CASE

At the Hotter ’N Hell Hundred Race, a 48-year-old male walks into the medical tent with his buddies who state the patient is not feeling will. He is “sick all over” and has a general feeling of malaise. Initial vitals are within normal limits and stable. Temperature is reasonably normal and the patient states he has had access to fluids and has been drinking copious amounts of liquid.

Patient denies any previous medical history, is taking no medications and has no known drug allergies.

Patient sits down in one of the patient beds in the medical tent where he appears to be resting comfortably, conversing with his friends.

Initial assessment:

C: Pt “not feeling well”

H: Pt has been participant in extensive bike race, having biked approximately 50 miles with outside temperature approaching 95˚F. Pt has been drinking copious amounts of water and has been eating normally.

A: Pt AOx3. Pt responding normally to all questions. Pt denies any LOC. Skin warm. Pt sweating normally for event. HEENT unremarkable. No abnormal fluids noted in EENT. No trauma noted in head, neck or back. Pt states he has no pain at rest, upon movement or upon palpation of head, neck or back. PERL. Chest unremarkable. Breath sounds clear bilat. No wheezes, rales or rhonchi noted in any lung fields. Abd non-tender, non-rigid in all four quadrants. Pt MAE without difficulty. Cap refill normal. Body temp. 99.4˚F.

R: Pt given 1L of normal saline at 100cc/hour

While in care of medical staff, patient progressively got worse, becoming extremely irritable. Friends noted changes in behavior and reported them to medical staff.

Initial sodium level reported as 125 via i-State portable electrolyte analyzer. Noted as severe electrolyte imbalance and low sodium. IV 3 percent saline established at 50cc/hour. After a very short while, pt reports, “I have to go to the bathroom.” Shortly thereafter, pt becomes incontinent and severely confused, moaning and not making intelligible sentences.

Second assessment:

A: Pt responsive to verbal stimuli by looking in direction of voice, otherwise not responding appropriately. Skin warm. Other assessment remains unchanged. PO2 = 98 percent. EKG shows SR with no abnormalities.

Ambulance requested for transport to emergency department. After approximately two minutes, patient begins witnessed tonic-clonic-type seizure of less than one minute. Seizure activity does not repeat. IV fluid not flowing steadily during seizure activity. Pt transported to ED.

Follow-up:

Pt was diagnosed with dehydration and hyponatremia in ED and given 1L of normal saline. He remained dazed and confused for approximately 24 hours after which time he regained normal mentation and put out 4.5 L of fluid.

Physician’s notes:

Physicians, including Tim Noakes and his colleagues, first documented exercise-associated hyponatremia (EAH) in Durban, South Africa in 1981 and in 1985 in four athletes participating in endurance events longer than seven hours. By 2005, Keith Williamson applied what had been learned about hyponatremia in South Africa and other endurance events that take place in extremely hot weather to the Hotter ’N Hell Hundred race encouraging aggressive hypertonic saline treatment for patients who present with lower-than-expected blood saline values. Here are some of Williamson’s notes.

• Often, doctors are unwilling to aggressively treat hyponatremia despite clear evidence that acute-onset hyponatremia can clearly be treated with hypertonic saline. Patients, generally elderly, with chronic hyponatremia can be harmed by such treatment. While the reasons behind the causes of hyponatremia are unclear, it appears to have to do with the release of antidieuretic hormone (ADH) during exertion.
• A single liter of fluid will not hurt a patient while differential diagnosis is made between dehydration and hyponatremia.
• Blood saline levels: 135-145 — normal; 130-135 — mild hyponatremia; 125-130 — moderate hyponatremia; <125 — severe hyponatremia.
• Treatment of tonic-clonic seizure may include a benzodiazepine such as Lorazepam (Ativan), Midazolam (Versed) or Diazepam (Valium).

Journal of Emergency Medical Services

Even at the starting line, it is evident that providing pre-hospital healthcare is not a goal of organizers of the Hotter ’N Hell Hundred race in Wichita Falls, Texas, the largest sanctioned century bicycle ride in the United States. For the nearly 14,000 riders, Executive Director Ben “Chip” Filer said the goal is to eliminate the need for any hospital care at all.

“One of our primary goals is to ensure that everyone who comes to the race goes home vertical,” he said. With more than 1,000 medical volunteers at 15 stops along the 100-mile route, he said the medical staff, doctors, EMS personnel, nurses and others “can do a lot of stuff out there that would normally send people to the hospital.”

Their efforts paid off. Although medical staff saw some 900 people throughout the day, only 14 ended up in local emergency departments.

The wind

This year it wasn’t the heat that caused problems for riders, it was the wind. Even at 6 a.m., before the sun had risen or the race had begun, Gene Johnston, a first-time rider in the 100-mile race, said the wind would be a problem.

Noting that he had logged about 900 miles since June 1 preparing for the race, he said, “The wind is going to be the biggest problem if the wind keeps up today.”

He was right.

By mid-morning, David Melton, a biker who was brought to the medical tent for treatment of a minor injury said, “The wind is so brutal.”

