Conference to mark launch legal service for digital news ventures
From the indispensable Nieman Journalism Lab:
A Harvard-based conference on online journalism and the law will also help inaugurate a new legal service ?called Online Media Legal Network (OMLN). The one-day symposium occurs on Friday April 9 at Harvard Law School in Cambridge, Mass..
The OMLN says it aims to connect “qualifying online journalism ventures and digital media creators with lawyers willing to provide legal services on a pro bono or reduced-fee basis.”
Sounds a bit like what state bar associations used to do for small community newspapers and struggling journalism grad students. My only slight concern comes from this sentence from the conference website: “[The OMLN] supports promising ventures and innovative thinkers in online and digital media by providing access to legal help that would otherwise be unavailable.” What will be deemed worthy of aid?
Times (UK) editor makes passionate case for paid content
OK, “passionate” in a studied, clipped Fleet Street sort of way, perhaps? But nonetheless, it does stir the heart to see the masterfully intelligent James Harding make the big case, and the use of video (also displayed on page one) seems telling.
Beginning in May, the Times and sister Sunday Times papers plan to charge readers a total of £2 a week (about $3) for the privilege of accessing the newly launched websites where both papers’ content will live.
(Long-time readers will recall that the Sunday Times used to charge, so this is a back to the future move, in a way.)
The Times isn’t, of course, the biggest-selling British daily newspaper (that honor goes to the torrid Sun, another Rupert Murdoch paper), but — having worked for several years at various News Corp. journals myself — its corporate culture is very aggressive. Murdoch plays to win. The relatively cheap subscription fee looks like classic News Corp. underpricing to me.
Newspaper Fund becomes News Fund, keeps funding internships
Dow Jones is canceling the ‘newspaper’ in the name of its venerable journalism education programs, now called the Dow Jones News Fund. Picky editors will notice that the name change hasn’t percolated down through all references in the organization’s Web pages. The good news is that the DJNF internship and grant programs are still there.
DJNF/The Journalist’s Road to Success.
THE NEWS FUND was created in 1958 by then-Dow Jones & Co. chairman Bernard Kilgore to encourage young people to consider careers in journalism. The Dow Jones Foundation continues to provide the primary support for the Newspaper Fund, along with contributions from other newspapers and newspaper companies nationwide.
Those “Journalist’s Road to Success” pages are still a good bookmark for journalism students, newspaper-focused or not.
Thanks to Doug Fisher for pointing out the change, and to Chris Roberts for adding a link to Doug’s blog in our name-change discussion page.
Research lovers wanted for Denver affair
Write papers, judge papers; something for everyone.
From Chris Roberts and Jin Yang, research co-chairs:
The Newspaper Division needs more judges to handle the research competition for the Denver convention.
If you are a faculty member who is not submitting a paper to the Newspaper Division, please spare us a few hours of your time in April and agree to judge two or three or four papers. We’ll have papers assigned on April 2, and you have until May 1 to complete your labor of love. To help:
1. Send an e-mail to Chris Roberts at croberts@ua.edu.
2. Go to http://www.allacademic.com/one/aejmc/aejmc10/ and create an account, so we can add you as a judge.
If you have questions, call Chris at 205-348-8619 or contact Jin Yang at jinyang@memphis.edu.
Nearly desperately yours,
Chris Roberts and Jin Yang
For authors: Denver research-submission links:
Reflections on a newspaper’s online transition
AtlanticWire blogger Jared Keller summarizes recent online articles about the present and future of newspapers…
Seattle PI Heralds the Dawn of the Blogpaper | The Atlantic Wire.
- An E-Model For Journalism , Los Angeles Times
- How Blogs Are Becoming Like Newspapers , Gawker
- New, Old, Niche, Mass, It’s All Media , Adpulp
Also see the “More on Journalism’s Future” tab at the bottom of the page.
