Journalism Program Approves $565,000 in Grants

Earlier this month, the McCormick Foundation approved $565,000 in journalism grants for programs in our restructured grantmaking areas- content, audience and rights. Congratulations to our new and long-time grantees on receiving grants to carry out journalistic work in 2010.

• California Newspaper Publishers Association in Los Angeles, California, received a grant to support the California Scholastic Journalism Initiative to train high school teachers and students in the Los Angeles Unified School District.
• Columbia College in Chicago, Illinois received a grant for the 3G Summit on Girls, Gaming and Gender hosted by the Open Youth Networks.
• The Educational Video Center in New York, New York, received a grant for documentary work with youth.
• Fund for the City of New York, Inc. received a grant for the People’s Production House’s Radio Rootz youth journalism project.
• Global Action Project, Inc. in New York, New York, received a grant to support the Urban Voices program.
• Investigative Reporters and Editors, Inc. in Columbia, Missouri received a grant to support the Community Partnership Pilot Program.
• Kent State University in Kent, Ohio, received a grant in support of a First Amendment, Civic Engagement and Student Free Press Experience Study.
• True Star Foundation Inc. in Chicago, Illinois, received a grant to support the youth media journalism training and publishing of True Star magazine.
• The University of Southern California Annenberg in Los Angeles, California, received a grant to support the Intersections: The South Los Angeles Reporting Project for youth media training and reporting on South Los Angeles neighborhoods.
• WNYC Radio in New York, New York, received a grant for the Radio Rookies youth journalism program.
• Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, received a grant to train broadcast meteorologists to cover climate change.
• Youth Communications New York Center in New York, New York, received a grant for Youth Communication’s youth media program.
• The Youth News Service Los Angeles Bureau in Los Angeles, California, received a grant to support the Youth Media Los Angeles Collaborative and the creation of an online database of local scholastic and student journalism programs.

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CYVN Youth 2.0 Recovery Reporting Project Kicks Off This Weekend

Chicago Youth Voices Network’s (CYVN) Youth 2.0 Recovery Reporting Project Teach-in and Social Media Training begins this Friday, January 29 at Columbia College. The youth media project is a year-long effort that “uses social media technologies to both gauge the effects of the recession on youth and to empower young media artists to create work that addresses the issues young people care about most.” The project is funded by the Chicago Community Trust and Rappaport Foundation.

The kick-off event includes sessions led by social media experts, journalists and social researchers. The speakers will help paint the picture of how youth in Chicago are faring during the economic recovery and develop polling questions for the project. Find out more about the project here.

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Director's Notes: While in New York...

• CFJ New York Event. I was honored to give opening remarks at the kickoff of the Challenge Fund for Journalism, which was held Jan. 21 at Associated Press headquarters in New York. Nearly $1 million in grants were awarded to 13 journalism organizations by the CFJ partnership, which includes the McCormick, Ford and Ethics & Excellence in Journalism foundations. The grantees represent youth, ethnic, investigative reporting and individual journalism membership groups. CFJ was launched in 2004. In the previous five rounds, 44 organizations participated, infusing about $8.1 million into the not-for-profit journalism field. TCC Group, a management consulting firm, administers the program for the three foundations. To learn more click here.

• We're Not Dead Yet! Speaking of the Big Apple, a study funded by the McCormick Foundation, reveals the nasty fall and potential rise of high school journalism in New York City. The author, journalism educator Jessica Siegel, reports that only about half of the high schools in the city have student newspapers. And yet, she writes, the survey found "a strong affirmation that having a high school newspaper is part of what makes a school a school, and that journalism can be a means to develop students' writing and bring discussion of larger issues into the school."

• Technology Impacts. The Knight Commission on the Information Needs of Communities in a Democracy believes America is at a critical juncture in the history of communications. The commission's new report, Informing Communities: Sustaining Democracy in the Digital Age, outlines the impact that technology has and will continue to have in defining the American experience. The study concludes with three ambitious objectives dealing with information needs, capacity and engagement.
  

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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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Judge: Tweet ‘lacks context’ for court action

Judge: Tweet ‘lacks context’ for court action
Cook County judge dismisses defamation lawsuit involving Twitter post.

By Jamie Loo, First Amendment reporter
January 20, 2010

CHICAGO—A defamation case involving a Twitter post was thrown out by a Cook County Circuit Court judge today. The case involved a posting, known as a tweet, over the social networking service Twitter by 25 year-old Chicago resident Amanda Bonnen...