And Kim Stringfellow, a nurse working at the final rest stop before the finish, said, “The temperature is milder than in past years, but the wind is worse. (The bikers) are coming in more tired.”

At the same rest stop, Trey Mial, a biker from Houston riding the 50-mile race, said, “The heat’s not too bad. The wind’s been kicking everyone’s butt especially in the last stretch.”

But out at the remote stops, where medical staff members, according to Lee Ackley, a physician assistant from Iowa Park, Texas who was volunteering his medical services for the 12^th year, have to improvise, the staff members turned the wind to their advantage.

“The wind is bad for bikers, but it keeps us cool,” he said. “It’s good for us.”

Wichita Falls Emergency Preparedness Coordinator John Henderson said, “Definitely, after last year, the weather did contribute to an overall successful weekend.”

PDF version of January / February 2012 edition of Texas EMS Magazine

Medical care

Despite the wind and heat, the medical team, including of doctors, nurses, paramedics, EMTs, physician assistants, nurse practitioners and others, staffing the medical tents all along the route, was prepared. The on-site staff, along with American Medical Response ambulances that provide pre-hospital care in Wichita Falls and Air Evac Lifeteam that provides helicopter support, provided routine medical care including suturing wounds, IV fluid therapy and massages for muscle cramps. But they worried most about the potential for life-threatening, heat-related injuries.

Before the race began, Nicholas DeFouw, a medical doctor and participant in the sports medicine fellowship program at John Peter Smith Hospital out of Forth Worth, predicted that he and the other five doctors working in the medical tent at the start/finish line would see a lot of cramping, as well as a number of broken bones, dislocations, lacerations and, of course, heat-related conditions. He said some people come to the race but just are not acclimated to the heat. He said people are acclimated to living in an air-conditioned environment. Then they come outside and spend five hours exercising in extreme heat but their body cannot adapt that fast.

Keith Williamson, university physician at Midwestern State University and medical director for the race, said the race was a tremendous learning opportunity. He said the medical staff members would see illnesses and injuries that they had not seen before. Even though they might have learned about them in school and might, theoretically, know how to diagnose and treat them, they have not actually worked directly with a patient with that illness or injury.

“You see a bunch of new things, new things that aren’t in your diagnostic lexicon,” he said.

Jim Barbee, medical doctor and program director of the sports medicine fellowship since 2002, said, “They learning how to manage a major medical treatment unit at a large public event. They love it. It’s one of the few times you can work the devil out of residents and they love it.”

Jason Mogonye, a medical doctor and clinical faculty member at John Peter Smith Hospital, said he also wanted the sports medicine fellows and other medical staff members to learn in this unique environment.

“I want them to know how to handle athletes who have been competing for a very long period of time and trauma that happens with a bicycle race,” he said.

Barbee also noted that the tent could have been staff primarily with paramedics. However, “the public expectation is for doctors.

“We’re helping (the doctors) learn how to help us,” he said.

The heat

While the bruises, broken bones and scrapes occupy most of the time of the medical staff on race day, Williamson and the other medical staff members, all volunteers, spend most of their time discussing how to treat the heat-related injuries prior to the race.

Kenny Hoffman, operations supervisor for AMR, said he began watching the weather forecast a couple weeks before the race.

“I kept waiting to see what the temperature was going to be. It actually cooled off. We were thankful for that.”

Despite temperatures on race day that average 95˚F and that have reached 109˚F, Filer said they were lucky this year because it cooled down — down to a high of 96˚F, fully 10 degrees lower than in 2011.

Hoffman said AMR, which has been working the race since at least 1991, typically staffs two extra ambulances on race day to help with call volume, but his biggest problem is the bikers themselves.

“Bikers don’t move out of the way,” Hoffman said. “They hear lights and sirens and they just say, ‘whatever.’ Getting to a rider that was sick or hurt, that is a real problem.”

While medical staff member spend time preparing for the most obvious types of injuries, including heat-related injuries, from a emergency management point of view, Henderson said he does not really plan for the heat at all even though last year was the hottest event on record and the first time the race was black-flagged.

“Heat is a given,” Henderson said. “I am more concerned with other threats such as the possibility of lightning and storms. I also plan for large wildfires in the counties and city. We are always vigilant on watching (the Wichita Falls) Multi-Purpose Event Center for suspicious activity that people might want to cause chaos to a large event. Those are more pressing to me than heat.”

Because heat emergencies can be life-threatening and acute, Hoffman said he works closely with the dispatchers and race medical staff.

“We determine what’s the best care that can be given to the patient. We look at who can get there the fastest. It works great,” he said.

Ackley said few people get to see the number of heat-related injuries that they can see at this race.

“Here you get to see 20-30 at a time,” he said.

In particular, he said medical staff members are on the look out not only for dehydration but also for hyponatremia, also called water intoxication, which results from drinking excess amounts of plain water causing the blood serum level of sodium to go down. Hyponatremia is becoming more prevalent as participation in endurance races such as the Hotter ’N Hell Hundred increases, particularly by inexperienced or unacclimated athletes. Because the body loses sodium when it sweats, athletes have to consume additional sodium and water to replace what they have lost. Consuming water alone decreases the concentration of sodium in the blood and can result in nausea and vomiting, confusion, headache, paresthesia, puffiness and seizures.