Academic Fellowships at Dart Center for Journalism & Trauma
Details: Applications Open for Inaugural Academic Fellowships
Deadline: Friday, March 26, 2010. Application guidelines
The Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma is launching a new fellowship program for journalism educators June 17-18 at Columbia University in New York. Travel, lodging and curriculum-development funds are available.
The program is designed to provide college and university journalism faculty and advisers to student media advanced skills in teaching the art and craft of newsgathering, storytelling and self-care when reporting human tragedy.
Meg Spratt, director of Dart Center West at the University of Washington, notes that few student journalists are trained to recognize trauma and stress reactions in survivors, to make informed ethical choices about trauma news or to deal with their own emotional reactions while on the job.
The Dart Center has provided such training for working journalists; this new fellowship will make possible a three-day seminar for up to 12 college and university journalism educators.
The Dart Center will provide airfare and hotel in New York City for each fellow. In addition, up to $500 in post-seminar support will be provided each fellow to design and implement educational projects.
Contact information:
Meg Spratt, Ph.D
Director, Dart Center West
Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma
University of Washington
Box 353740
Seattle, WA 98195
206-616-3223
Discuss the Newspaper Division’s Name
Ed.: HOW TO JOIN THE DISCUSSION: Register, login, then click the blog’s title to get back here. Read to the bottom to Speak Your Mind on Bill’s original message, or click a blue “Reply” tag to respond to a specific comment. The discussion will be open until September. The same topic on the division’s e-mail list is archived here. Additional notes from Bill appear in the Summer 2010 LeadTime. Links to the 2008 e-mail discussion appear at the end of the comment list.
by Bill Cassidy, division chair
I thought of beginning with some pithy little saying that would accurately describe the issue I want to address in this column. I could have written something like “It’s the elephant in the room,” or “We’ve been down this road before,” or maybe even some reference to “stirring up a hornet’s nest.” Well, it seems I’ve gone and done just that. But, here’s the bottom line: I strongly believe that we need to revisit the issue of changing our division’s name and bring the conversation to some kind of conclusion.
Indeed, we have been down this road before. In her Summer 2008 column, former division head Susan Keith stated “I believe we need a name that better embraces the full range of what our scholars study and what our industry does.” From there a spirited discussion about a possible name change ensued on the division’s listserv… Read more
Teach news terrifically? Enter competition by May 21
Teaching News Terrifically in the 21st Century is a teaching ideas competition sponsored by the Newspaper Division of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication.
The deadline for e-mailed entries: 11:59 p.m. EDT, May 21, 2010.
Here’s the “call” for entries, courtesy of Susan Keith at Rutgers, Newspaper Division teaching standards co-chair : Teaching News Terrifically in the 21st Century
Excerpt:
Do you have an idea for improving the teaching of newswriting, reporting or editing? If so, enter it in the AEJMC Newspaper Division’s teaching competition, Teaching News Terrifically in the 21st Century, for the chance to earn recognition and a cash prize.
TNT21 was founded in 2009 to publicly acknowledge good ideas for foundational journalism courses from:
— Full-time faculty members
— Adjunct professors
— Graduate-student instructorsA prize of $100 will be awarded for the best teaching idea from each group. This year, the deadline has been moved to 11:59 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time May 21 to allow professors to enter ideas they used in courses during spring 2010.
Or, if you know terrific teaching when you see it, go to Susan’s page for information about becoming a judge in the competition.
April 7 deadline for Newspaper Project Award submissions
2010 AEJMC NEWSPAPER DIVISION NEWSPAPER PROJECT AWARD
The AEJMC Newspaper Division’s Newspaper Project Award recognizes publications produced by students and professors in journalism classes or as special curricular projects connected to courses. To qualify, the publication must have been edited and produced as part of the curriculum, text reported and written by students, and professors must have been responsible for editing and/or advising.
Magazines, newsletters or Yellow Page-like compilations will not be accepted. Eligible publications must have been published in either the 2008-2009 or 2009-2010 academic years. Online newspaper publications are eligible and may be submitted on a DVD or CD. Read more
