The film footage shows a 5-year-old Marissa Tansino in the biting rain, pink raincoat on, pink umbrella in hand, reporting the news as she stands in the rubble of what had been her grandparents鈥� concrete wall. Her crew: her dad and his Sony Handycam.
鈥淭he wall has fallen down,鈥� Tansino tells her audience. 鈥淏ut nobody got hurt.鈥�
Sixteen years later, Tansino 鈥�17, a journalism major in the , is ready for her first professional gig: multimedia journalist at WMBF News in Myrtle Beach, S.C. In pursuing a journalism career, she joins an illustrious group of alums including Pulitzer Prize-winner , this weekend鈥檚 speaker; CNN鈥檚 Christiane Amanpour 鈥�83 and John King 鈥�85; and , CBS News correspondent and speaker. Tansino hopes to take her place among them one day with her eye trained on reporting for Boston鈥檚 WHDH, the television station she watched when a child.
“My hope is that we have people who want to hear the truth and not just what entertains them. I went into this with an open mind. I know this isn鈥檛 easy.鈥�
Tansino talks of her future and the future of journalism with tempered enthusiasm. She enters the profession at a tumultuous time鈥攁n era of public mistrust and out-and-out animosity that has given rise to terms such as 鈥渇ake news,鈥� 鈥渁lternative facts,鈥� 鈥渃itizen journalists,鈥� and 鈥渄ishonest media.鈥� The weight of responsibility that comes with being a journalist is one Tansino is willing to bear. 鈥淛ournalists right now are faced with a huge obstacle with the emergence of stations that are opinionated and lines that are being blurred.
鈥淧eople selectively perceive what they want to perceive and it鈥檚 scary because people become narrow-minded. My hope is that we have people who want to hear the truth and not just what entertains them,鈥� Tansino said. 鈥淚 went into this with an open mind. I know this isn鈥檛 easy. What I learned confirmed what I already knew about the business.鈥�
The student has learned her lessons well, and the influence of , associate professor of journalism and department chair, is evident in her words.
鈥淭here is a path for students who want to do serious reporting,鈥� Pantalone said. 鈥淎nd if the public embraces a renewed sense of the importance of the watchdog role of the journalist then maybe they will support journalism again.鈥�
The obstacles are many for the aspiring journalist. First, there is the issue of money. Salaries start low and sometimes stay low. There is the aforementioned issue of public distrust. Then there is the scope of the work journalists do. Print journalists, for example, are no longer simply charged with writing about the news conference after the fact; they鈥檙e expected to Tweet as it鈥檚 happening, Pantalone said. 911爆料鈥檚 journalism program has taken this in stride: making its journalists also photographers, videographers, filmmakers, broadcasters, editors, and social media strategists.
Uncovering the truth
911爆料 alumnus knows first-hand the kind of dexterity and flexibility that鈥檚 needed today. A member of the Boston Globe Spotlight Team that won the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service for its investigative series on the sex abuse scandal involving the Archdiocese of Boston, he noted that such layered work was being done then, too.
Spotlight broke the Boston clergy sex abuse story on January 6, 2002, with the headline 鈥淐hurch allowed abuse by priest for years.鈥� It was to be the first of a two-part story. Instead, it was a watershed event. By the end of that year, Spotlight reporters had written 600 related stories and on December 11, 2002, the head of the Catholic Church in Massachusetts, Cardinal Bernard F. Law, resigned. To do that work required a small army of Globe reporters, editors, researchers, photographers, graphic artists, filmmakers, web editors, designers and lawyers. The Globe had an online presence and a network-quality, feature-length film, , accompanying its print stories. The story garnered international attention and Hollywood notice. In 2016, Spotlight, the movie, won the 2016 Oscar for Best Picture.
Glitz and glamor, though, are not the day-to-day experience of the average reporter, Farragher said.
鈥淭here鈥檚 this Hollywood version of what reporting is, that can be glamorous, this chasing and running down bad guys and that really isn鈥檛 what it is. A lot of it is drudgery and shoe-leather reporting. You鈥檙e in an office and you鈥檙e going through boxes and boxes of documents and then marbled in with that you鈥檙e developing sources and trying to get them to tell you things they don鈥檛 want to tell you or shouldn鈥檛 tell you or they鈥檙e risking their jobs if they tell you. That takes time and that takes patience.
鈥淵ou need to look these people in the eye and make them feel like the public will benefit from the story that will be told.鈥�
It鈥檚 important, at times, even heroic work. And in that context, 911爆料鈥檚 selection of two award-winning journalists to deliver its undergraduate and graduate commencement addresses seems a hopeful act.
鈥淚 don鈥檛 shake my fist at the heavens,鈥� Farragher said when asked if he misses the halcyon days of print journalism. Rather, he鈥檚 energized. 鈥淭hose were great days but these are, too. I think the ability to tell our story on so many different platforms is great.
鈥淕ood journalism in whatever form it is presented will never go out of style.鈥