As part of the medical protocols for the race, Williamson has a specific protocol for hyponatremia. In contrast to the protocol for dehydration and overheated riders both of which call for which calls for IV therapy, “hyponatremia can be worsened by hydration,” Williamson states even in the IV protocol.

Williamson said it was a rider a number of years ago that got him interested in hyponatremia. That specific rider came into the medical tent and “just needed to rest.” Shortly thereafter, he had a seizure. Based on the research in exercise-associated hyponatremia, he said the medical staff at the race was “on the cutting edge.”

He said before they learned how to treat hyponatremia properly, they were putting about four people per year in intensive care from the race. “We haven’t had to put anyone in intensive care since,” he said.

Defouw said it was clear that overhydration without adjusting the electrolytes in the body was a problem. A potential solution, he said. Pickles.

“The riders worry a lot about hydration so they drink a lot of water and even Gatorade. They rehydrate but sweat the salt of out their body. Clinically, racers say the feel better after they eat pickles,” Defouw said noting that there were large, indeed huge, jars of pickles at the medical tent. “It takes a lot of time (to restore the electrolyte imbalance) when you have to digest them.”

Almost as if he had gotten the message before the race, John Battaliou, a rider from Oklahoma City, sat at the starting line waiting for the sun to rise and for the blast of the canon. He was prepared. He had two bottles of green juice strapped to his bike each containing pickle juice and Gatorade. He said his goal was not only to eliminate the need for medical attention but to eliminate his need to make any rest stops.

“No rest stops. Hell no. Rest stops are for sissies,” he said, stating that he expected to be done in less than five hours. 4:37 was his best. “You have to be prepared and you have to know your limits.”

It was a mantra medical staff members found themselves saying over and over during the day as they took care of hundreds of riders and visitors, saving almost all of the from a trip to the hospital.

CASE STUDY: Click here

PHOTO GALLERY

And to be honest, I’m tired of judging newspapers and yearbooks from all over the country with photo credits such as “Photo by Google” or “Photo courtesy Flickr.” This just isn’t acceptable and advisers need to put a stop to it. But first we have to educate advisers. Neither Google nor Flickr own images. They simply serve as repositories for the images. As such, it is as inappropriate to credit Google or Flickr just as it is inappropriate to credit YouTube or Vimeo for video.

When we set out to rewrite the guidelines for the commission, we realized that, as the introduction states, “Visual journalists work closely with editors, designers, producers and reporters to make sure visuals are integrated with narrative, telling stories, not just filling space. Videos, designs, photos, informational graphics and illustrations all enhance the media experience of readers or viewers.”

Producing a publication in print, online or in broadcast is a team effort. And without strong visuals, readers are likely to skip right on to the next visually enticing piece. Today’s ADD generation relies on visuals to move them throughout the message. As producers of the visual message, we rely on hits, view and readers for our original work. Ultimately, we rely on income from that original art. As such, as Jim Graham said in a publication I produced for the National Press Photographers Association back in 1999, “our images are our legacy.”

Protect that legacy.

Fight for the rights of the people who created the photo, the story, the layout, the video or the website. Obtain written permission before using something that you didn’t create.

It’s that simple. Don’t accept less.

You can find out more about JEA here or JEASPRC here.

Philosophy

Designers, photographers and illustrators on student media staffs are first and foremost journalists. All of the ethics that apply to reporters and editors also apply to visual journalists. All journalists must aspire to seek the truth, report comprehensively, provide balance and honor original thought.

Visual journalists play an important role on a staff as they provide another avenue for readers to access and understand news. Visual journalists are not decorators. Visual journalists should work closely with editors, designers, producers and reporters to make sure visuals are integrated with narrative, telling stories, not just filling space. Videos, designs, photos, informational graphics and illustrations all enhance the experience of the reader or viewer with media.

More information: National Scholastic Press Association Student Code of Ethics

More information: Society of Professional Journalists Code of Ethics

More information: Nieman Watchdog blog, “Questions The Press Should Ask”

Creativity
We live in a visual society. Innovative and creative images and designs are easily accessible and widely available. Such resources should serve as resources and inspiration for student journalists who, finally, should rely upon their own ingenuity to come up with original concepts whether in print designs, online designs, infographics or photographs. Student publications should give priority to student-produced work, adhering to the appropriate laws and obtaining permission when necessary to reproduce works not created by students.

Copyright
The copyright laws of the United States (and most other countries) revolve around one basic principle: works are copyrighted (either by the artist or their employer) at the time of creation. Other entities that want to reproduce works created by other individuals must obtain written permission, in advance. Publication should not use any artwork created by individuals not on their staffs without written permission.

