UC Association of Black Journalists

A Little Journalistic Advice From Bruce Lee

2009-04-07T21:00:00.058-04:00

A statue of Bruce Lee displayed on Hong Kong's Avenue of Stars.

Bruce Lee? What’s he got to do with journalism? It’ll make sense. I promise.

It wasn’t that long ago that I was a wanna-be journalist desperate for pointers on how to become a published writer. I still listen pretty intently to everyone who has writing advice to give. So you can probably imagine my surprise when other students started asking me about how they could get their work published.

“You’re looking for help from who? Really?”

After writing for The News Record, Cincinnati Magazine, and blogging for the The Root, perhaps I do have some decent experience under my belt. But it’s still surreal to be the adviser instead of the advisee. I’m not sure the learner has quite become the master yet.

But students like me – who still freshly remember having never been published before – might just have some really useful insights for new journalists. I’m that step between where they are and where they want to be.

So I started thinking about everything I learned from all the wiser, more experienced journalists I’ve been able to study with. Everything Kathy Wilson taught me about protecting no one in the pursuit of truth and developing a distinctive voice. What Elissa Sonnenberg told me about being versatile and well-rounded. The lessons from Len Penix about style and solid reporting skills and what Aiesha Little taught about imagery and pacing. The insights I picked up from Jenny Wohlfarth about casting a wide net with research and how to synthesize all the information into something relevant and useful. Finally, with all the experience of the last couple years swimming in my head and Jon Hughes’ driving passion for journalism compelling me, the great piece of advice I was looking for finally came.

So here it is:

“Be water.”

Of all the great kung-fu legends out there, Bruce Lee has to be one of the greatest. He wasn’t just a fighter and an actor; he was a philosopher, a teacher, and an author, too.

He came up with his own approach to martial arts (which is still pretty widely practiced today) called Jeet Kune Do – “the way of the intercepting fist.” It grew out of his broader philosophy – using “no way as way.” Lee said that to express themselves completely and effectively, people had to grow beyond “styles.” He argued that the ultimate goal of training was self knowledge. Once you mastered everything you’re capable of doing, you could improvise naturally to whatever presented itself and not have to rely on some kind of artificial playbook to win a fight – or perhaps even a job, or a relationship.

One of the best illustrations Lee used to explain this was water. You can watch a fascinating interview here from the early ‘70s where he talked about it at length. “You put water into a cup, it becomes the cup. You put it into a bottle it becomes the bottle. Put it into a teapot, it becomes the teapot,” Lee said.

You can use water to clean a dish, or put it in a pitcher and drink it, or grow flowers with it, or swim in it, or wear down a mountainside with it, or fight a fire with it, or freeze a fish with it, or us a dam to power a city with it... but whatever you’re doing with it, it’s still just H₂O. And no guidebook, method, or training course in the world is ever going to tell you everything you could possibly do with it. You use water most effectively when you have an open mind about what water can do.

To make it in the media climate out there right now, when it seems like every week there’s talk of another newspaper going under and everyone is scrambling to adapt to the web, being formless like water is the name of the game. New writers (and plenty of experienced writers, too, now that I think about it) have to learn to fit into whatever a publication or website needs and be willing to change shape as the situation demands. We have to learn every formal journalistic medium we can – not because one of them will be some 12-step, 5-year path to success, but instead so we can improvise with whatever opportunity presents itself.

But it’s important to know that Lee spent years studying conventional styles – Kung-Fu, Jujitsu, western boxing, even fencing – before he arrived at Jeet Kune Do. You have to understand the formal styles so that even when you break the rules, you do it in a way that means something. You have to know AP style backwards and forwards but be able to go with the flow when somebody springs some Chicago style on your butt (or better yet, maybe you should know both). After years of newspapers and blogging and TV work, be ready and willing when they tell you to twitter and podcast.

At the same time, each of us has to maintain an original personality and create a brand out of our talents to stand out from the crowd. If you lose yourself completely in the work, your perspective on the truth becomes less reliable. You also won’t have any more to offer as an individual than the next cookie-cutter, jack-of-all-trades that comes through the door. And if your identity gets lost in the shuffle, is doing what you do even worth it anymore? You still have to be H₂O.

But a funny thing happens when you throw everything you got into whatever story that’s in front of you. When I wrote things for The Root, all I wanted was to tell the truth and give that publication what it wanted. When I wrote things for Cincinnati Magazine, all I wanted was to tell the truth and give that publication what it wanted. Each genre or publication required very different things. But somehow, without ever intending it, Star Wars kept showing up. I just happen to be an incurable nerd. The less I tried to make it sound like me, the more the final product ended up sounding like me.

“Water can flow or creep or drip or crash,” Lee said. But I guess whatever its doing, water is still water.

“Be water, my friend.”

~ Geoffrey Dobbins

Vice President, UCABJ

GREATER CINCI SPJ COLLEGE SCHOLARSHIP DEADLINE APPROACHING!

2009-03-02T12:30:00.001-05:00

WHAT: The 2009 Annual Hall of Fame Collegiate Scholarships

WHO IS ELIGIBLE: Cincinnati metropolitan area full-time college and university upper-class undergraduate students with a minimum grade point average of 3.0 and pursuing a career in journalism are eligible.

WHEN: THE DEADLINE FOR APPLICATIONS IS APRIL 3, 2009. The winners will be notified by May 1, 2009, and the scholarship recipients will be recognized at the chapter awards banquet this fall.

HOW: Online applications must include your career objectives (no more than 400 words), a letter of recommendation by a professor/advisor, and a digital portfolio (articles, websites, images, podcasts, etc.).

WHERE: Submit your applications online to avanbenschoten@enquirer.co

m and/or Kcruise@hearst.com

To download application, go to www.cincyspj.org/09college.html

Fighting the Good Fight

2009-02-21T08:58:00.006-05:00

Schools around the country are battling freedom of the press issues with their college administrations. Some examples below:

"The editor of Chicago State University's student newspaper, who earlier this month filed suit against his school's administration alleging unlawful censorship, has now been told his paper will not go to print this week," Kate Maternowski wrote Thursday for the Student Press Law Center. "George Providence II and the Tempo have been at odds with CSU administration since last year, when Providence says oppressive attempts at administrative oversight began. The most recent development in Tempo's saga began with the installment of a new adviser, Quraysh Ali Lansana, and culminated Monday night with Lansana's decision to suspend publication of Tempo." --- Source: Journal-isms

"After Quinnipiac University threatened to revoke the status of the campus’ Society of Professional Journalists chapter for supporting a new student-run publication, SPJ leaders sent a letter to university president John L. Lahey expressing its grave concern over the proposed action.

Quinnipiac Student Center Director Daniel W. Brown informed the school’s SPJ campus chapter that it was in danger of losing its status as a student organization if the chapter’s members continued to interact with the Quad News, an independent student-run publication. The Quad News, an online publication, started in opposition to administration attempts to control content of the Quinnipiac Chronicle. Several student editors left the Chronicle and started the Quad News. The president of the student SPJ chapter being threatened, Jaclyn Hirsch, is also the managing editor at the Quad News." --- Source: SPJ

"Fellow student journalists at Ohio University are experiencing some trouble with their Board of Trustees and obtaining public records. Evan, OU Society of Professional Journalists president, has posted on the chapters' blog about the problem they are having with C. Daniel Delawder, board chairman. The blog entry states: To use Mr. Delawder’s own words, this is a very sore subject for me, and perhaps it is time we start pushing back. And I am quite serious. Should this asinine policy be implemented by the OU Board of Trustees, SPJ will certainly push back – just like it has done for the past 100 years in order to protect the nature and rights of people and journalists across the nation. The Board needs to live up to its creed of account ability to its constituencies and hiding public records is quite counterproductive." --- Source: UC SPJ blog

As our industry continues to change, we must remember that the tenants of the first amendment as they relate to the press cannot be redacted. Bravo to these organizations/publications for standing up for their rights!

Is This Cartoon Racist?

2009-02-19T11:10:00.002-05:00

Is criticism of this cartoon valid or is it a case of hypersensitivity to race run amok? Media critic/NABJ member Eric Deggans of the St. Petersburg Times has an opinion. (So does everyone else it seems.) What's yours?

ASNE Reporter 2009

2009-02-19T10:12:00.004-05:00

The American Society of Newspaper Editors is looking for juniors, seniors, and graduate journalism students to write and copyedit stories, shoot photographs, design web pages, and produce an online edition of The ASNE Reporter. Eighteen students will work side by side with professional newspaper journalists as reporters, copy editors, photographers, page designers, and online producers on The ASNE Reporter.

Read by the nation's top editors, The ASNE Reporter showcases the work of talented students, most of whom are minorities. Asian, African American, Hispanic and Native American students are particularly encouraged to apply. The ASNE Reporter will operate from Friday, April 24 through Wednesday April 29, 2009 at the Fairmont Hotel in Chicago, Ill. Students must be available for the entire period. Students are responsible for the classes they will miss
for the week.

College juniors, seniors and graduate students majoring in journalism or a related field who are interested in working at a daily newspaper are eligible to apply. Applicants must have had an internship at a daily newspaper and also work at the campus newspaper.

Application deadline is March 1, 2009.

For more information, please contact Bobbi Bowman at 703/453-1126, or send e-mail to bowmanb@asne.org.

Leonard Pitts, NABJ 2008 Journalist of the Year, speaks at SPJ's Region 4 Conference - April 4

2009-02-13T12:43:00.003-05:00

Greetings,

Registration is open for the SPJ Region 4 spring conference at http://spjspringconference.eventbrite.com. Cost is $70 for professional members and $45 for student members. Use the discount code "spring" before March 15 to get this early-bird rate.

The conference, April 3-4, will be held at the Doubletree Worthington in Columbus, with programming support from the Online News Association and the Kiplinger Program in Public Affairs Journalism.

The event will open Friday with a reception, followed by a full Saturday of networking and professional development sessions dedicated to new media. Registration includes Saturday's Mark of Excellence luncheon, which will honor the best student journalism in the region.

Pulitzer-prize-winning columnist Leonard Pitts of the Miami Herald will deliver a keynote on President Obama's influence on national culture. Detroit News recruiter Walter Middlebrook also will be on hand to talk about his paper's plan to cut back home delivery and boost digital readership.

Topics for Saturday breakout sessions are scheduled to include:

The Impact of Digital Media on Public Affairs Reporting
New Media Ethics
Powerhouse Writing for the Web
Better Broadcast Writing
Beat Blogging
The Art of the Two-Minute Video

Breakfast and lunch on Saturday are included in the registration fee.
A block of rooms is being held at the hotel for $94 a night. Rooms are limited, so make your reservations before March 20 to get the special conference pricing. For more information or questions about the event, contact event chair Katy Waters at kwaters@bizjournals.com, or check CentralOhioSPJ.org for updates.

I hope to see you in Columbus!

Jeremy W. Steele
SPJ Region 4 director
jeremywsteele@gmail.com

P.S. Winners of SPJ's Mark of Excellence Awards will be notified in early March after judging concludes. (SPJ notifies winners ahead of the awards presentation, but does not announce details on what places they have been awarded.)

Geoffrey Dobbins's Inauguration Coverage

2009-02-05T18:07:00.007-05:00

Check out UCABJ Vice President Geoffrey Dobbins's inauguration report at The News Record's Web site.

The Root Inaugural Ball:

Terron's shot of Alice Walker (Pulitzer Prize-winning writer), Lynette Clemetson (managing editor of The Root), Henry Louis Gates Jr. (editor in chief of The Root), Donna Byrd (publisher of The Root) and Donald Graham (publisher of the Washington Post).

Terron's shot of Geoffrey and Henry Louis Gates Jr.

Geoffrey's shot of Terron and actor and comedian Chris Tucker.

Geoffrey's shot of Terron and Tatyana Ali.

Terron's shot of Omarosa (from The Apprentice), Miss District of Columbia, and Tom Joyner's wife, Donna.

Terron's shot of Biz Markie on the mic.

Terron's shot of the crowd dancing with Biz on the turntables. (Is that David Gregory of Meet the Press groovin' in the lower right corner?)

Inauguration Ceremony:

Inaugural Parade:

Boston Globe columnist: We don't need more black White House journos

2009-01-14T14:32:00.002-05:00

"With so many other things to worry about, and with the whole world able to see that racial identity is no longer a barrier to even the most powerful position in American life, you might think the press would finally be ready to abandon its unhealthy preoccupation with the color of skin - especially the skin within its own ranks. Alas, no."

This is coming from a columnist (he, of course, get paid for his opinion), but I wonder if it's how people throughout the industry really feel about the election of Barack Obama. Do we need black journalists to cover a black president? I hope organizations like NABJ are ready to have its existence and its members called into question on the national stage for the next four years.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!

2008-12-22T11:04:00.001-05:00

UCABJ is on hiatus until UC's winter quarter starts on January 5, 2009. Have a great break!

Reminder: Holiday Media Mixer TONIGHT!

2008-12-04T11:26:00.001-05:00

Holiday Media Mixer
Thursday, December 4, 2008
6:30 to 8:30 pm
Center for Community Engagement at Stratford Heights
2639 Clifton Avenue

Celebrate the holidays with journalism/communications students at the University of Cincinnati on Thursday, December 4, 2008. This is an excellent opportunity for students to mingle with professionals in a relaxed setting. For more information, contact UCABJ President Alicia Gaynor at gaynoraa@email.uc.edu. Sponsored by The University of Cincinnati Association of Black Journalists, the University of Cincinnati Society of Professional Journalists, and the University of Cincinnati Journalism Program.

Hail to the (Editor in) Chief!

2008-11-25T09:31:00.003-05:00

Cincinnati NABJ member and Cincinnati Enquirer business reporter Keith Reed is set to become the next editor of Catalyst Ohio! Congrats!

From Richard Prince's Journal-isms column:

Keith Reed, Cincinnati Enquirer business reporter, has been named editor of Catalyst Ohio, an independent magazine covering urban education, with a focus on Cincinnati, Cleveland and Columbus. Reed, 31, said he decided to edit the 13,000-circulation bimonthly because "I'm getting my first opportunity to put my mark on a brand, which has always been a goal of mine. That said, it was still something of a tough decision because I've worked my whole career . . . to build my own brand as a business reporter and economics commentator. So to get the opportunity to lead, I had to make the decision to step away from business reporting, at least full time, at precisely the moment that business reporters are probably needed most. My hope . . . is that I'll still be able to continue with that through my blog and my regular economics contributions on NPR."

UCABJ PANEL TONIGHT

2008-11-20T14:22:00.000-05:00

So You Think You Want to be a Journalist?

November 20^th, 2008

Come out and learn valuable information about the field of journalism from seasoned professionals!

UCABJ Panel

Room # 419 A&B TUC

6:30pm-8:30pm

All majors welcomed!

KSTP-TV news intern 'just lost it' after firing; now faces charges in St. Paul

2008-11-20T11:12:00.004-05:00

This is....unfortunate. Very, very unfortunate. For the intern (who will probably never get a full-time journalism job because of this incident), but also for any black female who comes after her and tries to apply for an internship or a full-time position at this TV station. The hiring manager will more than likely think "Is this one going to threaten someone, too?" Someone had a responsibility to pull this girl aside and have a conversation with her about appropriate workplace behavior before she accepted the internship. (A professor? The journalism department's internship coordinator? A friend with more journalism experience?) This is a case of entitlement gone awry, but it'll get framed as affirmative action gone awry. *sigh*

From twincities.com:

An intern for KSTP-TV did not take well to being fired. She began hurling threats at an executive producer and kicked out the glass of a conference room door in an attempt to get at her, according to a criminal complaint filed Monday.

Jennifer Nicole Anato-Mensah, 21, a University of Minnesota student, was told about 7:15 p.m. Oct. 13 that things weren't working out for her.

"This is a young girl who was not understanding concepts in a television newsroom," said Danielle Prenevost, 33, executive producer of the station's early evening newscasts. "I said, 'I don't think your level of college experience is enough for this job.' "

At that point, Prenevost said, Anato-Mensah "just lost it."

Reached at her U residence hall Tuesday, Anato-Mensah declined to comment.

According to the criminal complaint:

Several newsroom employees heard Anato-Mensah shouting, yelling obscenities and threatening Prenevost, saying, "You don't know where I'm from. I'll mess you up, b ——-."

Prenevost attempted to walk away from Anato-Mensah, but the intern followed her. A male employee stepped between her and Prenevost, who went into a nearby conference room. The male employee tried to get Anato-Mensah to calm down and pack up her things, but Anato-Mensah left her desk and again tried to get to the conference room, the complaint said.

Several male employees then stood at the conference room door as Anato-Mensah continued to yell and swear and try to push her way in. At one point, she kicked at and broke a window in the conference room door. She had to be restrained to keep her out of the room, the complaint said.

"The whole situation was very scary," Prenevost said.

Finally, employees escorted the intern out of the newsroom. She was gone when police responded to the call at the station, 3415 W. University Ave. in St. Paul.

Anato-Mensah was charged with criminal damage to property and disorderly conduct. Both are misdemeanors. News director Lindsay Radford said Anato-Mensah began the part-time paid internship Sept. 8. Prenevost said her responsibilities included logging tape and organizing tapes for the newscasts.

NABJ's summer internship program - applications now available!

2008-11-19T13:31:00.001-05:00

The application for NABJ's summer internship program is now available at: http://nabj.org/programs/internships/index.php The deadline is Dec. 15, 2008. NABJ annually awards summer internships to students committed to journalism careers. Successful candidates are offered paid positions in print, broadcast or online disciplines at selected news organizations around the country ranging from small black-owned weekly newspapers to major market dailies and broadcast outlets.

Holiday Media Mixer 2008!

2008-11-11T15:49:00.001-05:00

Holiday Media Mixer
Thursday, December 4, 2008
6:30 to 8:30 pm
Center for Community Engagement at Stratford Heights
2639 Clifton Avenue
(513) 556-1559 (for directions)

Celebrate the holidays with journalism/communications students at the University of Cincinnati on Thursday, December 4, 2008. This is an excellent opportunity for students to mingle with professionals in a relaxed setting. For more information, contact UCABJ President Alicia Gaynor at gaynoraa@email.uc.edu. Sponsored by The University of Cincinnati Association of Black Journalists, the University of Cincinnati Society of Professional Journalists, and the University of Cincinnati Journalism Program.

The Des Moines Register offers paid summer internships

2008-11-05T17:42:00.000-05:00

The Des Moines Register offers paid summer internships to outstanding students pursuing a career in journalism
Deadline: December 1, 2008

For 12 weeks, interns can work on assignments in multimedia, our Metro Communities/Public Service desk or Juice, our young reader publication. We also usually have a copy editor internship available. Internships are open to juniors, seniors or graduate students attending a four-year college or university. Applicants must be journalism majors or have a demonstrated commitment to journalism. The ideal candidate will have experience on a college publication and a previous journalism-related internship.The ability to speak Spanish and knowledge of Iowa also are valuable. When applying you will want to include six samples of your reporting or editing work (photocopies only). Multimedia candidates can provide a URL where their portfolio can be viewed or send a portfolio on disc to us. The portfolio should include examples of photos and videography. It is a good idea to submit the names and contact information for three references familiar with your work. The deadline for applications for our summer 2009 intern class is Dec. 1, 2008. You can send your material to:

Liz Owens Night Editor/Newsroom Internship Coordinator
The Des Moines Register
P.O. Box 957
Des Moines, IA 50306
elowens@dmreg.com
(515) 284-8142 (phone)
(515) 286-2504 (fax)

Kaiser Media Internships in Health Reporting

2008-11-05T13:33:00.001-05:00

Kaiser Media Internships in Health Reporting
Deadline: December 4, 2008 (print applicants)
January 8, 2008 (broadcast applicants)

http://www.kff.org/mediafellows/mediainternships.cfm

The Kaiser Media Internships Program, established in 1994, is an intensive 12-week summer internship for young journalists interested in specializing in health reporting, with a particular commitment to coverage of health issues affecting diverse and immigrant communities.

