Student’s blog on Blair grabs online attention
Commonwealth Chronicle, a news blog created by a Washington and Lee journalism student and a recent graduate, grabbed the online news media's attention this week with its exclusive coverage of former New York Times reporter Jayson Blair's visit to campus for the semiannual Journalism Ethics Institute.
A widely-read blog, Romenesko, published a link to the Commonwealth Chronicle's (http://commonwealthchronicle.com) story that offered a behind-the-scenes view of W&L's 48th Institute. The blog, created by Cameron Steele ’10 and Becky Bratu ’09, includes a video interview Steele conducted with Blair after the Institute.
Journalist Jim Romenesko’s blog http://www.poynter.org/column.asp?id=45 is published on the Web site of the Poynter Institute for Media Studies, which is dedicated to teaching working journalists. The Commonwealth Chronicle site had already gotten about 200 hits by 4 p.m. Tuesday, with a large percentage of traffic from people clicking on the Romenesko link.
Blair’s participation in the W&L Ethics Institute was controversial, prompting criticism from professional journalists who objected to a keynote address by the former reporter. Blair resigned from The Times in disgrace in 2003 after an investigation revealed that he had plagiarized and fabricated major elements of his stories.
Steele and Bratu created the Commonwealth Chronicle to report on such issues as transportation and education. Self-described "journalism junkies," Bratu and Steele also hope their site will help them find jobs in journalism.
-- Becky Bratu ‘09
Nicole Mooradian '08 wins regional Emmy
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Tammy Leitner, Nicole Mooradian and David Paredes holding the Emmys they won with the rest of the investigative team at KPHO for a one night "Assault on Arizona" special broadcast. |
Less than a year and a half after receiving her degree from W&L's Department of Journalism and Mass Communications, Nicole Mooradian, '08, took home a regional Emmy statuette for her work at Phoenix television station KPHO.
Mooradian, along with investigative team members Tammy Leitner and David Paredes, won the Rocky Mountain Emmy on Oct. 24 in the Advanced Media - Investigative category for the web component of the 5 Investigates "Assault on Arizona" series.
The Assault on Arizona series, which aired for a week on television in March, provided an extensive look into what Border Patrol agents see in the field.
Mooradian combined the broadcast packages and audio slideshows that Leitner and Paredes created with text versions of the stories, previous stories and related slideshows into the Emmy-winning online package.
The Rocky Mountain chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences covers Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, Wyoming and El Centro, Calif.
J&MC Slam!
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Prospective majors at the J&MC Slam watched video of Kelly Evans '07, anchor of WSJ.com's News Hub. |
Students heard career advice and got academic information. Current majors discussed their experiences in the department and presented PowerPoint summaries of their summer internships. Alumna Sarah Helms ’07 talked about her job with McCann-Erickson in New York City, one of the nation’s largest advertising agencies, where Helms works on the Exxon-Mobil account.
But prospective majors also heard more personal testimonials about the department.
"I know it's sappy, but it's true: The professors are like my family,” said Cameron Steele ’10. “They've been there for me when my parents weren't, my boyfriend wasn't, my sorority sisters weren't."
Department Head Brian Richardson acknowledged that the department is often referred to on campus as “the J-school.” But he pointed out its status as an academic department like any other, including its emphasis on scholarship. The university’s most recent Rhodes Scholar, for example, was a Journalism and Mass Communications and Politics double-major.
Richardson, Helms and current students also emphasized the department’s focus on communications media besides journalism, including public relations and advertising.
For curricular information about the department, go to http://journalism.wlu.edu/Curriculum/index.html
Prof. Artwick meets with alums at ONA conference
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Jess Ramos (’09) and Nicole Mooradian (’08) met up with Claudette Artwick at the Online News Association conference in San Francisco, where they learned about the latest in digital news. Kudos to Mooradian, who, as part of a team at KPHO.com in Phoenix, has been nominated for an Emmy. |
New look for The Rockbridge Report
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Professors Brian Richardson and Bob de Maria relax on the new tv set |
The Rockbridge Report, the Department of Journalism and Mass Communications’ public face, got a makeover this summer.
