Clarrie Si Qian Ng

BIS313: U.S Journalism History - Oral History Paper

November 26th, 2012

Tims story

You could pick up any magazine, you could pick up any newspaper and you could

watch TV and that was war in all its uncensored glory This was a statement made by

Tim Humes when asked about his views on a significant event that happened over the

course of his life in which media played a role till present times. Tim Humes was

involved directly and indirectly in numerous large-scale events that occurred from the

1950ss to the 1980s. He was a high school freshman when he heard about the JFK

assassination. It was not long before his college deferment was rejected and he was sent

to Vietnam for the war. Throughout his lifetime from 1950s to present times, he has been

exposed to various forms of media from radio, newspaper, and television and at the later

part of his life, the Internet. He provides insightful information and rich experience he has

been through. We will look at the overarching theme of this paper through the lens of

Tim.

What oral history tells us? Disillusionment

As I interviewed Tim, I have prepared a handful of questions. However, I met a

challenging interviewee who was very passionate about relating his experience. The rich

content I was able to retrieve from Tims account lead me ask the question of the way

media covers and present news or information and how it could and possibly lead to

disillusionment. The entire bulk of Tims story surrounded mainly on how he constantly

placed his trust on media and at several milestones in his life, he felt that media could
have done a better job. Oral history is able to bring to live how things work and it gives a

corner and a perspective to explore the research question that might not just answer but

form new questions to bring forth exploration within the context. In this case, through the

Tims lens, I was able to sieve out some of the common problems experienced by people

of those time and how medias role shifts throughout history. Tims oral evidence is only

a chip off the old block but it provides us with a framework to discuss how media

position itself from 1960s to the 1980s.

Censorship

Tim Humes talk about how during the Vietnam War that there were an unprecedented

release of pictures and information that surpass the pictures show in Pearl Harbor In the

words of Humes:

Here we have the reality of what was happening via the news report and the media, of

course, expanded its coverage and the expansion of coverage was unlimited. There was

no censorship of what was coming out of that war. The reporters were able to send back

images of war and war images of the dead and dying, images of the Vietnamese dead and

dying and whether it had hit LIFE magazine or the TIMES or the TV. The images of war

in ways that we have really been protected in the United States even the images in Pearl

Harbor didnt match what we were getting out of Vietnam. (Tim Humes)

This ties in with how censorship was loose during the 1960s coverage of the Vietnam

War. There were many criticisms that came mainly from journalists and the government
officials. The media coverage tended to follow, rather than direct, the pubic opinions.

(Folkerts et al. 2009, 455) The lack of censorship made media an important role of

dealing with objectivity. In the eyes of the public, the news agency was being as bare as

they could but because of how there was a lack of censorship, the antagonistic feelings

that surged out from the war amongst the public threatens political figures who might be

viewed as not carrying out their jobs properly and that everyone has a say to what they

see happening. This is a huge contrast compared to the Iraq War where even photos of

military personals caskets were not released to protect the soldiers family. The

censorship that went on during the Iraq War is unlike the Vietnam War as technologies

have advanced and the dissemination of news is a lot faster and easier. Censorship is a

debatable topic as it is necessary for the military plans to not be leaked out and yet the

people have the right to know the truth.

Politics

Media and politics has always been intertwined mainly due to how they interact with

each other. Political figures use media to spread their message while media sheds light on

politics. Accusations of media bias in political news reporting have been conventional for

decades. Pundits, journalists, and interest groups continuously spar over whether or not

bias exists as well as which political actors tend to benet and suffer most as a result.

(Morris 2007, 707). According to Tim Humes, he talks about how media affected the

political stance in his family.

