While most journalism students may dream of sitting in a press box, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and investigative reporter Bill Dedman advised students to look outside the box to find inspiration.
The journalist and author spoke to ASU students and faculty Monday night as part of the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication’s Must See Monday series, giving advice on how to pursue unique investigative stories.
Cronkite School professor Jacquee Petchel, also the executive editor of the Carnegie-Knight News 21 program, introduced Dedman. Petchel praised Dedman for his contributions to investigative reporting and thanked him for his involvement with the News21 program.
Dedman advised students to recognize that modern journalism is more innovative than its past, create original work, look outside the obvious sources for news, become “literate” in all journalism tools and be more observant.
“I want to first urge you to stop worrying about how much better things were in the old days,” Dedman said.
He expanded on his point, retelling the story of a corrupt art director whose art museum was connected to the publication. These ethical crossroads prevented the story from ever surfacing, but Dedman said nowadays students have the opportunity to go beyond the obstacles he encountered.
He suggested students create original content.
“Localizing a story is easy,” Dedman said. Instead, he suggested students look at their local communities and try to nationalize the story.
Dedman also recommended students get out of the press box, saying the environment was sterile and lazy. Dedman said he sat with families at baseball games, listened to betting fans in the stands and talked with fans about their experiences in order to build creative investigative pieces.
One such story was given to students, “Ticket Demand is High, But Are New Fenway Seats Worth the Risk?” from 2003, published in The Boston Globe, about closer seats being sold at baseball games.
“Be literate in all the tools of your trade,” Dedman said.
He demonstrated his Microsoft Excel “literacy” with the audience, challenging them to time him as he created a data sheet. Students in the audience watched as Dedman quickly navigated the computer program, explaining that journalism students should strive for complete knowledge in all tools regarding their field.
Dedman also said students should be more observant. He said it would be the key to being different in a newsroom.
Dedman promoted his book, “Empty Mansions: The Mysterious Life of Huguette Clark and the Spending of a Great American Fortune,” by sharing with students his process for investigating the empty mansions of heiress Huguette Clark across the country.
Dedman explained how he was searching for a home and decided on a whim to look at the most expensive homes for sale in Connecticut, leading to the back-story behind why large mansions and expensive real estate properties were left empty and untouched for decades.
Journalism junior Eva Bakshev said Dedman’s presentation was intriguing because he linked his advice to his experiences.
“I thought he was very interesting,” she said. “He provided good experiences of his investigations.”
Journalism junior Emilio Reyes said Dedman had valuable insight, but did not find the presentation itself particularly interesting.
“I thought the presentation was a little bland but he gave very great inside information,” Reyes said.
Another Cronkite student, Lisa Travis, said the presentation made good points about being discouraged in journalism. Travis also said Dedman was engaging with the audience, making jokes and giving good insight into the background of his “Empty Mansions” book.
The next Must See Monday event will be Sept. 29, at 7 p.m. with speaker Margaret Talev, White House correspondent for Bloomberg News, according to the Cronkite School website.
Contact the reporter at ctrowbri@asu.edu
