Programming Note: We've Moved!

The SPJ Blogs Network has moved to the Wordpress platform, making it easier than ever to join the convesation. No registration of any kind is necessary. You can find the new home of the Region 12 blog by following this link. RSS subscribers, update your readers by pointing it to this URL.

Other Links
— Visit the new SPJ Blogs Network
— RSS (All National Blogs)
— RSS (All Regional Blogs)

LAW SCHOOL FOR JOURNALISTS

This isn't an SPJ-sponsored event, but I  highly recommend it to any journalists close to Memphis:

Law School for Journalists Will Cover New Media, Reporting, and the Law at the U of M

For release: September 2, 2009
For press information, contact Gabrielle Maxey (901) 678-2843

During the fourth annual Law School for Journalists at the University of Memphis, lawyers and members of the media will explore how new technology, from Web sites to blogs to Twitter, is changing the way journalism is practiced and how the law and legal system are struggling to adapt.  The event will be Saturday, September 12, from 8:30 a.m. to 1:45 p.m. at the U of M's Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law.

Brooke Gladstone, co-host of NPR's On the Media

The seminar is free for journalists and for marketing and public relations professionals. There is a fee for judges and attorneys who are seeking Continuing Legal Education credit.

Panels of expert media lawyers and experienced reporters and bloggers will discuss how traditional access and open records and open meetings law are adapting (or not adapting) to the new media environment. Panelists will include attorneys Paul Alan Levy, Alan D. Johnson, and Richard L. Hollow, Judge Chris Craft, Commercial Appeal reporter Clay Bailey, John Branston of the Memphis Flyer, and Ken Jobe and Lauren Lee of FOX 13 news, WHBQ-TV.

Brooke Gladstone, co-host of National Public Radio's On the Media, will moderate a discussion with Commercial Appeal editor Chris Peck and Tennessee State Senator Mark Norris of The Commercial Appeal's highly controversial publication on its Web site of the public records database of concealed weapon carry permit holders.

The program is sponsored by The U.S. District Court for the Western District of Tennessee, the Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law, the University of Memphis Law Alumni Chapter, the Department of Journalism, the Memphis Bar Association, and the Memphis Mid-South Chapter of the Federal Bar Association.

Parking will be available in the garage adjacent to the Fogelman Executive Center on Innovation Drive, just off Central Avenue, and in the Central Avenue parking lot.

Registration is available online at the Memphis Bar Association. For more information call (901) 527-3573.

NEW CHAPTER STANDARDS

At its Aug. 27 meeting, the SPJ national board approved changes in the professional chapter standards and reporting requirements.  I'll be sending copies of the changes to chapter leaders shortly.

The revision does two important things:
•    It makes it easier for pro chapters to remain in good standing under SPJ’s “star rating” system, and therefore easier for chapters to be eligible to vote at the national convention.
•    It requires each regional director to contact pro chapters in his/her region every three months to discuss programs, activities, problems and successes in the preceding three months. The RD must file a quarterly report based on that discussion with HQ. That report becomes part of the annual report that chapters are required to file to remain in good standing.

Why’d we do it? I’ll just quote from the proposal put together by Region 2’s Jeremy Steele with help from Region 11’s Sonya Smith, other regional directors and other SPJ leaders:

Core objectives
Quickly identify and aid troubled chapters.
Increased communication between regional directors and chapter leaders will mean troubled chapters will be more likely to be found in time to offer help, rather than at the end of the year when an annual report is filed, or, in some cases, not filed.

Ensure regular communication between regional directors and chapters.
Quarterly reports must be filed by each regional director for each pro chapter in a region. This increased communication should also increase communication between local chapters and the Board of Directors and SPJ headquarters.

Spread success between chapters.
Increased communication between all regional directors and chapters will allow for more communication to chapter leaders of programming and recruiting ideas.

Require financial reporting.
A financial report is included in the annual report chapters must file in order to remain in “good standing.”

Define what it means to be a chapter in “good standing,” thus giving voting rights.
The revised program establishes a minimum of standards, achievable by all active chapters.

Establish a minimum level of service provided by SPJ chapters.
Chapters must communicate with members, hold a minimum number of activities, actively recruit members and communicate with the regional director and national SPJ.

Build a flexible framework for chapters.
Chapters are given freedom to choose activities to hold, so long as the activities further SPJ’s mission.

Create high expectations of chapters.
We continue to work within the Star System framework with which chapter leaders are familiar.

SLOGGING = SLOW + BLOGGING

That's me. A very slow blogger. In any case, here's the first of several updates on the recently concluded SPJ convention.

SPJ marked its 100th anniversary with a successful convention in Indianapolis Aug. 27-30, drawing 649 to three and a half days of excellent professional development sessions, networking and fun. Last year’s convention in Atlanta pulled in 520 journalists.