The Media Internships Program provides an initial week-long briefing on health issues and health reporting in Washington, D.C. Interns are then based for ten weeks at their newspaper, online, or radio/TV station, typically under the direction of the Health or Metro Editor/News Director, where they report on health issues. The program ends with a 3-day meeting in Boston to hear critiques from senior journalists and to go on final site visits. The aim is to provide young journalists or journalism college graduates with an in-depth introduction to and practical experience on the specialist health beat, with a particular focus on diverse and immigrant communities.

Faith and Balance: Reporting on Religion program - Nov. 12

2008-11-05T11:05:00.003-05:00

Greater Cincinnati Society of Professional Journalists presents
Faith and Balance: Reporting on Religion
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
6:30 to 8:30 pm
Springfield Township Community Center
9158 Winton Road
(513) 522-1410 (for directions)

Covering religion can be complex and knowing the best ways to approach sources in the faith community will make your job easier. Join the Greater Cincinnati Society of Professional Journalists for a discussion with religious leaders on how they work with the press. What do they think of news coverage of faith issues? How can it be done better? What's the proper protocol in interacting with religious groups? How hard should journalists push religious groups for information? The panel is a chance for both media and faith representatives to open the lines of communication for better, more accurate coverage.

Panelists are:
Hal Porter, Pastor Emeritus of Mt Auburn Presbyterian Church
Karen Dabdoub, executive director of the Cincinnati branch of the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR)
Robert Friedly, former vice president of public relations for the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), Indianapolis
Brian Jaffee, director of the Jewish Community Relations Council at the Jewish Federation of Cincinnati
Dan Andriacco, communications director for the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Cincinnati

Moderated by Rebecca Bowman Woods, news editor of DisciplesWorld Magazine. Q&A with audience following panel. For more information, please contact Aiesha Little, GC SPJ vice president/programming chair, at aiesha_little@yahoo.com

So You Wanna Be A Journalist? - Nov. 20

2008-10-31T14:07:00.003-04:00

Sponsored by UCABJ and the Journalism Program, this panel discussion/mixer is for students who want to know what it's like "in the trenches" of today's news media. Come mix and mingle with working professionals from local newspaper and magazines as well as some of UC's journalism profs. Professionals include:

Keith Reed, Business Reporter, The Cincinnati Enquirer
Aiesha D. Little, Associate Editor, Cincinnati Magazine
Kathy Y. Wilson, Senior Editor, Cincinnati Magazine

Also, find out more about UCABJ's spring quarter programming schedule. Food, fun, info—what more do you need?

Thursday, November 20, 2008
6:30 pm to 8:30 pm
TUC 419 A & B

Wynton Marsalis comes to UC

2008-10-20T22:19:00.001-04:00

Last week, in a moment of crystal clarity, I realized why it is that I love my job. Why it doesn’t seem like work so much as exploration—less duty, more wonder. I am a teacher. And so is Wynton Marsalis, who I watched lead a master class and talk music at UC.

I quickly moved him from the “superstar” to “real human” category as I sat within 10 feet of him and his meticulously tailored suit. He perched on a small stage where students who joined him sat in cheap folding chairs and wore flip flops and madras shorts. At first, it was easy to read his quiet as disdain, or paper-thin tolerance, especially when he answered questions. But in his awkward glances, his almost-whispered replies, he seemed more restless than arrogant. The portion of the class that focused on him—the laundry list of jazz greats who hung out in his childhood kitchen, his feud with Miles Davis—just plain bored him.

Then a man in the audience asked him to play. The dulled trumpet, an extension of his left arm, leaned at the ready. An elderly woman in the crowd hunched forward. Long-haired students hugged their knees to their chests. But Marsalis didn’t lick his lips in anticipation. He didn’t stride to the middle of the stage to a spotlight-worthy mark. He kept his instrument at arms length and called for three students to join him—he needed, he said, his “rhythm.”

First, the pianist took to his bench, comfortably sliding into place behind the grand’s keys. He nodded confidently to Marsalis, who dipped his head and whet his lips in affirmation, the trumpet flirting with a note or two before Marsalis’ focus shifted. Then, the bass player moved in an awkward tango with the instrument that dwarfed his slight frame. Finally the drummer, whose every muscle seemed to mirror the squint of his eyes, perched on the edge of his stool. The dance of jazz had started on the silent stage, and to me if felt like the creative and improvisational efforts inherent in any place of learning.

I felt an unexpected kinship with this man whose resume stretches around the world and into the annals of music history. This man grew up with John Coltrane at his kitchen table. When he talks about music being “sad,” he doesn’t mean sorrowful, he means pitifully bad. When he talks about how there were no other brothers playing in the symphony in New Orleans, he doesn’t mean that his sibling Branford was busy. Here was jazz history, clad in a tweed suit and orange wingtips—close enough to touch, real enough to catch off guard.

From the great divide of our experiences, I felt a thread of experimentation and discovery that binds us as tightly an arpeggio played over a minor chord. And while our notes hit varied media, we both revel in pushing and tugging at that creative cord—the process of teaching and learning, of growth and self-discovery.

It’s a messy process. Sometimes when I’m teaching, doubt nearly stops me in my tracks. I saw it creep into Marsalis’ rhythm section as the drummer and bass player strained to work independently. Instead of connecting with each other, their notes clashed in conflict. Marsalis didn’t let it slide for a second. ”You don’t have to fight with your identity,” he coached, explaining the downbeats and rhythm patterns they needed to let inform their playing. “You have to realize it.”

Marsalis talked about creativity—born of built-in sensibilities that come from being of a certain place and time, an awareness of the history of your chosen art form, a sense of the broader history of arts in general, and, finally, imagination. Part instinct, part determination, the ability to create transcends media. It also translates personal journeys into universal ones. And that’s where I traced my bond with Wynton Marsalis. The stories I teach my students to tell, the stories I tell, carry their own distinctive rhythms. They capture places in time. They illuminate a world too often tangled in shadows. They blur the lines between the teacher and the taught. Together, we can absorb the power of connecting, the power of caring about what happens next. As teachers, we can feel the power of honoring a craft, even as we watch it evolve beyond our capacity.

I recognize that evolution in the beauty of a well-placed note or an image that captures many dimensions of meaning. I feel it in the knot of fear that punches into every journey I take, as a teacher and in life, into the unknown. But best of all, I recognize it in the thrill that accompanies stepping up on whatever stage moves you, holding your head high and saying with giddy confidence what Wynton Marsalis told himself after he first heard the “dope” music of Beethhoven: “I’m gonna learn this.”

—Elissa Sonneberg, MSEd
UC ABJ Adviser

Internship Workshop, Oct. 9

2008-10-09T13:27:00.006-04:00

If you're around the Center for Community Engagement tonight, make sure you attend the Journalism Program's internship workshop from 5 to 6 p.m. Journalism and communications students who plan to intern next spring and summer should learns oodles from professors Elissa Sonnenberg and Jenny Wohlfarth, who will lead the workshop. Topics include resume and cover letter writing, interviewing techniques, and more. We've written about this topic before, so get a refresher here before you head over tonight.

University of Kentucky event, Oct. 21

2008-09-26T11:34:00.005-04:00

The Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues is presenting JOURNALIST FOR JUSTICE, a program by Pulitzer Prize finalist Jerry Mitchell on Tuesday, October 21. SPJ Bluegrass is one of the sponsors for this event.

Date:	Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Time:	6:30pm - 7:00 pm - Public Reception, Room 206 7:00pm - Lecture, Student Center Theater
Location:	Student Center, University of Kentucky, Lexington

Free and open to the public

JOURNALIST FOR JUSTICE
Jerry Mitchell of the Clarion-Ledger in Jackson, Miss., has been called “the South’s Simon Wiesenthal” because, like the famous Nazi-hunter, he helped bring to justice the perpetrators of murders during the civil-rights era. The latest result of his investigative reporting was the conviction of a former Klansman in the1964 killings that inspired the movie “Mississippi Burning.” He was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, and the Pulitzer Board praised “his relentless and masterly stories.”

Sponsored by:
Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues
The Courier-Journal
Kentucky Commission on Human Rights
Kentucky League of Cities
Society of Professional Journalists, Bluegrass Chapter
UK College of Arts and Sciences

Writing that Works Online - Oct. 25

2008-09-26T10:36:00.002-04:00

Greater Cincinnati SPJ Presents
Writing that Works Online
Saturday, October 25
10 am to 2 pm (lunch included)
WCPO training room
1720 Gilbert Ave., Mt. Adams

Writing for the Web is different than writing for any other medium. To be effective online, it helps to understand how people use Web sites. See examples of great online stories, learn why it’s crucial to improve your headline writing, and take away tips and tools that will enhance your work on the Web. This event is $20 for members and students. Non-members: pay $50 and receive a year's membership in SPJ (a $72 value)! To attend, RSVP with Vice President/Programming Chair Aiesha Little at aiesha_little@yahoo.com. Payment must be received by October 20 and can be mailed directly to Aiesha Little, Carew Tower, 441 Vine St., Suite 200, Cincinnati, OH 45202.

Meet the Trainer - Victoria Lim
Nicknamed the "Queen of Convergence," Victoria Lim's award winning consumer reports have appeared on television, in newspaper, and online. During her 10-plus years at the Tampa, FL NewsCenter—which encompasses WFLA-TV, the Tampa Tribune and tbo.com—her work earned Victoria an Emmy and Associated Press Individual Achievement award. The Florida Society of Professional Journalists named her the 2006 "Journalist of the Year."

Victoria joined Tampa's NBC affiliate from WWMT-TV in Grand Rapids, MI. Before that, she was a reporter and anchor at WNS-TV in New Castle, Delaware, and has worked at several other television and radio stations since beginning her career in broadcasting. She started her journalism career as a sports stringer for the Burlington County Times covering high school sports.

As a member of the Asian American Journalists Association, Victoria served as chapter president and vice-president for the Florida Chapter. She was chosen as one of the mentors for the national UNITY mentor program, which helps young journalists of color. She also teaches multimedia as an adjunct instructor at the University of Tampa and the University of South Florida, and is an occasional instructor at the Poynter Institute.

UCABJ Adviser Featured in Local Publication

2008-09-18T12:42:00.005-04:00

Elissa Sonnenberg, assistant director of UC's journalism program and UCABJ faculty adviser, is featured in CityBeat's annual Cool Issue. In case you didn't know, she's awesome.

An Invitation to Young Journalists

2008-09-18T12:42:00.002-04:00

A message from Columbia Journalism Review:

Back in June, we gave one of our interns here at Columbia Journalism Review the daunting task of tracking newspaper buyouts and layoffs since 2007. She diligently worked the press clips and the phone and counted up to 2,700 by the end of the summer. The spreadsheet is not definitive but it is depressing—statistics from a plague (three here, twenty there; eighty here, 150 there) that is moving through newsrooms across the country. Yet at the same time, a world of news innovation is emerging online, both inside and outside of mainstream media. A recession looms like an iceberg but under the waterline is something unknown, a great restructuring of the way people get their news and information. The recession will end, but the fate of quality journalism is not easily discernable. Here at CJR, we intend to do all we can to shed light on that future and to explore the efforts under way to repair or replace the economic model. And also to give voice to those affected.

In July, we invited laid-off and bought-out journalists to reflect on their experience in the form of a letter to colleagues. We published a number of them on our Web site under the rubric Parting Thoughts, at cjr.org/parting_thoughts/, and will continue to do so as they arrive. Now we are issuing a similar invitation to the young people who’ve come into the profession in the last five years or so, and the young journalism students who soon will. We invite them to air their concerns and hopes about journalism, too. The central questions: What do you see in this business that makes you still want to pursue it? How do you imagine people will get quality news five years down the road? How will you try to fit in?

We’ll call this one Starting Thoughts, and if you fit the category (or know young reporters or journalism students who do), we invite you to join the discussion by emailing us at editors@cjr.org. We’re looking for anything from 600 to 1,200 words. Please put “Starting Thoughts” in the slug line.

Regards,

The editors
Columbia Journalism Review

I'll See Your "New Media" and Raise You "Old Media 2.0"

2008-09-17T10:19:00.003-04:00

I think we can all agree that the problem with j-schools is most of them are late adopters of new media strategies, but this isn't an "old media vs. new media" issue. It's a "plus" issue. These days, everyone who wants to work (or continuing working) in this business should have traditional journalism skills plus a working knowledge of new media. That's why I appreciate this MediaShift post from Alfred Hermida, an assistant professor at the University of British Columbia's Graduate School of Journalism and founding news editor of the BBC News Web site. (It's somewhat of a rebuttal to this post by a NYU journalism student.) Hermida talked to leading multimedia journos and profs during the Online News Association conference and came to this conclusion:

The advice for graduates was that they need journalism plus a new set of skills. The basics of journalism — curiosity, passion, accuracy, serving the public interest — were still important. But journalist students also need to learn about how the digital revolution has changed, and continues to change, the media.

I think that's something that everyone can take to heart.

UCABJer Writes About Star Wars on The Root

2008-09-12T11:37:00.002-04:00

Our very own Geoffrey Dobbins, UCABJ vice president, appears on The Root again this month, writing about his love of Star Wars. Nice job, Geoffrey!

Remembering, Socrates style

2008-09-11T10:52:00.022-04:00

Suheir Hammad is a poet that I first heard about through HBO's Def Poetry Jam. She’s absolutely brilliant. Today I thought I’d share some video featuring one of my favorite poems of all time.

There’s …. adult language... in it. Viewer discretion is advised.

Suheir Hammad – First Writing Since

(Here’s a text version.)

It’s that time again. Time to mark what happened on this day seven years ago on this date, when passenger planes exploded in Washington and New York and Pennsylvania. When towers collapsed and fighters scrambled and the nation’s media held its breath. When hope and compassion found renewed, gritty meaning for nurses and firefighters and… all of us. When nearly 3,000 civilian lives were taken by evil.

...and more than 30 times as many civilian lives were taken in Iraq and Afghanistan during the two wars that followed.

You know me. The way I remember what happened in my country won’t have the same kind of militarism you might see elsewhere. Why does love of country have to so narrowly revolve around weapons and bloodshed? Isn’t there a lot more to love about who we are?

Let’s remember by flexing our ability to empathize with those that, despite the supposed “clash of cultures,” are actually a lot like us. Let’s remember from the perspective of those that get the short end of the stick. Let’s remember by asking the sorts of probing questions that challenge dominant assumptions and strengthen democratic energy and would make Socrates proud. We journalists are good at that.

Affirm life.

More great poems/videos:

Suheir Hammad - What I Will

Suheir Hammad - Mike Check

More to think about:

New Yorker – Talk of the Town – September 24, 2001

(Includes Susan Sontag’s briefly famous/notorious essay)

~Geoffrey Dobbins

UCABJ, Vice President

Breakfast with David Gergen

2008-09-10T11:40:00.003-04:00

Union Institute & University will host a Q&A with DAVID GERGEN, on Sunday, September 28, from 9-11 a.m. at UI&U, 440 East McMillan St., Walnut Hills.

For 30 years, Gergen has been an active participant in American national life—as a commentator, an editor, a teacher, a public servant, a best-selling author and an adviser to four presidents. He served as director of communications for President Reagan and held positions in the administrations of Presidents Nixon and Ford. In 1993, he put his country before politics when he agreed to first serve as counselor to President Clinton on both foreign policy and domestic affairs, then as special international adviser to the president and to Secretary of State Warren Christopher.

David Gergen is a professor of public service and the director of the Center for Public Leadership at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. He is also editor-at-large at U.S. News & World Report and is a Senior Political Analyst for CNN. Mr. Gergen also regularly serves as an analyst on radio shows, and he is a frequent lecturer at venues around the world. In the fall of 2000 he published a best-selling book titled, Eyewitness to Power: The Essence of Leadership, Nixon to Clinton.

This event is free and open to the public, however, seating is limited and priority is given to journalism and political science students, who may preregister by calling Nicole Hamilton at 513-487-1194, or by emailing at Nicole.hamilton@tui.edu. Coffee and bagels courtesy of Marx Hot Bagels.

To Tape or Not to Tape?

2008-09-09T15:31:00.003-04:00

This morning on The Diane Rehm Show, Zbigniew Brzezinski, the lead foreign policy advisor during the Carter administration, questioned the accuracy of quotes from Bob Woodward's new book on the recent surge in Iraq, The War Within. He told Rehm that if Woodward's conversations hadn't been taped, any assertions that the quotes from those conversations are accurate should be called into question. I'm sure most journalists have faced these types of questions at one point or another. It reminds me of a story I read in The New York Observer a couple of years ago. Tape It, Baby, Tape It! tells how some writers, particularly magazine writers, think their note-taking skills are superior to tape recorders. Let me say flat-out that it's impossible to take better notes than a tape recorder. Impossible.

With that said, what were you taught about taping conversations during your college years? What are you being taught if you're still in school? Are there any daily reporters out there who tape? Non-daily folks, are there any instances where you wouldn't tape an interview? Memory, by nature, is faulty. What do you do to insulate yourself from claims of quote inaccuracy?

Taxes, dinosaurs and hot combs

2008-08-27T22:10:00.021-04:00

So there I was, sitting on the 20-year-old couch my parents gave me, watching Michelle Obama deliver her speech Monday night at the Democratic National Convention in Denver. During the satellite-aided banter Senator Obama exchanged with his wife and daughters after the speech, an odd thought popped into my head.

Is 7 years old a little young for a perm like little Sasha Obama was wearing? Or was it just a relaxer?

I’m pretty sure my sisters didn’t start their regular appointments with the hot comb until they were about 10 years old, though exceptions were made for special occasions (and having your father nominated for president might qualify).

The thought sent me on a flashback to a conversation I had on that very same couch when I must have been 9 or 10 and my younger sister was around Sasha Obama’s age. What my mother told us that day, right or wrong, seems more relevant to the current political discourse than much of what the pundits are saying during either party’s convention.

As was our routine, my mother, my sister and I were all watching TV as my mom braided my sister’s hair before school. We were laughing pretty hard at reruns of a comedy program called Dinosaurs.

That particular episode of the sitcom was about a political campaign. Earl Sinclair, the Homer-Simpson-esque patriarch of the show, was running for some fictional office against his evil boss, Mr. Richfield. I almost busted a gut laughing during one of the episode’s debates when Richfield explained how his policies would be based on “trickle-down economics.”

