Bird's Words

Postscript: New Zealand’s lively media scene

2010-12-29T19:02:00.001-08:00

It’s been six months since my last post, and it’s just two weeks shy of the one-year anniversary of my long flight from Los Angeles to Auckland. It's time, therefore, for a belated recap of what I discovered in New Zealand.

First, my initial assessment of NZ newspapers – bright, lively and fun to read -- held up well. This was as true for the community weeklies as the metropolitan papers in Auckland, Hamilton, Wellington and Christchurch. New Zealand’s newspapers have done a better job than their American counterparts in retaining both advertisers and readers. I’m indebted to journalist and author Ian Grant of Masterton for his insights into NZ papers’ relative health. He wrote recently:

No newspaper closures here or significant layoffs. The economy remains pretty constrained, but advertising, while not bouncing back, is no worse. In fact, the two newspaper companies – Fairfax and APN – are looking in much better shape across Australasia than a year ago.

I look forward to Ian’s book about the history of New Zealand newspapers from 1840 to 2010, scheduled for publication sometime in 2012.

My primary source of international news during my time in Hamilton was Radio New Zealand, a world-class network that pound for pound, exceeds National Public Radio in scope and depth of news coverage. I would sing Radio New Zealand’s praises even if I hadn’t been interviewed for Jim Mora’s thoughtful Afternoons show or Colin Peacock’s incisive Mediawatch program. I still listen to the Radio NZ Morning Report when I want to hear a New Zealand news reader’s accent.

Television was a bit of a disappointment. I had expected more arts and cultural programs from TV New Zealand, perhaps something similar to PBS or the BBC on a smaller scale. With a few exceptions, the evenings on the four over-the-air channels are filled with U.S. crime dramas, a few British soap operas (“Coronation Street”) and a handful of home-grown programs (including a quaint weekly agricultural show, “Country Calendar.”) I do miss TV1’s witty weathercaster, Jim Hickey, and his entertaining descriptions of fine and foul weather.

The magazine mix includes The Economist and international editions of Time and Newsweek. I became a fan of the monthly North & South, and not just because of the community profiles by Steve Braunias (see my post for June 28). Sadly, N&S doesn’t put any of its content online, so I’ll have to wait for someone to mail me a printed copy. I also enjoyed The Listener, which started as a program guide for Radio New Zealand and now resembles The New Yorker, full of book and movie reviews, as well as arts listings.

Finally, I found advertising – both print and broadcast –creative, clever and droll. For a sample, take a look at the campaign for 2Degrees, a cellphone provider. The company’s initial ads featured actor Rhys Darby from the quirky HBO comedy “Flight of the Conchords.” One of the early commercials illustrated the company’s premise is that no one in New Zealand is separated by more than two degrees from anyone else. That proved to be a motto for our travels from Cape Reinga at the northern tip of the North Island to Slope Point at the southern tip of the South Island. Without exception, our Kiwi hosts were eager to help us discover the country’s spectacular scenery, rich history and flavorful cuisine.

The photograph was taken outside a shop at the Auckland Airport after our return from the South Island in April. “News Travels” sums up my stimulating and rewarding New Zealand experience.

Matamata editor embraces Facebook

2010-06-29T16:21:00.000-07:00

If Hobbiton had a hometown newspaper, it would be the Matamata Chronicle. Matamata, less than an hour’s drive from Hamilton is the nearest town to the movie set used for the Hobbit village in Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. And the Chronicle has been a big booster of efforts to film The Hobbit, the prequel to the LOTR trilogy, on the reconstructed set. “Anything that helps Hobbiton will help Matamata,” says editor Joel Maxwell.

Joel took over editorship of the Chronicle, a lively free-distribution weekly, early in 2009. Since then, he’s trying to connect with younger readers with more aggressive reporting and more provocative writing. He hasn’t been afraid to challenge the district council on issues he thinks are important. At the same time, he doesn’t want to alienate long-time readers, many of them retirees from Auckland.

His greatest innovation has been to set up a page on Facebook. Joel grew impatient while waiting for the paper’s parent company, Fairfax, to set up Websites for community newspapers in the Waikato. “We needed an online presence but had zero budget,” he said. So armed with a FlipVideo camera from a local electronics shop, Joel set out to shoot video of community events and newsmakers and upload it to Facebook each week.

The venture has been a huge success. The Chronicle has nearly 1,100 Facebook friends, one-tenth of the Nielsen-audited readership figures for the print edition. Joel shoots three video stories a week, edits them on his PC and uploads them directly to Facebook. A teaser on the front page alerts readers to what they’ll see online. Recent videos include a school assembly celebrating the success of a Future Problem Solving Team, a profile of champion cyclist about to embark on a trip to Canada and a short performance by an 85-year old piano teacher – whose playing is now recorded for posterity.

Matamata capitalizes on the Hobbit connection. The entrance to the tourist-information center resembles a Hobbit hole and a sculpture of Gollum sits in a grassy median in the street across from the Chronicle office. Tourists still flock to the sheep farm that was transformed into the Hobbit village for the movie, paying NZ$64 (US$48) for tickets.

Hobbiton has been in the news lately. After shooting ended for Lord of the Rings, the set was dismantled except for the frames of some hobbit holes. But when the trilogy’s popularity prompted plans for a Hobbit movie, the village got a new lease on life. Crews cleared a road, planted fruit trees and started building new hobbit holes. But financial troubles at MGM have stalled the project and Guillermo del Toro resigned as director last month.

In response, Joel wrote an open letter to Peter Jackson, the biggest name in New Zealand filmmaking. On the front page of the Chronicle’s June 2 edition, Joel called for the recently knighted Jackson to move the project along by taking over as director. (He’s already co-writing the script and serving as executive producer.) Joel wrote:

“Taking up the directing reins and completing the Middle Earth Films has a certain dramatic circularity to it. Kind of like a ring, actually. Welcome home, Sir Peter – come back and finish the job you started.”

And though it may not be in response to the Chronicle’s plea, press reports in Hollywood this week indicate that Jackson is in talks to direct not one, but two, Hobbit films for Warner Brothers and New Life Cinema. If that happens, you can read about it on the Chronicle’s Facebook page.
Photo: Red Carpet Tours via Waikato Times

Journos rank low on NZ trust scale

2010-06-28T21:26:00.000-07:00

Journalists score ahead of real estate agents but behind tow-truck drivers in a national survey of most-trusted occupations. The New Zealand edition of Reader's Digest released the results of its annual survey of the trustworthiness of people, professions and brands.

Emergency personnel and health-care workers led the list of most trusted occupations, with firefighters coming in No. 1 and ambulance officers No. 2. Financial planners and corporate CEOs have dropped in public esteem, coming in at 32 and 33, respectively. But both careers were ahead of journalists (35). Politicians and telemarketers were at the bottom of the 40-place list.

Among individuals, Cpl. Willie Apiata, a soldier awarded the Victoria Cross for heroism in Afghanistan, was a the top, followed by Kevin Milne, host of a TV consumer show, Fair Go. Sir Peter Snell, a New Zealand Olympic hero and holder of a Ph.D. from of Washington State University, was No. 3. Snell lives in Dallas and was recently diagnosed with heart disease. Film director Peter Jackson tied for 6th. To no one's suprprise, politicians held nine of the 10 bottom slots on the trustworthiness index.

Braunias challenges, inspires young writers

2010-06-28T15:31:00.000-07:00

Steve Braunias decries New Zealand’s espresso culture. He laments the passing of the traditional tearoom, which served simple sandwiches and drip coffee, poured from the pot. So when I arranged an interview with Steve, I was at a loss to suggest a place to meet. We settled on the student center at Wintec, high on a bluff overlooking downtown Hamilton. I had my usual flat white (a double-shot cappuccino with extra foam). Steve ordered a cup of tea with milk and a jelly doughnut.

I first encountered Steve’s writing soon after I arrived in New Zealand in January. The Saturday Waikato Times runs his column “May Contain Facts,” a tongue-in-cheek reflection on the week's quirky news events. Next, I discovered his weekly column on the back page of the Sunday Star Times magazine. And then I picked up a copy of North & South, the country’s superb national magazine, in which Steve and photographer Jane Ussher regularly explore New Zealand’s small towns. This man is everywhere, I thought to myself.

Then I discovered his books: Fool’s Paradise, a collection of newspaper columns; Roosters I Have Known, profiles of celebrities and politicians (including the current and former prime minister); and How to Watch a Bird, a delightful account of the joys of learning about New Zealand’s many and varied birds. When I read in the Times that Steve had been appointed editor-in-residence at the Waikato Instiute of Technology (Wintec), I immediately wondered: “When will he find time to teach?”

When we met at Wintec, the term was coming to a close. Steve, who lives in Auckland, explained his appointment: one day a week for 30 weeks in 2010, with the option to renew for another year. Starting in February, he came to Hamilton every Tuesday – by train through the end of April, when NZ Rail’s Overlander was catering to the tourist trade, by bus after the Overlander shifted to weekend-only service. He much preferred the train: the views of the Waikato River, the people, and especially the rhythm of the 2½ hour ride each way.

Steve said there were few ground rules to the residency: advise students, coach them in person and by e-mail, help them find internships. He was impressed with several of the students’ zest for tracking down stories. Does he teach them to write the way he does? No, he’s focusing on basic writing – perhaps finding a single word that jumps off the page and praising it. Next semester, his criticism will be tougher, he’s warned the students.

He’s obviously enjoying his work – and the students are, too. I asked several of them about Steve’s teaching:

"Steve adds a sharp dose of reality to our writing. If it's no good he will let us know -- there's no beating around the bush, only brutal honesty. But he also give praise where it's due. The occasional 'brilliant!' or 'that’s goood' break the trend of expletives targeted at my literary transgressions." (Tony Stevens)
"Steve’s critiques are always startling. He brings an element of industry brutality with him, but as eager students we all think a Pulitzer is just one story away – so his views are refreshing." (Ceana Priest)
"Steve's advice and mentoring are invaluable. He has a youthful charm, and cheeky sense of humour that softens any critique and makes him highly approachable. My confidence and skill as a journalist have definitely improved…."(Paul Kendon)

As for his own writing, he keeps to a strict schedule at home. North & South is running the community profiles every other month instead of monthly, so that’s taken some pressure off. He’s at work on his first novel, which may get more attention while Wintec is on its semester break. Although the Star Times doesn’t post Steve’s columns online, here’s a recent example of “May Contain Facts” that gives some context for New Zealand’s recent success in World Cup soccer. And for one of Steve’s long-form pieces, check out “A Cold Day in Hell,” a gripping look at New Zealand’s Antarctic base, which won the Cathay Pacific travel-writing award for 2010.

