Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Nail the Interview


Join OU SPJ as we discuss and practice good interviewing skills for when you are seeking out that dream job or internship.

Come and share your experiences and advice with each other as well as hear some tried-and-true tips from kids who have been at this for a while.

This is our last meeting of the year, so we will also be discussing the programming and events of this year and how to improve for the next. You don't want to miss it!

See you in Scripps 116 at 5 p.m.!

Thursday, May 21, 2009

More Congratulations

AT the same time as the outstanding seniors we met Tuesday were announced, several other OU SPJers were honored with awards, shcolarships or other recognitions.

Those members included:
*Ian Bowman-Henderson
*Taylor Mirfendereski
*Evan Millward
*Rue Khalsa
*Garrett Downing
*Ashley Lutz


Ashley Lutz was named the editor-in-chief of The Post for the 2009-2010 school year.

Congrats to everyone who was recognized - it just goes to show how dedicated of a group our SPJers are!

Monday, May 18, 2009

Meet Our Outstanding Seniors!

Join OU SPJ as we talk with three of Scripps Outstanding Seniors for 2009!

On our panel will be:
*Anastasia Pronin - outstanding overall
*Alexandra Hazlett - outstanding magazine
*Taylor Randall - outstanding public relations

They'll discuss what they've done and their best advice to underclassmen and incoming seniors.

You don't want to miss this opportunity to meet Scripps' best graduates from the class of 2009! Who knows, maybe you'll be working with or for them some day!

Friday, May 15, 2009

A JSchool Commentary

J-Schools Must Change, Add 'Specializiation' and Second Major

By Ron Martz

Published: May 15, 2009 11:00 AM ET

DAHLONEGA, GA. -- (Commentary)
Over the next few weeks, hundreds of colleges and universities will send thousands – if not tens of thousands – of aspiring, but ill-prepared, young journalists out into a communications environment that already is over-populated and under-resourced.

As the number of traditional communications vehicles decline, and the need for large numbers of workers with journalism or mass communications degrees declines with it, it might be time for colleges and universities to re-think their approach to preparing students for the new news business.

In the four years since the current crop of journalism graduates began their degree pursuit, the business has changed so radically as to be almost unrecognizable. While some schools may have had the foresight to begin preparing their students for the challenges ahead by offering multi-media courses, the harsh truth is that the news business can no longer support the number of journalism/mass communications graduates being produced each year.

By continuing to offer journalism or mass communications majors in which students train almost exclusively in the particulars of news gathering and writing, colleges and universities are doing the students, and the news business, a disservice.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, between 2005 and 2008 the newspaper business eliminated 20 percent of its work force. Thousands more jobs have been axed this year as newspapers, radio and television struggle to find their places in the new news universe.

Journalists have been taught in school to be generalists and the news industry to a great extent encouraged generalization over specialization. How many times in how many news organizations have reporters settled into a beat only to be told they are being moved to another beat because a “fresh approach” is needed?

The new news business should encourage specialization among its reporters and editors rather than generalization. By extension, colleges and universities should do the same thing by making journalism or mass communications no more than a minor degree track or, at the very least, require a second major – journalism and another discipline such as the law, business, psychology, military, criminal justice, or any number of other disciplines.

Specialization brings expertise that often has been missing in the news business. It has been my experience that those who bring outside expertise to the news business produce far more interesting and in-depth work.

My thoughts on this began to crystallize last year after I took a part-time job teaching writing for the media and serving as the adviser to the student newspaper at North Georgia College & State University, a school of about 5,500 students 65 miles north of Atlanta.

The school has no journalism program, no journalism facilities and no budget for a newspaper. Yet, I was asked to get students to produce a campus newspaper on a regular basis. During the previous school year only two editions of the student paper were produced – both in print.
I had five students in the newspaper class the first semester. Four were English majors, the other was a sociology major. Not a single one had ever written a news story. But it was then that I began to discover the value of the outside expertise and experience that students brought to class.

One student in that first class frequently used graphics in her job outside school and she designed a masthead for us. Another student had magazine layout experience and helped us with page designs. Another had interest in marketing and she went to work looking for local advertising. Still another had experience and interest in fine arts and she wrote extensively on that subject.

It took us two months of planning and preparing but we finally published our first edition on Oct. 30 through a national Web site that publishes about 650 other college papers. We did it all at no cost to the university because of the national advertising on the site. We have been publishing online exclusively every week since then, except over winter break and now over the summer break.

This past semester, I had 12 students in the newspaper class. A number were English majors but brought other skills to the table. One worked as the sales manager for a construction company and reported and wrote with great expertise on school expansion and new construction.

