Lisa Weaver, Journalism Professor and Former CNN Correspondent

Lauren McGrath: How and why did you get involved in online journalism? Did you feel it was necessary?

LW: I've only ever done online journalism in the sense that stories I wrote while working for CNN were posted to the network's "dot.com" page. In 1999 when I joined CNN's Beijing bureau, producers and reporters were required to file print stories to go onto CNN's website. It was a very interesting and sometimes exhausting process, because after a long day reporting for television and filing a package for the broadcast network, then checking in with CNN radio for a quick 30-second spot or interview, it was then time to sit down and do a print piece.

On the other hand, sometimes "dot.com" was more satisfying because there was room for more analysis. And often I filed stories for CNN's website instead of doing a television report, if there were not enough pictures. In order for CNN to compete with news agencies like AP and Reuters, CNN had its own internal system called CNN wires. This fed both on-air broadcasting as well as CNN's news website, and it strived to move as fast as the agencies. This meant a sort of reallocation of labor in the newsroom. For example, producers who might never appear in front of a camera became active reporters for the online service while the "correspondent" assembled the television package.

It also changed the news cycle ... it was no longer enough to spend the day gathering news and delivering it in time for a certain broadcast. Now news had to be frequently updated for the web site throughout the day and in addition to putting together a television package. In some ways it reduced the quality of television packages and tied reporters and producers to the computer. So, CNN's effort to push all content online is what made it necessary to write for the web.

LM: What are some of the positives and negatives of online journalism?

LW: The negatives can include what I've just described, in that filing stories for a website in the context of daily news means constant updates. It can get in the way of doing good television, and I'm sure a print reporter would say the same about producing a well thought out, well reported print (or web site) piece. The Internet has really accelerated the news cycle for all news mediums. The priority of media competition and keeping up with 24/7 broadcasts and the web can come at a cost. But minus the distraction from other types of journalism, on its own online journalism has great potential. First of all, there's unlimited "space" for longer stories, full transcripts of interviews, photo galleries, etc. For the audience, there's potentially much more information about a story. And of course the online journalism accommodates the very necessity it has created, interaction with the audience.

LM: Have you ever felt discriminated against in your field of work because of your gender?

LW: Yes, although not ever in a way that prevented me from ultimately doing what I wanted. I recall being told by a top CNN producer that "Afghanistan is very tough for women" several days before crossing the border into southern Afghanistan as the Taliban was losing control in 2001. We drove past smoking craters and a battlefield reduced to dismembered bodies of Taliban fighters. The U.S. had bombed the area heavily hours earlier, and tended to take out moving targets such as vehicles on the road. As I recall, a few of the men in our group opted out of making the dangerous journey, so "tough" is an equal opportunity proposition.

I once was denied a seat on a military helicopter to follow a mission in another part of Afghanistan a year later. My cameraman was allowed to go, and other media organizations were only given one seat apiece. I suspected that being a woman was a reason for being excluded, but decided not to make an issue of it because getting the video was ultimately more important than my doing a standup.

LM: What advice would you give to aspiring female journalists?

LW: To simply go about it as anyone would. Journalism is one of the least discriminating professions. There's nothing in journalism that women have not done.

LM: What do you see as the overall future for journalism?

LW: I see that there will always be a need and a market for professionally reported news. It may become smaller as print newspapers converge on the web and television broadcasts stream on the Internet. By smaller I mean less audience, at least initially. On the other hand I also see journalism in the future co-existing with citizen gathered information and the blogosphere. The entire "point to mass" model of communicating news through authoritative channels is changing. Journalism will still exist, but it won't be the only authority.

LM: Do you feel balancing your career and family is difficult? Especially as a woman?

LW: I don't have children, so for me balancing career and family wasn't the same challenge that it may be for many. I will say that I had opportunities that having children would have made very unlikely. I freelanced for two years in Indonesia and blew my savings in the process, and did other things that with small children I probably would not have done. The truth is, for a certain type of journalism career, there is no "balance" for women or for men. It's not a balanced profession with balanced demands.

LM: What was your favorite thing you have done in your career?

LW: Going to Indonesia for two years to freelance with little background in the story, although I learned, and no knowledge of the language ... again, I learned. I covered riots in Jakarta and machete welding militia in East Timor with no health insurance. I was robbed several times and had no hot running water for a few months (not actually a huge issue in a tropical climate). It was the most out there thing I've ever done, and therefore the best.

LM: If you were not in this line of work, what other career path would you choose?

LW: Diplomacy.

Interviewee: Lisa Weaver

Former CNN correspondent, reporter, producer and contributor Lisa Weaver worked as a foreign reporter primarily in China, with assignments to Afghanistan and Iraq while working for CNN. From 1998 to 2000 she was a correspondent for National Public Radio and Time Magazine based in Jakarta, Indonesia. In 1995, she reported for a local cable news service from Hong Kong, and served as the Fox News Hong Kong Bureau producer when Hong Kong was turned over to China in 1997. In 2000, she covered the Chinese police roundup of Falun Gong members in Tiananmen Square for CNN.com. Weaver embedded in 2003 with a Patriot antimissile unit with the U.S. Army's V Corps in moving from Kuwait into Iraq and ultimately to Baghdad in a several week long assignment. She filed TV reports for CNN and print stories for the Atlanta Journal Constitution. In 2004, she became an assistant professor and professional communications programs director at Chatham College in Pittsburgh, PA. She joined the faculty in the University of Iowa School of Journalism and Mass Communication in 2009. She earned two bachelor's degrees: East Asian Languages and Literature (Chinese) and Journalism, University of Wisconsin, 1986 and her master's degree in journalism from University of California-Berkeley in 1995.

Interviewer: Lauren McGrath

Lauren McGrath grew up in Wilmette, IL with her business parents and her two older sisters. She is now a senior at The University of Iowa and is graduating in May 2010 with a Communication Studies degree. After college she plans on working in public relations and following in her parents' business footsteps. She has spent the last 12 summers of her life at a Lake of the Woods summer camp in Michigan. She started as a camper, became a counselor, water-ski instructor and she is now a director. McGrath has a passion for children and has camp to thank for her leadership skills and determination. She took this course because she believes women should constantly strive for equality and it starts with their representation and involvement in the media.

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