Journalists must earn public trust

Courtney Addison / AEJMC Reporter

Sombreros and cowboy hats line the sidewalks of Market Square.

By Gabe Wicklund

Texas Christian University

Trust doesn’t usually come free.

And, in most cases, journalists are still trying to earn it.

Charles Lewis, president of the Fund for Independence in Journalism, said Tuesday that journalists can earn readers’ trust by sharing information that directly affects their lives.

“Trust follows from getting the inside story,” Lewis said.

Tuesday’s pre-AEJMC conference session, “A Wake Up Call: Can Trust and Quality Save Journalism?” was driven by a one-year research project called Restoring the Trust.

Speakers discussed their thoughts on whether journalism has lost the public’s respect.

A major change at The New York Times has been an effort to be open about sources of information, because secrets are not helpful in gaining and retaining readers’ trust, said Neil Chase, deputy editor for NYTimes.com.

“People watch what we are doing,” Chase said. “Nobody trusts anybody blindly anymore.”

Campbell

However, the Times considers sources’ trust important as well, as exemplified by the jail term being served by Times reporter Judith Miller for protecting a confidential source, Chase said.

Panelists also discussed the theory that the mainstream media is headed in a death spiral.

Philip Meyer, author of “The Vanishing Newspaper” and a professor at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, said the mainstream media is not in a death spiral but is headed in other directions.

“Journalism has changed from a craft of hunting and gathering to a processing of information,” Meyer said.

He said because of a plethora of news and information available to the public from an infinite number of sources, journalists must dig deeper into issues to report the truth.

Clyde Bentley, a professor at the University of Missouri-Columbia, said he does not buy the death spiral theory because news media are everywhere. Journalists see that traditional media are declining, but they overlook the rise of new media such as the Internet, he said.

Bentley noted that Thefacebook.com, an online network for college students, is becoming a widespread phenomenon at many universities. Thefacebook.com is a form of journalism because it shares information, but most journalists are not yet willing to look at it that way, Bentley said.

Another popular form of Internet communication is blogging, which provides ways for citizens to have journalistic voices, Bentley said.

Kathleen Richardson, a professor at Drake University, said the panelists sounded like they had almost given up on the traditional mass media. However, she said she thinks her students will find careers in the magazine or newspaper business if that is what they want.

She said it is clear that the future of mass media is on the Internet, but there will always be a need for journalists to gather information and report news.

“Helping people make sense of their world and their communities — that is far from dead,” Richardson said.

Keynote speaker to focus on Latin America

By Kathryn Fiegen

Iowa State University

Since the AEJMC San Antonio conference was planned in December 2004, some of the hot topics of the past few months facing journalists today aren’t institutionalized as the focus of many of the sessions.

Rather, the overarching theme of the convention is to take advantage of the Southern locale and Latin American journalism, said AEJMC President Mary Alice Shaver said.

“It stems from the issue of internationalism,” she said. “We are interested in what is going on with other countries.”

Shaver hand-picked picked this year’s keynote speaker on that premise. Alejandro Junco de la Vega, keynote speaker and publisher of Mexico’s Reforma, has been longtime a combatant of media corruption in Latin America.

“I’ve heard him speak before,” she said. “He has a lot of wonderful things to say about our journalism and our education.”

Shaver predicts Junco will address issues of diversity in his speech and advise educators as to what areas of reform are needed in American journalism today.

Other than that, Shaver said, the issue of national shield laws, stemming from the recent case involving New York Times reporter Judith Miller, will also grab some spotlight at this year’s convention.

Carol Pardun, Middle Tennessee State professor and head of the Council of Divisions, also predicted the Miller case would be brought up informally in one of the newspaper panel discussions.

Shaver establishes ethics code, ends tenure

David Minton / AEJMC Reporter

AEJMC President Mary Alice Shaver, University of Central Florida, led the business session Tuesday with the AEJMC board of directors.

By Christine Stanley

University of North Texas

Mary Alice Shaver can take at least one thing off her overflowing plate after this academic year.