Another was a history major who had written for a sports blog and brought that expertise to the staff. One student was a computer science major who was also studying Chinese. He worked on technical issues related to the paper. I also had a psychology major, a business administration major, and a studio art major, all of whom contributed significantly to the growth of the paper that first year because of the expertise in other disciplines they brought to journalism.

As society and business have gotten increasingly complex, journalism has failed to keep pace by failing to properly educate, or insist that reporters be properly educated, about the intricacies of what they cover. The basics of journalism – interviewing and doing the who, what, when, where, why and how – can be taught. And as my students and many others have demonstrated, it is something that can be learned by those willing to make the effort.

What traditional journalism students cannot learn is expertise in another field, unless they bring that with them or are required to learn it in school.

Until traditional news outlets become more demanding of their reporters in terms of what expertise other than journalism they bring to the job, and until major colleges and universities stop pumping out journalistic generalists by the thousands every year, the industry is going to continue its free-fall into irrelevance.

That’s why colleges and universities should re-think journalism and mass communications as a sole major course of study and insist that those with interest in the news business acquire expertise in another discipline as well.

Continuing on the current path is not helping the news business, or those who would be part of it.


Ron Martz is a former reporter for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution who now teaches writing for the media at North Georgia College & State University in Dahlonega, Ga.

Your thoughts??

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Soledad Says...

For those who missed it, here is a quick recap of the Soledad O'Brien speech on diversity that was held at the University of Cincinnati on Monday evening.

You can read the full article, written by UC SPJ president Taylor Dungjen, at the News Record website.

Here are some notable quotes Taylor sent along as well:

“Don’t be afraid at how bad the market is. When I was first leaving school in 1988 I was told by the people you will never get a job, the evening news cast is dead and nobody’s watching. I’ve been in the business for 21, going on 22 years. Not bad for a girl who wasn’t supposed to be able to be employed. There’s opportunity in chaos and there’s a lot of chaos. Everywhere I go I have to Twitter, I have to blog and you do that naturally. I would argue that you’re in a good position. You all have to shoot on your own, you have a camera. My niece, my eight-year-old daughter, can work so much more technology than I can … The foundation still is what’s most important; reporting accurately and with fairness.”


“Anything that I have done badly in my job, that was me failing in some way: I didn’t do the work I should have done, it wasn’t because I was a girl or a minority. I didn’t do the work, that was the first thing. I guess I just try to outwork people and do such a good job that the fact that people had expectations that would just melt away … I used to be a terrible reporter in San Francisco. I would cover every single fire story and all the calls come at 2 a.m. and I didn’t do it because I wanted to, but because I knew I needed to do 100 before I got it right. Now I can do fire stories in my sleep ‘It began after 5 a.m. duh duh duh … The value was out working people so I would get better.’ ”


“I think you have to do internships first to see what you like and don’t like. Just grill people on ‘How did you get here, how did you start?’ What’s great about the age that you are is you’re willing to sleep on a friends couches. At 43 I’m done with that. When I was 20 I could, I worked that way. I shared with a friend, I lived in some of the most awful apartments but they were cheap.”

Enjoy!

Special thanks goes to Taylor Dungjen and our friends at UC!

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

It's Nice Outside...

Join OU SPJ today at 5 p.m. for some fun in the sun outside of Scripps!

Bring your friends and get ready for a good time!

We'll see you there!

Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Meet CNN's Soledad O'Brien



We've been invited by the UC SPJ chapter to share in this special event next week on their campus. I know this is short notice for everyone, but you anyone is interested in going, I will be leaving Athens promptly at 3:30 p.m. on Monday for the trip to Cincy to attend this lecture.

Please let me know if you are interested in joining ASAP at either 937.974.0138 or at em176906@ohio.edu

Thanks!

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Diversity: On TV, Behind the Scenes, and In Our Lives

Come hear inside information about TV, politics and the world around us, as Soledad O'Brien will visit UC’s campus to talk about her experience at CNN. O'Brien is an anchor and special correspondent for CNN: Special Investigations Unit, and reports stories and documentaries for many CNN programs, including the recently critically acclaimed CNN Presents: Black in America.

This event is free of charge, so come and be part of a special evening.

When:

Monday, May 11
7:00 pm

Where:
University of Cincinnati
Tangeman University Center - Great Hall

Cost:
Free Admission

Monday, May 4, 2009

You, Me and iMovie


Join OU SPJ this week for a workshop for those interested in learning iMovie from our personal expert, Taylor Mirfendereski.

iMovie will be a useful tool if any of you would like bridge into broadcast journalist or to blow future employers away with editing knowledge. We will be meeting in Scripps 001 in the computer lab in the basement. Come ready to learn!

We'll see you at 5 p.m. in the Graphics Lab!!