U.N.
officer to discuss media relationships
by Christy Rockholt,
Journalism 200 student
Tony Benesch,
a foreign service officer and deputy director of U.N. Political Affairs,
will speak at the University of Tennessee at 7 p.m. on Nov. 18 in Room
237 of the University Center.
While visiting
the Knoxville area, Benesch will speak to the Society of Professional Journalists'
meeting and to the history department at U.T. He plans to discuss the U.S.
role in the United Nations, including what it does for the United States,
what is done in return, and the complex nature of that relationship.
The journalism connection in his speech will include a narrative on how
the United Nations is covered by the media, as well as a possibly surprising
explanation of how the overall State Department press guidance process works.
Last year’s
Christmas party received such great reviews that we’re doing it again
-- just like before. The time is 6:30 p.m. The date is Thursday, Dec.
9. The place is the University Club, Room B.
We’ll have another Chinese auction. Remember how it works? You bring
a wrapped gift, costing $10 or less. Don’t put a name on it. The
gifts will be piled together. You’ll get a number to determine the
order in which you select something from the pile. After you’ve chosen
your gift, you may try to keep it or exchange it for another. Surely,
if you like it, someone else will, too. This continues until the last
gift is opened.
We will once again collect toys for the Toys for Tots campaign. Bring
an unwrapped new toy to the party.
Please phone or e-mail Sally Guthrie (588-1474, saguthrie@utk.edu)
with the number in your group by Dec. 3 so we let the University Club
know how many to prepare for. There will be a cash bar.
Don’t forget: Wrap the auction gift. Don’t wrap the Toys for
Tots gift.
Public records reveal truth, Chester says
by
Judy Lovely U.T. Journalism 200 student
Tom Chester,
assistant managing editor of the Knoxville News-Sentinel, spoke
at the October 18 meeting of the East Tennessee Chapter of the Society
of Professional Journalists. His topic was “Public Records/Public
Lives.”
Chester talked about a number of high-profile reports published by the
News-Sentinel in recent months and how these investigations were uncovered.
He discussed the case of Frankie Lane Gresham, a person supposedly created
by the Knox County Sheriff’s Department for use in a drug sting.
This caused problems for the attorneys involved, the attorney general,
and the judge assigned to the case. More overwhelming were the problems
created for the real Frankie Lane Gresham. He was embarrassed by the incident,
which was incriminating to him. Evidently, no one checked to see if anyone
was really named Frankie Lane Gresham. To top it off, the Sheriff’s
Department was not even embarrassed by the incident, Chester said.
Chester spoke of the Knoxville Police Department sergeant involved in
an automobile accident with his cruiser. He allegedly fled the scene and
then claimed the car had been stolen. Through the use of public records,
the truth came out, and the police sergeant was charged with a criminal
act and was fired.
The recent reports on UT employee pay raises also became a top story because
reporters obtained access to public records.
These stories would not have happened had it not been for the availability
of public records and the Freedom of Information Act.
Chester said to remember three things: (1) what do you think you know;
(2) what you know; and (3) what you can prove. You only publish the last
one. Using public records helps prove the first two.
More than 70 people attended the meeting held at the University Center.
Convention
provides ideas for ETSPJ
by Wynne Brown
That first day
things looked bad for SPJ’s 1999 National Convention in Indianapolis.
Nine hundred attendees were expected Saturday, Oct. 2 -- and only 280 had
showed up. Reasons cited by outgoing President Wendy Myers and Executive
Director Jim Gray were:
- the Saturday-Tuesday
schedule instead of the usual Thursday-Sunday design
- the Circle
City Classic, which brings thousands of visitors to Indy that same weekend
-- and a shortage of hotel rooms
- cost of
SPJ membership
Fortunately, walk-ins started coming in Sunday, and the numbers improved
to 500 attendees. Many sessions were packed, and only one had to be
cancelled.
Sunday
afternoon I attended three sessions for chapter leaders:
- "Staying
Strong: Membership Retention and Recruitment";
- "Keeping
Money in the Coffers" and "Making News: Raising Your Chapter’s
Profile."
Suggestions particularly
useful to ETSPJ were
- Consider partnering
with other organizations on programs
- Target the winners
of the writing competitions for membership
- Use e-mail to alert
faculty, department chairs, students, local media about chapter events
- Strengthen the link
between student and pro chapters
- Consider new categories
in contest so that journalists in every possible outlet can participate
(ex. Trade magazines)
- Look into donations/underwriting
possibilities
- Use news events
to build chapter awareness among public (Ex: One Arizona chapter held
a post-mortem on how former Gov. Fyfe Symington’s trial was covered.)
Ray Suarez,
senior correspondent for PBS’ “NewsHour with Jim Lehrer”
and author of “The Old Neighborhood: What We Lost in the Great Suburban
Migration,” was the keynote speaker for the convention’s opening.
Participants then took buses for the Opening Night Reception, held at
the Indianapolis Motor Speedway - complete with a (sedate) shuttle bus
trip on the track itself.