Shaver, who is also director of the University of Central Florida’s Nicholson School of Communication, will end her tenure as president of AEJMC in September.

“I hope that people will remember the media ethics taskforce, and that we got a really great keynote speaker [Alejandro Junco de la Vega] this year,” Shaver said. “Also the fact that we are using our location to bring attention to Latin America.”

Shaver, who took office last October, said she is most proud of the establishment of an official ethics code for the organization. AEJMC members will vote on the code this week. Shaver said code authors tried to merge AEJMC values with the basic practices of good journalism.

“I just think that we can't pay enough attention to that,” Shaver said. “It’s very important to keep that in the forefront of our minds. We’re seeing a lot of trust issues in the media today as well.”

The Jayson Blairs and Stephen Glasses of journalism have fueled the ethics debate in a big way over the past few years. Paul Voakes, dean of the University of Colorado-Boulder’s School of Journalism and Mass Communication, said he welcomes an official AEJMC ethics code come to fruition this year.

“I applaud her for seeing that through,” Voakes said. “I think she’s done a fine job. With all that’s going on in journalism, it’s very important that education be out front on ethics awareness.”

Shaver’s stint as editor of the Journal of Advertising Education also ended last fall. She had been editor since 1998.

Journalism educators plan 2007 meeting in Singapore

By Ashlee Erwin

University of Missouri-Columbia

Today’s meeting of international journalism associations will mark the starting point for a world congress of educators who will discuss issues on a global level.

The AEJMC Task Force on Internationalization is planning an unprecedented World Journalism Education Congress. Thirteen journalism education associations from every continent will be present at Wednesday’s Task Force on Internationalization, which will be dedicated to planning the 2007 Congress in Singapore.

Joe Foote of the University of Oklahoma and Indrajit Banerjee, executive director of the Asian Media Information and Communication Centre in Singapore, previewed the agenda for Wednesday’s business session at Tuesday’s AEJMC Board of Director’s meeting.

In December, the board of directors unanimously approved a motion to participate in the 2007 congress and to send the AEJMC president as a representative Foote said that discussions about the congress have not been publicized until now because of ongoing financial and logistical concerns. The support of AMIC, however, has brought discussions to a new level.

“We want to bring in more of the members now and show them the promise of this congress,” Foote said.

While plans are still in the beginning stages, the idea has prompted caution and excitement in the AEJMC community.

“We [American educators] have to be very careful that we don’t somehow come in on our high horse with the notion that we have things to tell everyone else,” said AEJMC President-elect Sharon Dunwoody of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “AEJMC will be represented, and our goal is to listen and to find out what’s going on in other countries. I think it will be utterly fascinating.”

The AEMJC board also addressed financial and membership matters, as well as previewing some issues of interest for this week’s convention.

Continuing an initiative that began at the 2002 Miami convention, AEJMC provided $1,200 for each of nine Latin American journalists to attend the San Antonio convention. The journalists represent Puerto Rico, Brazil, Argentina, Columbia, Peru and Chile. AEJMC also distributed $14,000 in assistance for divisions and interest groups to bring in speakers for this year’s convention. Each group that requested funds received some financial assistance.

As of July, the AEJMC membership was at 3,435 members, including 219 new members in July alone, said McGill. Regular membership is up by 35 this year.

In an update on the programming of this year’s convention, Pardun previewed the four new high-density panel sessions taking place Wednesday. The sessions are a cross between traditional paper presentations and large poster sessions, with seven-10 paper presentations in a room at one time.

“We want people to get excited about it so we can do it again in future years, Pardun said.

Four divisions will be taking part in the high-density sessions, including Public Relations, International Communication, Communication Technology and Policy and Law.

Pardun also highlighted the proposed bylaw revision of division and interest group assessment that will be voted upon in Friday’s General Business Meeting. The new assessment program, first implemented at last year’s convention, outlines a five-year rotating assessment program that focuses more on conversational evaluations and less on annual report critiques.

Pardun said that interest groups and divisions that underwent the process last year reported positively on the process.

“It went over really well,” Pardun said. “The people who went through the assessment process found it very helpful and very encouraging.”