Sponsorships were also up this year, according to The Working Press, the convention newspaper produced by student volunteers. The Atlanta convention generated $70,000 in sponsorships; the recently concluded Indianapolis gathering produced $87,000.

Check out the free-to-SPJ-members streaming video from some of the conference’s best sessions at http://www.spj.org/c-recap09.asp. That page also has links to a lot of other good stuff from the convention, including Roxana Saberi’s speech to the Mark of Excellence Awards luncheon.

Most conference sessions focused on practical issues involving careers and new media as well as SPJ’s centennial.

The convention also brings the election of national officers and about half the regional directors to the SPJ board. Hagit Limor of Cincinnati and Darcie Lunsford of Delray Beach, Fla., were unopposed for president-elect and secretary-treasurer, respectively. Kevin Z. Smith, whom delegates chose as president-elect in 2008, became president on Aug. 29.

You can find photos and other info about all board members at spj.org, but here’s the list of the 2009-10 officers and board members:

President: Kevin Z. Smith; President-Elect: Hagit Limor; Secretary-Treasurer: Darcie Lunsford; Immediate Past President: Dave Aeikens; Vice President, Campus Chapter Affairs: Neil Alan Ralston; Directors At-Large: Bill McCloskey; Michael Koretzky; Student Representatives: Tara Puckey; Andrew Seaman; Campus Advisers At-Large: Sue Kopen Katcef; George Daniels; Region 1 Director: Luther Turmelle; Region 2 Director: Brian Eckert; Region 3 Director: Jenn Rowell; Region 4 Director: Jeremy Steele; Region 5 Director: Liz Hansen; Region 6 Director: Amanda Theisen; Region 7 Director: Holly Edgell; Region 8 Director: Scott Cooper; Region 9 Director: John Ensslin; Region 10 Director: Dana Neuts; Region 11 Director: Jodi Cleesattle; Region 12 Director: Sonny Albarado.

UPDATE - GREEN EYESHADE AWARDS

One category was omitted from the official  awards announcement.  It follows:

38. Serious Commentary
1. “Lauren” Laurel Mills, Lipstick Magazine (Birmingham)
2. “Simple Pleasures We Enjoy” Mark W. Maguire, Cobb Life Magazine (Marietta, GA)
3. “Bambi Bump-off, Che Who?, Wacko Like Winton” Chuck Strouse, Miami New Times (Miami)

GREEN EYESHADE WINNERS ANNOUNCED

The St. Petersburg Times' Lane DeGregory took the top Green Eyeshade Award in the 59th  annual competition for her moving story of "The Girl in the Window."

The awards were announced Sunday, June 15, in a press release.

The full release is attached.

GREEN EYESHADE BANQUET CANCELED

LITTLE ROCK — Directors of the Green Eyeshade Awards have canceled plans for this year’s awards banquet and presentation because the news media’s economic problems made it difficult to guarantee attendance.

Winners will be announced in a separate release by June 15.

“Canceling this celebration of journalistic excellence was a difficult decision,” said Sonny Albarado, director of Region 12 of the Society of Professional Journalists and co-director of the Green Eyeshade Awards.

“With so many of us facing budgetary cutbacks, both personally and professionally, it seemed an undue burden to put on folks,” added Darcie Lunsford, SPJ’s Region 3 director and Green Eyeshade Awards co-director. “The GES region covers such a wide swath of the southern United States that most of us would have had to travel to get to a banquet. We hope to reinstate our traditional banquets next year.”

The Green Eyeshade Awards is an annual regional competition that recognizes outstanding journalism in 11 southeastern states: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and West Virginia.

The Green Eyeshade Awards were started by the Atlanta Professional Chapter of SPJ and are now administered by regional directors for the Society of Professional Journalists. Last year’s awards presentation was held in Atlanta in conjunction with the Atlanta Press Club’s annual gala.

The society, the nation’s most broad-based journalism organization, works to improve and protect journalism. It is dedicated to encouraging the free practice of journalism and stimulating high standards of ethical behavior.

Founded in 1909 as Sigma Delta Chi, SPJ promotes the free flow of information vital to a well-informed citizenry; works to inspire and educate the next generation of journalists; and protects First Amendment guarantees of freedom of speech and press.

A CONVERSATION WITH THE AUDIENCE

This from former ETSPJ president and national  SPJ  Membership  Committtee chairman John Huotari:

In today’s world of 24-hour access to information, the need for credible, fair reporting is more important than ever.

And the Society of Professional Journalists is hosting a series of town hall meetings this week, Ethics Week, that are focused on restoring journalistic credibility by helping readers, viewers, listeners and Web site visitors understand what credible journalism is.

The East Tennessee Society of Professional Journalists has been selected as one of 10 chapters across the country to host one of these town hall meetings. The local meeting begins at 7 p.m. Thursday in the Toyota Auditorium of the Howard Baker Jr. Center for Public Policy on the University of Tennessee campus in Knoxville.