Copyright is a form of protection provided by the laws of the United States (title 17, U. S. Code) to the authors of “original works of authorship,” including literary, dramatic, musical, artistic, and certain other intellectual works. This protection is available to both published and unpublished works. Section 106 of the 1976 Copyright Act generally gives the owner of copyright the exclusive right to do and to authorize others:

• to reproduce the work in copies or phonorecords
• to prepare derivative works based upon the work
• to distribute copies or phonorecords of the work to the public by sale or other transfer of ownership, or by rental, lease, or lending
• to perform the work publicly, in the case of literary, musical, dramatic, and choreographic works, pantomimes, and motion pictures and other audiovisual works
• to display the work publicly, in the case of literary, musical, dramatic, and choreographic works, pantomimes, and pictorial, graphic, or sculptural works, including the individual images of a motion picture or other audiovisual work
• to perform the work publicly (in the case of sound recordings) by means of a digital audio transmission

More information: U.S. Copyright office

More information: Student Press Law Center material on copyright law

More information: University of Texas Copyright Crash Course

More information: National Press Photographers Association Our Images Are Our Legacy

Fair Use
The U.S. copyright law does provide for special instances in which copyrighted materials can legally be used without permission from the owner under the doctrine of fair use.

The fair use of a copyrighted work for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including making multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright. In determining whether the use made of a work in any particular case is a fair use the factors to be considered include:

1. the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes;
2. the nature of the copyrighted work;
3. the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and
4. the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.

In other words, for certain non-commercial, nonprofit educational purposes, including use in a student newspaper, on a news publication’s website or on a news broadcast (audio and video), a small portion of a film, audio recording or print publication, can be reproduced without first obtaining the written permission of the copyright holder, but editors should still give credit to and acknowledge the copyright holder as the source of the material.

More information: U.S. Copyright office statement on fair use

Creative Commons
The Internet makes possible the idea of universal access to research, education and culture, but legal and social systems do not always allow that idea to be realized. Legislators created copyright long before the emergence of the Internet, and current provisions in the laws can make it hard to legally perform actions users today take for granted, including copying, pasting, editing a source and posting to the Web. The default setting of copyright law requires users performing these actions, including artists, teachers, scientists, policymakers, producers of the mass media and private citizens, to receive explicit permission, granted in advance. To achieve the vision of universal access, Creative Commons helps individuals who create works provide a free, public, and standardized infrastructure that creates a balance between the reality of the Internet and the reality of copyright laws. There are six types of basic Creative Commons licenses all of which come with clearly identifying symbols. The most accommodating of these (CC BY) lets others distribute, remix, tweak, and build upon a work, even commercially, as long as they give credit for the original creation. The most restrictive of the licenses (CC BY-NC-ND) allows others to download works and to share them with others as long as they give credit. They can’t change them in any way or use them commercially.

In short, a Creative Commons license provides a user with a form of explicit, written permission, granted in advance, legally to use copyrighted material under the guidelines provided and with the appropriate credit.

More information:  Creative Commons

Credit
Whether it is through the use of a Creative Commons license, fair use or other written permission, students editors should give appropriate credit to all published works. It is never acceptable to give credit to a photo repository or search engine such as google.com, amazon.com, youtube.com, vimeo.com or flickr.com. Instead, obtain the appropriate permission from the owner of the copyright and give the copyright owner credit. Some samples of photo credits include:

• For staff photo: Staff photo by Jane Doe
• For staff photo: Photo by Jane Doe/News staff
• For submitted photo: Photo contributed by Jack Doe, used with permission, ©2012
• For photo with Creative Commons license: Photo contributed by Shawn Newsom, CC2012
• For movie still: Photo by John Doe, Paramount Studios, used with permission
• For movie still: Photo courtesy Disney Studios, used with permission
• For video clip: Video from “The Movie” courtesy 20th Century/Fox, used with permission

Photojournalism
By the nature of their profession, photojournalists document the lives of the people they cover. Their job is to share the truth, not to manipulate it.

As the National Press Photographers Association states in the preamble to its Code of Ethics: “Visual journalists operate as trustees of the public. Our primary role is to report visually on the significant events and varied viewpoints in our common world. Our primary goal is the faithful and comprehensive depiction of the subject at hand. As visual journalists, we have the responsibility to document society and to preserve its history through images.

“Photographic and video images can reveal great truths, expose wrongdoing and neglect, inspire hope and understanding and connect people around the globe through the language of visual understanding. Photographs can also cause great harm if they are callously intrusive or are manipulated.”

Student journalists should adhere to this philosophy and should endeavor to remain unbiased and objective.

More information: National Press Photographers Association Code of Ethics

Photo illustrations
When photojournalists use tools such as Adobe Photoshop to dramatically alter images, such images should be clearly false to the reader and clearly labeled, taking care never to mislead or to deceive the reader or viewer. As the preamble to the National Press Photographers Association’s Code of Ethics states: “Editing should maintain the integrity of the photographic images’ content and context. Do not manipulate images or add or alter sound in any way that can mislead viewers or misrepresent subjects.”

In addition, NPPA provides photojournalists with additional guidelines as part of that organization’s Digital Manipulation Code of Ethics: “[T]he guiding principle of our profession is accuracy; therefore, we believe it is wrong to alter the content of a photograph in any way that deceives the public. As photojournalists, we have the responsibility to document society and to preserve its images as a matter of historical record.”