According to Dunwoody, the revamped system allows the standing committees to be more involved with policy issues, programming and questions of research, teaching and service instead of focusing on assessment.

“We are essentially freeing the standing committees now to be creative about what they’re doing,” Dunwoody said. “I think it will be rapidly and enthusiastically endorsed.”

Several issues of interest emerged from the committee and commission reports.

Ann Brill of the standing committee on Professional Freedom and Responsibility started a dialogue about the Judith Miller case and the national journalists’ shield bill, which will be continued in the standing committee’s business meeting Thursday.

Lionel Barrow, professor emeritus of Howard University, updated the board on the standing of a 2003 Commission on the Status of Minorities resolution that created the Task Force on Diversity to improve diversity in journalism students, faculty and professionals. Federico Subervi from Texas State University-San Marcos presented initial findings from a minority faculty and graduate student recruitment and retention survey commissioned by the task force to determine the status of diversity. The e-mail survey looked at the differences between accredited and non-accredited institutions on issues such as advertising positions in minority publications, providing inducements for minority recruits and structures for minority retention. Initial findings indicate that greater percentages of accredited institutions offer more tactics for minority recruitment. More finding and ideas for further study will be discussed at Friday’s general business meeting.

San Antonio has much to offer visitors

David Minton / AEJMC Reporter

Boats outside the RiverCenter Mall take people on half-hour tours of the San Antonio river.

By Denise Montaño

Texas State University

Attendees of the AEJMC conference this week will find that San Antonio is a big city with a small-town feel.

Hispanic culture, historical sites such as the Alamo and modern attractions like Sea World of Texas and Six Flags Fiesta Texas make San Antonio unique. One of the biggest attractions is the Riverwalk, a collection of shops, restaurants and bars along the San Antonio River.

“The Riverwalk’s intricate beauty makes it an attraction to tourists,” said Angela McClendon, Riverwalk interim community relations manager.

A few blocks from the Riverwalk is the Alamo, a former mission that was a battle site in 1836 during the Texas fight for independence from Mexico.

Down at the Riverwalk, one of the main attractions is Rivercenter Mall, which has over 125 stores including Dillard’s and Foley’s.

The mall is a “unique shopping and dining experience,” said Rivercenter marketing director Jennifer Green. “We usually have live entertainment at the lagoon … right now we have the Peruvian flute band, which tourists love.”

The mall also has two theaters, a comedy club and the only IMAX Theater in South Texas. Stop by the information desk for a free coupon book and gift.

Restaurants such as Casa Rio offer dining on a riverboat or along the river. Many Tex-Mex restaurants offer a variety of dishes and the occasional mariachi serenade.

Editors discuss teaching methods

By Kathryn Fiegen

Iowa State University

Before the official start of the AEJMC convention, editors from around the country met in the Mariott RiverCenter to talk about practical applications for teaching student journalists.

The American Society of Newspaper Editors focused Tuesday afternoon on teaching students to tell stories in a more effective, but still creative, manner.

George Estrada, former writer for the Associated Press in Seattle, said the AP and other professional newspapers are scared to allow writers creative freedom.

“There is this institutional resistance to using colloquial words,” he said. “There is a strong traditional thing they want to hang on to.”

Erna Smith, San Francisco State University, said a way to solve that would be to tell students not to get hung up on fancy words, but let their interviews tell the story.

“What makes a good story is not the way you tell it, but the way your sources tell it,” she said. “It comes from the people you are working with.”

The group discussed the nervousness editors feel about giving reporters complicated stories, often sending them out with little more than a survey in hand.

Steve Collins, University of Central Florida, said in practice, this doesn’t teach students how to report.

Visitors beat the heat, stay indoors

Courtney Addison / AEJMC Reporter

Drinking plenty of water is essential during high temperatures and humidity.

By Kathryn Fiegen

Iowa State University

AEJMC conference-goers know Texas is hot. With this year’s conference in San Antonio, educators from across the country are in and out of the heat and humidity to attend sessions and see the town.