Rich people, Richfield said, tend to live in big mansions on hills. If you make sure rich people have all the money, then their pockets are bound to get so full that they have trouble containing it all. Richfield said that money would then tumble out of the pockets of the rich, onto the ground and ‘trickle down’ the hills to the poor people in the valleys. Everybody wins when you focus on helping the rich get richer, Richfield said.

To our young ears, the idea of winning people’s vote with such a ludicrous plan was pretty funny.

But during a pause in my laughter, my mother took advantage of what she saw as a teachable moment. “The thing is,” she said, “that stuff is real.”

“No way,” I replied. I couldn’t believe it. It’s just a joke, right?

They don’t express it quite like that, she explained, but some politicians really do push something a lot like that and even call it “trickle-down economics.” But there wasn’t too much time to discuss it; we still had to make it to Heritage Elementary on time.

These days “supply side economics” seems to be the preferred term, but the ideas proposed are basically the same as the “trickle-down” concept of previous political eras. Originators of the concept talk a lot about “marginal tax rates,” but these days the main point is the idea that those at the very top of the economic ladder are the ones that determine the overall health of the economy because they own the most investments in business.

Supposedly, cutting taxes for wealthy people and corporations will cause “the economy” in general to grow to the point that, even at a lower tax rate, the government will ultimately collect more revenues. So “supply side” advocates say less taxes for the well-off and even dishing out subsidies and credits for corporations will ultimately help the middle class indirectly.

In other words, the “rising tides lifting all boats” stuff. To me it seems kind of antithetical to a more familiar ethic about fighting for a day when the last will be first, and the first will be last. But I’m rambling again…

Anybody can find an economist that argues their point if they look hard enough. But whether you agree or disagree with any candidate's economic policies (there are probably very few of us that agree with anyone completely), too little media attention is focused on the substantial differences between the candidates on economic issues. And factually, there are real differences.

Bush pushed “supply side” pretty hard, and McCain, who once challenged elements of it, is pretty much on board with “trickle-down” tax policy now. Some call it a “pro-growth” policy. Others call it “regressive.” His tax cuts, certainly when discussing the direct effects, benefit upper incomes far more than lower incomes.

Obama proposes a more “progressive” tax plan, which means he wants to phase out the Bush tax plan and pay for government services by taxing millionaires significantly more and taxing computer store employees a bit less. His tax cuts go to lower incomes and his tax hikes go to very high incomes. Whether he’ll stick to that remains to be seen, but that’s what he’s put forward.

The organizations behind Independent candidate Ralph Nader and the Green Party’s Cynthia McKinney submitted signatures to get on Ohio’s ballot last week. They both suggest economic policies that are more aggressively "progressive" than Obama’s and emphasize things like ending the legal “personhood” of corporations (long story, folks) and cracking down on corporate welfare.

When we clarify each presidential candidate’s positions on these things for the public, we get closer to what journalism is really about. We journalists need to educate ourselves about things like capital gains tax cuts so we can educate others. (A capital gain is basically a way to make money without conventional work and usually requires some supply of money on the front end – stuff like stock, real estate, etc.)

Without huge cuts in government spending – remember that Bush never saw a spending bill he didn’t like except when it involved extending healthcare to poor children through SCHIP – I think tax cuts like that just shift more of the tax burden on the poor and all of the people that work for a living. Perhaps more importantly, “supply side” subscribes to the premise that those at the top have to necessarily make all the decisions for us rather than empowering everyone to decide how the resources we all helped to develop should be used.

But that’s just my slightly informed opinion. The question is what do you think? Why?

Stuff like that probably matters more than the seven houses McCain owns or how Rezko helped Obama buy his land.

It might even matter more than the hairstyle little Sasha Obama was wearing Monday night. But she sure was cute.

Again, that’s just my opinion.

~Geoffrey Dobbins
vice president, UCABJ

Can Black Journalists Be Objective When Covering a Black Candidate?

2008-08-21T09:10:00.003-04:00

NABJ President Barbara Ciara responds:

When I was an aspiring journalist back in the 1970’s, a college professor taught a lesson that has shaped the kind of journalist I try to be today. He instructed our class to use three questions when approaching a story. Before writing or broadcasting the story we should ask ourselves: Is it true? Is it fair? Is it necessary?

I was reminded of that lesson when attending the UNITY Journalists of color convention in Chicago in July. The UNITY alliance is made up of Asian, Hispanic, Native American and Black journalists. Together it is the largest organization of journalists of color in the world. Most political candidates consider it a “must attend” event during an election year.

The National Association of Black Journalists has hosted President George W. Bush, National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice, and Secretary of State Colin Powell, all Republicans. It’s a better journalistic experience when all parties are represented.

On July, 27th Barack Obama, the presumptive Democratic nominee for president made UNITY his first stop after visiting Iraq and European countries. Republican nominee John McCain was invited but declined. Both candidates were invited months in advance when it became clear they were frontrunners. It’s too bad McCain didn’t consider UNITY a “must attend” event. It would have been a great opportunity to hear the platforms of both candidates speaking before thousands of journalists.

The Obama appearance was not exclusive to those attending. It was also broadcast live on CNN. That’s when an interesting angle surfaced among the media covering the event. The question was asked, is it possible for journalists of color to cover the Obama campaign without bias?
“Excuse me,” I countered when I heard that would be the angle of several news organizations covering the Obama appearance. The little hairs on the back of my neck danced in anger.
Yeah, I’m mad at the question, and the suggestion. How does that expression go? “We have seen the enemy and it is us.” My answer to the question is with a question: What in the world are you thinking? Or better still – are you thinking?

Will Black reporters dance with joy in their written words or in their broadcasts because of the historic nature of the campaign? How did that question become a legitimate news story? I wondered what my college professor would say.

Is it true? Let’s see, have you counted the number of African Americans who are on the Obama campaign plane? There is not one single front-line Black reporter from ABC, CBS, or NBC assigned to cover the Obama campaign, nor will you find an African American assigned to cover the candidate from the New York Times, or Time magazine.You need the opportunity to play the game before you can be accused of misplaying it.

Besides, one of the toughest questions asked of Obama during the CNN broadcast at UNITY came from African American columnist Leonard Pitts. He wanted to know if Obama was avoiding visiting Mosques and Muslims out of fear that he would run the risk of being tied, incorrectly, to a faith he doesn’t practice. Was Obama allowing propaganda to disregard the Muslim community? It was a tough question – and a Black reporter asked it. I guess Pitts didn’t get the memo.

Is it fair? Did female reporters have to pass a litmus test before they were assigned to cover Sen. Hillary Clinton? Perhaps we should question the plethora of White guys covering Sen. McCain and ask them if they can cover a White candidate without displaying bias. After all, they must love the guy since he’s the same shade and gender right?

Is it necessary? I asked my colleague Pat McReynolds his thoughts and after a thoughtful pause he said, “We all have biases. No one could truthfully say otherwise. But as in any profession, if you are good at what you do and take your job seriously, you check your biases at the door no matter whether you are black or white.”

I’m annoyed that skin color has been injected into the presidential race. It detracts from the issues that matter to us all. And what matters most to journalists is our credibility. When you question that be prepared for a 12-round heavyweight verbal fight.

Don’t get me wrong, journalists are not above biases or answering tough questions. But keep it above the belt. McReynolds summed up my feelings with his parting comment when he said, “To me, saying all African American journalists think alike is just as insulting, if not more so, than saying they all look alike!”Is it true, is it fair, and is it necessary?

Yours in service,

Barbara Ciara
President, National Association of Black Journalists

Maximizing Your Internship Experience

2008-08-12T15:07:00.001-04:00

Here's a repost from the young journo blog Ten95:

One-third of the Ten95 crew participated in a panel during UNITY called "Paying it Forward: How to Maximize Your Internship," as a part of the all-star crew that included recruiting phenom Joe Grimm, radio guru Doug Mitchell and reporting superstars Chloe Hilliard and Marlon Walker. Veronica moderated and I was a panelist. The room was packed. The kids were eager. The advice was super sound. Below are a few pics from event and our Top 20 lists of things to do -- and not to do -- while on a summer internship. The tips were written from a print perspective, but are applicable across mediums.

DO learn who is who on the staff.

DO understand that each staff is a living organism that you should easy your way into SLOWLY. Assertiveness is great but sometimes misplaced enthusiasm can rub some the wrong way.

DON'T blog (Facebook or MySpace) about your internship. Your employer is watching and reading.

DON'T feel a sense of entitlement while you're in a newsroom. Just because there are front page stories (or great packages) without writers, don't think that one is going to be yours.

DO watch your editor to determine his or her work pattern and the best time of day (or week) to seek guidance and feedback.

DO arrive 30 minutes early every day to get the best assignments. The early bird gets the worm. There are stories that your editor is probably waiting to assign as people come in for the day so make sure you're in the mix!

DO cultivate a few relationships with people who understand your thought process well enough to be excellent references in the future and collect their business cards.

DO offer to help out in any little way with a big story.

DON'T jeopardize your credibility by having a romantic relationship during your internship --- especially not one with a permanent staffer.

DON'T ever be hard to reach. Questions and opportunites can arise at any time.

DON'T take criticism of your work personally. Work with your supervisors to make it better.

DON'T say "I don't want to," and don't hesitate to say, "I'm not sure how, but I want to learn."

DO make sure that you understand your assignment and ask detailed questions before you head out to report. You can write the best story in the world, but if its not what your editor requested, it won't earn you any points.

DO make or beat your deadline.

DO chat up other reporters. If you see a story someone did and you liked it or are interested in the process, ask them out for coffee or stop by their desk.

DON'T forget to check every name, age, address and fact in your story, in addition to running spell check. No one likes messy copy.

DON'T turn your nose up at any assignment. Small stories lead to bigger opportunities.

DO ask for feedback. Midway through your internship, schedule a sit down with your editor/supervisor to discuss your performance to-date. What areas need work? In what areas are you excelling? What does your editor want to see going forward? Take the feedback to heart and work on the areas that need improvement.

DO set tangible goals. Make a list that will serve as the roadmap to your internship. What skills do you want to learn? What particular stories or topics would you like to cover?

DO come up with your own story ideas and pitch them to your editor.

(Photo captions from top to bottom: Talia answering a question on the panel; Chloe and Marlon dropping knowledge on the interns; Veronica keeping us all in line.)

UCABJ Sponsors Minority High School JRN Workshop

2008-08-12T10:39:00.004-04:00

Plans have been finalized for UCABJ's first minority high school journalism workshop on Saturday, August 16. Eight student leaders from the newspapers at Hughes and Withrow high schools, two of Cincinnati's inner-city public schools, will spend a half day learning the basics of newspaper writing. The workshop will also include a panel discussion with some of UC's top student journalists. "Getting younger students interested in journalism as a career should be one of the goals of any journalism organization, even at the collegiate level," said Aiesha D. Little, the group's professional adviser. "This is an important partnership that I hope UCABJ is able to continue annually for years to come."

Facebook, Where Have You Been All My Life?

2008-08-05T11:40:00.002-04:00

OK, so I finally took a friend's advice and signed up for some online networking sites. You can now find me on LinkedIn and Facebook. Yes, yes, I know. “You’re just getting around to that?” you’re asking. Well, you know that person who sees a movie on DVD a year after it came out and then tries to tell friends who saw it in the theater how great it was? That’s me so please forgive me if this post sounds passé. With that said, Facebook is great. Case in point: I was looking for a new magazine intern recently and was able to contact my Facebook friends for potential candidates. Several students turned up as a result. I hope to use it more like this in the future, but I'm still worried about how much of our lives should be readily accessible online.

I routinely check the Facebook and MySpace pages of potential interns. Why not? If you put the information out there, why shouldn't I or other potential employers read it? NOTE: if you're interested in working for me, make sure your Facebook and MySpace pages are set to private. If I see a picture of you peeing on the sidewalk or read that your favorite hobby is smoking weed, I will naturally be less inclined to hire you. Why? Because your online presence is just as important as your actual physical presence and both of those can be called into question when you're representing my publication. I know it's just the times in which we live that make us so willing to share our innermost thoughts with strangers halfway around the world, but is that a good thing?

Aiesha D. Little
NABJ Adviser
University of Cincinnati Association of Black Journalists

Lucky In Our Enemies

2008-08-01T23:39:00.016-04:00

Has anybody seen Patrick Buchanan's recent column about UNITY? Check NABJ's here. Les Payne says does a very good job, I think, but I thought I'd add my own two cents anyway.

Buchanan really hates the whole idea of the UNITY convention, which is strangely gratifying to me. You may know Buchanan as the columnist that frequently condemns multiculturalism, like he does here and here, and laments the demise of a "Western civilization" dominated by Caucasians, as he does here. Views like these might help explain why he opposed a federal holiday honoring Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. In his response to Barack Obama's speech about race in March, Buchanan explained how blacks should be grateful to America because slavery did us a favor. But that's not all...

He dealt with persistent (and justified) charges of antisemitism during his campaigns for president in 1992, 1996 and 2000 - charges that have resurfaced following his recent book about WWII, Churchill, Hitler, and "The Unnecessary War."

I haven't read it, but judging from columns he's written about it and the comments others have made, it seems that Buchanan argues that WWII is Great Britain's fault and sort of blames the Allies for the Holocaust. He also grieves the loss of Britain's often-repressive empire. Check out what Newsweek's Christopher Hitchens has to say about it here.

Buchanan has got some really heart-warming stuff to say, doesn't he?

I have to confess that I'm only half joking here. People like Buchanan make me feel needed - they remind me that there really is a desperate need for people who care about truth, justice and forging an "American way" that isn't so steeped in hatred.

I guess what I'm trying to say here is that when Pat Buchanan has nasty things to say about the diverse and multicultural things we do, it must mean we're doing something right.

We've joined the long list of people Buchanan doesn't like. Congratulations, folks.

~Geoffrey Dobbins
Vice President, UCABJ

A TRIP THAT WE CAN NEVER FORGET

2008-07-31T14:59:00.008-04:00

MY EXPERIENCE AT UNITY

2008-07-30T22:19:00.005-04:00

What seemed like forever came in an instant! UNITY 2008 was here. What others had said about UNITY was nothing that could possibly compare to what it really was. I met some of the best and brightest in the journalism field.

I went to many panel discussions and workshops that thought me a tremendous amount about topics. These are just a few: How to Deal With Your First Internships, AIDS Research and Violence In the Media.

Chicago was wonderful! It reminded of New York but not as intense. The people were friendly, and the food was GREAT! (That part is kind of important to me) The shopping was wonderful.

This UNITY trip also thought me many things about myself and the plans that I have for the upcoming year for UCABJ. For the first time ever I met people who were my "competition" and who inspired me at the same time.

-Alicia Gaynor
UCABJ President

UCABJ Represents!

2008-07-30T16:23:00.002-04:00

UCABJers and other University of Cincinnati journalism students are featured in the McMicken College of Arts & Sciences online bulletin this week. Way to go!

theroot.com's UNITY blog

2008-07-29T15:06:00.002-04:00

UCABJ is back from Chicago and all is right with the world. Saw some old friends, met some new friends, went to some great sessions, had some good food...there isn't really anything else to say, is there? Oh, you can check out Geoffrey's theroot.com blog entries here.

UCABJer Blogs UNITY for theroot.com

2008-07-15T16:41:00.004-04:00

Big ups go out to UCABJ Vice President Geoffrey Dobbins for being selected by the staff over at theroot.com to blog during the UNITY: Journalists of Color convention in Chicago next week. We aren't talking small potatoes here. For those of you who don't know, theroot.com is the brainchild of Harvard University professor and writer Henry Louis Gates, Jr., and is backed by The Washington Post Company. Check back on July 22 when UCABJ takes Chicago by storm!

Congrats, Geoffrey!

—UCABJ Executive Board

The NAACP Has Landed

2008-07-12T23:06:00.006-04:00

These droves of tourists and international media wandering around downtown Cincinnati can only mean one thing...

The NAACP kicked off their 99th annual national convention in the Queen City today, and naturally, the University of Cincinnati Association of Black Journalists is right in the middle of it all.

Alicia Gaynor (UCABJ president and college radio personality) and Elissa Sonnenberg (journalist, college professor, and UCABJ faculty adviser) are reporting live on conference events as volunteers for the media arm of the NAACP Convention. Check out their posts on the official NAACP Convention blog here.

Geoffrey Dobbins (vice president) and Terron Austin (UCABJ alum) will also be joining the fray in the next couple of days.

And that's not all...
Our favorite Cincinnati Enquirer business reporter, Keith Reed, blogged about"The NAACP's Guide to Cincinnati" for The Root, Henry Louis Gates Jr's daily online magazine. Catch Reed's post here.

~Geoffrey Dobbins
UCABJ, Vice President

R-E-S-P-E-C-T

2008-06-29T23:16:00.018-04:00

Before I launch into this opinion piece, I should explain that I don’t have cable.

Not that I think anyone is surprised by that. I’m a college student and a fledgling journalist, which makes me double-broke. It’s an occupational hazard. As one of the side effects of my limited TV options, I think I’ve been consuming a slightly healthier media diet. (I’m on track to lose more than15 intellectual pounds by September. My brain can fit into those jeans from high school again!)

But there are also downsides. I now realize too much of what I consume has been print and web, and too much of it has leaned to the left side of the political spectrum. It wasn’t until after the presidential primary season ended that I realized I hadn’t kept track of what was going on at CNN, Fox News, and MSNBC. So hopefully you’ll understand that this really hadn’t come to my attention until after the primaries were decided. I’m pretty sure this isn’t a case of paternalistic gender roles leading me to view a woman more positively when she loses, as Gloria Steinam discusses here. At least, I’m pretty sure…

Anyway, the nominees had already been decided for both parties when I came across this video montage from the Women’s Media Center by way of Judith Miller’s New York Times blog.

(By the way, Miller had some pretty pointed comments about the recent film, "Sex and the City." I personally haven't seen it and don't have an opinion on it, so anybody that's angry about that can forward responses to her. I'm steering clear of that battle.)

I’d seen some disturbing instances of chauvinism passing for journalism here and there, but nothing like this. I’m far from an apologist for Hillary Clinton, but this clearly demonstrated how blatant sexism had been masquerading as political commentary lately.

“…nutcracker…”

“…looking haggard…”

“…you’re a knockout…”

“…nagging wives…”

My nonviolent, even-keeled nature gave way to disbelief and anger. I really wanted to punch Chris Matthews in the throat. And nothing says “good old boys’ club” quite like Mike Barnicle’s comment about Hillary “looking like everyone’s first wife standing outside a probate court.” Of course, Barnicle… “everyone” has a “first wife.” Though I can’t imagine why anyone would want to leave someone like him or Marc “men-are-allowing-women-to-take-over-the-world” Rudov …

How is it that serious media voices can get away with language like this without loud, public rebukes from journalists? If journalists are upset, I haven’t heard much about it.

In addition to outrageously flouting basic standards of respect or fairness, I see this stuff as a direct assault on all our mothers, sisters, classmates, significant others, coworkers and teachers. That makes it this African American male’s business. Injustice anywhere is threat to justice everywhere. Guys that care about feminism like me aren’t exactly being altruistic.

Something should be done about all this unseemly and socially irresponsible language. But students that beg for every freelance job they can get and watch the Daily Show on the internet usually don’t get to make decisions about stuff like that.

