Monday, July 09, 2012

Editor & Publisher turns focus on Joplin Globe tornado documentary

The magazine of the newspaper industry, Editor & Publisher, features Deadline in Disaster, the documentary about the Joplin Globe following the May 22, 2011, tornado, in its most recent issue:

The paper’s story is told in the nearly hour-long documentary film “Deadline in Disaster,” produced by the Missouri Press Association and directed by Emmy-award-winning team Beth Pike and Stephen Hudnell with assistance from retired Associated Press correspondent Scott Charton. 
Charton reached out to Missouri Press Association executive director Doug Crews with the idea of filming a documentary about the Joplin journalists. The team had previously worked together on another film. 
“Within 48 hours of the storm hitting, we were hearing about how theJoplin Globe was doing a wonderful job of getting the news out to people,” Crews said. “There were no cellphones, no Internet, so people in the community became very dependent on the newspaper.” 
Globe editor Carol Stark was willing to open her newsroom to the film crew, but she said having a camera around was not going to stop her staff from doing their job. They took to the streets, interviewing people and taking photos, even though they already had a lot on their plates. Many of them no longer had a home or car, and they all were coping with the death of page designer Bruce Baillie. 
“The intention of the film was to have a public look inside of a newspaper, side by side with photographers and reporters,” Crews said. “It was a way to humanize what (journalists) do on a daily basis.” 


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