From teacher to journalist, frankly and fairly still informing
Alesia Edwards
Franklin Alexander McKnight has had a very long and distinguished career as a journalist. In fact, he is seen today as one of the pioneers who created a voice for rural people through the expansion of a corps of news correspondents island wide.
Since his entrance into journalism in 1977, when he started as a commentator/correspondent from the East (St. Thomas/Portland) for the Gleaner, people have been looking to Mr McKnight for his fierce, but fair commentary on a range of local and national issues.
So, whether his pieces are published in the newspaper, or he is speaking ‘frankly’ about the issues on radio or television, his audience trusts and looks to him for his expert analysis on topics and issues from which many other journalists often shy away.
His take on certain issues is trusted by many, and Mr. McKnight in an interview with the North Coast Times, the independent local community newspaper he founded in 1995, said trust is the most important part of journalism and media.
Mr McKnight said his 37 years in journalism have been a very interesting journey; one that has taken him to several countries to work and study and allowed him to visit many interesting places in Jamaica and overseas providing coverage for important events.
Mr McKnight, his colleagues say, is one of the few who transitioned successfully from the classroom at Morant Bay High in St. Thomas, where he was a senior teacher and head of department, to the newsroom when he started with the Gleaner in 1977 with his column ‘View From The East’.
“My 37 years have been very challenging, very good in many regards, very lonely sometimes because of the opinions you hold, which are not necessarily popular… or some people are threatened by the opinion you hold,” he told The Times.
He continued: “But overall, journalism has been good, it helped me to develop a lot of fresh ways of thinking and to have a good hold of what Jamaica is about. I have seen a lot of places locally and overseas, so journalism has been pretty good to me personally.”
He explained that he has always had an interest in journalism, because he wanted to keep people informed and believes that is how he ended up being a teacher and in the classroom. As part of his undergraduate studies at the University of the West Indies, Mr McKnight explained that he did writing as one of his courses. One of his lecturers, John Hearne, himself a journalist and author thought he would do well working for the Gleaner in St. Thomas.
FULL TRANSITION
In 1982, Mr. McKnight made the switch full time from the classroom to the newsroom and became a Deputy News Editor responsible for expanding rural coverage and developing the network of correspondents across the country.
Later, in 1989, he was promoted to Associate Editor for both the Daily Gleaner and Sunday Gleaner and along with his team was responsible for sectionalising the Sunday paper. A part of his mandate was also to focus more on investigative journalism. He said his job at The Gleaner was made easy, because of the guidance he received from senior editors at the time, including Ken Allen, Calvin Bowen and Lloyd Williams.
“I had a good team and we were the ones who sectionalised the Sunday Gleaner for the first time, really just broke it up into sections and it has expanded from that and we did a lot of continuing investigative reports and follow up work.”
Mr. McKnight left the Gleaner in 1992, to become the Founding/Managing Editor of the Jamaica Herald newspaper and when it moved to a weekly publication, he remained as Managing Editor, then as Consulting Editor/Director.
Mr. McKnight also worked with the RJR Communications group and once hosted a popular night time talk show called ‘Tell me about It’. He also did freelance work at KLAS Radio and as a co-host of RJR’s popular evening radio programme Beyond the Headlines and at CVM-TV as host of its interview programme Direct.
Since 2002, Mr. McKnight has been news director at IRIE FM where he is also the commentator on Frankly Speaking, another of his popular radio programmes aired week mornings during the Wake Up Call, with Ron Muschette.
RENEWAL
In 1995, he started the North Coast Times which covers St. James, Trelawny, St Ann, St Mary and Portland, providing local people with a voice and coverage of their community that no other national newspaper would provide. He explained that having being responsible for developing the network of correspondents for the Gleaner, he realized that the north coast didn’t have that medium and with great encouragement from the business community, launched the community newspaper which is now in its 19th year.
He said the company has experienced some very challenging years, but that it has survived, because it has not lost its main focus which is to be the voice of the community and to do better in its coverage than the national papers and stations would do for north coast news and issues. Additionally, he said, The Times has had some very good workers, in every department and that it is now renewing itself in the digital age with the epaper and getting more involved in social media network.
Mr McKnight said while over the years people have associated him with commentary he has always been heavily involved in news, and that allows him to make more informed commentary on various issues. He explained that he also interacts with a lot of ‘local people’ and visits places like the local markets, where he is able to better connect with the people and understands fully some of the issues affecting them.
For him, commentary is of a higher profile than news, and he enjoys talking about what he thinks should be right for Jamaica, despite what the naysayers or followers of politicians or other people may think.
NEWS PLATFORM
“The news provides the platform to do serious commentary. You might make mistakes but you should know what you are talking about because you are in the news. I have to do a lot of research, talk to many people…my field again is talking to people up and down the spectrum on various levels,” he explained. “I like ordinary people, I like listening to the oppressed, people who are not privileged…I think I keep touch with what you’d call ordinary Jamaicans.
He said too, that while some of his views may upset some people he continues with his commentary, because he feels strongly that there are people who believe that ‘this is what is important for Jamaica, this is what is best for Jamaica’ and that is where he stands.
His work as a journalist has been extensive and although most of it has been in Jamaica, he has reported on issues within the Caribbean and the United States. He also provided coverage of various important events including the coup attempt in Trinidad and Tobago and assignments in Washington DC.
While teaching and working as a correspondent he completed an M.A (Education) at UWI, Mona and later completed an MSc in journalism at the prestigious Columbia University, New York through a Fulbright Fellowship and also studied management in Wales, UK.
Among his many accomplishments and accolades, Mr. McKnight is a former President of the Press Association of Jamaica, Media Personality of the year (2009/10) and Journalist of the Year (1997). He has also received regional journalism awards and has been honoured by the St Ann Chamber of Commerce and the St Ann Homecoming Foundation.
His most recent though is the Order of Distinction (officer class) for his work as a journalist which he received during the National Awards ceremony on Heroes Day, in St Andrew. “I am grateful for it, grateful that it’s a national honour, I am grateful and I am overwhelmed by the response of people to it, to me, and I thank all those people who have sent congratulatory messages by mail, by email, by phone and who see me on the street and congratulate me, some don’t even know what exactly it is but, I really appreciate it,” he said.
Mr McKnight said his work as a journalist would not have been successful without the love and support of his immediate and extended family. He said his wife, Beverly and their two children Franz and Matthew as well as his siblings locally and overseas have been extremely supportive of him.
“The family support has always been good, siblings here and overseas, my immediate family has been supportive and even understood when the going is rough and I haven’t been willing to speak about it,” he said. “That is the main reason that you can continue, if you don’t have support from your family, it doesn’t matter what your friends think or even people in the station or the newspaper, if you don’t have that and have people saying a quiet word to you, that basically is everything.”
As he looks to the younger generation to continue excellence in journalism, many of whom he taught at CARIMAC, or those he has developed through his involvement in media, Mr. McKnight wants to see more aggressive journalism , more journalists thinking harder and smarter and for media houses to become financially stronger.
He said financial strength is very important to the quality of journalism. He also wants to see better leadership for young journalists and for younger journalists to begin taking on some of the tougher national and local issues.
Mr McKnight said despite the changes in media, people will continue to look to mainstream media to provide quality news stories and reporting, despite reports that will be published on social media.
“All sort of people can put stuff on social media, but people will turn to the media because of trust, media is going to have to get modern, get faster and reach people. People are going to trust the media and once you have the trust, it won’t go away..”
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