{"id":1694,"date":"2011-02-04T12:26:58","date_gmt":"2011-02-04T18:26:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/valleywatch.net\/?p=1694"},"modified":"2011-02-04T12:28:08","modified_gmt":"2011-02-04T18:28:08","slug":"valley-watch%e2%80%99s-blair-describes-career-in-advocacy-journalism-to-iu-journalism-classes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/valleywatch.net\/?p=1694","title":{"rendered":"Valley Watch\u2019s Blair describes career in advocacy journalism to IU Journalism classes"},"content":{"rendered":"

February 4, 2011 – by Thomas Miller, IU School of Journalism web page<\/a>. \u201cI\u2019ve never seen somebody so passionate,\u201d said Ben Simmons. He said Blair\u2019s lecture reinforced the importance of thinking about new stories.<\/strong><\/p>\n

For John Blair, there\u2019s being fair and there\u2019s being honest.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/span><\/a>

John Blair spoke to IU journalism students on January 26 and 27. Photo by Tara Bender<\/p><\/div>\n

The Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist visited the classes of lecturers <\/span>Steve Higgs<\/span><\/span><\/a> and <\/span><\/span>Bonnie Layton<\/span><\/span><\/a> last week to talk about his career and his organization, <\/span><\/span>Valley Watch<\/span><\/span><\/a>, which aims to protect the environment in the Ohio River valley.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

In a <\/span>J261 Online Journalism<\/span><\/span><\/a> class, Blair described how online media provide a venue for advocacy journalism.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Like many advocates, Blair started out in traditional journalism, establishing himself as a photojournalist during the 1970s. Working for UPI, he won a Pulitzer Prize in 1978 for <\/span>his photograph<\/span><\/span><\/a> of Indianapolis resident Tony Kiritsis holding his mortgage broker hostage at gunpoint.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

That same year, he helped form Valley Watch, an Evansville-based advocacy organization that works to protect the Ohio River valley from environmental harm. Blair said he was drawn to advocacy journalism because he wanted to act on what he had learned from the stories he had reported.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhen people become informed it\u2019s really hard for them not to act on that information,\u201d Blair said.<\/span><\/p>\n

When his daughter was born, he said he realized he would have to change his life.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s hard to be a father and a photojournalist,\u201d said Blair. \u201cI knew I wouldn\u2019t be able be the photojournalist I was after she was born.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Soon, Blair was running the Ohio Valley Environment, a local environmental paper. Professional pressures also helped shape his career. During a meeting with the national editor of The New York Times, Blair realized his heart was set on being an advocate.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHe read my paper and said you can write for us, but you have to give this up,\u201d Blair said. \u201cAt that time, advocacy journalism did not exist.\u201d Blair opted not to take the job.<\/span><\/p>\n

Since then, Blair and Valley Watch have worked to help make southern Indiana a more environmentally friendly place by lobbying organizations and working with other groups to educate the public about environmentally dangerous situations. They have fought coal and gas companies, and government plans to store potentially toxic materials near communities.<\/span><\/p>\n

Blair said the group picks its battles carefully.
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re 34-4 and we operate on a $5,000 budget,\u201d Blair said of the group\u2019s effectiveness . \u201cI don\u2019t like to get beat.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

His work makes use of both his master\u2019s degree in journalism and his undergraduate degree in business and public policy.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI use that degree every day,\u201d Blair said about the value of his business degree when interacting with big energy business or government agencies.<\/span><\/p>\n

For the students in Layton\u2019s J261 Online Journalism class, Blair was an example of what a journalist can do outside traditional journalism.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve never seen somebody so passionate,\u201d said Ben Simmons. He said Blair\u2019s lecture reinforced the importance of thinking about new stories.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s about curiosity,\u201d Simmons said. \u201cI\u2019ll definitely be searching some things.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Blair spoke to both Layton\u2019s and Higgs\u2019 classes, but it was Higgs who brought Blair to campus.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI brought John in to show students how he uses the tools of journalism,\u201d Higgs said, who also is teaching <\/span>C201 Environment and the News<\/span><\/span><\/a>. Blair also spoke to that class.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Higgs, who worked for the Herald-Times before starting his own newspaper and website,<\/span>Bloomington Alternative<\/span><\/span><\/a>, said the Internet is creating more avenues for different viewpoints.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe Web is encouraging advocacy journalism,\u201d Higgs said, by driving mainstream outlets to incorporate personal blogs into their mainstream coverage and for smaller organizations to have a voice.<\/span><\/p>\n

Advocate or not, John Blair continues think like a journalist.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ve got to be curious,\u201d Blair said, but what drives Valley Watch is his belief that some arguments are right and others are wrong.<\/span><\/p>\n

Blair mentioned Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels\u2019 proposal to build more power plants in southern Indiana as a situation where treating both sides of the story as equal would be dishonest to the public.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cFairness is important,\u201d Blair said \u201cbut some sides are immoral and that should be pointed out.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

February 4, 2011 – by Thomas Miller, IU School of Journalism web page. \u201cI\u2019ve never seen somebody so passionate,\u201d said Ben Simmons. He said Blair\u2019s lecture reinforced the importance of thinking about new stories. For John Blair, there\u2019s being fair … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1694","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/valleywatch.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1694","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/valleywatch.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/valleywatch.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/valleywatch.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/valleywatch.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1694"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/valleywatch.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1694\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1697,"href":"http:\/\/valleywatch.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1694\/revisions\/1697"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/valleywatch.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1694"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/valleywatch.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1694"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/valleywatch.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1694"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}