We’re looking for some new critics

We need your help.

Gateway Journalism Review is looking for people to analyze their local media.

Notice how we’re avoiding the traditional terms for this position. We don’t really want ombudsmen because that doesn’t really define what we need. The same can be said of news councils. Truth vigilantes don’t fill our needs either.

Media critic works best. We need people to critically analyze how media in their area do their jobs. We not only need to know what they’re writing about, but what they aren’t writing about and why. We’re interested in those who cover how the media in their area report on stories being covered by national media, or how media respond to the needs of their local audience.  Too, we are interested in all the mass media:  print, online and broadcast journalism; photojournalism; advertising; public relations; integrated marketing communications and entertainment media.

The Gateway Journalism Review starts from the proposition that media in our basic 16-state coverage region operate than a different viewpoint from many media outlets operating on both coasts. Considering that we live in a region described by those who live on the coasts as fly-over country, we would like to know how media work while the rest of the world flies over us. That doesn’t mean we don’t cover issues outside our target area, both nationally and internationally, but it does mean our primary focus is on America’s midsection.

For example, while the national spotlight may focus on how pro-union and anti-union forces are squaring off in the recall election of Wisconsin governor Scott Walker, we are interested in how these factors affect how Wisconsin media cover the story. We want to know if there is a difference in the coverage and if certain media entities in Wisconsin show a pronounced bias in how they cover the issues. We’re interested in which publications left-leaning Wisconsinites read. Same for those who lean right. We’re also interested in how coverage in Wisconsin is different from the coverage seen nationally. We at Gateway Journalism Review think someone in Wisconsin could better answer that than we could.

Every state in our coverage area has its own issues. The entire expanded Midwest is not a conservative bastion, nor is it a leftist haven. Our goal is to find people who live and work in our region to report on the subtleties of their state’s media that would not be visible by just examining a few newspaper or website articles or television reports. We want critics who can point out differences in how local or state media cover a story and how national media may portray the same story. We want to take some of the “accepted” stereotypes assigned to many who live in our region and pick at them. At the same time, we’re interested in how media cover the situations that arise that reinforce those stereotypes.

We think Gateway Journalism Review is providing a service to an area that is underserviced, and we need your help.

If you are interested, please email us at gatewayjr@siu.edu.