Background: Originally published February 14, 2007.
I want to preface this column by stating that I have nothing but the highest regard for the University of Oregon School of Journalism. I am proud to be a 1989 graduate, when the UO had the seventh-highest ranking school of journalism in the country. I would never want to malign the school or tear apart any article someone else had written.
Having said that, I discovered enough interesting comments printed in a recent article, that I just had to share them with someone, and give my two cents worth. Keep in mind that's all its worth. I always welcome anyone to critique my columns or offer feedback on anything that I've written.
I first discovered the University of Oregon public affairs reporting class had visited Oakland weeks after the students had packed their backpacks and returned to Eugene. I didn't know whether I should feel embarrassed for being in the dark and not knowing that a class from my alma mater had visited my hometown....or if I should feel disappointed that the school hadn't done a better job of publicizing their project.
But no matter. If I had never learned about the project while making small-talk at Bart's Market, where I purchased my 44-ounce fountain drinks during the weekends, then I was happy that I could read about it after the fact in my alumni newspaper.
The first paragraph in the Flash article described Oakland as having "a very troubled government. The mayor and two city council members were removed in the past year." The sentence was written in passive voice, not active voice, but that's not what made me raise my eyebrows.
"Were removed"? What does that mean? Did citizens recall the council members? Were the elected leaders found guilty of some crime and carted off to jail during the middle of their terms? Did terrorists strike a blow to democracy and invade Oakland City Hall and abduct the town leaders? I could only imagine what some UO alumni in another state might think, if they were unfamiliar with Oakland's background. Replacing "removed" with "recalled" would have eliminated all confusion.
The second paragraph of the Flash article described the reasons as to why the UO class had chosen Oakland for a field study in public affairs reporting. "Occasionally, the Register-Guard will cover events and issues surrounding Oakland; however, town government has not been regularly reported and analyzed in any newspaper, daily or weekly--Oakland does not have one."
True, Oakland does not have its own newspaper, at least not an official one registered with the Oregon Newspaper Publishers Association. But I thought the statement was a little unfair to the Roseburg News-Review, which has done extensive reporting of Oakland elections and numerous recalls, as far back as I can remember. The Flash article gave the impression that the UO class was unaware of any other bona fide newspaper located south of the Eugene Register-Guard.
According to the Flash article, the UO class project enabled students to "learn how to use court records, public information requests for materials, and meeting minutes that are available to the press." (and to the general public, I might add.) Eleven graduate students in the master's degree program posted their articles on the SOJC new wiki site: jcomm.uoregon.edu/tr. Students reportedly made multiple trips to Oakland, researched the town history, and took photographs of the candidates.
Unfortunately, nearly half the population in the United States does not have internet access. And more than half the population of Oakland has historically been below the poverty level. The UO class decided to print a newspaper of their work, not just limit their findings to the internet. The newspapers were left at the Oakland library, city hall, and the Oakland Tavern.
My mind is baffled as to why those three distribution places were chosen, as opposed to Bart's Market, the Lamplighter Inn, Stearns Hardware, the Oakland post office, etc. Apparently, the UO class felt those would be the best places for their newspaper to reach Oakland's residents? Oakland's poverty level citizens were presumably always going to city hall asking for an extension to pay their water bills, or else they were at the Oakland Tavern drinking away their woes.
One master's student offered this observation in the Flash article: "The town needed help. I felt like it was more worthwhile." "Just talking to people in the bar and hearing their perspective," he added.
Despite the somewhat skewed outreach of the newspaper, I offer my congratulations to the UO master's degree students. They had a little more than two weeks to get to know the people, gather information, and finish their candidate profiles so they could be posted on the website before the election ballots were mailed October 20th.
And even though I was clueless about their presence in town, I apparently was the exception. The UO "Oakland" newspaper may have had an impact on voter turn-out: a record sixty-six percent of Oakland's voters cast their ballots during the election.
If a similar project is conducted in the future, and assuming the intent of the project is to increase public awareness, hopefully the UO journalism students will educate themselves about the local media (North County News, KPIC, KEZI in Roseburg, etc.), whom all would have probably publicized stories about the project had they known about it. Otherwise, I'll have to stop having my 44-ouncers at Bart's Market, and get them from the Oakland Tavern instead, if I want to learn more about what's going on in town.
If YOU would like to thank the class for their interest in Oakland, I'm sure they wouldn't mind a card as well.
Karen McCowan, adjunct professor
UO School of Journalism and Communications
1275 University of Oregon
Eugene, Oregon 97403-1275
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ACADEMIC CHALLENGE
Oakland lost their recent NBC5 Academic Challenge match against Mazama High School from Klamath Falls. I was very surprised because Oakland lost by a bigger point spread to Mazama than their earlier match this season against top-ranked South Medford, 160-150.
It just goes to show that any team can dominate a match, regardless of past performance, and regardless of whom they've competed against in the past. The Oakland Oakers have definitely been sharper than several other teams in the 20-member southern Oregon league that appears on KOBI-TV's weekly program.
It's just a matter of time before Oakland is randomly chosen to square off against one, but now that Oakland has lost two of this year's matches, they won't be competing against other teams until next year's competition.
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