The
next two days were typical of SPJ conventions: Out of the 36 sessions
offered concurrently during each day, how to choose the best three or
four? Monday I picked “Transition to Online Journalism” with
representatives of NPR, Tribune Interactive, ABP and the St. Louis
Post Dispatch; “Nations Within: The Untold Story of Native America,”
with representatives of the Navajo, Jibway, Potowatomie and Miami nations;
and “Environment: Hazards in Perspective,” which provided dozens
of valuable Web sites and “Election Year: Behind the Scenes,”
a town hall meeting open to both the public and the press.
The sessions paused for lunch, which was the Legal Defense Fund Roast
with Jane Kirtley, former executive director of the Reporters Committee
for Freedom of the Press as “victim.”
Regional meetings were held Monday afternoon, and Marcia Biggs, president
of the Mid-Florida Pro chapter, agreed to be Regional Director for our
area. The Regional Convention was tentatively set for April 1-2, 2000,
in the Tampa area (watch this space for more details).
Tuesday St. Petersburg Times’ Tom French discussed the techniques
that earned him a Pulitzer in feature writing, coaches from The Indianapolis
Star, the Honolulu Advertiser, Shaw Papers, and the Kansas
City Star gave coaching tips, regional delegates met and online professionals
met to discuss “Journalism Ethics in a 24/7 World.”
The Legal Defense Fund Auction and Reception offered a chance to buy anything
from football tickets to framed editorial cartoons. From there, participants
moved on to the Sigma Delta Chi Awards Banquet with Seymour Hersh, author
of “The Dark Side of Camelot” and investigative reporter.
This was the fourth SPJ National Convention I’ve been to, and, once
again, I came away with new ideas of what to write and how to write it.
And once again, I met people who are asking the same questions I’m
asking, who get restless when they’re not learning — and who
struggle with the same newsroom computer systems.
So if you want a chance to learn, to stretch professionally, to meet people
who know what it is you do - mark your calendars for Oct. 26-29, 2000,
in Columbus, Ohio.
A lesson learned by convention planners? That’s a Thursday through
Sunday.
Methods
to increase membership
suggested in strategic plan
Submitted by
Georgiana Vines
National
SPJ has gone through a strategic planning process the past year to
determine the organization's future. Georgiana Vines has been a member
of the committee although she missed two meetings where the written
plan was determined. Here is a synopsis of the plan based on a report
by Fred Brown, the committee scribe.
VISION
STATEMENT
The Society of Professional Journalists is dedicated to quality, responsible
journalism as the foundation of a free and informed society. By maintaining
a large and diverse membership, SPJ enhances its influence in advocating
press freedoms, developing the skills of working journalists and supporting
students entering the profession. The Society seeks to be widely recognized
as the conscience of journalism and the guardian of its principles.
RELEVANCE
Journalism is changing, and so is the society it serves. The Society
of Professional Journalists must strive to provide services to a diverse
and dynamic membership, to increase its influence and maintain its
reputation as a voice for quality, responsible journalism.
GOAL: To be essential and user-friendly
to our members, the profession of journalism and the public, emphasizing
access to information and journalism ethics.
Objective: Give Freedom of Information and Ethics equal organizational
and financial support.
Objective: Improve the focus and influence of Quill magazine.
- Plan minimum of three specialty content issues for Quill
(Freedom of Information, Ethics, and Networking and Career Development)
to respond to needs identified in member survey. Schedule them within
the 2000 fiscal year; include reader-feedback forms and lists of resources
and references in each issue. Each issue should include print, broadcast
and on-line journalists leaders.
Objective: Improve SPJ’s message, visibility and influence.
- Develop a plan to market to associates (media lawyers, government
FOI officers, lawmakers, others).
- Launch an interactive website.
- Create targeted marketing materials for chapters, donors and the
public.
- Create a source list to refer journalism inquiries from the media
and public.
FINANCIAL SECURITY
A healthy organization needs a reliable base of funding. SPJ is fortunate
to have the active support of the well-endowed Sigma Delta Chi Foundation.
But maintaining financial health requires careful attention to fiscal
strategies.
GOAL: Maintain cash flow and invested reserve
by diversifying revenue sources.
Objective: Seek more partnerships to further SPJ missions, recruit new
members, increase revenue and reduce costs of programs.
Objective: Build an expanding base of financial support
- Hire a development director with the primary responsibility of
identifying and cultivating funding sources for SPJ and SDX, including
individuals, foundations, corporations, media organizations and like-minded
advocacy groups.
(Elizabeth (Liz) Ellis has been hired as the new Director of Development.
Liz currently works for Dorris Associates, a professional fundraising
firm and she has six years’ experience asking people for money.)
- Analyze all costs of servicing each member. Objective: Convince
news organizations to support memberships.
- Send mailings to the 10 largest news organizations and explain SPJ’s
role to editors, publishers, news directors, managing editors and
other top executives.