The NPPA statement of principle concludes by stating, “Accurate representation is the benchmark of our profession. We believe photojournalistic guidelines for fair and accurate reporting should be the criteria for judging what may be done electronically to a photograph. Altering the editorial content … is a breach of the ethical standards recognized by the NPPA.”

Back in 1997, two University of Oregon professors, Tom Wheeler and Tim Gleason, provided some guidelines for photojournalists about whether and how to manipulate, to alter or to enhance images. Based on those guideline, photojournalists should answer the following questions when consider whether it is acceptable to manipulate an image for inclusion as part of a documentary news publication.

• Does the photograph represent what the photographer saw through the viewfinder? Is it a depiction of reality?
• Do the manipulations simply include routine cropping, color correction to restore the color balance to what appeared in the actual scene, or dodging/burning to improve reproduction quality?

Manipulations such as those above are considered routine would be appropriate even for documentary images when not carried to extremes. However, two more questions help refine what is acceptable and not.

• Is the proposed alternation obvious to the reader?
• Is the altered image obviously false?

With conviction, student photojournalists and editors should be able to answer “yes” to all of the questions before they should consider any manipulation for the purpose of reproducing a news/feature image or a photo illustration.

If the answer to any of the questions above is “no,” editors and photojournalists should:

• Adhere to the principle of reproducing photos that represent reality. Documentary news and feature photos should not be manipulated.
• Find alternative images that either represent reality or manipulate the image to the point where the manipulation obvious to the reader and obviously false.

While it is appropriate to label a photo illustration with the appropriate credit such as “Photo illustration by Tameka Brown,” labeling the image as an illustration alone is not enough to avoid deceiving the viewer.

Photo illustrations are not easy to create. Nor can they produced quickly or cheaply. Allow time — lots of time — to conceptualize, obtain the props and to produce the illustration. Photo illustrations should be clearly staged. A reader should never wonder whether the photo was real. In Ken Kobre’s Photojournalism: The Professionals’ Approach, Jay Koelzer, a photographer with the Rocky Mountain News, an award-winning newspaper that closed in 2009, said, “The photographer needs to take the reader somewhere outside the bounds of reality and the printed page. …[M]ake people think.” Never set up a photo illustration to mimic reality.

Illustrations/artwork
Like photojournalists, artists producing infographics or simple graphics for news publications, whether online, in video or in print, have an obligation to provide their readers with information as well as to entice and to entertain the viewer. They should never produce designs or graphics that deceive or mislead the readers or viewers. The Society for News Design Code of Ethics stresses the importance of accuracy, honesty, fairness, inclusiveness and courage in all aspects of mass media coverage. “Logic and literalness, objectivity and traditional thinking have their important place, but so must imagination and intuition, responsible creativity and empathy.”

More information: Society of News Design Code of Ethics

More information: Charles Apple blog with the American Copy Editors Society, “The Visual Side of Journalism”

Check out this website from the Dallas County Gloria Shields All-American workshop. Almost three dozen stories, photo galleries, video stories, sound clips, timelines and other material produced on site from scratch using free utilities. Except for a $15 utility to convert WMV files to MP3 files, it didn’t cost us anything. (And I’m sure I could have found a free utility to convert those files if I had time, which I didn’t.)

Check out these photos from the Yearbook NV workshop at Westfield High School in Centreville, Virginia. The students in this class brought in chocolate chip cookies and cupcakes. They knew how to have fun and, I hope, learned how to improve not only their yearbook photography and color correction skills, but how to better manage their staff.

If you want to see some really impressive examples of editing and design, check out the work produced by the Dow Jones News Fund interns at the Center for Editing Excellence workshop at the University of Texas at Austin. For more than a decade, Griff Singer, Amy Zerba and Beth Butler and I have had fun — and learned a lot ourselves — while working with these most-talented interns. CLICK HERE

Anyone who doubts that there are quality students coming out of modern high schools and college should look at their work and observe the passion they show for doing quality reporting, writing quality stories, taking high-quality, photojournalistic images, producing top-notch designs or engaging in online appropriately.

In Miami this year, we revamped our strategy. Lori, Randy and I took the students out to South Beach first — after a briefing — and got them to start reporting early. Then we went back and produces yearbook / magazine spreads. The students developed their leadership skills, learned about working in new teams and struggled, as all journalists do, to meet deadlines.

In all, I’d say it was a good summer. I hope the dozens and dozens of students I worked with learned something. I know I did. At every workshop, with every staff, even working with the students, I learned new ways to teach, new techniques and new software. That’s what summers are for, after all — learning.

TSA agent at left doing nothing with four other long lines. Notice four other TSA agents standing around doing nothing.

There are few organizations that are as mis-managed as the airlines that fly the skies, the skies formerly known as “friendly.” Well, the Transportation Security Administration is just as mis-managed. It’s just that the TSA agents that interact with customers are generally inconsistent and inept while the flight attendants, flight crews and some counter personnel with the airlines are (generally) customer-focused and competent.

