Indiana University School of Journalism » 2008 » June

HSJI advisers wrap up summer sessions

Greg Ruhland — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 01:38:18 +0000

Photo by Greg Ruhland

Adviser Christina Webb describes her lesson plan during an HSJI workshop session last week.

IDS focusing on Web, multimedia (April 26)

Whether talking about First Amendment issues or learning the intricacies of Adobe’s InDesign program, high school journalism advisers were students themselves at this month’s High School Journalism Institute at Indiana University.

Offered each summer for the last six decades, HSJI caters to both advisers and high school students who want to prepare to lead their student publications. HSJI just wrapped up two weeks of adviser workshops. Student workshops begin July 7.

“This has been a special group,” said HSJI instructor Diana Hadley of her advisers last week. A 26-year veteran of the program and former Mooresville High School teacher, Hadley returns July 13 to teach a session for high school students. “This group gelled halfway through the first day, and they’ve not only enjoyed each other, they’ve also supported one another. Each of them has learned from the strengths of the others.”

Hadley insisted that each year, she learns as much as she teaches.

“What changes most is the technology,” she said, adding that issues like First Amendment rights and student time commitments remain consistent from year to year.

In EP 205, instructors massaged their teaching tactics in Hadley’s workshop. They shared their mini-lessons on teaching the active voice, writing leads, the inverted pyramid, attribution, quotations and fact-checking. The other instructors chimed in with feedback.

Christina Webb, from the private Worcester Academy in Worcester, Mass., was one of them. After Googling for a list of summer programs like HSJI, she enrolled with hopes to eventually teach her 17 high school students to write controversial pieces in an objective, unbiased manner. Her brand new lessons center around the construction of reality in war stories, points of view and depictions of truth in the media.

“Just having a week of undisturbed time to get this work done without distractions is great,” Webb said. She is new at Worcester and in her second year advising a newly rebuilt journalism program. HSJI allows her to earn advising credits there. “Networking with the other advisers, their ideas and the shared resources are invaluable.”

HSJI makes an effort to draw high school journalism instructors and students outside of Indiana, like Webb.

“I keep my eyes open for excellent teachers,” said HSJI director Jack Dvorak, who looks first in Indiana for potential instructors with an excellent publications and media background. But, in addition to Webb, he has selected out-of-state teachers over the years: a TV news director from Cincinnati, Ohio; an opinion teacher from New Mexico; and an alumnus, now a journalism professor at Iowa State University, who returns to teach at the HSJI each summer.

Add to the list Ellen Cowhey of the Master’s School in Dobbs Ferry, N.Y. There, Cowhey teaches two journalism classes of about 14 students each. Having worked in Adobe InDesign for several years without formal training, Cowhey was much more comfortable designing than when she arrived the previous week.

“I had a lot of my students teaching me how to do this,” she laughed. “So I wanted to get up to speed with them, if not a step ahead, so that both my students and I aren’t wasting time.”

And instructor Bryan Salyer from Batesville (Ind.) High School was incorporating both InDesign and advanced technologies into his own newspaper and yearbook curriculum, such as podcasting, SoundSlides and Web design.

When Dvorak took the reins of the High School Journalism Institute 22 years ago, he continued a legacy left in part by schoolteacher and Indianapolis Star copy writer Gretchen Kemp, who was hired as an HSJI instructor in 1947.

It was thanks to Kemp’s legacy that some advisers last week, such as Lauren Gross, attended the workshop at reduced cost. As Kemp grant recipients, Gross’ and eight others’ continuing education credits as a journalism advisers were defrayed.

Similar financial aid is extended by IU’s Office of Special Programs and Diversity to at least 15 students with journalistic potential, but who may lack the means to attend. Other students seeking assistance might defer to their local newspapers, Kiwanis and Rotary clubs.

Polsgrove’s new book due in 2009

Gena Asher — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 15:21:48 +0000

Manchester University Press has accepted professor emerita Carol Polsgrove's new book, Ending British Rule in Africa: Writers in a Common Cause, for publication in the summer of 2009. This is her third book on publishing communities and political change. Divided Minds: Intellectuals and the Civil Rights Movement appeared in 2001 and It Wasn't Pretty, Folks, But Didn't We Have Fun? Esquire in the Sixties in 1995. Ending British Rule in Africa will be part of MUP's Studies in Imperialism series.

