Category Archives: Journalism Events

Learn How to Access Public Records with David Cuillier on June 21

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Join SPJ national secretary-treasurer Dave Cuillier, who is also director of the School of Journalism at the University of Arizona in Tucson, for a reprise of his 2010 Access Across America tour, 6 to 8 p.m. Thursday, June 21, in the Lecture Room at Phoenix’s Burton Barr Central Library.

During the 2010 tour, he spoke to more than 1,000 journalists on strategies for getting public records during his travels around the nation for several weeks that summer. This year, “AAA II” involves several people touring different regions, with Dave speaking to journalists and members of the public in the Southwest.

His presentation on gaining access public records that will address effective requests and how to use tactical strategies to overcome denials and exorbitant fees. Not just for journalists, this program is for anyone trying to access public records such as police reports, court documents and school records. His presentation is funded from a grant from the Sigma Delta Chi Foundation.

The Burton Barr Central Library is in downtown Phoenix at 1221 N. Central Ave., south of McDowell and north of the Central Avenue bridge over Deck Park. The Lecture Room is on the fourth floor in the southwest corner of the library. Admission is free and it’s light-rail accessible!

Registration for SPJ-ONA JournCamp Ends May 14

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Don’t forget to register for the SPJ-ONA JournCamp in Phoenix! Here are a few workshops you’ll get to enjoy:

  • Entrepreneurial Journalism: Where does every journalist, from the up-and-coming student to the seasoned newsroom manager, fit in this new field? Hear from one journalist turned innovator and entrepreneur who’s been leading the charge in this expanding space. Trainer: Retha Hill, Arizona State University
  • Visual Storytelling: Visual storytelling is no longer reserved for those who just work in television. Working on the Web means journalists in all media need to find creative ways to provide information to their audiences. We’ll show you how you can use pictures to tell your story, even if none are (obviously) available. Trainer: Victoria Lim, freelancer
  • Social Media as a Reporting Tool: Social networks sprout by the minute, but which ones should you focus on, and how can you use them to find news, crowdsource information and generate leads? We’ll give you ideas for how to curate information, what you should consider in the verification process and how to publish it all, with specific case studies. Trainer: Daniel Petty, Denver Post

When:  Friday, May 18. 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Cost:  $20 for SPJ or ONA members / $40 for non-members. (Registration fee includes breakfast and lunch.)

See more programs and speaker bios at www.spj.org/spjona.asp. To register, visit www.spj.org/spjona-register.asp. Hurry, registration closes May 14!

Freedom of Information Awards Winners Announced

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The Valley of the Sun Chapter, Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) pays tribute to working journalists and others at its annual Arizona Freedom of Information Awards Reception, 12:00 p.m. Saturday, April 21 in the Monte Vista Room of the Heard Museum, 2301 N. Central Ave., in Phoenix. The keynote speaker will be Valley TV and radio icon, Pat McMahon.

Those being honored include:

  • First Amendment Award — Elvina Nawagun-Clemente, Cronkite News Service; Staff, The Arizona Republic; Matthew Casey, The Tombstone Epitaph; Hillary Davis, Arizona Daily Sun; Lauren Gambino, Tia Casañeda and Heather Billings, Cronkite News Service; Joe Ferguson, Arizona Daily Sun; Cyndy Cole, Arizona Daily Sun
  • Sunshine Award — Todd Feltus & Greg Collins, Kercsmar & Feltus PLLC, on behalf of Judicial Watch; Teri Hayt, Arizona Daily Star
  • The Phil Alvidrez Award for Excellence in Journalism — Tom Arviso Jr., Navajo Times
  • The Order of the Silver Key Society — Al Macias, KJZZ; Ken Western, The Arizona Republic; and Bill Heywood (posthumous).

Tickets are $45 for SPJ members, $50 for non-members, and $40 for students. Tickets can be purchased online via Paypal. Otherwise, mail checks to the P.O. Box address listed below by no later than Monday, April 16. Checks or cash will be accepted at the door, but RSVPs are required via e-mail by April 16. Tickets include the reception with heavy hors d’oeuvres, iced tea, coffee and dessert, and a memorable time honoring outstanding examples of the use of the First Amendment in shining a light on important public issues.

