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Back To the Future
By: Eun-Ju Shara Choi
Community Journalism: UW News Lab

Posted: 05.11.05

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University of Washington alumni poured into the crowded entrance of the Communication building at 5 p.m. on April 22, 2005, filling the air with shrieks and cries of “How are you? I haven’t seen you in so long!” and “What are you up to these days?”

Café Communication and “Tell Me More”…Speed Networking

Tables decorated with purple and gold covers, amid floating balloons, transformed the Department of Communication Conference Room into Café Communication, a speed-networking style event aimed at guests making new connections in the industry as well as catching up with old friends and acquaintances.

Tamara Wilson, of Tamara Wilson Public Relations, arranged for refreshments for the function. Thanks to Tamara, gourmet food donated by various venues, including the Metropolitan Market, Blue C Sushi, Organic To Go, Atlas Foods and Il Fornaio, crowded tabletops, surrounded by decorative purple and gold napkins. Rainier Wine donated cases of wine the guests sipped while networking.

Guests also enjoyed Columbia Wines thanks to the generosity of Stacy Peterson, a 1986 Speech Communication alumna, who donated two cases from her private collection.

Two giant notepads were situated at both ends of the café with headlines: “The best advice I ever got…” and “One thing I learned the hard way…” Alumni from all walks of communications life wrote short messages that they felt would help those who desired to enter the professional field of communication.

Brian Chin, class of 1990, wrote that the best advice he ever got was “(you) learn how to practice journalism by doing it, not studying it.”

Pat Foote, class of 1971, wrote that one thing she learned the hard way was “(if) you’re not good at office politics, don’t play ‘em.”

The room was packed from front to back with alumni from every profession imaginable. Sally Farhat (’99), who currently works for Sweetgrass Advertising, received her Communication degree at UW. She wrote for the Detroit Free Press right out of college by attending a job fair and telling the editors, “Hi, I’m Sally. You need to hire me.” She also wrote for the Bremerton Sun for a year and was an editor for InStyle Magazine. However, she got homesick and returned to Washington and obtained a position at Sweetgrass, and has been employed there since last August.

Chris Hanzeli, class of 2004, holds a position as the assistant to Mary Lane, communications director for Dino Rossi. Hanzeli explained that the last thing he wanted to be involved in was politics when he got out of college, but “things just happen in life.” He also urged students to never “be afraid to go where you’re not comfortable.”

Another alumnus who attended was Greg Heberlein, class of 1969. He began writing for the Los Angeles Times at the age of 14, and received journalism scholarships to the University of Southern California, University of California Los Angeles and the University of Washington. He was the editor of The Daily, as well as his high school and junior high school newspapers and worked at The Seattle Times for 32 years before retiring.

Heberlein was successful in the field of journalism because “journalism came out of my pores.” He advises students to “work like hell and make the employer think you’re not expendable.”

There were many different professions represented at the function, the aforementioned individuals being only a select few of the crowd. Café Communication was open throughout the entire function. Alumni were able to sit and chat in the room the entire time.

A Daily Reunion

A reunion of The Daily staff alumni began at 5:30 p.m. This event was hosted by Amanda Castleman, Gregg Herrington, John Keister and Dean Paton.

Gerald Baldasty, Department of Communication chair, opened the session by recognizing Oren Campbell’s 50-year contribution to journalism. Current publisher of The Daily, Campbell retires this year.

Amanda Castleman (’96, Latin), The Daily editor spring quarter of 1996, shared her story about her first job out of college in Oxford, England, for an entertainment magazine. “It tanked as most entertainment magazines do, and when I was leaving, my editor stopped me and asked, ‘Did you date Oren Campbell?’ I thought it was a little strange,” Castleman recalled. When she asked her editor why he asked, he told her, “That was simply the most amazing reference letter I have ever seen in my life.”

“I think it shows Oren’s amazing generosity. He can be understated, even taciturn at times, but when it comes down to it, he is dedicated to his students and the journalism community. I am honored to have worked with him,” she said, presenting him a framed Daily mock-up as a retirement gift, and a hug.

Gregg Herrington (’67) reminisced about when he arrived in 1965, “the paper was published in a flatbed press in this building.” He also mentioned that while he was attending UW, the first professor course evaluations were administered. “The Wall Street Journal did a page one story about it,” Herrington said. The article began like this: “Oceanography professor at the University of Washington best fits his description of an abysmal plain — dull, flat and covered with sediments.”

Others shared their experiences and memories of when they were involved with publishing their college newspaper.