~Geoffrey Dobbins
UCABJ, Vice President

A Letter from a Lakota Parent

2008-06-18T20:24:00.010-04:00

The following is an excerpt from a letter a friend of mine, Robert Wilson, sent me about his own experiences with Lakota schools that he sent to The Cincinnati Enquirer. His eldest daughter attended Lakota West and he has two young children that will start attending Lakota schools in the near future.

He asked that I post what he had to say on the blog. I want to stress that these are his thoughts and observations, not those of UCABJ. But his letter does provide a fresh perspective on a story I wrote for Cincinnati Magazine’s June issue (link here for your convenience).

~Geoffrey Dobbins
Vice President, UCABJ

Dear Editor,

My daughter recently graduated from Lakota West High school. When my daughter first started attending Lakota West, her peers treated her like any other student.

During her junior year she became more interested in her Choctaw background. It was then that my daughter’s problems at school began. She started to hear racially insensitive remarks from other students and sometimes even faculty. Classmates called her “fake” for wanting to learn about her ancestry and said she was “obviously white.” They said she should stop acting like she was “something she is not.”

She was active in what Lakota calls its Multicultural Enhancement Club, but I found the group to be unorganized and lacked leaders with experience in cultural diversity issues. Most of the group’s members were African American students, which led me to believe that interest in learning about other ethnic groups was lacking among much of the West Chester community. This disturbed me a great deal.

My daughter is at a point in her life where she is very curious about her roots. Her European roots, her Choctaw roots, and who knows what other bloodlines she may learn about in the future. I think it is healthy for her to learn more about these things. When people say she is being “fake” for wanting to experience these aspects of her ancestry, their comments tell me that parents, teachers, and the board of education at Lakota are failing these children.

Academically, Lakota may score high marks within the state, but if you turn these children loose in a workforce that is becoming more and more diverse everyday, they are going to have some big problems.

As concerned parents, my father and I questioned administrators of the school about the situation. My daughter wanted to wear traditional Choctaw dress to school to celebrate American Indian month. A number of her classmates told her “it isn't Halloween” and said she should take off the costume. These comments made by those students hurt her feelings so severely she came home crying. I asked her if she discussed the issue with counselors, teachers or principals. She said she had spoken with administrators at the school and that they weren’t very helpful.

My father plays an active role in the North American Indian Council of Greater Cincinnati and my daughter asked the chairperson of the council – Jean Marie Brightfire Stophlette – if she would be interested in speaking at one of the school’s multicultural events. Jean, being the warm-hearted and ambitious person she is, said yes. When Jean visited the school, she privately spoke with administrators about the concerns my father and I had discussed. Jean supplies cultural diversity training for companies all over the country. One of her more well-known rolls has been cultural diversity trainer at Procter & Gamble.

She offered to help the school address its issues. She also proposed an assembly that would aid teachers and students in being less judgmental towards people that are different from themselves. Jean was not happy about their response.

The generalizations and the bigotry are rampant at that school and it is not subtle. It is out in the open where kids and teachers alike hear it every day and do nothing about it. To them it's just kids being kids.

Unfortunately, this is not a perfect world and we will all be subjected to people who either don't know any better and were raised to believe they are privileged because of the color of their skin. These types of things make me cringe but we should not have to put up with these incidences in our schools. We send our children to school to learn, not to resent one another.

There needs to be strict guidelines put in place just like there are in the workforce for such behavior. There needs to be cultural diversity training within the schools. And YES, I DO agree with the NAACP about getting the justice department involved.

When there is an act of discrimination against a company by either an employee or customer, the justice department steps in and either imposes a fine, or strict guidelines which include training employees and managers on not only how to accept different cultures but how to deal with people who don't accept differences very well.

When subjected to any type of discrimination by customers in my area of work, we were not only trained to ask the customer to leave, we were EXPECTED to do it. I would do this regardless of company policy anyway because it is a moral and ethical response. It is also the law. When the staff at Lakota fails to confront problems like these, in a way they convey that they condone the behavior. That is not acceptable by any standard.

Thank you for reading and understanding a very important issue that needs addressed.

Robert Wilson

Lakota Parent

Inappropriate Use of Slang

2008-06-12T15:17:00.004-04:00

What happens when media organizations use slang? This (Fox Calls Michelle Obama's "Baby Mama") and this ("In Memphis, somebody ought to fetch one of those low-hanging, welt-raising switches, because Joe B. Scott is fixing to be a ballplayer again.") The second instance isn't as severe as the first, but it's tacky nonetheless.

2008-2009 Executive Board Announced

2008-06-12T09:39:00.008-04:00

Alicia Gaynor is the 2008-2009 president of the University of Cincinnati Association of Black Journalists, a collegiate affiliate of the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ). Alicia transferred to UC in fall 2007 from Florida A&M University and promptly joined both UCABJ and the UC chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. During the 2007-2008 school year, she was the UCABJ's secretary and UC SPJ's treasurer. The Kingston, Jamaica native spent the 2008 spring quarter as a deejay for Bearcast, UC's student-run radio station, and is working toward a journalism degree with hopes of becoming a news anchor. She's currently interning at CinWeekly's new online entertainment guide, metromix.com, which launches in mid-September.

Geoffrey Dobbins is the vice president of the University of Cincinnati Association of Black Journalists and a senior journalism major at UC. Dobbins won two scholarships at Wright State University in Dayton, studying mechanical engineering there for several years. His frustration with the cold metal and wheels of that field and the interest he always had in writing eventually caused him to change majors and schools in January 2007. Geoffrey's developing skills as a writer helped him win an English Composition Prize from the university’s Department of English & Comparative Literature in spring 2007. In the fall, he interned with Cincinnati Magazine as a fact checker and a Web content writer. He has also interned with The Cincinnati Herald, the city's African American newspaper and his stories have appeared in the campus newspaper, The News Record. Geoffrey is pursuing a career in print media, where his passion for truth-telling and social justice will serve him well.

Sophomore Zulekha Pitts is the secretary of the University of Cincinnati Association of Black Journalists. She's currently interning at CinWeekly's new online entertainment guide, metromix.com, which launches in mid-September.

Junior Armond Prude is the treasurer of the University of Cincinnati Association of Black Journalists. He's currently interning at CinWeekly's new online entertainment guide, metromix.com, which launches in mid-September.

NABJ Member Cynthia Tucker Speaks on June 10!

2008-05-29T16:46:00.005-04:00

CYNTHIA TUCKER embodies the theme of the Harriet Beecher Stowe Lecture - writing to change the world. She is editorial page editor of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and a syndicated columnist whose commentary appears in more than 70 newspapers around the country. Tucker's weekly column "As I See It," won the Pulitzer Prize for commentary in 2007. In her capacity as editorial page editor, Ms Tucker is responsible for guiding the development of the Journal-Constitution's opinion policies on everything from foreign policy issues to local school board races. Come meet a writer who is making a difference with her writing every day.

Event Sponsors: Paul DeMarco & Karen Smith and Eric & Jan-Michele Kearney
TUESDAY, JUNE 10th 2008 | 7:00 PM (last day to register June 5)
Reading Room, Mercantile Library, 414 Walnut St., downtown
$15 students; $20 members; $25 nonmembers

Terron and the City

2008-05-29T11:04:00.003-04:00

Just in time for the May 30 premiere of the movie version of Sex and the City, UCABJ president—and Style Maverick—Terron Austin has some tips for all you fashionistas!

UC Undergraduate English Society Career Fair

2008-05-29T10:28:00.003-04:00

What are you going to do with that English degree? Find out Friday, May 30th when the UC Undergraduate English Society hosts its career fair. The event is scheduled from 3 to 5 pm in the Tangeman University Center, room 415. Meet school teachers, magazine editors, and book publishers, to name a few. Need more info? Contact Jay Towman, Assistant Professor, Department of English, at jay.twomey@uc.edu.

The Gift of Financial Advice

2008-05-23T13:41:00.001-04:00

This month, thousands of college graduates will shed their caps and gowns to join the ranks of America’s working professionals. Many of them will do so with high hopes, high ideals, and high debt from student loans.

The Financial Fitness Ohio podcast series is a free resource to help young professionals navigate their new financial responsibilities. A series of five short podcasts offer timely information and tips that are particularly relevant to young, working adults.

The podcasts feature a conversation between Milt Fullen, CPA, a financial advisor with Fullen Financial Group, and a new college graduate, and cover these topics:

· Establishing emergency funds
· Tackling student debt
· Understanding retirement planning options
· Saving for big-ticket items
· Knowing the ins and outs of insurance

“Graduation is a good time for young adults to develop sound financial habits for a lifetime,” Fullen said. “We live in a world where debt and out of control spending are considered a normal way of life. Too often, it’s a shortcut to financial crisis.”

The podcasts are five minutes in length and designed to help young professionals make smart money decisions at the beginning of their career. To download the podcast series or for more information on becoming finically fit, visit www.financialfitnessohio.com

UCABJ's Zulekha Pitts Gets Fashionable

2008-05-23T11:01:00.003-04:00

Check out Zulekha at last month's fashion show at Bang Nightclub, hosted UCABJ president Terron Austin. (Terron, when's the next show?)

Your Negro Tour Guide performance - June 5, 6, & 7

2008-05-20T17:09:00.003-04:00

Your Negro Tour Guide, writer/author Kathy Y. Wilson's musing on race, class, and gender, has been turned into a one-woman play and will show at this year's Fringe Festival. For those who don't know, the book and the play are thought-provoking, not to mention laugh-out-loud funny. Get your tickets soon because it will sell out. For more info go to Fringe Festival Web site at www.cincyfringe.com

Congrats, Geoffrey

2008-05-20T17:06:00.005-04:00

Check out UCABJ Vice President Geoffrey Dobbins's personal essay (password required) in the June issue of Cincinnati Magazine. You can also hear him talking about the story on WVXU's Cincinnati Edition on May 25. Way to go, Geoffrey!

Five Years Gone

2008-04-30T10:48:00.009-04:00

WARNING: The following opinions belong to a pretentious college student and do not necessarily reflect the views of any honorable, clean-cut, tax-paying, baby-kissing, apple-pie-loving groups Geoffrey Dobbins may be associated with. He just wants to get something off his chest. Please chill.

Lately, it seems like a lot of us are revisiting the first days and weeks of the war in Iraq and the way it was portrayed by various media sources then. I couldn't resist doing the same. I managed to find something I wrote for the opinion section of Wright State University's student newspaper, The Guardian. It appeared in the paper exactly 5 years ago - April 30, 2003. After reading it again, several thoughts came to mind:

Thank God I write a little better than that now. Wow. (In my defense, remember I was a freshman mechanical engineering major then. I think I also had a few unkind edits.)
Remember when opposing the war and being critical of those responsible put you in a small minority? Wow. There is still widespread support for the war among some reasonable people, but I don't have to tell you how the tables have turned. I almost feel like going back to Dayton and tracking down old classmates and professors just so I can say, "How do you like me now, huh? How you like me now? I... told... you... so..." Burning all that expensive gas would kind of spoil it, though...
Seriously, I do wish more of us media types would publicly recall how a lot of us said invasion was a bad idea before it happened. It wasn't just me. Some of our key allies weren't exactly on board, there were protests around the world and religious leaders were coming out of the woodwork all over the place to publicly say this whole thing seemed unethical.

But the mantra I seem to hear now is "Who knew it could have turned out like this?" Well, a lot of us. Not a majority of Americans, but still a large number. It didn't take a crystal ball to see holes in the war planning, have problems with the idea of "preemption" being sold and realize that bloody chaos in war is the norm rather than the exception.

I wrote another opinion piece about the war with a reflective tone about a year ago in a columns and reviews class (Terron Austin probably remembers). I got a heavily (but reasonably) edited version of it printed in UC's newspaper, The News Record, later that year. One of the versions I prefer is below. Rereading this one, I was surprised by how relevant it remains.

Acoustic Imperialism
By Geoffrey Dobbins
John Mayer was my Jeremiah. I know it won’t score me any points with music snobs, but I’ve come to enjoy some of his tunes. Having seen him perform with Kanye West a few times isn’t the only reason, but I must admit that it helped. Between that and a prominent appearance on The Chappelle Show a while back, I think it’s safe for me to listen to him in public without being labeled an “Oreo” by the blackness police. He’s always had a certain funky grit absent from most of the suburban princesses that buy up his records.

That’s why I wasn’t shocked last summer when I heard antiwar sentiment in his song, “Waiting on the World to Change.” But for me, the single revealed a clear vision of the future. Mayer foretold the Democrats winning control of Congress like some kind of pop culture prophet. People slow dance to this guy at high school proms, and there he was talking about bringing “our neighbors home from war.” Remember the Dixie Chicks? If the media machine thought this sort of talk was safe enough for pop radio, it meant American attitudes about Iraq must have fundamentally changed. The results of the midterm elections were just fallout.

Until 2006, I’d lost all faith in our foreign policy. Hadn’t America embraced fear and bloodshed since 2001? Those guys in my college physics class sure did. Days after the invasion we had an argument about the wisdom of the war. I thought Saddam had anthrax then, but I still opposed the invasion. By “opposed” I mean I blasted Public Enemy in my dorm room and wrote sophomoric letters to the school newspaper.

I argued that even if our smart bombs had Ph.D.’s, leveling Baghdad would involve terrible civilian casualties. One of my physics classmates countered with, “Who cares if some Iraqis die? They’re going to die anyway.” That’s the fate of all of the barbarians beyond the reach of Pax Americana, I guess.

Of course, not everybody talked that way. I was amazed by how many people could agree with me and still add up to less than one quarter of America. They were all over the television if you watched C-SPAN as much as I did. Most of the black folk I ambushed with my political queries were also against the war, but terrorism is old hat to us. We’d been terrorized by the Klan before, so I guess we didn’t collectively loose our heads about Al Qaeda the way police action peddlers wanted.

As expected, words of warning from Coretta Scott King and Desmond Tutu were ignored. Jon Stewart’s satire stirred laughter, but inspired little serious thought. Everybody from the Pope to Lenny Kravitz had our backs. But even my fellow college students looked at war critics like something had flown over our cuckoo’s nest.

So then we few, we disgruntled few, looked on as President Bush’s band of frat brothers went once more unto the breach. A few guys in the dorm down the hall counted down the seconds to “shock and awe” like it was New Year’s Eve. They were literally entertaining company with chips and drinks. Needless violence was winning again, and America was applauding from the couch with a grin.

Few people are smiling now. According to the most recent Gallup polls, well over half of Americans think it was a mistake to invade, and about two thirds of Americans disapprove of Bush’s handling of the war. Hopefully, this antiwar trend can force better policy. But I suspect we’ve only reached a slightly higher plane in the gutter of our collective social consciousness.

Not long ago I found myself talking politics with people at a Socialist Worker newspaper sale on UC’s campus. In passing I mentioned to one of the self-described leftists in attendance that the Rev. Martin Luther King opposed the Vietnam War. I was shocked at what came out of his mouth in response. “I didn’t know that.”

There’s a day named after the guy. King called the U.S. “the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today.” And somehow this college-educated leftist hadn’t heard? That’s how little traction nonviolence has in our society.

Many have turned against the war in Iraq, but few are willing to reject war as a way of life. Despite the widespread anti-war feelings among Americans, many anti-Bush Democrats like John Tester, Jim Web, and Hillary Clinton continue to market themselves as leaders that are “strong on national defense,” which means forking over vast resources to the military industrial complex.

Public acceptance of these circumstances seems to prove the Neo-cons are right about at least one thing. The antiwar trend may not be an ideological shift as much as a lack of resolve. We might just be tired of war. That’s a little better than being energized by it. But we still think the strength of our military will protect us better than our justice or our compassion. We still like Caesar. We just want him to mellow out into something more like Jack Johnson and less like Metallica.

The current civil war and occupation in Iraq comes from a militaristic view of the “real world” as a place where making “us” safe must require making “them” unsafe. If only we could beat our swords into plowshares. Translated for my friends that never made it to Sunday school, synagogue, or mosque that means using resources to heal and nurture life rather than to destroy it. It’s from Isaiah.

The country continues to think the dangers of the “real world” demand that we be like Mike Tyson, even though hippies like John Mayer spend less time apologizing. As Mayer would say, I just found out there’s no such thing as the real world. Just a lie you’ve got to rise above.

~Geoffrey Dobbins
UCABJ, Vice President

Tune In, Listen Up!

2008-04-17T10:45:00.002-04:00

Our very own Alicia Gaynor, UCABJ's secretary extraordinaire, now has a talk radio show on Bearcast, the university's student-run radio station. Listen to her from 5 to 6 pm on Thursdays all quarter long!

UCABJ E-Board - 2008-2009 nominations

2008-04-07T11:12:00.004-04:00

Want to be on the UCABJ executive board next year? Please throw your hat in the ring by email President Terron Austin at 4ucabj@gmail.com no later than Thursday, April 10.

2008-2009 POSITIONS:

President
The president shall be the chief executive officer of UCABJ, and shall have the responsibilities of:
1. Calling and presiding over the meetings of the Organization as well as the Executive Board.
2. Implementing this Constitution and decisions made by the Executive Board and special committees.
3. Having discretionary power in working decisions that can neither be conveniently submitted to the general assembly nor Executive Board. However, the president must notify the general membership of his actions within a week.
4. Appointing chairpersons and members of standing committees as well as create ad hoc committees deemed necessary. He shall also have the power to remove chairpersons and members from such committees and terminate ad hoc committees for the duration of his term.
5. Acting as an ex officio of every committee.
6. Requesting information from the Executive Board, standing committees and members, as deemed necessary to operate the Organization effectively and efficiently.
7. Overseeing all external affairs concerning the Organization by acting as its official spokesperson.
8. Serving as a conduit for relaying information between the Chapter and other parties within the National Association of Black Journalists – most namely other student chapters, the national student representative, the regional director, the regional student representative, and the deputy student representative.

Vice President
The vice president shall be the deputy executive officer of the UCABJ, and shall have the responsibilities of:
1. Assisting the president and assuming the duties of president in his absence.
2. Establishing connections with on-campus organizations for the purpose of developing partnerships within the Chapter’s mission.
3. Establishing connections with off-campus organizations for the purpose of developing partnerships for community service within the Chapter’s mission.

Secretary
The secretary shall be the chief record keeper of the UCABJ, and shall have the responsibilities of:
1. Keeping records of all meetings of the Executive Board and general assembly, and making sure such records are archived orderly.
2. Maintaining formal records of all correspondence and action taken by the Organization, and making sure such records are archived orderly.
3. Keeping membership lists.
4. Serving as a conduit for relaying information between the Executive Board and general assembly.
5. Serving as the sergeant at arms during all meetings, as the chief interpreter of Roberts’s Rules of Order and the Constitution of UCABJ.
6. Communicating with members of UCABJ about upcoming meetings through email and/or phone tree.

Treasurer
The treasurer shall be the chief financial officer of UCABJ, and shall have the responsibilities of:
1. Maintaining a complete, formal record of all monies received and expended by the Organization during the school year.
2. Receiving and disbursing funds on behalf of the Organization, on order from the president and/or Executive Board.
3. Providing a formal record of all monies received and expended by the Organization during the school year within a timely manner, as determined by the president.

