Just weeks ago in the basement of the SSPA Building, more than 50 journalism students crammed into a small classroom to hear guest speaker and photojournalist John Harte.
It was a sweaty Monday afternoon and students (as well as a handful of professors) showed up fidgety and chatty, most of them expecting another standard hour-and-15-minute class.
What they got was a rude awakening. For only the second time in his entire career, Harte presented the whole roll of film from a story he covered in the 1980s – a story that still graces media ethics textbooks today.
As the black-and-white unedited photos flashed silently on the projector, a harsh stillness took over the room. For once, the chatting, texting and shuffles stopped. These pictures were worth more than words.
Finally, the photo that The Bakersfield Californian actually ran in 1985 came on the projector. A tiny boy lay in an open body bag as his family stood above, their bodies twisted from the overwhelming grief and shock of his death.
This single image, which ran in the medium-sized local paper, caused a legitimate wave of controversy and garnered nationwide coverage.
According to Harte, The Bakersfield Californian was immediately flooded with approximately 500 phone calls, 400 letters and numerous subscription cancellations.
A nationally syndicated columnist even called it “pornography,” leaving Harte, who was only 27 at the time, with an important decision to make: to apologize or not. In the 23 years since the photo ran, Harte has openly discussed this photo and the reasoning behind its use throughout the country, with no apologies.
Harte not only stirred students at Cal State Long Beach that day with his work, but taught all in attendance the power that they are given by working in the mass media. He said that young journalists hungry for controversy and disaster can be as dangerous as rookie cops waiting for gruesome crimes.
Whether students agree with his unapologetic approach to doing his job or not, or whether you’re a journalism major or a pre-med student, Harte’s lessons served as a valuable reminder that upon entering the professional world, we’re all going to be faced with making difficult choices.
Overall, no matter what your background is or how alternative your lifestyle, who you are is ultimately determined by your actions. Stress, anxiety and circumstances aside, actions in the face of challenge are equally significant in shaping character.
It was a pretty powerful lesson to digest for an hour-long class on a mundane Monday, but Harte’s guest lecture really gave me hope.
It also reminded me that in between the assigned readings, the quizzes and term papers, once in a while students get to catch the university doing what it’s supposed to do.
In my opinion, it doesn’t get much better than bringing the coursework to life and feeding for the real world.
Cynthia Romanowski is a senior journalism major and an assistant news editor for the Daily Forty-Niner.