Routledge publishes The Global Journalist (May 13)
School research group launches survey (May 10)
Faculty, student work set for AEJMC presentation (May 10)

Weaver headed to UNC for research

SoJ Web Report — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 11:51:28 +0000

Roy W. Howard Professor David H. Weaver will be the Roy H. Park Distinguished Visiting Professor in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill during the fall 2008 semester.

While there, he will work on a 40-year update and replication of the original media agenda-setting study conducted in Chapel Hill during the 1968 presidential election.

J201: Bloomington SourceSummer 2008

Jeff Johnson — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 19:21:45 +0000

The Summer 2008 issue of the ongoing e-zine produced by J201 Reporting and Editing II students.

Hatley Major talks about ‘framing of news coverage’

Brian Buckey — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 18:49:35 +0000

Photo by Brian Buckey

Assistant professor Lesa Hatley Major led a workshop on "The Framing of News Coverage" at last week’s Mini University.

Routledge publishes The Global Journalist (May 13)
School research group launches survey (May 10)
Faculty, student work set for AEJMC presentation (May 10)

As part of Mini University 2008, journalism assistant professor Lesa Hatley Major led a class session on Thursday called “The Framing of News Coverage: A Question of Responsibility.”

The lecture drew close to 100 attendees, mostly IU alumni. The focus of the lecture as Hatley Major said during the introduction of the class was to “raise awareness of the issues of news coverage and examine the idea of responsibility.”

“With this current election, things like race and gender and how these stories are covered becomes very important,” Hatley Major said. “I think there is heightened attention to the political process right now and issues like media responsibility are becoming very important.”

The weeklong Mini University at Indiana University offers adults a chance to revisit classrooms to learn about topics from current events to music to science. IU professors such as Hatley Major lead the discussions.

Her talk focused on different types of framing, like episodic framing, which features reporting in terms of concrete instances, and thematic framing, which features reporting on broader trends and outcomes.

“I was really interested in why the news media chooses certain stories that they report on,” said Les Tweedle an attendee and graduate of the IU School of Dentistry. “I didn’t think about framing too much before the lecture.”

Hatley Major also showed several videos to illustrate how a topic can be framed in entirely different ways. The first video showed President Bush’s visit to Israel and how different media outlets in America and the Middle East had reported on the story. The second video was a news profile of a wealthy CEO who chose to photograph homeless people in his spare time.

While some in attendance agreed with how the CEO was portrayed, others took exception to his financial gains from the photography.

“I was a little bit turned off by the way it was covered,” said Joann Kimbrugh, a graduate of the IU nursing school. “It bothered me that this form of journalism was based off exploiting others for profit.”

After the lecture, Hatley Major took time to answer questions from the audience. A common theme was the changing nature of journalism and the decreased readership of traditional print journalism.

“I think one of the reasons that newspaper readership is in decline is because every time I open up a newspaper every article is the same word-for-word as I read on the Web the same day,” Marjorie Smith said.

Hatley Major, who worked as a television news anchor in Louisiana, stressed the importance of familiarizing journalism students with the changes that are taking place within the field.

“We still stress the basic foundational skills,” she said. “But we also want our students to be able to connect with the community and have a finger on the pulse of professional journalism.”

Four faculty lead Mini U classes

Brian Buckey — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 18:39:09 +0000

Photo by Brian Buckey

Ralph Winslow Visiting Professor Jim Bright was one of four journalism faculty who taught sessions as IU’s Mini University last week.

Routledge publishes The Global Journalist (May 13)
School research group launches survey (May 10)
Faculty, student work set for AEJMC presentation (May 10)

Last week, four School of Journalism instructors found themselves addressing an entirely different group of students from those they work with during the school year.

As part of IU’s Mini University 2008, professors Jim Bright, Tony Fargo, Lesa Hatley Major and Peter Jacobi each led a class session during the six-day event geared toward adult learners.

Although Mini University is attended mostly by IU alumni, it is open to anyone who wishes to attend. Faculty members from all different disciplines lead nearly 100 sessions for the participants.

