Student Scholarship Available for the 2011 Summer Investigative Journalism Workshop in Boston

The McCormick Foundation is offering one Chicago high school student a unique opportunity to gain hands-on journalism experience at the New England Center for Investigative Reporting in Boston this summer.

The 2011 Summer Investigative Journalism Workshop is designed to give students intensive training in investigative reporting and the chance to work on investigative stories that could be published in their own school publications or in major media outlets in New England.

If selected, you’ll spend two weeks on the campus of Boston University participating in investigative reporting workshops led by university faculty as well as distinguished local and national journalists.  You will work on investigative projects at BU’s New England Center for Investigative Reporting and also visit area newsrooms.

Topics covered will include: Initiating investigative stories/where to look; conducting effective interviews; computer-assisted reporting; how to present your findings on the web; news ethics.

Session 1: July 11-22

Session 2: July 25-August 5

To apply:  go to www.necir-bu.org and click on “Student Programs” or go to: http://necir-bu.org/wp/student-programs/summer-investigative-journalism-workshop-for-high-school-students/

Deadline:   May 15, 2011

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Find Sources for Oil Spill Reporting

Trying to find out more information about the Gulf oil spill? Joe Davis of the Society of Environmental Journalists is compiling a tracking blog of sources for journalists about the oil spill, taking a specific look at the access issues reporters have experienced. Mapping out a timeline, Davis has been posting breaking news stories and press releases since May. The Daily Glob blog also presents a list of sources journalists can use, including news media outlets, government websites, congressional hearings, commercial responses, research and experts, and mapping and infographics. Davis started posting at a Twitter account @DailyGlob today. Turn to the SEJ blog for information about reporting this environmental crisis. Get back to us with the stories you have posted, too.

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Case to Limit Investigative Reporting?

As we watch the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico continue to unfold, it reminds us of another situation more apparent to our line of duty.  Last Thursday, New York Federal Judge Lewis A. Kaplan ordered documentary producer and director Joe Berlinger to turn over to Chevron more than 600 hours of raw footage used to create a film titled Crude: The Real Price of Oil. If Berlinger’s appeal is rejected, this decision could put a chill on the First Amendment rights of documentary filmmakers and investigative journalists. As discussed by the Huffington Post’s Bill Moyers and Michael Winship article “Chevron’s ‘Crude’ Attempt to Suppress Free Speech,” this violation would limit the legal protection a journalist and their sources would receive in court.

As the Independent Documentary Association asserts, "This case offers a clear and compelling argument for more vigorous federal shield laws to protect journalists and their work, better federal laws to protect confidential sources, and stronger standards to prevent entities from piercing the journalists' privilege. We urge the higher courts to overturn this ruling to help ensure the safety and protection of journalists and their subjects, and to promote a free and vital press in our nation and around the world."

As part of the journalism community, what do you think about this situation?

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Update: NUF SAID Releases Youth Survey

Chicago Youth Voices Network's NUF SAID student project released their online survey on Friday, April 9. The youth-created surveys will take the pulse on how young people in Chicago are dealing with the challenges of the economic recovery. To complete the survey click here.

All survey respondents will be registered to win a Flip Cam. So, youth of Chicago, get ready to take the survey and make your voice heard!

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Viral Video: Careful, This Stuff's Powerful

For the past four years, the Sunshine Press, which operates the non-profit website WikiLeaks, has caused quite a stir among governments—both U.S. and international—by posting documents and information provided or “leaked” to it by anonymous sources close to those governments. As an example of just how seriously governments take WikiLeaks, a March 2008 U.S. cyber counterintelligence report posted on the site on March 15, 2010 details U.S. Intelligence’s plans to destroy WikiLeaks, citing that there is no way to determine whether sensitive or classified information is shared that might damage national security. WikiLeaks has persevered, although not without its share of censure (it’s been blocked by the governments of China, Zimbabwe, Russia, North Korea, Vietnam and Israel, for example).

But on April 5, it posted what is probably the most sensational material in its tenure: a classified 18-minute video leaked by an anonymous Pentagon source that allegedly shows the Apache helicopter killing of two Reuters employees and their rescuers outside of Baghdad in 2007, which it posted under the URL “CollateralMurder.com.” For the past three years, Reuters had unsuccessfully attempted to obtain this video and related materials from the Pentagon through the Freedom of Information Act.

WikiLeaks sent two reporters to Baghdad to research the story and interview the families of the victims and, according to founder Julian Assange, broke the code that encrypted the video. Within 24 hours of its posting, it had garnered over 1.3 million hits on YouTube. Critics of the video, including a helicopter pilot involved in the mission, state that the video is misleading in its portrayal of a malicious act rather than the result of confusion on the ground. But the mushroom effect of this video points up the immediacy of digital media and its powerful reach.

WikiLeaks is currently in the process of soliciting funds to cover the costs of releasing another video showing civilian killings in Afghanistan. The organization has operated on a budget of about $600,000 per year, and states that it has currently raised just over half of that for 2010. It claims to have thousands of pages of documents that it cannot share with the world due to limited capacity, but its method of digital sharing appears to be a cost-effective one: even $10 can cover the cost of releasing a document to 10,000 people.