E-board members are expected to attend all UCABJ meetings and programs for the entire school year.

To read UCABJ's constitution and bylaws, click here.

Magazine writing tips

2008-04-04T10:12:00.004-04:00

For those of you who didn't make it to last night's workshop, here are some tips for magazine writing:

KNOW THY PUBLICATIONS. Tailor your story pitches to the magazines for which you want to write. If they don't do music or movie reviews, there's a reason why (and it's not because the right person hasn't come along to write them), so don't send them pitches of that nature. If an editor has never heard of you before and you don't have a track record for doing good work, you won't get a feature on your first try. Untried writers should start small by submitting pitches for the front of the book. If you do those assignments well and cultivate your relationships with your editors, when you pitch ideas for features or departments, you may get the assignment.

SET THE SCENE. A magazine story is about description. Describe, describe, describe. Use your five senses to put your readers in your shoes. Check out this description of the way former Harlem drug lord Frank Lucas laughs from an August 2000 article about him in New York Magazine:

Frank's laugh: It's a trickster's sound, a jeer that cuts deep. First he rolls up his shoulders and cranes back his large, angular face, which, despite all the wear and tear, remains strikingly handsome, even empathetic in a way you'd like to trust but know better. Then the smooth, tawny skin over his cheekbones creases, his ashy lips spread, and his tongue snakes out of his gate-wide mouth. Frank has a very long, very red tongue. Only then the soundtrack kicks in, staccato stabs of mirth followed by a bevy of low rumbled cackles. Ha ha ha, siss siss siss. For how many luckless fools like Tango was this the last sound they heard on this earth?

You can see and hear that, right? That’s what you want.

KNOW YOUR STRENGTHS. Some people are great at writing; others are better at copy editing. Know what suits you. Just because you’re one doesn’t necessarily mean you’re the other, too. One may be a superb fact checker/researcher but may not actually be good at writing. Play to your strengths. There are people who have made careers out of being fact checkers and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that. There are lots of jobs to do at a magazine.

YOU’RE ONLY AS GOOD AS YOUR LAST STORY/STORY IDEA. Crappy story ideas equals no assignments. No assignments equals no clips. No clips equals no work to your name to advance your career. Get comfortable with coming up with well-researched story ideas, ones that have a real hook. Get even more comfortable with the fact that most of your ideas are probably going to get rejected. Of 100 ideas, about 95 will get thrown back. It’s not personal. Don’t get discouraged by this. Start seeing the world with “magazine eyes” and you’ll find a story in just about anything!

WRITING REQUIRES TEAMWORK. Your editor is not your enemy. If you have this kind of relationship with your editor, it’s because you think your writing is perfect the way you turned it in or that person is a tyrant who needs to change copy in order to feel better about him/herself. Good editors doing their jobs properly only make your stories better. Communicate with your editor as much as possible about what he or she expects to see when your first draft comes in. It may be a tough, awkward, uncomfortable conversation, but it’ll save you a lot of time and headache in the long run.

LA Times, New York Times Gets Duped, More Black Eyes for Newspapers

2008-03-29T09:51:00.010-04:00

Where's Ashton Kutcher when you need him?

At the end of every Punk'd ruse, he'd come wandering onto the scene, a move that would immediately alleviate the prankee's worries. No, you aren't being arrested. No, your music video isn't getting shut down. No, your $300,000 car wasn't destroyed in a freak accident. Viewers could see the anxiety melt away as shock set in. You mean this whole thing was all a stunt? their faces asked. Oh, Ashton, ya got me. I'm sure Chuck Philips would feel a lot better right now if Kutcher had come to the Los Angeles Times's newsroom before he wrote that massive story on March 17 implicating some of Sean "Diddy" Combs's associates in the 1994 shooting of Tupac Shakur.

As you probably know, Shakur didn't die in that incident, but he did swear up and down to anyone who would listen that Combs and Christopher "Notorious B.I.G." Wallace were trying to kill him. He was, in fact, murdered in Las Vegas less than two years later, six months before Wallace was gunned down in L.A. Both of these high-profile deaths remain unsolved, so a story further connecting the two and recapping the east coast-west coast rap wars that culminated with their untimely demises would have readers chomping at the bit, right? Wrong, apparently. Or more accurately, the "evidence" that was the linchpin of that connection is what was wrong.

After Combs (again) denied any involvement, the Web warriors at over The Smoking Gun came to the rescue (again), confirming that Philips's source, a two-bit hustler in prison on fraud charges, had forged FBI documents for the lawsuit he'd filed against Combs---information that Philips never checked out with the FBI itself. (This only several days after it was revealed that The New York Times and everyone else got played by "Margaret B. Jones" and her fake gang banger memoir.) Philips's Spidey sense should've been tingling from the very beginning. And maybe, just maybe, these documents did set off alarm bells and he chose to ignore them because the story was too good to let go. We'll never know if that's correct; it's not like he's going to tell us. But it is yet another teachable moment for everyone who writes stories.

On slate.com, writer Jack Shafer goes over how Philips and the L.A. Times could have "dodged the Tupac hoaxer":

Avoid confirmation bias. It's a universal human trait to seek evidence that confirms what you already believe, to interpret the evidence you've collected to bolster your existing view, and to avoid the evidence that would undermine your notions. "Philips said in an interview that he had believed the documents were legitimate because, in the reporting he had already done on the story, he had heard many of the same details," the Times reports today. Did Philips' willingness to believe what the documents said blind him to the typographic clues that the Smoking Gun says point to forgery? "[The documents] confirmed many of the things I'd learned on my own," Philips said in an interview before the debunking.

Know the provenance of your document. Sources who leak documents to reporters are often sketchy about how they obtained them. Until proved otherwise, every document should be assumed to be fake. In the Times case, Philips trusted the documents because they had been filed in court. That they were filed by Sabatino, currently doing time on fraud charges, should have raised red flags. That he filed them in a lawsuit against Sean Combs—long rumored to have some role in the feud between Shakur and the Notorious B.I.G. that ended in the murders of both—should have raised red flagpoles. That the story names Sabatino as one of two individuals who set up an attack on Shakur should have sent the flagpoles into orbit. According to the Times, Philips did not ask the FBI about the documents that are so instrumental to his story. A former FBI man appears to have thought the documents genuine.

Don't trust documents, trust evidence. A document is only a piece of paper with writing on it. Even if authentic, a document is not necessarily true. The FBI, just to mention one organization, has produced hundreds of thousands of authentic documents whose combined truth content is less than zero. In the Times case, the discredited documents appear to have been prepared with a typewriter, not a computer, which should have revealed them as counterfeit.

Enlist outside experts. Many newspapers conduct their investigations inside a tiny, bias-confirming box because they fear an information leak will get them scooped. If the Times had brought in outside experts—even other experienced Times journalists—to "murder board" the story before publication, the paper might not have a tractortrailer-load of eggs on its face today. The less a stake an outside source has in a story, the better his critique will likely be. According to the Times, the only people to review the story prior to publication were the primary editor and two editors on the copy desk, which is low by Times standards.

Always ask, "Why now?" When new and startling evidence surfaces to help solve an ancient mystery, as happened in the Times story, a journalist must always ask, "Why now? Why hasn't this evidence appeared before?" Is it because the source of the evidence stands to gain financially by its publication? Because the evidence will spring them from jail? Because they're a notorious liar who loves to lie? Cui bono, baby, cui bono.

Never trust a flimflam man. Sabatino possesses a long rap sheet. From the Smoking Gun: "The Times appears to have been hoaxed by an imprisoned con man and accomplished document forger, an audacious swindler who has created a fantasy world in which he managed hip-hop luminaries, conducted business with Combs, Shakur, Busta Rhymes, and The Notorious B.I.G., and even served as Combs's trusted emissary to Death Row Records boss Marion 'Suge' Knight." Also, "[From jail], Sabatino worked with a raggedy group of accomplices—most of whom he never met—and defrauded firms of upwards of $1 million."

Beware, ye writers and future writers: this could easily happen to you if you don't do your due diligence.

Aiesha D. Little
NABJ Adviser
UCABJ

Bob Woodruff telecast on April 1

2008-03-29T09:01:00.003-04:00

ABC News anchor Bob Woodruff will speak about his experience as a journalist embedded with the troops in Iraq as part of Drake Hospital's traumatic brain injury symposium. In January 2006, Woodruff, then co-anchor of World News Tonight, and his camerman were severely injured an IED attack north of Baghdad. He and his wife Lee--author, freelance writer, and contributing editor at ABC's Good Morning America--chronicled their family’s journey to recovery in the best-selling memoir In An Instant: A Family’s Journey of Love and Healing. The Woodruffs have since dedicated themselves to putting a face on the serious issue of TBI, especially among America’s injured military personnel. This Web-based telecast of the speech was arranged by the UC chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists and the Cincinnati chapter of NABJ.

When: Tuesday, April 1, 8 pm

Where: UC campus, 450 Lindner Center

Green For All

2008-03-29T00:02:00.011-04:00

I usually enjoy Tavis Smiley's PBS program, but I haven't been able to watch it much lately. Last night I managed to see a thought provoking interview that touched on issues I thought might be of interest to other frequenters of the blog (especially journalists that specialize in environmental issues like Elissa does).

One of Smiley's guest was an activist and writer named Van Jones. Jones is championing a group he helped create called Green For All, which combines environmentalism with advocacy for the poor and urban social justice movements. Their goal is to encourage the development of a "green" economy that lifts people - especially people from disadvantaged urban communities - out of poverty.

Here are a few comments from Jones that I found the most engaging:

"Part of the thing is the whole way the environmental movement has been framed has been wrong for our community. We're supposed to cry about polar bears and stuff like that, and if Pooky don't have a job, then Pooky might get shot today. I can't cry about a polar bear dying when Pooky is dying."

"If we teach our young people to put up solar panels, they're on their way to becoming electrical engineers, electricians, they can join unions. Those are green pathways out of poverty."

"We don't want eco-apartheid, and that is the big danger as we begin to respond to global warming and these issues. We could wind up in a situation where we get hit first and worst on everything negative, and then benefit last and least on everything positive. Dr. King would have stood against that."

We begin to say..."We can fight poverty and pollution at the same time; you can save the polar bears and Pooky."

"Dr. King was for civil rights. He was also anti-poverty. He was also anti-war, and for peace. He bridged those issues. Now we have these issues, the environment's supposed to be over here, anti-poverty over here, justice over here.

Dr. King would say no. He would link those issues and he would say, "No, this is one agenda to lift America up, to lift up our most vulnerable, and also to make sure that we never have to fight another war for oil or resources ever again."

I was surprised that I was surprised by this guy. When you think about it, all of these things do relate closely to one another and could easily be components of a single, coherent movement. But in the press each of these movements seem to be discussed separately.

I fear that coverage of any of these movements is sometimes limited by the stereotypical roles in which activists are cast. Like relegating environmentalism to "hippie tree huggers," or relegating poverty issues to "naive" and "bleeding heart" rich white people with too much time on their hands, or relegating social and racial justice to senselessly angry black folk, or relegating the anti-war movement to unruly and holier-than-thou college potheads with Che Gueverra posters on their walls, or relegating gay rights activism to drag queens in San Francisco. And of course there isn't enough room here to even begin to lay out all of the stereotypes that hang over the heads of feminists.

But what if a single, plausible and hopeful movement brought all of these together? That (at least on the face of it) seems to be what Green For All is. Whether you agree with their politics or not, it still seems like a pretty cool story to me. Nice catch, Tavis.

~Geoffrey Dobbins
UCABJ, vice president

NABJ Webinar - March 27

2008-03-26T09:13:00.003-04:00

Dear NABJ Member:

You have been invited to a Webinar Town Hall meeting for the membership of The National Association of Black Journalists to discuss the
organization's financial outlook for 2008. Featured speakers will be NABJ President Barbara Ciara and NABJ Treasurer Gregory Lee.

NABJ "State of Our Finances" Town Hall

Thursday, March 27, 2008

1:00 PM - 2:00 PM EDT

Please click here to register:
https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/189693199

**Please note that you will need your NABJ membership number to register
for this Town Hall.  In addition, to participate in the Webinar, you
will need phone AND computer access.

Many Thanks,

NABJ Board of Directors

UCABJ Member Wins Big in SPJ's Region 4 Mark of Excellence Awards

2008-03-18T14:21:00.002-04:00

UCABJ member Keith Jenkins, editor of The News-Record, won first place in the sports writing category of SPJ's Region 4 Mark of Excellence Awards. Read his winning entry, "Yoooouk!"

Congrats, Keith!

A Nine-Paragraph Correction You Gotta See to Believe

2008-03-10T08:59:00.003-04:00

Somebody's getting fired over this...

http://tinyurl.com/2ld6lo

See you on April 3!

2008-03-07T11:29:00.002-05:00

Kick butt on your finals and have a great spring break!

We'll see you on Thursday, April 3 for the first meeting of the spring quarter, where Cincinnati Magazine associate editor Aiesha D. Little and UC prof (and freelancer) Jenny Wohlfarth will discuss the ins and outs of magazine publishing. Be there!

Peace and blessings,

UCABJ Executive Board
Make your voice heard!

Internships: Paid....Or Not

2008-03-06T05:17:00.005-05:00

Ah, it's that time of year again. Hordes of college students will start eagerly sending out resumes and cover letters hoping to secure summer internships. In the field of journalism, landing an internship(s) is a crucial step in deciding on a career path. It's the way that students take what they're learning in theory and apply it to the "real world." For some, it's their first experience in a professional environment. And for most, these experiences will be unpaid.

Think of it as the business approach to Descartes' famous saying "I think, therefore, I am": "I work for free, therefore, I must love my job." Not necessarily so. But that's the price (or lack thereof) at which experience comes these days. Unfortunately, it's too much a part of the industry's business model to turn back now. For most publications, it's not a matter of not wanting to pay students; with the changing market and the economic fluctuations it's causing, they simply can't afford to do so.

In "Take This Internship and Shove It," New York Times op-ed writer Anya Kamenetz posits: "What if the growth of unpaid internships is bad for the labor market and for individual careers?" In some cases, that's probably true, but it also means that students must do more research to find internship opportunities that will benefit them most in the long run. It doesn't make sense to work for a magazine--where you'll only get a couple of very short clips for three of four months of work--when you really want to be a newspaper reporter. It's a waste of time to spend an entire summer at a TV station and the only thing you get to do is pick up dry cleaning and make coffee. During searches and interviews, be sure to ask very detailed questions about interns duties: What's a typical day like for an intern? To whom do interns report? Are there any non-monetary perks that come with the job (at the very least, some employers will pay for parking)? Remember: Employers aren't promising to provide the "ultimate intern experience." They're just giving students a shot at seeing how the sausage gets made, so to speak. It's up to the student to make the most of his/her experience.

adl

Aiesha D. Little
NABJ Adviser
University of Cincinnati Association of Black Journalists

Broadcast Writing Workshop March 6

2008-03-06T04:59:00.003-05:00

Attention budding TV reporters!

FOX19 weekend anchor Regina Russo will talk about broadcast writing on Thursday, March 6. A Purdue University graduate, Russo joined the FOX19 crew in 1996 and has anchored First Look and 19 in the Morning. She currently does the weekend nightly newscasts and hosts What's Hot With Regina and Making the Grade with Regina Russo. She als explores current events through the station's half-hour public affairs program, Cincinnati Matters.

Bring your questions about the business and have them answered by this TV veteran!

DATE: March 6

Time: 7 p.m.

PLACE: 423 TUC

UNITY 2008 workshops announced

2008-02-29T10:09:00.002-05:00

Hi Everyone:

I wanted to provide a breakdown of the workshops which will be held at Unity 2008 in Chicago from July 23-July 27, 2008. A reminder it's in your best interest to register and register early. The rates are listed here:

Early Bird Registration (by March 14, 2008)
Student Member: $150
Student Non-Member: $250

Pre-Registration (by June 13, 2008)
Student Member: $225
Student Non-Member: $275

On-Site Registration (after June 13, 2008)
Student Member: $275
Student Non-Member: $450

I encourage you to make a plan so you can join us in Chicago. Buy your plane ticket early, look into having roommates to save yourself some money.

I hope you'll be able to join the Unity partners in Chicago.

UNITY '08 Workshop Sessions
Workshops are grouped by focus area, these include:
Audience, Digital, How To, Managing Your Career, Making News, Newsgathering/ Storytelling, Spanish Language, and Alliance Partner Workshops.

Audience

More than ever, our newsrooms want to appeal to an audience that is changing at a fast pace. These workshops will help journalists gain a deeper understanding of new faces and new issues.

Changing Faces: Representing Minorities in the Media
Citizen Media: Entrepreneurial Ventures Plug Gaps in Local News
Coalition or Demolition? The Impact of Immigration on Black-Latino Relations
Cultural Competency: Turning Theory into Action
Does the Color of Your Skin Matter: The Challenge of Race in the Locker Room
All the gays are white, all the people of color are straight, but some of us are brave: Lesbian, Gay Bisexual and Transgender People of Color
Presumption of Guilt: The Treatment and Coverage of Muslims in America
The Changing Face in Editorial Cartoons
The Journalist as Activist: Is Independence Still Valued
These Kids Today: Covering Teens, Young Adults, and the Whole Podcast Generation
What's so dark about Africa, anyway?

Career Resource Center
Career expo workshops will provide journalists and students plenty of information. Then, attendees can get advice on career paths as well as professional counsel.

Get Organized So You Can Think!, presented by Peggy Duncan, a personal productivity expert, speaker, trainer, consultant, coach, and author
Ask the Recruiter - Live!
Beat Up, Burned Out, But You Don't Have to Get Out ...
Best. Conference. Ever.

Digital
Quality matters online and multimedia has become more than just a concept. These sessions will provide journalists of color the tools they need to stay ahead and learn how to join the best of the traditional forms of media with the emerging forms of digital.

A Day in the Life of a Multimedia Journalist, sponsored by Time Warner
Bloggers of Color: The Top Five Reasons Why the Blogosphere is NOT Diverse and What You Can Do About It!
Data: The New Way to Grab More Readers, sponsored by Gannett Co., Inc.
Dialogue vs. Diatribe: Fostering Civil Conversation in the Digital World
It's a Blog, Blog, Blog World, sponsored by Time Warner
Monetizing Your Website, sponsored by Gannett Co., Inc.
Multimedia Storytelling on the Cheap Writing for Different Platforms, sponsored by Gannett Co., Inc.

Daylong
In-depth training and discussions on both coverage topics and skills for a dynamic time. Please note these workshops will require pre-registration. Pre-registration will be available later on the UNITY '08 website.

A Harmonic Convergence
Better Watchdog Workshop: Investigating Communities and Diversity
Final Cut Pro Hands-On Workshop
Immigration In Depth: The Next Big Stories
Increasing Diversity in Environmental Journalism, sponsored by Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A.
Intermediate Flash
Introduction to Computer Assisted Reporting
Introduction to Flash
Leadership Institute, sponsored by Time Warner
Multimedia Storytelling Workshop
Mini-Leadership Development Institute, presented by NAMME
Poynter TV News Bootcamp
Taking Charge of YOU!, sponsored by NBC Universal
Video Training for Newspapers - A Workshop, sponsored by Gannett Co., Inc.

