{"id":9026,"date":"2017-08-30T18:44:59","date_gmt":"2017-08-30T22:44:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/social.rollins.edu\/wpsites\/letters\/?p=9026"},"modified":"2019-07-15T14:50:51","modified_gmt":"2019-07-15T14:50:51","slug":"the-history-of-dc-journalism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/2017\/08\/30\/the-history-of-dc-journalism\/","title":{"rendered":"The History of DC Journalism"},"content":{"rendered":"

The most powerful\u00a0story people\u00a0can tell is their own. Today, professor of journalism\u00a0Iris Krasnow gave our class its first assignment, and it amounted to this: visit an unfamiliar location in Washington, DC, and write about people who are familiar with it. Prof. Krasnow claimed she\u00a0assigned\u00a0this work\u00a0only so that she could\u00a0see how we write, but her assignment\u00a0also will teach us\u00a0what it means to do journalism.<\/p>\n

Journalists share information. They obtain facts\u00a0from a few knowledgeable people\u00a0and pass them\u00a0along to less\u00a0knowledgeable people in the form of a story. This story captures attention and helps the audience retain what information it has received. If the journalist writes well enough, the\u00a0information and its emotional import can influence how people act. In other words,\u00a0good journalists can\u00a0educate, entertain, and persuade all at once.<\/p>\n

Organized journalism in DC today dates back to 1908 when one-legged reporter Graham Nichol met fellow journalist James Hay on 14th Street and complained about the lack of a\u00a0local club for news writers. Hay found the situation equally off-putting, and the two men immediately went to the 12th Street police station to register\u00a0would-be\u00a0members.\u00a0\u00a0Thus the oldest continuous DC press club was born. While other\u00a0clubs had come and gone\u00a0before what is known today as the\u00a0National Press Club, Club Historian and American University professor Gilbert Klein says\u00a0the National Press Club stayed standing\u00a0for one\u00a0reason and one reason only: the\u00a0controversial decision to refuse credit to all journalists at its\u00a0bar. With its potentially\u00a0highest\u00a0expense eliminated, the National Press Club\u00a0could serve as a secure\u00a0gathering place for journalists of the US capital.<\/p>\n

Our journalism and new media class visited this historic site before our meeting with Prof. Krasnow. Prof. Klein gave us a tour and took us around the building to see photographs of its famous guest speakers and educate us on its long, storied history. This history includes its merger with the Women’s National Press Club,\u00a0a merger that took place as recently as 1985. Women’s equality, Prof. Klein\u00a0reminded us, was a relatively\u00a0new\u00a0concept, and our work in DC would continue to remind us of the debt we owed to those who\u00a0paved the way before us\u2014for better or worse.<\/p>\n

I am still waiting for a response from my supervisor at\u00a0the Columbus Dispatch. If the experience of prior interns indicates anything, I may find myself\u00a0reporting stories that make the front page of a historic\u00a0newspaper. Only time will tell. Whatever happens, I am fortunate to be in DC, even if I am missing my\u00a0friends and family back in the Sunshine State. Until next time, I am always<\/p>\n

Sincerely yours,<\/p>\n

Michael Dulman<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The most powerful\u00a0story people\u00a0can tell is their own. Today, professor of journalism\u00a0Iris Krasnow gave our class its first assignment, and it amounted to this: visit an unfamiliar location in Washington, DC, and write about people who are familiar with it. Prof. Krasnow claimed she\u00a0assigned\u00a0this work\u00a0only so that she could\u00a0see how we write, but her assignment\u00a0also…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":349,"featured_media":9035,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9026","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9026","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/349"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9026"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9026\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14798,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9026\/revisions\/14798"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9026"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9026"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9026"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}