Indiana University School of Journalism » Features

Speaker Series: Counts’ photo inspires Margolick’s new book

SoJ Web Report — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 16:15:29 +0000

The first of the school's spring Speaker Series guests, David Margolick, uses the late journalism professor Will Counts' iconic photo to explore race relations in America in his new book, Elizabeth and Hazel: Two Women of Little Rock.

Margolick will discuss book and his writing life in his talk at 7 p.m. Feb. 20 in the Whittenberger Auditorium at the Indiana Memorial Union. All Speaker Series events are free and open to the public.

The photo by then-Arkansas Democrat photographer Will Counts, later a photojournalism professor at the IU School of Journalism, is famous for its depiction of two teens – one black, one white — on the day of a court-ordered mandate to admit black students to Central High School in Little Rock. Counts' photos of this period in late 1957 gained national exposure through wire service distribution, and one was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. Several on on display on the first floor of Ernie Pyle Hall near the multimedia lab.

Margolick says in a video on his website that his inspiration for the book was a visit to the visitors’ center at the school, where the Counts photo is exhibited near a late 1990s-era photo of the two women. He wanted to know how they moved from their lives in that moment in 1957 to the congenial, smiling women in the more recent photo. After interviewing and getting to know Elizabeth Eckford and Hazel Bryan Massery, Margolick says he saw those women as a metaphor for the country’s racial history.

“I want this book to be an honest acknowledgement of the racial sensitivities that persist in this country and how, when it comes to race relations in America, everything is very complex and there are no simple or happy endings,” he says in the video.

A contributing editor to Vanity Fair, Margolick also was legal affairs reporter at The New York Times, where he covered the trials of O.J. Simpson, Lorena Bobbitt and William Kennedy Smith. His work for the Times was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize four times. His other books include Beyond Glory: Joe Louis vs. Max Schmeling and a World on the Brink, and Strange Fruit: The Biography of a Song.

Photo by Will Counts (IU Archives)

This photo by Will Counts was distributed over the AP wire in 1957. Author David Margolick's new book examines the lives of the two teens in the foreground.

After a career with the Associated Press, Counts taught photojournalism at IU for more than three decades. He died in 2001. During a centennial panel last year, alumni recalled Counts' influence on their careers as professional photojournalists, and his memory is honored each year through the Indiana Associated Press Managing Editors' Will Counts Photojournalism Award.

The School of Journalism Speaker Series gives students and area residents the opportunity to meet with some of the top media professionals in the country. Each semester, the series brings guests to Bloomington for free talks open to the public.

Author, publisher set for spring Speaker Series

SoJ Web Report — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 14:07:08 +0000

The School of Journalism’s spring Speaker Series guests include an author whose recent work connects to the school and a publisher leading one of the nation’s top newspapers.

David Margolick, author of Elizabeth and Hazel: Two Women of Little Rock, a study of the principal figures in the late IU professor Will Counts’ iconic photograph from the 1957 Arkansas school desegregation crisis, will speak at 7 p.m. Feb. 20 at the Whittenberger Auditorium, Indiana Memorial Union.
Washington Post publisher Katharine Weymouth, great-granddaughter of Eugene Meyer who bought the newspaper in 1933, will speak at 6:30 p.m. Feb. 28 at the Ernie Pyle Hall auditorium, Room 220.

Speaker Series talks are free and open to the public.

About David Margolick:
7 p.m. Feb. 20

David Margolick’s new book Elizabeth and Hazel: Two Women of Little Rock, links to the School of Journalism through his exploration of the lives of two women featured in a photo from the 1957 court-ordered desegregation of Little Rock’s Central High School.

The photo by Will Counts, later a photojournalism professor at the IU School of Journalism, is famous for its depiction of two teens – one black, one white — on the day of a court-ordered mandate to admit black students to Central High School.

Margolick says in a video on his website that his inspiration for the book was a visit to the visitors’ center at the school, where the Counts photo is exhibited near a late 1990s-era photo of the two women. He wanted to know how they moved from their lives in that moment in 1957 to the congenial, smiling women in the more recent photo. After interviewing and getting to know Elizabeth Eckford and Hazel Bryan Massery, Margolick says he saw those women as a metaphor for the country’s racial history.

“I want this book to be an honest acknowledgement of the racial sensitivities that persist in this country and how, when it comes to race relations in America, everything is very complex and there are no simple or happy endings,” he says in the video.

A contributing editor to Vanity Fair, Margolick also was legal affairs reporter at The New York Times, where he covered the trials of O.J. Simpson, Lorena Bobbitt and William Kennedy Smith. His work for the Times was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize four times. His other books include Beyond Glory: Joe Louis vs. Max Schmeling and a World on the Brink, and Strange Fruit: The Biography of a Song.

About Katharine Weymouth:
6:30 p.m. Feb. 28

Katharine Weymouth was named chief executive officer of Washington Post Media and publisher of The Washington Post in 2008. She had been vice president of advertising for The Washington Post since January 2005.

