Tampa tribune - John Allman

John Allman, staff writer for the Tampa Tribune, greeted the class of 12 journalism students in the lobby. He escorted them up the elevator, through the newsroom, and into a conference room, which had a glass wall dividing it and the newsroom.

“We have allowed journalism to be muddied by opinions,” Allman said as he began discussing the hurdles journalism is facing. He continued to tell how the public tends to place blame on the media, and they think media has a distinct bias.

Allman did not use this opportunity to lecture and give a list of to-dos and not-to-dos. Instead, he gave life lessons to the aspiring journalists by telling personal accounts of how he learned these lessons the hard way, including humor and animation in his stories.

Telling the class something, they presumably already knew, Allman explained how in anything in life, especially journalism, one’s integrity is his backbone. All a journalist has is her name. It is attached to everything she does.

Allman, an investigative journalist, talked about why this type of journalist has to set their bar even higher.

“You hold someone’s livelihood in your hands,” Allman said.

Allman told a story about how the media attacked his family when he was younger, but understood both sides. He hated that reporters were standing in front his parents’ house, but also said if it was his story he would be doing the same thing as those reporters.

He told of how one of his stories put the public housing authority in check because they would not treat one of their own, a board member, as they did everyone else. His story shed light on something no one would have done anything about, otherwise.

Allman encouraged the students to put themselves in uncomfortable situations and allow themselves to be vulnerable. But stressed safety first, he said to always take someone with you when you’re going into a bad or unfamiliar area, and to never turn your back on your subject.

He told the young reporters to put their heart and soul, and long hours into their first job. Ask hard questions, make people uncomfortable, and never say I wish I had asked that question or pushed to do that a different way.

“No one cared, but it made me a better reporter,” Allman said about throwing himself into his career early on.

Allman has two fall backs as a journalist: public records, and being good at talking to people, and easy to talk to.

His last words to the class were to look at the world with very open eyes, everything is an opportunity.