Spectrum

A study conducted by Gallup and the Knight Foundation has found that local television news is trusted by more people than national news outlets.

The latest poll showed the gap between trust in local and national news has grown by three percentage points since Gallup/Knight’s findings on this measure in 2019.

“In 2021, Americans were 17 points more likely to say they trust reporting by local news organizations “a great deal” or “quite a lot” than to trust reporting by national news organizations,” the report said.

As a result, WOUB’s Spectrum podcast is doing a special series on the impacts of local news by talking with representatives of three television stations: WEWS TV in Cleveland, WCPO TV in Cincinnati and WKRT in Norfolk, Virginia.

We are trying to learn how local news stations operate, how they determine their content, and how they meet the needs of their audiences.

Our first guests are Joe Donatelli, digital director at WEWS and Mark Ackerman, Investigative Executive Producer at WEWS in Cleveland.

They discuss the need for strong investigative reporting on the local level as well as the demands of constantly changing and updating digital content.

We also learn of their individual career paths.

Donald Wiggins is an attorney and an advocate for prison reform, expanding voting rights, and restorative justice.

He is working to get prisoners the right to vote, not only in his home state of Ohio but across the nation.

If prisoners can vote, they will have a voice in bettering the conditions of the correctional institutions in which they are incarcerated, according to Wiggins.

He claims that most prisons are old and generally need major upgrades to correct what he calls deplorable conditions. He gives an example of an Ohio prison that has had brown and smelly water for prisoners to use because the system supplying water is antiquated.

Wiggins also presses for changes in the criminal justice system which would restore inmates to some dignity and help them upon their release to prevent recidivism.

Wiggins is currently in private law practice but continues his history of advocacy. Over his career, he has been associated with several political action groups.

Journalist, reporter, and morning news co-anchor Matt Barnes has found his career sweet spot in Columbus, Ohio.

It also just happens to be his hometown.

After graduating from the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism at Ohio University and leaving his four years of work at WOUB Public Media, Barnes, in 2008, was convinced his life work would be in sports broadcasting.

He headed to his first professional job in Augusta, Georgia at WRDW-TV where he covered local sports and the Master’s golf tournament.

In 2010, Matt returned to WCMH4 in Columbus as a sports reporter and anchor, a position he relished for 6 years.

Then an opportunity presented itself to change his broadcast focus. In 2016, Matt gave up the sports microphone and instead jumped to be the morning co-anchor of NBC4 Today.

He has been there for the past six years. When asked about whether he wants to move to a bigger market, Barnes shared that he already has turned down some notable offers but for now, he loves broadcasting in Columbus, the city he loves.

Barnes has become highly involved in civic and charitable projects and in 2020 was named Ohio Big Brother of the Year.

Barnes shares with WOUB’s Spectrum Podcast some of the ups and downs of his career and what it’s like to be a young black male in today’s broadcast industry.

Hidden in the archives of the Library of Congress were two memoirs of an American reporter, Herbert Corey who covered the World War I from its start in 1914 up through the Paris Peace Conference in 1919-1920.

He was the American reporter who covered the war the longest, from a full three-years before participation by the United States.

The memoirs were discovered by two authors, historians and journalists, John M. Hamilton, and Peter Finn.

They decided to edit the memoirs, annotate them with notes and footnotes and put the memoirs in perspective for a 21st Century audience.

Herbert Corey’s Great War: A memoir of WWI by the American Who Saw if All was released in June 2022 by the LSU Press.

It contains first-hand accounts of Corey’s adventures covering both sides of the war from the German frontlines to the trenches of the allies. He covered the angst and travails of the foot-soldiers and the war lives of non-combatants.

He viewed the war from nine European countries as he traveled for the Associated Newspaper chain.

Corey’s memoir reflects the many obstacles that reporters faced in covering WWI, especially censorship from the Allies.

He also was a keen observer of misinformation campaigns by the British and others to urge the Americans to get involved in the war.

John M. Hamilton is the Breazeale Professor of Journalism in the Manship School of Communication at LSU. He also is a Global Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C., and an award-winning author.

While surveys show that many people are regretting getting degrees in journalism and communication, Meryl Gottlieb, Senior Partner Manager, Business Development at Insider believes just the opposite.

She says that the diversity of media and multiple and innovative ways to tell stories has never made journalism more diverse and open to creativity.

Gottlieb, a 2016 graduate of the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism at Ohio University, is excited about new delivery systems for stories and completely new formats that are on the horizon for storytelling.

Although the media landscape is changing so quickly, she finds that the rapidity of change to be both challenging and exhilarating.

Gottlieb recently was the first speaker at Ohio University’s Scripps College of Communication in the Joe Berman Lecture Series on the Future of Media.

She talked with nearly 300 students, faculty, and staff about the “power of the pivot.” She says that to survive and thrive in the media world, one must be able to change course quickly and embrace new and sometimes untraditional methods of storytelling.

Gottlieb claims that to be successful in today’s media world that one must be flexible and be able to quickly adapt to new delivery systems.

That adaptability has been evident in her career as she has gone from an intern at Insider to a senior partner manager in just six short years. She also was one of the leaders of Insider’s social media distribution.

Beverly Jones is an executive coach, author, attorney, and host of WOUB’s popular podcast “Jazzed About Work.”

Jones also is a long-time veteran of fighting for women’s rights since the 1960’s.