All of the sessions are held indoors, and Kim Lauffer of Towson University in Maryland said she might never leave the hotel.

“Northerners are not wimps,” she said. “It’s not hard. Part of the coping strategy is not going out.”

Steven Russ of Harvard University said San Antonio is better than other Southern locations of the conference’s past.

“AEJMC was in New Orleans once, talk about hot,” he said.

Russ said his plan at the AEJMC conference in Phoenix was to seek shelter.

“I have to admit, when we were in Phoenix, I pretty much stayed inside. It was like walking into a wall of heat.

“But it really doesn’t bother me at all. You Texans think you have the biggest everything.”

Karen Flowers, University of South Carolina, said the heat although unavoidable, does not have to be crippling.

“We just deal with it,” she said.

Preparing professors for leadership

By Jared Strong

Iowa State University

Thirty-four journalism and mass communication deanships have opened up across the country during the last two years, which spurred ASJMC to host a workshop on Tuesday to help prepare and encourage educators to pick up the slack.

“One of the things that the members of ASJMC have talked about in the past year is focusing more on developing new leaders,” said Jennifer McGill, executive director for AEJMC and ASJMC, or the Association of Schools of Journalism and Mass Communication. “The workshop is just a response to the natural cycle of position openings.”

Pam Johnson, co-moderator of “Making the Transition to Dean and Above,” kicked off the workshop by articulating the need for higher education administrators. The current situation is a stark contrast to a typical year where only two or three dean positions become available, Johnson said in a phone interview before the workshop.

Approximately 20 people attended the all-day, pre-convention event designed to help prepare education administrators, especially department chairs, to move up the leadership ladder, but attendees comprised a diverse group of educators.

Jim Whitfield, a new dean at Hawaii Pacific University, attended the workshop to help ready him for his new position. Whitfield, who said his program is growing at an “unbelievable rate,” will be examining the needs of the school, which may include hiring more faculty members.

“I’d like to compare what I’m doing and my management style with others,” Whitfield said. “It’s always good to gain insights from those who have come before you.”

Whitfield joked that he “resisted the job, kicking and screaming,” but that seemed to be a recurring sentiment among the group as the workshop progressed.

Susanne Shaw, chair of a dean search committee at the University of Kansas, said, “leadership is one of the biggest issues in our profession right now.”

Shaw, who spoke at the workshop, said her committee has had much difficulty finding a new dean, citing fewer and less-experienced applicants as primary problems, which she said has become more of an issue over the last two decades.

“Being a dean today is not as easy as it used to be,” Shaw said. “Raising money is harder now.”

Co-moderator Johnson said an important factor in filling those open positions is finding deans who have the skills to match the unique needs of each school.

“You need to know what type of skills you can bring to the table,” Johnson said. “Then you need to find out what types of issues that school is facing, and sometimes there’s not a fit.

“Many times people will walk in and say, ‘I can do this, this, this and this – I’m so wonderful,’ but that may not be what the school needs.”

Two of the five, 90-minute portions of the workshop were focused around this issue, and sandwiched between them was a lunch session that featured speaker Dianne Lynch, dean of the Park School of Communications at Ithaca College in Ithaca, N.Y.

Lynch, who recently completed her first year as a dean, shared some of what she’s learned as an administrator.

In a phone interview before the workshop, Lynch said she was going to talk about the “10 things I wish someone would have said to me” before becoming dean. “They’ll resonate with those who have been deans before or are new to the role,” she said.

Lynch left an associate professor position at Saint Michael’s College in Vermont to assume her current position at Ithaca. She said it’s easy to get settled into a flexible faculty position, but those who desire to do more for the school and students should consider making the jump to upper administration.

Lynch echoed the woes of fundraising, saying that she now spends about 40 percent of her time with the business side of higher education.

“One of the things that is true of any kind of academic administration is that you become increasingly responsible for revenue generation,” Lynch said. “So, it isn’t just a question of handling or monitoring the funds in place but actively seeking additional funding both for projects and for operating. Being a fundraiser is very much a part of being a dean.”

