Emerging Digerati: The Institute for New Media Studies will host the next Emerging Digerati discussion on March 5, 2007, at 5:30 p.m. at the Weisman Art Museum on the University of Minnesota campus. Speakers will include Jason Roy, Rebecca Moss and Jen Green, staff members at the Digital Collections at the University Libraries; and Gary Meyer of the University’s Digital Design Consortium. The discussion will focus on how digital technology has changed archiving, and how to manage digital collections. Atendees will then visit the digital facilities at Walter Library, where faculty and graduate students who use the Digital Design Consortium Lab will give a tour of the space and describe current projects. Emerging Digerati events are free of charge and open to the public, and refreshments are provided. For more information about Emerging Digerati, visit www.inms.umn.edu or contact inms@umn.edu or 612-625-0576.

 

IABC Minnesota “Meet the Pros”: The Minnesota Journalism Center is co-sponsoring a “Meet the Pros” networking event with the Minnesota Chapter of the International Association of Business Communicators. The event will be held on Thursday, March 8, 2007, from 6 to 9 p.m. in the Mississippi Room at Coffman Memorial Union on the University of Minnesota campus. The event is free for IABC members and $15 for non-members. Business communications professionals will speak about external marketing communications, how to get an internship, blogging to get a job, media relations with an agency and on your own, coordinating internal communications, and working in sports communications. The evening will include time for professional networking and refreshments will be served. Fore more information visit the event Web site or e-mail Jennifer Knoop at jennifer.l.knoop@wellsfargo.com.

Newspaper Next Workshop: On March 23, 2007, the SJMC and the Minnesota Newspaper Association will partner to present “Newspaper Next,” a one-day regional workshop where journalists can learn a powerful new approach to the transforming newspaper business firsthand. Built on the concepts of renowned Harvard innovation expert Dr. Clayton Christensen, Newspaper Next is designed for newspaper people and the unique needs and circumstances of newspaper organizations. Suggested attendees include newspaper publishers and decision-makers responsible for a paper’s, Strategic direction, growth, development of new online or print products and services. Editors and advertising directors are also encouraged to attend. For more information, visit the workshop Web site.

30th Annual Frank Premack Public Affairs Journalism Awards: Please join the Minnesota Journalism Center for the 2007 Premack Awards, celebrating the best in Minnesota public affairs journalism. This year, the Premack Awards have adopted a new format, as we will bring together the Premack award winners with a distinguished panel of experts for a symposium to discuss the importance of public affairs journalism in Minnesota. The symposium will feature Minneapolis mayor R.T. Rybak. Symposium panelists will include the 2007 winners of the Premack awards as well as Karen Boros, professor of journalism and mass communication, University of St. Thomas; Bill Hanna, editor, Mesabi Daily News; and D.J. Leary, co-founder and editor, Politics in Minnesota. Lori Sturdevant, editorial writer and columnist for the Star Tribune, will moderate the symposium and a Q&A session will follow the panel discussion. The Premack Symposium is free of charge and open to the public. For more information, visit www.mjc.umn.edu or contact the Minnesota Journalism Center at 612-626-1723 or mnjrnctr@umn.edu.

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Professor Jane Kirtley was quoted in numerous media outlets about the Lewis “Scooter” Libby trial, including The New York Times, the First Amendment Center’s online news site, and in an Associated Press story that was picked up by numerous papers around the country, including the San Francisco Chronicle, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Forbes.com, Foxnews.com, as well as the (London) Guardian. Kirtley was also quoted in a January 19, 2007 article in the Pioneer Press entitled “Photo sparks free-speech feud,” and in a Business Guardian (UK) story on January 29 about the relationship between CNBC reporter Maria Bartiromo and her sources. Kirtley also commented in the L.A. Times on February 16, 2007, in an article about two two San Francisco Chronicle reporters who have refused to disclose their sources in stories about the BALCO steroid scandal in major league sports. Kirtley was a guest on the Roy Green radio show on CHML-AM 900 in Hamilton, Ontario (Canada) on February 22, 2007, discussing the ethics of the saturation media coverage of Anna Nichole Smith and Britney Spears.

SJMC senior fellow Howard Liszt was quoted in the Star Tribune on February 2, 2007, about advertising during the Super Bowl

Assistant professor Gary Schwitzer was quoted in the Pioneer Press in a story headlined, “Surgeon tells story of facial transplant: Frenchman delves into the hype, reality,” on December 8, 2006. Schwitzer was also interviewed by WCCO-TV reporter Jason DeRusha about the separation of conjoined twins at the Mayo Clinic on January 3, 2007. Schwitzer was also interviewed for the New Scientist magazine article, “Prescribed opinions: Can we trust the media to report fairly on health and medicine when it appears so heavily influenced by the drug industry?” The article appears in issue 2585 of New Scientist magazine, January 6, 2007.

WCCO interviewed Brian Southwell on the uses of the color red in popular culture for a Valentine's Day story on its 6 PM broadcast on February 14, 2007.


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Several SJMC faculty research projects are among the twelve projects selected for funding for academic year 2007-08 by the University of Minnesota’s Center for Advanced Study. The funding will allow faculty to develop and present their research during research forums to take place next academic year. The SJMC faculty are Nora Paul, director of the Institute for New Media Studies, whose project is entitled “Social Networks Collaborative: Strengthening Human Relationships across Space and Time,” and Brian Southwell and Marco Yzer, who are partnering with five other University facutly on a project entitled “An interdisciplinary exploration of obesity-relevant behaviors.”