A thorough re-design of the department’s broadcast studio, including the installation of a new news set and lighting grid, was completed by FX Group of Orlando, Fla. in mid-August.
The new studio was made possible by a grant from the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation. The three-year, $1.75-million grant also funded a sweeping renovation of the department’s digital multimedia technology to accommodate conversion to High Definition broadcasting.
The grant has also funded a series of journalism, politics and law seminars, summer internships for prospective journalists, and a three-year faculty position in legal reporting.
“We’re delighted with our new look,” said Department Head Brian Richardson. “Its more professional look and feel will better help our students prepare for careers in broadcast and online journalism.”
Planning for the new studio and technology anticipated the increasing prominence of the internet in giving audiences on-demand access to broadcast news. Department faculty and staff, including Profs. Bob de Maria and Indira Somani and Technical Operations Manager Michael Todd, interviewed half a dozen vendors who responded to a formal request for proposals last winter.
“Even if local television news abandons its traditional live, over-the-air format for online-only broadcasts, we’ll be ready,” Richardson said.
The Rockbridge Report is the department’s multimedia local news production. It is broadcast live at 4:30 p.m. on Thursdays during the Fall and Winter terms, and appears on the Web at rockbridgereport.wlu.edu. The Rockbridge Report is a combined production of several journalism classes taught by department faculty.
The Donald W. Reynolds Foundation is a national philanthropic organization founded in 1954 by the late media entrepreneur for whom it is named. Headquartered in Las Vegas, Nev., it is one of the largest private foundations in the United States.Professor Cumming publishes his first book
Associate Professor Doug Cumming has published The Southern Press, a look at literary Southern journalists from Edgar Allan Poe to Tom Wolfe and feisty regional editors from the antebellum period to the Civil Rights years.
The book was released by Northwestern University Press in July. Cumming, who joined the Department of Journalism and Mass Communications faculty in 2003, argues that the slower development of Southern cities, along with cultural dispositions, produced a more literary and emotional style of journalism. The influence of Southerners on the New Journalism movement of the 1960s has been overlooked, Cumming says, and he speculates on the future of regional traditions in a post-modern digital era.
The book is the latest volume in a paperback series called Visions of the American Press, edited by Medill School of Journalism professor David Abrahamson and published under the new Medill Imprint for Northwestern’s press.
According to the book’s dust cover blurb: “With analysis of such figures as Henry Grady and Ralph McGill, among many others, Cumming leads the reader through a thoughtful account of a regional press distinguished by ferocious editors, determined reporters and elegant, carefully wrought prose. Whether celebrating, criticizing, or explaining the South, these journalists helped outsiders understand the region.”
Cumming teaches reporting, magazine writing and newspaper history courses in the department.
Joe Dashiell '80 wins VAB award
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photo by Dave Seidel '97, WDBJ/News-7 |
JoeDashiell, '80, received the George A. Bowles, Jr. Broadcast Journalism Award from the Virginia Association of Broadcasters. The VAB describes the recipient as "a broadcast news journalist who has longevity in Virginia broadcasting, is respected by his or her peers and who exhibits enthusiasm for his or her work and the community." The VAB presentedJoe with the award June 26th in Virginia Beach at the annual convention. Joe is a reporter at WDBJ Television, the CBS affiliate in Roanoke, Virginia.
National Press Club event attracts C-SPAN coverage
C-SPAN cameras were rolling at W&L’s second annual Politics and Media Symposium May 15 at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C.
The event, jointly sponsored by the Politics and the Journalism and Mass Communications departments and backed by a grant from The Donald W. Reynolds Foundation, featured a panel of political observers discussing the question, “President vs. Congress: An Imbalance of Powers?”
