DATE: Sunday, August 17, 1997               TAG: 9708160001

SECTION: COMMENTARY              PAGE: J5   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: LYNN FEIGENBAUM

                                            LENGTH:   97 lines

REPORT TO READERS: YO! TEENOLOGY COLUMN IS A HIT

True confessions time: I don't always read the Teenology page. Hey, I'm not 17 anymore. What's in it for me?

But last week, I learned that I'm missing out. I picked up the Aug. 8 Daily Break section after getting calls about a ``slice of life'' column headlined ``Pizza job delivers peek into personal lives of others,'' by college correspondent Jeremy Hulatt.

By week's end, more than a dozen readers (that's a lot, when it comes to compliments) had called or written in their praise.

``When I first saw it, I thought it was going to be just an amusing piece,'' said Lucy Carlson of Virginia Beach. ``But I want to tell you, I was so impressed. It was profound . . . and he seems like a wonderful young man. I wish he delivered my pizza!''

In the column, Hulatt, a 24-year-old English major at Old Dominion University, describes stepping into the home, and life, of an elderly couple - the old man's ``wrinkled and rigid hand,'' the smell of dried flowers, the ``generations and generations'' of pictures. And what all these feel like to someone two generations younger.

``This story should be required reading for all of the young people who feel that old age will never happen to them,'' wrote Mary Lee Gilliland of Virginia Beach.

There are lots of messages for young people in Teenology - and, for older readers, it provides an insight into young lives. In the Aug. 8 section, the main feature was about dating violence; other columns were personal accounts of volunteering as a hospital candy-striper, driving a ``cheesemobile'' (driver's-ed car) and watching ``indie'' (independent) films.

Regular features also include a TeenSpeak question-and-answer feature, an advice column and movie reviews.

Youth coverage is not limited to one section of the newspaper. There's plenty on the Sports pages, including the community sections like the Beacon and Compass, on INFOLINE and throughout the newspaper. This week, there were two teen stories on Thursday's Hampton Roads section front.

But the Teenology section is a special outlet for The Pilot's cadre of 70 or so high school and college correspondents, headed by youth editor Michele Vernon-Chesley. She took over in February from Lorraine Eaton, who began the section and assembled its teams of youth contributors back in 1992.

Eaton and her ``kids'' can be proud of what they did. The section won the Newspaper Association of America's Program Excellence award in 1996 and, before that, a citation from the Journalism Education Association.

The section has tackled tough issues - AIDS, date rape and students taking ritalin not prescribed to them. Its reviews of school bathroom reviews flushed out some serious plumbing problems (sorry, I couldn't resist).

And Teenology has encouraged first-person accounts, such as the one by a student whose parents escaped from the Khmer Rouge. It also has helped launch the writing careers of columnists like Jennifer Dziura, now at Dartmouth College.

When Eaton moved on to become a youth writer, Vernon-Chesley took over. She came to the Pilot from Detroit, where she ran a newspaper high school program for The Free Press, taught at Wayne State University and ran the Journalism Institute for Minorities.

Both Vernon-Chesley and Eaton believe strongly that young people need to have a voice in the newspaper. It's a voice they hope adults will read and hear as well.

``The parents of America's top students really have very little idea about their children's lives,'' says Eaton. ``One teen told me, `Pretty much all teen-agers live two separate lives.' ''

Eaton's aim is to explore both sides of teen life.

In Teenology, the voices we hear come from students at local high schools and colleges. Chelsy-Vernon enjoys working with them. Why? Because young people aren't jaded, she says.

``We think they are, but that's a front they present when you first meet them. They're so fresh about who they are and what they want to be.''

This weekend, Vernon-Chesley met with the 1997-98 team of correspondents to plan out story ideas. Changes are in the works for Teenology - a new look and a new name. So tune in, even if you're an old fogey like me.

PORTRAYING GRIEF. The most compelling way to communicate the horror and tragedy of crime is to show its impact on the victims. But how can this be done without invading the privacy of grieving families?

This is a problem that the press has been grappling with for years. One solution was reflected by the front page of Tuesday's Hampton Roads section.

A young man had been shot to death in Portsmouth, and a color photo showed his father overcome by grief and supported by family and friends. The headline with the photo and story was, ``A son lost. . . a family looks for answers.''

The photo, taken outside of the church where the funeral service was held, was stark in its impact. But, to managing editor Dennis Hartig, death is often desensitized by the media and this photo brought home ``what this kind of tragedy means in our community. . . It was a very powerful emotional moment.''

After considerable discussion among editors, the decision was made to use the photo but only if it had the family's blessing. An editor called the father and described the picture, offering to bring it over to show him. Go ahead and run it, the father said.

The Pilot did, but kept the image less than four columns wide and noted the father's permission in the caption. Also, a small photo of the youth and another victim ran with the story.

Tragic deaths are a tough story to tell. But they need to be told, just as we need to ask the right questions. In this case, I believe we did.

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