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Diversity

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Who's News? Diversity Every Day: Check out SPJ's Diversity Committee Blog. Latest entries:

• Got the WRITE stuff?
• Biracial Moment.. Continued.
• Conversation Starters



SPJ Missions: Diversity
The Whole Story: Browse this expanding collection of resources, presented by SPJ's Diversity Committee. Articles include how to cover poverty, how to turn unfamiliar territory into common ground, and what diversity really means to a working journalist.

Latest Edition: Immigration reporting: How to advance it and make it original


Educational Resources
Get to the Source: A Teaching Plan: Struggling to find ways to incorporate diversity across the journalism curriculum? Use "Get to the Source: A Teaching Plan" as a model for assignments and classroom exercises in diverse source development. Instructors may use the Rainbow Sourcebook to help journalism students sharpen their analytical skills and learn about source credibility, authority, perspective, and other related issues.

Local Connection
SPJ Diversity Programming across the Country: SPJ's Diversity committee compiled this report so that chapters can get a sense of what others are doing and borrow ideas. Most accomplished some interesting diversity work; many partnered with other organizations.

Click hereDiversity Resources
Guidelines for Countering Racial, Ethnic and Religious Profiling: The Society of Professional Journalists passed a resolution urging members and fellow journalists to take steps against racial profiling in their coverage of the war on terrorism and to redouble their commitment to use language that is informative and not inflammatory, portray other cultures and religions fairly and seek truth through a variety of voices and perspectives.
  Who's News? Diversity Every Day
View all entries
• Got the WRITE stuff?
• Biracial Moment.. Continued.
• Conversation Starters

Related Articles: Diversity
See archive for more articles

News: SPJ announces New America Award recipients
Quill: Artist/writer finds way to bridge the divide
Quill: Now is America’s ‘biracial moment’
Quill: How to report on race in the most ethical ways
Quill: Working to bridge the divide
Quill: Why the race debate is far from over


More news sites
New American Media
IPA New York
Richard Prince's Journal-isms
Black College Wire
Reznet Blog: Native American Student Journalism
Reznetnews.org



Click hereReporter Tools
Rainbow Diversity Sourcebook: The SPJ Rainbow Sourcebook features qualified experts on key news topics from populations historically underrepresented in the news: people of color, women, gays and lesbians, and people with disabilities.

Click hereResources
Reading Room: Check out a selection of relevant diversity articles, presented in full, from the pages of Quill Magazine. For more than 100 years, Quill has been a respected and sought-after resource for journalists, industry leaders, students and educators on issues central to journalism.

Click hereReference
Diversity Toolbox: SPJ's Diversity Toolbox offers essays and links to resources that will help you broaden the perspectives and voices in your work. Journalists who want to improve their reporting will find valuable help throughout these areas of the site.

 

Diversity
News/Articles
Diversity Sourcebook
Diversity Toolbox
Sourcebook Teaching Plan
Anti-Profiling Guidelines
The Whole Story: Tips & Tools
Chapter Programming
Diversity Committee
Message Board


Who's News?
SPJ's Diversity Committee Blog
View all entries
• Got the WRITE stuff?
• Biracial Moment.. Continued.
• Conversation Starters

Diversity Committee
On both chapter and national levels, SPJ provides an open forum for the discussion of diversity issues in journalism. This committee's purpose is to promote a broader voice in newsrooms across the country and expand the depth and quality of news reports through better sourcing. Its ongoing project is the compilation of experts — primarily women, gays and lesbians, people of color and people with disabilities — through the Society's Diversity Source Book. The Society's relevance to its member is based on inclusiveness.

Diversity Committee Chair
Pueng Vongs
E-mail
Bio (click to expand) picture Pueng Vongs has more than 14 years experience as a journalist. She began her early career in financial journalism working for Money magazine and CBS.Marketwatch.com. She also reported from her native Thailand working for Bangkok-based Manager magazine and contributed articles to the Asian Wall Street Journal. Today she is an associate editor at Pacific News Service/New America Media in San Francisco, which produces original, youth and ethnic media content covering the nation’s growing ethnic communities. Her writing has appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle, Audubon magazine, Chicago Sun Times, Oakland Tribune, California magazine among others. She also works as an associate producer for the UpFront on KALW 91.7 FM in San Francisco. She has contributed radio pieces to KQEDâs Pacific Time and NPRâs the Travis Smiley Show. Among her SPJ posts Vongs serves as vice president for the Nor Cal board in 2006, was a member of the planning committee for the chapter’s multi-cultural writers conference, and was a national diversity leader fellow in 2005.

Linda Jue, vice chair
New Voices in Independent Journalism
San Francisco, Calif.
Bio (click to expand) Linda Jue was president of SPJ-NorCal for two and a half years and vice president for three. She is director of New Voices in Independent Journalism, a national initiative dedicated to building a diverse pool of independent investigative journalists and public intellectuals who can bring the emerging perspectives of the country's changing demographics, as well as the next generation of youth, to public interest reporting. She is the former associate director and founding staff member of the Independent Press Association, where she directed several cutting-edge national journalism programs.

Before going to the IPA, she directed San Francisco State University's Community Press Consortium, the first professional training program20in the country for journalists working in the community and ethnic press. She was a member of the founding collaborative of New California Media, now called New America Media, and directed the judging for the first two years of the New California Media Awards.

Linda is a former associate of the Center for Investigative Reporting and a former editor at San Francisco Focus magazine. She also worked as the Northern California correspondent for C-SPAN. Her work has appeared in San Francisco Focus, Los Angeles Times Syndicate, Toronto Globe and Mail, GEO, MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour, PBS Frontline and other outlets. She was a longstanding member, board director and president of Media Alliance during its years as a professional journalism and media watchdog organization. Linda is well-known in national media reform and media diversity circles. She is also a contributing member of a Bay Area travel writing group that has published three collections of travel essays through Traveler’s Tales.

