The Words of Dr. Tim Tooten

By Allison Nuara

“I really want to take you to a small town in the south. And I want you to meet this young man intently listening to the radio. This young man is intrigued by the announcers and what they are saying. And the fact that within this box that people are talking.” Dr. Tim Tooten spoke those words during his lecture on December 5, 2011 in McGuire Hall, hosted by Greycomm Studios. Tooten is a WBAL-TV journalist and an affiliate professor at Loyola University Maryland. He shared his insights about what he believes are the most important aspects of journalism in a constantly changing industry.

Tooten has been in involved in the business for more than 35 years therefore he has experienced and seen a lot, especially the changes inspired by technology. He had a dream ever since he was nine years old that he wanted to be on the radio. After he had his break when he was 17 years old in high school, his passion kept him motivated to the point of turning it into his livelihood. He started out with a love for radio, but once he was introduced to the news side of the business, he became fascinated with it all and realized that he could make money from something he loved. He went to Florida State University in order to gain an understanding of how he could communicate and write properly in order to be able to tell the story he wanted to be told. With the continuation of his practice through doing radio and news shows through college, he became part of the staff at Baltimore’s WBAL-TV.

As WBAL-TV’s only full time education reporter, he was able to share a large amount of insight pertaining to accuracy and fairness in particular. He stressed that in the society of changing media, it is more important to always check the facts and always be confident in the accuracy and fairness of your article. He said multiple times, that if you are not sure what the facts are you received during an interview, then you should call the person and re check the information just to be sure. He has been in the business when there was not a lot of technology and he did not say that it was difficult, but rather it was just different. He welcomes the new technology but stressed that it was very important to always be on top of your facts. Freshman communications major Briana Ciccarino said she agrees with what Tooten spoke about regarding accuracy and fairness. “Without those characteristics, journalism wouldn’t’ be journalism or the great news telling medium that it is.”

Another important aspect he mentioned many times was balance and fairness. He said that it is necessary to receive both sides of the story. Sophmore Communications major Brendan Hyland stated, “I agree with what he has to say. It's important to hear both sides of the story before you run it.” Tooten kept reminding the aspiring journalists in the audience to remain consistent in delivering the information, inspite of the changes it comes down to you keeping it right in developing and making sure you have all of the pieces.