Iconic DC superhero, Superman, was born with incredible powers that set him apart from other people. He can shoot lasers out of his eyes, fly at the speed of light and lift more than 100,000 tons.
In contrast, Batman was born with the superpowers of an average human being. Instead he creates his own power.
Editor of the Midland Daily News, Dave Clark says a journalist should be Batman.
On Tuesday night, MIPA students had the opportunity to attend a panel featuring local political journalists. On the panel was Capitol reporter with Bridge Michigan, Jordyn Hermani; reporter for Bloomberg, Ian Kullgren; and Clark.
Throughout the panel, students asked their questions about the life of a political journalist, and one thing that was apparent throughout was the accuracy of Clark’s metaphor.
Clark presented three superpowers a journalist should have, the first of which being curiosity.
For Batman, curiosity is the recognition of his own weaknesses and willingness to better himself as a superhero. Batman’s iconic utility belt is his most important asset in battle and as such he is always thinking outside the box in order to find the right thing to add.
For a journalist, curiosity is the constant search for a story to tell.
“Looking all around you all the time, looking at what’s happening, happening politically, looking at what happens in business, in sports, in entertainment, in culture, all those things you see a lot on social media anyway,” Clark said. “Be curious about, why is it like that? What would it take for something to change? How does that impact the way things happen?”
Kullgren received an AP media editors’ grand prize for his coverage of a 41-day standoff between the FBI and anti-government militants. He began the story on a night shift listening to a police scanner in search of a story which sent him driving out to the standoff at 5 a.m. to confirm and break the story.
“I felt a responsibility to properly understand and convey those emotions, be calm, because in that situation, I felt that was all my job was,” he said.
The second of Clark’s superpowers is tenacity. Batman embodies tenacity in his continuous push to protect Gotham city. Whether it’s bouncing back after a hard fight or stopping at nothing to track down the Joker.
As a journalist, tenacity is persevering and sticking to a story; continuing to strive to tell a good story, not take no for an answer and to represent the people.
“[Tenacity] just means not giving up,” Clark said. “Because there’s a whole lot of people that don’t want to ever talk to you if you’re a journalist, particularly if you’re a political journalist, so why don’t they want to talk to you? Because they don’t want to talk to anybody. They don’t want to answer questions. They don’t have time to tell you that. They don’t have time for a lot of other reasons. And so your superpower needs to be not taking no for an answer, not taking no comment for an answer, but getting an answer.”
Hermani was assigned a story on the Ottawa Impact that worked to get their far right political candidates elected on to the city council. The story was intended to be a profile of the group’s leader, Joe Moss, with a sit-down interview to report on his story and actions with the group. The story took a very difficult turn when Moss refused to talk to Hermani.
“It really caused us to kind of pivot and figure out how to tell a story when your main source does not want to talk to you. And it was hard, I won’t lie,” Hermani said “Even when we told our boss, ‘Hey, he’s not talking to us,’ our boss said, ‘Tough, figure it out, because you’ve got the center page story on Wednesday, so do it.’ And we did. In the end, it wasn’t the story that we initiated in our heads, but it was a good story nonetheless.”
Though Superman and Batman have vastly different physical abilities, the most important superpower they both share is their humanity.
For a journalist their humanity is their empathy and feeling of responsibility to represent the people in their community, Clark said.
“You can call it compassion,” Clark said. “What happens in Washington DC matters to people in Michigan, matters to people in Lansing, matters to people in your city, in your school district, in your township, it matters. All that stuff that happens affects people. It might take away money from the school lunch program, it might take away funding for a road project you really need to have done in your community, it might take away scholarship money, it gives you less opportunities to go to places like Michigan State University.”
Hermani filmed a documentary and wrote a story about book banning in public libraries. After months of work, the public reaction to the published article was not what she hoped. Hermani received numerous messages calling her names and issuing death threats.
However, one voice stood out from the crowd. A librarian Hermani had interviewed thanked Hermani for allowing her to get her voice out.
“Hearing that and that cut through so much of the noise, and just really made me sit at my desk for the rest of the day and realize, that’s who you do it for,” Hermani said. “Those quiet moments of maybe it’s only literally just one voice of somebody saying, thanks for telling my story, because I really felt like I wasn’t being heard.”
The be like Batman advice from Tuesday’s panelists spans beyond just superpowers. Hermani’s advice to a journalist looking to break into the industry and develop a network and brand resembles the qualities of the bat suit.
“You need to learn how to gain a thick, thick skin,” Hermani said. “Now I’m not saying you can’t let things affect you. I would be a first and foremost liar if I didn’t say that. Sometimes I do go home and I am very upset with the days that I have the way that people have spoken to me as a woman, the way that people have subverted my abilities, or assumed that my male colleagues had helped me.”
The batsuit is reinforced with numerous protective features including bulletproof armour and a mask that conceals his true identity from the criminals of Gotham.
A journalist’s thick skin can protect their confidence and mentality the same way Batman’s armour protects his body.
When asked “has anybody ever threatened any of you?” all three panelists responded with an emphatic yes.
“People can try to intimidate you,” said Kullgren. “They can be a sexist pig. They can make fun of you. They can try to beat you down or something. They can do all these things. They can’t actually stop you.”
Batman is able to use his Batman persona to earn the trust of the people and police of Gotham and as a result they put up the bat signal when they need him.
“Because of the brand you’re able to build, I have had people just come and privately message me, or come up to me on, for instance, the House or Senate floor and say, ‘Hey, do you have a second?’ ” Hermani said. “Once you can really start to cultivate that personal brand, that’s where your integrity really shines through.”