This year’s symposium panelists were Terry Eastland, publisher of the conservative opinion magazine The Weekly Standard; Shailagh Murray, congressional correspondent for The Washington Post; Chip Reid, Capitol Hill correspondent for CBS News; and Don Wolfensberger, director of the Congress Project at Washington’s Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.
Symposium attendees included W&L alumni from the D.C. chapter and 15 students from Prof. William Connelly’s Washington Term Program. Prof. Connelly founded the Washington Term Program more than 20 years ago. The politics-media symposium is now one of the program’s features along with seminars, site visits and internships.
The panel discussion followed a sit-down lunch at the Press Club’s Holeman Lounge.
Emphasizing the timeliness of the topic, on Thursday C-SPAN had covered competing news conferences about the GOP and Democratic energy plans and a town hall meeting in Albuquerque, N.M., where President Obama justified an economic recovery plan criticized by both parties, though accepted if not embraced by congressional Democrats.
C-SPAN did not broadcast W&L’s National Press Club event live but expected to air it the week of May 24.
Professors Abah and Cumming granted tenure
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Associate Professors Doug Cumming and Dayo Abah |
Assistant Professors Dayo Abah and Doug Cumming have both been granted tenure and promotion to associate professor by the University Trustees.
Abah joined the faculty in 2002, Cumming in 2003. Their tenure and promotions were decided during the Trustees spring meeting May 8-9. They become associate professors on July 1.
Abah and Cumming were both recommended for tenure by their tenured colleagues in the Department of Journalism and Mass Communications, by a university committee, and by University President Ken Ruscio. The recommendations came after a careful review of their teaching, scholarship and service since their arrival at W&L.
“We are pleased but not surprised,” Department Head Brian Richardson said of the trustees’ decision. “Since the day each first walked in to Reid Hall, Dayo Abah and Doug Cumming have added significantly to the strength of our faculty and the quality of our students’ education.”
Abah teaches courses in mass media law, international communications and crisis public relations. Since her arrival she has also taught the department’s gateway course, Introduction to Mass Media. Her research interests are in intercultural communications and mass communications law in the Internet age. She has published several articles in scholarly journals of communications law and international and cross-cultural communications. She holds the Ph.D. from the University of South Carolina. http://journalism.wlu.edu/faculty/dayo.html
Cumming, whose scholarship focuses on southern journalism and journalism history, teaches introductory news writing, beat reporting, news media history and magazine and feature writing.
His first book, The Southern Press: Literary Legacies and the Challenges of Modernity, is scheduled for publication in July. He earned his Ph.D. at the University of North Carolina. http://journalism.wlu.edu/faculty/cummingcv.pdf
Pulitzer prize winner to be Reynolds Visiting Professor
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Caesar Andrews |
Caesar Andrews, one of the Detroit Free Press staff that won the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for local reporting, is the newest Reynolds Distinguished Visiting Professor in the Department of Journalism and Mass Communications.
Andrews, who left as executive editor of the Free Press to pursue his longtime interest in education, will join the department for the 12-week Fall Term. He will teach Editing for Print Media and a course of his own design, Covering Classic Journalism.
His professorship is made possible by a grant from the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation.
“Caesar Andrews is well-known in the industry for his enlightened and energizing leadership,” said Department Head Brian Richardson. “And now the Pulitzer jury has recognized his commitment to superior journalism and serving his community. We are delighted that our students will be taught by a journalist of his stature.”
Said Andrews: "Washington and Lee has an impressive journalism program. I am excited about spending a semester there and working closely with the next generation of journalists."
MacDonald inducted into Virginia Hall of Fame
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| Ron MacDonald |
The late Ronald H. MacDonald, who taught journalism and mass communications at Washington and Lee for more than three decades, was inducted into the Virginia Communications Hall of Fame Thursday night (April 2).
“Ron received many professional congratulations and awards during the span of his career, but none would have exceeded this one,” his widow, Pat MacDonald Irons, told about 150 people at the induction ceremony at The Jefferson Hotel in Richmond. They included nine former colleagues and friends from Washington and Lee. Four former students of MacDonald were in attendance.
