[CW:MONTHLY] Tuesday's Problem: Should Journalists Declare Party Allegiance?

By Kelly McBride
Courtesy of The Poynter Institute

In the past two weeks I've been asked over and over if newsrooms should allow journalists to participate in caucuses and primaries where voters must publicly declare a political affiliation in order to get a ballot.

Editors and news directors want to know what boundaries to set. Journalists everywhere get uncomfortable when it feels like their right to vote clashes with newsroom policies.

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[CW:MONTHLY] The "Super Tuesday" Click List

Super Tuesday Tips
Butch Ward, Poynter Institute
Set piece journalism — coverage of big scheduled events with elaborate staging but unpredictable outcomes — generates some of the best and worst work in the field.

Going Live on Super Tuesday: History in the Making
Marisa Guthrie, Broadcasting & Cable
The pitched tenor of the 2008 campaign has sparked discussion inside broadcast-news divisions grappling with how much airtime to dedicate to the primaries and caucuses. This is a departure from recent election cycles, when networks have all but abdicated live coverage to the cable news channels.

The Denver Newspaper Guild Objects to Caucus Rules at Dailies
Denver Westword
Denver Post employees will be able to attend the February 5 Colorado caucus after all. Following an objection by the Denver Newspaper Guild, the broadsheet has modified its prohibition against certain staffers taking part. However, as of this writing, Guild reps have not yet been able to convince the Rocky Mountain News to lift its wholesale ban on participation by those who draw a paycheck from the tabloid.

Is Obama a Mac and Clinton a PC?
Noam Cohen, The New York Times
Styles make fights — or so goes the boxing cliché. In 2008, they make presidential campaigns, too. This is especially true for the two remaining Democrats, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. Reporters covering the candidates have already resorted to traditional analysis of style — fashion choices, manner of speaking, even the way they laugh. Yet, according to design experts, the candidates have left a clear blueprint of their personal style — perhaps even a window into their souls — through the Web sites they have created to raise money, recruit volunteers and generally meet-and-greet online.

Inside Story: The People Who Sell Presidents
Stephen Foley, The Independent
Behind every "Super Tuesday" there's a hidden PR bunfight to sell the US presidential candidates' strengths and conceal their frailties.

Spare the Change
Roy Peter Clark, Poynter Institute
This is an essay about the word "change" and how our political leaders have drained it of its meaning. It is a word that has inflamed Jeff Jarvis to infantile babbling. "I'm sick of hearing the word 'change.' During the Democratic debate in New Hampshire, we heard it 90 times," Jarvis wrote in a blog post last week.

McCain Wins the Coverage Battle as Media Move to Anoint Him
Project for Excellence in Journalism
The media's coverage of the campaign last week seemed to reflect a growing consensus that the Republican and Democratic nomination fights were moving along two distinctly different trajectories.

[CW:MONTHLY] Access is a Right, Not a Special Privilege

With apologies to the late Tip O'Neill, it serves us well to remember that all news is local. This is particularly true when it comes to reporting on open government issues and the impact these stories have on your community.

Although it's important to cover these issues whenever they occur, Sunshine Week, marked this year for March 16-22, is a particularly good time to remind readers, viewers and listeners of how access to information has led to positive change.

The school board, city council, zoning commission, health department, public works, police and fire — these are all places to look not just for breaking news, but also to start to track patterns in the release of information. There also are great human interest stories in the people who are fighting for access to records and meetings.

And in an election year, looking at where candidates and the government offices they run — or hope to run — stand on open government is crucial not only to developing a portrait of the candidate, but also to understanding what could happen to information in the term ahead.

Some examples of how newspapers highlighted FOI news from previous Sunshine Week packages include:

The Connecticut Post in Bridgeport found that federal court clerks were routinely refusing to release the names of sitting jurors, despite the fact that the individuals had stated their names and other personal information in open court during jury selection. This news came as a surprise to some of the judges. An opinion column by the Post's editor called such secrecy "a wholesale miscarriage of American justice."

