Journalism

 
Introduction

This page includes Powell, the Journalist, Powell Publications, Other Publications and U.S.G.S. Then and Now and Research Resources, Writing Resources, Class Resources and COVID-19 Resources.

 
Powell, the Journalist

According to the American Press Institute, in The Elements of Journalism, Kovach and Rosenstiel identified "10 elements common to good journalism:"

1. Journalism's first obligation is to the truth.
2. Its first loyalty is to citizens.
3. Its essence is a discipline of verification.
4. Its practitioners must maintain an independence from those they cover.
5. It must serve as an independent monitor of power.
6. It must provide a forum for public criticism and compromise.
7. It must strive to keep the significant interesting and relevant.
8. It must keep the news comprehensive and proportional.
9. Its practitioners must be allowed to exercise their personal conscience.
10. Citizens, too, have rights and responsibilities when it comes to the news.^[1]

Whether Powell was a journalist may be a matter of debate, but he and his crew were the first to document many of the sights and sounds along their thousand mile expedition along the Colorado River. As a prolific writer, as evidenced by the papers he presented both before and during his tenure as the Director of the United States Geological Survey, he not only documented geological and hydrological features of the land they traveled, but he identified water supply and irrigation issues. Powell's Report on the Lands of the Arid Regions of the United States was widely distributed in journals and newspapers.^[2]

Powell's views, while based on data and scientific evidence, were sometimes disregarded. The Commission to Codify the Land Laws was established on July 1, 1879. The commission spent the last 5 months of 1879 traveling throughout the western states and territories, gathering evidence related to water usage. Captain Clarence Dutton was a member of the commission's staff.^[2]

Most commission members accepted Powell's view that most of the land in the west was too dry for agriculture without irrigation, and that the profits gleaned from humid lands in the eastern U.S. were unattainable in the west. The commission members wanted to find a means of irrigating western lands, despite Powell's warnings. Powell had no solution to the water problem, and thought that stopping settlement of western lands while a solution was obtained was the best way to deal with the irrigation problem.

We are still dealing with the water-related issues that Powell identified more than 150 years ago. Lake Powell in Utah and Lake Mead in Arizona have not solved the water shortage in the western U.S.

Sources:

 
Powell Publications

 
Other Publications

 
U.S.G.S. Then and Now

 
Research Resources

 
Writing Resources

 
Class Resources

 
COVID-19 Resources

Denise Meeks, dmeeks@email.arizona.edu