The Media Narrative

A few quick ramblings with Election 2020 two days away.

In the second part of a conversation with journalist and educator Linn Washington, an examination of the question of how the 1985 MOVE bombing in Philadelphia relates to racial injustice today. Toward the end of this episode, Washington talks about the importance of ethics in journalism.

Linn Washington has worked for news outlets from CNN to the Philadelphia Daily News and reported from all over the world. he teaches journalism at Temple Univeristy in Philadelphia. He has also covered the Mumia Abu-Jamal story for about 40 years.

Just over 35 years ago, eleven people were killed and 61 homes destroyed in a West Philadelphia neighborhood after police dropped C-4 explosives on a building occupied by MOVE, a black liberation organization. Journalist Linn Washington was there on May 13, 1985, covering the mayhem for the Philadelphia Daily News.

This is the first of a two-part conversation with Washington. He'll talk about his work covering MOVE beginning in the mid-70s, police brutality under Philadelphia mayor Frank Rizzo, and his 21 hours of reporting from the scene of the bombing.

Although Ahmaud Arbery wasn't killed by police, the manner in which law enforcement officials have handled his case raises a number of questions about the role race may have played in his Feb. 23 death and the aftermath. The 25-year-old African American man was jogging in a coastal community in Georgia when three white men decided to attempt a citizen's arrest without having witnessed Arbery commit a crime.

Seventy-four days after his death—and two days after a video of the shooting went viral—two suspects were finally arrested.

In this episode, a local police reporter for the Brunswick News, Larry Hobbs, talks about his work to understand what happened that day. Hobbs, who has worked in community news for decades, discusses his effort to "hang on to the story" despite the scant information he uncovered in the days and weeks immediately afterward.

These are challenging times for American universities and colleges. But dozens of them would not exist without the financial benefit of land "seized or stolen or otherwise leveraged from indigenous tribes into US hands through violence-backed treaties," says historian Bobby Lee.

Earlier this year, Lee and Tristan Ahtone, an investigative journalist, published a High Country News article resulting from two years of deep research, analysis, and reportage.

In this episode they talk about how some schools have responded—or not and provide advice for how journalists and everyone else can use the research for further study.

Land Grab U website (https://www.landgrabu.org)

High Country News article (https://www.hcn.org/issues/52.4/indigenous-affairs-education-land-grab-universities)

It was right in the middle of the 2019 New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival when the staff of the Times-Picayune learned that their newsroom would be shutting down. At the time, Jennifer Larino was lead reporter at NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune, and within months of the layoffs, she had founded a community-based journalism nonprofit with New Orleans-born filmmaker and teacher E'Jaaz Mason.

Lede New Orleans works to build skills in young journalists and artists with the goal of increasing equity in the journalism industry in newsrooms and producing news coverage that more accurately reflects the authentic character of the people of New Orleans.

In our conversation, Larino and Mason talked about the Times-Picayune layoffs (2:00); inequity in media (7:00); how mainstream media miss the point of the Second Line (11:00); launching a journalism nonprofit in the middle of a pandemic (15:50); and the somewhat shaky future of New Orleans (22:00). After the interview you'll hear an excerpt of the song "Qiuck," by New Orleans band Tank and the Bangas, and the host's episode essay, focusing on contact tracing (27:45).

Born in El Paso, Texas, Julián Aguilar is now based there as immigration and border security reporter for the Texas Tribune, a nonprofit digital media organization established in 2009. He also covers elections, politics, and drug trade, among other issues. All of his work for the Tribune requires a nuanced understanding of policy and the way it affects communities on either side of the border.

During the conversation, Aguilar described the tense atmosphere around covering a safehouse in Juarez, Mexico (0:52); detention centers in Texas and Covid-19 (9:20); Black Lives Matter in Texas (11:45); the murders at a Walmart in El Paso (14:30); and the state of journalism today (19:15). You'll also hear the host's thoughts on Independence Day (22:00).

According to the American Journalism Project, 2,100 U.S. communities have lost their newspapers since 2004. In this third year of the podcast—what we're dubbing the third season—episodes will focus greatly on the work of local journalists.

After early shows traveling, virtually, to New Orleans and El Paso, Texas, I'll check in with reporters around the country to hear the most resonant stories from those places.

It's an election year, and we'll inevitably touch on some of those biggest issues—racism, Covid, voting, and politics, but if we do, it will be through the lens of community, nonprofit, and alternative news reporting.

New episodes every Friday throughout 2020.

Theme music: Matt Jenson

He is a novelist, songwriter, bandleader, designer, web developer, and entrepreneur, among other things. It's likely that he's best known as a musician and the leader of the Boston-based band, Jim's Big Ego, but Jim Infantino's latest creation is his first novel, a work of science fiction that takes us about 80-90 years into the future. In The Wakeful Wanderer’s Guide to New New England, half the people have technology implanted in their brains that allows for thexting - communication that unfolds without the need for speech, and the other half avoid the implant and its trappings. That dynamic leads to a story that makes for an engaging confrontation with how we relate and live.

In this episode, Jim Infantino talks about the inspiration for his novel, how its central themes overlap with cyber hippie trends of the 60s and 70s, letting go of what had been his ultimate musical ambitions, and advice for living as a creative person in this world.

Related Links

The Wakeful Wanderer's Guide to New New England (https://jiminfantino.com/product/the-wakeful-wanderers-guide-to-new-new-england-and-beyond)Jim Infantino's websiteJim's Big Ego (https://www.bigego.com/)

Slab Media (https://slabmedia.com/)

Cognitive scientist and author Pooja K. Agarwal has spent a large portion of her career connecting education research and classroom teaching. For a long time, educators didn’t have access to relevant research, but Agarwal and Patrice Bain have co-authored a book—Powerful Teaching: Unleash the Science of Learning—that’s bridging that gap. The book is also packed with insights and exercises that will not only help teachers, but anyone who has any interest in learning as well.Agarwal, a professor at Berklee College of Music, is the founder of RetrievalPractice.org, a research-based resource of teaching strategies used by educators around the world.

During our conversation, Agarwal talked about why the gap between the art of teaching and the science of learning exists (4:00); "purpose and product" in teaching (6:00); the power of "spacing" in the classroom (11:45); the benefits of reading Greg McKeown's book Essentialism (15:45); how musicians can use retrieval practice (20:00); using Google docs and other adventures in coauthoring a book (33:30).

Related Links

Powerful Teaching: Unleash the Science of Learning (https://www.powerfulteaching.org/) (more on the book)

Retrieval Practice website and resources (https://www.retrievalpractice.org/)

Pooja Agarwal website (https://www.poojaagarwal.com/)

Essentialism, by Greg McKeown (https://www.amazon.com/Essentialism-Disciplined-Pursuit-Greg-McKeown-ebook/dp/B00HELB6XI)