"Personally," wrote Kansas City Star Editorial Page Editor Miriam Pepper referring to stories the paper broke using government records, "I want to know if my tax dollars are wasted on the wrong cell phone plans, if government holds property it can't even categorize and doesn't need, that a firefighter died after lax equipment repairs, or that my parent might be at risk in a nursing home with a bad record of care."

One of the most ambitious — certainly one of the most visible — demonstrations of how important open government is to newsgathering has been undertaken by The Oklahoman in Oklahoma City. Each Sunshine Week, the paper runs the Sunshine Week icon next to every item, from briefs to features, which came from public access to government information. In 2006, it estimated that the icon appeared next to roughly 7 in 10 stories during Sunshine Week.

It's important to remember, however, that access to government meetings and information is not a special privilege of the news media, but a right of the public. Educating people about what kind of information is available and how to get it is another way to engage them in your content, and provides particularly creative opportunities for your Web site with links, interactive request generators, story archives and more.

For more examples, see the Bright Ideas books and online gallery on the Sunshine Week Web site, http://www.sunshineweek.org/. You'll also find an online Tool Kit with materials to help you engage in Sunshine Week 2008 and the Sunshine Campaign through the elections.

[CW:MONTHLY] Three Signs of a Miserable Job

By Tom Musbach for Yahoo! HotJobs

"Awful," "dreary," and "miserable" are adjectives that many people use to describe their jobs at one time or another. Dissatisfaction on the job is common and often temporary. But not many people take time to analyze what makes a job miserable, and how to fix it.

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[CW:MONTHLY] NewsU: Five Steps to Multimedia Storytelling

Want to spread your wings beyond print reporting, but don't know where to start?

In News University's "Five Steps to Multimedia Storytelling," you'll learn the basic steps of telling your story with multimedia. You'll discover ways to map out your story before you head out to do your reporting. And you'll learn when to use such tools as audio, video and graphics.

Walk through a case study to see how a multimedia story is built. Explore a library of tutorials to help you with the technical side of recording, taping and editing for the Web. Enroll at http://www.newsu.org/courses/course_detail.aspx?id=ucknight_multimedia07 and take the free course on your schedule. It will take just an hour or two to complete.

NewsU (http://www.newsu.org/) offers more than 50 focused, interactive courses that appeal to journalists at all levels of experience and in all types of media. NewsU is funded by a grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. The program is a project of The Poynter Institute, a leader in journalism training.

Five Steps to Multimedia Storytelling

[CW:MONTHLY] Get the Job

Looking for a new job? Curious about what's out there? Be sure to check out these recent posts to NLGJA's members-only online job board. You can view full descriptions for these job announcements and many more in a variety of media categories by visiting NLGJA's Job Board in the Members Only section of our Web site. Also available are announcements about fellowships, award opportunities and training programs.

• Northwestern University Seeks Business Journalism Faculty Member (IL)


• WRNN-TV Seeks Director (NY)


• Newsweek.com Seeks Temp Web TV Producer (NYC)


• WCVB-TV Seeks Producer (MA)


• Newsday Seeks Assistant Editor, Opinion Pages (NYC)


• Southern Poverty Law Center Seeks Journalist for Intelligence Project (AL)


• KSTU-TV Seeks News Producer (OR)


• Tampa Tribune Seeks Statehouse Reporter (FL)


• KTVM-TV Seeks Reporter/Co-Anchor (MT)


• WKKG-FM Seeks On-Air Talent (IN)


• Freedom to Marry Seeks Media Relations Coordinator (NYC)


• 9News Seeks Sports Backpack Journalist (CO)

Login by visiting nlgja.org/membership/members_only.htm and entering your username and password in the fields provided. Your username is the first letter of your first name followed by your entire last name. Your password is the membership ID number printed on your NLGJA membership card. If you need assistance logging in or if you have misplaced your membership card, please contact NLGJA Membership Services Coordinator Brian Salkin at bsalkin@nlgja.org or 202-588-9888, ext. 10.

[CW:MONTHLY] Member in the Spotlight: Cindy Collins

Like many NLGJA members, Cindy Collins has the privilege of pursuing a personal passion for making a difference in the LGBT community in her career. As public relations director of Rainbow Legends, an independent publishing company in Kearney, MO, Cindy works with its founders to provide a powerful way to open the hearts and minds of a world full of prejudice and discrimination.