Paul J. Schatt Memorial Lecture is March 29

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This year’s Paul J. Schatt Memorial Lecture featuring Steven Ginsberg, national political editor for The Washington Post will be held at 7 p.m. on Thursday, March 29, in the First Amendment Forum (second floor) of the Cronkite School. Ginsburg will share the stage with Leonard Downie Jr., former editor of the Washington Post who now teaches at the Cronkite School, for a conversation about the 2012 presidential election.

Please consider coming to hear this interesting presentation and to support Paul’s memory. Paul, a former Arizona Republic editorial pages editor who taught as a Cronkite adjunct professor for 30 years and was a longtime Valley of the Sun SPJ member, died in November 2005. The following spring, he posthumously received the chapter’s highest honor, the Phil Alvidrez Award for Excellence in Journalism.

‘Friend Raiser’ at Hooters supports student SPJ chapter

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The student chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) housed at the Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication invites you to enjoy wings and basketball while helping out the chapter financially during a fundraiser on Tuesday, March 27 (that’s tonight).

As part of Hooters’ “Friend Rising” program, for every diner at the Arizona Center eatery who brings in this flier today, Hooters will donate $2 to the Cronkite SPJ student chapter. The flier is good all day, but several chapter members will be heading over around 7 p.m. to watch the Phoenix Suns take on the San Antonio Spurs. So stop by and show your support!

 

Free investigative business journalism workshop in Phoenix

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Arm yourself with the knowledge to cover private companies better by attending a free afternoon workshop, Cracking Private Companies, Jan. 5 in Phoenix.

Presented by the Donald W. Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism and hosted by The Arizona Republic and Arizona Newspapers Association, this workshop will teach you:

  • How private companies are structured, and how they are different from public companies;
  • Where to find public information on private companies;
  • How to produce a better private-company profile.

Jodi Schneider, tax-policy editor for Bloomberg News, will teach the sessions from 12:45-5 p.m. on Jan. 5. To register for this free workshop, visit http://businessjournalism.org/ws-registration/?cid=611.

Make your hotel reservation via by emailing davehill@businessjournalism.org by Dec. 9 to qualify for a discounted Sheraton Phoenix Downtown Hotel rate of $129/night plus tax.

Can’t make it? Here’s more free training from the Reynolds Center

KJZZ’s O’Dowd to speak at Phoenix College on Nov. 1

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KJZZ News Director and Reporter Peter O’Dowd will speak at Phoenix College Nov. 1 about his news organization’s major project to cover the U.S.-Mexico border and provide its audience with a deeper understanding of the region’s nuanced history and present-day issues.

The lecture is part of the PC Liberal Arts Department’s Fall 2011 Lecture Series. The event is free and open to the public.

KJZZ is the Valley’s local public radio station and National Public Radio member located at Rio Salado Community College in Tempe. Reporters at the station’s Changing America desk have spent the last year examining the people, history and current circumstances found in the borderlands. KJZZ reporters, including O’Dowd, have traveled into the interior of Mexico as well as Guatemala as part of their coverage.

O’Dowd has chronicled these trips and will share why they matter in a discussion titled, “Links to Home: Reporting On the Southwestern US, Mexico and Central America and Why We Should Care.”

As news director, O’Dowd leads a staff of reporters in seven bureaus across the southwestern United States. An accomplished journalist, his work has aired on The BBC, NPR’s Morning Edition, All Things Considered, Talk of the Nation, and American Public Media’s Marketplace. He has covered technology, the housing bubble and the constant debate over immigration policy that keeps Arizona in the national spotlight.

O’Dowd has a master’s degree from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism, and a bachelor’s from Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. Prior to his journalism career, he taught English to schoolchildren in Tokyo, Japan.

 

DETAILS:

When: Tuesday, November 1, 2011
noon-1 p.m. AND 7-8 p.m.

Where: Phoenix College Osborn site, Willo Room, 3310 N. 10th Ave. (NE corner of 11th Avenue and Flower)

Admission: Free and open to the public

For more information, call 602-285-7651.

Raise a glass for our new regional director, Teri Carnicelli

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Plan on making an SPJ night of it this Friday, Oct. 7! After our program on
journalists-turned-authors at Monti's La Casa Vieja restaurant ends at 8 p.m., we'll be taking a short one-block walk to Caffe Boa wine bar and bistro, 398 S. Mill (at 4th Street), for a "Carnicellibration" honoring our chapter president, Teri Carnicelli, who was elected to the SPJ national board of directors last week. Teri will represent Arizona, California. Hawaii, Nevada and the Pacific Islands as Region 11 director.

