The new scoop on political journalism
Excerpted from Columns Magazine. By Derek Belt (BA, '04; MCDM '11).
The UW Election Eye team had a hunch Colorado could be big for Rick Santorum. The former Pennsylvania senator was gaining momentum in his quest to become the Republican Party nominee for president, and for 72 hours before the GOP primary, an intrepid crew of six students and two faculty from the UW Department of Communication fanned out across the Centennial State. They interviewed religious leaders in Colorado Springs, sat down with U.S. Army personnel at Fort Carson, and enjoyed brownies served up by Santorum’s children at a Denver rally.
“You just don’t get that in the classroom,” says David Domke, chair of the Communication Department and the driving force behind UW Election Eye, a unique blogging partnership between the UW and The Seattle Times. “This is the future of higher education. I call it ‘the immersion experience,’ and it makes me a better professor.”
Posted: September 6, 2012
Sheriff's Office PIO offers advice, internship
Sgt. Cindi West—“middle name ‘Wild,’” she joked—stopped by a journalism class earlier this summer to speak about covering police, crime and other beats in the field. West is the public information officer for the King County Sheriff’s Office, a position she has held for eight months. She replaced longtime PIO John Urquhart, who retired. West has worked as a police officer for nearly 28 years. “I was a little worried when I first got this job because I knew I’d be interacting with the media, and as an officer, I’d always been told ‘don’t talk to the media, they’ll try to burn you’,” she said. “But I’ve seen the opposite happen with this job.” Read more about West's class visit >>
Follow summer Foreign Intrigue interns on their blogs
During the summer, four journalism students are interning abroad as Foreign Intrigue scholarship recipients: Imogen Janelle Kohnert in Cambodia, Alexis Krell in Latin America, David Krueger in Sierra Leone and Nicholas Visser in Jordan. Two of the students are writing blogs during the summer.
In his blog, “To the Middle East and Beyond,” Visser writes of his adventures, traveling from America to Paris to Istanbul. After violence had torn the region apart, Syria could no longer be his final destination, therefore postponing his internship. Despite the change in plans, Visser reflects happily upon his extra time spent in Istanbul before moving on to Amman, Jordan. “How lucky was I, to spend a month in this 2,000 year old city that’s been an integral part of some of the most powerful empires in human history?”
Read more about the interns' travel adventures >>
Posted: July 28, 2011
Former TV journalist shares life lessons
To a group of journalism students gathered to listen, Karen Fujii delivered this message: Bring energy to your work. But also demand that your work inspires you.
Fujii relocated to Seattle after an extensive international career in television. She now runs Media Footprint, a media consultation business. She spoke to Karen Rathe’s News Lab class on May 24, bringing insights from her professional experience garnered both nationally and abroad.
Fujii took the students on a whirlwind tour of her history within the broadcast industry, illuminating a career path defined by drive and passion.
“I always knew I wanted to be in broadcast,” said Fujii, who had her eyes in that direction as early as high school.
Posted: June 2, 2011
NPR reporter explains art of science storytelling
On Monday, May 9, join NPR science correspondent Joe Palca for an in-depth session on science storytelling at 9:30 a.m., in CMU 126. Palca will spend the hour discussing how he humanizes and personalizes science stories using reporting, detail and humor.
Palca recently returned from Tokyo, and will discuss his experiences covering the Fukushima nuclear disaster.
Palca comes to journalism from a science background. He received a Ph.D. in psychology from the University of California at Santa Cruz where he worked on human sleep physiology. Since joining NPR in 1992, he has covered a range of science topics — everything from biomedical research to astronomy. In addition to his science reporting, Palca occasionally fills in as guest host on Talk of the Nation Science Friday.
Palca has won numerous awards, including the National Academies Communications Award, the Science-in-Society Award of the National Association of Science Writers, the American Chemical Society James T. Grady-James H. Stack Award for Interpreting Chemistry for the Public, the American Association for the Advancement of Science Journalism Prize, and the Victor Cohn Prize for Excellence in Medical Writing. With Flora Lichtman, Palca is the co-author of Annoying: The Science of What Bugs Us (Wiley, 2011).
