Happy Friday everyone!

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.

That being said, let’s get to The Weekly Index!

• The keynote speaker for the Spring 2010 National College Media Convention in New York City was announced yesterday. Terry Moran, co-anchor of ABC’s Nightline will headline the event on Monday, March 15. The convention, which is put on by the College Media Advisers, Inc., will take place from March 14 to the 16 at the Marriot Marriott Marquis Hotel in New York City at Times Square.
• John Ensslin, SPJ’s Region 9 director, talks about his “excellent SPJ weekend” on the Rocky Mountain SPJ Blog.
• 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.”
• The first Donald W. Reynolds Visiting Professor in Business Journalism at Arizona State University is veteran New York Times business reporter Leslie Wayne. Here is the press release.
• 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.

Here’s the video:

Have a happy and safe weekend!

p.s.You can always follow us on Twitter, too!

The Society of Professional Journalists stepped up to support Northwestern University’s Medill Innocence Project today.

SPJ joined three other organizations in an amicus curiae brief, which supports a motion to stop a subpoena from the Cook County state’s attorney’s office.

The subpoena is demanding notes and other materials created by the student journalists involved with the Project’s investigation of Anthony McKinney, who has been in prison for 31 years for murder.

The students found information that led a judge to grant McKinney another hearing, which then led the Cook County state’s attorney to subpoena the information.

SPJ joined the Student Press Law Center, the College Media Advisers, Inc. and the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication in the brief.

The brief argues that, while collecting the information, the students were reporters. As reporters, the students are protected by the Illinois Reporter’s Privilege Act.

A judge accepted the brief and has scheduled a hearing for Feb. 10.

The Student Press Law Center has a copy of the brief on its website in PDF format.

In related news, ChicagoBreakingNews.com is reporting, “Today, an attorney representing the Chicago Tribune, the New York Times, the Chicago Sun-Times, CBS News, the Washington Post and the Hearst Corp. – in addition to a dozen more newsgathering organizations – filed a brief in Cook County Circuit Court opposing the forced surrender of the material.”

Hopefully justice will prevail in the end, and the court will realize, as they did in Tinker v. Des Moines, that students and teachers do not shed their First Amendment rights at the schoolhouse gate.

We will keep you posted on future developments.