Don't always look to officials to answer policy questions knowledgeably, Gwen Ifill of Washington Week in Review and News Hour with Jim Lehrer told students and area journalists during the panel on public affairs reporting. "Sometimes you need to educate the people who are supposed to be legislating."
	Medill professor Ken Bode and Damian Paletta, graduate student in Missouri's Washington program, were among the panelists discussing the state of Washington reporting Tuesday at the National Press Club.
	USA Today Washington Bureau Chief Susan Page tells journalism graduate students from Medill, the University of Missouri and the University of Maryland that journalism education must offer more than technical writing and editing skills, and focus on expanding their knowledge of history and other subjects. Nora Achrati, junior at Maryland's Phillip Merrill College of Journalism, looks on.

MEDILL NEWS SERVICE
Views On The State Of Public Affairs Reporting
By MARIJA POTKONJAK
MEDILL NEWS SERVICE

WASHINGTON -Tomorrow's reporters must endeavor to do a better job of explaining what goes on in Washington to readers despite new challenges, a group of veteran journalists said Monday.

For the first time in the schools' history, graduate journalism students from Medill, the University of Maryland and the University of Missouri came together to hear a panel of fellow students and veteran journalists Monday at the National Press Club share their views on the state of public affairs reporting.

"We always like to get together and talk to students whenever we can," said Washington Week in Review anchor and panel moderator Gwen Ifill.

Jodi Schwan, MSJ02, and Brendon O'Shaughnessy, MSJ02, joined Professor Ken Bode and USA Today Washington Bureau Chief Susan Page (BSJ73) represented Medill on the panel entitled "Public Affairs Reporting: The Next Generation."

Students asked probing questions about the state of public affairs reporting, which Page defined as "reporting on government institutions and the impact they have on people's lives."

Reporters who've spent years reporting from Washington sometimes become so immersed in the national that they forget how to make accessible for readers, according to several panelists.

"I think we can do a better job and that's really what this (the panel) is all about-to talk about what tomorrow's journalists, the students at the conference, can do to ensure that public affairs reporting shows that this does affect their lives (readers) and they should pay attention," said Ellen Shearer, co-director of Medill's Washington program, who helped organize the event.

Schwan said that "everyone gathered around the table certainly has the best intention of covering government well.

"I don't know if the resources are there to make those stories possible. You can have the best intentions, but if you don't have support behind you at every level, it's not really going to happen."

Geneva Overholser (MSJ71), director of Missouri's Washington program, noted that profit pressure is another impediment to thorough reporting. And Bode said the problem isn't isolated to Washington coverage, noting the paucity of state legislative house reporting.

Haynes Johnson, a professor at the University of Maryland, also said Washington reporters too often miss stories that originate in federal agencies, pointing to the U.S. Treasury building down the street from the National Press Club. And media outlets have cut the number of reporters covering agencies, he said.

Page noted that with the end of the Cold War, news from Washington seemed - and often was - less critical to the daily lives of Americans.

"We always spend a lot of time explaining to people why Washington matters," Ifill said. "After Sept. 11, we don't have to do that anymore."

Although readers responded to Sept. 11 with a renewed interest in Washington and international affairs, other big stories went unnoticed by reporters.

"We focus on politics too exclusively," Johnson said. "But often, the really large stories like Enron-it's money and politics-we don't do a good job by and large reporting on those institutions. We need more of it."

The discussion was aired live by C-SPAN and can be viewed at www.connectlive.com/events/pressclub/ram/npc-021102-150k.ram and www.connectlive.com/events/pressclub/ram/npc-021102-28k.ram.