I had a great time in Indianapolis last week for the annual SPJ spring board meeting.
There are a lot of great things coming to SPJ members across the country: new training videos, exciting new partnerships, and much more. The next few years will be one of the most exciting times to be a member of SPJ!
Have a great weekend, and enjoy The Weekly Index!
There has been an ongoing fight in Virginia over pictures that were confiscated from James Madison Univerity’s student newspaper The Breeze last Friday. The Roanoke Times has an article on how a Commonwealth Attorney and several police officers – armed with a search warrant – demanded The Breeze‘s editor turn over photos from a recent riot. The photos have been sealed and are now being held by a third party. SPJ sent a letter to the attorney on Monday, and The Washington Post carried an editorial about the situation yesterday. The News & Advance out of Lynchburg, Va. carried an editorial, too.
State courts have recognized that newspapers may withhold materials from the government unless officials make a compelling case to the contrary, a process that is supposed to play out in court in response to a subpoena. In this case there was no subpoena, no court arguments and no recognition that raiding a newspaper makes a mockery of the First Amendment. ~ The Washington Post
Robert Niles, from The Online Journalism Review, suggests that journalism has outgrown AP style and schools should prepare students to focus more on search engine optimization. Read his post here.
Dan Kubiske has two great posts on the International Journalism Committee’s blog. One of the posts deals with the upcoming elections in Burma, and a series of position papers from the Asian Human Rights Commission. You can read that post here.
Dan’s other post is about a new campaign to inform their users about which governments have asked that material be removed from Google. Surprisingly, Brazil leads the world in removal requests. Here’s the post.
I want to continue to shine a light on the winners of regional Mark of Excellence Awards. Please take some time to check out our press releases with the names that have been announced so far: Region 1, Region 4, Region 6, Region 7, Region 9, Region 10, and Region 12.
____________________________________________________________ Andrew M. Seaman is a senior communication studies student at Wilkes University in Wilkes-Barre, Pa. He is one of SPJ’s student representatives on the national board and you can follow him on Twitter @aseaman06.
Marsha L. Garst
Commonwealth’s Attorney for Rockingham County and the City of Harrisonburg
Judicial Center
53 Court Square
Harrisonburg, VA 22801
(540) 564-3350
mgarst@rockinghamcountyva.gov
Dear Ms. Garst:
The leadership of the Society of Professional Journalists is outraged by your actions when you barged into the offices of The Breeze at James Madison University on Friday, April 16, 2010 and seized over 900 published and unpublished photos from the newsroom. We are especially troubled that your actions appeared to have violated the federal Privacy Protection Act of 1980.
The office of the Commonwealth’s Attorney has trampled on the freedom of the press by trying to use this media outlet as an arm of law enforcement. In a democratic society it is vital to have an unfettered press free to exercise the First Amendment without fear of government intervention.
We recognize the need to investigate an out-of-control public event where crimes may have been committed but there are more appropriate tools available to law enforcement than to bully the student newspaper.
We would like to point out that your own state’s constitution says that, “The freedoms of speech and of the press are among the great bulwarks of liberty and can never be restrained except by despotic governments.”
We ask that you return ALL of the materials, as well as copies, taken during your raid and issue an apology to the student newspaper, its staff and the University community.
Sincerely,
Kevin Smith SPJ President
Sue Kopen Katcef SPJ Campus Adviser At-Large
George Daniels SPJ Campus Adviser At-Large
Neil Ralston SPJ Vice President of Campus Chapter Affairs
Katie Maloney, a staff writer for the Student Press Law Center, reported, “Harrisonburg Police officers and the Commonwealth’s Attorney for Rockingham County, Va. executed a search warrant in the newsroom of the James Madison University student newspaper Friday.”
The SPLC also reported that the officers and attorney seized photographs of a recent riot near campus.
Please check the SPLC’s website for a full report here.
I am sorry to say that there will be no edition of The Weekly Index today.
There is a SPJ board meeting in Indy and I do not have my computer with me. However, I will be sure to post something on Sunday night when I return to Northeastern Pennsylvania.