For details on the earlier program, visit http://phoenixspj.org/2011/09/14/from-journalist-to-author-turning-your-beat-into-a-book-set-for-oct-7.

FCC Chairman to attend Oct. 3 public event on “The Information Needs of Communities”

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On Monday, Oct. 3, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski will attend a field event at Arizona State University’s Cronkite School on the recommendations of the recently released staff-level report on the current state of the media landscape. The report, titled “Information Needs of Communities: The Changing Media Landscape in a Broadband Age” was delivered to the FCC in June 2011.

The report describes tremendous innovation in the media landscape but also identifies critical gaps, including a shortage of local news reporting. The report also offers recommendations for government, nonprofit players and entrepreneurs. At this event, Chairman Genachowski will hear from journalists, academics, businesses, and the public about innovating and strengthening news and information gathering and reporting to meet citizen needs. To read the report, visit http://www.fcc.gov/infoneedsreport.

The free public event takes place 9-11:30 a.m. on Floor 6, Channel Eight, in the Arizona PBS Studio A at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication, 555 N. Central Avenue. The event will be webcast on http://www.fcc.gov/live. Audience members watching online may submit questions to panelists by e-mailing livequestions@fcc.gov or on Twitter using the hashtag #FCCLIVE.

Joining Genachowski from the FCC will be: FCC Commissioner Michael J. Copps; Steven Waldman, chair, FCC Working Group on the Information Needs of Communities; and William Lake, chief of FCC Media Bureau.

PANELISTS:

• Jonathan Blake, Senior Counsel, Covington & Burling, LLC, on behalf of Barrington, Belo, Dispatch, Gannett, Hearst, Post-Newsweek, and Raycom

• Susan Crawford, Professor, Cardozo Law School

• Kevin Davis, CEO and Executive Director, Investigative News Network

• Greg Dawson, Vice President of News, NBC San Diego

• Leonard Downie Jr., Weil Family Professor of Journalism, Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication, Arizona State University

• Paul Giguere, President and CEO, National Association of Public Affairs Networks

• Retha Hill, Executive Director of the Digital Innovation and Entrepreneurship Lab, Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication, Arizona State University

• Jason Klein, President and CEO, Newspaper National Network

• Craig Parshall, SVP and General Counsel, National Religious Broadcasters

• Nicol Turner Lee, Vice President and Director, Media and Technology Institute for the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies

• Laura Walker, President and CEO, New York Public Radio (WNYC)

• Coriell Wright, Policy Counsel, Free Press

Hugh Downs to speak at Arizona Town Hall fall luncheon

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Television today bears little resemblance to the fledgling communications vehicle that existed in 1945, the year Hugh Downs made his TV debut from the still experimental studio of WBKB-TV now WBBM-TV Chicago. The remarkable evolution of that medium, as well as the myriad others Americans consume daily, will be the focus of Downs’ presentation, “Changes in the Media,” during the Arizona Town Hall’s Fall Luncheon, 11 a.m.-1:30 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 22, at the Wyndham Phoenix Downtown, 50 E. Adams St. His talk will incorporate the impact media has on our community, policies and its other influences.

It was 26 years ago that Downs first gained recognition from the Guinness Book of World Records as holding the record for the greatest number of hours on commercial network television. Although his broadcast career has spanned more than six decades, he is probably best known as the Emmy Award-winning co-anchor of the ABC News’ “20/20,” a primetime news magazine program (where he was paired with Barbara Walters), from the show’s second episode in 1978 until his retirement in 1999.

A longtime Valley resident, Downs is the author of 12 books. In recognition of Downs’ impact on the field of communication, Arizona State University is home to the Hugh Downs School of Human Communication.

Prior to the luncheon featuring Downs, a special silent auction will be held to benefit the ongoing work of the Arizona Town Hall. The luncheon will be a part of A Day of Civic Action with other Arizona organizations and will coincide with the National Conference on Citizenship.

Luncheon tickets are $125. Contact Tara Jackson at 602-252-9600 or visit http://www.aztownhall.org/FallLuncheon2011.asp.