As Assange puts it, “In terms of journalism efficiency, I think we discovered a lot with a small amount of resources.”

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Training for the Expanding Ethnic Media Newsroom

Want to learn more about how to work in an ethnic media newsroom? Investigative Reporters and Editors (IRE) is hosting a series of training workshops for ethnic media newsrooms in April. These Ethnic Media Watchdog Workshops will help journalists “sharpen their skills, learn new approaches and add depth to their reporting.” Award-winning journalists from around the country volunteer their time to provide training on topics such as the 2010 census, criminal justice, the economy, education, health care, immigration and local government. Hands-on spreadsheet software training also will be offered.

Upcoming Ethnic Media Watchdog Workshops:
April 9-10, 2010 in Los Angeles, Calif.
April 10-11, 2010 in Chicago, Ill.
April 16-17, 2010 in New York, N.Y.

For more information about the workshops and registration, click here.

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Investigative Reporter joins Medill Security Initiative

Josh Meyer, the first investigative reporter to establish a multi-disciplinary terrorism beat for a major U.S. media outlet at The Los Angeles Times’ National Desk, is the new director of education and outreach for the Medill National Security Journalism Initiative, a program intended to improve education and training in national security reporting and research. Meyer will help build the country’s first journalism initiative centered on national and homeland security and civil liberties, teaching classes in Medill’s Washington Program. The $1.5 million, three-year initiative, funded by the McCormick Foundation and the Carnegie Corporation, provides “journalists with the knowledge and skills necessary to report accurately, reliably, completely and with context on events, developments and issues related to defense, security and civil liberties.” Meyer joins initiative co-directors Ellen Shearer, William F. Thomas professor and director of Medill's Washington program, and lecturer Timothy McNulty, former public editor and foreign editor of The Chicago Tribune.

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Do Nonprofits Need Newspapers?

In the current issue of the Carnegie Reporter , Foundation critic Pablo Eisenberg explores—and offers a solution to—the decline of accountability in the nonprofit sector due to the continuing demise of investigative journalism. 

Eisenberg writes that investigative journalism has helped keep nonprofit organizations publicly accountable, tempering their problems and excesses through the power and threat of information and exposure. He suggests that donors and foundations step in to save regional newspapers by converting them into nonprofit entities. "Their actions would infuse journalism with the energy, integrity, quality and stability that it so desperately needs." And, he says, it could insure the continuing oversight of nonprofits and foundations.

We were surprised that Eisenberg was surprised that "neither big individual donors nor major foundations have shown any interest in reviving American newspapers and quality journalism." 
Strengthening investigative reporting and quality journalism is one of the McCormick Journalism Program's priorities--and we invest more than $6.2 million annually in grants to non-profit organizations strengthening our free and democratic society through journalism.

The essay, Why Nonprofits Need Newspapers, is published by Carnegie Corporation of New York, a foundation with a long record of supporting journalism initiatives.
 

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Pintak named founding dean of Murrow College of Communication at WSU

Lawrence Pintak has been named founding dean of the Edward R. Murrow College of Communication at Washington State University. Pintak, who spent the past four years as director of the Kamal Adham Center for Journalism Training and Research at The American University in Cairo, assumes his position Aug. 17. Pintak has logged more than 30 years in the journalism and media business on four continents and specializes in the role of media in shaping policy and the perceptions of policy; the intersection of media, religion and conflict; and the impact of technology, culture and globalization on journalism. His work can be found at www.pintak.com. He is also the author of Seeds of Hate: How America’s Flawed Middle East Policy Ignited the Jihad (2003) and Beirut Outtakes: A TV Correspondent’s Portrait of America’s Encounter with Terror (1988). Pintak holds a PhD in Islamic Studies from the University of Wales, Lampeter.

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Georgia's Got Ethnic Media on its Mind

Someone once said that the most creative solutions resolve three problems at once. A recent program hosted by the Grady School of Journalism at the University of Georgia, Athens – in partnership with New American Media - is proof positive.

Trying to tackle seemingly disparate issues – making the campus a more inviting environment for prospective students of color, establishing ties between the journalism school and the surrounding community and providing useful training for ethnic journalists – led to an innovative idea: an Ethnic Media Family Weekend. The strategy is simple: Publishers and editors of the area’s burgeoning ethnic media are invited to campus for a weekend of high-quality workshops on topics ranging from the importance of getting online and how to create inexpensive new media slide shows to investigative reporting and coverage of health issues. Taking the idea a step further, the families of these same ethnic media leaders were invited to attend these same training sessions or to participate in campus tours and evening entertainment. Win-win-win.

To learn more about the MTF-funded weekend, which took place Feb. 23-24, visit http://www.georgiacenter.uga.edu/conferences/2008/Feb/23/ethnic.phtml.

And to see a short video that NAM’s Cliff Parker put together on the event, see
http://news.newamericamedia.org/news/view_article.html?article_id=84a3fff8558e9bbf49a8908ff053ff54.