Despite government intervention into a Passenger Bill of Rights, flying has gotten more uncomfortable and customer satisfaction continues to decline. Even on Southwest Airlines, historically one of the top airlines for customer service, the bottom line now governs the management as corporate leaders squeeze more seats on their plans, cram more people on their airlines and fly into cities that are already jammed.

But the misery for flying doesn’t stop with the people who work for the airlines. Part of the responsibility for making flying tolerable belongs with the passengers, those same people crammed into seats with their knees crammed into the backs of the people sitting in front of them. So, here are my thoughts for airline passengers.

Guidelines for passengers
to make flying less miserable 

1. The seat you’re leaning back supports my desk. Why must you lean back? Sit still.
2. The seat back you’re kicking is my seat. Stop kicking it.
3. Everyone wants to get on the plane. Get out of the aisle.
4. I know you want to get off the plane too, but if you’re in the window or middle seat, sit down.
5. Telephones were made so you don’t have to yell. Stop yelling. And, believe it or not, there was a time before cell phones. You probably don’t have to call everyone you know while still on the plane. If you must talk on the phone, go ahead, turn on the speaker so we can hear both sides of the conversation without straining.
6. If you didn’t bring your earphones, turn off the audio. We don’t care to hear the soundtrack of your favorite video or your kid’s birthday.
7. Speaking of kids. Sit down, preferably somewhere far away from me. Be quiet. Parents: Benadryl is a wonder drug in terms of how it makes kids drowsy if you let them sleep all last night. Airlines: Can’t flight attendants carry Benadryl?
8. If you’re too big to sit in one seat, pay for two. If you need a seat-belt extender, that’s a clue.
9. If you’re too big to sit in one seat, bathe and do not wear a tank top. And don’t strap a baby to your chest to save money if you can’t sit in the seat yourself.
10. I know you have to pay for luggage now so the corporate airline owners can make more money, but if your carry-on weighs more than a small car or is the size of a small car, check it. At least don’t drop it on me.
11. Wireless on the airplane isn’t free. Like luggage, it should be, but it isn’t. And just because you have Internet access doesn’t mean you need to stream videos consuming everyone’s bandwidth.
12. If you’re flying into New York, Atlanta, Dallas, Chicago, or Baltimore, your flight is going to be delayed due to “weather,” “mechanical problems,” or “personnel.” The airlines won’t be responsible. You’ll have to pay for your hotel, meals and transportation. Be prepared.
13. The TSA is incompetent as a bureaucracy. Accept it. Move on. Or stand in line for a long time while they stand around and do nothing. No choice.

CLICK this link or the slide above to see the top entries from this winter’s conference.

At this winter’s Association of Texas Photography Instructors conference at the University of Texas at Arlington, some 300 photography students, photojournalists and artists alike, spent three days competing in contests and attending classes on everything from making a cyanotype to shooting sports. As it has been for the last 25 years, it was one of the best educational experiences out there for the instructors and students alike.

This year, I taught a new class, one designed to help students (and instructors) understand the difference between

Editing: outcome is the best images
Judging: outcome is a winner
Grading: outcome is a grade
Critiquing: outcome is to give feedback

We started off editing with an exercise with a bunch of images where we used Adobe Bridge as a group to select the best images. Much like we would when coming back from an assignment with 2,000 photos from a football game, we went through to pick the ones that represented the event — not necessarily the best images. No real discussion, at least little two-way discussion partly because editing is often done on deadline. We just used the shortcuts to give stars to the best images, eventually ‘voting’ on the best images as we got from several hundred to a few in a matter of minutes. Efficient. Effective. And when done in collaboration with a couple other people at least, very accurate.

Interestingly, we used the same general process for judging although when judging, at first, we agree on the criteria for the award winners, ultimately settling on first, second and third. Here, we discussed how this often was not a collaborative process and was the (final) opinion of a small group of people on one day. Generally, when judging, we discussed how there is no audience, something that is a concern when editing. It’s simply a matter of picking the best images.

After we narrowed it down to a few images, we went through a process of assigning a grade. ATPI has a neat little form to help instructors assign grades. However, the big part of this discussion was just how subjective this process is even when a form is used to make it objective. With grading, generally, the discussion is one-on-one, and one-way. Unfortunately, few instructors involve their students in the grading process.

But the best learning took place when we took the time to engage in critiquing the image. Photographers learn by having their images critiqued, engaging in a two-way discussion about the merits of the image. At its best, critiquing involves multiple levels, discussing the technical quality (focus, lighting (quality, quality and direction) use of appropriate exposure (ISO, aperture and shutter speed), depth of field), composition (rule of third, framing, repetition of shapes and the like), as well as the meaning inherent in the image. We might even discuss the caption information if a caption was required. While a critique might take place one-on-one, it’s a discussion, a discussion in which both parties can learning something.

Understanding the difference between editing, judging, critiquing and grading helps the students and instructors. I know it helped me to articulate the differences.