And finally, some thoughts from Steve about his craft, from a column that appeared in The Listener magazine and was reprinted in Fool’s Paradise (Random House, 2001):

Journalism is the first refuge of scoundrels: everyone knows the profession is venal, uncouth, morally corrupt: too right I like it. It pays you all right. You get to travel. Chance and bad judging mean you can win the occasional award. You learn a great deal about a great many subjects, even though you usually forget everything a week or two after each story is published; interviews are a strange, low art, and you can sometimes come up with a nice sentence. And because the trade is a public service, there is opportunity to do a power of good for others.

I won’t be surprised if some of Steve’s protégés at Wintec take these words to heart and use their story-telling skills to inform, persuade and right wrongs in society.

Founder’s son keeps Beacon independent

2010-06-28T15:14:00.001-07:00

When Leicester Spring arrived in Whakatane in 1938 to take over an accountancy practice, he discovered that one of his clients was the town’s only newspaper. The Whakatane Press was bankrupt, and he had no choice except to shut it down. Within months, however, townsfolk were clamoring for Spring to start another newspaper.

In response, Spring lined up investors, recruited an editor and found office space. On April 6, 1939, the Whakatane Beacon was born. More than 70 years later, it survives under the capable leadership of Leicester’s son, John Spring. It’s one of a handful of independent community newspapers in New Zealand.

Whakatane (pronounced Fahk-uh-tahn-ee) is one of the sunniest places in New Zealand, with warm summers and mild winters. With a population of 15,000, it is the largest town in the eastern Bay of Plenty on the North Island. The economy is based on agriculture (kiwifruit is a major crop), logging and tourism. Whakatane is the trading center for a region of about 45,000 people.

Published three times a week, the Beacon stands out as a broadsheet in a sea of tabloids. And unlike most NZ community papers, its 8,000 circulation is paid. “We have adhered to the principle that a paid circulation is, among other things, the soundest basis upon which to develop a successful newspaper,” Leicester Spring, who died in 1997, wrote in his autobiography. The formula has proven successful for the family-owned company.

Like his father, John Spring studied accounting. He started at the paper cleaning the presses on school holidays, he worked as a press helper and in the paste-up room in the Compugraphic era. After five years at an accounting firm in Hamilton, he returned to Whakatane to take over the paper. The company has 23 shareholders, mostly family members. A brother is a corporate director but not involved in daily operations. APN News & Media, which owns community newspapers throughout the North Island, holds a 20 percent stake.

John gave me a tour of the Beacon’s modern office building before walking a block to the printing plant, which houses a Goss Community press, resembling those used in the 1980s at the Sandpoint Daily Bee and Kellogg Evening News. The press was new in 1995, purchased for more than $1 million – a substantial investment for a small paper. In addition to the Beacon, the company publishes the twice-weekly Opotiki News for a small town farther east along the coast, and the Bay Weekend, distributed free to 20,000 homes in the district. It also owns the Waitomo News, south of Hamilton, and prints other papers on contract. The day I visited, the press was running the weekly Raglan Chronicle.

John acknowledged that the past two years had been tough. The Beacon’s circulation was flat, and real-estate advertising had dropped from 40 pages a week to 24 pages a week in the previous 18 months. One of the largest real-estate offices had recently closed. A printer and a photographer were laid off after a 2008 restructuring. But advertising for cars, furniture and whiteware (appliances) was holding up, and national chains anchored a mall on the south edge of Whakatane.

The Beacon and its sister papers are solidly rooted in their communities. Editor Mark Dawson oversees a staff of 11, producing six editions each week. Novice reporter Samantha Motion was recently named the best young journalist in an annual competition sponsored by the New Zealand Community Newspaper Association. “She knows what news is,” Mark told me.

The lead story in the issue that John holds in the photo is typical of local coverage: “A judge has ruled all four bulldogs present during the savage mauling of a woman in her neighbor’s garden in March 2008 should be destroyed – as soon as they are found.” (Someone kidnapped the dogs from the pound after they were seized after the mauling. The victim is recovering from her injuries.)

The Beacon’s first editor, Clive Kingsley-Smith, wrote: “A Beacon’s beams penetrate the darkness, revealing the furtherest corners and shedding light on every movement and activity that takes place within its arc.” After seven decades, the paper holds true to that mission.

A visit to New Zealand’s biggest sub-hub

2010-06-20T22:28:00.001-07:00

Two rows of empty cubicles in the New Zealand Herald’s newsroom in central Auckland offer visible testimony to the effect of outsourcing a major piece of the newspaper’s production.

Until the fall of 2007, the desks were full of copy editors and page designers. Since then, that function has been performed by editors working 10 km away in the Auckland suburb of Ellerslie. In a spacious newsroom adjoining Herald’s printing plant, a corps of 58 editors turns out more than 1,000 pages a week for the Herald and nine other newspapers.

In Britain, Australia and New Zealand, copy editors are called sub-editors. Their duties – choosing and editing stories, writing headlines and designing pages – are known as subbing. Hence, a centralized subbing operation is a sub-hub.

The Ellerslie operation is operated by Pagemasters, a subsidiary of the Australian Associated Press. It contracts with APN News and Media, to produce pages for the Herald and its sister papers across the North Island. The Herald retains some in-house subs to produce its weekly entertainment section and weekend magazine.

George Butler (above right), formerly the news editor of the Herald, oversees the Pagemasters operation. He was initially skeptical of the concept but was won over by the company’s commitment to cut costs without reducing quality. Antony Phillips, who oversaw the sub-hub before becoming editor of APN’s Hawke’s Bay Today earlier this year, described Butler as “the poacher turned gamekeeper.”

When I visited on a recent Friday morning, about 20 subs were at work in the spacious newsroom. The first editors, who had arrived at 4:30 a.m. to finish work on several of the provincial dailies, were nearing the end of their shifts. Others were working on pages for the following day. Butler said the relative calm was deceptive. “They’re like swans on a lake – calm on the surface and wild panic underneath,” he said.

The staff has been relatively stable; only one person has left since Butler took over as managing editor in January. That undoubtedly contributes to the consistency and quality of the system.

At mid-day a dozen subs would arrive to start work on the New Zealand Herald; many were Herald subs who simply transferred to Pagemasters. Others are newcomers to editing, coming from magazines and regional papers. One is a former teacher; two are recent graduates of Auckland University of Technology’s journalism programme.

And I was surprised to discover an American, Nik Dirga (above left). Nik worked at several U.S. newspapers, including the News Review of Roseburg, Oregon, before moving to New Zealand.

At many U.S. newspapers, copy editors’ workload is uneven – slow at the beginning of a shift, a flurry of frenzied activity as the deadline approaches, and often coasting after the deadline passes. Sub-hubs seek to even out the work flow. That requires careful scheduling and sharing of duties. A computer monitor (left) shows the number of stories awaiting editing for each newspaper.

Butler carefully monitors the centre’s weekly output. So far the results are promising: At the Herald, a sub-editor produced an average of 1.5 pages per day. Here, the daily output is more than double that pace, 3.7 pages per editor. He insists that quality has been consistent with what the individual papers enjoyed before, and Nik agreed. “I do think PM generally lifts the quality of non-local coverage to a higher standard with our copy-tasting [story selection] of news, which I've been heavily involved in.”

The subs are in constant contact with editors at the client papers by phone, e-mail and through story lists shared over a common editing and pagination system. Still, it would be hard for me to get used to having stories edited across town (in the case of the Herald) or hundreds of kilometers away (in the case of two of the smaller APN dailies at the south end of the North Island). I asked Nik whether he thought sub-hubs would work in the United States.

I've been asked this before and am unsure ... The biggest difference is simply the scale -- all of NZ is the population of the San Francisco Bay Area alone so centralizing works better here. I have trouble seeing how you could pull something like Pagemasters off on a national scale in a country the size of the US, but on a more regional/market level it could definitely work, done right.

Along those lines, Media General, which owns several newspapers in the southeastern United States, announced in April it would centralize copy-editing and page design for its three largest dailies. And Nik says Gannett has been sharing world news copy from USA Today with some of its sister papers.

APN also “in-sources” subbing for many of its community weeklies to a much smaller hub in Tauranga. I’ll provide more details about that arrangement in a future post.

Ambassador finds hidden culinary talents

2010-06-19T22:31:00.000-07:00

U.S. Ambassador David Huebner was a bit out of his element in the Kiwi’s Best demonstration kitchen at Fieldays, New Zealand's agri-business extravaganza. “I can’t cook to save my life,” Huebner told celebrity chef Al Brown. Nonetheless, Huebner carefully followed Brown’s directions to sautée veal medallions, accompanied by a cream sauce with honey liqueur and a hash of root vegetables.

Huebner is no stranger to Brown’s approach to cooking. He has eaten several times at Logan Brown in Wellington, honored as Cuisine NZ’s 2009 restaurant of the year. Huebner also praised the variety of ethnic cuisine he’s tasted since taking up his duties in New Zealand six months ago.

Dressed in a crimson polo shirt and blue jeans, Huebner was clearly comfortable on stage, asking in jest for cilantro (coriander), a popular ingredient in Mexican food. He held up a copy of Brown’s latest book, Go Fish, and quizzed him about his new TV series, Coasters, which portrays people who live—and eat—along New Zealand’s coasts. When the veal was ready to serve, Huebner drizzled the sauce artistically around the meat and vegetables. Brown praised him for the attractive presentation.

Trained as a lawyer, Huebner headed the Shanghai office of an international law firm before President Barack Obama appointed him ambassador to New Zealand and Samoa. Before taking up his culinary duties on stage, he attended Wednesday’s opening ceremony and attended a luncheon with Prime Minister John Key.

Huebner listened attentively to Key’s support for New Zealand’s Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) to slow global warming. “Both New Zealand and the United States are determined to show good stewardship of our planet – and that requires addressing the serious and long-term challenge of global climate change,” Huebner said in a prepared statement. (Read more on the ambassador's blog about U.S.-New Zealand efforts to reduce greenhouse gases from agricultural sources.)

Huebner likened Fieldays to the Los Angeles County Fair, which he attends whenever he is at home in California. “I feel very comfortable amongst farmers, animals, crops and machinery,” he told me after the cooking demonstration. “Farmers, wherever they are, share something in common,” he said. “American farmers and Kiwi farmers share the same problems, they same challenges, the same joys in what they do.”