“It’s a wonderful program and it’s a very good idea to help connect with the community,” Hatley Major said. “I consider it to be an honor to be able to participate in the program.”

Each teacher had an hour and 15 minutes to cover his or her material, which proved to be a bit of a challenge.

“It’s really interesting taking what you may teach over the course of a year and adapting it for another audience,” Fargo said. “The audience is very attentive and really keys in on what you’re saying.”

Fargo led a session entitled “Shielding Reporters from Subpoenas.”

“I think it’s a pretty timely topic,” he said. “There haven’t been a ton of new cases with the subject, but with Congress considering providing measures for protecting anonymous sources, there definitely is some interest.”

For Bright, who is an IU alumnus, Mini University offered a unique chance to connect with other alumni.

“It’s interesting because you are looking out there at a lot of faces who not too long ago were the same age as our students now,” Bright said. “I think they were just as enthusiastic and attentive as our current students.”

Bright, who was worked in public relations in Japan for Ford and Mazda led a session entitled “Japan: A Rare and Special Treat.”

Photo by Brian Buckey

The 2008 session of IU’s Mini University sold out this year, the second year a row that alumni and others flocked to Bloomington to take classes.

“About half of the people in attendance had been to Japan,” Bright said. “It made for kind of a different experience because they were able to share some of their experience and ask different questions than my students would have.”

Jacobi teaches lifetime learning courses in opera and classical music appreciation for the IU Bloomington Continuing Studies. His session for Mini University was called “Profiles in Music.” Hatley Major’s lecture was entitled “The Framing of News Coverage: A Question of Responsibility.”

The professors said they appreciated the opportunity to represent the School of Journalism.

“It’s a great opportunity for the school to show off what we have to offer,” Fargo said. “To have four faculty members is really good for us, especially for a relatively small school.”

Dvorak retires as HSJI director

Savannah Worley — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 12:04:28 +0000

Photo by Savannah Worley

After 22 years, HSJI director Jack Dvorak is retiring. He’ll remain with the faculty, however.

Read about Dvorak's research.
Routledge publishes The Global Journalist (May 13)
School research group launches survey (May 10)
Faculty, student work set for AEJMC presentation (May 10)

Each year, journalism professor Jack Dvorak creates lesson plans not only for his college students, but also for the high school students and teachers he works with in the summer as director of the High School Journalism Institute.

But this summer’s HSJI sessions will be his last as Dvorak is retiring as director of the program he has led for 22 years. He’ll remain a professor at the School of Journalism and alumna Teresa White, a journalism adviser from Noblesville, recently was hired as the new director.

Dvorak cites family health issues as his reason for ending his HSJI leadership. Handing over the reins is bittersweet.

“They want to make a difference,” he said of the more than 13,000 students and 1,000 teachers he has worked with over the years. “I feel they are so important to society, and I feel privileged to teach up-and-coming writers. It’s a big part of my life.”

The 62-year-old HSJI program offers intensive workshops for journalism teachers who want to learn to be better publication advisers as well as high school students working in school media. Students and teachers come from all over the country to attend the workshops, held over several weeks in June and July.

The institute is just one part of Dvorak’s advocacy for scholastic journalism and the profession of teaching journalism. He also has authored several studies that look at how high school students involved in journalism fare as college students, and as a professor, he prepares college students who are headed into careers as high school publications advisers.

Associate Dean for Undergraduate Studies Bonnie Brownlee said despite his retirement, future high school institute directors will always know and respect his work.

“He is a tremendous director of the institution,” she said. “He has tremendous loyalty to it.”

Dvorak directed high school institutes before he came to IU, including one at Northeast Missouri State University, now Truman State University. He also taught and directed the institute at the University for Iowa for five years.

HSJI Administrative Services Coordinator Linda Johnson has worked with Dvorak for 21 years, nearly all of his years as director. She said she learned a lot about the institute and student journalists while under his direction.

“He’s the best boss anyone can ask for,” she said. “He cares about his work and takes it to heart.”