As I was sitting around with some friends last night crunching some numbers, it dawned on me how boring pouring through databases as part of the content analysis section of my dissertation looked. Now, however, I’m pretty much done with the data-gathering section and now move on to the data-analysis section. Some of this too will seem boring and repetitious, but even some of the early results using just the descriptive data point out continued cause for concern for those in the newspaper industry. Indeed, this new data shows that printed newspapers will cease to exist by 2050.

During the last nine years, the average newspaper staff size has dropped 28 percent – a one-third loss in newspaper employees.

For anyone employed by local newspapers ranging in size from the Florida Keys Keynoter and Havelock News, both with circulations below 3,000/issue, to the Contra Costa Times and Columbus Dispatch, this probably doesn’t come as shocking news. Even here in the Raleigh area, the News & Observer staff is but a fraction of its former strength.

It's generally well accepted that newspaper circulation has been declining in the last decade. But, as this chart shows, so has market saturation — the portion of the population that reads the newspaper.

But there is more news is all this — especially for all the naysayers who say newspapers will be dead by the turn of the century, which turned out not to be true, by the end of the decade, which turned out not to be true, or by some arbitrary date in the future. If printed newspapers keep declining at the same rate they are now declining, they will cease to exist about 2050.

As I have told hundreds of students over the years, this does, in no way, mean that journalism or the need for well-trained journalists will cease to exist. I firmly believe that through news magazines, niche publications, online media and other media outlets there will continue to be a high demand for high-quality news reporting. However, for students entering J schools all over the world planning to enter the exciting world of newspaper journalism, that they need to diversify their skills ensuring that they have a broad-based knowledge of reporting that will be valuable no matter the medium.

Now I’ve got the challenge of incorporating this relatively superficial data into my much more complex dissertation.

For those who care to know a few more details, the circulation and staff size information was obtained either from the newspaper directly or from the Editor & Publisher International Year Book for 144 United States newspapers selected as part of the bigger study, effectively randomly. The population data through 2010 was obtained from the U.S. Census Bureau.

Since the spring of 1998, for the last 14 years, I have had the honor of editing the magazine for the national Journalism Education Association — Communication: Journalism Education Today. But to be realistic, as with any project of this magnitude, this isn’t a one-person show. People like Connie Fulkerson and Howard Spanogle have been instrumental to the magazine’s success almost since day one.

Of course, people like Linda Puntney and H.L. Hall, who was on the magazine’s first editorial board back in 1967 and who appointed me as editor back in 1997, have helped to ensure the magazine’s success.

But the real credit for the success of the magazine has to go to the contributors. There have been 234 major authors and 433 other contributors along with countless students who have contributed photographs, cartoons, stories and designs for the magazine in the last decade. When people flip through the magazine, that is now four-color from cover to cover, it’s the work of those contributors they see. And when they ask for reprints it’s because of the quality work of those reporters, writers, photographers, designers and advisers.

The magazine has a budget of more than $30,000. Now, about one-third of that is funded through advertising sales by Pam Boller in the Manhattan, Kan., office. The other two-thirds comes from membership dues. And JEA members repeatedly support the magazine not only by contributing but through their comments, feedback and requests for reprints. Indeed, they cite it as one of the primary benefits of JEA membership.

The magazine has certainly provided coverage on demand from the association’s 2,800 members, including features on everything from Newsies to how to choose a college. We have certainly covered topics of discussion in the industry from bidding the yearbook to the values of critique services. And we cover topics of interest to JEA leadership from diversity to mentoring to certification to media law.

So, I thought it would be fun to compile all the covers of the last 56 issues into the slideshow above. It’s just a neat way to look back at some of the cool stuff the association is doing. Enjoy.

Each fall and spring as part of the convention, we host an on-site photography “shoot out.” It’s a point of pride to have the class favorite. And this fall, that recognition goes to Christopher Correa-Ortega, Valencia College (Ken Carpenter, adviser). In second place for class favorite was Ashton Bowles, Pepperdine University (Elizabeth Smith, Courtney Stallings, advisers). All 23 students who submitted work into the show collectively painted a picture of “The City Beautiful — Orlando.”

Special thanks to Jim Michalowski who helped to critique the work for the students.

Photo by Carmen Taylor/AP

As we approach the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, everyone is taking some time for reflection. Towns are honoring their first responders. Survivors, family members and friends of those killed and thousands of others are visiting the new memorials around the country. And journalists too are spending time reflecting.

For 9/11 was one of those moments that served as a reminder the power and the importance of quality, timely journalism in a time before Facebook, before Twitter and before Flickr.

As a photojournalist, in my lifetime, I can think of two other events that have made photojournalists stop in their tracks and think about the impact of their work — the very public suicide of Pennsylvania State Treasurer Bud Dywer in 1987 and the Oklahoma City bombing.

I was in Manhattan on Sept. 11. Not New York City. Kansas. And of course the photojournalism students — some of the most talented photojournalists I’ve ever worked with — scrambled to cover the local angles of the attacks. Over the next few days we spent a considerable amount of time discussing the impact of some of the images. It was one of the most documented few hours in American history, no doubt. CLICK HERE to see a slideshow of some of their work.

