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SCHOOL OF JOURNALISM • UNIVERSITY OF MONTANA • VOLUME 60, 2016 • JOUR.UMT.EDU Students tell refugees’ stories from the streets of Berlin COMMUNIQUÉ Page 6 Nick Ut, best known for his Pulitzer Prize-winning image that became known as “Napalm Girl,” visited UM as part of a nation- wide centennial celebra- tion of the Pulitzer Prizes. WHAT’S INSIDE Stories that matter J-School strives to help cover an increasingly diverse world Latest J-School news 2 Journalism is no longer a single culture’s on a Turkish beach. Freshmen in our Global Kaimin wins fee increase 5 conversation. Today’s professionals must Current Events course explored the context Ekness starts new job 9 tell stories that serve a more diverse and behind the world’s breaking news. Podcast Fest fills Roxy 9 complex world, where the interest is always Seniors in our Student Documentary Faculty updates 12 human. Unit told stories of Montana parents strug- Student awards 14 Doing that well means immersing stu- gling to ensure lives of independence and Obits 18 dents and faculty in cultures they may not meaning for their autistic offspring as they Class Notes 22 know or can barely imagine. The School become adults. Meanwhile, Professor Denise Tribute to our donors 29 of Journalism is working hard to meet that Dowling researched a story on the lives of ever-growing challenge. transgender youth in the Northwest. CALLING ALL ALUMS: This year, the J-School celebrated 25 years Last fall, students in the school’s Diversity Join us during Homecoming of telling stories that matter on Montana’s in Media class kick-started a conversation for two J-School events on seven tribal reservations through its Native about race in a state where nine of 10 Friday, Sept. 30. We’ll be News Honors Project. It also sent 18 stu- residents are white. Students found that hosting an Alumni Showcase dents to Germany to detail the struggles of Montana’s lack of racial diversity does not at 2 p.m. in Don Anderson Hall 210, followed by our Syrian and Iraqi refugees making new lives. mean a lack of diverse voices. Homecoming Reception from Back in the classroom, Nick Ut, a Viet- As you catch up with classmates and 4 to 4:40 p.m in Don Ander- namese-born journalist, showed students the faculty in this edition of Communiqué, you son Hall 210. We hope to see enduring power of his iconic Vietnam War will also see stories about our school’s ongo- you in the fall! photo “Napalm Girl.” Meanwhile, seniors ing commitment to serving an increasingly in our ethics course studied the impact of diverse and interesting world. We hope they a photo showing a dead Kurdish boy lying inspire you as much as they do us. THE LATEST Award-winning editor, digital producer named distinguished Pollner professors former deputy managing editor of has worked as a media consultant, writer Congo, Tunisia and France; and at the the Los Angeles Times and a multi- and editor. She also was a visiting faculty UM School of Journalism. She will teach a Amedia documentarian will be the T. member at the Poynter Institute for Media spring semester course on producing video Anthony Pollner Distinguished Professors Studies, where she’d previously served as across media platforms. at the University of Montana School of an Ethics Fellow. Her fall semester seminar Both professors will work with the staff Journalism in the fall and spring semesters will focus on reporting and writing about of the Montana Kaimin. of the 2016-17 academic year. sensitive topics like rape, murder, suicide The Pollner professorship endowment Melissa McCoy spent 17 years at and mental illness. was created in 2001 by the family and the L.A. Times, advancing from metro Anne Bailey is a digital producer and friends of T. Anthony Pollner, a 1999 UM copy editor to a deputy managing editor visual journalist for Public Radio Interna- journalism alumnus who died in a motor- supervising 250 journalists. In addition to tional/The World’s “Across Women’s Lives” cycle accident two years after graduating. overseeing the paper’s award-winning copy series. She recently reported from Brazil on So far the program has brought 17 desks, graphics department and researchers, the Zika virus and its effect on pregnant distinguished journalists to the school for she was frequently the final editor for major women and newborn babies. Other recent a semester to teach a seminar and serve as projects, a number of which won Pulitzer projects include stories on women’s rights in a mentor to the students at the Kaimin. Prizes. During her newspaper and magazine India and women and business in Kenya. Several former Pollner professors have won career, McCoy also has been a reporter, Bailey has taught multimedia storytell- journalism’s most coveted awards, includ- copy chief, news editor and assignment ing at the Salt Institute for Documentary ing Pulitzer Prizes and National Magazine editor. Studies; at the Freedom Forum Diversity Awards. Since leaving the Times in 2009, McCoy Institute; in the Democratic Republic of MELISSA MCCOY ANNE BAILEY 2 | UM SCHOOL OF JOURNALISM A MESSAGE FROM THE DEAN We use many measures to make sure our program is producing graduates who are ready to work in today’s media mar- ket. But the best litmus tests are to see students in action and to see how they deal with other people. Judging by this measure, our students are ready to take on the world. I had a number of experiences with students this year that underscored the role of self-confidence in our profession, and was glad to see just how poised our students are in real-life journalism situations. When UM announced it would cut positions because of a budget shortfall, reporters from the Montana Kaimin knew what they had to do: bang on doors to find out who was facing the ax. One of those doors was mine. Now, it’s a lot more fun to ask questions than it is to Dean Larry Abramson explains the complexities of navigating Berlin to student Shannon O’Hara, answer them. Still, I was glad to see the one of 18 students reporting on the refugee crisis there this summer. Abramson covered the fall Kaimin was asking the right questions. of the Berlin Wall in the early 1990s and speaks fluent German. He helped students share stories They were aggressive but respectful, and of this complicated moment in global politics (see related story, pgs. 6-7). had the self-confidence to challenge the administration, which was closed-mouth about the actual victims of these cuts. the many majors UM offers. When I bump Fellowships at my alma mater, NPR. That’s I had the same sorts of encounters into these experts, I regularly hear praise another clear sign that our students with students working on the Montana for our students’ persistence and curiosity. stand out from the crowd, and do well in Journalism Review last fall. This annual, That was the case when our documenta- interviews. student-produced magazine has put in ry students completed a fascinating look Presenting yourself well is a critical skill place a rigorous fact-checking process at the lack of services available to adults in journalism—actually, it is essential in to make sure every detail is accurate. on the autism spectrum. Ann Garfinkle, just about every profession. The J-School Those fact-checkers also showed up at a friend and nationally recognized autism will keep stressing that it takes more than my door and posed tough questions that expert at UM, worked closely with our reporting and research skills to make great challenged me to check my own memory students and told me how impressed she journalists. banks. was with the resulting doc, which viewers One of the great things about our around the state recently saw on Montana program is that we push students to PBS. And this year, we have two students explore our campus and quiz experts in who are finalists for the prestigious Kroc — Dean Larry Abramson Send news and Class Notes to: COMMUNIQUÉ Communiqué Volume 60, 2016 UM School of Journalism Published for Alumni and Friends Don Anderson Hall Missoula, MT 59812 Editor 406-243-4001 Paul Queneau ’02 Template Design Contact us: Allison Bye ’14 email: [email protected] Visit us at: jour.umt.edu UM School of Journalism © 2016 Facebook and Twitter: @umjschool UM SCHOOL OF JOURNALISM | 3 THE LATEST 2015-16 Pollner profs raised the bar for students, Kaimin his year’s Pollner professors blazed a trail for their successors to follow and T inspired students in their seminars and at the Kaimin to do award-winning and attention-getting work. Kevin Van Valkenburg ’00, a senior writer at ESPN The Magazine and our fall 2015 Pollner professor, took his charges on a tour of some of the best writing in the business.