- Create more institutional membership benefits (such as volume discounts
for employees attending convention, or for SDX awards entry fees,
or for university institutional members, volume discounts for Mark
of Excellence awards entry fees).
Objective: Maintain a competitively compensated, professional, trained
staff and efficient headquarters.
- Commit resources for ongoing staff training
- Update and maintain job descriptions for staff positions.
MEMBERSHIP
Historically, the Society of Professional Journalists has been the largest
and the most diverse of the journalism organizations. While size is not
the only determinant of a group’s influence, it is a critical factor.
Even more important is the membership’s level of activity and involvement.
GOAL: Identify, recruit and serve a diverse
membership that is active, involved and committed, and that includes all
media.
Objective: Create a pro-active and personalized membership system.
- Annually review the membership recruiting system, including materials
and marketing strategy.
- Conduct an annual demographic survey.
- Conduct biennial member-satisfaction survey.
- Review dual-billing system of chapter and national dues.
- Create a resume template for students and job seekers.
- Provide an on-line job bank for members only. (Consider a careers
committee, and end the charge for the service)
Objective: Increase number of high school journalism members.
- Target advisers through Journalism Education Association.
- Develop programs targeted at high school students.
- Explore partnerships with scholastic journalism groups.
Objective: Increase the number of broadcast members.
- Appoint a broadcast membership committee to develop recommendations
for programs and recruitment strategies for broadcasters; targeting
FOI and Ethics materials for broadcasters; exploring partnerships
with broadcast journalism groups.
- Make the Taishoff Seminar an annual priority.
- Seek foundation grants to support broadcast initiatives.
Objective: Increase the number of members from on-line/new media.
- Appoint an on-line/new media membership committee to develop recommendations
for programs and recruitment strategies for new-media journalists;
targeting FOI and Ethics materials for new media; exploring partnerships
with new-media journalism groups.
- Seek foundation grants to support new-media initiatives.
Objective: Increase the number of members from the trade press.
- Appoint a trade-press membership committee to develop recommendations
for programs and recruitment strategies for trade press journalists;
targeting FOI and Ethics materials for the trade press; exploring
partnerships with trade-press groups.
- Seek foundation grants to support new-media initiatives.
Objective: Establish a better local-national network for volunteer recruitment
and leadership track.
- Seek continued funding for the Ted Scripps Leadership Training.
- Create a central registry of members who want to volunteer.
GOVERNANCE
The Society of Professional Journalists is dedicated to serving and representing
a profession that is devoted to effective and honest communication. Its
own governance should be efficient, rational and accessible.
GOAL: Ensure a practical governing structure
that invites participation.
Objective: Simplify chapter requirements.
Objective: Restructure and reduce the size of the SPJ national board.
(This clearly would require a bylaws change)
- Appoint a committee to study board representation based on geography,
news medium and type of membership.
- Create written policy guidelines for board members and national
committee chairs.
- Provide a mandatory orientation session for all board members and
committee chairs annually at national conventions.
Objective: Increase the equity and diversity of convention decision-making.
- Consider a one-member, one-vote system to replace the delegate
system of weighted voting (Another bylaws change, if we do it).
Objective: Ensure that the strategic plan remains viable.
- Appoint a committee to review the plan on an annual basis.
ETSPJ
establishes mentoring program at UT
The chapter board approved a mentoring program at
the University of Tennessee
through the School of Journalism. It will be designed to assist students
on a one-on-one basis as much as possible and will be available to journalism
majors, SPJ members and Beacon staff members if they're interested.
Dr. Jim Crook, director of the School of Journalism, has invited David
Carlson, SPJ national president of student campus affairs at the University
of Florida, to visit the UT SPJ chapter on March 29 and 30 to share his
experiences with online publishing. Jane Pope, manager of student publications,
plans to involve Beacon staffers in this visit as much as
possible but it's primarily to help students and the student SPJ chapter.
The planning group for his visit is composed of Georgiana Vines, Dorothy
Bowles, Bonnie Hufford and Jane Pope. We hope to have something for the
ETSPJ chapter as well.
Thanks to ETSPJ
Wynne Brown
received a note from Charmaine Smith, a UT student, thanking the chapter
for the contribution that allowed her to attend the national SPJ conference
in Indianapolis. Smith found the workshops useful and “the friends
I met the best rewards of the trip.”
Brown attended the Pellissippi State Technical Community College thank-you
reception for those who had participated in the PSTCC scholarship program.
Jeremy Linkous received the ETSPJ scholarship this year.
Former Chattanooga
Times reporter, Kevin Wiatrowski, a first-place winner in the Golden Press
Card general reporting newspaper category “disappeared,” and did not receive
his award. He recently contacted us via e-mail, and the plaque was mailed
to him. Wiatrowski, now of the Sun News in Myrtle Beach, S.C., wrote,
“I thought I’d let you know I got my award this morning. Wow! It’s great.”
New member
Sarah Gregory,
a graduate student at the University of Tennessee, is a new member. She
lives on Gate Lane in Knoxville.
|