Read more at the McCormick Freedom Project's "Post Exchange" blog: http://www.freedomproject.us/post-exchange/Article-Judge_dismisses_twitter_defamation_lawsuit.aspx

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Director's Notes: The Future of Journalism

• How We Do It. This week, we have posted new copy on our Web site
  that provides insight into the Journalism Program's grantmaking activities. The updated information includes our strategy, the initiatives we fund, how to apply for a grant and the timing of our grant cycle. Please comment on this blog item if you have questions or need more information.

• The Real Deal. Despite the proliferation of local news outlets, most of the heavy lifting still comes from daily newspapers. Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism recently issued a detailed study on the "News Ecosystem" of Baltimore. The research suggests that while the news landscape had rapidly expanded, "most of what the public learns is still overwhelmingly driven by traditional media---particularly newspapers." Pew said the close examination of six major stories during a seven-day period finds that much of the "news" people receive contains no original reporting. About 80 percent of the stories studied simply repeated or repackaged previously published information. But the sad fact is that newspapers in Baltimore and everyplace else are producing far fewer news stories by far fewer staff members.

• News Source. While it's nice to know that most real news comes from newspapers, veteran media analyst Alan D. Mutter reminds us that "the population of print newspaper readers will drop by nearly a third within 15 years and probably be less than half the size it is today by the time 2040 rolls around." Mutter's “Newsosaur” blog said consumer demand will decide the fate of newspapers. While younger people still value newspapers as a source for local news, their loyalty trails off sharply when it comes to national and international coverage.

• Saving Journalism. Everyone agrees that a free society requires a free press, according to political blogger John Nichols and University of Illinois journalism professor Robert McChesney. In "The Death and Life of Great American Newspapers" in The Nation, the co-authors warn that a free press without the resources to compensate those who gather and analyze the information...is like a seed without water or sunlight. Their new book examines "The Death and Life of American Journalism."

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Other Award & Fellowship Opportunities

The Journalism Program comes across many awards and fellowship opportunities for working professionals and organizations. On this page, we will periodically share a list of prospects. We hope that you will submit your best work for consideration to our partners and friends.

If you have an opportunity you'd like to share, please send us an e-mail with more information.

 July 2010

• Applications are now being accepted for the 2010 Dart Center Ochberg Fellowships, a unique seminar program for mid-career journalists who want to deepen their knowledge of emotional trauma and improve coverage of violence, conflict and tragedy. Applications are due by July 21, 2010. Click here for more information.

Year Long

• Chicago Headline Club is accepting nominations for their Watchdog Award, which honors Chicago area news reporting that calls attention to situations in which the public is being harmed or poorly served. Sponsored by the Richard H. Driehaus Foundation, the CHC each year awards a cash prize for enterprising journalism that defends and protects everyday folks.The prize for work completed in 2009 will be $1,500 and will be presented on April 23, 2010 at the Chicago Headline Club's Lisagor Awards banquet. Do you have something to enter? Click here.
  

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Dennis DeRossett named new IPA Executive Director

Starting February 8, Dennis DeRossett will leave his post as publisher of the Southern Illinoisan in Carbondale, Ill. and become the Executive Director of the Illinois Press Association. DeRossett has been an IPA board member for six years and brings a wealth of journalism and publishing experience to the largest state newspaper association in the U.S. The McCormick Foundation congratulates him as he heads one of our grantee programs.

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Director's Notes: A New Year, A New Look

• Amid the budget cuts, layoffs and bankruptcies in journalism, one beat has prevailed. The rise in the number of social media directors has created what Forbes.com calls "journalism's hottest jobs." About 200 social media directors now are on the payrolls of newspapers, magazines and broadcast news outlets. Most have been hired in the last two years. Forbes media writer Dirk Smillie says "their job is to tweet, ping, blog and friend-find throughout the day."

• The old saw that death comes in threes rang true last week with the passing of a journalism hero, a legend and a stalwart. Deborah Howell, Eunice Johnson and Marcia Slacum Greene also were role models in advancing diversity and widening opportunities for women in journalism.

• Howell, 68, died on New Year's Day in New Zealand, where she was struck by a car while on foot. At age 34, she became city editor of the Minneapolis Star. Four years later, she jumped to the rival St. Paul Pioneer Press, where she served as managing editor, then executive editor. She later became chief of Newhouse Newspaper chain's Washington bureau. From 2005 to 2008, she was the ombudsman of the Washington Post. Howell, according to her New York Times obituary, "repeatedly ascended professional heights that had been the near-exclusive province of men, earning accolades for her toughness, curiosity and enthusiasm."

• Johnson, 93, gave Ebony magazine its name, according to a tribute in the Chicago Tribune. She was the widow of Johnson Publishing Co. founder John H. Johnson and served as secretary-treasurer of the company. The flagship publication, conceived as an African-American version of Life magazine and published since 1945, was named by Mrs. Johnson to reflect the mystique of the fine black ebony wood.