Asked whether he owns a pair of gumboots -- the standard rural footwear in New Zealand -- Huebner acknowledged that he did, but hasn’t had occasion to wear them. “I spend all of my days inside, in the embassy in Wellington – I haven’t been outside in the rain or the mud yet.” He will no doubt have an opportunity to get his boots muddy in the months to come.
First published in Fieldays Exhibitor. Photo: Barker Photography

Farming show tests student journalists

2010-06-18T21:47:00.000-07:00

Turn two-dozen student reporters and photographers loose for four days at the largest agri-business show in the Southern Hemisphere and what do you get? For readers, a daily magazine, Fieldays Exhibitor, full of news, features and photos. For the students, an unmatched hands-on experience.

Waikato Institute for Technology (Wintec for short) has one of ten accredited journalism programmes in New Zealand. It’s based on a compact urban campus in downtown Hamilton. But during the third week of June, the journalism students and staff move to the sprawling Mystery Creek Events Centre near the Hamilton Airport.

That’s the scene of the New Zealand National Agricultural Fieldays, now in their 42nd year. Imagine an American county fair on steroids: more than 1,000 exhibitors displaying tractors, fencing, milking equipment, four-wheeled ATVs (called quad bikes here), and of course, rubber gumboots in all colors and sizes. The site is huge; in three days I never made it to the south end of the grounds. More than 120,000 people pass through the gates over four days.

For aspiring journalists, the story possibilities are practically endless. Ceana Priest, a Wintec student, told me: "With so much media coverage, the challenge of Fieldays is finding an untouched story or uncovering a new angle." She turned a feature about the Golden Pliers fencing competition that also ran in the local daily, The Waikato Times.

Instructors Charles Riddle and Jeremy Smith direct coverage from the Wintec van, a mobile classroom with 16 computer work stations parked on the Fieldays site. Stories and photos are sent electronically back to campus where Venetia Sherson (a former Wintec editor-in-residence) and graphic design instructor Georgie Gaddum supervise a team of four student designers who put together each issue -- printed on glossy paper with full color on every page.

I watched both ends of the process and came away impressed with the real-time, real-life nature of the learning. My favorable impression would stand even if Charles hadn't offered me a four-day media pass (and free coffee) along with an invitation to submit an article for Saturday's edition.

Qantas awards recognize NZ's top papers

2010-06-18T20:45:00.000-07:00

Hawke's Bay Today, one of the papers I visited in April, has been judged New Zealand's top daily newspaper of under 30,000 circulation for 2010. The Qantas Media Awards (sponsored by the Australian airline) were handed out in Auckland a week ago.

Today won on the strength of its coverage of a May 2009 police siege in Napier in which one police officer and the gunman were killed. That's consistent with past years, when coverage of a single breaking story led to a top Qantas award.

The judge in this category was Jim Tully, head of the graduate school of journalism at Canterbury University in Christchurch. He wrote:

Our provincial dailies have a clear focus on reflecting the diverse interests and aspirations of the communities they serve. The finalists all demonstrated that they consistently serve their communities well and seek to engage their readers in a variety of ways: by providing comprehensive coverage of high-impact stories; by initiating campaigns; and by fostering interaction primarily through their websites.

The other finalists in this category were the Rotorua Daily Post (the 2009 winner), and two South Island papers, the Marlborough Express of Blenheim and the Southland Times of Invercargill.

The New Zealand Herald - the country's largest daily with a circulation of 170,000 - won the award for papers of 30,000 or more subscribers, and its stablemate, the Herald on Sunday, was the top Sunday paper (beating two competitors). Here's a complete list of the winners.

‘Cheers’ to 50 years of television

2010-06-07T13:46:00.000-07:00

For the past month, the theme song from the long-running American sitcom “Cheers” has been playing over and over in my head. If you’ve forgotten, here are the lyrics:

Sometimes you want to go
Where everybody knows your name (dah-dah-dah),
and they're always glad you came.

The song has been used in daily commercials promoting the 50th anniversary of television’s New Zealand debut June 1, 1960. TV celebrities, sports figures and politicians are seen in short clips singing (or lip-synching) the words.

Television came late to New Zealand. Britain had experimental TV broadcasts in the 1930s, and commercial stations on the East Coast of the United States presented several hours of evening programming in the 1940s. (Many western cities, including Spokane and Boise, didn’t get TV until the FCC lifted its freeze on new licenses in 1952.)

The June 1, 1960, broadcast was seen only in Auckland. It took four months before Christchurch’s station went on the air, followed by those in Wellington and Dunedin. A network linked the four major cities in 1969, which allowed the first national news broadcast. All broadcasts were in black and white until 1973.

Programmers drew heavily on American and British comedies and dramas to fill prime-time hours, and still do. Viewers now see a handful of original New Zealand series, including a soap opera called Shortland Street, a knock-off of the UK's Coronation Street. But the longest-running NZ show (on the air since 1966) is a half-hour agricultural program called Country Calendar, which airs on Saturday evening right after the national news. Here’s the synopsis for the most recent show: “Two innovative brothers boost apple growing in South Canterbury.”

The New Zealand government owns TV New Zealand, which operates two of the over-the-air commercial channels. There hasn’t been true “public television” – along the lines of the BBC or PBS – since 1988 when a deregulating government dissolved the Broadcasting Corporation of New Zealand. A requirement that TVNZ pay an annual dividend to the government submerged public-service broadcasting to commercial pressures.

TVNZ marked the 50th anniversary with a hokey two-hour quiz show last week, which drew large audiences but jeers from critics hoping for something with more substance. That function apparently will be served by a seven-part documentary on the rival Prime TV, owned by Rupert Murdoch’s Sky satellite network.

Even so, the anniversary week provided plenty of opportunities for Kiwis to look back at TV’s early years, including the Goodnight Kiwi (pictured above). Before 24-hour programming began in 1994, this animated short was shown at the end of each day’s broadcasts. The bird is depicted turning off the transmitter, putting out a milk bottle, and climbing into a satellite dish to go to sleep. Viewers were expected to do the same.

Jefferson’s words inspire NZ journalists

2010-06-07T13:36:00.000-07:00

No New Zealand city has had two daily newspapers since 2002, when Wellington’s morning Dominion merged with the Evening Post to form The Dominion Post. With a circulation of just under 90,000, the Dom Post (as it’s commonly known) is the country’s second-largest daily.

The paper’s modern building has a comfortable café just off the lobby called The Front Page. On the wall, I was surprised to see this quotation from Thomas Jefferson: "Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter."

When I became editor of the Argonaut (the University of Idaho’s student newspaper), I placed this quote on the masthead – a jab at the student government. A few years later, I discovered that Jefferson’s enthusiasm for newspapers waned, particularly after he became president in 1800 and was the target of some nasty barbs from Federalist writers. He wrote to a friend: “The man who reads nothing at all is better educated than the man who reads nothing but newspapers.” And in retirement, he remarked, “ I do not take a single newspaper, nor read one a month, and I feel myself infinitely the happier for it.”

Even so, Mr. Jefferson’s first quote seems especially fitting for the paper published in New Zealand’s capital, just a short walk from Prime Minister John Key’s office and the Parliament building. It’s a long way from Monticello to Boulcott Street in Wellington, but I suspect that Mr. Jefferson would be pleased to see his comment receive such prominence.

In Hawke's Bay, every place has a story

2010-05-11T21:42:00.000-07:00

Newspapers here boldly promote themselves on company cars driven by staff members. On a visit to a nature preserve near Hastings on the North Island, we came across a white compact emblazoned with the logo and slogan of the regional daily, Hawke’s Bay Today. I introduced myself to the driver, a reporter with the fitting name of Mark Story.

Mark was stationed at a carpark about 100meters (330 feet) below the summit of Te Mata, the highest point in this fruit-growing and wine-producing region. Mark’s assignment was to stake out the road for two hours and report on what he discovered. His observations were to become the first in a series of features called “Our Place.” Here’s how Mark began his account:

I love cop stakeout scenes. Endless greasy burgers, doughnuts and bottomless cups of coffee complement any workstation I say. So when I'm asked to spend two hours in an observational role atop Te Mata Peak - with a view to penning all that ensues - I load the passenger seat with savouries.

By savouries, he means meat pies, sausage rolls and the like, which are staples of the New Zealand diet. On this rainy autumn morning, visitors are few and far between. Mark discovers (and photographs) a group of Mormon missionaries posing for a photo and a father with two children riding a three-seat tandem bike up the steep hill. (You can read the full story here.)

At the newspaper office the following day, I learn that Today is a relatively young publication born in 1999 from the merger of papers in Napier (population 55,539) and Hastings (population 70,842). The towns are about 20 km (13 miles) apart. At the morning news meeting, editor Antony Phillips, quizzes the chief reporter about the locales of stories. Afterwards, he tells me that he doesn’t seek to match Hastings and Napier stories every day, but hopes for parity over the long term. I was reminded of similar discussions at the Idahonian over balancing the front-page news between Moscow and Pullman.

“Our Place” is an attempt to bring more human-interest stories into the paper by visiting places off the traditional news beats (courts, council meetings, etc.). It reminded me of David Johnson’s weekly column in the Lewiston Tribune, “Everyone Has a Story.” This variation might be called “Every Place Has a Story.”

Idaho’s governor in the news in NZ

2010-05-09T22:00:00.000-07:00

The largest daily paper at the south end of the South Island is the Otago Daily Times, published in Dunedin. Our well-traveled host in Omarama (more than 230 km from Dunedin) told me with some pride that each Monday’s ODT includes a section devoted to international news. Sure enough, the Monday paper arrived with a 16-page tabloid insert, Global Focus. The cover story (originally published in USA Today) was about predictions of a return to the Dust Bowl in the United States as a result of global warming.

Flipping through the section over breakfast, I almost dropped my mug of coffee. A photo of Idaho Gov. Butch Otter, wearing blue jeans along with his white shirt, red plaid tie and navy blazer, practically leaped off the page. (His characteristic cowboy boots aren’t visible.) He is pictured with Attorney General Lawrence Wasden and state Sen. Robert Geddes – all looking as if they’d been startled by a sudden noise and were about to bolt from the governor’s office (see below).

The photograph showed the three officials preparing to address reporters about Idaho’s decision to sue the federal government to overturn the health-care bill passed by Congress in March. The photo accompanied an essay by Lee Edwards of the Heritage Foundation with the headline “The sound of ideologies clashing.” Edwards' article didn’t mention Otter or Idaho’s challenge, so New Zealand readers must have been left wondering why a state best known here for potatoes and ski resorts would be taking the federal government to court over legislation.