Last fall, SJMC adjunct instructor Lynn Nelson’s Jour 3279: Public Relations Writing and Campaign Tactics class studied how to develop PR plans and programs that would educate key groups about the causes and solutions to homelessness in the Twin Cities. Nelson was recently awarded a grant by the University of Minnesota’s Office of Public Engagement to implement some of the students’ best ideas. Interns from the class are being hired to create a sock and underwear drive to provide clothing to homeless people in Minneapolis, and to draw media attention to the scope of their plight and ways to end homelessness in Hennepin County by year 2016.

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Professor Hazel Dicken-Garcia visited and lectured at the Univerity of Missouri School of Journalism as the inaugural speaker in its Visiting Distinguished Scholar series October 26-27, 2007. During her visit, Dicken-Garcia visited journalism classes and spoke to students and faculty, including a lecture on the role of the press during the Civil War.

Assistant professor Kathy Roberts Forde published a paper entitled "Libel, Freedom of the Press, and the New Yorker" in the Fall 2006 issue of the journal American Journalism.

Assistant professor Jisu Huh and SJMC Ph.D. student Rita Langteau co-authored a paper published in the February 2007 issue of the journal Communication Research. The paper, entitled "Presumed Influence of DTC Prescription Drug Advertising: Do Experts and Novices Think Differently?" was based on data from Huh’s GIA-funded research program.

Jane Kirtley, Silha Professor of Media Ethics and Law, was an invited participant at the American Society of Newspaper Editors First Amendment Summit held in Washington, D.C. on January 18-19, 2007. Kirtley took part in post-performance panel discussions after the staged reading of the play "In Darfur" at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis on Jan. 27 and 28, addressing the media ethics issues raised in the play. Kirtley conducted a "Nieman Shoptalk" session for the Nieman Fellows at Harvard University on February 2, 2007, which focused on current threats to press freedom in the United States. She was a panelist and facilitator at a workshop entitled "Hot Issues in Ethics" on February 9 at the American Bar Association's Forum on Communications Law 12th Annual Conference in Key Largo, Florida, and conducted a breakout session, "All the Law Allows: Is There Life After Hosty?" discussing legal issues facing scholastic journalists at the Associated Collegiate Press "Best of the Midwest" convention in Minneapolis on February 17, 2007.

Assistant professor Gary Schwitzer was a panelist for the University of Minnesota’s lecture-discussion, “The First Face Transplant: Clinical, Ethical and Media Perspectives,” on December 7, 2006. The lecture was given by Jean-Michel Dubernard, MD, PhD, professor at University Hospital Edouard Herriot in Lyon, France. Dr. Dubernard co-led the team that performed the world's first face transplant in November of 2005. Schwitzer also delivered the opening lecture, “Setting the Wrong Agenda in Health Care News,” in the School of Public Health student committee on bioethics winter lecture series on January 18, 2007.

 

 

Assistant professors Brian Southwell and Marco Yzer have been asked to join the editorial board of the scholarly journal Health Communication. journal Communication Research has also invited Brian Southwell to join its editorial board.

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The SJMC will participate once again in the Edward R. Murrow Program, a public-private partnership between the U.S. Department of State and leading schools of journalism around the country. The program brings journalists from around the world to the United States for an in-depth look at American journalism. This year, the SJMC will host a five-day Murrow workshop for thirteen journalists from countries in east Asia, including China, Malyasia, Tawain, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Thailand. For more information about the Murrow program, contact mnjrnctr@umn.edu.

The SJMC will welcome three new assistant professors in the fall of 2007. Rachel Davis Mersey (left), who is finishing her doctorate in mass communication at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, will focus on new media and the industry’s transition from print to online journalism. Amy Sanders recently received her Ph.D. from the University of Florida with a focus on the First Amendment and the media, and will teach courses in communications law and media ethics. Shayla Thiel Stern, currently an assistant professor in the department of communication at DePaul University in Chicago, will teach courses on journalism and new media, with research empahses in gender studies, cultural studies, and media studies.

 

Jim du Bois, creator and host of the radio program Access Minnesota, spoke to students in Brian Southwell's section of Jour 1001 about the current television and radio landscape.

Guest speakers in Paul Froiland’s Jour 3173W: Magazine Writing class this semester have included Meghan McAndrews of Tiger Oak publications; Katie Derdoski, an editor at Mpls/St. Paul magazine and former J school student; and Bill Swanson, author and senior editor at Mpls St. Paul magazine.

Assistant professor Jisu Huh hosted Kristina Halvorson, the founder of interactive advertising company Brain Traffic, in her Jour 4272: Interactive Advertising course on February 12. Halvorson is also the current president of the Minnesota Interactive Marketing Association.

Assistant professor Gary Schwitzer had the following guests in his Jour 8192: Proseminar in Advanced Health Journalism course: former U.S. Senator David Durenberger (R-Minn.); Dr. Steve Miles of the University of Minnesota Center on Bioethics; and Professor Stephen Schondelmeyer of the University’s College of Pharmacy.

Fallon Worldwide co-founder Fred Senn spoke to adjunct instructor Lynn Nelson’s Jour 4259: Strategic Communications Planning and Thinking course on January 26, 2007. Senn discussed what he terms the “principles of creative leverage” with students and also shared key lessons from his career.

Adjunct instructor Dan Sullivan hosted guest speaker Kate Sullivan in his Jour 4171: Covering The Arts course on January 29 and 31. Kate is the music editor of L.A. Weekly and is also Dan’s daughter.

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February 2007