Linda has won two Thomas Moore Storke International Journalism Awards and a Maggie Certificate of Excellence for Feature Writing.


Diversity Committee Members

Maria Alvarez
Freelance journalist
San Francisco, Calif.

Greg Daniels
University of Alabama
Tuscaloosa, Ala.

Bonnie Davis
Associate Professor Journalism
Virginia Commonwealth University

Holly Edgell
University of Missouri
Columbia, Mo.

Leo Laurence
Editor, San Diego News Service

Curtis Lawrence
Journalism Faculty, Columbia College Chicago
Bio (click to expand) picture Curtis Lawrence joined the Columbia College Chicago faculty in 2004 after working for nearly 20 years as an urban affairs reporter. Since 1980 he has worked at six daily newspapers and at the Chicago Reporter, a monthly publication that focuses on issues of race and poverty. Most recently, Lawrence worked at the Chicago Sun-Times where he covered a number of urban issues, including extensive coverage of the Chicago Housing Authority’s plan to replace its high-rises with mixed-income housing.

Lawrence earned a master’s degree in journalism from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism and a bachelor’s degree in English Literature and Mass Communications from Augustana College in Rock Island, Ill.

Lawrence has been active with diversity issues for the past two years. He is involved with recruitment and retention issues at Columbia with a special focus on diversity. He and Nancy Day, the Journalism Department chair, were instrumental in securing a grant from the McCormick Tribune Foundation to direct an outreach and journalism education program for Chicago Public Schools students and teachers.


Sally Lehrman
Santa Clara University
Montara, Calif.
slehrman(at)bestwrit.com
Bio (click to expand) picture Sally Lehrman is a director at large for the SPJ National Board of Directors. Additionally, she is an award-winning reporter and writer for some of the top names in national print and broadcast media. Her byline credits include Scientific American, Nature, Health, the Washington Post, Salon.com and the DNA Files, distributed by NPR. She specializes in medical and science policy reporting, with an emphasis on genetics, race and sexuality. Distinguished honors include the 1995-96 John S. Knight Fellowship; a shared 2002 Peabody award, Peabody/Robert Wood Johnson Award for excellence in health and medical programming, and Columbia/Du Pont Silver Baton (for the DNA Files); and reporting and writing awards from SPJ, Case, and other organizations.

Besides SPJ, Lehrman is active in several organizations that promote diversity in the media. Her volunteer work in diversity has been recognized by the 2003 Wells Key, a 2002 SPJ President’s Award, the 1998 Howard Dubin Outstanding Pro Member Award and an award for service to the NorCal SPJ chapter. She is author of News in a New America, a fresh take on developing an inclusive U.S. news media, and is a USC Annenberg Institute for Justice and Journalism Expert Fellow. Lehrman also serves as SPJ’s Diversity Committee chairperson.


Aiesha D. Little
Associate Editor
Cincinnati Magazine
513/562-2772
E-mail
Bio (click to expand) picture Aiesha D. Little is the associate editor for Cincinnati Magazine, a glossy city/regional publication covering Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky. Chief among her duties are writing features and departments, assigning and editing the calendar section, and managing the magazine's editorial internship program.

Little started her journalism career in newspapers before switching to magazines while pursuing a master's degree at Xavier University. Her daily news work has appeared in The Saginaw (MI) News, The Detroit News, and The Poughkeepsie (NY) Journal. After interning with both the special sections and editorial departments of Cincinnati Magazine, she headed to Chicago to work as the associate editor for EdTech Magazine, an education technology quarterly. She returned to Cincinnati Magazine as the associate editor in 2004.

Little's involvement in the Society of Professional Journalists goes back to her undergraduate years at Central Michigan University, where she served as the chair of her chapter's diversity committee. She is also a member of the National Association of Black Journalists and professional advisor to the University of Cincinnati Association of Black Journalists.


Robert Moran
Webmaster
Entertainment and Tourism Club
Fullerton, Calif.
E-mail
Bio (click to expand) picture Robert Moran is a senior at California State University, majoring in communications. As a prospective graduate of J-School, he is both optimistic and excited about the future of journalism. As a disabled journalist with Asperger's Syndrome, he firmly believes in diversity in the media.

Rebecca Tallent
University of Idaho
Moscow, Idaho

Venise Wagner
Associate Department Chair, San Francisco State University
Bio (click to expand) picture Venise Wagner is an assistant professor of journalism at San Francisco State University. She spent 12 years as a reporter for various California dailies, including the Hearst-owned San Francisco Examiner and San Francisco Chronicle. While at the Examiner, she covered Education and issues in the Bay Area's various black communities. She also was a religion and ethics reporter for The Orange County Register and The Modesto Bee. Her work has been published in Mother Jones, Parade and Hope magazine. Her interest in improving diversity in the news and giving voice to marginalized communities has led her toward the practice and instruction of public journalism. At San Francisco State, she developed a public journalism course that has sent students to the Bayview Hunters Point and the Mission districts and Oakland's San Antonio district to write about undercovered issues in those neighborhoods.

Wagner graduated with a bachelor's in chemistry from the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana and a master's in Latin American Students from the Monterey Institute of International Studies. She is currently working on a content analysis of the coverage of slave reparations in the mainstream print media. She is also working on an historical novel about the rise and fall of black colony in Southern California called Allensworth.


Georgiana Vines
Retired Associate Editor
Knoxville News Sentinel

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