I wish that the ODT’s editors had labeled the piece as “commentary” and explained the Heritage Foundation’s political slant. Those were small omissions in an otherwise comprehensive section of world news.
Photo: Joe Jaszewski, the Idaho Statesman, via McClatchy/Tribune

A legend in NZ newspapers – and football

2010-04-15T22:46:00.000-07:00

May 10 update: Jim Mora, host of Radio New Zealand's Afternoons program, interviewed Iain Gillies today. Listen to the interview to hear Iain's story in his own words, in his delightful Scottish accent.

Iain Gillies’ office on the second floor of the Gisbourne Herald’s building is filled with ephemera from his half-century in the news business, as well as his even longer career as a football (soccer) player, manager and coach. The walls are covered with certificates, plaques and news clippings. He points to a postcard of his hometown of Mallaig on the northwest coast of Scotland and mementos of his time as a member of the Glasgow Celtic, a U.K. football powerhouse.

Football brought Gillies to New Zealand but a job at the family-owned Herald (circulation 8,500) kept him here. He answered an ad to play soccer in Gisborne and continued to play after starting work at the Herald in 1959. After a stint as chief reporter (city editor), he became editor in September of 1980. The day I visited the Herald, Gillies was about to write his final leader (editorial) before stepping down as editor. His almost three decades as editor is unmatched in New Zealand in recent years.

Gillies isn’t really retiring. He’ll continue as a part-time sports writer – sharing duties with his son John, who runs a used-book shop a block away from the Herald’s office. And Iain has offered to write an occasional editorial whenever his successor, Jeremy Muir, can’t find time. Jeremy, 36, represents the sixth generation of his family to be involved in newspapers in New Zealand. His father, Michael, is the paper’s managing director.

Journalism runs in the Gillies family. In addition to John, two other sons and a niece also worked at the Herald. Son Angus has written two books of an intended trilogy about a crime spree by a Rastafarian gang on the North Island’s East Coast in the mid-1980s. I just started reading the first volume, a gift from Iain.

Newspapers on the rebound: Michael Muir is the president of the Newspaper Publishers’ Association of New Zealand. He said this week that newspaper advertising is rebounding and readership is strong. He’s optimistic about newspapers, saying they remain a vital credible source of news for Kiwis:

"What we are seeing with the explosion of the Internet is a crying need to distill the blizzard of information and opinions, much of it unreliable to make some sense of it."

The challenge that Muir and his counterparts face is how to attract young readers, used to finding information online, to their printed editions.

New editor, new challenges in Nelson

2010-04-04T01:53:00.000-07:00

Paul McIntyre traded the comfort of a metropolitan daily for the challenges of a regional newspaper. After 14 years at The Press in Christchurch (the largest city on the South Island), McIntyre is hoping to reinvigorate the much smaller Nelson Mail, founded in 1866. To turn around declining circulation, he plans to emphasize hard news, improve photography and launch campaigns around local issues.

At The Press (circulation 83,000), McIntyre held a variety of newsroom roles, including news editor and online editor. As editor of the Mail (circulation 16,000), McIntyre, 45, will oversee a staff of eight reporters, three editors and three photographers. Subbing (copy editing and page design) is done in house by editors employed by the Mail’s parent company, Fairfax, some of whom work in the newsroom in Nelson.

When I visited McIntyre in mid-March, he had been on the job for just a month. He was already impressed by the dedication of his staff. “Journalists work harder at small papers than at big-city papers,” he said, an assessment that reflects my own experience. “I like being closer to the action here.” He was getting better acquainted with community issues, including declining employment in the fishing industry and port.

His immediate task is to stabilize circulation, which peaked at 23,000 a few years ago. Nelson’s population is aging, as people are attracted by its mild climate. (It’s the sunniest city in New Zealand.) That’s the demographic that still reads printed newspapers. But many of the retirees and summer residents are migrants from elsewhere in New Zealand, and they bring their reading habits with them.

Both The Press and The Dominion Post (from Wellington, across the Cook Strait on the North Island) circulate in Nelson. Together, they sell about 11,000 copies a day in Nelson. In McIntyre’s view, they have an advantage because they are morning papers, hitting the streets hours ahead of the mid-day Mail.

McIntyre is itching to switch the Mail to morning publication. For inspiration, he points to his native England, where most regional papers lost circulation in the six months ending February 28. An exception was the Dorset Echo on England’s south coast, whose circulation grew by 2.1 percent after switching from afternoon to morning publication. McIntyre believes a similar change would benefit the Mail. In the meantime, he is trying to learn more about issues affecting Nelson and its surrounding region to redirect the paper’s coverage. I’ll check in with him in a few months to see how he’s doing.
Photo: The Nelson Mail

Newspapers' digital futures: USA and NZ

2010-04-04T01:48:00.000-07:00

A reporter for The Press in Christchurch, Alex van Wel, interviewed me for a piece he wrote about ways in which newspapers in this country and the United States are adapting content to the Internet. He spent most of February on the U.S. East Coast, talking to editors and journalism educators – in some ways, the mirror image of what I’m doing here.

Among those Alex interviewed was Jay Rosen, journalism professor at New York University, and Nicholas Lemann, dean of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. He also visited the Shelby Star in North Carolina, a paper struggling to attract advertisers to its digital edition.

My contribution to the article was to observe that because New Zealand doesn’t have local TV stations, many of the advertisers that dominate U.S. local TV (car dealers, home furnishing stores, appliance dealers) have stuck with newspapers here. That’s helped them remain stronger than their U.S. counterparts, at least in the short term.
Alex’s bottom line is this:

And, while people currently in the 50s and 60s may never own a [digital] tablet, younger readers – the core customers of the future – will, and they are likely to demand that fuller and richer experience. The trick is keeping the print product strong while uplifting the online offering.

In a nutshell, that's the challenge facing editors worldwide.

A visit to NZ’s best small daily paper

2010-03-07T10:21:00.000-08:00

Kim Gillespie feels the pressure of success. In his fourth month as editor of The Daily Post of Rotorua, he is hoping to repeat the paper’s status as New Zealand’s top paper of less than 30,000 circulation in the 2009 Qantas Media Awards.

When I visited the Post’s newsroom recently, Gillespie was busy burning CDs with entries for the 2010 Qantas competition. The Post, with a circulation of 11,500, was one of the few APN dailies to show a circulation gain in 2009.

Gillespie, 36, became editor of the Post in December. He previously had two stints at the paper in various reporting and editing roles, and most recently was editor of the Wanganui Chronicle, another APN paper on the west coast of the North Island.

I attended the afternoon news meeting, at which editors pitched stories for the following day’s paper, chose a line-up for the front page and even tried out headlines for the lead story about a dramatic rescue of a “boatie” (boater) from an overturned yacht in Lake Rotorua. (The winner: "Who saved this boatie's life?" with an overline saying "Mystery Hero".)

The paper’s chief reporter (what Americans call the city editor) reported on that day’s employee survey – including advertising and business staffs – of what the top stories should be. That reflects a conscious effort to choose stories that appeal to women, who are responsible for most of the “casual” (single copy) sales. Although technically an “afternoon” paper, the Post is on the streets by mid-morning, which catches shoppers earlier in the day and has contributed to the circulation increase.

Only the front page and three local news pages are designed in house. National, world and feature pages have been outsourced to a “sub-hub” in Auckland run by Pagemasters, an Australian company. The paper is printed in Tauranga in the plant of a sister paper, the Bay of Plenty Times.

The next round of Qantas Media Award winners will be announced in June. I’ll report then on whether the Post retains its “best of class” honor.

Journalese of the week: Sub hub. Copy editors in Britain, Australia and New Zealand are known as sub-editors, and their craft is called subbing. Hence, a centralized operation for editing copy, writing headline and designing pages is a sub hub.

Photo credit: The Daily Post

A new Kiwi spectator sport: wave watching

2010-03-01T13:31:00.000-08:00

New Zealand newspapers rely heavily on "casual" (single copy) sales -- at some regional papers, for up to half of their paid circulation. Every shop that sells newspapers displays posters with a teaser for the day's top story. Monday's headlines about New Zealand's reaction to tsunami triggered by the Chilean earthquake caught my attention.

The casual reaction of some New Zealanders -- head for the beach to check out the action -- drew criticism from Civil Defense officials. The increase in sea level was moderate along the east coast of the North Island (up to 1 meter at Whitianga, a beach I visted last month) and less in Auckland. Still, the force of the waves posed some risk to unprepared boaters and swimmers.

Officials were miffed that some Kiwis (a common term for New Zealanders) didn't take the warnings seriously. The "stupid" comment came from John Carter, the minister of Civil Defense. On the Web site of today's Herald, there's a debate over whether local councils should be able to prosecute gawkers who ignore warnings to evacuate.

Adventure-loving Kiwis, who invented extreme sports like black-water rafting (inner-tubing through caves) and Zorbing (rolling down hills inside a plastic ball), will no doubt find a way to exploit the public's curiosity about future tsunamis.

Q&A about New Zealand newspapers

2010-02-10T23:47:00.000-08:00

How do the content and style of New Zealand newspapers compare to the United States?
The content seems similar, though so far, I've sampled just three of the country's 21 daily papers. Parliament opened this week in Wellington, so there's been a fair amount of space devoted to politics.
One thing I've noticed is that big stories seem to be told episodically, with the follow-ups coming on subsequent days, rather than all at once with a main story and sidebars. The government's plan to close a juvenile-justice group home in Hamilton has generated reaction stories every day for a week; the American style might be to include more comments in the initial story.

Are they making money?
All but three of the daily papers are owned by two companies, Fairfax Media and APN (Australian Provincial Newspapers) News and Media, both Australian companies (though APN is controlled in turn by an Irish company). Both companies own dailies, weeklies and magazines; Fairfax also owns Trade Me, an online auction site that combines elements of eBay and Craig's List. Both are publicly traded and will report their 2009 earnings in late February. That will be one indicator of the strength of their print media properties.

Feb 26 update: Media companies back in the black
The parent companies of most New Zealand daily newspapers reported profits last week. But it's difficult to tell from the corporate releases how well the newspapers themselves are doing.
Fairfax Media, owner of The Waikato Times, announced a profit for the six months ending Dec. 31, 2009, a turnaround from a loss in the same period in 2008. The company said online operations, including Trade Me, were doing well, while print revenues in New Zealand were “subdued,” in the words of the company’s CEO.
Meanwhile, APN News & Media, also reported a profitable year. The Sydney-based company reported growth in advertising revenue for the last three months of the year, largely from retail and national ads. The company has also cut costs by reorganizing and cutting staff. APN has centralized some of its editing and pagination functions.