Weymouth is the great-granddaughter of Eugene Meyer, who bought the Post in 1933, and granddaughter and namesake of Katharine Graham, who led the company for 30 years and oversaw the Post reporters’ uncovering of the Watergate scandal.

Weymouth joined the Post in 1996 as assistant counsel and moved to an online publishing subsidiary of The Washington Post Company as associate counsel. She became director of the advertising department’s jobs unit in 2002 and was named director of advertising sales in April 2004.

She earned a bachelor’s degree, magna cum laude, from Harvard College in 1988 and a law degree from Stanford Law School in 1992. Following law school, she clerked on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals for one year. She practiced law at Williams & Connolly in Washington, D.C., from 1993-1996.

The IU School of Journalism Speaker Series gives students and area residents the opportunity to meet with some of the top media professionals in the country. All events are free and open to the public.

Read about previous Speaker Series guests.
Related
- Speaker Series: Counts' photo inspires Margolick's new book (Feb. 12)
- Cohen advises keeping 'open mind' about career fields (Feb. 1)
- Branigan Lecturer to address war photojournalism (Jan. 29)

Students tour Pyle’s first home as part of ‘Footsteps’ class

SoJ Web Report — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 16:20:29 +0000

Photo by Yang Han

Students talked with volunteer Phil Hess, left, during a visit to the Ernie Pyle World War II Museum Friday to learn about Pyle's early years. At spring break, they'll follow his path through Europe during his war correspondent

years.

By Meredith Reffner

When the School of Journalism’s most famous student, Ernie Pyle, first came to Bloomington in 1919 from his hometown of Dana, Ind., he traveled 90 miles on unpaved roads.

When 30 School of Journalism students traveled from Bloomington to Dana last Friday, the roads were paved, but that was the last sign of the 21st century.

Associate professor Owen Johnson led the group to visit the Ernie Pyle World War II Museum, a site that features Ernie Pyle’s birth home and two Quonset huts of full of Pyle’s World War II possessions, columns and other memorabilia.

Ernie Pyle is most remembered for his wartime columns that detailed the realities of life the G.I.s faced during World War II. He won a Pulitzer Prize in 1944 for his war correspondence.

Students in J418 From London to Paris in the Footsteps of Ernie Pyle are spending the entire semester learning about Pyle and his writing, and they will spend spring break in London, Paris and Normandy exploring the key places in Pyle’s wartime reporting.

Johnson arranged the trip to Dana so students could get a feel for how Pyle lived during his childhood. Ernie Pyle Scholars and Media Scholars also went on the day trip.

Photo by Jessica Williams

Students saw many of Pyle's belongings as well as those typical of the era. Here, From left, Autumn Scaglione, junior, and Meredith Reffner, senior, look through a display case.

In Dana, students saw the rocking chair that belonged to Will Pyle, Ernie’s father; the mantelpiece clock that belonged to Ernie’s aunt; and Ernie’s very own checkerboard. They learned that Maria Pyle, Ernie’s mother, traded eggs from her chickens so she could get supplies for the house. The students walked up and down the small town’s main street as Pyle may have done in his day.

“It gives you a better perspective of how he felt growing up,” said Dana Koglin, freshman and student in J418.

Pyle was born in 1900 to a farming family. At the age of 9, Pyle began working on the farm.

“He knew right then and there that was not for him,” said tour guide Joanie Rumple.

She said Pyle really wanted to join the military as World War I heated up, but his parents forced him to finish high school first. After graduation, though, he left Dana for good, and his first stop was Bloomington, where he studied journalism, leaving a semester shy of a degree to start his career.

His legacy remains in Dana. In 1973, Pyle’s house was moved from outside of town to the corner lot it sits on today. The American Legion and Lilly Foundation donated funds to fix up the home, and townspeople donated the furnishings.

The home became an Indiana state historic site in 1976. Nineteen years later, the Scripps Howard Foundation, Pyle’s lifelong employer, provided the money to outfit the two Quonset huts with the World War II artifacts.

Despite the red “State Historic Site” marker that welcomes visitors to the property, the state of Indiana closed the site in 2010. The Friends of Ernie Pyle took ownership and reopened the site in 2011, and the group is planning a national campaign to raise support for the maintenance of the site.

Photo by Jessica Williams

Associate professor Owen Johnson (third from right) discussed the burial sites of Ernie Pyle’s parents, Will and Maria Pyle, located in a small church cemetery outside Dana, Ind.

The group has a 13-member board that meets monthly to discuss the direction of the museum. Rumple and fellow tour guide Phil Hess are members. They want to ensure that Ernie Pyle stays alive for generations to come.

For the IU group, though, that was accomplished.

“I wasn’t expecting a museum,” sophomore Ernie Pyle Scholar Claire Aronson said. “This part was really neat.”

Professors reflect on academic careers, consider future plans

Lauren Kastner — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 12:35:49 +0000

Photo by Jim Kelly

From left, professors Dave Boeyink, Dave Nord, Dave Weaver and Jack Dvorak contributed to the school as teachers and researchers for more than two decades. They all retired this fall.

