SPIG's New Journal Debuts This Fall
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spig news Newsletter of AEJMC’s Small Programs Interest Group Fall 2011 SPIG’s new journal debuts this fall By Vivian B. Martin outlined our plan to the AEJMC A N idea that started as a Inside this issue Board of Directors, which gave its blessings to what will be SPIG’s most suggestion over SPIG’s listserv SPIG head notes, page 3 will soon make its debut in the extensive commitment to date. world. SPIG will launch Teaching Journalism and Mass Communication Application scholar, page 9 and tagline: Teaching Journalism (TJMC), an online journal designed Profile: Jack Zilbuk, page 5 andWe Mass have Communication, a journal. Its official a journal title to advance research and discussion published by the Small Programs on pedagogical issues. write, review and copy edit for the Interest Group. It is a peer-reviewed premiere issue scheduled to debut Mitzi Lewis, of Midwestern State journal to be published each fall and this fall. SPIG gave the project its University, and I spent the past spring. To make use of the online setting through greater interactivity, meeting in St. Louis, after Lewis recruiting other SPIG members to officialand I presented approval theduring proposal. its business Lewis See JOURNAL, page 8 year fleshing out a template and John McClelland photo The Hot Topics panel, from left: Josh deBerge, FEMA; Tim Sellnow, Kentucky; Cynthia Nichols, Oklahoma State; Brian Stelter, The New York Times, and Stacey Woelfel, Missouri-KOMU-TV. Hot topic: Using tweets to report on tornadoes By Michael Longinow sections of the cities nearly without deadline news journalism and crisis It’s not just a phone. It’s media. notice. communication during natural And the little thumb clicks we all Cheryl Bacon’s panel on social disasters. see our students doing in class are media brought the practical and the Panelists were Josh DeBerge, what might have been the ticket to theoretical to the topic of tweets Region 7 external affairs officer survival in Joplin and Tuscaloosa and other types of social media with the Federal Emergency after tornadoes ripped open whole that have become a new reality in See TWEETS page 2 2 SPIG News SPIG News 3 TWEETS, from page 1 Tweets helped Stelter, who was in Chicago to cover Oprah Winfrey when the storms hit Joplin, find sources Management Agency (FEMA); Cynthia Nichols, in the devastated region so he could post a story in a Cuillier and Berkey-Gerard win GIFT honors assistant professor in the School of Journalism and timely manner. But what Stelter found, too, was that Broadcasting at Oklahoma State; Tim Sellnow, associate By Mitzi Lewis also get excited when they people were hungry not just for an 1,100-word story; see their work visualized dean for Graduate Programs at the University of they wanted updates fast. And the more pictures the David Cuillier, associate professor of journalism Kentucky, who has written and researched on crisis publicly in a professional- better. He was posting constantly. And his tweets were a looking format. communications; Brian Stelter, entertainment and digital clipped, up-to-the-minute form of journalism that made Berkey-Gerard, assistant professor of journalism reporter with The New York Times; and Stacey Woelfel, life bearable for desperate people huddled in shelters — at theRowan University University of Arizona, at Glassboro Tucson, in SouthernAZ, and Mark New Meanwhile, Berkey- associate professor at the Missouri School of Journalism people hungry for any sense of what was going on. Jersey, shared top honors for the 2011 Great Ideas For Gerard’s entry, “Building and news director of KOMU-TV in Columbia. Teachers (GIFT) competition. Blocks of Multimedia Stelter tweeted his way to a story about the Joplin Storytelling: How to Meanwhile, in a time of crisis, phone calls on a devastation and relief work that editors in New York Cuillier’s entry, “Fill ’er up! How to teach data landline, and even some cell phone calls can get collection, analysis, and visualization through free and Identify and Fashion a were able to pull together when typical computer Compelling Narrative with tricky or impossible. But tweets are not only easier, connections and phones weren’t working. (Stelter noted easy online mapping of gas prices,” teaches students they are a kind of new approach to news and public how to “gather data relevant to their lives (such as gas Sound and Visuals,” offers that as he sat on the panel in St. Louis, there was a New three simple and easy- relations. Tweets have become part of emergency relief York Times reporter in London using tweets to get a prices), derive story ideas, and post the information mobilization. online as tables, charts and maps.” to-remember narrative story out about the riots and violence happening in that structures for creating Using Google Fusion Tables and Microsoft Excel, BERKEY-GERARD DeBerge said FEMA has earned the trust and respect city.) multimedia stories. They