Is newspaper readership declining?
I've read several pieces that suggest that newspaper circulation in New Zealand hasn't declined to the degree that it has in the United States or United Kingdom. One of the recent success stories in publishing, in fact, has been the start of a new Sunday paper in Auckland, the Herald on Sunday, which has grown to nearly 100,000 subscribers since its founding in 2004. According to the New Zealand Journalists Training Organization, 72 percent of the population reads a newspaper at least once a week. There are no local TV channels, so newspapers remain the primary source of local and regional news.

Do many people read the news online?
New Zealand papers seem about five years behind their American counterparts in putting news on the Web, perhaps reflecting lower Internet usage overall. Many rural areas still lack access to broadband and I haven't seen a single wi-fi hot spot in Hamilton, though there are several Internet cafes that charge by the hour.
The Hamilton paper, The Waikato Times, doesn't have a free-standing Web site; instead, its content is part of a corporate site that aggregates content from all of the Fairfax papers. The Herald recycles its print content to the Web, augmenting some articles with streaming video. Radio stations and the national TV channels provide news online as well; the government-owned Radio New Zealand offers several online program streams.

A favorite piece of journalese: "stoush," referring to a dispute, flap or controversy. It's common in news "intros" (what we'd call a lede), such as "Hamilton’s Frankton Market could be moved as a stoush brews between retailer Forlongs and other businesses…”

NZ newspapers: wide pages, big photos

2010-02-03T11:05:00.000-08:00

The first thing this American noticed about New Zealand newspapers is their size. Most of the city and regional newspapers are true broadsheets, which haven’t been seen in the United States for 30 years except for imports like Britain’s Financial Times.

The two papers I read regularly are the New Zealand Herald, the country’s largest daily with a circulation of 174,000, published in Auckland, and Hamilton’s Waikato Times, with a circulation of 41,000. Both papers are 14¾ inches wide, edge to edge (in newspaper parlance, 88 picas). That makes them three inches wider than the typical American “broadsheet” such as the Lewiston Tribune or Moscow-Pullman Daily News, whose pages are 69 picas (11½ inches) wide.

The NZ papers’ page depth is almost identical to the U.S. counterpart (21-1/2 inches) so when opened at the fold, the full page looks more square than oblong. New Zealand editors use the extra space to their advantage with large headlines, spectacular photographs and fewer “jumps” (stories that start on one page and continue to another). It makes me question again the wisdom of U.S. newspapers’ collective decision to trim the width of their pages, which diminishes the visual impact of pictures and graphics. The narrower page contributes to the impression that readers are getting less for their money, too.

The papers also have more heft than their U.S. counterparts; the newsprint is thicker and page count higher. Both the Herald and Times are chock full of full-color, full-page ads from national retailers, especially their weekend editions on Saturday mornings. (Neither the Times nor the Herald comes out on Sunday, though the Times’ parent company publishes the Star Times, and the Herald’s sister paper, the tabloid Herald on Sunday, has a separate staff, similar to the British national Sunday papers.)

As for content, the New Zealand papers are heavy on sports (as are the TV networks’ evening programs), business, domestic politics and international news. Coverage of the Haiti earthquake was comprehensive, even in the Hamilton paper which usually is dominated by local news.

The fiber-glass cow in a pedestrian plaza in central Hamilton promotes the Waikato Times. (Note the Wellington boots.) Photo: Aly Lamar

Hello from the UW (University of Waikato)

2010-01-27T11:21:00.000-08:00

This is my first dispatch from New Zealand, where I am spending spring semester 2010 on sabbatical from the University of Idaho. My base is the University of Waikato, located in Hamilton on the North Island, about 80 miles south of Auckland.

The government-supported university was founded in 1964 during an expansion of tertiary (higher) education. Today, it has more than 12,000 students, of which nearly a fifth are Maori, the indigenous people of Nez Zealand. There also more than 400 New Zealanders of Pacific Island descent and 2,000 international students, primarily from Asia.

Waikato is organized into a Faculty (college) of Arts and Social Sciences, and six professional schools: science and engineering, mathematics and computing sciences, education, law, management and Maori and Pacific Development. Surprisingly, there is no school of agriculture, even though Hamilton is in the centre of a rich agricultural region. A large ag-research station near the university is administered by the Crown Research Institute, part of the government’s Ministry of Science.

The Faculty of Arts and Sciences is led by Dean Dan Zirker, a former faculty member in Political Science and director of the Honors Program at the University of Idaho. The Faculty comprises ten departments, including Screen & Media Studies, to which I’m attached. Screen & Media has ten full-time academic staff, so it’s slightly larger than JAMM at the University of Idaho. The department describes itself on its Web site:
Here in Screen and Media Studies we believe that communication is the most fundamental of all human activities, and that in the 21st century the media, in the broadest sense, will be the most important aspect of communication. The variety and connectivity of cultures, identities and practices will be central to the new media and our curriculum.
Read more here.

'Twas the week before Christmas...

2009-12-22T14:49:00.000-08:00

...and all through the third floor of the Administration Building, not a creature is stirring except for a few faculty members getting ready for next semester.

After 13 years of full-time teaching (the last 10 at the University of Idaho), I will take my first sabbatical in 2010. From January to June, I will be at the University of Waikato in Hamilton, New Zealand. Hamilton is on the North Island, about 80km south of Auckland. I’ll be a scholar in residence in the Department of Screen and Media Studies, conducting research about New Zealand’s community newspapers.

During my absence, Assistant Professor Patricia Hart will be acting director of the School. Prof. Hart first taught Media Writing in the School of Communication in 1981 and became a full-time faculty member after JAMM was formed in 2003. She’s taken a special interest in curriculum issues and helped draw up learning objectives for all of our degrees. I’m confident that the School will continue to be responsive to the changing media environment under her leadership.

I’ll be posting news of my travels on this blog, and I will continue to check my UI e-mail address regularly. Thank you for your continued support of the School of Journalism and Mass Media. Best wishes for the holidays.

New fund helps students study abroad, pursue internships away from Moscow

2009-11-23T11:04:00.000-08:00

When University of Idaho students apply to graduate, they must complete a survey reflecting on their time on campus. The surveys consistently show that students who participate in out-of-class activities have richer experiences than those who do not. Among the most frequently mentioned activities are student media, internships, and study abroad.

Working for a media outlet, an advertising agency or PR firm gives students an opportunity to develop professional skills, their portfolios and their confidence. Because of Moscow’s distance from major media markets, the School of JAMM does not require an internship to graduate, though faculty members strongly encourage them. (About one-fifth of our students complete at least one internship.)

Students in advertising, broadcasting and digital media often must seek internships in Boise, Spokane, Portland or Seattle because of the lack of local opportunities. Unless a student is able to live with family members or friends, he or she usually cannot afford to accept an internship in a metropolitan area.

Meanwhile, an increasing number of JAMM majors enroll in our Global Media course, study a foreign language or obtain a second major in International Studies. They seek ways to expand their awareness of U.S. foreign policy, the structure of international media organizations and the ways in which U.S. companies compete in a global marketplace.

Here is a testimonial from a JAMM major who studied in Italy last spring: "Daily survival in a foreign country improves confidence much faster than the transition from high school to college. The most interesting benefit is how the student observes the United States and their home from abroad. This experience forever changes the way a person looks at their past, present and future." (Robert Tedeschi, scheduled to graduate in 2010)

Robert's international experience, combined with a second language (Spanish), will give him an advantage when seeking employment after graduation. However, to study abroad for semester or a year, a student must forego employment opportunities or take out additional student loans.

That’s why we have created a Student Opportunities Fund. This will support the efforts of students who, through their own initiative, land an internship in a city with higher living costs or seek to improve their knowledge of language, culture and politics by living and studying in another country. Alumni who have benefited from internships or an international experience are invited to designate this fund when they make a contribution to the School.

JAMM student following President Nellis

2009-07-06T10:02:00.001-07:00

Nichole Corn, a senior journalism major, is accompanying the University of Idaho's new president, Duane Nellis, on his statewide "listening tour."
Nellis became the 17th president of the university last week. He will visit Idaho Falls, Twin Falls, Boise, Spokane, Moscow and Lewiston to meet with legislators, alumni and other constituent groups.
Here's a link to Nichole's blog.

Argonaut named Idaho's best college paper

2009-06-25T14:43:00.000-07:00

The Argonaut, the University of Idaho’s twice-weekly student newspaper took first place in the General Excellence category for college newspapers in a competition sponsored by the Idaho Press Club.

Staff members from the Argonaut and BLOT, the student magazine, picked up seven other first-place certificates on their way to collecting more awards than any other college or university in the state for work produced in 2008. The Press Club presented awards in collegiate and professional categories last month at its annual banquet in Boise.

The Argonaut celebrated its 110th anniversary as an independent student newspaper last October. Ryli Hennessy was the 2007-2008 editor-in-chief, and Christina Lords was the 2008-2009 editor. (I was editor in 1974-1975, so I take special pride in this award for Ryli and Christina.)

“The awards are a great way to end the year for our students and especially for our seniors, who have given so much of their college years to Student Media,” said Shawn O’Neal, Student Media advisor. “They’ve set an example that work ethic and leadership really do pay off when the awards are handed out.”

In professional level competition, Julie Scott and Glenn Mosley, faculty members in the School of Journalism and Mass Media, won second place in the Sports News Report category. Their September 2008 story for Northwest Public Radio focused on efforts by UI alumnus and NFL Hall of Famer Jerry Kramer to improve retirement benefits for former NFL players.

John Mallory, a December 2008 graduate in Radio-TV-Digital Media production, won first place for the best sports talk show in Idaho for his show on KUOI-FM, the student-run radio station. The category included both students and professional broadcasters.

Here's a list of all of the Press Club awards. To access Argonaut stories and photographs, including issues from 2008, see: www.uiargonaut.com.

Advertising expert/author to visit campus

2009-03-15T15:49:00.000-07:00

Advertising expert George Parker will talk about new developments in advertising when he visits the University of Idaho Monday, March 30. (This is one week later than originally scheduled.) Parker will discuss his latest book, “The Ubiquitous Persuaders: A Look at the Evolution of the Advertising Business from the Inside.” The talk begins at 7 p.m. in room 031 of the university's Teaching and Learning Center (TLC).

Parker describes his book as a response to Vance Packard’s 1957 book, “The Hidden Persuaders.” In it, Parker examines how the advertising industry has changed during the past half century. Jim Clark, JAMM adjunct faculty and a retired advertising professional, calls Parker one of the industry’s visionaries.

“George Parker is either a madman or a genius, or both,” Clark said. “Because only a madman or a genius would have the vision and guts to write a book like this. After all, he's ‘been there’ more than most. And ‘done that’ successfully for many years." Read Parker's current commentary on advertising on his blog: AdScam.