The Baker Center is co-sponsoring the event.

The meeting will begin with a discussion about citizen journalism, bloggers and reader comments on Web sites. As more and more media businesses cut their news staffs, editors and news directors may rely on citizen journalists to fill vacancies or to provide first-hand accounts of events. However, do these citizen journalists operate under the same ethical guidelines as trained journalists? Bloggers and Web site visitors often comment on popular issues and stories presented in the news, which can blur the line between factual information and opinions.

SPJ’s large and diverse membership consistently identifies ethics as one of the organization’s most important missions. The SPJ Code of Ethics, first adopted in 1926, is an industry standard. One element of the code is to “invite dialogue with the public over journalistic conduct.”

During the town hall meeting, the audience is encouraged to ask questions about how local stories are covered and the decision-making process of editors and reporters as they go about their jobs of covering and presenting the news.

The panel will include Jack McElroy, editor of the News Sentinel in Knoxville; Bill Shory, WBIR-TV news director; Michael Grider, VolunteerTV.com interactive producer; and Glenn Reynolds, UT law professor and founder of Instapundit.com.

Marianna Spicer, Cable News Network’s (CNN) executive editor for news standards in Atlanta, will moderate the program.

For more information, call ETSPJ President Mia Rhodarmer at (423) 337-7101 or e-mail her at editor@advocateanddemocrat.com.

REGION 12 MARK OF EXCELLENCE & CONFERENCE

Finally getting around to posting something about the Region 12 Spring Conference, held in Little Rock April 3-4.

First, congratulations to Louisiana State University, the University of Arkansas and Grambling State University for taking home the most Mark of Excellence awards — 18, 14 and 10, respectively.

Too bad LSU didn’t send anyone to the conference. Grambling, on the other hand, had nine students and two faculty advisers on hand. Thank you to Grambling and Louisiana Tech, which combined make up the Lincoln SPJ Campus Chapter, for their continued support.

For the complete list of MOE winners, see the attached Excel file.

Next, congratulations to host chapter Arkansas Pro and its conference planning team: Andrew DeMillo and Kelly Kissel of the Associated Press and John Krupa and Charlie Frago of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. They put on a fantastic conference and attracted enough sponsors to allow everyone who attended to register at the same rate whether they were SPJ members or not. The professional rate was $60, the student rate $40.

And a special thank you from me to the sponsors: ArkansasOnline in association with the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, arkansasbusiness.com, Arkansas Press Association, Arkansas Press Women, the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, Stephens Media, Associated Press, SPJ Region 12 and the Northwest Arkansas SPJ Pro Chapter.

A big thank you to conference panelists Gwen Moritz, Arkansas Business; Evie Blad, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette; Mark Ballard, The Advocate of Baton Rouge; David Kincade, thearkansasproject.com; Conan Gallaty, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette; Zack Stovall, Stephens Media Group; Max Brantley, Arkansas Times; Rick Peltz, University of Arkansas at Little Rock law professor; Arkansas state Rep. Steve Cole; Lance Turner, Arkansas Business; and Kelly Kissel, AP.

Guest speaker at the Mark of Excellence luncheon, which was combined with the Arkansas AP Broadcasters awards, was AP Washington bureau chief Ron Fournier, who spent part of his early career in Little Rock.

Guest speaker for the concluding conference dinner was Pulitzer Prize-winning narrative writer Tom Hallman Jr. of the Portland Oregonian.

OLE MISS MARKS CENTENNIAL WITH DEDICATION, KLIBANOFF

University of Mississippi chapter adviser Dr. Kathleen Wickham sends along this press release about the chapter's plans to celebrate SPJ's centennial:

Agence French-Press reporter Paul Guihard was murdered on the campus of the University of Mississippi during the 1962 integration crisis. His death remains one of Mississippi's 43 unresolved civil rights-era murders. On April 17 the Ole Miss chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists will dedicate a memorial bench in his honor.

The bench, located in a landscaped area bound by Farley Hall and Sorority Row, was funded through a national SPJ grant and through funds made available by the University Foundation.

April 17 was selected for the dedication because the day marks the 100th anniversary of SPJ’s founding. SPJ is the nation’s largest professional journalism organization.

“There is a natural connection betweens SPJ’s commitment to the First Amendment and Guihard’s sacrifice," said SPJ campus chapter adviser Kathleen Wickham. "Guihard gave his life to report the news in order that others might learn from what was occurring on campus that night. SPJ supports press freedom as an important component of democracy.”

Guihard was on campus to cover the enrollment of James Meredith. FBI reports indicate that Guihard was shot in the back from a foot away. He had been on campus less than 30 minutes when the incident occurred. President John F. Kennedy arranged to have Guihard’s body flown back to France, where he was born, after a memorial service in New York.