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Picking Up the Investigative Tab

With news media outlets slashing investigative reporting budgets, a group of journalists and investors are stepping forward with a new model that they hope will fill the gap. Led by veteran Wall Street Journal editor Paul Steiger, the consortium of investigative journalists plans to "do long-term projects, uncovering misdeeds in government, business and organizations," according to The New York Times (http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/15/business/media/15publica.html?_r=2&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&ref=media&adxnnlx=1192453448-wMxqq682EnnL29gJG7QdMQ&oref=slogin)

The intended non-profit organization, to be called Pro Publica, will be based in New York City and consist of 24 journalists. Slated to open early next year, the outfit will be funded by a $10 million per year commitment from the former chief executives of the Golden West Financial Corp ., according to the Times. Several other foundations have pledged more modest grants.

It will be interesting to watch the experiment unfold to see whether the output is picked up by professional media and whether the group can find sustained funding.

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ICFJ Names International Journalism Award Winners

The International Center for Journalists (ICFJ) named its 2007 Knight International Journalism Award winners today. This year’s winners are Wael Abbas, an Egyptian blogger, and investigative reporter May Thingyan Hein of Burma.

Abbas’ win marks the first time a blogger has received the award. His blog, Misr Digital, has covered stories such as police brutality and corruption—topics that many mainstream media normally don’t—and has attracted so much attention that it’s encouraged the media to begin reporting these subjects. Despite beatings and arrests, Abbas says that bloggers are “the last independent voice,” and are “necessary” for protests to be heard in Egypt.

May Thingyan Hein, who is a freelance journalist, also tackles controversial topics in her investigative reporting. In Burma, stories must be submitted to officials before being released and her coverage of the spread of bird flu into the country was instrumental in forcing the government to take action against the epidemic.

ICFJ President Joyce Barnathan says that Abbas and Hein are “blazing the path in their countries with extremely bold coverage” and that others should follow their example.

The Knight International Journalism Awards are given by the Knight International Journalism Fellows, funded by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. The Fellows strive to lead the news media into making societies more accountable to citizens.

For more information, visit ICFJ online, or visit The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation online.

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California Journalist Murdered

Chauncey Bailey, who was recently named editor of the Oakland Post, a weekly newspaper in Northern California serving the Oakland, Berkeley and Richmond communities, was killed this morning by an unidentified gunman. Witnesses say that the gunman fired on Bailey, then fled the scene. Police have no suspects in custody yet, but have said that the killing appears to be a “deliberate hit.”

The killing comes during a year that has been cited by the International News Safety Institute as the deadliest yet for journalists worldwide.

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Insights on Eco-Reporting

The Society of Environmental Journalists’ summer edition of SEJournal has an interesting interview with reporter Ken Weiss of the Los Angeles Times on the Pulitzer Prize-winning 5-part series “Altered Oceans” that he and others at the Times produced. At a time when resources devoted to investigative reporting are declining, Weiss offers insights to anyone trying to pitch investigative stories to editors. The interview, by Mike Dunne, touches on a number of areas, including:
 The evolution of the idea for the series (interesting – Weiss was new to the beat)
 The challenges in selling a long-term project to editors (can you say ‘travel’ without first gulping?)
 The choice to focus the series on environmental challenges already taking their toll - over gloomy forecasts for the future (provides more immediacy and relevance)
 The role of the reporter as ‘translator’ in making heaps of scientific data understandable to the public (the need for someone to stitch together the work of many scientists, each looking at very specific areas of research)
 The challenges of producing a multi-media product (‘storytelling is storytelling, no matter what the medium.’)
 The reaction by readers (‘The response was big. Really big.’)

You can view the LAT series “Altered Oceans” at http://www.latimes.com/news/local/oceans/la-oceans-series,0,7842752.special

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Big Shoes To Fill

Two staunch defenders of press freedom are taking on prestigious journalism education positions. Searches to replace Mark Goodman of the Student Press Law Center (SPLC) and Brant Houston of Investigative Reporters and Editors (IRE) are well underway.

Goodman, formerly SPLC's executive director, will serve as the Knight Chair in Scholastic Journalism at Kent State University. Houston is leaving as executive director of the University of Missouri-based IRE to serve as the Knight Chair in Investigative and Enterprise Reporting at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Both Goodman and Houston have agreed to assist in the transitions and won't officially begin their new duties until January 2008. Their successors will join highly regarded, financially stable organizations. The challenge will be building on the leadership and legacies of their predecessors.

In Goodman's 22 years at the helm of SPLC, the organization reinforced its position as the top defender of press rights for high school and college journalists. He became deeply involved in a number of super-charged cases involving censorship, prior restraint and other crackdowns attempting to muzzle student journalists.

Houston, who will serve as acting director until Dec. 31, spent 13 years molding the world's leading training organization for investigative journalists. IRE has more than 4,500 members covering all facets of media. Its recent annual conference, held June 7-10 in Phoenix , drew 950 participants.

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