Scholarship to honor Haarsager

2008-01-08T14:02:00.000-08:00

The School of Journalism and Mass Media has established a scholarship to honor the memory of Sandra Haarsager, a long-time University of Idaho faculty member and administrator who died Oct. 6, 2007. The scholarship will be awarded annually to a student who demonstrates Sandra’s intellectual curiosity, interdisciplinary interests and strong writing abilities.

Sandra came to the University in 1979 as director of information services (now University Communications and Marketing) under former President Richard Gibb. After earning a Ph.D. in American Studies at Washington State University, she joined the faculty of the School of Communication in 1988.

From 1999 to 2005, she was associate dean of the College of Letters, Arts and Social Sciences. She returned to the faculty of the School of Journalism and Mass Media in 2005, teaching courses in Reporting, Feature Writing, Media & Culture, and Media Management & Economics.

Sandra was the author of two books: and Bertha Knight Landes of Seattle: Big-City Mayor, published in 1994, and Organized Womanhood: Cultural Politics in the Pacific Northwest, 1840-1920, published in 1997, both by the University of Oklahoma Press. At the time of her death, she was conducting research for a book about the impact of new media technologies on society and culture.

Contributions may be sent to the Trust and Investments Office, PO Box 3143, Moscow, ID 83844-3143. Checks should be made payable to the University of Idaho Foundation; the memo line should indicate “Sandra Haarsager Scholarship, designation code DE630.” Contributions also may be made through the University’s secure Web site: www.sites.uidaho.edu/gifts/

Words, music celebrate Sandra's life

2007-10-12T14:24:00.001-07:00

More than 300 people attended a memorial service for Sandra Haarsager, professor of journalism and mass media, Thursday evening at the University of Idaho’s Administration Building auditorium.

The audience included students, faculty, deans, vice presidents and friends from across the community. Former Idaho Sen. James McClure, a member of the College of Letters, Arts and Social Sciences Advancement Council, also attended.

They heard tributes to Sandra from UI President Timothy White, long-time friend Mindy Cameron, Sandra’s stepdaughter, Jennie Haarsager-Lieske, and the Rev. Kayle Rice, minister of the Unitarian Universalist Church of the Palouse.

“Sandra epitomized all that is worthy and right about the University of Idaho, about our community, and about humanity,” President White said in his eulogy. “She did so through her unwavering dedication to students first, to music and the arts, academics, journalism, women’s studies, administration, and relations with our stakeholders, constituents, and friends.”

Music by UI jazz choirs and several instrumental ensembles provided interludes between the verbal remembrances. A highlight was Jon Anderson’s performance of a song,“Take Your Time,” composed by Jon to lyrics written by Sandra. Music before and after the service came from a CD of jazz standards, folk songs and show tunes that Sandra herself had recorded.

Today’s Argonaut includes remembrances of Sandra. In response to suggestions from friends and former colleagues, the JAMM faculty hopes to create a scholarship in her name. Watch for details here.

Journalism Professor Sandra Haarsager dies

2007-10-08T12:55:00.001-07:00

Sandra Haarsager, a faculty member at the University of Idaho since 1988 and a cornerstone of the School of Journalism and Mass Media since its founding in 2003, died Saturday, Oct. 6, at Gritman Medical Center in Moscow. Sandra had been hospitalized for two days with a respiratory condition that developed as a result of her treatment for cancer of the esophagus. She was 61.

Although she had been on sabbatical this semester working on a book about new media technology, Sandra had been a regular visitor to campus, most recently a week before she was admitted to the hospital. She had planned to return to a full teaching schedule in the spring of 2008.

Sandra had worked as a reporter for The Idaho Statesman in Boise and a reporter and general manager for the Idahonian, now the Moscow-Pullman Daily News. She also had been director of information services for the University of Idaho under President Richard Gibb.

She became a faculty member of the former School of Communication in 1988 and earned a Ph.D. in American Studies from Washington State University in 1990. From 1999 to 2005, she was associate dean of the UI’s College of Letters and Science, which became the College of Letters, Arts and Social Sciences in 2003. She played a major role in decisions to reorganize the School of Communication into the School of Journalism and Mass Media.

Sandra’s teaching portfolio included both skills and conceptual courses. Most recently, she had taught Reporting, Public Affairs Reporting, Literary Journalism, Mass Media & Culture, and Media Management & Economics.

A memorial service will begin at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 11, at the University Auditorium. Sandra was a trusted colleague, valuable mentor and longtime friend. We’ll miss her. I invite her former students to leave comments below.

Another side of journalism: freelancing

2007-09-14T10:58:00.000-07:00

Many of our journalism majors land entry-level jobs at newspapers. Others are interested in longer-form journalism. Students in my Public Affairs Reporting class this week gained insights into the transition from daily journalism to magazines and books from guest speakers Andrea Vogt and Ken Olsen.

Andrea completed a political science degree from the University of Idaho; Ken studied forestry as an undergraduate here before earning a master’s degree in journalism from the University of Arizona. Both worked for The Spokesman-Review, Andrea covering higher education on the Palouse and Ken reporting on health and environmental issues in Coeur d’Alene and Spokane.

Now, each works as a freelance writer, pitching story ideas to a variety of magazines – Ken based in Spokane, Andrea dividing her time between Pullman and Bologna, Italy.

Ken says reporters need a sense of history, a sense of skepticism and an eye for detail. He uses a piece he wrote about salmon recovery efforts for High Country News as an example of using numbers without bogging down the flow of a narrative.

Andrea described her months of interviews with the late human-rights activist Bill Wassmuth, which were incorporated into her book Common Courage, published by the University of Idaho Press in 2003. Building trust with her subject was the key to effective interviewing, she said.

Their advice to students interested in writing for magazines: study a foreign language, read fiction to learn creative writing styles, and cultivate relationships with editors.

A postscript to last week’s enrollment report: Using a different list provided by the Registrar’s Office, it looks like we have 450 JAMM majors, two more than the initial report.

JAMM enrollment flat, diversity grows

2007-09-07T14:20:00.000-07:00

The University of Idaho released fall enrollment figures this week, based on the 10^th day of the semester (Aug. 31). Overall enrollment on the Moscow campus fell from 10,682 to 10,549, a decline of 1.2 percent. Statewide – including enrollment in Coeur d’Alene, Boise and Idaho Falls– enrollment stands at 11,636 (down nine-tenths of 1 percent).

The School of Journalism and Mass Media’s enrollment was 448, down four from the same day a year ago. This figure breaks down as follows:
Advertising, 136 (down from 152)
Journalism, 125 (up from 105)
Public Relations, 95 (same as last year)
Radio-TV-Digital Media Production, 86 (down from 88)
This list doesn’t include four students who each declared two of our majors within JAMM, which is permitted only under special circumstances. We expect the number of majors to grow in coming weeks as first-year and new transfer students discover that our program more closely aligns with their career goals than those elsewhere on campus.

Some other highlights of the fall 2007 data: We have 90 freshmen, 12 fewer than a year ago. See the accompanying photo of JAMM Assistant Director Marc Skinner (back row, center) with some members of the class of 2011 during New Student Orientation last month. About 54 percent of our majors (243 students) are female.

I’m pleased to see an increase in the number of students from backgrounds traditionally under-represented in higher education. Seventy students (15.6 percent) identify themselves as a member of an ethnic minority, up from 41 a year ago. An additional two students list themselves as “other” (often students of mixed backgrounds) and 24 other students left blank their ethnic/racial identification. The number of Native American students doubled (from 9 to 18) and the number of African-American students went from 2 to 10. Thirteen students list Asian or Pacific Islander backgrounds and 29 students describe themselves as Hispanic of any race.

The growth in minority students reflects several factors: increased recruiting from community colleges in western Washington; the popularity of our summer Scripps Howard workshop for high school students, and efforts to start a student chapter of the Native American Journalists Association. It’s also a healthy sign that as the U.S. population becomes more diverse, the staffs of media outlets serving them will one day reflect that diversity.

Photo by Mandie Schoenberg

Mid-summer greetings from JAMM

2007-07-23T15:15:00.000-07:00

We’re just four weeks away from the beginning of the fall semester. Here’s an update on what’s been happening since graduation in May.

Sixteen students from Idaho and Washington attended the 7^th annual Scripps Howard Multicultural Journalism Workshop June 24-30. The photo (above) shows the group on the roof of The Spokesman-Review in Spokane as part of a field trip. Three of the students are incoming UI freshmen and two are transfer students, one a sophomore and a junior. The workshop’s success was due in part to our UI student mentors: Emily Thomason, Tileena Leighton, Sean Williams, Rubell Dingman and Carissa Wright. Student Nick Beber produced the 20-minute video shown at the closing brunch. Thanks also to transportation coordinator Marc Skinner and to faculty presenters Glenn Mosley, Sandra Haarsager and Becky Tallent.

Summer enrollment: We had 84 students enrolled in the first session (May 14-June 9) and 45 students in the second session (June 12-July 6). In addition, we have 27 students enrolled in internships, practicums and directed studies. Thanks to all faculty who taught this summer!

New classes for fall: Dean Katherine Aiken has provided funding for a new (6^th) section of Media Writing, to be taught by Bill Loftus. In addition, she has approved a TA stipend for Mary Packer to teach JAMM 270, Principles of Radio and TV. This will allow Denise Bennett to teach JAMM 377, Documentary, on Tuesday evenings from 7 to 9:30 p.m. Thanks to Mary and Bill for their willingness to help us meet student demand. Students interested in either of the new classes should contact their advisor or Marc Skinner, mskinner@uidaho.edu

Air conditioning coming! Crews from Facilities Management have been cutting holes in the ceiling and floor of our utility closet (next to Mark Secrist’s office) to allow installation of huge ducts to move chilled air from the attic to Admin 221 (the classroom immediately below the JAMM office) and Admin 225 (our primary teaching lab for writing and editing classes). This will make a huge difference in the comfort and usability of these rooms. Thanks to Suzanne Aaron from the CLASS dean’s office and to Cynthia Leonhart from the Registar’s Office for making this happen.

Keep cool and enjoy the rest of your summer!

Advertising team places 2nd in district

2007-04-30T09:12:00.000-07:00

A student team from the University of Idaho won second place in the American Advertising Federation's District XI Student Advertising Competition April 20 in Portland. (The trophy is pictured at left.)

UI team adviser Mark Secrist, associate professor in the School of Journalism and Mass Media, said the team was clearly among the best in the Northwest. “The judges told us that when we presented Friday morning, we set the bar for the day,” Secrist said.