How To
Back by popular demand! Take a hands-on approach to improving stories or skills training in broadcast and video journalism.

"I HATE MY VOICE!!" How to Improve One of Your Most Important Communication Tools
How Can You Improve a Story? Just Ask the Editors
How to Deliver Compelling Live Shots
Investigative Reporting with Shrinking Budgets
Solid Sound: Getting the Highest Quality Audio
Writing for Radio 101

Managing Your Career
Think about your career and prepare for a broad range of opportunities, no matter your experience level.

Ahead of the Curve: Negotiating Your Broadcast Personal Services Contract
Finding Stories and Jobs in a Web 2.0 World
Help Wanted: This Side of the Newsroom Too
How to Become a Foreign Correspondent
Breaking In, Breaking Through: The World of Magazine Writing
Making the Most Out of the Internship Process
Power and Office Politics: Ron Brown Talks Shop
Recruiting High School Journalists into College
Journalism Programs
Retention Through Reinvention, presented by UNITY
Students Meeting: Open Forum
The Path to the Publishers' Office
The Successful Freelancer
The Trade Press and Other Alternatives to Mainstream Media: How to Land on Your Feet in Today's Challenging Environment

Making News
Examine the critical issues in our diverse communities and participate in frank discussions centered on race and identity.

America's Race to Incarcerate: Locking Up Communities of Color
Covering Climate Change: Why Non-White Communities Could Be Hit the Hardest
Confronting Health Disparities in the Multicultural Community
Covering Immigration as a Global Issue
Gays, Guns and God: The Presidential Race's Toughest Topics
Is Media Consolidation Marginalizing Minority Journalists?
Missing the Beat in Presidential Politics
Newspaper Next: A Blueprint for Transformation
Unconscious Bias Theory and Its Impact on Race Coverage
What Is Race?

Newsgathering/ Storytelling
Take time to explore the art and craft of storytelling.

Built In Diversity: Beyond the Black and White Rolodex
Cops and Court Reporting ABCs
Copy Editing: Make Your Headlines and Copy Sing
Covering Politics: From Watchdog to the Web
Get In and Get It Done
Gossip Reporting: Tricks of the Trade
IMHO: The Wondrous Art of Column Writing
International Reporting: Dangers and Challenges of Getting the Truth Told
Let's Do It Better! Covering Education to Make a Difference
Reporters of Color Covering Multi Ethnic Communities and Being a Journalist of Color
Starting Out in Business Journalism
Telling Stories: How to Write a Narrative
Tragedy, Grief and the Media
Writing and Creating Content for the Web
Writing Fast, Writing Well, Right on Time: Writing for Broadcast on Deadline
Writing Tools: 50 Essential Strategies for Every Writer

Spanish-Language Workshops

Broadcast - Tough Ethical Calls
90 Minute Session - TBA
Half Day Session - TBA

Panel Breakfasts and Lunches
Covering a variety of topics, these sessions will provide a continental breakfast, light fare or box lunch for you to enjoy while you learn. All of the sessions below will require pre-registration, which will be available later on the UNITY '08 website.

Activism and Blogging Panel Breakfast, sponsored by General Motors
The Buying Power of People of Color Panel Breakfast, sponsored by Coca-Cola
How to Get a Media Grant, sponsored by The Ford Foundation
The Diabetes Explosion: A Call to Action for Journalists of Color, sponsored by Novo Nordisk
Lunch workshop, sponsored by ABC, Inc.

ALLIANCE PARTNER WORKSHOPS
AAJA

China Coverage - News Without Fear or Favor
How to Cover Arab Americans
Following the Money: The Issues in Covering India's and China's Economies
Survivors' Guide to Newsroom Politics

NABJ

From Employee to Employer: A Guide to Broadcast Ownership
I Am My Own Boss
Lessons of Jena Six
What Happens Now that the Pipeline is Shut Off? Diversity in Tumultuous Times

NAHJ

TBA

NAJA

A Journalist in a Political World
Power of the Word. Revitalization of Native Languages
Reaching an Offline Audience in an Online World
Sovereignty and Citizenship

Thanks,

Christopher E. Nelson
NABJ Student Representative
Loyola College in Maryland

Race and Gender in the Race for '08: Discussing the Media's Coverage of the Democratic Primary

2008-02-27T13:53:00.002-05:00

Ohio is set to host a historic primary in which voters could push the first African-American or woman Democratic nominee for president over the top. The Cincinnati Association of Black Journalists & UC Journalism Program examine how race has played a big role in the race thus far. Come out and hear how top journalists are playing the story.

On the panel:

Lincoln Ware, host, The Lincoln Ware Show, WDBZ-1230AM

Kathy Y. Wlison, senior editor, Cincinnati Magazine & author of Your Negro Tour Guide: Truths in Black and White

Greg Korte, reporter, The Cincinnati Enquirer

Tom McKee, reporter, WCPO-TV

Mike Sheehy, associate journalism professor, University of Cincinnati

Moderator: Keith T. Reed, reporter, The Cincinnati Enquirer and blogger, BET.com

Host: Jenell Walton, WCPO-TV and president, Cincinnati Association of Black Journalists

DATE: Wednesday, February 27

TIME: 7 p.m.

PLACE: University of Cincinnati, Tangeman Center, Room 400

Web writing workshop TOMORROW

2008-02-27T13:32:00.002-05:00

What's the difference between writing for print and writing for the Web? Find out tomorrow night when UCABJ hosts its WRITING FOR THE WEB workshop. Learn the tips and tricks of Internet writing from pros like Joshua Rinaldi, reporter for the Hamilton Journal-News.

DATE: Thursday, February 28

TIME: 7 p.m.

PLACE: 423 TUC

MAGAZINE WORKSHOP RESCHEDULED

2008-02-19T12:30:00.005-05:00

Aiesha D. Little, an associate editor with Cincinnati Magazine, and UC prof and freelance writer Jenny Wohlfarth discuss the ins and outs of magazine writing. Topics: Description, narrative, and more.

DATE: April 3 (rescheduled from February 21)

TIME: 7 pm

PLACE: TUC 423

FOR MORE INFO: 4ucabj@gmail.com

One Month Left!

2008-02-13T12:21:00.003-05:00

Early bird registration for UNITY 2008 ends on March 14, 2008! The quadrennial event, the country's largest convention for minority journalists, is sponsored by the National Association of Black Journalists, the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, the Asian American Journalists Association and the Native American Journalists Association. Don't miss your chance to network with journalists and maybe even get a job. For more details, go to www.2008unity.org.

UCABJ/UC SPJ Mixer & Movie Night

2008-01-23T07:51:00.000-05:00

We're hoping to see all of you journalism, communications, E-media, and English majors at this Thursday night's mixer & movie night in the basement of McMicken Hall. Get some grub, "talk shop" with fellow student journos, and enjoy our showing of Shattered Glass. The 2003 film is all about ethics in journalism, delivered by the deceptions of Stephen Glass (played by Hayden Christiansen), a former writer for The New Republic, whose antics cost him his job. What? We're a journalism organization. Did you think we were going to show Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle?

Start time: 7:30 pm (general body meeting at 7!)

Location: McMicken Hall basement

Sponsors: The University of Cincinnati Association of Black Journalists and the UC chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists

See you there!

EVENT ALERT: Night at the Movies

2008-01-21T21:21:00.001-05:00

I just got notice of this event and wondered who might want to attend:

February 3, 2008

Sunday, 2PM

Cincinnatri Museum of Art

(Eden Park)

A NIGHT AT THE MOVIES...RACE MOVIES

Presents

BODY & SOUL

Cincinnati World Premier of Oscar Micheaux's 1925 silent classic featuring the inimitable Paul Robeson in his first screen role. A short documentary celebrating Robeson's life & career, A Tribute to The Artist follows along with a discussion/Q&A with Pamela Thomas of BFMMI.

Tickets $7 or $9 day of show.

check www.cincyworldcinema.com for ticket specifics

Presented by BFMMI & Cincinnati World Cinema

February 21, 2008

Thursday, 7-9 PM

The National Underground Railroad Freedom Center

RACE MOVIES: A PRESENTATION

Featuring

MIDNIGHT RAMBLE:

OSCAR MICHEAUX & THE STORY OF RACE MOVIES

Experience the early age of Black American Cinema. Learn thehistory of 'race movies,' films made primarily by, for and about Black Americans. Beginning in 1910 through 1950 (WWI), Blacks began to embrace the new medium of film.

A panel discussion/Q&A follows the screening with MR producer, film historian & Executive Director of BFMMI, Pamela Thomas; University of Dayton Entertainment Law Professor, author, performer & former Columbia Pictures VP of Production, Dennis Greene; and Cincinnati's own favorite son, Mr. William Mallory, Sr., Ohio's first Black American Majority Floor Leader and 2008 class of Great Living Cincinnatians reflects on early Black cinema in Cincinnati.

This event promises to be a lively evening & is free & open to the public.

Happy Birthday To You...

2008-01-21T19:15:00.000-05:00

In the spirit of the holiday, I thought I would put up some excerpts from the speeches and writings of Dr. (or “the Rev.” if you prefer) Martin Luther King, Jr. We have probably already been bombarded by sound bites of the "I Have A Dream" speech, but these tend to present a tame, watered-down representation of the prophetic, global, and sometimes subversive nature of what King stood for.

There’s a passage in James Agee’s “Let Us Now Praise Famous Men” in which he writes about the “emasculation of acceptance.” He references great figures he reveres that were each a “fury” in their own time – people like Beethoven, James Joyce, and of course, Jesus Christ. Somehow, after receiving official acceptance, the edges get softened and the things that make great people revolutionary is replaced by something more palatable for those with a vested interest in keeping things the same. I fear this is happening to Dr. Martin Luther King.

Dr. King was cursed by presidents, governors, clergy, black entrepreneurs, and other civil rights leaders. In his final years, many in the American press were devoting massive energy toward portraying him as an unpatriotic, communist sympathizer. The early ‘80s campaign to make his birthday a federal holiday was opposed by people like Ronald Reagan, Jesse Helms, and Trent Lott. (Reagan only relented and signed the holiday into law after both houses of Congress passed it with a veto-proof majority.)

He was not universally loved in his own time, and some the things he stood for – like the peace movement, the labor movement, and affirmative action – continue to be touchy subjects now.

So today, let’s remember some of the things King said that are more challenging and revolutionary – things that might make us more uncomfortable.

“One has not only a legal but a moral responsibility to obey just laws. Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws.”
- Taken from “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” (1963)

“Man must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love.”
- Taken from his Nobel Prize acceptance speech (1964)

“A true revolution of values will lay hand on the world order and say of war, ‘This way of settling differences is not just.’ This business of burning human beings with napalm, of filling our nation's homes with orphans and widows, of injecting poisonous drugs of hate into veins of peoples normally humane, of sending men home from dark and bloody battlefields physically handicapped and psychologically deranged, cannot be reconciled with wisdom, justice and love.”
- Taken from “Beyond Vietnam,” a speech delivered at Riverside Church in New York City (4 April 1967)

“A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.”
- Taken from “Beyond Vietnam,” a speech delivered at Riverside Church in New York City (4 April 1967)

“I am convinced that if we are to get on the right side of the world revolution, we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values. We must rapidly begin the shift from a ‘thing-oriented’ society to a ‘person-oriented’ society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, militarism, and economic exploitation are incapable of being conquered.”
- Taken from “Beyond Vietnam,” a speech delivered at Riverside Church in New York City (4 April 1967)

“A true revolution of values will soon look uneasily on the glaring contrast of poverty and wealth. With righteous indignation, it will look across the seas and see individual capitalists of the West investing huge sums of money in Asia, Africa, and South America, only to take the profits out with no concern for the social betterment of the countries, and say, ‘This is not just.’ It will look at our alliance with the landed gentry of South America and say, ‘This is not just.’ The Western arrogance of feeling that it has everything to teach others and nothing to learn from them is not just.”
- Taken from “Beyond Vietnam,” a speech delivered at Riverside Church in New York City (4 April 1967)

~Geoffrey Dobbins
Vice President, UCABJ

Another Wire Post

2008-01-14T11:48:00.000-05:00

OK, yes, I'm on a Wire kick. Sue me. But first read Secrets of the City: What The Wire reveals about urban journalism. You'll thank me.

Aiesha D. Little
NABJ Adviser
University of Cincinnati Association of Black Journalists

Only Two Months Left!

2008-01-13T10:36:00.001-05:00

No Good Black Journalists?

2008-01-08T16:34:00.000-05:00

I know this blog is meant to be about journalism and I've already written an entry about The Wire's new newspaper angle, but I thought this Associated Press quote from David Simon, the show's creator, is pretty interesting:

"Let me indict Hollywood as much as I can on this one. We have more working black actors in key roles than pretty much all the other shows on the air. And yet you still hear people claim they can't find good African-American actors. That's why race-neutral shows and movies turn out lily-white."

Rejigger this a little and Simon could easily be talking about the field of journalism. How's that for relevance?

adl

Aiesha D. Little
NABJ Adviser
University of Cincinnati Association of Black Journalists

Desert Power

2008-01-02T23:21:00.000-05:00

On this second day of the new year we were all greeted by a fun piece of news about the price of oil. They say that for part of the day oil was finally selling for $100 a barrel on the market. I decided to fill up my tank today in anticipation of a rise in gas prices. I thought I was clever until I saw the line at the pump at the nearest UDF.

As I looked at news broadcasts about it on TV and listened to radio reports, my mind went to an odd place. I thought about a science fiction novel by Frank Herbert that was first published in 1966. The book is called Dune.

(I know, I know. Unbearably nerdy. Hear me out though.)

During one of the awkward silences while Terron Austin (president of UCABJ) and I were in Detroit last November, I tried to explain how innovative the novel was. I told him the book featured space travel and futuristic gadgets like a lot of other science fiction. But these things were just plot devices in a story that was really about imaginary (but strangely familiar) political intrigue. I knew it was time to shut up when Terron gave me one of those looks that said, "I'm listening because I'm courteous, not because I'm remotely interested."

It's a complicated story, but as it relates to oil and journalism, I'll just highlight the role of a fictional substance called "the spice melange." In the universe of Dune, spice is central to the economy and modern life in general partly because it is absolutely necessary for transportation. In all of the galaxy, spice comes from only one planet called Arrakis. Arrakis is only of interest to most people in the galaxy because of the spice. In all other respects it is a barren wasteland - rain never falls on the entire desert planet (hence the nickname "Dune"). The various power players in the galaxy have long engaged in Machiavellian maneuvers against each other to gain political and economic control of Arrakis.

The rich and powerful make war, colonize, backstab, make agreements and break treaties over Arrakis. Every time something changes in the political situation on Arrakis, the elites try to figure out a way to capitalize on it and the rich contemplate the impact it will have on the spice-dependent economy of their own planets. By the time the main events of the novel take place, this has been going on for generations.

Still with me? Great.

Now things get interesting because, for all of their conniving and calculating, for all of their gadgets, money and armies, the elites completely overlook the natives of Arrakis, the Fremen. The Fremen are so desperately poor and culturally isolated the galactic aristocracy doesn't even know how many of them there are, and doesn't really care. Almost none of the elites even understand their language or religion. Despite the incredible wealth being mined and shipped from the world they inhabit, they are so lacking in basic necessities that they drain water from the dead to give to the living and no one ever cries for fear of losing H2O. They are unimaginably poor, and (surprise, surprise) a little bit miffed about it.

Skipping to the end, these Fremen and a prophetic outsider from another planet end up overthrowing the elites and take over the galaxy because of their deep understanding of their home turf. This unforeseen advantage is dubbed "Desert Power."

OK, where am I going with this? As we talk about oil reaching this long talked about economic threshold and how it will affect the economic lives of Americans, I think journalists should probably put some time into discussing where this oil is coming from. There is a lot of anger in many oil-rich parts of the world and there is a lot of poverty in these places too, but I rarely see media even attempting to report on the connection.

A lot of us seem to have this perception that the oil just so happens to come from places where people don't like us. I think too little thought and attention is given to the fact that part of the reason they hate us is because we are buying up their oil. I'm not saying terrorism is even remotely justified - not when others do it to us or when we or our allies do it to others. Targeting civilians is always barbaric.

But we do business with people (like the Saudi royal family, for example) that exploit the forgotten populations of their nations in the Middle East, South America, and Africa (and Louisiana). Incredible oil wealth is hoarded by a precious few that enjoy the favor of Washington and Wall Street while masses live in relative squalor. And for some wild reason, the "rogue states" with lot's of oil get more attention from our media and our invasion forces than the ones that don't.

Then when we see angry faces on the evening news we shake our heads and wonder "Why would anyone hate us?" As morally shallow as that is, we often move from that to another comment that might be just plain dangerous. "They're so small and powerless, who really cares what they think anyway?"

As we discuss how much Americans might be spending on gas this month, we should also consider the source and unpredictable strength of "Desert Power." It might surprise us. It definitely has before. If we play our cards right and fight for justice, it might even work to our advantage.

(See! This nerd stuff is good for something after all!)

~Geoffrey Dobbins
Vice President, UCABJ

Is Justice Really Served?

2007-12-27T19:27:00.000-05:00

As many of you may know I'm originally from New York. New York has shown to be a culturally diverse area. However, I still find that many people are against this "diversity." On August 9th 2006, in Miller Place Long Island, my neighbor Aaron White ( a black male) attended a party, which he was not invited to. He got kicked out of the party and went home. Later that night a group of the white males came to Aaron White's house and threatened him. They first started harassing by text message, instant message, and by calling him on his cell phone.

However, the night didn't end there. The group of angry teenagers then decided to go to Aaron's house. The ring leader, Daniel Cicciaro Jr. ( a white male), and his friends went in Aaron's driveway yelling loud racial remarks.Frightened, Aaron called his father John White and explained to him what was going on. John and Aaron White went outside with two hunting guns to scare the angry mob away. While outside John White held his gun in the direction of the young men. Daniel Cicciaro then grabbed hold of the gun and it fired. Daniel Cicciaro got shot in the face and died soon after.

Many have their views on the situation. However, the jury had their own opinion, the hearing was just a few days before Christmas. They found Mr. White guilty on a manslaughter charge and a weapons charge which can run from 5 to 15 years. But, on the 24th of December 2 jurors came out and said that they were pressured into saying that Mr. White was guilty. They both said that they felt pressure from the judge and the other jurors. Rev. Al Sharpton is planning a march in New York in January, in honor of Mr. White's injustice.

It is hard to put my personal feelings aside, but I truly feel John White should be a free man. If Mr. White was Caucasian and Cicciaro was black, would this be the same outcome?

Alicia Gaynor
Secretary
UCABJ

The Wire's newspaper angle

2007-12-27T14:30:00.000-05:00

At best, I'm a very casual viewer of The Wire so I can't tell you much about the intricacies of the last four seasons, but based on the role a fictional Baltimore Sun newsroom plays in the upcoming season, I may have to start getting HBO.

