MeMUNC 2004 ASSOCIATED PRESS CORPS

Welcome members of the press! This year marks the second year that MeMUNC will be incorporating a press corps into the conference. Your responsibilities as members of the press corps differ greatly from those of the students who will be delegates. Although you do not have specific topics to research prior to the conference, you are expected to be well versed in current events and the conventions of journalistic writing. Given the size and complexity of MeMUNC, delegates often do not understand what is happen with the conference as a whole. This is where the press corps steps in:

REPONSIBILITIES OF THE PRESS CORPS

At the conference, the press corps will be responsible for taking MeMUNC out of its political bubble. In other words, you will be gathering information for the purpose of reporting on the conference. One way reporters will do this is by engaging in field research on the crises of the world as they are happening. This information will be collected in several ways. The first way is through the Internet. Press members will have access to the Internet and will search for articles in the news that will have a direct impact on the committees of the conference. Also, during the conference there will be some scheduled press briefings where members of the press corps (and also advisors, coaches, and other non-delegate participants or observers) will get the chance to listen to field experts and/or distinguished members of various governments report information about diverse topics. The members of the press will get the chance to ask questions of the experts to ensure they get the most information possible from press briefings. While at the conference, reporters may be called upon to research new developments pertaining to the topics at hand. The press corps will also be responsible for sitting in on committee sessions and taking notes on their progress. The press will interview delegates, the chairs, coaches, and advisors for information on the progression of the various U.N. bodies.

Once this material has been gathered, the press corps will have to disseminate the information to the committees. This will happen in two ways: through the written word and the spoken word. Press corps members will be responsible for compiling articles to appear in the conference publication, MeMUNC JUNK. Press members will also report directly to committees in the event that pertinent information becomes available.

Clearly, the MeMUNC press corps has a lot of responsibilities during the conference. To review one more time, they are to:

* Use the Internet to search for breaking news on conference-specific issues;

* Attend press briefings;

* Attend committee sessions for the purpose of interviewing chairs, delegates, coaches, and advisors;

* Create the conference publication, MeMUNC JUNK;

* Report breaking news to committees and answer any questions that delegates may have.

Hopefully, the responsibilities of the press during the conference are clearer now. The following is some information on preparation by press corps members for the conference.

OBJECTIVITY

The goal for almost any media agency is to report information objectively, or at least maintain the appearance of providing objective information. However, it is nearly impossible to report objectively because research has an inherent bias. This bias infiltrates through the subconscious of the person(s) conducting the research or reporting the information. The simple act of choosing what to research or what should be reported, and conversely what should not be researched or reported, creates this bias; a bias that is impossible to eliminate. This does not mean, however, that all research and information has been tainted and should be dismissed as incredible. On the contrary, good research and information can achieve a high level of objectivity but an awareness of the possibility for bias must still exist.

By their very nature, certain media sources have political biases that cannot be removed. For example, a newspaper article published in the United States will have a specific bias when reporting on the topic of, say, Iraq. It seems only natural for the articles to have a pro-U.S. bias when reporting on a situation. On the other hand, an Iraqi article may have a very different interpretation of the same situation. So, which article is right? The answer is neither is right, and neither is wrong. Because of the blatant biases in the articles, neither source can really be credible. In such a case, it would be wise to read the same situation from a third country, or source. This third source, like the first two, will also have biases that may be less obvious than those from the U.S. and Iraq, but they are there nonetheless. The purpose of the third source is to try and find consistencies among the three articles. Should all three articles supply similar information, and they all have different biases, then it is pretty safe to assume that the constant information is close to being objective material. For instance, if all three articles explain that an event happened in the same town, yet each explained a different occurrence in the town, then the only immediate, objective information would really be the name of the town. A further comparative analysis of the three articles would have to be investigated to find more overlapping information.

That was simply a long-winded way to explain how the members of the press corps should begin practicing their objectivity skills for the conference. First, you should realize that it is impossible to be totally objective, yet understanding and recognizing your biases from the beginning will allow you to compensate for them accordingly. Secondly, you should begin looking on the Internet for news articles concerning the topics of this conference (you can look at the briefing packets on this website to find out what the topics are). Do not just look at the New York Times for coverage of events. Make sure you also find other sources like the BBC, Middle Eastern newspapers, African newspapers, etc., and compare articles covering the same stories. This exercise will help you familiarize yourselves with the topics of the committees that you will be reporting on during the conference. Also, you will enhance your critical analysis skills of information by reading different media sources from around the globe. A great place to start your searching is at www.google.com. There is a tab above the search bar that is labeled ‘news.’ Click on that tab and google will do most of the work for you in regards to finding quality sites to visit when researching information.

THE UN AND THE MEDIA

With all of the previous mention of objectivity and biases, it can be easy to justify why a particular periodical would have a bias in its reporting. It just wouldn’t make sense for an article to write bad things about the area where it is going to be distributed. Just imagine the fast food chain Burgerland writing an article titled: Whew! We Only Dropped 10,000 Burgers Last Month. Though it could be considered a good article as it is trying to accurately report information, it would cripple the business. Burgerland would have a bias toward making Burgerland sounding great in the media. If Burgerland were to report an event similar to this one, perhaps they would find another fast food chain with a worse history of burger-dropping and make themselves sound better in comparison by having dropped less burgers than the competitor. They may even choose to never tell of their burger mishaps from the prior month and focus instead on, let’s say, the increase in the number of milk shakes they sold. The same is true for states and their media coverage. For instance, a newspaper in Libya would write a story in favor of Libya over an opposing state. So there is some justification for biases. How then do you report information as members of the MeMUNC press corps?