Retired high school adviser Dan Niles has taught at HSJI for 34 years and knew both Gretchen Kemp and Mary Benedict, Dvorak’s two predecessors. Niles said HSJI has always been a wonderful institution, and Dvorak only improved it with his leadership and organizational skills.

“The institute has a national reputation, and he helped enhance it,” Niles said. “Jack has always been all about teaching, which really fits our own principles.”

Instructor Julie Dodd has worked with Dvorak for 13 years, but she said she has been familiar with Dvorak’s work with scholastic journalism for many years. She recalled a study he conducted in the late 1980s that found high school students who were involved with media also did better scholastically than students who were not involved.

Dvorak recently updated the study, finding the same results comparing high school student’s ACT scores and their involvement with student media. Dodd said his research helps encourage journalism professors.

“His research is helping all of us across the country,” she said. “There are many of his former students who are now journalism teachers themselves.”

Those who worked with Dvorak say they will miss him as the director but are happy he will remain on the faculty, Brownlee said. She said Dvorak always shows his co-workers respect, and he is proof of giving and receiving.

“Everyone is very loyal to Jack,” she said. “And he is always loyal and respectful to people who work with him.”

Dvorak said he will always remember the attendees of the institute and their eagerness to start in the field of journalism.

“They are a very uplifting bunch of people.” He said. “They’re here just to learn.”

Howard Reporting Competition 2008

Gena Asher — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 20:32:34 +0000

Nine students from around the nation who are winners in the Roy W. Howard National Collegiate Reporting Competition will be reporting on their experiences in Korea and Japan.

Students spend summer on the job

Savannah Worley — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 19:18:14 +0000

Photo by Savannah Worley

Chris Pickrell is working at the IDS this summer. Some students stay in Bloomington, taking jobs or internships at area media organizations.

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While some students are spending their summer at home or on vacation, many journalism students are spending their summer utilizing their skills and learning new ones.

These students are spending their vacations at the Indiana Daily Student, WTIU and the Bloomington Alternative completing internships and providing news to the Bloomington community.

Journalism graduate student Yolanda Zhang currently is an intern at WTIU, where she had worked in the past. She said in a phone interview she plans to back to her hometown, Beijing, China, in July in hopes to find work.

However, Zhang said she doesn’t feel any anxiety about obtaining her job, as she believes the skills she gained at WTIU will help her land a job in broadcasting.

“I really don’t think it’s about what goes on your resume,” she said. “It’s about gaining real-world experience.”

Sophomore Jessica Haney is an intern at the (Bloomington) Herald-Times this summer. She said in a phone interview she is glad to start early on internships.

“Starting here will make it easier for me to get other internships in bigger cities,” she said.

Three students are interns at the Bloomington Alternative, working with publishers and School of Journalism adjunct lecturer Steven Higgs. Junior Jaclyn Baker was in Higgs’ J201 Reporting, Writing and Editing II last spring and said he offered her a chance to work for him during the summer. She works about 35 hours a week at the paper plus 35 hours a week at Hobby Lobby. However, she said despite her busy schedule, she is enjoying her summer.

“It’s been hard, but it really worked out for me in the end,” Baker said. “I’m busy everyday, but I don’t have to deal with parents.”

Baker plans to work for the IDS next summer and gain experience in online and newspaper reporting. She said she is uncertain if she wants to work in newspaper, magazine or for an online publication, but working for the Bloomington Alternative this summer will help her gain a diverse background in reporting.

Senior Audree Notoras also is a Bloomington Alternative intern and former student of Higgs’. She is particularly excited about the recent publication of her summer reporting series called “The Other Bloomington,” which explores poverty in the town. She said her internship confirmed her dream of being a reporter.

“I get to know the community and interview real people,” she said. “And people from everywhere are reading my articles online.”

Nortoras is using the skills she learned in her journalism classes thus far and hopes to learn more during her internship this summer.

“I get to further skills in journalism classes and actually use them now,” she said.

Instead of an internship, some journalism majors decided to devote their summer to student media. IU senior Chris Pickrell previously studied psychology but plans to go back to class in the fall semester in pursuit of a degree in journalism. He has been a photographer for the IDS for over a year and said although he’s happy to work for the student newspaper, he wishes he could gain more income.