Posted: May 4, 2011
Event marks anniversary of Times' Pulitzer Prize
Journalism students got a sneak-peek into what it takes to be a successful journalist for The Seattle Times on Wednesday. Twelve Pulitzer-Prize-winning Times journalists joined nearly 40 students and told, from their perspectives, how they collaborated to cover the tragic incident of November 29, 2009, when felon Maurice Clemmons gunned down four Lakewood police officers.
Their tireless work earned The Seattle Times its eighth Pulitzer Prize for “its comprehensive coverage, in print and online, of the shooting deaths of four police officers in a coffee house and the 40-hour manhunt for the suspect,” cited the Pulitzer committee. Students asked questions throughout the luncheon. Read more >>
Posted: April 6, 2011
CLP team reports from the Middle East
During a six-week journey in November and December that took them through northern Iraq, Syria and Jordan, Common Language Project staff Sarah Stuteville , Jessica Partnow and Alex Stonehill reported on what it means to be a citizen of these countries; nations still struggling nearly a decade after 9/11. The Road to Damascus is a series of stories from their trip. Since their return to the U.S., the team continues to write about their experiences, especially now that politics has taken a turn in many of the areas they visited. Read more >>
Posted: March 11, 2011
Screening of award-winning film by Mike Walter
Film Screening: Breaking News, Breaking Down with Mike Walter
Sponsored by Dart West of the Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma and the Center for Global Studies.
Breaking News, Breaking Down, winner of the 2010 Cannes Independent Film Festival, is a revealing look at how journalists continually go after breaking news, from 9-11 to Katrina, never imagining how it can break them down.
Jan. 27
4-5:30 p.m.
Gowen 201
About Mike Walter: Before starting his own production company, Mike Walter anchored the morning news at WUSA in Washington, D.C.; was a senior correspondent at USA Today; and has been an anchor and reporter in Tampa, Kansas City, St. Louis and Columbus, Ohio. A winner of four Emmy Awards, Walter is also an adjunct professor at the University of Maryland.
Posted: January 21, 2010
Alum Ryan Priest talks with News Lab students about his PR role
Ryan Priest ('09), a communication specialist for Sigma Chi Fraternity’s national headquarters in the Chicago area, visited Karen Rathe's Community News Lab class on Oct. 12 to discuss his career path and how his current job differs from traditional journalism.
He said he uses the skills he learned in News Lab and other journalism courses every time he interviews or sits down to write a story. Read more >>
Posted: November 9, 2010
Keeping students safe at U.S.-Mexico border
Journalism educators from 10 universities and five states assembled on Oct. 1 at the University of Arizona in Tucson to discuss the issues and challenges involved with teaching border reporting along the U.S.-Mexico border. The weekend workshop was organized by Dart Center West. Read more >>
Posted: November 9, 2010
Foreign Intrigue interns share memories
During the summer, four journalism students worked as intern reporters around the world. Thanks to the Foreign Intrigue Scholarship established by a UW Journalism alum, they had the chance to be exposed to another culture while gaining a more thorough understanding of journalism in a foreign country.
The scholarship recipients interned at four news organizations: Andrew Doughman at the Nation Media Group (Nairobi, Kenya), Lillian Tucker at AWOKO (Freetown, Sierra Leone), Molly Rosbach at Reuters (Santiago, Chile) and Joanna Nolasco at The Cambodian Daily (Phnom Penh, Cambodia). Read the personal accounts of their travel >>
Posted: November 2, 2010
Pulitzer winner, NPR reporter join faculty
The Department of Communication is pleased to announce the addition of two faculty members, Usha Lee McFarling and Joanne Silberner.
Usha Lee McFarling is an Artist in Residence who will begin teaching undergraduate and graduate students in winter quarter. Along with her teaching role she will concentrate on her narrative and literary science writing. From 1992 to 1993 McFarling was a Knight Fellow at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and in 2007 while working for the Los Angeles Times she, along with her fellow journalists, won the Pulitzer Prize for their “richly portrayed reports on the world's distressed oceans, telling the story in print and online, and stirring reaction among readers and officials."
