Campus members in SPJ’s Region 3 can apply for an incredibly unique reporting opportunity.
Region 3 is currently looking for writers, photographers, print and web designers, and multimedia journalists to help seize control of the nation’s second-largest homeless newspaper over Labor Day weekend.
Students will receive free travel, free lodging, free meals and –most importantly – experience!
Interested students can click here for more details, and to see last year’s project.
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.
This week was my first week of the last semester of my undergraduate career. I spent my time in classes, at the dentist, and morphing our campus chapter at Wilkes into a regional student chapter.
I would recommend that your schools consider looking to other local institutions for members, because it can really do wonders for your membership.
Linda Hall, membership coordinator for SPJ, pointed out this portion of our bylaws to me.
Section Seven. City-or area-wide campus chapters may be established by four-year and two-year universities or colleges within a radius of 75 miles, provided that at least one university or college involved has a school or department of journalism or offers courses of study relevant to the scope of the Society as defined in Article One, Section Two.
Jay Mathews, an education columnist for The Washington Post, writes about why novice reporters should cover national education, and more experienced journalists should spend time on the local level.
Here is an interesting discussion on the AP’s Facebook on how journalists should act in a crisis. The discussion stems from one of their own reporters and his reports from Haiti.
In related news, The Los Angeles Times has an interesting article on the delicate line walked by medical correspondents when they are called upon to assist in a crisis.
The National Sports Journalism Center has a great editorial from Jason Fry, a veteran web journalist. He argues that news organizations should embrace a young writer’s blog instead of forbidding them.
Plenty of young sportswriters could use personal blogs to make themselves into cleaner, stronger writers who better understand their own business and are more open-minded about its possibilities. ~ Jason Fry
Of course you couldn’t turn anywhere in the world of journalism this week without hearing about http://www.nytimes.com/ planning to charge for content starting next year. Could this be the start of something good?
SPJ’s diversity blog has a really useful post from Leo E. Laurence on whether to use the word “Latino/Latina” or “Hispanic.”
When journalists use the word Latino for a person whose ancestry can be traced to Spain, they are generally safe. But, using the word hispanic may offend many Latinos. ~ Leo Laurence
Leo also wrote a great post on the diversity blog about why journalists should avoid the term “illegal immigrant.”
Want to make your sports webpage POP? Make a heatmap! Here is a post on how to make them.
The Washington Post celebrated Martin Luther King Jr. Day by having some of their staffers, including Ben Bradlee, recite part of King’s “I Have a Dream” speech, and asking viewers how King inspired them.
Students who are enrolled in a college or university in the U.S. during 2009 and completed outstanding journalism are invited and encouraged to enter the Mark of Excellence Awards.
Print, radio, television and online collegiate journalism entires are eligible.
Entering the contest is also easier than it has ever been before. All a person needs is a great piece of journalism and a computer. Here is all the information anyone would need to know about the awards, and here is a list of last year’s winners.
Happy Friday everyone!