Jaron Williams, a University of Idaho advertising and communication studies senior from Altadena, Calif., was honored as the best male student presenter. “Jaron impressed the judges with his easy-going manner and his use of humor,” Secrist said.

A team from Portland State University took first in the district and will advance to the national competition June 7-9 in Lexington, Ky. The University of Oregon’s team placed third. Other teams represented Washington State University, Boise State University, Idaho State University, the University of Montana and Montana State University.

The competition was judged by regional advertising professionals and representatives from Coca Cola, the corporate sponsor for this year’s competition.

“I had an opportunity to talk at length with some of the judges and the competition was very close,” said Mike Kerby, president of c308 Marketing of Boise, who attended the conference. “It illustrates to advertising professionals that the University of Idaho has very strong advertising and marketing programs.” Kerby, a University of Idaho alumnus, was a member of the Advertising Competition Team in 1996 and 1997.

In addition to Williams, this year’s student team members are: Vicente Borras-Alegre, McKenzie Cameron-Sandi, Darin Harding, Stephanie Jewell, Heidi Leliefeld, Sharon Lustig, Justin Neeley, Joe Plummer, Josh Schlake, Lindsay Shumate, Amanda Stanek, Nick Stinemates, Adrienne Tubbs and Charlie Witte. Congratulations to the team and Prof. Secrist!

Inside Frontline with Michael Kirk

2007-04-06T11:09:00.000-07:00

Award-winning documentary filmmaker Michael Kirk will recount his career in journalism from his days at KUID-TV in Moscow to current projects for the PBS series Frontline April 9. His talk, which will include video segments from several of his documentaries, will begin at 5 p.m. in the University Auditorium.

Kirk will attend the Edward R. Murrow Symposium at Washington State University April 10. WSU is honoring Frontline for its contributions to broadcast journalism. Kirk will join the program’s executive producer, David Fanning, for a workshop at WSU.

Kirk has covered the most important stories of the past two decades, and he has done so in the best tradition of Edward R. Murrow. Several recent programs have dealt with the war in Iraq, national defense policy and foreign policy issues. At a time when all forms of media are under pressure to put profits ahead of public service, Frontline remains an example of how good journalism can help the public make sense of critical issues.

Kirk graduated from the University of Idaho in 1971 with a degree in journalism. He was editor of the Argonaut his senior year. After graduation, he began his career as a writer, reporter and producer at the university's award-winning public television station, KUID-TV.

“In the formative years of KUID, Mike Kirk’s work helped define the public service mission of the statewide public TV system,” says Peter Morrill, general manager of Idaho Public Television. “The documentaries he produced examined perplexing issues that started discussions about solutions. Mike and David Fanning continue that tradition today on the national and international stage.”

From 1977 to 1979, Kirk worked in a similar capacity at the PBS affiliate in Seattle before becoming a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University. He helped to create the PBS series “Frontline” and was the program’s senior producer from 1983 to 1987. He now runs the Kirk Documentary Group based in Boston. He has produced more than 100 national television programs and documentaries. He is the recipient of Peabody, du Pont-Columbia, Emmy and Writers Guild of America awards for his work.

He is a member of the University of Idaho’s Alumni Hall of Fame and a recipient of the School of Journalism and Mass Media’s Bert Cross First Amendment award. In addition, the School presents the Michael Kirk Award in Broadcast News every spring to an outstanding senior.

SPJ honors student journalists, alums

2007-03-30T16:09:00.000-07:00

University of Idaho students and graduates won seven regional Mark of Excellence awards from the Society of Professional Journalists. They received certificates at a regional meeting March 24 at Gonzaga University in Spokane.

Two first-place regional winners – Tara Roberts for editorial writing and Melissa Davlin for feature photography – will advance to the national round of judging. They are eligible for national SPJ awards to be presented at the society’s annual meeting Oct. 4-7 in Washington, D.C.

Roberts is the editor-in-chief of the Argonaut, the UI’s twice-weekly student paper. She is a senior English major with a creative writing emphasis. Her entry consisted of three editorials, one about funding cuts that threaten the bus system between the UI and Washington State University and two about the UI’s new marketing campaign.

Davlin recently stepped down as manager of the UI Photo Bureau, which provides photos for the Argonaut and the student magazine, BLOT, published twice a year. She is studying in Japan this semester and will finish her English/professional writing degree in August. Her photo essay, titled “Different Dances,” depicted a dance performance on campus. Other UI winners are:

Sam Taylor, second place for breaking news reporting, and third place for feature reporting. Taylor, a 2006 journalism graduate, is a reporter for the Bellingham, Wash., Herald.
Hartley Riedner, second place for general news reporting. Riedner is a senior journalism major.
Nate Poppino, third place for editorial writing. Poppino is a senior journalism major and the managing editor of the Argonaut.
Bruce Mann, third place for feature photography. Mann is a senior journalism major and staff photographer for the Argonaut and Blot.
BLOT, edited by senior journalism major Carissa Wright, third place for best all-around student magazine for its fall 2006 issue.

Oscar-winning actress visits PR class

2007-02-23T13:15:00.000-08:00

Anna Pearce, best known by her stage name, Patty Duke, told UI public relations students Feb. 15 that finding the perfect spokesperson for a cause is not as difficult as it might seem. “Don’t be afraid to ask,” she told the Nonprofit Public Relations class. “If you don’t try, you will never get the person you really want.” Pearce made the following suggestions:

Know all about your cause and provide the information.
Be completely professional with your communication.
Give details of your expectations.

Pearce has been an active spokesperson for mental health causes for nearly two decades. She also has voiced support of women’s rights and AIDS research.
The Academy Award winner also had suggestions for those who interview: Be punctual; Have your questions ready and above all: Listen. “If you are getting your next question ready, and not listening, you will miss some valuable information,” she said.
This is the second semester that Sue Hinz, our public relations professional in residence has taught Nonprofit Public Relations as a Special Topics course. Students choose a local nonprofit organization as a client.
Pearce most impressed JAMM juniors and seniors with her excitement at being a part of the University of Idaho family. As her connection with the UI's theater program grows, more students will be able to listen to the actress who, as one biographer reported, “is one of the few stars who has survive child stardom and went on to become a successful and respected adult actress.”
Pearce starred in “Billion Dollar Baby,” a one-act play that was part of the New Works Festival that ended Feb. 17 at the Hartung Theatre on the UI campus. Among the students who met with Pearce were (from left): Matt Strange, Lindsay Egginton, Jessica Brown, Ryli Hennessey, (Ms. Pearce), Kim Dahl, Lauren Harrie, Amanda Kent and Robert Taylor. Photo by Sue Hinz

Jack Bannon recalls his 'Lou Grant' days

2007-02-19T13:43:00.000-08:00

Actor Jack Bannon, who had a major supporting role on the “Lou Grant” television series, visited the University of Idaho on Feb. 6. Bannon, who now lives in Coeur d’Alene, spoke to our “Hollywood Portrayals of Journalists” about his five-year stint (1977-1982) on the city desk of the fictional Los Angeles Tribune. Bannon portrayed Art Donovan, the suave assistant city editor, who was a counterpoint to the gruff city editor, Lou Grant (Ed Asner).

This is the second time that Glenn Mosley (pictured above, with Jack) and I have teamed up to teach this seminar. Our goal is to show how the entertainment media help to shape public perceptions of journalism. We showed two episodes of the program: the pilot, called “Copshop,” which introduced the major characters and depicted a police reporter’s ethical dilemma, and a show from the second season in which Donovan’s mother Peggy (Geraldine Fitzgerald) was diagnosed with a terminal illness.

Bannon told how the directors and cast worked to create a realistic depiction of the newsroom, including several evenings spent observing the city desk of the Los Angeles Times. “Jack was down to earth, friendly and open with the students,” Glenn said. “He shared with them a genuine love for work done well, which is always a valuable lesson for young people.”

Nearly 30 years after CBS first broadcast the show, “Lou Grant” still has devoted fans and a Web site that includes a guide to all 114 episodes. Douglass K. Daniel, a former faculty member at Kansas State University, wrote a book about the series published in 1996. “The impact of Lou Grant on viewer’s perceptions of journalists and their profession cannot be measured, only surmised,” Daniel wrote. The book is available in paperback from Syracuse University Press.

We’re grateful to Bannon for his willingness to take us behind the scenes of this program that inspired many journalists of my generation.

Reynaud wins Poynter summer fellowship

2007-01-10T11:30:00.000-08:00

Congratulations to Cynthia Reynaud, a senior journalism major, who has been awarded a Summer Fellowship for Young Journalists by the Poynter Institute in St. Petersburg, Fla.

Cynthia is one of 16 college seniors and recent graduates chosen for the six-week reporting and writing program from a field of 96 applicants. She will attend seminars led by top journalists and report on events and issues in St. Petersburg neighborhoods. Her work will appear on the Poynter Institute’s Web site.

“We see in Cynthia strong reporting and writing skills, an openness to continue learning and most importantly, the ability to think critically about journalism’s role in democracy and community,” said Kelly McBride, coordinator of the program.

In 2005, Cynthia won a Chips Quinn Fellowship from the Freedom Forum and worked as a reporter for the St. Cloud Times in Minnesota. In 2006, she had a summer internship at the Lewiston Tribune, where this photograph was taken. Cynthia spent last spring studying at the American University of Rome, Italy. She will graduate from the UI in May with a major in journalism and a minor in political science. She is the news editor of the Argonaut this year.

Cynthia is the third University of Idaho journalism student to be chosen for Poynter’s prestigious summer program. Brian Passey, a 2004 fellow, is a reporter for The Spectrum in St. George, Utah, where he also reports for USA Today. Jessie Bonner, a 2005 fellow, is a reporter for the Bonita Springs bureau of the Naples Daily News in Florida.

Cynthia already possesses all of the traits of an excellent reporter: curiosity, enterprise, persistence and the ability to adapt to a variety of assignments. The Poynter experience will polish her skills and launch her into a media career.

Scripps student dies in auto accident

2007-01-08T17:05:00.000-08:00

Angelina “Angie” Cabrera, a University of Idaho freshman, died Jan. 4 in an automobile accident on Interstate 84 between Caldwell and Payette, her hometown. She was a passenger in a vehicle that overturned after sliding off the icy freeway.

Angie attended the Scripps Howard Multicultural Journalism Workshop last summer. She was enrolled as a Communications Studies major, but planned to take journalism courses to pursue a career in magazines or television news.

In her application to participate in the Scripps workshop, Angie described the value of multicultural viewpoints in presenting the news. “The more diverse the people are providing the news for America, the more people will be able to understand things from a different perspective,” she wrote.