Multimedia

Slideshow of the retirement celebration

After a collective 121 years of teaching at the IU School of Journalism, professors David Boeyink, Jack Dvorak, David Weaver and David Nord retired at the end of fall 2011.

Dean Brad Hamm said this group of retirees reflects the largest number of collective teaching years within the school, and follows retirements of other long-time faculty in the last few years.

“Two-thirds of the current journalism faculty will have retired within a 10-year period, meaning that an entire generation of professors will be leaving,” Hamm said.

But the school also has brought in new faces. Hamm said the school has anticipated these retirements and has targeted new faculty hires to come in gradually as retirees leave, taking with them years of institutional knowledge.

While all four of these latest retirees plan to maintain a relationship with the School of Journalism once in retirement, each is also looking forward to spending more time with family, life outside the office and returning to favorite hobbies.

Read interviews with the professors about their future plans:

Study: More than half of journalism students travel abroad, highest percentage at IU

sdoctrow — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 15:40:50 +0000

Photo by Michael Evans

Casey Kuhn tries out the headphones as she prepares to learn about videography during a visit to an Aboriginal media organization last spring. The course is one of several that takes students abroad as part of the classwork.

By her fourth year of college, senior Caitlin Peterkin had spent eight weeks interning at a music magazine in London and studied Aboriginal media in the Australian outback over spring break.

“The world of media has evolved so much that knowledge about international media and foreign relations is really important for a young journalist,” Peterkin said. “These trips have given me a different view of what journalism can be, a view that you can’t get in a classroom.”

Peterkin joins more than half her journalism classmates in having some kind of study abroad experience during their four years as undergraduates. According to a recent study from the IU Office of Overseas Study, 57 percent of journalism students travel abroad, a higher percentage than any other IU unit.

This number is up 5 percent from the previous year. Overall, IU-B figures are up 11 percent, and IU ranks eighth in the nation for universities sending students abroad.

As spring semester gets under way, the next wave of traveling journalism students begins classes that will take them abroad. Established as part of the school’s Journalism Experiences program, courses that include a travel component began about five years ago. Before, individual professors had included travel as part of class projects and individual students had arranged study abroad through Overseas Study.

“We wanted to create a unique model for our students to consider international study and travel, and we hoped it would inspire them to learn more about global media and other cultures,” said journalism dean Brad Hamm. “The response has been amazing.”

Since the formal course program, about 500 journalism students, faculty and support staff have traveled to Asia, Europe, Australia, South America and all over North America for study, often during spring break but also in summer.

Gaining global perspective

The destinations shift as opportunities arise, and the courses take advantage of professors’ expertise and professional backgrounds. Students have visited Japan to study public relations; France and England to retrace World War II correspondent Ernie Pyle’s coverage from the frontlines; South Korea to look at technology; Chile and Australia to study particular aspects of media; Kenya to report on the HIV/AIDS epidemic; and Italy to study tourism communications. This year, students will travel to China to better understand media in that culture.

Photo by Jonathan Streetman

The American Cemetery at Normandy, shrouded in fog on this day last spring, is a stop on the trip for the students studying Ernie Pyle's WWII experience.

“The international journalism experiences here at IU now make it possible for students majoring in journalism to have a better understanding of the global context in which they will work after they graduate,” said Kathleen Sideli, IU associate vice president for overseas study. “This is essential since all media are interconnected throughout the world, and local events anywhere can have global implications.”

The School of Journalism subsidizes some of the costs and the Office of Overseas Study offers support as well to make these short-term travel opportunities affordable for many students. And they are part of the coursework, integrated with classroom learning, and students report to the school website during their travel, offering their first-hand experiences, photos and videos.

Capitalizing on professors' expertise

Professor Joe Coleman teaches J460 International Reporting, the course that will travel to Japan at spring break. The class focuses on Hiroshima, and the legacy of the atomic bomb and World War II. Coleman said before the trip, students study Japanese history and look at media coverage from American and Japanese perspectives. In Japan, they will meet with foreign correspondents, talk to survivors of the bombing and visit the memorial.

Coleman, who was with Associated Press 18 years, including a stint as bureau chief in Tokyo, said students will be required to find and report their own stories, working with translators just as a foreign correspondent would in an unfamiliar country.

Some of the travel classes are on their way to becoming a School of Journalism tradition. This year, associate professor Owen Johnson will lead J460 From London to Normandy: In the Footsteps of Ernie Pyle, for the fifth year.

“This class has the capability of lasting a long time because it’s historical in nature,” Johnson says. “It doesn’t need to respond to new media.”

Before the travel, students in the course study Ernie Pyle’s life, career and columns. The trip is meant to give students a sense of what Europe was like during World War II and to bring Pyle’s famous wartime columns to life, Johnson said. Students visit the Imperial War Museum and St. Paul’s Cathedral in London, visit Omaha Beach in Normandy, and take a walking tour of World War II Paris.

Senior Jonathan Streetman took the course last year because he was interested in history and wanted to visit Europe. He recalled climbing the steps of St. Paul’s Cathedral in London and looking at the city below him, and imagining the scene as bombs fell from the sky as written in one of Pyle’s most famous columns.

