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Creating a document-driven newsroom:
Ethnic Media

General Information
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Meet the Trainers
About Joe Adams
Joe Adams is an editorial writer at The Florida Times-Union and author of The Florida Public Records Handbook published by the First Amendment Foundation in Tallahassee.

Eight universities in Florida have used the book as a textbook, the only one of its kind in the nation, and more than 1,000 journalists have attended his workshops on how to use public records for success. He is the recipient of the national 2007 Eugene S. Pulliam First Amendment Award sponsored by the Sigma Delta Chi Foundation and has earned two national Sunshine Awards from the Society of Professional Journalists. In December 2000, Presstime magazine profiled him as one of the top 20 under 40 newspaper industry professionals to watch in the future.

As an editorial writer, Adams has received awards from the Florida Press Club, Florida Society of Newspaper Editors and the Society of Professional Journalists. His year of public records research of the Jacksonville City Council uncovered widespread open meetings abuses. The resulting work by Adams and the newsroom inspired a grand jury probe and prompted the council in 2007 to create the state's first known local ordinance to ensure better compliance with Florida's Sunshine Law. He is originator of the www.iDigAnswers.com Web site about Florida FOI news and public records use.

Adams is founder and past coordinator of Times-Union University, the Jacksonville newspaper's newsroom training program, and is also former director of the National Newspaper Diversity Job Bank on the Internet. He also taught information gathering for two years as an adjunct professor at the University of North Florida.

About David Cuillier
David Cuillier is an assistant professor of journalism at the University of Arizona, where he teaches public affairs reporting, computer-assisted reporting, and access to information. He has a master’s degree and doctorate in communication from Washington State University and was a public affairs reporter and city editor for 12 years at daily newspapers in the Pacific Northwest.

He helped coordinate an access audit for Washington state in 2001, assists coalitions for open government and has conducted access training for newspapers and regional SPJ conferences. His research focuses on the psychology of access — factors that affect public attitudes toward access to government records and strategies that journalists and citizens can use to increase their success at accessing public records.

About Joel Campbell
Joel Campbell is an assistant professor in the Department of Communications at Brigham Young University. He was a reporter and editor at the (Salt Lake City) Deseret News for 15 years covering everything from cops to Salt Lake City Hall to Salt Lake's bid for the Winter Olympics. He holds a master's degree from Ohio State University and bachelor's degree from Brigham Young University. He teaches beginning newswriting and advanced reporting courses.

He is active in many First Amendment and Freedom of Information causes and is past president of the National Freedom of Information Coalition and co-chair of SPJ's Freedom of Information Committee. He is legislative monitor for the Utah Press Association and has served as vice president of the Utah Headliners Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. He has also served on the Utah Information Technology Commission and Utah Courts Committee on Court Records Access and Privacy. He is also a consultant to the Citizen Access Project at the University of Florida and served on a SPJ task force that reviewed student press freedom at Southern Utah University.

He is also interested in ethics and was asked to conduct an independent review the Salt Lake Tribune-National Enquirer incident where two reporters sold information to the tabloid.

He is the recipient of the Quintus B. Wilson Ethics Award, Roy B. Gibson Freedom of Information Award, and Clifford P. Cheney Service to Journalism Award from the Utah Headliners Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. He also received SPJ's national outstanding chapter member award.

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Journalism Education Committee Chair

Becky Tallent
Assistant Professor
School of Journalism and Mass Media
University of Idaho
E-mail
Bio (click to expand) picture Rebecca J. “Becky” Tallent is an award-winning journalist and public relations specialist with more than 12 years experience as an energy/environmental and financial journalist plus an additional 16 years experience as a public relations specialist and five years as an educator. She is currently an assistant professor of journalism and mass media at the University of Idaho.

Becky’s experience as a reporter and editor inside Oklahoma was with the Daily Oklahoman, the Tulsa World, Oklahoma Business News Co. (where she was reporter and editor of the Oklahoma Energy/Environment Report) and as editor of the Oklahoma Banker. She has also covered energy and environmental issues for McGraw-Hills News, Inc. of New York (Platt’s Oilgram News, Engineering Week and Green Markets); Reuter’s U.S. Financial, Inc. based in New York; and the Washington, D.C.-based Oil Daily.

As a public relations specialist, Becky has represented the University Hospitals, the Oklahoma Educational Television Authority, the Oklahoma Energy Resources Board and Epworth Villa (a not-for profit retirement community). From 2002-2006, she was a public relations specialist with Evergreen Productions, Inc. of Oklahoma City where she represented the City of Lawton (OK), Tidal School Vineyards and the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center. Her expertise in public relations is writing/publications, working with the news media and crisis communications.

Before Idaho, Becky taught journalism at Bishop McGuinness High School, Southwestern College, the University of Phoenix, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University and Northwestern Oklahoma State University.

Some of Becky’s most recent awards include: 2003 Faculty Member of the Year, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University; first place, 2001, American Marketer’s Association, Oklahoma City Chapter, Marketing Campaign for Epworth Villa; second place, 2001, Society of Professional Journalists, Oklahoma Chapter, not-for-profit publications (Epworth Villa); first place, 2000, Society of Professional Journalists, not-for-profit publications (The Oklahoma Banker); and the 1999 Award of Merit from the Oklahoma Chapter of the International Association of Business Communicators for the Oklahoma Banker.

Becky has been a member of SPJ since 1972 when she joined the University of Central Oklahoma student chapter. She joined the Oklahoma Professional Chapter in 1977 and became a member of the Snake River Chapter in 2006. She has served on numerous local and national committees for SPJ. Becky’s dedication to the Society lies in her belief that service in SPJ is a way to contribute something back to the profession.

Becky earned both her Bachelor of Arts in Journalism (1975) and her Master of Education in Journalism (1977) from the University of Central Oklahoma. She earned her Doctorate of Education in Classroom Teaching/Mass Communications from Oklahoma State University in 1995.

Home > Journalism Training > Ethnic Media Training

Journalism Training
Ethnic Media Training

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Announced Dates and Locations

No Ethic Media Training programs are scheduled for 2009.

The Society of Professional Journalists, one of the nation’s premier authorities in public access and First amendment issues, will conduct training programs for ethnic-media journalists around the country in the coming months. The program will explore the ins and outs of Freedom of Information laws — and how to use them in daily reporting. The session will include a primer on the FOI laws related specifically to each location, as well as guidelines for successful use of the federal FOI law. Participants will see how these laws can be used to create quality journalism, and get some great ideas for producing document-driven stories of their own.

Those in attendance will learn:
— How federal, state and local government documents can enhance reporting for ethnic and community audiences.
— About federal, city, county and state Sunshine laws relevant to the area.
— About the public’s rights to documents and how to ask for them.
— About options for recourse when journalists are denied.
— How community and ethnic media journalists can collaborate with mainstream partners to do investigative stories (and win awards).

In addition to this one-of-a-kind training program, participants will be given a copy of SPJ’s “Open Doors.” This book is your doorway to additional FOI resources that offer more detailed and specific information.


Announced Dates and Locations

No Ethic Media Training programs are scheduled for 2009.


Questions?
Contact Heather Dunn, at 317-927-8000 ext. 204 or via e-mail.

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