With 20+ years of freelance writing, advertising agency work, and most recently until it closed in October, ownership of the first and only LGBT-focused bookstore in Omaha, NE, Cindy now encourages others to share their personal stories.

“Storytelling is the oldest, most powerful medium known to man,” says Collins. “Rainbow Legends has traveled across the country gathering true stories for 'Dragonfly Stories: Stories Celebrating the LGBTQ Community' (released October 2007). These incredible stories about coming out, raising families/same-sex parenting, hate crimes, HIV, transgender issues, activism, reclaiming religious faith and more touch the hearts of everyone who reads them. It’s amazing to see how getting to know someone’s story can help others better understand the obstacles that the LGBTQ community must overcome just to be who we are.”

With the success of "Dragonfly Stories," volume two is now in the works for June 2008.

The publisher’s books have a unique mission: To help empower LGBT organizations by giving back 40% of book sales to them when selected by buyers at time of purchase. Books are available at http://www.rainbowlegends.com/, where stories may also be submitted for possible inclusion in the "Dragonfly" series — which are intended to continue as long as there are LGBT stories to tell.

[CW:MONTHLY] The Round Up

Online Trainings

Get Me Rewrite: The Craft of Revision
News University

Anatomy of a Libel Case: Business vs. the Media
Fred Friendly Seminars, Inc.

Reporting 101
Michigan Press Association

Building Your Influence in the Newsroom
International Newspaper Marketing Association

Color in News Design
News University

Committee of Concerned Journalists' Traveling Curriculum
Committee of Concerned Journalists

Community Service Photojournalism
News University

Epidemic!
Fred Friendly Seminars, Inc.

Courses & Seminars

Investigative Business Journalism in Your Community
February 8, Boston, MA
Donald W. Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism @ API

How to Become a Successful Magazine Editor
February 9, New York, NY
Mediabistro.com

InDesign for Designers
February 9-10, New York, NY
Mediabistro.com

Multimedia Journalism for College Educators
February 11-14, St. Petersburg, FL
Poynter Institute

Building Bridges to Better Tomorrows
February 15-17, San Francisco, CA
San Francisco Writers Conference

Ponte Vedra Beach: Spring Publishers' Conference
February 19-22, Ponte Vedra Beach, FL
Suburban Newspapers of America

InDesign for Writers and Editors
February 23-34, New York, NY
Mediabistro.com

Multimedia Journalism for Every Craft
February 24-27, St. Petersburg, FL
Poynter Institute

Reporting the Immigration Story in Georgia
February 25, Atlanta, GA
Foundation for American Communications

Nature Writing
February 29, East Lansing, MI
Michigan State University's School of Journalism

Award & Fellowship Programs

Casey Medals for Meritorious Journalism
Deadline: March 3, 2008
Apply now for the 14th annual Casey Medals for Meritorious Journalism honoring distinguished coverage of children and families. First-place winners in 14 categories receive $1,000 and are honored in an awards ceremony in Washington, DC.

California Endowment Health Journalism Fellowships
Deadline: March 3, 2008
This fellowship is open to professional print, broadcast and multimedia journalists from around the country who have a passion for health news. We encourage participation from senior health journalists working in general circulation and ethnic media.

Knight Fellowship at MIT
Deadline: March 3, 2008
Our twice-a-week seminars, laboratory visits and field trips bring Fellows up-to-date on current research and broaden their exposure to various fields of science. A number of seminars are devoted to the craft of science writing and issues involving interactions between science and society.

Gatekeepers’ Fact-Finding Trip to Uganda
Deadline: March 10, 2008
The International Reporting Project (IRP) is pleased to announce a 10-day Gatekeeper Editors' Trip to Uganda May 3-15, 2008, for U.S. editors and producers interested in learning more about Uganda and East Africa.

Godfrey Wells Stancill Fellowships — IRE Conference
Deadline: Varies
The Godfrey Wells Stancill Fellowship will be awarded annually to a journalist working for a newspaper with Sunday circulation under 50,000. The fellowship will cover the costs of sending the journalist to IRE’s annual conference.