His favorite part of the trip was visiting Omaha Beach, the site of D-Day. “When I walked on the beach, I was breathless for a few steps,” he said.

New courses offer new destinations

The School of Journalism’s newest travel course, J460 Democracy and Media in China, will visit Beijing in March. Professor Lars Willnat proposed the course based on his own research on the political and economic climate in China.

“I’m amazed when I go back how it’s different every time,” Willnat said. “Many students have misconceptions about it being rural and impoverished, but they have very high levels of technology already.”

Courtesy photo

Students who traveled to Italy to learn about tourism communications last spring took time to visit famed Trevi Fountain in Rome.

On the trip, students will visit Chinese media outlets and spend time reporting. They will visit cultural sites like the Great Wall of China and Tiananmen Square, and also attend classes for a day at Tsinghua University.

Many students, such as sophomore Melinda Elston, travel abroad for the first time through this program. Elston said Willnat’s speech at the information session piqued her interest in China and she was excited to discover how affordable the trip would be with help from the School of Journalism.

She also said she’s nervous about not knowing any Chinese. But fears like these are normal, say trip leaders.

“I remember my first trip to Asia. Everything is so different,” Coleman says. “The students who have never been abroad, particularly, will have an experience they won’t forget.”

Willnat agrees that the travel courses add another dimension to what students learn in the classroom. He plans to show videos and play Chinese music in his class before the trip, but he knows nothing can compare to interacting with citizens.

“It’s hard to get the feeling when you talk about it,” Willnat says. “You really have to see it.”

Technology enables learning, connections

Amie Sites — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 22:34:50 +0000

Photo by Nick Demille

Students in one of assistant professor Hans Ibold's classes chat with a guest speaker via Skype, just one of the tools used to connect students to resources.

American Student Radio launch party Feb. 21 (Feb. 9)
Students gain experience during Super Bowl week (Feb. 8)
File now to graduate in May (Feb. 2)

While technology has long been a presence at the School of Journalism, fall semester has seen professors and lecturers increase their use of new tools to connect students with professionals, mentors and one another.

The free Internet-based video tool, Skype, joins video teleconferencing and courses taught entirely online as ways students are learning without leaving their classrooms or dorms. Yet, at the same time, they are expanding their skills and networking with visiting professionals in greater numbers than ever before.

Skype provides conversation

Skype requires only three things: the free Skype program, a webcam and an Internet connection. Available to anyone, Skype provides an easy way to have a face-to-face conversation with guest speakers and mentors.

Assistant professor Hans Ibold Skypes with guest speakers in nearly every one of his classes. For example, he recently invited the author of the textbook he uses in J110 Foundations of Journalism and Mass Communication to Skype with his students.

“Skype guest speakers allow the classroom to have a conversational feel,” Ibold said. “Sometimes guest speakers literally Skype in their pajamas, which allows a barrier to come down as well as allow students to not be intimidated.”

Not all is so casual, though. Ibold sets up the talks in advance so that the speaker has an idea of the course and subject matter, and he sends the speaker a class syllabus.

Glitches happen every now and then, but Ibold said the benefits of Skype are well worth the occasional problem. For example, one time, the class could hear the speaker but he couldn’t hear the students. So, Ibold used instant messaging to deliver the students’ questions to the speaker.

For Ibold’s students, Skype has brought intimacy in the classroom. The screen is framed close on the guest, who can see and hear students. They meet many more guests thanks to Skype than they would if speakers had to travel.

“Skype is an effective tool in classrooms,” Ibold said. “Skype guest lecturers allow diversity as well as people to come who wouldn’t otherwise be able to be here. It allows students to get different perspectives.”

Online courses

Photo by Nick Demille

Adjunct lecturer Steve Higgs developed a research course that students complete online.

J155 Research Techniques for Journalists, required of all journalism majors, and J201 Reporting, Writing, and Editing II, an elective, are taught online, with students completely reliant on technology to converse with their instructors, upload assignments and discuss topics with one another.

Adjunct lecturer Steve Higgs developed J155, an eight-week research class, in 2002. Students meet only twice on campus, once for an orientation and again to take the final test. After an orientation, students are responsible for delivering seven lessons by deadline.

Having an online class has benefits as well as some bumps in the road, according to Higgs. For example, journalists face deadlines throughout their jobs and this class allows students to have a taste of what it’s liked to have an assignment due every Friday. Some students can handle it and some can’t, Higgs said. About 10 percent of his students every semester discover the challenges of working on deadline, with their grades suffering.

But many students enjoy the autonomy. Senior Misty Collins said she liked the convenience of working on the assignments on her own time. She said the course taught her research skills that showed her how to find different kinds of information.

“J155 was the kind of class that would have been pointless in a classroom setting because all the students would be reading verbatim off of the slides,” Collins said.

The lack of face-to-face contact has been a difficulty for some students. While Oncourse keeps students connected and on track, and Higgs exchanges hundreds of emails with students each semester, he said one downside is that he doesn’t get a chance to know his students.