 Prior to the Nixon Kennedy elections that was the first time my parents didnt vote

democrat that I was aware of till this day Im not quite sure why they didnt. I suspect

they didnt because Kennedy was Catholic but Im not sure. I know they will never vote

for a republican so that was a given. But what I got back from Vietnam remembering

Johnson, democratic president actually escalated the war. My dad never referred to the

democrats in any way, shape and form other than to call them dumbmercrats so a

family that has been staunchly democrats suddenly wasnt. My grandmother, for

example, till the day that she died, you would ask her- whore you voting for granny and

she would say Im voting for Roosevelt. Franklin Delano that is right. She staunch

democrat always voted for Roosevelt no matter who was running no matter the fact that

he has been dead since 1945 that was how democratic my family was. But not my

parents after that and of course coming back from the war meant that I did everything I

could to avoid the media. I was pretty much done with the way things were being

reported and discussed. I did not want to attempt at all. (Tim Humes)

This strong recount from Tim about how his familys political view got shaped after the

incident as his family constantly gets news from the radio, television and the Seattle

Times. It is interesting to tie in with the overarching theme of disillusionment in this

case not with the media but the president yet the only source of information people were

getting at those times were limited and largely from different forms of media. However,

on Tims part he became disillusioned by what the media has been presenting to him that

he chose to avoid media altogether but he mentions later in the interview that he turns on
the radio very often to listen to the news and switches it off if he hears anything he feels

that might not give him information or if he deems the content bias.

Lasting effects till present times

In present times, the Internet has taken the place of many forms of media. We are still

able to see similar problems that happened in the past still persisting even till today when

one would think technology would have solve the issues. In actual fact more problems

surface but the same few complications still persist. Tim talks bout his experience with

Internet and how he perceives the news at present time.

The current situation in media from my perspective is a real mess. Censorship has no

place in a free society. On the other hand, we shouldnt have opinions parading itself as it

is and weve got a lot of that and as I look at whats available online and read about how

people are using it. The best thing we can do is keep our news uncensored at the same

time how do we continue to educate our populous in such a way that we have a populous

that is willing to research information that doesn't decide to plop itself down in front of

FOX news and believe that they are getting the news whatever stated will be

researched. (Tim Humes)

One of the recurring issues is objectivity and censorship. We still face intense pressure

ahead of us with regards to how objectivity is seen by the public and the professional

code of ethics of a journalist. We also face stronger censorship and the need for contents

to be hidden is going stronger more than ever to protect peoples rights. However, the
sacred balance between media and the people involves the cooperation of both the people

and journalist. As much as media plays a role in shaping how information is

disseminated, the public also has the responsibility to keep media in check and not

blindly take information at face value. Civilization has produced one idea more

powerful than any other: the notion that they can govern themselves. And it has created a

largely unarticulated theory of information to sustain that idea, called Journalism

(Kovach & Rosenstiel 2007, 255), Kovach and Rosenstiel talks about how citizens and

the key players of media has the responsibilities to make sure that do not leave

disillusionment.

Conclusion

In The Elements of Journalism by Kovach and Rosenstiel, they mentioned awareness

instincts which is that people crave news out of basic instinct. (Kovach & Rosenstiel

2007, 15) I think to conclude on this note that as much as disillusionment is very present

in how people view media these days, it does not actually deter how standards and ethics

are stringently being adhered in the Journalistic world. The past teaches us a lot of how

much of the same mistakes we make and we take along with us what the trail that history

leaves behind to bring us forward.

Bibliography

1. Morris, Jonathan S. 2007. "Slanted Objectivity? Perceived Media Bias, Cable News

Exposure, and Political Attitudes". Social Science Quarterly. 88 (3): 707-728.

2. Galician, Mary-Lou. 2004. "Introduction: High Time for "Disillusioning" Ourselves

and Our Media". American Behavioral Scientist. 48 (1).

3. Brewer, Paul, and Timothy Macafee. 2007. "Anchors Away: Media Framing of

Broadcast Television Network Evening News Anchors". The Harvard International

Journal of Press/Politics. 12 (4): 3-19.

4. Kovach, Bill, and Tom Rosenstiel. 2007. The elements of journalism: what

newspeople should know and the public should expect. New York: Crown Publishers.