Three events are scheduled in conjunction with the dedication.

•       Hank Klibanoff, author of  The Race Beat (with Gene Roberts) will give the dedication speech at 9 a.m.  He will issue a call for the identification of Guihard's killer.
•       At 10 a.m. the bench will be dedicated.. Pierre Taillefer, Agence France Presse, Executive Director for North America , will make comments.
•       At noon, Sidna Brower Mitchell, editor of the Daily Mississippian in 1962-63, will speak.

FOURNIER, HALLMAN IN LITTLE ROCK

Eight days to go before the opening reception of the 2009 Region 12 SPJ Spring Conference on April 3, and the excitement builds.

Our hosts — the Arkansas Pro Chapter — have arranged a tantalizing program with not one but two stellar speakers and some dynamite panels. Download and print the attached PDF of the conference flier for full details.

AP Washington bureau chief Ron Fournier will speak at Saturday’s luncheon, which will also feature the presentation of the Mark of Excellence winners and the Arkansas AP Broadcasters awards. The Associated Press broadcasters are holding their convention the same weekend as the SPJ conference and will join us for the awards luncheon.

Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Tom Hallman Jr. of the Portland Oregonian will speak at a conference-closing dinner Saturday night.

This and the fine array of panels for the low-low price of $40 for students and $60 for professionals. That’s everyone, not just SPJ members.

That’s right. The host chapter’s planning committee worked hard and despite the economic climate, cobbled together a list of sponsors that allows a flat registration fee.
Congratulations to John Krupa, Kelly Kissel, Andrew DeMillo and Charlie Frago for pulling this off.

So, if you were still teetering on whether to attend, take the plunge. Fill out the registration form on the PDF and send in your check today. Or pay at the door on April 3.

Different Faces: How the media covers race and diversity.

That's the title of an upcoming program sponsored by the East Tennesseee Pro Chapter, scheduled to start at 7 p.m. Feb. 26 at the Cansler Family Branch, YMCA, 616 Jessmine St. in Knoxville.

A distinguished panel will help discuss issues like: Are stories covered differently when they involve minorities? Are issues of importance to minority and other diverse groups given appropriate coverage in the media? When is it helpful, and when it is harmful, to mention identifying characteristics like race in a news story?

Confirmed speakers include:

• Saadia Williams: Former executive director of the Race Relations Center of East Tennessee
• Rev. Harold Middlebrook: Pastor of Canaan Baptist Church of Christ in East Knoxville, a friend of the late Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and longtime civil rights activist
• Loida Valesquez: with the UT College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences, and active in the Hispanic/Latino community

The discussion is free and open to the public.

For more programs coming up this spring and summer, please see the chapter's Web site at www.etspj.org.

ENVIRONMENTAL JOURNALISM PROGRAM

 The East Tennessee Society of Professonal Journalists chapter has a major professional development program on tap in March called “Writing Green.”

The full-day conference aims to “prepare present and future journalists to handle the massive and ever-increasing amount of information related to environmental topics,” the chapter’s conference publicity says.

The public also is invited.

Writing Green is scheduled for March 27, 9 a.m. through 5 p.m. at Calhoun’s On the River, 400 Neyland Drive, Knoxville, Tenn. Fees are $15 for SPJ members, $20 for nonmembers and $30 at the door.

Early-registration discounts are available. Go to http://etspj.org/environmental-conference/.

Keynote speaker for the conference will be Jim Detjen, director of the Knight Center for Environmental Journalism at Michigan State University.

Planned panel sessions include: Intro to Environmental Issues in Southern Appalachia, Environmental Law and Policy, The Energy Beat — Coal in Appalachia, and Application of Environmental Journalism.

Co-sponsors of the event are the University of Tennessee Environmental Studies Program and the Institute for a Secure and Sustainable Environment.

Personal note: What an impressive program. This is worth your while if you are a journalist in Tennessee, southern Virginia, northwest North Carolina and northern Georgia.

SPRING CONFERENCE UPDATE

Check out the attached flyer  to register for the Region 12 Spring Conference in Little Rock, April 3-4, 2009.

GREEN EYESHADE FEES LOWERED

Fellow journalists,

In recognition of the economic stress under which you and your news organizations are operating, Green Eyeshade Awards-SPJ Inc. is lowering the entry fees for the 59th Annual Green Eyeshade Awards.

Rather than the previously announced $50 for SPJ members and $75 for nonmembers, SPJ members can enter for $40 per entry and nonmembers for $55 per entry.

As directors of a nonprofit, the Green Eyeshade Awards-SPJ Inc., we understand the challenges facing journalists and news organizations, and we want to make it easier to have your work recognized.

Please contact contest coordinator Sarah Prickett with any questions: sprickett@arkansasonline.com or 501-399-3638. 

Contest rules can be found at  spj.org/a-eyeshade.asp