“For those of you who knew Ron, you knew that he was not one to seek recognition just for its own sake,” Irons told the gathering. “His search was for excellence in journalism. He achieved that goal in his broadcasting career, but the opportunity to teach journalism at W&L gave him the challenge to pass on his journalistic ethics and methods to younger minds. “
MacDonald, who died in July 2008, was one of five people elected – and the only elected posthumously – for induction this year into the Hall of Fame.
Read and watch WDBJ-7 coverage
Journalism students bring home seven awards
Washington & Lee journalism students earned seven awards – with an unprecedented three winners – in the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) Region II annual collegiate journalism competition.
Winners of the Mark of Excellence Awards were The Rockbridge Report, http://rockbridgereport.wlu.edu/ , the converged news Web site of the Department of Journalism and Mass Communications; Jacob Geiger, for his editorials in the independent student-run Ring-tum Phi, and Alex Scaggs, for her feature profile of a former POW published in Take Two!, the department’s single issue magazine for 2008. Geiger is a senior print journalism major and Scaggs is a business journalism major.
W&L also earned three second-place and one third-place awards.
Supreme Court reporter discusses legacies of justices
Joan Biskupic, USA Today’s Supreme Court reporter, shared her insights into the nation’s highest court with Washington & Lee students during a speech March 18.
Biskupic discussed the distinctive personalities and dueling legacies of two of history’s most intriguing justices, Sandra Day O’Connor and Antonin Scalia.
Biskupic, who has been following, reporting on and writing about the Supreme Court for 20 years, wrote a biography of O’Connor, “Sandra Day O’Connor: How the First Woman on the Supreme Court became Its Most Influential Justice.” It was published in 2005.
She is finishing a book about Scalia that is scheduled for publication later this year
CNN broadcaster offers advice to women journalists
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Carol Costello of CNN watches students direct The Rockbridge Report broadcast from the control room in Reid Hall. (W&L photo by Pat Hinely '73.) |
Women in the news industry need to support one another in order to eliminate the obstacles holding women back, CNN contributor Carol Costello said in a provocative address Mar. 12.
“Women are at a time in history when true equality is in our grasp,” Costello said. “If we as women support and loudly defend one another, just think of the power we would yield.”
Costello gave her talk, “Women in TV News,” at Washington and Lee University’s Stackhouse Theatre.
Read full story
Watch Costello's address
Reynolds faculty address future of news
Two prominent former journalists now on the faculty of the Department of Journalism and Mass Communications offered sobering views on the future of the news industry recently.
“Simply put, journalism desperately needs your help,” Tom Mattesky, retired deputy bureau chief for CBS News in Washington, told students in the department in a public lecture March 4.
In the past 25 years, Mattesky said, “journalism has stumbled, bumbled and even misled. Fabrication and plagiarism have rocked this industry from its smallest outlets to its celebrated titans. The watchdogs of the opinion-makers have become the lapdogs of their own agendas, and the search for the truth too often has been lost in the process.”
But Mattesky said the students he has seen this term make him hopeful about the industry’s future.
In a separate address March 6, Locy described her ordeal as a reporter for USA Today after a federal judge ordered her to reveal the names of confidential sources or face fines of up to $5,000 a day.
“In post-9/11 America, where secrecy is an epidemic, we need government insiders now more than ever to tell reporters how public officials are using their vast powers,” Locy said. “Without their help, the public will never learn about government abuse or corruption.”
Locy called for passage of a federal shield law that would protect reporters from revealing confidential sources under most circumstances.
Mattesky is this term’s Reynolds Distinguished Visiting Professor at Washington and Lee. Locy is the department’s Donald W. Reynolds Professor of Legal Journalism. Both appointments are underwritten by grants from the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation.
Locy’s speech was the keynote address of the department’s 47th Institute on the Ethics of Journalism. The institutes are made possible by a grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.
Read Mattesky’s address
Listen to Mattesky’s address
Read Locy’s address
Listen to Locy’s address