At least Higgs does see his students twice a semester. Lecturer Cheryl Jackson rarely meets any of her J201 Reporting, Writing and Editing II students. The online-only course is conducted through communication similar to that of Higgs’ class.

Jackson, who works at CNN in Chicago, agreed with Higgs that online courses prevent strong connections between professor and student from developing a good, working relationship. At the same time, these courses allow anyone to access the class from anywhere, without the issue of class times, she said.

Ryan Miller, a senior majoring journalism, is a student of Jackson’s this semester. Miller said an advantage of J201 is the flexibility and freedom that the online course provides. Miller has two jobs along with a full course load, and J201 allows him to finish his assignments when he has the spare time.

“Professor Jackson does a very good job providing feedback via Oncourse and email,” Miller said. “However, since she is an industry professional, it would be much better to have face-to-face access to her so we can pick her brain on the nuances of newswriting.”

Virtual classmates

With the School of Journalism’s Indianapolis-based sports journalism program growing, teleconferencing has provided a way for students at IUPUI and IU-Bloomington to be virtual classmates.

Using a telephone, video and microphone, instructors can teach two classes of students: one on location and one via this Video Bridge system.

Lecturer Marty Pieratt has taught J261 Intro to Sports Journalism: Controversy, Conflict and Characters in Bloomington to both the IU students and the students at IUPUI. They see Pieratt on screen and participate in discussion with the Bloomington students. Several times during the semester, Pieratt drives to Indianapolis to conduct the class in person with those students, with the Bloomington students as on the long-distance end.

“I like the idea of a class that connects students at different universities,” Pieratt said. “It’s good for students to get out of their comfort zone, and it creates a great, lively debate each class period.”

The system also allows more students access to guest speakers, who can address both groups of students from one location.

Pieratt said technology is working because it’s a way to save money and time for the universities, and serve more students in the process. There are challenges, he said. Technology won’t replace being able to see and hear a professor in person, but advancements can create positive experiences when used with traditional classroom practices, such as engaging conversation and sharing of ideas.

“Technology in classrooms should complement an already solid academic experience, not compensate for it,” Pieratt said.

Tech learning curve

File photo

Lecturer Bonnie Layton, left, teaches students to use a variety of equipment in her classes. She encourages them to be familiar with all types of technology to prepare for careers.

Many classes now are dependent on technology because the field of journalism uses new tools. Lecturer Bonnie Layton, who teaches J303 Online Journalism, said she makes sure she keeps up with industry developments in equipment and software in order to effectively teach students, but she also relies on support staff.

“The School of Journalism at IU is really great at helping with technological problems,” Layton said. “We have a splendid technical staff.”

In addition to technology director Dave Ernst and Web programmer Andy Koop, that staff includes multimedia lab director Allen Major, who spends much of his time supporting instructors in the classroom. Instructors often ask Major to their classrooms to give tutorials on using equipment or software, and he and his student staff in the multimedia lab often work one-on-one with students who use the lab to complete class projects.

The collaboration of instructors, tech support and professionals visiting students either in person or virtually combine to give students tools to shape their careers. Layton said student journalists must understand the technology used in the media today, or they won’t be ready for the job market.

“My advice is to not be at arms length from technology,” Layton said. “Get familiar with video, microphones, cameras, and take advantage of the classes and professors making this technology available.”

Conference provides insight on college-level teaching

SoJ Web Report — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 18:18:01 +0000

Photo by David Boeyink

Graduate students and professor David Boeyink attended the Lilly Conference on College and University Teaching in November. From left are Nate Floyd, Audrie Garrison, Adia Waldburger, Katrina Overby, Fatima Alsalem and Shuo Tang. Claudia Kozman also attended.

Seven Indiana University graduate students attended the Lilly Conference on College and University Teaching at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, Nov. 18-20 to learn more about teaching in a college setting. The students, most members of professor David Boeyink’s class on college pedagogy, said they returned with new insights.

“I enjoyed meeting instructors and learning about how their careers evolved into teaching at the college level,” said graduate student Audrie Garrison. “Meeting these people helped me see how a career might progress.”

The 31st annual international conference drew nearly 600 teachers and graduate students from around the country. The Lilly is the best teaching conference in the country, according to Craig Nelson, professor of biology at Indiana and a presenter at the conference.

Adia Waldburger, one of the students from Boeyink’s class who attended the conference, agreed.

“I knew I would enjoy myself, but I had no idea that I would find it so enriching and fulfilling, both in my teaching practices as well as in deepening connections with my colleagues,” she said.

The conference theme this year was “Teaching for Brain-Based Learning.” One presentation that proved memorable for students was on ways to use metacognition to facilitate learning. Presenter Saundra McGuire, director of the Center for Academic Success at Louisiana State University, talked about why many students lack confidence in their ability to learn and perform below their ability levels.

“The talk on learning strategies was inspiring,” Shuo Tang said. “It breaks much of my fixed thinking on how to teach, what to teach and why to teach.”

The heart of the conference was in more focused small-group sessions. Saturday alone featured 50 concurrent sessions.