VIew of Times Square from the Marriott Marquis during the 2010 College Media Advisers convention.
I am off to the Region 1 spring conference in New York City.
The conference, which is being hosted by the Deadline Club, Connecticut, and New Jersey Professional Chapters, is themed, “Surviving the Storm: How to Weather the Tough Times in Journalism.” I am really excited! The conference and the Mark of Excellence Luncheon are sold out!
The planning committee did a great job coordinating all the speakers and receptions.
Speakers include: Sree Sreenivasan, Julia Dahl, Dean Starkman, David Levitt, Andrew DeVigal, Howard Goldberg, Nick Tatro, Santiago Lyon, George Frederick, David Barstow, and many more.
I don’t plan on posting anything to the blog until the conference is over, but you can follow my tweets @aseaman06.
____________________________________________________________ Andrew M. Seaman is a senior communication studies student at Wilkes University in Wilkes-Barre, Pa. He is one of SPJ’s student representatives on the national board and you can follow him on Twitter @aseaman06.
As you can tell, The Campus Copy has been on a slight hiatus since March. However, we didn’t want to leave you for too long.
A lot has happened since our last post: Tara and Andrew returned from the CMA conference in New York City, regional conferences have been taking place, and the board members of SPJ are getting ready for the spring meeting in Indianapolis.
The list below has a copious amount of links from the past month since there’s been no Index for several weeks.
Enjoy!
Sue Kopen Katcef, one of SPJ’s campus advisers at-large, put together a survey for chapter advisers and student chapter leaders. The survey will help SPJ understand the needs of our campus chapters, and help SPJ make membership even more fulfilling for students and advisers. Please take a few minutes to complete the survey here.
SPJ President Kevin Smith wrote on his blog in March about an interesting conversation he had about ethics. You can read his post here.
David Cuillier, SPJ Freedom of Information Committee chairman, has a post on how Missouri Southern State University is requiring all journalists – including student journalists – to go through a university spokesman for any questions. According to the post, faculty can still be interviewed; however, the faculty must report the interview to the spokesman. Cuillier, citing the Student Press Law Center, said the requirements were implemented after student journalists requested copies of business emails from the president of the university. You can read Cuillier’s post here.
Cuillier also has a post about the Chicago police subpoenaing notes from Carolyn Nielsen, a Western Washington University professor. The police want notes she took 16 years ago when she was grad student at Northwestern University. You can read Cuillier’s post here.
Amy Green, SPJ’s Freelance Committee chair, has a great post on her committee’s blog about interacting with some students at a SPJ region conference and at Florida Atlantic University. You can read Green’s post here.
Paul LaRocque, has a post on the Ethics Committee’s blog about a study completed by The Norman Lear Center at University of Southern California’s Annenberg School of Communication and Journalism. The study found some surprising statistics regarding local Los Angeles television news coverage. You can read LaRocque’s post here.
Holly Fisher, SPJ’s Membership Committee chair, posted an awesome video from the Minnesota Pro Chapter about why people should join SPJ. The video is informative, and humorous.
Andrew Alexander, The Washington Post‘s ombudsman, wrote an interesting blog post/column on March 21. The post/column was about the reaction The Post received to running a picture of two men kissing on their front page after the legalization of same-sex marriage on March 3. You can read his post/column here.
It’s true that The Post’s coverage after March 3 focused heavily on the victors in the same-sex battle. And why not? It was only natural that stories and photos would feature couples joyfully applying for marriage licenses or getting married. And it makes sense that many quotes would come from those benefiting from the new law. ~ Andrew Alexander
In an update to a situation we told you about last month, The Daily Kansas will not lose $83,000 in student funding. Originally, the paper was in jeopardy of losing the funding next school year. The canceled cash flow was the idea of the University of Kansas student body president. The president believed providing The Kansan with money from a student media fee could be compared to the U.S. government giving The New York Times money. The cuts were approved by one of the student senate’s committees; however, lucid minds prevailed in the full senate. In a brief statement, which appears to be offline, The Kansan said, “In showing their support for the Kansan, they are showing their support for the efforts made by the students who dedicate time and energy to provide the student body with a quality publication.” You can see a cache of the editorial here, and read a post about the victory at the College Media Matters blog here.