Joanne Silberner will teach two courses this year and organize a lecture series or debate while she contributes to various radio programs. In 1992, she started with National Public Radio as health policy correspondent where she covered medicine, health reform, and changes in the health care marketplace. Silberner has won awards for her work from the Society of Professional Journalists, the New York State Mental Health Association, the March of Dimes, Easter Seals, the American Heart Association, and others. Her work has also earned her a Unity Award and a Clarion Award.
Read more about our new faculty >>
Posted: September 27, 2010
Poynter article features journalism partnerships
The Poynter Institute featured the Department of Communication's partnership with Next Door Media and UW’s student newspaper The Daily in a column on "5 Strategies for Successful News Organization-University Partnerships."
NDM has received national attention and, recently, a national award for its coverage of last year’s Greenwood fires. Students in the Entrepreneurial Journalism class produce projects each quarter for NDM blogs, and in return editors spend time sharing their journalism and business expertise.
Posted: June 25, 2010
Revenue Models in the Changing Media Landscape
Just over a year ago, Seattle's long history as a two-paper town ended when the Seattle P-I became an online-only publication.
The traditional media revenue model of selling advertising has produced a diminishing return and can no longer support most outlets. How is the marketplace shifting and what seems to be working the best?
Some have opted to be online only, more global, hyperlocal or topic specific in focus. Some are for profit with micro pricing, while others are nonprofit with listener, reader and grant support. What impact will paid news content have on readership and an informed citizenry? Is there one new model that all will eventually adopt, or does the future of media look more diffused and diverse than in times past?
Join us for happy-hour appetizers and drinks, and bring your own opinions and questions!
Rapid Response: Revenue Models in the Changing Media Landscape
When: Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Where: Rainier Square - Third Floor Atrium | 1333 Fifth Avenue, Seattle
Registration and happy hour: 5:30 p.m | Program: 6 to 7:30 p.m.
Cost: $18/CityClub members, guests and co-presenters | $20/general public
Register online: http://www.seattlecityclub.org/20100630 or call (206) 682-7395.
Featuring:
- Pat Balles, Seattle P-I
- Cory Bergman, Next Door Media
- David Boardman, Seattle Times
- David Brewster, Crosscut
- Josh Feit, Publicola
- Rita Hibbard, Investigate West
- Greg Huang, Xconomy
- Moderator: Hanson Hosein, Director, UW Digital Media
Posted: June 21, 2010
Course lets students try reporting as entrepreneurs
As part of the Department of Communication's Journalism 2025 mindset, we introduced a course this year called Entrepreneurial Journalism. The class partners with Next Door Media, an online news network of Seattle neighborhood blogs.
Posted: June 21, 2010
PBS correspondent on 'Global Health Bug' June 21
Ray Suarez, senior correspondent for PBS NewsHour, will give a talk on "How I caught the Global Health Bug," Monday, June 21 at 7 p.m. in Kane Hall 130. The cost is $10 for students and World Affairs Council members; $15 for non-members. Lecture registration begins at 6:30.
A networking reception before the event at 6 p.m. costs $25 members/students; $35 non-members and will take place in Kane Hall Walker Ames 225.
Suarez will examine questions such as:
- What are the most pressing and underreported global health issues of our time?
- What global health successes are transforming the way people live today?
- As we look forward, what are the emerging global health threats?
- What are the prospects for vaccines for today's most deadly diseases, such as HIV/AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis?
- Why does global health matter as it relates to global development, security, economic growth, and the environment?
Co-Presenters of this event are: CARE, Centro Cultural Hispano Americano, UW Department of Communication, PATH, and Washington Global Health Alliance
Call (206) 441-5910 or visit www.world-affairs.org to register.
Posted: June 8, 2010
Students recognized for excellence in journalism
The Department of Communication held its undergraduate Excellence in Communication Awards, including the Pioneer Newspapers Excellence in Journalism Awards, on May 27. Read more about the winners and view their work >>
Posted: May 28, 2010
UW graduate Charla Bear talks to journalism students about evolving media
While visiting journalism classes May 3-7 at the University of Washington, UW alumna Charla Bear told students how she became an assistant producer for NPR's "Weekend Edition Sunday." Read more >>
Posted: 5-11-10
Department awards $100,000 in scholarships
The Department of Communication held its 2010 Scholarship Awards Ceremony in Communications 120 on May 6. About $100,000 in scholarship money was awarded to 39 recipients. Watch photos of the event and read about the recipients >>
Student working at KIRO nominated for EMMY
Senior journalism major Nicholas Trost has been nominated for a 2010 Annual Northwest Regional EMMY Award along with KIRO Senior Editor and UW Communication alum Gregg Grinnell ('80). Grinnell and Trost, a web content editor at KIRO, submitted VOTE NOW! KIRO 7 Game of the Week in the "Interactivity - Programming" category. The site allowed viewers to vote at www.kirotv.com for the game they wanted covered.