“A conference like this is packed with new ideas,” said Nate Floyd of his first conference experience. “Why wouldn’t you attend such a conference, where people are literally giving away their best ideas?”

One session that drew raves from the group was by an instructor thrown out of a program in home economics for her presentation on cannibalism recipes—including calorie counts. Her session “encouraged instructors to make learning and, particularly, researching, fun by encouraging students to research topics that are already interesting to them,” Garrison said. “The instructor gave all sorts of out-of-the-box ideas such as gender and policy issues related to toilet paper, to research into cannibalism for a nutrition class.”

For Claudia Kozman, the best session was about creating learning environments with drama.

“It made me think of the class as a group of different students who are there for different reasons,” she said. “Some are there to learn, some because they have to.”

One highlight of the conference was an informal session for the IU students with Robert Kaiser of Canisius College in Buffalo, N.Y. Kaiser, a long-time journalist who recently became a college teacher, made a formal presentation at the conference on his use of music to teach writing. Following that session, he met with the IU contingent to talk more about how he teaches writing and about his transition from journalism to teaching.

“Robert Kaiser’s session gave me a whole new way to think about news writing, and song writing and writing in general,” Floyd said.

Others came away with broad insights.

Photo by David Boeyink

Rob Kaiser, director the journalism program at Canisius College, visited with graduate students at the conference. The informal session focused on his earlier presentation on writing and music at the conference as well as his second career as a college teacher.

“I used to think that teaching is only part of the work of a faculty and not the most important if you are in a research school,” Shuo Tang said. “But now, I think teaching is an art, a responsibility, that requires us to pay more attention, devote more passion and gain more experience.”

Waldburger, for one, enjoyed the spirit of conference attendance that includes learning as well as camaraderie among colleagues. She said she will treasure this trip as one of her best IU memories.

“I loved the opportunity to connect with my fellow students and the professor,” she said. “I honestly could have stayed there for a week and been neither bored nor tired of spending time with these people. I have never laughed, relaxed, felt more encouraged and truly connected at a conference like I did this time.”

Materials for some of the sessions, including McGuire’s presentation on learning strategies, are on the conference website.

Alumni panelists: Build new skills,go where magazine jobs are

sdoctrow — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 14:13:37 +0000

Photo by Nick Demille

Christie Griffin, left, listens as Chandra Czape Turner offers advice during the Speaker Series panel discussion Tuesday evening. The panel featured four alumni who now edit magazines.

Speaker Series: Counts' photo inspires Margolick's new book (Feb. 12)
Cohen advises keeping 'open mind' about career fields (Feb. 1)
Branigan Lecturer to address war photojournalism (Jan. 29)

Moving to New York City right after graduation, armed with only a couple suitcases. Sight unseen housing found on Craigslist. A few contact names scrounged from friends or acquaintances.

The four magazine editors who spoke to a crowd packed into the Ernie Pyle Hall auditorium Tuesday evening shared a common history of making the leap to publishing. But they also said they relied on their training at the School of Journalism, their persistence in networking with people in the industry, and their willingness to start on the bottom rung to achieve their goals of working in magazines.

Alumni Christie Griffin, BAJ’04, digital director of Fitness magazine; Colin Kearns, BAJ’04, senior editor at Field & Stream; Chad Millman, BA’93, editor-in-chief of ESPN The Magazine; and Chandra Czape Turner, BAJ’96, editor of Parents, discussed their careers as part of the school’s Speaker Series of guest lecturers. Journalism lecturer Nancy Comiskey, who teaches magazine editing and is a freelance magazine writer, moderated the panel.

Most of the discussion focused on advice for students looking to break into the magazine industry. Even though magazines still are adapting to the digital era, the speakers said plenty of unpaid internship opportunities are available for those brave enough to relocate to New York City.

More jobs for magazine websites are out there for those with Web and video editing experience, even though magazine staffs are smaller than ever. Kearns said Field & Stream has had staff cutbacks for the last three years, but the magazine just hired three online editors this year.

“But you have to go where the jobs are,” said Millman, who had had an internship with Sports Illustrated and spent spring break of his senior year in New York, tracking down job leads.

When you do make content, either for a job interview or to pitch stories, be familiar with the magazine’s voice and content, Millman said. Show that you’ve read the magazine, know what has been published, understand the audience.

Turner said even cover letters should reflect this familiarity. Applicants should create a tailored letter that shows they know the publication, the awards it has won, the stories it has covered.

“Write about something you read in the magazine and how it moved you, and talk about how you can contribute to the magazine,” she said. “But don’t make it all about you.”

And if you’re serious about working for a national magazine based in NYC, you need to make the move. Candidates who live in the city have a better chance of getting hired because they can start immediately, according to the speakers.

Kearns’ story of his first look at his first apartment, located through Craigslist, sparked laughter as he described the one-bedroom loft with no walls he would have shared with a woman and her many cats.

Photo by Nick Demille

Field & Stream editor Colin Kearns' story about his first apartment in New York had the audience laughing. He had interned with the magazine after his junior year.