I remember walking into the JEA office and hearing that a plane had hit the World Trade Center. I left to go over to the college newspaper newsroom to see how I could help. Watching live news coverage of the second plane hitting the tower and the billowing black smoke, we knew our lives had changed. As journalists, everyone got to work. Photojournalists went over to the local military base where folks were already on high alert. They went to the student union to capture the campus reaction. They went out into the community.

While they, and dozens of reporters, were out in the field, we watched from Kedzie Hall on television as events unfolded. We knew our lives had changed forever. Just as we were in the newsroom, the hallways and our classrooms that day and the days immediately after, editors, designers and photojournalists were having heated discussions about what photos to should have been published as they struggled to document a new, unexpected war on the homefront.

Like this image by Gulnara Samoilova/AP, the haunting photos, in black-and-white, that looked like something out of a movie scene and the aftermath of a nuclear we documented the terror of the people in New York City.

And we all cheered at Thomas E. Franklin’s photo published in the The Bergen Record of firefighters raising the flag at Ground Zero.

Images of jumpers resonate

Then we watched the photos the wire services were transmitting, photos of a building in flames, the buildings collapsing, the aftermath at the Pentagon and in Pennsylvania. And we watched in horror as publications and wire services began releasing photos of people jumping or falling from the top floors of the World Trade Center. In real time, live on television and the Web, people were dying. Not just one convicted criminal committing suicide or one baby, dozens or hundreds people in their final moments.

As Dennis Cauchon and Martha Moore wrote in their USA Today article, “The story of the victims who jumped to their deaths is the most sensitive aspect of the Sept. 11 tragedy. Photographs of people falling to their deaths shocked the nation. Most newspapers and magazines ran only one or two photos, then published no more. USA Today ran one photo Nov. 16.

“Still, the images resonate. Many who survived or witnessed the attack say the sight of victims jumping is their most haunting memory of that day.”

Photo by Richard Drew/AP

Richard Drew‘s photo now entitled “The Falling Man” became iconic in this genre. Five years after the attacks, The Falling Man was identified as Jonathan Briley, a 43-year-old employee of the Windows on the World restaurant.

It was as controversial as the images of Bud Dwyer. Or the baby after the Oklahoma City bombing. It, and simliar images, promoted discussions in newsrooms from San Jose, where the Mercury News ran a nearly full-page photo of the jumpers, to West Palm Beach, Fla. where the Palm Beach Post ran “The Falling Man” as part of a photo page, to page A7 of the New York Times. These photos not only should have been published, they MUST have been published, and any criticism of their publication is unwarranted. This was part of the story, a dreadful part to be sure, but a part of the human experience that made events like 9/11 something to avoid.

As Howell Raines said, while they were concerned for the family, that man “seemed to perfectly capture the tragedy of the day. That man in a sense was all of New York that day.”

It was a continuation of the ongoing discussion about whether or not to publish such controversial images. But these images and the thousands and thousands of others, including the thousands submitted to the ongoing exhibit Here is New York: A Democracy of Photographs, something that started as a spontaneous outlet for anyone with a camera and became an exhibit of professional and amateur photographs from the World Trade Center disaster, help us realize the true horror of that day in New York City, Washington, D.C. and Stonycreek Township, Penn.

Like the photos that take us to other worlds, to other countries and to other places and times that we could never visit ourselves, the photos from 9/11 help us remember, not only remember what happened that beautiful fall morning, but remember the freedoms that we need to fight for. We should never take those freedoms for granted.

Sometimes journalists doubt the power they have as gatekeepers and as the people who tell us the stories we need and want to hear. The anniversary of Sept. 11, 2011 should also be a reminder of the power of the visual image and how these images, words, videos and audio brought people from all over the world together to watch events unfold. They brought, for a few fleeting second sometimes, the lives of the people experiencing those events onto our computers and into our family rooms and helped us share the experience. As horrifying as it was, thanks to the photojournalists, reporters, designers and editors, it is true, we will never forget.

How are we different?

So, today as we go about our business documenting the lives of people standing in unemployment lines, government officials bickering over useless legislation, kids playing in the park, a many guilty of killing his daughter and all the other things that we document on a daily basis, we have some perspective. Without the words, the pictures, the audio and the video — whether published on a blog, a website, a printed newspaper, a newsmagazine or the evening news — we would have no idea what’s going on in the world.

Of course the media set the agenda for public opinion. Without the media we wouldn’t have a clue what those businessmen making millions of dollars are doing with our money or what animals the family next door is really keeping inside their house. Indeed, without the media we really wouldn’t know much about what’s going on in the world at all. We certainly wouldn’t have nearly as good of a grasp of what happened on Sept. 11 as we do.

While Sept. 11 helps us keep our daily coverage in perspective, it makes it no less important. Without the media, we would have little to remember. As others have said, “Photojournalism got its job back that day.”

MORE THOUGHTS

• Here is New York: A Democracy of Photographs
• Kratzer, Renee Martin. “How Newspapers Decided to Run Disturbing 9/11 Photos.” Newspaper Research Journal. FindArticles.com. 09 Sep, 2011.
• Antoni Norman. “Images That Changed The World.”
• Junod, Tom. “The Falling Man.”