“I really didn’t have a choice,” he shrugged. “I couldn’t get another job.”

Despite the lack of money, Pickrell said working at the IDS will help him in the long-run in his studies and in his future career as a photographer.

“I’m gaining practical field experience, and I think that’s better than academia,” he said.

Although they have to work long hours at their internships and at their summer jobs, all of these students agree a summer in Bloomington will pay off more than spending a summer doing nothing at a beach.

“I learned that being poor isn’t fun,” Baker laughed. “But college is the time to do these things and learn from them.”

Teaching fellows transition from pros to professors

Michael Zennie — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 18:50:25 +0000

Photo by Michael Zennie

Teaching fellow Emily Metzgar, left, who joins the School of Journalism faculty in August, had questions during a workshop session. She and Deserai Anderson Crow of the University of Colorado are just two of the 15 fellows learning to transition from professional to professorial careers.

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Summer in London: The (other) tube (May 25)

It began in 1968 as a simple enough concept: If the IU School of Journalism could help new journalism professors to be better teachers, the result would be better journalists.

Now in its 31st year, the school’s annual Teaching Fellows Workshop takes a handful of talented new professors from across the country and brings them together for a week of classes taught largely by School of Journalism faculty members. The goal is to help the fellows become better teachers when they return to their colleges and universities in the fall.

Over the years, the program has brought the School of Journalism national recognition for its ability to coach new faculty members, said Amy Reynolds, associate dean for graduate studies and the director of the workshop.

“We’ve gotten really, really strong feedback,” she said. “This is one of those workshops that spreads via word of mouth.”

This year’s 15 teaching fellows come from across North America and have a wide variety of professional backgrounds. They are on campus from June 8 to 12.

Sue Burzynski Bullard, for example, a University of Nebraska professor, is a former managing editor at the Detroit News. Jangyul Robert Kim, on the other hand, is on the faculty at Colorado State University and teaches public relations. He was the first Korean awarded accreditation in public relations by the Public Relations Society of America and he worked as a public relations consultant for several multinational corporations including Visa, McDonald’s and Apple before leaving the professional world.

Kim said the greatest strength of the Teaching Fellows Workshop is that he has been able to learn to be a better teacher from his peers while giving them feedback from his own experiences.

Photo by Michael Zennie

School of Journalism Riley Visiting Professor Dennis Elliott talked to Nancy Muturi of Kansas State University before class Thursday at the School of Journalism’s Teaching Fellows Workshops.

Though many of the teaching fellows are transitioning from their jobs as working journalists to academics, about half of the program’s participants are just getting out of graduate school after receiving their Ph.D.s, Reynolds said.

Emily Metzgar fits in the latter group. After working as a U.S. diplomat, she received her doctorate from Louisiana State University in May. She will join the IU School of Journalism in August as one of its newest faculty members.

Metzgar said she took some teaching seminars at Louisiana State, but nothing with the intensity of the Teaching Fellows Workshop. Sessions last from 9 a.m. until almost 5 p.m. for four days.

“It’s like drinking from a fire hose,” she said.

The focus of the workshop is always how to better engage students, Reynolds said. But each year she tries to update the curriculum to fit the challenges and needs of teaching at a modern university.

A new addition this year is a course tackling the advantages and the potential pitfalls of publishing student work to the World Wide Web. Assistant professor Tony Fargo, himself a graduate of the Teaching Fellows Workshop, is teaching the class.

2008 Teaching Fellows:
Elaine Bieberly, Benedictine College
Susan Brockus, California State University, Chico
Sue Burzynski Bullard, Michigan State University
Bridgette Colaco, Troy University
Deserai Anderson Crow, University of Colorado
Dennis D. Elliott, Indiana University
Steve Fox, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Jangyul Robert Kim, Colorado State University
Kimberley Mangun, University of Utah
Emily Metzgar, Indiana University
George Miller, Temple University
Nancy, Muturi, Kansas State University
Kyle Reinson, St. John Fisher College
David Secko, Concordia University, Montreal, Canada
Fred Vallance-Jones, University of King’s College, Halifax, Canada

Indiana University School of Journalism » 2008 » June

HSJI advisers wrap up summer sessions

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