Thinking Clearly: Case Studies

Working with academic advisors and a team of long-time journalists, Tom Rosenstiel and Amy S. Mitchell of the Project for Excellence in Journalism created a case study curriculum for teaching journalistic process and practice. Their unique journalism textbook, Thinking Clearly: Cases in Journalistic Decision-Making, [1] offers students the opportunity to discuss eight case studies in decision-making.

Editors' Note [2]
By Tom Rosenstiel and Amy S. Mitchell

Introduction [3]
By James W. Carey

The following eight case studies appear in Thinking Clearly: Cases in Journalistic Decision-Making:

Minnesota's Basketball Cheating Scandal [4] Sample Chapter

Watergate
[5]
New Orleans Times-Picayune Series on Race
[6]
McCarthyism, 1950-1954
[7]
1981 Massacre in El Mozote, San Salvador
[8]
Columbine School Shooting: Live Television
[9]
Internet’s Role in the Clinton-Lewinsky Scandal
[10]
Political Reporting: John McCain's 2000 Presidential Campaign [11]

Internet only case: The Olympic Bombing and Richard Jewell [12]

Minnesota's Basketball Cheating Scandal (Sample Chapter)
By Geneva Overholser, Former Editor for the Des Moines Register and Ombudsman for the Washington Post

On the eve of the 1998 NCAA basketball tournament, the St. Paul Pioneer Press broke a story implicating four University of Minnesota basketball players of school cheating. The story resulted in the suspension of five players in a year when the team was considered perhaps better than they had ever been before. Students will explore how the paper should handle the investigation and timing of the story. What kind of sourcing does that story require, especially in a city that so reveres its team? When do you have enough to run the story, and how does having a competing paper in the city affect your reporting and standards?

Case Study [13] | Teaching Notes [14] | Appendix [15]

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Watergate
By Jim Perry, long-time political analyst for the Wall Street Journal

This case focuses on two key episodes in Watergate: The reporting of the Dalhberg check and the mistake surrounding the questioning of Hugh Sloan. The Dalhberg element gives students an example of great shoe-leather reporting. It questions the reportorial technique of pretending to know more than you do and the value of sheer hard work and asks what was it that made Woodward pursue the story so vigorously. The mistake over Hugh Sloan raises, among other things, the issue of when a story is right or wrong. (Woodward and Bernstein did not have the key question exactly right but their story held true.) Is being wrong in only the technical sense still wrong?

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New Orleans Times-Picayune Series on Race
By Jack Nelson, former Washington bureau chief for the Los Angeles Times

Following the racially charged governor’s race of 1991, The New Orleans Times-Picayune decided to do a series on the history of race in their city including the paper itself. This case deals with the issue of whether journalists can fully separate themselves from their personal and cultural predilections. If not, what is the right way to handle them? It also asks students to decide—based on immediate and long-term implications to the paper—whether the series was worth it. Was it the right thing to do, even if the paper did not gain anything in circulation or better reporting? What role did the publisher’s support play in conducting the inquiry?

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McCarthyism, 1950-1954
By John Herbers, former national correspondent for the New York Times

This case takes a focused look at how the Communist accusations made by Joe McCarthy became such a huge story. Herbers includes a contemporary example to suggest the relevance of this issue today. Students will debate whether the press created McCarthy because of the coverage they gave him and discuss how an unproven accusation can suddenly become news. How much verification is needed before an accusation should be published? What about once another news organization has reported it?

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1981 Massacre in El Mozote, San Salvador
By Stan Meisler, former foreign and UN correspondent for the Los Angeles Times

In 1981 the Washington Post and the New York Times both reported a massacre in El Mozote by the Salvadoran army that was trained in anti-guerilla warfare by the U.S. Military. Both stories were based on one-sided information and largely disputed by the U.S government. Two years later, the UN Truth Commission found that the massacre was even worse than reported. This case is written so students see the events through the eyes of the reporters and the editors. They are asked to make decisions on the reporting and running of the story before they learn about the Truth Commission report or other aftermath information. They will debate the journalistic responsibilities involved in reporting the story when you only have access to one side. Also, how do you as an editor verify the story before running it? When is it too risky to keep a reporter in hostile land? There can be further discussion after students learn the aftermath.

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Columbine School Shooting: Live Television
By Alicia Shepard, frequent contributor to American Journalism Review

This case details television coverage at both the local and national level of the 1999 school shooting by fellow students in Littleton, CO. It addresses the issue of how a local station chooses to cover a very sensitive community event that is an ongoing investigation. What should be shown live and what, if anything, should be withheld for the time being? What issues should a journalist consider when making that decision? It also examines how a station should handle live interviews with traumatized, sometimes hysterical eyewitnesses? Secondarily, students will debate how the dynamic of the coverage changed with the entry of the national networks. Was the choice to send reporters and anchors to the scene a responsible one?

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Internet’s Role in the Clinton-Lewinsky Scandal
By J.D. Lasica, Internet correspondent for American Journalism Review

This case examines Internet journalism’s coverage of the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal, focusing on Starr’s investigation and the release of his report. It addresses whether the standards are or should be different for this medium; the competitive pressures that bear on newsroom decisions about publishing information that originates on-line; and the pressure of continuous and immediate dissemination of information. Students will also discuss the sometimes hostile relationship between print, television and internet reporters within an organization.

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Political Reporting: John McCain's 2000 Presidential Campaign
By Jon Margolis

Coverage of John McCain in the 2000 Primaries – During the 2000 Presidential Campaign, Republican candidate John McCain took the high stakes gamble of criticizing two influential figures in his own party. The setting and the circumstances of the speech were politically challenging--which made them journalistically challenging too. This case grapples with the hurried news judgments and considered analysis reporters have to make on deadline. Students will consider the apparently contradictory requirements of contemplation on the run and understanding the full implications of what a candidate has done, even, perhaps, if the candidate doesn't.

[top] In addition, the following case study is available only on the Internet: The Olympic Bombing and Richard Jewell (Internet Only Case) By Ron Ostrow, former justice department correspondent for the Los Angeles Times This case explores the media’s coverage of suspect Richard Jewell in the 1996 Olympic bomb explosion. It offers an hour-by-hour narration of the first two days of reporting the Richard Jewell story and then stops to ask students whether the coverage was justified. Did it serve the public? Was there fair treatment of the accused? When do you have enough information to run the story, and when is a reporter released from an agreement with investigators to withhold information? Students will then learn the aftermath of the story and discuss additional issues such as the proper relationship between journalists and law enforcement officials and whether these organizations duly reported the unjust treatment of Jewell.   Case Study [17]| Teaching Notes [18] | Appendix [19]     [top]