Lynch has experienced management in the corporate and academic realms, and she said there is a big difference between the two.

“If you go out into corporate America and the boss says do it, you do it,” Lynch said. “In higher education, it’s collaboration. It’s a conversation, and it has to be that. The faculty member is really the most important person in that conversation.”

Lynch has learned that the ability to remember the important role of faculty is essential to the success of an academic program.

“I was a faculty member for a long time, and I still think like a faculty member and still see the world as a faculty member,” Lynch said. “I really hope I can hold onto that because it really is the most important role in the academy.”

During the first session of the workshop, speaker Christine Martin, vice president for Institutional Advancement at West Virginia University, posed a question to those in attendance.

“What makes a perfect boss?” she asked.

Responses varied and included a pointed description: “a nice person who will work and is not insane.”

But the consensus among the group was that personal qualities such as integrity, fairness and flexibility are key traits for administrators and are perhaps more important than professional qualities.

Tuesday’s workshop was the first part of what ASJMC Executive Director McGill described as a “two-pronged effort” to develop new leaders. The second part is the newly founded Journalism and Mass Communication Leadership Institute, which is designed to help new Journalism and Mass Communication chairs and deans settle into their positions. The institute is funded by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and will meet for the first time at 1 p.m. on Saturday in conference room.

San Antonio media evolve

By Isadora Vail-Castro

Texas State University

Three decades ago, a void existed in Texas media. There were television stations all over the state, but none operated in Spanish.

That’s when Raul Cortez had a bright idea.

While cable television was still in its infancy, Cortez, a San Antonio native, created the nation’s first Spanish television network and a radio station.

The frequency for Cortez’s television station was so low that audiences had to buy a special adaptor just to watch the eight-hour daily program that aired Spanish soap operas. Cortez’s station became known as Univision.

One of the reasons that Cortez built the Spanish-language station was to serve the city’s growing Hispanic population. According to the 2000 Census, San Antonio’s population is 58 percent Hispanic.

Carlos Guerra, columnist for the San Antonio Express-News, said he remembered the turmoil that emerged when Arbitron Inc., a media marketing research firm, and Nielsen Media Research, a television rating service, refused to rate either station.

The struggle to develop a Spanish-language television station was not the only conflict in San Antonio media in recent years. Guerra was part of a hotbed of competition between two newspapers, the San Antonio Light and the Express-News, in the early 1990s. He said the rivalry between the two papers existed for decades.

“The Express-News and the Light were supposedly losing money,” Guerra said. “The Light had a union, the Writer’s Guild, and it was the only writers’ union ever in Texas.”

Ebony, Jet founder changed publishing

By Denise Montaño

Texas State University

Journalists and educators praised the legacy of black publishing pioneer John Johnson, who died Monday at 87.

The grandson of slaves and impoverished by birth, Johnson became a figurehead in the African American community as the publisher of Jet and Ebony magazines. Ebony was one of the nation’s top-selling African American-oriented publications with a circulation of 1.7 million.

“(Ebony) was the No. 1 black publication in all its years,” said Jannette Dates, dean of the Howard University J.H. Johnson School of Communications. “People look to the publication for information on the [African American] community.”

Not only was Johnson a respected businessman, but also a philanthropist who donated $4 million to Howard University. The donation in 2003 prompted Howard University’s School of Communication to change its name. Johnson had a close relationship with Howard’s students and staff, and many were affected by the news of his death, said Dates.

(The mood was) very sad,” she said. “Students were upset, because they felt connected with him in a meaningful way. A number of students interned for Johnson publications.”

Revered for his keen business sense, Johnson was the founder, publisher, chairman and CEO of the Johnson Publishing Company Inc. According to some in the African American community, his insight into the community helped dispel misinterpretations about African Americans.

“His legacy is one of determination, perseverance and courage,” said Sybril Bennett, Belmont University executive director of New Century Journalism Program. “It’s sad, but he lived a long full life.”

Growing up in poverty, Johnson turned his situation into a positive not only for himself, but also for the African American community. For many African Americans in the journalism field, his business and personal achievements made him a role model.