SPJ’s 2010 National Historic Site in Journalism is the University of Mississippi. The honor was awarded to the university to honor “the reporters who covered the civil rights integration riots sparked by James Meredith’s enrollment. The riots resulted in two deaths, including that of French journalist Paul Guihard, the only known reporter killed while covering protests during the civil rights era.” The university has an event set for next week to commemorate the honor. You can read about it here.
The College Media Matters blog also has a post on copies of The Gustavian Weekly, the student publication of Gustavus Adolphus College in Minnesota. Issues of the paper were “relocated” after an article about a controversial event ran in the paper. According to the blog, approximately 300 copies of the paper were moved to out-of-the-way dormitories from the student center. The student thieves were allegedly concerned about how an article regarding Case Day would look to visitors and prospective students. According to The Reporter at Minnesota State, Case Day is “a Gustavian student tradition where participators attempt to drink a case of 24 beers in one Saturday.” You can read the College Media Matters post here.
The Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism announced that it is teaming up with The Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science to offer a new dual-degree in journalism and computer science. You can read about the pairing here.
Some of you will remember Roxana Saberi from the Mark of Excellence Luncheon at the national convention last year. Some of you will also remember her from the time she spent in an Iranian prison for being a journalist. Well, she has a book now – Between Two Worlds: My Life and Captivity in Iran – and was on The Daily Show With John Stewart last week. Here is the video:
I’ve said this before, but one of my best internship experiences was with SPJ and The Working Press, the daily tabloid newspaper that covers the SPJ National Convention. There are only 12 spots and applications are due on April 16. Click here to find out more.
Finally, for the past few weeks I’ve been linking to some of our campus chapters; however, I want to shine a light on the winners of regional Mark of Excellence Awards so far. Please take some time to check out our press releases with the names that have been announced so far: Region 2, Region 3, Region 5, and Region 8.
____________________________________________________________ Andrew M. Seaman is a senior communication studies student at Wilkes University in Wilkes-Barre, Pa. He is one of SPJ’s student representatives on the national board and you can follow him on Twitter @aseaman06.
The Eagle, American University’s student newspaper, found themselves in a bit of hot water for a column written by a student late last month.
According to Alex Knepper’s opinion column, “any woman who heads to an EI party as an anonymous onlooker, drinks five cups of the jungle juice, and walks back to a boy’s room with him is indicating that she wants sex, OK? To cry ‘date rape’ after you sober up the next morning and regret the incident is the equivalent of pulling a gun to someone’s head and then later claiming that you didn’t ever actually intend to pull the trigger.”
Knepper gained a lot of attention on campus and from national media outlets for his views. However, The Eagle came under fire for their decision to run the article. The discussion about The Eagle’s decision resulted in a great learning opportunity for the student journalists at American University.
The paper’s staff published an editorial on March 31. The editorial said the editors “focused on whether or not this newspaper should censor Knepper’s opinions because they were controversial.” Ultimately, they decided that they should not censor a person’s opinions “based solely on the controversy they would cause.”
I am not going to say whether the editors were right or wrong to print the column. What I will say is that what an editor chooses to put in their product reflects on them. Can they walk away from their broadcast, paper, or magazine and be happy with what they put out for the world to consume? Also, it is common knowledge that people need to be exposed to a variety of views and opinions; however, that does not mean an editor should put in every editorial or column they are handed. Editors need to know where the line is, and what crosses it.
The Eagle’s staff editorial was sincere, and I feel that the paper’s decision to run Knepper’s column was in no way malicious.
Above all, this incident shows what a college media outlet is all about – preparing student journalists for the situations they will face in a professional setting. While the staff may have wished this incident never happened, I bet they will always stop and think before putting content into their product.
____________________________________________________________ Andrew M. Seaman is a senior communication studies student at Wilkes University in Wilkes-Barre, Pa. He is one of SPJ’s student representatives on the national board and you can follow him on Twitter @aseaman06.
