall) wrote about “Media Thirst Guys” — media-curious guys who bombard their Tinder dates who work at Vox with questions about Ezra Klein — and Safy-Hallan Farah wrote some excellent criticism of Sad Girl Theory and its adjacent sad white girl media. As media companies lay off employees, those workers seem less reliant on companies to produce good writing. Farah noted on Twitter that she had pulled her essay from a dream publication because they had asked her to cut it in half, opting to self-publish it instead. More and more writers in this precarious climate, with even lower chances for a staff job, will be taking those risks.

Of course, it’s hardly a universal cure for what ails the media, and it’s not a solution that will uniformly reward all defecting writers. Those who already have successful online brands will fare better in the newsletter economy; starting from scratch poses more challenges. Then there’s monetization — Defector, which comes with a pretty strong brand built in, quickly net over 10,000 paying subscribers. Farah’s Substack, for now, is not monetized, so foregoing the traditional publishing route likely meant foregoing payment. Her essay in its unedited form was a huge success, so this tradeoff could very well work out in the long run. (She should definitely consider adding a paid tier to her Substack!) But who can work for free indefinitely? 

LONGREAD OF THE WEEK Journalist Karina Brown wrote about covering the protests in Portland, and about how the experience has induced PTSD-like symptoms. “I was surprised when the days that followed were marked by unexplained crying jags, forgetfulness and depression. I’d open a cupboard door and not know why — and then do it again. Painting and ballet class — my normal non-news decompression activities — seemed utterly pointless. Suddenly, everything did. And I was growing increasingly angry at the cops who’d taunted me late that night, as they chased and scattered ever-dwindling groups of protesters around downtown.”

Everything Else

 – The New Yorker union has sent a letter to editor David Remnick demanding he support a just cause provision in their contract. Do the right thing, Remnick! 

 – Nieman Lab’s Joshua Benton penned an open letter to Meredith Kopit Levien, the new CEO of the New York Times company, imploring her to prioritize using its power to help save local news. Benton lists some concrete steps the paper could take, like sharing resources (ad inventory, subscriptions, data). 

 – Fox News has now been the most-watched cable network for 49 straight months. The most watched show in cable news is Hannity, at 4.1 million nightly viewers, followed closely by Tucker Carlson Tonight at 4 million. For all the talk about new media and the demise of traditional news, it’s (depressing) proof that television is here to stay. 

 – How is posting a black-and-white selfie on Instagram doing feminism? Honestly, still unclear! The trend swept the social media platform accompanied by captions about “women supporting women.” New York Times reporter Taylor Lorenz noted the trend was preceded by a similar campaign in Turkey, though in that case women were protesting femicide. Bland girlboss feminism bastardized that pretty quickly, I guess.

 – Longtime New York Magazine editor John Homans has died at the age of 62. He edited features at the magazine from 1994 to 2014 before moving on to Vanity Fair. His former colleagues at both publications have written some moving tributes to him.