David Simon, the show's creator, used to work for The Baltimore Sun and uses that knowledge to examine the role of the newspaper in Baltimore's deterioration in the fifth and final season. Overly ambitious reporters, steadfast editors, bean-counting parent companies...it's all there. (Click on "The Wire: The Last Word" in the right-hand column.) It's an interesting proposition Simon is putting forth and despite this being Hollywood's version of news life—insert grain of salt here—it's probably not that far off from the realities the industry is facing right now. It'll be interesting to see how the season unfolds and what the fictional storyline may offer to people putting out fires in real newsrooms across the country.

adl

Aiesha D. Little
NABJ Adviser
University of Cincinnati Association of Black Journalists

Cheering for the Home Team

2007-12-20T23:26:00.000-05:00

In high school I always felt uncomfortable and awkward at pep rallies. It was hard for me to understand the point of all the screaming and pageantry. I rarely attended sporting events and I don’t recall ever caring very much who won.

I was part of a band program that took music very seriously and we competed from time to time. I practiced hard and I wanted us to sound good, but I still wasn’t exactly loosing sleep about how the band scored. When I went to Wright State it was even worse. Almost nothing that happened in Dayton seemed all that important to me.

I have lived in the Southern Ohio for about 15 years, but I couldn’t tell you right now how many games the Bengals have won this season and I know even less about how the Reds are doing. I have never had a whole lot of “team spirit.”

I’m not saying I hated everyone around me (at least, not until exam week came around). I was genuinely invested in the good fortunes of all of the people I had direct connections to. But when it came to awards and competitions and bragging rights, I guess I never really felt like a part of “the team.”

If this were a therapy session, I guess I would have to talk about what I’m really feeling and how my aloof attitude is really a way to make up for my own insecurities. There would probably be tears and breakthroughs and Stuart Smalley affirmations about how “I’m good enough, I’m smart enough, and doggone it, people like me.” But while there's no shame in getting help from mental health professionals, this is not a therapy session.

I only say all of this so that you understand my surprise when I found myself watching Clash of the Choirs this week on NBC. I may have taken a bathroom break while Michael Bolton’s choir performed, but I didn’t want to miss a second of Nick Lachey’s team from Cincinnati. They were my team.

Something was different – something I can’t explain. I actually cared who won. For once, I was cheering for the home team. I was also cheering for Children’s Hospital, which would get the prize money if they won. (I spent a few days there a while back when I had back surgery and I have a lot of respect for the people there.)

For me, it was surreal being so invested in what, in a lot of ways, was really a pretty arbitrary competition. I was biting my nails (figuratively) when they announced who would be eliminated. I felt proud when they won even though I had almost nothing to do with their success.

I am not, nor have I ever been, a big fan of 98° or Nick Lachey. (I’ve met Justin Jeffre, though. I like him a lot.) I didn’t know anyone who performed. But a lot of things have changed over the past year, and somehow I think it’s made me feel like a part of this city. Who knew?

I could get used to this.

Go Team Cincinnati! We’re… uh…. number one! That's how it goes, right?

~Geoffrey Dobbins
Vice President, UCABJ

Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow

2007-12-19T22:30:00.001-05:00

I enjoy political cartoons and that’s how I first came across Ted Rall. Rall is a left-leaning political cartoonist, author, and syndicated columnist.

A lot of the time his cartoon is not quite my cup of tea. It isn’t so much that I disagree with him (though I do disagree with him on some points), but more because it just doesn’t make me laugh. The weird drawings and mean spirited attitude is a little over the top for me.

But I think his columns are excellent. After reading a series he just finished called “Future Imperfect,” I feel particularly ashamed that I don’t think I’ve ever really paid to read them.

The columns were about the direction the field of journalism is moving in and discusses things like the financial havoc Al Gore caused when he invented the internet. (If you didn’t see the joke there, either I really stink at comedy or you never watched late night TV in 2004.)

Part I, Part II, and Part III were enthralling, and sometimes disturbing, columns. I thought I would highlight some interesting portions.

From Part I:

Print media is dragging content providers into the abyss. First comes downsizing. Writers, cartoonists, and photographers are losing their jobs to peers willing to do the work for less or, in the case of readers invited to submit their comments and images for the thrill of appearing in the local rag, nothing. Then they squeeze those who remain for pay cuts. A cartoon that runs today in Time, Newsweek, USA Today, The New York Times or The Washington Post--the most prestigious and widely disseminated forums in the United States--brings its creator less than The Village Voice would have paid for it in the 1980s. Some print venues offer no payment at all.

From Part II:

…Venture capitalists are investing in "consolidators," websites like the Drudge Report and Huffington Post that link to columns and articles written by unpaid bloggers and professionals who've managed to hold on to their jobs. Creative people who actually make the product they sell, meanwhile, are receiving squat.

It's inevitable that, sooner rather than later, these intellectual property vampires will suck creators dry. Professionals with mortgages and car payments will flee for greener pastures, replaced by hacks and rank amateurs happy to work for "exposure." We're already seeing the effect as journalism increasingly suffers deprofessionalization; 16-year-old bloggers with mad HTML skillz are demanding, and often receiving, equal access to readers.

…There is a solution to the online payment problem, says Simson Garfinkel, a fellow at the Harvard University Center for Research on Computation and Society and the author of "Database Nation: The Death of Privacy in the 21st Century." (Disclosure: We're friends.)

"If content is appropriately priced, of an appropriately high quality, and easy to access, people will pay for it," asserts Garfinkel. "What is required is a system that is easy to use and licensing terms that are not onerous."

From Part III:

…In 20 years, the U.S. newspaper landscape will look more like Europe and Japan. The market will be dominated by two major segments. At the top we'll find a small cluster, perhaps 10 or 15, of huge national titles--papers such as The New York Times and USA Today will get even bigger. Existing papers (The Washington Post?) will expand; new ones will launch.

…None of this will improve the quality of journalism. "Ultimately [free dailies] will breed in people the idea that news shouldn't cost anything, even that news is cheap," points out media commentator Roy Greenslade. "But in fact, news, done well and properly, requires investment and money. They will no doubt tell us what happened--but news should also tell us how and why things happen. I fear that approach will be lost."

~Geoffrey Dobbins
Vice President, UCABJ

Busy Little Bees

2007-12-18T23:17:00.001-05:00

After having to be at work or class or my internship or church or (some combination of those) every single day with very few breaks, I finally woke up this morning with no place in particular I had to be.

And as I picked myself up out of bed at about nine o’clock, I was struck by a strange feeling. I felt... guilty.

How could I not have a mountain of things to do? What was wrong with me? Am I becoming lazy? What if someone calls or emails or something? What would I tell them I was doing? Taking a “rest” sounded so wrong to me somehow.

But why should it? Rest is good. Rest is great. And as I look around, I think most of us could use more of it.

I am not saying we should drop everything and neglect our responsibilities. But I can’t shake the feeling that mainstream American culture is starting to work itself to death. We eat fast food in the car to save a few moments (when we eat at all). The 40-hour work week is now a distant memory. We work more hours than our counterparts just about every other developed economy in the world. I get the feeling most of us are in a constant race to prove to everyone else that we’re workaholics that are perpetually on a nasty occupational binge.

It’s part of the broader American disdain for balance. Either we are promiscuous or prudish, anorexic or overweight, teetotalers or drunkards. The idea of moderation seems quaint and alien to many of us. I bet even now as I write about “balance” some one out there is expecting me to start chanting about enlightenment or imploring others to unlearn what they have learned.

I can not speak for anyone else, but I find it hard to not get caught up in the excess myself. There’s more than a little bit of economic necessity attached to our busyness.

But vacation and weekends and holidays exist for a reason. We all need times off to think, to be with those we love, to remember who we are and why we are.

I still have to put in some hours as a retail grunt during the holiday season and I still plan on getting a few other things done during my days off. But do not be surprised if I become hard to reach before nine o’clock for a week or two. I’ll probably be sleeping in.

~Geoffrey Dobbins
Vice President, UCABJ

The Difference Between Optimism and Hope

2007-12-16T23:47:00.001-05:00

Apparently a lot of us are pessimistic about the state of black progress in America. The Pew Research Center, with help from NPR, recently conducted a poll that measured the political attitudes of African-Americans, whites and Latinos. The results were released in mid November.

According to the poll, 20% of blacks say they are better off now than they were five years ago and 29% say they are worse off. In 1969, 70% said they were better off than fives years before. In 1999, 32% said they were better off and 13% said they were worse off.

There was a lot of talk about this poll on NPR. I’ve read and heard plenty of people interpreting the data and critiquing aspects of the poll itself (like the way it excludes the very real concerns of Asian Americans). I’ve heard and read some very well thought out comments on this subject.

The more I heard, the more I took issue with one of the assumptions implied in some of the discussions. A lot of people talk about optimism as if it is a goal or a virtue – as if being optimistic is something to strive for and expect from others. Some commentators even use “hope” and “optimism” as synonyms.

I don’t see it that way. I’m all for hope, but hope is not the same as optimism.

Optimism is an outlook on life that interprets situations in a positive way and expects things to work out in the end. Marriam-Webster Online says it’s “an inclination to put the most favorable construction upon actions and events or to anticipate the best possible outcome.” The first definition listed drives my point home even better. It defines optimism as “a doctrine that this world is the best possible world.”

Optimism sounds nice, but I happen to think some elements of this world are unacceptable and better worlds are possible. There are a great many situations in which optimism requires someone to embrace the status quo, even when it may be harmful or unjust. Sometimes it even requires outright self-delusion. When confronted by death, disease, poverty, injustice, or desperation, a reasoning person has to detach themselves from reality to be optimistic.

That may help the comfortable stay that way, but it doesn’t do much to comfort the afflicted.

Sometimes things are bad. Really bad. When someone close to you dies, or your community gets washed away by a mountain of water, or your diagnosis is cancer, or you just feel desperately lonely and without meaning... at times like that expecting you to sing the sun will come out tomorrow is pretty cruel. It’s even worse when your troubles are cause by other people who are too hateful, greedy or ambivalent to treat you fairly.

But hope is “desire accompanied by expectation of or belief in fulfillment.” When optimism merely sees a silver lining to what may be a very dark cloud, hope can clear the sky. When optimism sees a cup as half full (and in real life things are almost never that equal), hope makes the cup overflow. Optimism can make a slave smile – hope smuggles slaves to freedom. Optimism says “it isn’t that bad.” Hope fuels movements and revolutions that make it better. Hope expects change.

Hope stares the desperate, terrible, frightening reality in the face and refuses to look away until it’s been defeated. Hope has a confrontational quality to it.

For some, things really are getting worse. We don’t need a rosy outlook – we need change. Not blame games. Not self-delusion. Not mindless distraction. Definitely not blind consumerism. The word of the day is change.

Things will get better for “black progress” in this country (and underdogs anywhere in the world) when we learn (or re-learn) how to hope.

So we're not optimistic. That might be a good place start. I’m almost positive.

~Geoffrey Dobbins
Vice President, UCABJ

Where Do We Go From Here

2007-12-15T23:38:00.000-05:00

So the play has gone forward, with the title changed and additions to the program made to “honor diversity.” Having seen the play and the relatively small changes that seem to have been made, I see it as a positive step. The play itself wasn’t necessarily racist, but the attitudes that lead to the debates are, and they, along with the censorship concerns, need to be discussed in the open.

West Chester/Liberty TWP needs to progress with an attitude of empathy and less finger pointing. As real as the problems are, most (but not all) of what’s going on is about the cultural and historical inertia of racism rather than overt hatred.

More has to be done to give Lakota’s administrators a chance to be partners rather than opponents as everyone works to create an atmosphere that’s truly diverse and multicultural. It’s unfair to everyone that efforts in that direction are hindered by the way they are being demonized and I can understand the discomfort of teachers and principles.

But is their discomfort any less than that of black, Asian, Hispanic, and Indian students that never see authority figures in their school that look like them? Is the faculty’s discomfort less than those who have cultural and ethnic histories that are frequently seen as problems to be assimilated rather than blessings to contribute?

Are they more uncomfortable than the black student that goes through weeks of awkward stares and anxious discussions while the class reads Huck Finn out loud? Or the broke student that bites her tongue while teachers go on 15 minute tirades about how the upper-middle class white kids – the ones who drive new convertibles their parents bought for them – deserve all the scholarships? Or the Hispanic student who has to explain to his friends that speaking Spanish with his family doesn’t mean they're "illegals" hiding from INS? Or the Asian student who faces unfairly high expectations and whose achievements are unappreciated because she's “supposed” to excel academically? Or the black student who’s repeatedly petted like a dog by classmates he hardly knows because they think the texture of his hair is so novel?

Wow. Now that I think about it, I feel so sorry for the poor, unfortunate white teachers and principles that are forced to think about how a minority student might feel. No one else ever thinks about race. Lakota was a wonderful land of harmony until those dirty “PC police” wrecked it.

Or so the myth goes.

Frankly, I’m pretty tired of people acting like being called a racist is worse than experiencing the social and economic reality of racism itself. Grow up.

I have five suggestions:

1. In the future, Lakota’s multicultural clubs could to be included when students, parents, teachers, or community members feel the needs of minorities aren’t being met. It may be a good way to make sure diverse student voices are heard. They can do more than throw parties and talk about people's hurt feelings. Maybe the multicultural club could be proactive in advising Lakota decisions on a long term basis so things can be done in a way that better serves all students.

2. The NAACP should continue to be engaged but make their involvement more cooperative and solution oriented.

3. The “discussions” that take place must lead to concrete decisions about how the administration and/or students behave.

Binding decisions rarely get made at “dialogues.” I remember having one or two racial “dialogues” while I went to Lakota West. A few people got some things off their chests, and that was good, but little positive change in policy or behavior took place. “Dialogues” about diversity have been happening for years. But there is still a noticeable lack of minorities among the teachers and other faculty and I’ve heard of no coherent plan to change that. This has to move from “community forums” to school board meetings.

There should be less talk about “listening” to “concerns.” Instead of navel contemplation on a lack of diversity in the faculty, for instance, there has to be plans on how to proactively change that situation. That may not mean quotas, but maybe it should mean some conscientious recruiting. Only tangible commitments and dollar amounts can give the “discussions” the teeth they need.

4. At some point the song “Why Can’t We Be Friends,” the original version recorded by the War in the mid ‘70s, should be played over a loud speaker at a Lakota event. I doubt it would help anything. I just really like that song.

The play didn’t merit all of the attention it got. But maybe it means something that a black Lakota graduate (who probably isn’t completely insane) had so much to say about it.

The bottom line is that people need to be considerate of others rather than being so obsessed with “winning.” Follow the golden rule and love your different-looking neighbors as yourself. They might see things from another perspective, but they probably aren’t out to get you.

~Geoffrey Dobbins
Vice President, UCABJ
Lakota West, Class of 2002

Master Thespians

2007-12-13T23:56:00.000-05:00

I made the trek up to Lakota East tonight and I thought I'd share a few quick thoughts on the play before retiring for the evening.

("...retiring for the evening..." Those darn British characters have got me talking like Sherlock Holmes.)

There was a good sized audience there, but not the swarming crowds I expected, given the media attention that's been focused on it. There were a few empty seats, but not too many. The auditorium is identical to Lakota West's, where I used to perform in band and jazz band concerts a lot. The pre-performance buzz was similar, but I think there were more people.

A Lakota East student I talked to said the crowd didn't seem much larger than the usual crowd he'd seen at similar events. He expected more people on Friday night. It definitely felt like only a handful of people in attendance had been attracted by the controversy rather than personal connections to the students. Most in the audience seemed to know each other.

The play was very well done. The students' hard work showed and it made for an entertaining and suspenseful evening. I haven't read any Agatha Christie since Jr. high school and I couldn't recall how the story ended, so I was genuinely surprised.

I was very impressed with the acting. I don't remember high school theater being quite as funny and professional as this play was.

The dialog got choppy at a few points, but that probably had more to do with the limited time they had to practice together than the skill of the actors. I remember what high school was like and I'm sure it was hard to fit such a demanding piece of artistry into their schedules.

Somehow they pulled it off. The students, their teachers, and their parents should be very proud. It would have been a shame if the play was canceled, as was previously planned.

I almost regret going into any observations of a more socially provocative nature, since I enjoyed the performance so much. I almost hate to bring it up, since I think most of the cast and crew would prefer to leave the controversy out of it. Almost.

But I have no intention of hiding from what the revised prologue of the play referred to as "the elephant in the living room." I'd read in statements Lakota gave the Enquirer that the program would include additions that were intended to "honor diversity."

So what did they do?

When I walked through the front door of the building there were 7-10 people handing something out to people as they entered the building.

I guess I looked puzzled. "Here, have a bookmark," one woman said to me with a little smile.

For some reason my more rebellious side slipped out. "Are they handing out books?" I asked with faux curiosity. "I could use more books."

She laughed off my hint of attitude. "Sorry. That would be great wouldn't it?"

Everybody else was going to be on their best behavior tonight.

I'll try to scan my bookmark and get it up on the blog so you can see it for yourself. They were basically a recognition of where the name "Lakota" came from. "To the 'Lakota' community, 'Lakota' means, friends/allies," it read. There were a couple of quotes from Lakotas named Black Elk and Sherry Hollingsworth aka Blue Bird Woman. Black Elk's read "The power of a thing or an act is in the understanding of its meaning." Hollingsworth's read "You have the name of the Lakota people, give it honor."

Apparently the Native American angle wasn't lost on everyone. It wouldn't be the first thing I've ever been wrong about.

I had mixed feelings. They acknowledged Native American contributions to the community, which was good. But there was absolutely no explanation of why it was necessary to do this at tonight's event and not at any other school event.

The additional prologue - the one a few of Michelle Malkin's readers hoped would get booed - seemed a little evasive. I assume it was written by a Lakota East student that emphatically wants nothing to do with racial politics. It made reference to "discussions" that took place before the play was put on and the "teachable moments" that emerged from the "discussions." No mention of what the "discussions" were about or even that the play had been canceled for a time. The girl delivering the short speech only conveyed her hope that we in the audience would continue the "discussions" after we left the performance, but would set them aside for now.

Some substantive historical context was provided in the program notes, which discussed Agatha Christie's popularity, the controversial titles and content of the book, and changes that have been made to the play. There were a few interesting lines about "eliminating offensive material in popular culture." A blog for another day.

During intermission they served cookies and soda. I got a few awkward glances. I started to relive that familiar Lakota feeling of being noticed as "that black guy" in the room. Did they think I was a spy or something? Or maybe just a student that didn't mingle very well?

Of course, I wasn't the only black person there. There were 4 or 5 others. One of them moved straight toward me as the audience enjoyed the refreshments. He was a tall, familiar looking man with a derby on his head. I knew him from somewhere but couldn't place him. We spoke very briefly before I headed for the restroom. Before I got there a middle aged man stopped me in mid stride.

"Who was that guy you were talking to just now? You know the tall one..." He started to point but stopped himself. "The uh... African American gentleman over there." I could tell he had a little anxiety about describing him as "African American." I felt like congratulating him.

"I'm not sure. He didn't mention his name." I said.

"He's a big guy down in Cincinnati," the stranger said. "I think he's a judge. I've heard him talk with Billy Cunningham a few times." That jogged my memory.

He was Attorney Leslie Isaiah Gaines. I talked to him a little more after I grabbed a cookie. I think he has kids that go to Lakota or something. He gave me a CD he'd recorded that featured a song called "God's Different Colored Wrapping Paper."