Megan Tillquist, another workshop participant, wrote a profile of Angie, describing her as “the woman behind the big sunglasses” (see photo). “She enjoys her busy life and making new friends everywhere she goes,” Megan wrote.

Angie is survived by her mother, Connie; her twin sister, Ali; another sister, Tina, and her brother, Ricky. The funeral will be Jan. 10 at Corpus Christi Catholic Church in Payette. The JAMM faculty and staff extend our sympathy to Angie’s family. Her smile and enthusiasm will be missed.

Alumni Association honors 5 JAMM seniors

2006-12-20T13:40:00.000-08:00

Five seniors in the School of Journalism and Mass Media received Awards for Excellence Dec. 8. The awards, given annually by the UI Alumni Association, recognize academic achievement, extracurricular activities and community service. Each student must have a GPA of 3.5 or higher to be nominated. JAMM seniors collected five of the 40 awards for undergraduates, more than any other UI department.

Each student was asked to nominate a faculty or staff member who was most inspirational during their time at the UI. Their names follow in parentheses. The award winners, pictured above, are (from left):

Katelyn Shook, Radio-Television-Digital Media Production. (Glenn Mosley, JAMM faculty)
Heather Coddington, Public Relations. (Sue Hinz, JAMM faculty)
Bridget Pitman, Public Relations. (Jim Clark, JAMM faculty)
Hartley Riedner, Journalism. (Tim Helmke, UI alumni office.)
Mackenzie Stone, Journalism. (Shawn O’Neal, Student Media advisor.)

Coddington, who graduated Dec. 9, begins work in January for Northwest Media Productions in Clarkston, Wash.. Shook and her sister Laurie, also a December graduate, are pursuing a musical career. (Check out their Web site.) Pitman, communications director for the ASUI; Riedner, a member of the Student Alumni Relations Board, and Stone, sports editor of the Argonaut, will graduate next May.

I’m proud of these five students for their diligence, hard work and engagement outside the classroom – not to mention their vitality and good humor. And I’m pleased that each chose a different faculty or staff member to honor, a reflection of the excellent teaching and mentoring they received here. For more photos of the mid-year graduation, in which 22 JAMM seniors participated, see our main JAMM page. Photo: Karin Clifford

UI grad takes office as Alaska's governor

2006-12-18T15:18:00.000-08:00

Sarah Palin was sworn in as Alaska’s 9th governor Dec. 4. Palin, a 1987 UI journalism graduate (see Sept. 10 entry below), defeated former Gov. Tony Knowles in the Nov. 7 general election.
Accompanied by her husband, Todd, and their daughters, she took the oath of office in Fairbanks, site of Alaska’s constitutional convention 50 years ago. Palin, a Republican, plans to challenge the state’s oil industry, which has been “making mind-boggling profits” from Alaska's resources, she told the Christian Science Monitor.
JAMM sends its congratulations to the first UI graduate to become governor of a state other than Idaho. Photo by Al Grillo, Associated Press

Guest speakers enliven classes

2006-10-08T16:03:00.000-07:00

Reporters, editors, advertising executives and PR professionals are frequent visitors to classes in the School of Journalism and Mass Media. Last Thursday may have set a record for most guests in a single day, five.
Larry Grant (left), the Democratic candidate for Congress in Idaho's 1st District, answered questions from students in Sandra Haarsager's Public Affairs Reporting class. Earlier, Matt van Vleet, regional public affairs manager for Potlatch Corp., spoke to Becky Tallent's Public Relations Campaigns class.
Shannon Paterson, reporter/anchor for KTRV-TV in Boise, spoke to Glenn Mosley's Broadcast News course. She also was the master of ceremonies for the UI Foundation's recognition banquet Thursday evening.
Michael Reagan, creative director at MMG (Marketing Media Group) in Boise, visited two of Mark Secrist's advertising classes: Advertising Campaigns and Advertising Media Planning.
Valerie Steffen, president of Strategic Intelligence, a Boise marketing research and public opinion consulting firm, spoke to my Mass Media and Public Opinion course. Dr. Steffen presented results of a study of a proposal to widen Ustick Road in west Boise.
Alumni interested in speaking to a class should e-mail me for details. For a complete list of guest speakers in this and previous semesters, see this link.

Editors give insights into news business

2006-10-02T10:16:00.000-07:00

What happens when you bring together 10 University of Idaho journalism students, 18 of their Washington State University counterparts and five editors of The Spokesman-Review for a weekend?

Savannah Cummings (left), a UI junior from Sandpoint, and Gary Crooks, associate editor of the S-R's editorial page, demonstrated the easy-going atmosphere during lunch on Sept. 23. They were two of the participants in the X-Treme Editing workshop, a two-day intensive course in the news business. It was created by Steve Smith, the newspaper's editor since 2002.

After two successful workshops at Steve's alma mater, the University of Oregon, Steve offered to replicate the program on the Palouse. He brought with him four of his top editors: Crooks, Ryan Pitts, Addy Hatch and Jim Allen. They led sessions at the Idaho Commons on newsroom leadership, opinion and commentary, local news, and copy editing and design.

The workshop opened with a Friday night dinner at the University Inn, with UI students mixed among their WSU counterparts and an editor at each table. After dessert, Steve led a provocative ethics exercise based on his paper's coverage of allegations of abuse of power by the late Jim West, former mayor of Spokane. The discussion demonstrated why the paper's handling of the controversial story earned an award from the University of Oregon for its thoughtful consideration of the ethical issues.

UI students relished the opportunity to ask questions of the pros in an informal setting. "It was a great way to hear real-world experience from people willing to talk candidly about the nitty-gritty of journalism as a profession," one wrote on in a critique. John Irby, associate director of the Murrow School at WSU, found similar reactions from his students. Thanks to Steve and his crew for a stimulating weekend.

How to reconnect students with the news

2006-09-22T10:25:00.000-07:00

Why have young adults stopped paying attention to the news? Where do they look for information about politics and current events? And what are the consequences for American society?

David Mindich, a faculty member at St. Michael’s College in Vermont, is looking for answers to these questions. He spoke Sept. 15 at Whitworth College in Spokane. I attended the lecture because I’m using David’s book, Tuned Out: Why Americans Under 40 Don’t Follow the News, in my Mass Media and Public Opinion course this semester.

Here are the main points of Mindich’s thesis:

1. Young people never got into the news habit. Fewer than 20 percent of them read a newspaper every day, down from half of that age cohort in 1970.

2. The Internet isn’t replacing traditional media. Students that Mindich interviewed told him that they use the Web for e-mail, instant messaging and entertainment – but not to follow the news.

3. Mindich doesn’t blame young people. The decline in news consumption started with the parents of the current generation.

4. Entertainment has supplanted the news. Movie stars are better known than politicians – as reflected in a survey that Mindich gave to college students nationwide. (This is consistent with responses from students in my Public Opinion class.)

5. The news media can change to attract younger viewers and readers: by being passionate about the news; by not talking down to young audiences, and by being more aggressive in holding leaders accountable and getting to the truth. (He praised the way that TV journalists in 2005 let their anger at the government’s response to Hurricane Katrina show in their news reports.)

6. Educators, politicians and journalists need to collectively look for ways to show young people how to connect with the news – for democracy’s sake. “When young people don’t pay attention to or follow the news, they vote against their economic interests – they vote on hunches or slogans.” One program that seeks to engage high schools students in current affairs and politics is Student Voices, sponsored by the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania.

A research team in my Public Opinion class plans to survey UI students about their news habits and political awareness. I’ll share the results here later this semester.

JAMM fall semester enrollment holds steady

2006-09-15T12:15:00.000-07:00

The University of Idaho released fall enrollment figures this week, based on the 10^th day of the semester (Sept. 1). Overall enrollment on the Moscow campus fell by 5.54 percent, from 11,310 to 10,682, explained in part by a better economy and smaller high school graduating classes in Idaho last year.

Our college, Letters, Arts and Social Sciences showed an increase of 11 students (.26 percent), from 4,162 to 4,173. CLASS and Law were the only UI colleges to report gains.

The School of Journalism and Mass Media’s enrollment was exactly the same as fall 2005, 448 majors. This number breaks down as follows:

Advertising, 152 (up from 117) -- 44 of them freshmen.
Journalism, 106 (down from 115)
Public Relations, 95 (down from 101)
Radio-TV-Digital Media Production, 90 (down from 97)
This list doesn’t include five students who each declared two of our majors, which isn’t permitted under our degree requirements.

Some other highlights of the fall 2006 data: We have 103 freshmen, 10 more than a year ago. See the accompanying photo of me with some members of the class of 2010). About 56 percent of our majors (251 students) are female. And 40 students (8.9 percent) self-identify as an ethic minority, up from 34. An additional four students list themselves as “other” (often students of mixed backgrounds) and 25 other students left blank their ethnic/racial identification.

Our stable enrollment is consistent with a slight increase nationwide in journalism and mass communication enrollments nationwide. The University of Georgia conducts an annual enrollment survey which offers insights into enrollment trends. I’ll offer highlights of its 2006 report in a future posting.

UI graduate running for governor of Alaska

2006-09-10T16:33:00.000-07:00

Sarah Heath Palin, a 1987 UI journalism graduate, is the Republican candidate for governor of Alaska.
Sarah won the Aug. 22 primary with a decisive victory over the incumbent governor, Frank Murkowski. She will face former Democratic Gov. Tony Knowles in the Nov. 7 general election.
Sarah was born in Sandpoint, but her family moved to Alaska when she was 3 months old. After attending Hawaii Pacific College and North Idaho College, she enrolled at the UI in the fall of 1984.
"Geographically and demographically, Idaho was closely related to Alaska -- beautiful and friendly," Sarah told me in a recent telephone conversation. "I wanted to go out of state (for college), and when I arrived in Moscow, I knew I'd made the right choice."
Among her memories of her time at UI: prowling the Kibbie Dome's locker rooms for beat stories for her Reporting class. She returned to Alaska after graduation and worked as a reporter for several TV stations in between raising four children. She served two terms on the City Council and two terms as mayor of Wasilla in south-central Alaska.
Here's a link to Sarah's campaign Web site.

A new semester begins

2006-08-20T13:59:00.000-07:00

This is my first venture into the blogosphere, an environment familiar to many of our students and recent alumni. I plan to use this page to report about the University of Idaho, the School of Journalism and Mass Media: student achievements, alumni successes, new faculty and courses. I'll also occasionally offer comments about developments in the media and trends in journalism education.
Look for updates every Friday during the semester.