The nominations were announced at the 2010 EMMY All Stars celebration held on April 16.
Trost and Grinnell wrote in their application:
“The KIRO 7 Game of the Week competition tried to find the best high school football matchup every Friday night, as decided by the students. Throughout the 2009 competition, we have had the pleasure of witnessing firsthand the power of interacting with our target audience. We went out to the high schools and shot promos, where we talked with the high school students who we tried to relate to. We used news teases during our broadcast to help get the high school football community to our website. We also went out to the home team of the winning matchup every Friday afternoon and entered their classrooms, lunchrooms and playgrounds giving them an outlet to show their school spirit (i.e. “Campus Crashers”). And last but not least we went to the game on Friday night and put the highlights in a special segment on the 11 PM newscast. Even more fun, was watching how our audience responded: They came in the hundreds of thousands to our surveys on KIROtv.com and came in large numbers to our Facebook and Twitter pages as well. Our audience didn’t stop there as they submitted their own photos and videos for their rivals and the world to see. This competition showed us that when you have an active conversation with your audience and your local community at large, something special happens. We hope you enjoy the video.”
Other interactive KIRO sites that Trost is working on include: www.kirotv.com/hsbasketball; www.kirotv.com/schoolspirit; www.kirotv.com/prom; and www.kirotv.com/hstheatre.
Posted: 4-26-10
Journalism student reports on WaMu hearings
UW journalism student Kelly Gilblom is reporting this week from Washington, D.C., on Senate-panel hearings about the September 2008 seizure of Seattle-based Washington Mutual. Gilblom is interning for the Puget Sound Business Journal and is attending the hearings with reporter Kirsten Grind. Follow her reports on Twitter (@KellyGilblom) and at the Puget Sound Business Journal.
Posted: 4-12-10
Student sees fruit of microloan first-hand in China
Anderson reported and took photographs for China Daily during her Journalism Foreign Intrigue internship.
While there, she saw microfinance in action when she visited a farmer who was able to grow his business with a $140 microloan. The pig he bought with part of the money multiplied to become 80 pigs.
She also became aware of new freedoms that China’s media world was experiencing.
Read Chantal Anderson's reflections from China >>
Posted: 3-31-10
Katelin Chow covers Winter Olympics for CBS
Journalism major Katelin Chow covered the Winter Olympics in Vancouver during her winter quarter internship with CBS.
Posted: 3-19-10
Summit looks at health, media interactions
The fourth annual Summit on Health Inequality presents, "Get the Scoop: Media and Health."
When: Saturday, April 10, 2010
Time: 10:30 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Where: UW Foege Building (15th and Pacific)
Cost: Free! Includes breakfast and lunch
Registration: www.uwseh.org
How is modern media influencing our health? Are the images used to communicate health ethically portraying the communities they feature? What determines whether a health issue will be featured in the news? How can new media tools be used to raise awareness about social issues? What are some examples of effective public health campaigns? How is the interface between media and health affecting us?
We invite you to "get the scoop" about interactions between media and health this spring at the University of Washington Students for Equal Health 4th Annual Summit on Health Inequality. The 2010 conference theme uses media as a fresh, exciting perspective to inspire innovative conversations about health in our modern world. We are examining the influence of social media, broadcasting, photography, journalism, television, documentaries, and other new media tools on the portrayal and perception of health today. Come and join the conversation!
The current list of speakers includes keynote Nancy Lee and: Mary Mapes, Lisa Cohen, Daniel Hart, Kathy Gill, Anita Crofts, Tom Paulson, and Ansel Herz.