“He led the way for the explosion for ethnic media, showed the business model that supported the African [American] community,” said Dori Maynard, president of the Robert C. Maynard Institute for Journalism Education. “Through his work no one can say the African [American] community is not a viable economic source.”

What was Peter Jennings’ legacy to journalism?

Edited by Emily Grobe

Texas State University

Kathleen Hansen
University of Minnesota

I think his focus was on international news. He was so committed to trying to cover that in a time when so many other news organizations, particularly broadcast news organizations, were moving in a completely other direction—entertainment, high-profile crime. His focus on keeping international news before the public was his biggest legacy.

Bernie Ankney
Indiana University of Pennsylvania

I think his legacy was that he proved that you don’t need a journalism education; in fact, I believe that he dropped out of high school. But, he still became a professional journalist. He worked hard on his ethics and even after he didn’t succeed early on--the first time he was an anchor he failed--he continued to hone his skills through hard work.

Susan Weill
Texas State University

I think Peter Jennings made people feel like he really cared about what was in the news. I think the way that he presented it made it understandable to everybody on every level.

Ann Brill
University of Kansas

I think part of it was just his legacy and what we’re seeing now is just how hard he worked at his craft and that he was willing to pay his dues. I think a lot of people, maybe not knowing his background, thought he was this very urbane Canadian, but didn’t realize what a hard-working reporter he really was. So, he knew what he was talking about.

Cheryl Bacon
Abilene Christian University

I think he elevated the discussion. I think when he first became an on-air personality he took a lot of flack, essentially, because he was a handsome guy, but he attracted a lot of attention to the news. Then people discovered a person who really did attack the news in-depth and I think that was an important legacy. He brought people to an understanding. You couldn’t question his depth [or] the breadth of knowledge that he had. All the things he covered, his ability to do it spontaneously and well…he’s an important person in our history.

-- compiled by Denise Montaño, Texas State University

Covering courts gets inadequate attention

David Minton / AEJMC Reporter

Dorothy Bowles, University of Tennessee, and Robert Drechsel, University of Wisconsin-Madison, served as panelists taking questions about teaching the essentials of court reporting.

By Jaime Loke

University of Texas-Austin

Educators who teach the law often don’t have much time to focus on court reporting.

On Tuesday, one of the workshop sessions at the AEJMC convention focused on preparing journalists to better report on the courts.

“Those of us who teach the law course really don’t have time to cover it (court reporting) as deeply as we probably should,” said Dorothy Bowles, a panelist from the University of Tennessee.

An emergence of tabloid court television programs such as “Judge Judy” has caused distrust and contempt for the court system among frequent television viewers, Bowles said.

Robert Drechsel, a panelist from the University of Wisconsin, said he believes the press doesn’t give fair coverage to courts.

“Civil rights cases, First Amendment cases and criminal cases get the most coverage,” he said.

Another issue is that journalists who cover the courts usually are not experienced legal reporters, Drechsel said.

“For the most part, people who are covering trial courts don’t have much legal expertise,” he said. “In fact, once you’re outside of the metro areas, they don’t have much reporting expertise. They tend to be young, they tend to turn over quickly, which, of course, is something that will exacerbate problems of the quality of coverage.”

Journalists speak minds through notebooks

‘Reporter’s Notebooks’ offer student journalists working for the AEJMC Reporter a chance to share their views with the newspaper’s many readers. Shawn Finer had hotel issues, Jared Strong was called a ‘pest,’ and Julie J. Ruff just showed up to entertain with funny pictures.

Shawn Finer
TCU Daily Skiff

There is nothing more rewarding than taking a long-awaited vacation to San Antonio … to work. Unaware of what to expect and whom I will meet, I anticipated this trip for a long time. It was a pleasure to be working on designing this tabloid.

But, within the first 15 minutes, I was beginning to question my mental health. I got a room and got settled but little did I know that the hotel didn’t know my room belonged to me. I was apparently on the 14th floor but only four floors up, I had a roommate but I was all alone, I was told the Marriott was only two blocks away but it was a 20-minute hike across, and after dinner I apparently had 3 rooms, none of which I was in.

