E-mail makes access to Pilot easier than ever

TONY DODERO

Back when I started in this business, telephones and U.S. mail were

the main lines of communication to the newsroom.

Going through the mail was a tumultuous affair. Stacks upon stacks

of press releases and letters would be piled up on the desk of nearly

every editor and reporter. Letter openers and paper cuts were common.

If you used the word mouse, most people thought it was just a rodent

loose in the mail stack on your desk, not a computer tool.

Then came fax machines. And soon, faxes began to take the place of

the mail and even phone calls. After a while, it was a wonder how we

ever existed without fax machines.

Then came e-mail and the news business changed forever. But is it

a change for the good?

Routinely, I hear members of the news staff tell sources on the

phone to send their story ideas or press releases via e-mail. Indeed,

at the end of news stories we publish the reporter’s e-mail address

and phone number to give readers better access to our staff. I do the

same with this column. I know plenty of readers take advantage of

having that contact with reporters and with me. They let me or

reporters know right away when we have made a mistake, and likewise

the praise comes a lot easier with a click of a mouse instead of

having to put pen to paper and mail out the letter.

E-mails also have changed the way we report and gather news. Some

interviews are done solely by e-mail and story tips routinely come

through our e-mail baskets.

About a month ago, columnist Lolita Harper wrote a piece that

would never have been possible prior to the advent of e-mail. The

column was based on an e-mail that she had received from a local

reader regarding a U.S. postage stamp that commemorated the Islamic

holiday of Ramadan. The e-mail criticized the creation of the stamp

celebrating Islam, because of the Islamic ties of terrorist in the

Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and elsewhere.

Harper took the argument in the e-mail to task, noting that Islam

as a religion shouldn’t be condemned for the actions of a few, just

like Christianity or other religions shouldn’t be condemned for the

extreme actions of some their members.

The response was a flood of more e-mails from critics condemning

Harper, and Muslims who agreed with and thanked her for defending

their religion. Some of those came from as far away as Pakistan.

Obviously, we aren’t alone here at the Daily Pilot in our use of

e-mail journalism.

A survey of 271 political journalists last year by the Institute

for Politics, Democracy & the Internet at George Washington

University’s Graduate School of Political Management found 45% saying

they use the phone less often.

Half said they received more than 30 e-mails a day, 25% said 50 or

more and 5% more than 150, according to the survey.

I know I probably get 30 to 50 e-mails each day, a large portion

of them are spam of some sort, some pornographic in nature, some just

get-rich-quick schemes.

But enough about me. I asked the Daily Pilot staff what they

thought. Naturally, I sent them the questions via e-mail.

To my surprise, City Editor Danette Goulet walked into my office

to give me her opinion in person.

“I think e-mail has made things easier, but it’s also cut back on

personal communication and one-on-one conversations,” she said.

“Around here we send e-mails to convey every little thing rather than

just speaking to people. One of the problems with that is you don’t

hear somebody’s tone and things can be misunderstood. [E-mail] is

great to keep in touch with my 8-year-old niece who lives in

Massachusetts, but it’s overused when it’s the person sitting next to

you.”

I guess I should have got up and asked the question to her in

person.

Harper, who spends most of her time going through reader e-mails

as the paper’s Forum page editor, had this to say:

“E-mail has its ups and downs, as do most things,” she replied in

an e-mail.

“As much as I love the convenience of simply cutting and pasting

letters to the editor from the Daily Pilot inbox, directly into our

publishing system, it is daunting to open and delete dozens of “add

inches” and “refinance now” e-mails, as well as those pop-up porn

messages that would make Larry Flynt blush.

“I wish there were effective spam deletion programs because the

ones we have don’t work,” she continued. “I can get graphic pictures

of college coeds in very, um, compromising positions, but the e-mails

from my mom are marked spam. Go figure. However, hitting the delete

button 100 times a day is still easier than typing in all the letters

to the editor by hand. All in all, I would rather have it than not.”

From an e-mail response by Newport Beach reporter and erstwhile

grammar columnist June Casagrande:

“Putting up with the spam is absolutely worth it,” she wrote.

“E-mail lets me get extremely valuable documentation that otherwise

would be difficult or at least time-consuming to obtain: reports,

correspondence, supplemental agenda information, photos and

schematics.

“During the process of replacing Councilman Gary Proctor, I was

able to receive, via e-mail, full copies of applicants’ materials --

scanned, signed applications, resumes, statements, everything. As

offensive and annoying as some spam is, I think e-mail has

revolutionized the way we do our jobs.

“Councilman Dick Nichols last summer vowed to only communicate

with us in writing, usually via e-mail. In such cases, the technology

has allowed us to have an exact record of comments, which helps us,

while allowing people like Nichols to feel more secure, which helps

them.”

I tend to agree that e-mail is worth it, despite the spam, and

that it has made our job easier and our profession better. Although,

I agree with Goulet that we need to make sure that personal contact

with our sources and the public is not sacrificed.

But in all, giving readers and the general public instant access

to reporters and the media via e-mail will only help us improve our

communication with the community, improve our public image and

improve our reporting.

And just like the fax machine, it’s a wonder how we ever existed

without it.