| James R. Dickenson admits that there are memorable high points of his journalist career but noted that usually there are even more lows which one must overcome in order to be a good journalist.Dickenson,Cheap Jerseys Free Shipping, a retired professional journalist once stationed at the Washington Post, is here in Guyana and is set to offer a lecture to local journalists today on election reporting.Through sponsorship from the United States embassy, his trip here represents the seventh country he has visited in order to offer his knowledge on elections coverage. He has already travelled to India, the Phillipines and South Africa among them.Dickenson revealed during an interview that he was driven into the field of journalism because he was deeply interested in American History, and of course American politics.Washington D.C., he said, was the obvious place to practise. And so he moved to that state in 1962 when John F. Kennedy was president. He spent most of his career there. Dickenson sought and secured, at different periods of his life, employment at three newspapers – The National Observer, The Washington Star which is now defunct and then the Washington Post where he worked as a Political Editor.Reflecting on his journalistic years, the retired Dickenson noted that in order to get access to crucial information a journalist must “keep pushing, looking and keep driving for it….” He was able to learn as a young professional that while everybody in some way will attempt to control the flow of information, nobody has any formal or legal power to restrict information, which is reflected in the First Amendment of the American Constitution.“We get constant resistance from our politicians who want to control the flow of their message in the flow of information and we are constantly fighting with them and we generally win because in the United States the American people, because of the tradition of the constitution, the Bill of Rights, they are accustomed to openness of information and they feel they have more right to it than government officials.”Dickenson asserted that the media in general in the US is undoubtedly supported by the people.But in order to build contact in the political circuit, he explained that the onus is on journalist to identify the major players, who he noted might not always be the top officials but rather some middle level officials who have the relevant information.“You have to become acquainted with them. The term we use is cultivated sources…You cultivate them much in a way like you do a garden,” said Dickenson jokingly. As important, he noted, is the need for the journalist to establish a level of mutual trust.“When I was covering politics the first thing I did was to go to the party officials, the various elected officials, introduce myself to them and tell them we are going to see a lot of each other.” This move, Dickenson asserted, is the formation of a mutual relationship, as each party needs the other to be successful. “I need them for information and they need me to get their message out to the public which is desirable…This is the free flow of information in motion.”Journalists today will be exposed to Dickenson’s approach to elections coverage, a programme which is channel through the embassy based on requests made at a national level from entities such as journalism schools, news organisations and civic groups.His visit here was initially intended to prepare local journalists for the coverage of the Local Government Elections, which was previously slated for next month. According to Dickenson, the free flow of information is essential to any democracy thus the US is always interested to help and strengthen democracies. |
