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Journalism's loss, community's gain? Inglemoor grad 'giving back'
Jacqui Deelstra, a 2001 graduate of Inglemoor High School, is back in
the area following graduation from the University of Southern California
in 2005 with degrees in print journalism and international studies.
Following volunteer work in West Africa, Jacqui returned to this area as
a partnership coordinator with Big Brother Big Sister of Puget Sound.
With nearly 20,000 children in this state who have parents
incarcerated in one way or another, and with the number of single moms
struggling to raise their children on their own, Big Brother Big Sister
plays an important role for those children fortunate enough to find an
adult mentor as role model.
The program is well situated in the Northshore School District.
More than one-third of the public schools served in King County by Big
Brother Big Sister are located in our district. It’s a struggle
finding mentors, Jacqui reports, with some youngsters hoping to find a
Big Brother or a Big Sister having to wait as long as nine to 15 months
before a mentor becomes available. The need for mentors is great.
BBBS is operating at Canyon Park Junior High School and Crystal
Springs, Fernwood, Frank Love, Kenmore, Sunrise and Woodin elementary
schools. Typically, the mentors show up toward the end of a school day
to spend time with their “little brother or little sister”. Older
high school students at Inglemoor and Woodinville are among those now
active in the program.
If you have ever considered exploring your own involvement in
BBBS, you might drop Jacqui an e-mail at Jacqui.Deelstra@bbbs.org
and check out the program’s website at www.bbbs.org/pugetsound. Concern
for journalism
It’s been 20
years and three owners now since the Northshore Citizen newspapers
changed hands for the first time in 26 years. Four years ago this month
I started writing this column, “Northshore Citizen”, in the hopes
that it might remind residents of the days when the Citizen was a
thriving community newspaper serving the entire Northshore School
District, all the while striving to adhere to the tenets of solid
journalism that attracted resourceful journalists of the 1970s (and
earlier) who were trained and encouraged to practice at the community
level.
The Citizen gave way to the tabloid-size Reporter papers in
January of 2003, published less often than their weekly predecessor. The
Reporters were mailed into all the homes in the Bothell and Kenmore ZIP
codes. The model for the Reporters was established six or seven years
earlier by one of my printing customers, Denis Law, who is presently
mounting a campaign to run for mayor of Renton this year. Denis sold his
“Reporters” to Peter Horvitz a number of years ago. Peter has now,
in turn, sold the stable of Reporters to David Black of Victoria, B.C.
Black’s primary interest appears to be serving communities from Auburn
to Bothell with greater frequency, and hopefully with a commitment to
not only being a part of these communities but also exerting leadership
along the way by staffing the Reporters with those who understand the
value of good communication within communities of interest.
Black also acquired the Horvitz family’s flagship newspaper and
modern printing plant. Understandably, David decided to shut down the
financially drained King County Journal in late January in favor of the
Reporters. The daily had struggled for years, unsuccessfully mimicking
two Seattle daily newspapers which have more resources and a regional
circulation base. Whether those two papers will both survive, or whether
Puget Sound will become a one-daily-newspaper town is still anyone’s
guess.
As newspapers shut down, journalism suffers, draining the ranks
of talented and experienced reporters of news pertinent to our lives.
Granted, new means of conveying information will continue to accelerate
at an alarming pace in this ever-changing age of advancing technology.
What may not keep pace, however, will be the development of reliable
information sources – products of good journalism. In the past we have
relied on journalists – experienced reporters and editors – to
provide a certain comfort level about what we are reading. The best
journalists have grown from newspapers. The Reporter publications have
this tradition to maintain. How
information is conveyed will change with time. How reliable that
information or point of view might be will likely grow difficult to
ascertain if print journalists become replaced by the digital echo
chambers of Internet Bloggers with catchy monikers, or by “if it
bleeds, it leads” radio and television figures, or by personalities of
an electronic media whose sole purpose is to clamor for an audience
through “shock and awe”.
I ran into respected Seattle newspaper columnist Joel Connelly
over the weekend. We discussed the loss of the King County Journal, and
with it a host of respected reporters, columnists and photographers. “Disturbing, indeed,” he said.
Got an idea for a column?
Hugo
and Mayor-for-Life Terry Jarvis (425) 482-4076 |
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