John Keister (’80, English), host of former Television program “Almost Live!”, spoke about what he learned as being part of The Daily staff, most particularly the April Fool’s issues published containing practical jokes. “One time (on April Fool’s Day), we decided to print on the cover of The Daily that the ventilation towers had fallen over in the Red Square,” Keister explained. “Years later, on an Almost Live! episode that fell on April 1st, I got (an) idea from The Daily…to make it look like the Space Needle fell down...and make it look somewhat convincing. When we did this, it shut down the 9-1-1 line in Seattle and the operators could not let everyone know it was a hoax.”

When Paton thought back to his Daily days, he tried to recall “the worst thing I did when I was at The Daily. I thought it was when I voided on the Safeco building…but it actually was when I told the painters what colors to paint this room. I apologize for the paint.”

Many other Daily alumni spoke at the open mic session of A Daily Reunion. They spoke about their successes and failures as student journalists. There seemed to be a general consensus about having had worked for The Daily while attending the University of Washington. “I wouldn’t trade it for anything,” Matt Hagen, a Daily alumnus, said at the end of his speech. Everyone seemed to agree.

Speed Teaching: The next big things in communications

Alongside the “Tell Me More…” event held in Café Communication and A Daily Reunion held in The Daily offices, another event began at 7 p.m. in room 120 — Speed Teaching. Three presentations were given by faculty and alumni who explained the next big things in the field of communications.

The first presentation was given by Lucas Welch (‘04), a junior public relations associate with Shepardson, Stern and Kaminsky, and Crispin Thurlow, UW Department of Communication assistant professor, titled “Com is Gr8!” The duo talked about the integration of cell phones, specifically text messaging, into today’s society, stating that currently in the United States, 166 million people chat on cell phones.

“On the subject of chatting, telephones have been around for over 100 years,” Welch explained. “Around the ‘50s, people discovered the chatting phenomenon.”

Since then, Americans have enjoyed the ability to communicate with one another without personal face-to-face contact. Thurlow explains that our “primitive communicative need to communication to each other” fuels our need to stay in contact with one another, using cell phones or other technological means.

The next presentation focused on the Internet and Electoral Politics. Kirsten Foot, UW assistant professor in the Department of Communication, reminded us of the 2004 presidential elections when Vice President Cheney told America to go to factcheck.com to “see that what my opponent is saying about me is not true.” Factcheck.com, however, was the wrong Web site; what Cheney meant to say was factcheck.org. However, even after the dot-com/dot-org mix-up was fixed, Cheney realized that factcheck.org did not endorse his candidacy as he thought they did.

“Anytime a political actor sends the public to an independent Web site, he is choosing to release control,” Foot explained.

Peter Callaghan (’79), news columnist for the Tacoma News Tribune, spoke about bloggers on the Internet. He presented a report by the Carnegie Corp. called “Abandoning the News,” which said 39 percent of 18- to 34-year-olds intended to use the Internet as a news source, while only 8 percent intended to use newspapers.

Some fear that the Internet is putting journalists out of business, Callaghan said. However, most political information that bloggers use in their topics were taken from mainstream news sources.
“Somebody’s gotta report this stuff,” Callaghan concluded. “Blogs don’t report. (journalists do.)”

The final presentation, “Media and Foreign Relations,” was given by Evelyn Iritani (‘78), Pulitzer Prize winning reporter for the Los Angeles Times, and Nancy Rivenburgh, associate professor for the Department of Communication.

Iritani spoke of the changes in technology and communication since she first began reporting foreign relations at the beginning of her career. “You can’t land in a remote place and disappear for a few days because you couldn’t find a telephone to call your editor,” she explained. “You have no excuses anymore.”

Iritani shared her views about newspaper readership. “The little concern in the back of my head (is) if people aren’t really reading these stories, editors will start to realize that it’s really expensive to have foreign correspondents overseas. “On my worst days, I believe that my mother is the only person reading my stories,” she admitted. “And on my best days, I feel as though I have the best job in the world.”

Rivenburgh spoke about the academic side of media and foreign relations. She pointed out that foreign media no longer provide just news and information. A recent example is when the tsunami hit. “Country X is pledging $50 million, and another country says, ‘Only $50 million?’ and a bidding war began.”

Rivenburgh also mentioned that since anyone can get online and read the front page of any country’s news, it is easy to monitor foreign media. “The pressure of foreign opinion can pressure foreign governments to change,” Rivenburgh says. “The world can watch and support protesters — and governments don’t have the power to kill these people — offering them a sort of protection.”

These three presentations illustrated the next big things in the field of communications, indicating that the vast field of communication is changing on a daily basis. The Speed Teaching session concluded at the end of the night.

Hallways in the Communication Building remained bustling for a few minutes after the event ended. Hugs and goodbyes filled the room with the warmth of friendship and memories.

“See you next time!” someone called as he walked out the door.