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.
Tomorrow is a very busy day in my part of the world. The annual St. Patrick’s Day Parade in Scranton, which is arguably one of the most important days of the year in Northeastern Pennsylvania, will be held on Saturday – rain or shine.
We plan to post a whole lot of news and information on the blog over the next few days about the convention. There is no better way to get my fingers ready than to type a comprehensive edition of The Weekly Index.
So, here we go…
The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act has been viewed as an impenetrable wall to many student and professional journalists around the country. SPJ’s FOI Committee has a new guide to make that wall look a little less intimidating. David Cuillier, chair of SPJ’s FOI Committee, has a post and link to the new guide here.
Why is it a good time to join SPJ? Well, Holly Fisher, chair of SPJ’s Membership Committee, knows why. She has a post on The SPJ Garden Center. You can read her post here. For me, joining SPJ has been one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. I’ve met so many new friends and connected with so many professionals that I could not imagine my career without SPJ. Also, as a student entering the ever changing world of journalism… I think an SPJ membership is the safest investment you can make. One of my internship supervisors put it best. He told me that being a member of SPJ is, “just the right thing to do.”
The Washington Post found themselves in a very interesting situation after running a photograph of two men kissing in front of a D.C. courthouse. The picture ran on the front page of the paper after the District started accepting marriage applications from same-sex couples. Andrew Alexander, The Post’s ombudsman, blogged about the negative response from readers, and defended the pictures place in the paper. A handful of people even canceled their subscription over the photograph. Some also suggested that the picture should have been buried on an inside page. Alexander posted an update that said readers led a counterattack against the negative comments about the picture. Some said they would subscribe to the paper to fill the void left by those who canceled their subscription in protest.
There was a time, after court-ordered integration, when readers complained about front-page photos of blacks mixing with whites. Today, photo images of same-sex couples capture the same reality of societal change. ~ Andrew Alexander
There is an unfortunate case involving the University of Kansas and The University Daily Kansan. According to an article from The Kansan, Mason Heilman, student body president, lobbied that The Kansan’s funding be removed from the media fee charged to students. The motion passed the Student Senate Finance Committee on Wednesday, which means the paper will lose approximately $83,000 next year. The paper says it is 8% of their operating budget. Heilman told the paper, “The parallel to me would be if Congress stepped in and said The New York Times is about to go under and we think they are an important news source so we are going to fund them, but then we are going to expect them to provide unbiased coverage of us.” However, the paper is reporting that this is the only cut to the media fee. I plan on looking into this a little more, and will get back to you all with what I find out. You can read the articles about this in The University Daily Kansanhere and here. Update! Scott Leadingham, Managing Editor of Quill, points out that the measure must still pass the entire Student Senate on March 24. Thanks, Scott!
Does anyone have friends at North Carolina State University? If so, send them to the newspaper office, because they need help! The campus’ 90 year old paper is in danger of shutting down this semester due to a series of unfortunate events. They need more students to get involved, and even put out a help wanted ad as an editorial. You can read the editorial here.
The long legal fight surrounding the Medill Innocence Project may be over. The Chicago Tribunereported that the attorney for Anthony McKinney will drop the evidence obtained by the Project, even though it may help establish McKinney’s innocence. The information gained by the students at Medill was questioned and much of the material was subpoenaed by prosecutors.
I want all professional members that stumble upon our blog to sign up to be a mentor in SPJ’s Mentor Match Up. SPJ assigns mentors to young professionals first and then starts assigning them to students. So please encourage all SPJ Pro members to be mentors for their younger counterparts. I bet many will find that the experience will be beneficial to each party. So sign up here!
The deadline for applications is drawing near for the Ted Scripps Leadership Institute. As a 2009 graduate of the Institute, I can say that the experience is completely worth the time and investment. I met so many people, and it really helped me get my foot in the door on the national level. You can find out more information here.
Some of us have not even had our regional conferences yet, and national already has a tentative schedule for Vegas! Can you believe it? Well, you don’t have to. You can see it here.
And finally, why don’t you take a trip over to the link for the SPJ campus chapter of the University of Central Florida? They have a great website, and get to have their regional conference in Disney World! You can also follow them on Twitter @spj_ucf, and check out their Facebook page.
That is all for now. I will have another post up later today, and then I need to finish packing for my journey to the Big Apple. Make sure you check back for photos and videos starting on Sunday, and don’t forget to follow us on Twitter @CampusCopy.
And just to show you how important St. Patrick’s Day is in my neck of the woods… Here is Michael Scott, Scranton’s most notable resident.
____________________________________________________________ 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.
Please forgive the minimal posts this week. The school year is back, and in full swing, but I’ve compiled a pretty good list of links to keep you busy.
Jessica Durkin, SPJ Digital Media Committee member, has a really cool post on one of the first tablets that people hoped would revolutionize the way we read newspapers. Obviously, the tablet in the 1994 video wasn’t and instant success, but who knows? Maybe, Apple will have better luck over a decade later.
Speaking of the iPad, here is what The New York Times had to say.
In more related Apple news: The University of Floridasaid they will require some of their journalism students to buy Macs, software packages, and other equipment. I can’t say that I am in favor of it, but the students will be able to use financial aid.
You may not have the money to start a school newspaper, but as long as you have eager young minds… anything is possible. A high school in Ohio had trouble reviving a school paper that had sat dormant for 15 years. Their answer: Blog!
Hey, young journalists! Do you have an online portfolio? Why not check in on the discussion over at SPJ’s Generation J blog.
The Los Angeles Times has partnered with students from USC to produce content for their homicide blog.
A battle has been brewing between a teachers union and a student publication in Nevada. A teachers union attempted to stop the publication of an article, but itlooks like the article was published today after all. Check one for the First Amendment. Also, check back for a longer post on this.
It looks like an old printing plant from The Washington Post will be sold, but unfortunately it doesn’t look like the presses will be start back up. The University of Maryland purchased the plant, which closed last year to extend their east campus.
There are about 100 other links that I would like to share with you, but I am heading to class. I will update the post later with a few more!
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.
Today we are going to start a new feature, The Weekly Index, where I will try to point you towards some interesting articles, websites, features, videos and podcasts that pertain to campus journalism.
So, let’s get started!
The Chronicle of Higher Education has an article and video about campus news blogs. Some of the blogs have become so popular that they are scooping the campus newspapers.
How do journalists cover an event in the aftermath of such a terrible natural disaster? The Washington Post’sHoward Kurtz tells us in today’s column.
Tiffany Luckey, Generation J Committee member, posted a video to their committee’s blog featuring Colleen Kiphart asking the question, “What does diversity mean to you?”
Kevin Smith, SPJ’s president used his blog to recap what SPJ has been up to lately. Leave some time to read this, because we’ve been doing A LOT! Part of that is about defending students, too.
Dan Kubisketalks about the scuffle between Google and China on the Journalism and The World blog. Some of the hacks seemed to target journalists.
USA TODAY spends “a few minutes with Andy Rooney,” and they talk about his 31 years at 60 Minutes and a possible retirement in the very distant future.
“I hate to say it, but a computer is better than a typewriter.” ~ Andy Rooney
Pew’s Project for Excellence in Journalism said they found that print journalism is still the best source to find out information about a community.
The Student Press Law Center has some information about a contest that allows high school students to win a nice chunk of change for a winning PSA on the First Amendment.
That’s all for this week! Don’t forget to check back for longer blog posts throughout the week, and I will see you back here for The Weekly Index next Friday!
Welcome to The Weekly Index!