Do We Still Need A Black Press?

As teaching assistant Katie Beardsley discussed in class the other day, the rise of the Black Press was very much a reaction to the portrayal of African American people in the mainstream media during the early 1800s.By the time of the Civil War, there were 40 newspapers dedicated to serving African American audiences. By 1900, she said, there were more than 600.Today, there are around 200, including the Philadelphia Tribune, which is the oldest continuously...

Kurtis Lee: "We Should All Call Ourselves Multi-platform Journalists."

Kurtis Lee was ready for bed just after midnight on July 20, 2012 when he received a call about a shooting at a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado.Lee, a political reporter for the Denver Post, rushed to the scene and immediately started tweeting details."Twitter is how I get my news," said the 2009 TU journalism grad. "It's how I break news."There were helicopters buzzing overhead and police and medical crews all around. Stunned people stood around...

Should The Sports Anchor Act Like Ron Burgundy?

A Boise sports anchor did his segment (and more) while acting as Ron Burgundy, the fictional character played by Will Ferrell.The video has gone viral.Is this the funniest thing ever, as some people have claimed? Should journalists simply present information and not act like Hollywood characters?Do journalists take themselves too seriously (and that's why this was seen as refreshing)?Does it matter that this was on Hallowe...

Neal Santos: "I Really Want to Celebrate the City."

Neal Santos was a sophomore in college when he realized he wanted to become a photojournalist. He was traveling in the Philippines, shooting pictures and meeting people."I realized the camera could be an excuse to dive into so many different worlds," he said in class yesterday.He returned to Temple and began interning - almost non-stop - until he graduated in 2008. He interned at the Philadelphia Daily News, the Metro, Inquirer, Good Housekeeping...