From the mouth of Mary Connolly...

The field of Journalism is a typically male-dominated area, but Mary Connolly, former News-Times Editorial Director, new that going in. She was our guest speaker today in our News Writing class, and what a talk she gave! I highly enjoyed her lecture, because she touched on some issues I have been worrying about in the news for some time now. She covered the topic of malpractice extensively, and in the medical world, that is a touchy subject. She mentioned the FOIA (Freedom of Information Act), in regards to those such "adverse subjects" as immigration laws and medical mishaps, and recalled how most malpractice incidents go unreported, and those that do can become public records.

I found this quite interesting, and worrying at the same time, because it makes me wonder how many things go unreported each day, and how many misdiagnoses' are happening. Things like that should be made available to the public, and Mary Connolly believes that the FOIA is a godsend for news reporters. "The public has a right to know," she says, and I couldn't agree more.

She also states how you should "know who your readers are," and know what they want to hear. You try and keep opinions respectful and well-developed in the eyes of "those who pay the bills" (i.e.- the big-wig companies you work under). You don't want anyone getting upset over something you write. That is also true for subjects that may be touchy for some, such as the aforementioned immigration and calling them "undocumented" instead of "illegal aliens." It's always good to sound politically correct when you are reporting news.

To finish off my brief little blurb with a quote of Miss Connolly's, "When you let the sun shine in, people start acting differently." In this case, she is referring to when you shed light on a subject that people don't want out in the public, they will begin to change their attitude. It's scary the way some react to what becomes public and what doesn't.