The Society of Professional Journalists has picked eight professional and six campus SPJ chapters as the recipients of SPJ's 1997 chapter program grants. The 14 chapters were chosen from a competitive group of proposals submitted by SPJ's local chapters.
In its second year, the program distributes $5,000 to SPJ chapters for programs ranging from disaster coverage to mentoring programs for student journalists. Here's brief look at the winning chapters:
The Northern California chapter's diversity committee will hold its annual content case study which will take a look at cultural, ethnic and gender issues in coverage by San Francisco Bay area media. The program addresses examples of both poor and excellent coverage with an award for those pieces that serve as an example for others.
The Detroit chapter is sponsoring a freelance writers conference. The program will provide information for those who may want to freelance and those who must rely on it for income. Sessions include expanding freelance opportunities; how to research using the Internet; what editors require in a freelance story and how to approach them; how to sell your stories to more than one outlet; why your income should come from many sources; and tax tips for the freelance writer.
The Inland Valley pro chapter will host a copy editing seminar for a group it considers the newsroom's unrecognized heroes. The program, which will begin late in the day to accommodate the schedules of most copy editors, includes sessions on sharpening copy editing, headline writing skills and communicating effectively with reporters, photographers and assignment editors, as well as how pagination has changed the copy editor's job and a look at what the future holds.
Montana's SPJ chapter will sponsor a statewide Freedom of Information/First Amendment Conference at the University of Montana. The program will address free press, fair trial issues, a review of the state Constitution's right to know guarantee and will include a how-to session on filing paper and electronic FOI requests for beginners.
The Oklahoma chapter will provide funding assistance for the Institute on Coverage of Disasters and Tragedies, a day-long workshop and seminar. The Institute will provide up to 300 journalists and students an opportunity to attend the free seminar including topics such as deadline writing under emergency conditions, writing better stories about people, dealing with stress, handling obituaries, dealing with authorities, and the ethical issues involved in covering tragedies.
The St. Louis chapter is offering "You Be the Editor: Do the Media Make the Right Decisions?" The program will provide a discussion of ethical decision-making in which reporters, editors, police, lawyers, judges, and others confront and resolve a challenging series of questions about a hypothetical, factual situation in which hard choices must be made. The program is designed to make journalists and the community more aware of the role of a journalist.
The Western Washington chapter will offer "New Media and the Future of Journalism" at the joint Region 10 and 11 conference in March. This is a special seminar on computer-assisted reporting that will include a classroom type lab for hands-on practice.
"Feathering your nest with freelancing," will be the topic of a West Virginia chapter program. In a small state where full-time journalism jobs are scarce, the program addresses pitching and marketing freelance story ideas. Panelists will share stories of success and failure including what works and why some things won't.
The Arkansas State University chapter will sponsor Newspapers & the Future: Integration of Technology in the Newsroom. The program, presented by American Press Institute Executive Director William Winters, will focus on what new technological advances mean to the future of newspapers, newsgatherers and the public.
The Miami University SPJ chapter will sponsor a Campus Crime Reporting Conference for student journalists in SPJ Regions 4 and 5. Panels will address campus crime coverage. An afternoon workshop activity on information acquiring strategies will give students the opportunity to work with and learn from area reporters who will serve as instructors.
To make high school journalists and advisers more aware of their press rights to report the news, Marshall University will provide a student press rights speaker for the annual convention of the United High School Media Association at Huntington, W.Va. The program will involve 300 students and journalism teachers from throughout West Virginia, Southern Ohio and Eastern Kentucky.
The Kansas State University chapter will host a complete program about the alternative media. Students will be introduced to alternative press publications and meet with practitioners of the alternative press. Throughout the program the students, who have had little exposure to alternative media, will get a feel for the demands of the work and explore the content, design, style and information-gathering aspects of the alternative press.
Truman State University will offer "Teaching New Dogs Old Tricks: What Student Journalists Should Know About Ethics." The program is an ethics seminar and critique workshop representing both print and broadcast media. Students will learn from professionals about the ethical decisions journalists must make in the course of a day.
The University of Wisconsin-River Falls has planned a mentoring program for its students. In the program, a professional volunteer will meet with a student periodically throughout the school year. The program provides professional connections, a shadowing opportunity and a critique session of each student's work.
-- Greg Christopher