First off, remember that there is a bias. If a country has a bias in favor of itself (or an ally nation), then it can be deducted that the UN likewise has a bias for itself. Rather than favoring a country, though, the UN favors the entire globe. As representatives of the UN, members of the MeMUNC press would, well, represent the UN. Positive aspects of MeMUNC would be highlighted in the articles, while less than positive aspects may be touched upon, yet not articulated.

Because there is a problem with inconsistencies in reporting around the world, different governments enforce different levels of censorship, for example, the UN has established several groups and committees trying to figure out a way to eliminate, or at least reduce, these global discrepancies in reporting habits. It is important for you as MeMUNC reporters to familiarize yourselves with some of the steps that the real UN has taken in hopes to generate a global freedom of speech and media, as well as eliminate biases (or create more impartial reporting). Just go to the UN website (www.un.org/) and read about World Press Freedom Day or the Advisory Group on Press Freedom. There you will see that the UN is in great favor of objectivity and freedom of press and media.

In other words, the UN has a deep passion for objective reporting and a freedom of the media. Therefore, it is very important for you to abide by these standards when you are reporting at the conference. Take advantage of your liberties, recognize your motivations, and report accordingly.

LIBEL

Libel is written slander. When a form of press consciously puts into print something that is damaging to the character of an individual or an organization, it is considered libel. If a delegate in a committee session utters a slanderous remark, the delegate being slandered against is entitled to a right of reply and the accused delegate may be called out of order by the chairperson(s). It is unprofessional, childish, and easily avoided by a prepared and competent delegate. Slander is easy to forget about after the fact, due to the nature of slander itself: it is a spoken entity and can disappear after the utterance is complete. Libel, however, is written and therefore immortal in nature. It can easily be reproduced over and over again and, because of this, libel has much more severe consequences of punishment than slander. That said, libel will not be tolerated at MeMUNC on any level. If libel is found in any of the articles printed at the conference, the member of the press who is responsible for the words will be immediately removed from the conference and other charges may be brought against that individual. It is a very serious thing, so please avoid it at all costs. A reporter is responsible for libel information regardless of intention. For example, if an article is reporting on a committee session and the reporter decides to write a description of a delegate “in a humorous manner,” yet the delegate does not find it humorous when reading it, it will be considered libel. Humor is a great thing and really enhances an article in some situations, yet humor does not need to be at the expense of another person. Additionally, libel is something that the UN does not endorse and, as mentioned before, the MeMUNC press corps is trying to emulate the guidelines that the UN is attempting to put into place. Libel is counterproductive and not in character for a real UN press correspondent.

So, it is important to begin researching the topics of the MeMUNC committees before the conference, most importantly to familiarize yourselves with valuable websites and with how to effectively read articles for information. Some good exercises to practice before the conference would be to decide on a story in a newspaper and read it over thoroughly. Then, find the same story in at least two other articles, again reading them thoroughly. After you are familiar with the ideas of the articles, summarize the articles in 250 words, and then in 100 words. This will help you find the critical information in the articles by eliminating frivolous words.

AWARDS

As with the committees of the conference, members of the press corps will be eligible for awards during closing ceremonies. Excellence in journalism awards will based on performances during the conference. Criteria for the performances will be chosen by quality of coverage, tireless efforts to get the best story, meeting deadlines, accurate reporting, grammar, and outstanding all around effort.

There is also a requirement that must be handed in before the conference. As every delegate must hand in a position paper by the chosen deadline before the conference in order to be eligible for an award, the same is true for the press corps. Each press member must hand in a 235-250 word article about an issue in the news of their choice. They must read at least three articles covering the same story from newspapers of differing geographic locations (for example: 1 from the US, one from the UK, one from Africa would be 3 geographic locations; 1 from the east coast of the US, 1 from the west coast of the US, and 1 from the south would NOT be from 3 geographic locations). The second article is going to be 100-115 words long and should cover a simulation that the press member’s school has performed in practice for MeMUNC. It should include at least one quote from a personal interview and cover the happenings of the simulation. In the event that the school of the press member does not hold a simulation, then the 100-115 word column can be treated in the same fashion as the 235-250 word article (covering a story from 3 sources, but still being only 100-115 words long). On top of each article should be an accurate word count and the web addresses of the articles that were used for the creation of the articles. These columns have to be turned in when the delegates turn in their position papers. Failure to hand in the columns by the deadline will eliminate the chance for that press member to receive an award.

FINAL NOTE

In closing, I would like to wish all press members the best of luck at the conference and in their academic endeavors. I hope that the information in this packet helps guide you in the right direction in preparing for the conference. If you have any questions, feel free to e-mail me-David Stearns-at david.e.stearns@maine.edu. I look forward to working with all of you at the conference!