"We're all children of God, no matter what color we are" he told me and the white couple standing to my left. I told him I'd say hello to Kathy Y. Wilson for him. Very nice guy.

There was a Channel 12 van outside and I had a brief discussion with reporter Angela Ingram after the play was over. I don't feel right publishing much about what we talked about. I told her I was a journalism student, but it didn't occur to me then that I might want to discuss it later in the blog. I didn't make her aware that her comments might end up online somewhere - so they won't.

And about the play itself... While race didn't feature prominently in the main plot, colonialism in South Africa and "natives in the bush" are prominent parts of a few characters' backgrounds and are part of the general cultural context the cast inhabits. There were only a few racial comments in the script, but race wasn't as absent from the story performed as I'd been told.

Letters, emails and quotations in the Enquirer from students and parents insisted that race had "nothing" to do with the story. Their comments probably weren't intentionally deceptive, but they weren't wholly accurate either. I can see how a discussion of race would have been relevant because of the content of the play even if there were no arguments over the title.

There's another show tomorrow night. It will probably be even better than tonight's. I highly recommend it. Tickets are $10. You can go for the show and stay for the people watching.

~ Geoffrey Dobbins
Vice President, UCABJ
Lakota West Class of 2002

The Colorblind Leading the Blind (part 5)

2007-12-12T22:29:00.000-05:00

I could go on and on about diversity concerns with Lakota faculty or the West Chester/ Liberty Twp. community in general. I could talk about the disciplinary issues, or dance team/cheerleader segregation, or the white Egyptians that kept inexplicably showing up in history class, or the attempts to gerrymander district lines to keep trailer parks out of Lakota, or the immigrant roundups that left elementary school kids without parents.

I could even talk about a controversy a while back that concerned elementary school kids performing a very violent song at a concert. You may know it. The title was "Ten Little Indians.” (And trust me, unlike the play, that performance would have encouraged small children to celebrate the extended version of the rhyme, complete with plenty of slurs and racist imagery).

But a juvenile listing wouldn’t be constructive. I’ll just say this – what some label as arbitrary “perceived insults” become significant when you suspect your getting treated unfairly by people who just so happen to approve of these “racial insensitivities.” When someone who happens to be white starts in the football game and you know you’ve made more tackles this year. When someone else gets the solo at a recital and you know you can hit that high note that they can’t. When you get disciplined for dress code violations that the white kids wearing the same thing never get hassled for. Then these lapses in “political correctness” cease to be innocent mistakes – they start to look like winks and nods that express how others really feel about you but can’t say out loud. Let’s not forget that inside jokes and innuendo have historically been hallmarks of segregationist culture.

Like I said, Lakota’s knee-jerk response to silence discussion of race rather than confront it is typical of their usual pattern. Probably because of the lack of diversity in the faculty, Lakota seems afraid of engaging in any racial issue because they think they will always be cast as the racist villains. When most of the people with complaints are black and most of the people receiving the complaints are white, it can be hard to escape that perception. Especially when in some cases it’s true.

The NAACP’s combative approach doesn’t help. Was their response a little too reactive? Yes. Does Hines’ connection to a business that provides services very similar to those he says Lakota needs look kind of shady? Definitely.

But in his defense, isn’t it possible that he just tries to lead his professional life toward things he’s personally passionate about? His methods have their faults, but is it so hard to believe that maybe both his confrontations with Lakota and his choice of profession come from a single desire for equality? How many journalists have tried to connect their publications to stories that they are passionate about or are personally affected by?

But even more problematic than Hines’ conflict of interest is the way the NAACP tends to adopt a “we freedom fighters against the racists” attitude rather than a “all of us banding together against racism itself” attitude. The NAACP keeps trying to cast itself as Luke Skywalker and Lakota as the Empire, and that just drives neighbors they should be embracing into more defensive positions.

~ Geoffrey Dobbins
Vice President, UCABJ
Lakota West Class of 2002

The Colorblind Leading the Blind (part 4)

2007-12-11T23:36:00.000-05:00

Michelle Malkin stole my morning. I was planning on just doing a few quick internet searches on the Ten Little Indians situation at Lakota East. Several hours later, I was fuming at Malkin’s blog posts about the controversy and still pouring over the comments all the amateur pundits had left.

For those that don’t know, Malkin is a conservative author, columnist, and media personality that occasionally shows up on Fox News and C-Span. She grabbed my attention a few years ago when she became the first Asian person (Malkin is of Filipino descent) I’d ever heard of who defended Japanese-American internment during WWII as something with legitimate "military necessity."

I’ll go ahead and launch a rhetorical preemptive strike against anyone that might accuse me of suggesting she’s a “traitor to her race.” THAT’S NOT WHAT I’M TRYING TO SAY. As much as I disagree with how she embraces injustice, she’s entitled to her opinion. I’m just saying I hadn’t seen an Asian person say what she said before, that’s all.

I think Malkin’s often smarter, more artful, and more in-your-face than Sean Hannity or even Ann Coulter. And yet she still gets less attention. Could it be that many in her conservative audience harbor a few “racial preferences” of their own?

Malkin and Fox News have been among the national voices discussing Lakota East's current events. As one might expect, she treats the issue as an example of liberal political correctness run amok. On the blog Malkin talks about personal emails form Lakota students. If that personal connection gives her telling of the story more credibility, let me tell you a little story.

I attended schools in the Lakota district for 10 years. But my younger sister Kristal has me beat. She went there for 12. She graduated from Lakota West as the first black valedictorian to graduate from any Lakota high school.

This happened to occur in 2004, the 50-year anniversary of the Brown vs. the Board of Education decision in 1954 that integrated schools in America. The other journalists out there would probably agree that the situation sounds like a recipe for giving a big national story some local Cincinnati flavor, right?

That’s probably why The Cincinnati Enquirer sent reporters to ask my family about it and collected information from Lakota administrators.

Despite Kristal’s glowingly positive descriptions of her experience at Lakota, the district’s administrators were concerned about what they saw as the negative tone of the Enquirer’s questions. Their official response to the Enquirer was something like: “We do not keep records on the ethnicity of our valedictorians.”

So The Enquirer couldn’t verify that she was indeed the first black valedictorian, and the story was left out of one of the largest newspapers in the region. A far less interesting blurb appeared instead. The historical context of Kristal's achievement was common knowledge among everyone familiar with the school system, and they even printed a story about it in the smaller Butler County newspaper called The Pulse Journal. Nearly all of my sister's comments about Lakota were positive. It would have been a generally positive story. But since Lakota administrators “can’t see race,” they probably single handedly blocked broader regional coverage of a rare positive story about diversity in Cincinnati. Lakota's phobia of racial issues won the day.

But I suspect that more than a phobia of racial issues was at work. On top of the black valedictorian, the salutatorian (my sister’s friend Jing Jing Mao) was Asian. If memory serves, less than two thirds of the top 25 students in her graduating class were white. Parents were becoming distressed about this. (And if they were willing to talk about their discomfort when the black folk could hear them, I can only imagine what they were saying when we couldn’t.)

I can’t help but wonder if there was something deeper going on in Lakota’s denial. My sister’s story alone could not have been that big a deal, but shining the spotlight on her could have been an important piece of a developing narrative of changing racial demographics in the Lakota school district. Lakota administrators probably don’t want the rest of the region to become too invested in that narrative.

It’s a story that’s been played out in suburbs across the nation. I think most of us have heard of “white flight.” There were already murmurs about Lakota becoming more “urban.” (I don’t have to tell you what that euphemism means.) The test scores and graduation rates continued to soar. But if people began to think minorities were “taking over” the district, would it start to look less attractive to parents and homeowners (of all ethnicities) who are looking for a "Leave it to Beaver" lifestyle? Could they have been trying to maintain the myth? Hmm…

~ Geoffrey Dobbins
Vice President, UCABJ
Lakota West Class of 2002

The Colorblind Leading the Blind (part 3)

2007-12-10T23:28:00.001-05:00

The recent controversy over the play Ten Little Indians (which is now being performed as And Then There Were None) is only the latest example of Lakota’s pattern of avoidance and delusion about race.

This is about a lot more than a play. The grudge between the NAACP and the Lakota School district has been going on for years, and both sides tend to emerge from the fray looking like the immature children they claim to be protecting. Before they got all this attention, the play was probably just the latest excuse to bicker.

The real point of contention in the NAACP/Lakota beef is the lack of diversity in Lakota’s faculty.

The disparity isn't just a matter of perception. The current minority student population is between 15% and 20% and the minority percentage among faculty is less than 2%. Having talked to plenty of fellow students who have attended Lakota schools and their parents (white, black, Asian, Indian, Hispanic, etc.), many feel the relative racial uniformity of the faculty is palpable.

So the complaint is valid. Even if the situation didn’t heighten the racial tensions at Lakota, at the very least it creates an atmosphere where figures of authority and respect share a cultural and racial perspective that is far too homogeneous given Lakota’s changing cultural demographics. Having spent 10 years in the school system, I’ve personally observed that Lakota students are growing more and more comfortable with having peers of various cultures and ethnic groups. But many seem uneasy – if not resistant – to the idea of people that are different from them being in positions of authority or even holding the spotlight.

Many in the Lakota community seem to feel that having a black sidekick is fine, but having a black boss or team captain is counterintuitive and uncomfortable, to put it mildly.

And of course, whenever any racial issue arises, no matter how benign, Lakota’s first priority tends to be silencing any discussion of race as soon as possible rather than addressing it head on.

The problems with the play itself have been exaggerated. But the underlying racial issues at Lakota are still being neglected. And not unlike other racial controversies (the Jena 6 come to mind) people rally behind an issue that isn't as cut and dry as they'd like it to be because it's something to which they can attach all of their other frustrations.

This is really about the death of a myth – a myth that Lakota is a pristine oasis where almost everyone’s rich and perfect. Life at Lakota is just like "Leave it to Beaver," right? It may be unpopular to acknowledge it, but racial homogeneity is a significant part of that myth. Many think when blacks and Hispanics are prominent features of a community, falling property values, crime, and poverty necessarily come with them like vermin carrying a plague. It's no secret that a significant chunk of the community believes diversity would spoil the paradise they imagine the suburbs to be.

I can't say I'm sorry to see that myth die.

~ Geoffrey Dobbins
Vice President, UCABJ
Lakota West Class of 2002

The Colorblind Leading the Blind (part 2)

2007-12-08T23:34:00.000-05:00

Maybe all this grief is because the folks at Lakota are like Stephen Colbert. Maybe they “can’t see race.”

The character Colbert plays on TV claims he can’t. He says he is unable tell whether someone is black or white and that he has to rely on others to discern racial categories for him. The gag is funny because as viewers we know he’s lying – we know he doesn’t need “racist” people to tell him he’s white. He only claims to be “colorblind” as part of an obnoxious attempt to avoid being called a racist himself.

Imagine that… Someone with a dubious racial track record doing something obnoxious – like abruptly canceling a play – just to avoid being called a racist. That Colbert is one crazy character.

The trouble with this kind of “colorblindness” (apart from the dishonesty and absurdity of it) is that it implicitly carries a supremacist attitude. It says, “I can’t possibly acknowledge the differences between you and me without assigning you a greater or lesser value than me. So we have to just pretend the differences don’t exist.” Striving to be “colorblind” means believing other people’s ethnicity is a mark against them that we have to learn to overlook.

Never mind that my ethnic heritage is something I love about myself. Never mind that I would feel similarly insulted if someone didn’t notice I was male or ignored some other important part of my identity. Never mind that I cherish the contribution of cultures and perspectives that are different from mine.

If “colorblindness” is the goal, it means race is a “problem” that has to be swept under the rug. That doesn’t sound like a great idea.

Colbert’s humor rings so true for me personally because as a black student attending Lakota schools, I heard this sort of thing a lot. You see, we are all supposed to believe members of Lakota’s faculty are not able to see race either.

You’ll notice that even in all of the commotion caused by the play, statements from Lakota administrators tend to avoid anything having directly to do with race. Lakota officials tend to talk in vague terms like “diversity of all kinds” and “inclusion and tolerance” and refer to a “history around a previous title” that “caused a negative impact on some members of our community.” It’s like pulling teeth to get folks at Lakota to even use the word “race.”

Based on articles I've read about it, Enquirer reporters seem to have gotten the same impression.

Is play cancellation censorship?

The play is on

NAACP: Play shows need to talk

Raising the curtain in Lakota

~ Geoffrey Dobbins
Vice President, UCABJ
Lakota West Class of 2002

When Blogs Go Wrong

2007-12-07T17:37:00.000-05:00

RiShawn Biddle, an African-American editorial writer at The Indianapolis Star, was fired in October for a blog post called “The Indianapolis Black Democrat minstrel show.” In the original entry, which has been deleted from The Star’s Web site, Riddle said the city’s council president, Monroe Gray, was “more Zip Coon than honorable statesman,” invoking a racially-charged stereotype that goes back more than 200 years. From the entry:

“Then there's the embarrassing spectacle that is Monroe Gray, whose tenure as city-county council president is being marked by a lack of decorum during council sessions, the videos of himself on YouTube and responses to allegations of corruption that wouldn't be acceptable to a child who claimed his dog ate the homework. His act, more Zip Coon than honorable statesman, epitomizes the lack of seriousness some Black politicians show in their work; it's just inexcusable....”

(As Shaggy from Scooby-Doo would say, ”Zoinks!”)

In an age when newbie journos and old-hats newshounds alike are expected to be online adventurers, forging ahead into the medium that is drastically changing our industry, where do you draw the line between news and opinion?

No matter what your bosses tell you, here’s the reality of the situation: If you work for a media company, you’re not a “genuine” blogger because you can’t—can NOT—just say whatever you want to say with no consequences. To me, that is the essence of blogging—being able to say whatever the heck I want without fear of reprisal from the company for which I work. Therefore, the freedom you reporters and writers think you feel while blogging for your newspaper, magazine, TV station, etc., ain’t free. Trust. You still work for that company and as such, when you write, you represent them. Until the day you quit, that is. Or get fired for comparing city council to a minstrel show.

adl

The Colorblind Leading the Blind (part 1)

2007-12-06T23:04:00.000-05:00

What has really blown my mind about the drama unfolding at Lakota East is how the Native American angle has been neglected.

You may or may not have heard about the recent hullabaloo at Lakota East high school in the Cincinnati suburb of West Chester/ Liberty Twp. It revolves around a play called “Ten Little Indians.” After students had already spent months rehearsing it, the play was abruptly canceled by administrators because the local chapter of the NAACP raised concerns about the title and the book on which the play was based. The original Agatha Christi novel was originally printed with a title that I’ll awkwardly call “Ten Little N-words.” (Using euphemisms like “N-word” seems kind of juvenile to me, but I don’t want anybody to try to cancel this blog, so there you have it.)

It should be noted that the NAACP has maintained through all of this that they never suggested the play should be canceled. They said they only wanted to make Lakota East aware of the history behind it.

The play was called “Ten Little Indians.” And the school district is called “Lakota,” for crying out loud. Not only did no one think about how Native Americans might be offended. Somehow, even when racial concerns were raised, they were still all about how it might offend black people. Doesn’t the “CP” in NAACP stand for “Colored People” – meaning their concerns extend to all “non-white” minorities and not just black folk?

Before I dig too deep, let’s get the easy stuff out of the way. Does anyone really think “Ten Little Indians” was an intentional slight against anyone? I don’t. The original title of the book is racist, and Agatha Christie did use plainly racist language in some of the things she wrote. But the play itself doesn’t seem very offensive. On top of that, free speech is my bread and butter as an up and coming journalist, so censorship is always unsettling to me.

Approaching issues like this requires people of good will to do something far more courageous than sanitizing the past for our children. As we educate we have to own up to the fact that racism is an inescapable and inherent part of a large number of "classic" works that we revere. For centuries, white supremacy was the status quo in Western culture – not a radical view held by a few. Discussions about racism need to be a routine part of the way we treat a lot of western literature. You can’t read “greats” like Agatha Christie or Mark Twain or Hume or Kipling or Hegel or even the Constitution of the United States without running into racist language. (And it isn’t just the white writers. You can’t tell me some of the “classic” literature the Nation of Islam produced didn’t include some racist language too.) Being well educated requires seeing offensive content. Let’s just hope we raise our children well enough to be offended when they see it.

And doesn’t the NAACP chapter president Gary Hines look at least a little bit shady for trying to pressure Lakota into using diversity training that his company, GPH Consultants, just happens to provide? Even when the concerns are valid, someone else needs to start taking the lead in discussing them.

But that’s just the shallow end of the in-ground pool.

~ Geoffrey Dobbins
Vice President, UCABJ
Lakota West Class of 2002

New York Times Student Journalism Institute 2008 - deadline Feb. 28, 2008

2007-12-05T13:42:00.001-05:00

It's time to start thinking about the New York Times Student Journalism Institute 2008 in New Orleans May 18 to 31. The Institute gives you a chance to join others who share your passion for news and to work with the best journalists in the business.

You'll make friends for a lifetime, and you'll learn lessons that will carry through a lifetime. You'll have a chance to work covering real news in the city whose hopes and challenges have become one of the biggest stories of our generation. And it doesn't hurt that all your expenses are paid.

Student members of the National Association of Black Journalists, along with students at historically black colleges and universities, are eligible to apply to the Institute.

The Christmas break is the perfect time to write the essay and put together the clips packet required. The deadline is Feb. 29, 2008 (postmarked).

To find out more about the Institute, and to see the work of the students who have attended previous Institutes, go to www.nytimes-institute.com. And while you're there, download the application form and fill it out.

Don Hecker
Director
New York Times Student Journalism Institute
hecker@nytimes.com
(212) 556-1576

UCABJ supports Black Press program

2007-12-04T21:36:00.000-05:00

Join UCABJ members, fellow journalism students, and the general public this Saturday, Dec. 8, for a special presentation in 800 Swift Hall highlighting the role of the Black Press in America.

For 10 weeks, students in my seminar course—including UCABJers Terron Austin, Bridget Jackson, and Tim Kooy—have diligently researched special topics to present to the public. Their work, which will be featured at CETconnect.org, was created as part of a partnership between UC and the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, along with the school's Center for Community Engagement and Director of Academic Partnerships.

Last week, an enthusiastic group of high school students from Withrow and Turpin visited campus to hear journalism students describe their presentations. They offered feedback and sparked serious philosophical debates among the JRN students, who seemed to learn as much as their younger peers.

This Saturday, those students will bring along others from their schools and, we hope, plenty more as the final class presentations take shape. Hollis Towns, The Cincinnati Enquirer's executive editor, will be on hand for opening remarks. All are welcome in 800 Swift from 9 a.m. until lunch is served. Campus tours will be offered to high school students and anyone else who is interested immediately following lunch.

Stay tuned for images, updates, and more from this very special event!

Elissa Sonnenberg
Faculty Adviser
University of Cincinnati Association of Black Journalists

*Special thanks to Cincinnati Association of Black Journalists president Jenell Walton (of WCPO-TV) and Greater Cincinnati SPJ president Hagit Lamor (also of WCPO-TV) for forwarding information about this program to their members and supporters.