• Greene, a Washington Post reporter and editor for more than 20 years, died after a yearlong battle with pancreatic cancer. Greene, 57, was an active in the National Association of Black Journalists and became city editor of the Post in 2006, as posted on Richard Prince's Journal-isms online column. She was married to Jackie Greene, former president of Unity: Journalists of Color.

• Kudos to McCormick grantee Salome Chasnoff, who recently was honored by Women's eNews as one the 21 Leaders for the 21st Century and the winner of the Ida B. Well Award for Bravery in Journalism. Chasnoff, executive director of BeyondMedia, copped the honors for her commitment to improving the lives of women and girls. BeyondMedia is a founding member of the Chicago Youth Voices Network, a collaborative group of McCormick Foundation student media grantees.

• Every little ray of sunshine helps brighten up the spirit. The Wall Street Journal reports that a year-end flurry of ad spending helped moderate steep declines at some newspaper and magazines and fueled an uptick at others, raising hopes for a recovery in 2010. While there is reason for gloom in the mainstream media, the impending doom may be exaggerated. Let's not lose sight that global advertising spending on newspapers and magazines still reached nearly $150 billion last year.

• The week of Jan. 8 will find the Journalism Program staff putting the final touches on the 2009 Military-Media Conference Report, announcing winners of our first Chicago youth media technology grants and embarking on a strategic planning exercise designed to provide a 10-year vision for the McCormick Foundation.

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Director's Notes

As program director, I am privy and privileged to track the world of journalism, at least the parts of it that evolve around the McCormick Foundation's grantmaking activities. The information comes to us at a fast and furious pace. For what it's worth, I will periodically share some of the tidbits, blurbs and news flashes that might touch your world.

• Director's Notes: This One Astounds Me
  

• Director's Notes: Update on 2011 Letters of Inquiry

• Update May May 2, 2011: May Day! May Day!

• Update April 15, 2011
  

• Update March 24, 2011: Quips, Quotes & Commentary on News Literacy Conference

• Update May 10, 2010: Caution

• Update May 3, 2010: Serious Business

• Update April 25, 2010: Journalism Studies and Results

• Update: April 19, 2010: Basics and Changes

• Update April 12, 2010: How do you view your news?

• Update April 5, 2010: New Journalists

• Update March 29, 2010: Critics of Journalism

• Update March 22, 2010: Learning More About Journalism

• Update March 15, 2010: Foundations for News

• Update March 7, 2010: Reaction to the Shrinking Newsroom

• Update February 28, 2010: Changing News

• Update February 22, 2010: Ups and Downs of Journalism

• Update February 16, 2010: Journalism Growth

• Update February 10, 2010: Government Help?

• Update February 1, 2010: Defending Press Freedoms in a New Media Environment

• Update January 25, 2010: While in New York...

• Update January 20, 2010: The Future of Journalism

• Update January 11, 2010: A New Year, A New Look

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New Year Ushers in Journalism Awards Deadlines

It’s actually not too late to add one more New Year’s resolution to your list: To submit your best work for consideration of journalism awards. Why not give it a try? After all, there’s nothing wrong with a little fame and fortune!

Thanks to San Francisco-based New America Media, here is a list of some upcoming deadlines of note:
Grantham Prize 2010: This prize honors outstanding coverage of the environment
Book deadline: Jan. 11, 2010
Other entries deadline: Feb. 1, 2010
For more information, click here

SPJ’s New America Award Competition: This prize honors public service journalism on issues of importance to immigrant or ethnic communities
Deadline: Feb. 12, 2010
For more information, click here

Dart Awards for Excellence in Coverage of Trauma: This award honors exemplary journalism on the impact of violence, crime, disaster and other traumatic events on individuals, families and communities
Deadline: Jan. 29, 2010
For more information, click here

Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Awards: The awards honor reporting on issues that reflect Kennedy’s concerns including human rights, social justice and the power of individual action in the U.S. and around the world
Deadline: Feb. 1, 2010
For more information, click here

Peter Lisagor Awards: The Chicago Headline Club, the largest Society of Professional Journalists chapter in the country, established the Peter Lisagor Awards in 1977 to inspire Chicago-area journalists to follow Lisagor's outstanding example and to recognize truly superior contributions to journalism. Founded as Sigma Delta Chi in 1909, the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) is widely acknowledged as the voice of journalism and a leader in recognizing members of the profession for outstanding achievement.
Deadline: Feb. 5, 2010
Fore more information, click here.

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