Satisfaction at the Speak Up, Write Out Media Summit

By Josh Carmel

John Baer has a license to kill. As an award-winning columnist for The Philadelphia Daily News, Baer has provided political commentary for several years, tactfully illuminating the oftentimes ambiguous framework of public policy. His ability to, as The National Journal provided, “take the skin off a politician without making it hurt too much,” however, only marginally represents the faculties of a journalist. The presence of such attributes, Baer indirectly conveyed to a slightly stolid, albeit eager, audience in McCreary 202 last Saturday, is discernable in any burgeoning journalistic talent.

The question for Baer, and each of the kindred journalists present at Gettysburg College’s third annual Speak Up, Write Out Media Summit, concerned the proper use of that license to kill. Each panelist present discussed, to some extent, the function of an evolutionary media in personal and public spheres.

“Readers ought to have,” Baer said, “within the same pages, a variety of news sources.”

Seminal in accruing a host of different professionals were co-coordinators Andrew Arenge, of GBurg TV, and Arielle Distasio, of The Gettysburgian. Armed with an arsenal of volunteers, each presiding over the respective panels constructed for the day, students from multiple universities, faculty members, and curious individuals endeavored to absorb the information provided by each caucus.

“[We are here] to promote journalism, Distasio said.

Gettysburg College, like sundry liberal arts institutions, does not offer a Journalism major.  Conversely, students are required to survey a concentration of other pertinent courses, of which journalistic writing is merely a factor. Speak Up, Write Out, as both coordinators alluded too, functions as a supplement for any interested in both facilitating and maintaining a career in the progressively tempestuous arena provided by the media.

Panelists present ranged from various different mediums, each attempting to enumerate the labors inherent to gleaning information from a cacophony of different sources.

“[We are] all getting facts from different sources,” said Al-Arabiya TV correspondent Muna Shikaki, who offered up establishments such as NBC, Reuters, and The New York Times as instruments for collecting information.

Among the many in attendance were: Jake Borrit, a documentary filmmaker who received acclaim for his film Troop 759: Boy Scouts of Harlem, Harry J. Deitz, Jr., prominent sportswriter and editor of the Reading Eagle, Jennifer Donahue, former professor at the New Hampshire Institute of Politics at Saint Anselm College and political commentator for The Huffington Post, Michael Doyle, reporter in the Washington bureau of McClatchy Newspapers, Bill Fleishchamn, sportswriter for the Philadelphia Daily News, Robin Foster, current Series Story Producer for MTV’s True Life, Dick Hammerstrom, editor for The Free Lance-Star, Robert Hershey, financial-business reporter for The New York Times, Mike Howells, Associate Editor for Pennsylvanian Legislative Services, Kelly King, Copy Desk Chief at The Star-Ledger, and Dr. Kirsten Johnson, Assistant Professor of Communications at Elizabethtown College.

Additionally, the College hosted: Robert Knight, author of Journalistic Writing: Building the Skill, Honing the Craft, Cindi Lash, Sunday Editor of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Liz Layton, two-time Emmy-award winning producer, Cherly McEvoy, Assistant Editor for ADVANCE for Health Information Professionals, Peter MacLeod, an award-winning radio journalist, Jim Murphy, of the Bergen Record, Newsday, and Los Angeles Times, Heather Simmons, Assistant Editor for ADVANCE for Physician Assistants, Laura Stickler, member of CBS News Investigative Unit, Tim Torok, of The New York Times, Paul Vigna, of Patriot-News, Amy Worden, of The Philadelphia Inquirer, and Robert Zeliger, produce for PBS News Hour, and Keynote Speaker Nancy Nathan, Executive Producer of The Chris Matthews Show on NBC.

Those present were able to pick from four sections of three consecutive breakout subdivisions throughout the day. Issues discussed included: the place of media in a political sphere, strategies essential in conducting an interview, international perspectives within the media, the progressive nature of publishing, and ethical dilemmas, among various other designations.

Despite the rather overwhelming presentation of detail, and the expansive information conveyed throughout the Summit, each panelist imparted, with the succinct joviality of journalists, both the pitfalls and predominance which follow a career in the media. At the end of each tedious day, all are forced to distinguish between the obligations of the personal sphere and those  tenuously conferred by their occupation.