Our speakers have worked or are currently working with: Seattle Post-Intelligencer, CBS News, Washington Global Health Alliance, Social Marketing Services, Inc., UW Department of Global Health, Health Alliance International, PATH, UW Native Voices, UW Masters of Communication in Digital Media.
This event is co-sponsored by: UW Department of Global Health, UW Department of Communication, and ASUW.
Posted: 3-15-10
Alumna Heather Brooke returns to the UW
Communication alumna Heather Brooke's records requests started a chain of events that led to the shakeup of British Parliament. During a recent trip to Seattle, Brooke made a stop at the Communication Department and the office of The Daily, and talked about her roots as a journalist.
Anna Norman working on NatGeo's 'Border Wars'
Student Anna Norman is on leave from the University of Washington and is working as an associate producer for National Geographic Television. She is currently working on a new documentary series, premiering Jan. 10 at 9 p.m., called "Border Wars." The show follows the officers of U.S. Customs and Border Protection as they patrol the U.S./Mexico border at the ports of entry, in the desert, and from the air. After the first episode, the series will move to Monday nights at 9 p.m.
Updated: Jan. 8, 2010
Students receive Kaplan journalism awards
Since the establishment of the Deborah Kaplan Memorial endowment, the Department of Communication has given awards to top students from the narrative journalism class. Each award winner receives $100 from the Deborah Kaplan Memorial endowment.
Spring 2009 Kaplan award winners
- People on the margins: Nick Feldman, "Where the Homeless Take Refuge"
- Strong writing style: Molly Rosbach, "Where Everybody Calls You Names"
- Human personality profile: Vivian Luu, "That Vendor is Me"
- Deeper story: Aislyn Greene, "Mispocheh (Family), Pesach & Matzah, Part I"
- Important public issue: Reed Summers, "Tblisi"
Fall 2009 Kaplan award winners
- People on the Margins: Kristopher Edin, "Neah Bay"
- Strong writing style: Ashley Morse, "Dubai"
- Human personality profile: Nicole Bradford, "Rosie"
- Deeper story: Lael Telles, "Words Lost in Time"
- Important public issue: Parisa Sadrzadeh, "Tehran"
Posted: 1-29-10
Seattle Times publishes editorial from PhD student
Manoucheka Celeste, a doctoral student in the UW Department of Communication, reflects on the images of dead Haitians that have flooded newspapers and television sets around the country in an editorial published in The Seattle Times on Jan. 26.
Celeste studies the representation of race in the media. Because she is originally from Port-au-Prince, coverage of this disaster has especially hit home. She writes that, "while the images mobilized some to help, they are damaging in the long term as they become ingrained in how we imagine Haitians."
She goes on to say, "This earthquake, despite the amazing pain that it has caused to so many, presents an unprecedented opportunity. Viewers and readers can demand that in people's darkest hour or once they lose their lives that they are treated with dignity."
Posted: 1-27-10
Authors discuss book on saving journalism
"The Death and Life of American Journalism: The Media Revolution that Will Begin the World Again"
Robert McChesney and John Nichols
Monday, Jan. 18, 2010
UW Kane Hall 210
6 p.m.
We’ve lost the Seattle Post-Intelligencer; daily newspapers are closing; even the venerable Boston Globe is at risk. “Surviving” newspapers are shedding reporters, shuttering bureaus, and ignoring entire areas of coverage. Journalism, the counterbalance to corporate and political power, and the lifeblood of an informed citizenry, is not just threatened — it is in meltdown.
Robert McChesney ('86, '89) and John Nichols believe the federal government
should intervene to save newspapers, and journalism — and they have history on their side: The founders who wrote a free-press protection into the First Amendment provided subsidies to the burgeoning print press of our young nation. McChesney and Nichols are co-founders of Free Press, a national media reform organization.
Kathy Gill on Huffington Post's Seattle Twitter list
Twitter's new list features have become a popular way for followers to categorize information. One way to get a pulse on real-time Seattle activity is by visiting The Huffington Post's Seattle LIVE Guide, which follows Seattle news, sports, and people through Twitter.
Congratulations to Department of Communication Senior Lecturer Kathy Gill, who was included in the "Seattle People" list. You can read more of Gill's Tweets by following her Twitter handle @kegill.