of residents in crisis by using Facebook as a means of It’s all new, yet it’s students create a database of gas prices they gather from their community finding out what people old. Telegraph operators the story, and (c) someone does something because. want to know. He posts and post the data “In a time of crisis, phone were the first to tap-tap are:Students (a) anecdote are given and anmoment explanation of reflection; and examples (b) arc of questions and fields them, paragraph-clipped stories online. Google Fusion letting audiences call or Tables functions help of each approach, then apply the ideas to their own calls on a landline, and from reporters near Civil stories and explain which elements are used. Berkey- tweet him directly. War battlefields in this students analyze, chart, even some cell phone map and share the data Gerard developed this assignment to provide a Yes, there are occasional country. Panelists and structure for moving beyond equipment and technical abuses of the privilege, he audience members pointed without having to write a calls, can get tricky or computer program. issues to recognizing, reporting and conveying a said, but the vast majority out that it wasn’t that long compelling story, which he says are “critical qualities Cuillier says that of the response to a social impossible.” ago that fedora-wearing for a journalist.” media openness by FEMA reporters in courthouse because students are has been positive. phone booths hollered actively involved in As a result, the quality of student work in his class has improved. Furthermore, Sellnow’s stories paragraph by gathering the data, they research shows that during a natural disaster or violent paragraph through a phone to rewrite staff downtown. feel more connected to Mitzi Lewis is an assistant professor in the political crisis, those in a ravaged area turn to what they But what about accuracy? A question from the the community and to Department of Mass Communication at Midwestern know — people who might have a glimpse into what’s audience challenged the KOMU practice of posting CUILLIER the assignment. They State University. Wichita Falls, Texas. really going on. And tweets are that connection: not the audience tweets on the air during crises to bring science, but the sidewalk-level explanation. And they constantly updated facts. Social media can turn a Head notes want proof. Pictures and video, even if they are grainy, region’s residents into de-facto stringers, but what if the are what they snap up. In a crisis, tweets from FEMA tweets are inaccurate — or have an agenda? or Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Woelfel admitted that the speed and volume of tweets Many thanks to Mitzi and Vivian social media might pre-empt ABC News. makes copy editing difficult or impossible. But he and Hello SPIG! Saturday in St. Louis: After the tornadoes in Tuscaloosa, social media Stelter pointed out the uncanny ability of the Web to I trust you all enjoyed our 1. The AEJMC Board of Directors helped Nichols’ students connect with those who knew police itself. An erroneous or outrageous tweet will productive week in St. Louis. approved moving forward with how to find a blind woman who hadn’t eaten in days. often be found out — and sometimes corrected, multiple SPIG was well represented by its work on the journal! A big note of Nichols’ students were there with supplies in a quickly times — by tweeters who know the facts. members in a variety of panels, thanks goes to Mitzi Lewis, Vivian gathered team relief effort. And, Woelfel added, there are some stories whose poster sessions and meetings, and Martin and Margo Wilson, who Nichols attended Alabama and the devastation in her magnitude and sensitivity would make the news desk SPIG added several new members have turned an idea into a reality alma mater’s town hit her hard. She and her students stop and check out a tweet’s tip before putting it on the who already have gotten involved in 12 months. They deserve our took video cameras and got the stories of survival and air. in leadership roles within our heartfelt thanks for the initiative hope as social service workers, church groups and Michael Longinow is a professor of journalism and and perseverance they have government agency staff worked together to sort out a Journalism Department chair at Biola University, Here are updates on a couple crisis in that university community. LaMirada, Calif. ofgroup issues (see that the were officer resolved list below). on See , page 6 exemplified for THANKSus during the past SUSAN LEWIS 4 SPIG News SPIG News 5 How blogs and wikis can help you teach online SPIG profile: By Carrie Buchanan using wikis, which can be used in online courses Jack Zibluk is a self-taught photojournalist or regular ones in which students are expected to What is your current primary essentially published whatever doctorate,When Doreen she was Marchionni asked to teach of Pacific Quantitative Lutheran “Wiki is a Hawaiian term for quick,” Lewis said.