She talks with WOUB’s Spectrum Podcast host Tom Hodson about today’s conditions facing women, especially since the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent anti-abortion ruling.

She also discusses whether advocacy strategies employed by women and feminists in the 1960’s and 1970’s are still applicable today or whether technology and social media have changed the way advocacy must be conducted.

They also chat about what comes next in the fight for women’s rights and the rights of various minority groups in this country.

Jones spent the bulk of her professional career as an attorney in Washington, D.C. and since leaving her practice, she has concentrated on career counseling and executive coaching.

She also is the author of two books: Find Your Happy at Work: 50 Ways to Get Unstuck, Move Past Boredom, and Discover Fulfillment and Find Your Happy at Work: 50 Ways to Get Unstuck, Move Past Boredom, and Discover Fulfillment

In this episode of the Spectrum Podcast, Walt Bogdanich, a three-time Pulitzer Prize winning reporter, emphasizes the importance of investigative reporting while explaining his new book: When McKinsey Comes to Town: The Hidden Influence of the World’s Most Powerful Consulting Firm.

Bogdanich and his co-author Michael Forsythe have unveiled the secrets behind one of the world’s most powerful consulting firms, McKinsey and Company. They show how the firms tentacles ensnare and entangle almost all aspects of American life from our largest cities to our smallest town.

For example, the firm has worked with companies to promote opioids while at the same time representing the Food and Drug Administration assigned to regulate the industry.

McKinsey also represented cigarette manufacturers long after cigarettes were targeted as a major health hazard.

Until Bogdanich and Forsythe started digging, the company had been cloaked in secrecy since its inception in 1926. No one knew the firm’s clients or their fees until these investigative reporters started peeling back the layers of secrecy.

In the interview, Bogdanich also touts the need for good investigative reporting in the 21st century. He notes that with all the social media and political news silos, investigative reporting is more important than ever to look deeply and factually into issues.

Bogdanich, now with the New York Times, won his first Pulitzer in 1988 while at the Wall Street Journal for a series about substandard medical laboratories.

His second was for the Times in 2005 for a series about the safety record of American Railroads called “Death on the Tracks.”

His most recent Pulitzer was in 2008 called “Toxic Pipeline,” a series about dangerous pharmaceutical ingredients coming into American from China.

Marlon Primes served more than 30 years as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Northern District of Ohio before recently joining the law firm of Brennan Manna Diamond handling complex civil litigation.

Primes has risen to the heights of the legal profession while at the same time, giving back to his community.

He stresses the importance of the rule of law in a democracy and orderly society. He notes that no one should be above the law. His sterling legal career reflects that dedication.

He has been active in both work for the legal profession and community improvement work.

Primes is the Past President of the Cleveland Metropolitan Bar Association ("CMBA"). It is one of the largest associations of lawyers and judges in Ohio. He was the first African American attorney to serve as president of the CMBA and the first government attorney to do so.

He also served as national Vice President of the National Bar Association, which is the nation’s oldest and largest association of African American lawyers and judges.

Primes also was the Chairman of the Litigation Section of the Ohio State Bar Association and has spent countless hours educating young lawyers and K-12 students on the importance of the law.

In 2020, he received the first ever Craig Tame Award for Excellence in Community Outreach based in part on his teaching of high school students about both rights and responsibilities under the U. S. Constitution.

In 2022, he was named one of Crain’s Cleveland “People on the Move.”

He received his undergraduate degree from the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism at Ohio University and his law degree from Georgetown University Law Center.

The Rust Belt of the Midwest is transitioning to the Tech Belt of the heartland and that story is being told by author, CNBC contributor, and media entrepreneur Rebecca Fannin.

Her latest book, “Silicon Heartland” paints the picture of “fly-over country” emerging from the depression of the collapsing Rust Belt industries to a new entrepreneurial spirit with high-tech companies.

Fannin views this transition with a seasoned journalistic eye. Her career has spanned from New York to Silicon Valley to Asia.

She has been a guest on the BBC, Fox News, and NPR. Her writing has ranged from three previous books to articles for the Harvard Business Review, Inc., Fast Company, and Forbes.

She also has been a guest speaker at Harvard, Yale, Oxford, the Brookings Institution, and the Asia Society.

During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Fannin explored her homeland, the Midwest. She tells the story of Midwestern rebirth that everyone else has ignored.

Hear her talk about her journeys and the many interviews she had with people trying to rebuild with high technology concepts.

Chris Witherspoon has become a powerful entertainment journalist who has interviewed top-level celebrities throughout his career.

He also appears as a regular on MSNBC, the TODAY show, the Wendy Williams Show, and NBC’s Nightly News giving his insights on entertainment news.

But his latest project shows his entrepreneurial side. He has created PopViewers, a website and an app.

According to its website, https://popviewers.com/, “PopViewers is the platform that helps you find what to watch next, invites you to react to the TV shows and movies you’ve watched, and encourages you to share the experience with fellow content-lovers.”

Witherspoon’s intent is to give the common person a voice in content creation and the direction of entertainment media…just like the established critics. PopViewers democratizes public opinion about media content.

He also wants to give a forum for diverse voices to be heard about media produced by major media companies and register those diverse opinions.

You can see more about PopViewers on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook.

Guest host Emily Votaw talks to Witherspoon about his career and his projects.