Griffin found her first place through Craigslist, too, but when she arrived in the city, got lost trying to find it. The prospect of moving to New York with no job is scary, but exciting, she said.

“What pushed me to do it is, if I don’t go now, I’ll never go,” she said.

One asset she had was Turner’s name. Griffin met Turner when Turner came to campus to talk to classes about Ed2010, an organization she founded in 1998, shortly after arriving in New York, to help people who want to break into magazines network and learn about jobs and internships.

“I stalked her,” Griffin joked, describing her communication with Turner, which did end up in an internship for Griffin.

Internships, paid or unpaid, during college or after graduation, are critical, Turner said, as a way to build skills and to make connections. All had internships themselves and now are in positions to grant them.

Kearns was an American Society of Magazine Editors internship winner who worked at Field & Stream between his junior and senior years. He approached the people he knew at the magazine when he was ready to graduate and was hired. Griffin had applied for but didn’t get an ASME internship, but found her way to one through a connection she made based on her gymnastics experience.

“I was so glad I included that little job I’d had with a gymnastics newsletter on my resume,” she said.

Student media plays a part in preparation, too. The panelists encouraged students to learn “on the job” by working at campus publications. Turner said she came to IU solely to work at the Indiana Daily Student, which she’d heard was a top college newspaper.

Such work also may prepare students for the constant change in the publishing industry. All publications have websites, with Griffin’s work dedicated solely to the magazine’s online presence.

Turner urged students to learn all they can about mobile apps and tablet design, areas where need is high and people with such skills are scarce. The combination of journalism skills and technology abilities are in demand, she said.

Junior Claire Ronner said after the program that learning as much technology as possible before graduation is her new goal.

“It was great, and really insightful,” she said of the talk. “It was good to hear from people in the industry who were in our shoes not that long ago.”

Junior Allison Berry was inspired to pack her bags.

Photo by Nick Demille

Chad Millman, editor of ESPN The Magazine, talked about the importance of internships during the talk, which drew a capacity crowd to the Ernie Pyle Hall auditorium.

“I thought what was most helpful was their advice about getting your foot in the door and going to New York,” she said. “People assume you need to start somewhere local, like Bloom or Indy Monthly, after you graduate. It was great — and scary — to hear that you just need to go.”

Berry, who introduced the panelists, is president of Ed2010’s IU campus chapter, Ed at IU, which co-sponsored the event. Its members had dinner with the speakers before the panel event.

Earlier in the day, Millman visited students at the National Sports Journalism Center at IUPUI and Kearns visited Comiskey’s 812 The Magazine of Southern Indiana class. The alumni also had dinner with other groups of students before the panel.

The School of Journalism Speaker Series brings to campus top journalists and media figures each semester for talks that are free and open to the public. This year, three of the four events featured alumni in honor of the centennial celebration of journalism at IU.

Brooks: Political climate reflects cultural shift

SoJ Web Report — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 12:27:44 +0000

Photo by Jeremy Hogan

New York Times columnist David Brooks kicked off the fall Speaker Series with a talk to a capacity crowd at the Buskirk-Chumley Theater.

By Danielle Paquette

Narcissists, take another look in the mirror: American modesty might be scarcer than Tea Partiers occupying Wall Street.

“And that has led to many of the problems we have today,” argued New York Times op-ed columnist David Brooks, who discussed issues in culture and politics on the Buskirk-Chumley stage Tuesday evening.

The first of the fall School of Journalism’s Speaker Series guests, Brooks has written for the New York Times since 2003 and is author of several books, including The Social Animal: The Hidden Sources of Love, Character and Achievement, published earlier this year.

During his talk, Brooks often amused the capacity crowd with his joking asides even as he described the serious cultural changes that have contributed to today’s divisive climate of American politics.

“Over the last few decades, we’ve shifted a bit from a culture that emphasized self-effacement — ‘I’m no better than anybody else, but nobody is better than me’ — to a culture that emphasizes self-expansion,” Brooks said.

Listening to radio broadcasts from the 1930s and 1940s brought this home for Brooks, he said. When the Japanese surrendered in 1945, ending World War II, radio show hosts were humble, even reading from correspondent Ernie Pyle's work about his hope that the country could be worthy of the peace that would follow. Military leaders from the era were stoic and avoided self-promotion, Brooks said.

The cultural shift began soon afterward. In 1950, 12 percent of high school seniors polled by the Gallup organization responded yes to, “Are you a very important person?” That number spiked to 80 percent in 2005.

“It’s an important change in the political landscape,” Brooks said. Issues connected to overconfidence, from increased personal debt to higher CEO salaries to fiercer partisan aggression, heighten tension around the upcoming presidential race, he said.

In 2012, Brooks predicts people will vote for someone who will bring the country “back to the basics.”

“Obama’s the underdog to win re-election,” he said. “But his advantage, obviously, is the Republican party.”

Brooks said of the current Republican candidates, Mitt Romney is the most likely to win the nod. But he also lamented that Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels opted not to toss his hat in the presidential ring.