After some confusion with the front desk, I finally found out my roommate was on the ninth floor, my hotel room was confirmed on the fourth and it became known that the Marriott is not as close as I was told.

Then the morning came. The telephone rang and I was still asleep.

“Is Lorraine there?” the voice said.

“No, you have the wrong room. This is Shawn,” I said.

“Shawn Finer? Oh, well you have six rooms under your name,” the voice replied.

I began to wonder if I had been talking to myself. Had I taken on several personalities? Had I lived in San Antonio all along and this trip was all part of my alter ego?

No, it wasn’t and, yes, I am dramatic, but that doesn’t change the fact that I had no clue what was happening.

After several hours of contemplating my mental condition and Google searches, I decided I wasn’t the crazy one, it was everyone else. No one of my extreme intellect could be that crazy.

So, I ignored the voices and went to work. Good thing we, I mean I, got that all sorted out.

Jared Strong
Iowa State University

Five years ago, I was on my way to becoming a computer scientist as an incoming freshman at Iowa State University. That title sounded so fancy then – a clever disguise for what would have been a life in a cubicle surrounded by the gentle hum of running PC’s.

But I eventually found my way to a job “that’s not really a job,” as Chuck Offenburger so astutely defined a career in journalism. Offenburger, who’s commonly known as the “Iowa Boy,” is one of the most famous journalists in my home state, and I spent this summer interning with him.

On our first day together, he handed me a piece of paper with “Offenburger’s Five Bed-Rock Rules of Journalism.” Rules one through four were the typical lessons I’d heard over and over again as a student at ISU – be informed, curious, accurate and fair.

Rule five is my favorite, and it’s the reason I made the switch to the job that’s not really a job. Whenever I have trouble with stories, sources, etc., I remember to “make it fun.”

When I agreed to cover this year’s AEJMC convention, I figured it’d be an easy assignment. After all, covering events is about as easy as it gets, right? And on top of that, I’d be interviewing a group of people who have dedicated their lives to helping students like me. Well, as I’ve found during my brief time as a journalist, there’s always something hiding around the corner. And before I even received a plane ticket to Texas, a source had identified me as a “pest.”

My troubles continued on my first day in San Antonio when a source who agreed to do an interview became unavailable as I was approaching deadline.

On top of all that, it is really freakin’ hot in Texas!

But, not to worry. I still have rule number five, and I look forward to pestering the rest of you later this week.

Julie J. Ruff
University of Texas at Austin

Here we go again.

This is the second time I find myself away from my beloved Austin for a week of hard work and no pay. Last year, I was a reporter for The Working Press, the newspaper for the Society of Professional Journalists convention in New York City. I rarely made it outside the hotel. I visited Ground Zero and Central Park, and I saw “Beauty and the Beast.” That was it. I didn’t even get to go shopping. But it was fun, and I met some great people. Oh yeah, I did see a man in only a diaper on Times Square.

So now I’m a copy editor for the AEJMC Reporter, and it’s just as hectic now as it was then. But I had the opportunity to go shopping Tuesday. I bought some cute earrings and a Texas Rangers badge with my name on it. But what I really want is a belt with my name on it – or someone else’s name. That would be cool.

Anyway, these things are always a headache and fun at the same time. But we journalists are used to that sort of thing, right? We go crazy as deadline nears and party with the best of them when it’s over.

I hope you, as attendees of this conference, enjoy what you read in these pages. We’ve been working real hard on it for a while now. I hope you at least like the photos. I had a picture of a jackelope (a real one, I swear), and I wanted to use it for this column, but my editors weren’t interested. Instead, you get my ugly mug. Sorry. I tried. It could be good wild art, too. Maybe I can slip it in the last issue of the AEJMC Reporter when they’re not looking. Look for it. I’m crossing my fingers. Or maybe I’ll save it for next year’s convention newspaper.

Oh yeah. I forgot to mention that I grew up here in San Antonio. It’s a great city. Enjoy it, but don’t follow me. I’m lost.