Journalism sophomore Charlie Scudder laughed at Brooks’ jokes from a spot along the auditorium wall.

Photo by Jeremy Hogan

Brooks took time to chat with journalism students after his talk. The School of Journalism and IU's Center on Congress sponsored his visit.

“He had some good points,” Scudder said. “The greatest generation had a tendency to value the successes of the whole rather than of the individual. Today we see everyone assuming they can have 15 minutes of fame, and there’s no way our generation can do well with those high expectations.”

Brooks was introduced by former U.S. Rep. Lee Hamilton, who now heads the IU Center on Congress, which was a co-sponsor of the event.

This was not Brooks' first visit to campus. His son, Joshua, is a history major and Brooks said he'd taken part at least one tailgate event while visiting IU.

The School of Journalism Speaker Series continues at 7 p.m. Nov. 15 with a panel discussion featuring journalism alumni magazine editors in the Ernie Pyle Hall auditorium. The lecture series is free and open to the public.

Media LLC provides close community for students with media interests

Thomas Miller — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 21:13:22 +0000

Photo by Thomas Miller

Freshman Caitlin Greer introduces her mother to freshman Jessalyn Sommers via Skype. Students in the Media Living Learning Center live at Forest Residence Center, as well as take a class and, often, work in student media together.

Multimedia

Day in the life of the Media LLC

Enter SPJ T-shirt design contest by Feb. 1 (Jan. 24)
Panelists present ASR project at scholastic meeting (Jan. 19)
Ed on Campus sponsors internship panel (Jan. 15)

“Hi, Mom,” a freshman says to her laptop.

Caitlin Greer is sitting in her dorm lounge on a Thursday night. Thanks to the wonders of modern technology, she can introduce her mom to her dorm mates. There’s Jessalyn Summer, Sam Dixon, Olivia Sears, Jill Sorg and Annalinda Harbottle. Each waves back at the screen and then goes back to what they were doing.

In the background of each introduction is a white banner with bold red letters: Media LLC.

The Media Living Learning Center is a dorm floor at Forest Residence Center that caters to about 40 students with an interest in the media industry. The majority of students on the floor are majoring in journalism, although a few others are studying telecommunications or communications and culture.

Like many other dorm residents, the students on the Media LLC have a residence assistant who plans floor programs and activities. Unlike their peers, however, the students on the Media LLC have access to events with IU faculty and take a class taught by a journalism professor that’s just for them.

From their first days at IU, these students have access to all that the School of Journalism and student media have to offer.

“Students have been able to, as freshmen, meet incredible speakers like Lara Logan or Joe Buck, have dinner with (journalism) Dean Brad Hamm, travel to major media markets like Atlanta, Chicago and Memphis to meet with alumni and other professionals,” said Kate Lee, director of experiential education and recruitment at the School of Journalism. “Students make friends for life on the floor, and often end up living together throughout their four years. Alumni of the LLC have leadership positions with the IDS, Inside magazine and IUSTV. By any measure I can think of, that is a success.”

Already, many students in the Media LLC are working in student media: Jeremy Smith and Michael Majchrowicz are at the IDS. Kaitlin Tipsword is at the Arbutus, and Rhiannon Noot is at WIUX. Chelsey Carr and Carmen Huff are working at WFIU-WTIU, and several are pursuing their interests at IUSTV, including Kody Gilliland, Quinn Saturday, Billy Rohaly, Ani Harbottle and Michael Felish.

Along with these opportunities on campus, the School of Journalism offers a course just for students living in the Media LLC. J160 Media Village is an eight-week course that includes an overview of media and the foundations of journalism, as well as discussions about navigating a college career.

Photo by Thomas Miller

Media LLC resident Jill Sorg also works at the Indiana Daily Student, where she hopes to get into design. Most of the LLC residents also work for student media.

“We also spend some time talking about and exploring the opportunities in Bloomington and at IU,” said visiting professor Marty Pieratt, who teaches the course. For example, students visited the IU Kirkwood Observatory Wednesday night, a campus landmark built in 1910 that has modern telescopes for astronomy research.

“We also bring in guest speakers to talk about media careers, study abroad or other travel courses,” he added.

Between the class, journalism classes and student media, you may think these students would have run out of things to talk about when they get home to the LLC. Not so, says journalism senior Chrissy Ashack, who lived in the LLC her freshman year.

“Most of my friends are the people I lived with freshman year,” she said. “My roommate was my suite mate freshman year and quickly became one of my best friends. Most of my closest friends are the people I met on the floor.”

A little after 10 p.m., the lounge has emptied out. The LLC is on quiet hours and the students have broken up into smaller groups. The talk turns to media.

“I’m working as a copy editor now,” said Sorg of her day at the Indiana Daily Student, “but I want to go into graphic design.” Others chime in about classes or projects.

Eventually, the students filter to their rooms, where the name tags on their doors are made of newspapers. Down the hall is that banner with the red letters. Everywhere they look around the LLC are reminders of the work they’d like to do when they leave it.

More:

Read Chrissy Ashack's reminiscence of her time at the Media LLC.
Learn more about the Media LLC.

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