SPJ to “Slice n’ Dice” with professionals, pizza

Kayla Hanley, Reporter

This week Ohio University’s Society of Professional Journalists will hold a “slice n’ dice” event in which journalism professionals such as editors, professors and others with hiring experience in the journalism industry will offer resume critique.

Attendees will present their resumes to the professionals who will “dice” the resumes by giving their opinions of what to add, take out or edit. The “slice” part of the event refers to the free pizza that will be available to all who attend.

OU SPJ Secretary Gina Mussio helped to organize the event.

“We feel this is a beneficial event for students as a resume is a student’s ‘face’ when applying for internships or jobs and they want that to be the best it can be. A bad resume can make or break an application and this meeting will help prepare students and give them the advice they need to make their resumes presentable,” Mussio said.

The question of, “How can I make my resume stand out?” is one that often lingers in the minds of those applying for internships and jobs.

“Be succinct,” Professor Andy Alexander, who will be present at the event, said.  “Don’t leave out important elements. But make your resume a quick read. Prospective employers see tons of resumes and, in giving yours an initial review, will spend little time studying it. Help them. Be concise.”

Many students have different interests within the journalism field, so it can be hard to choose what experiences to include in a resume.

“Stress any multi-media expertise or training. Most employers are looking for people with these skills,” Alexander said.

Professor Alexander also said that it is a good idea to try and make references applicable to the prospective employer.

“If one of my students were to apply for a job or internship at The Washington Post, I would hope that they would list me as a reference because I used to work there. Familiarity of a reference can help ensure that your resume gets special attention,” Alexander said.

By speaking to journalism professionals such as Professor Alexander, those who attend will also have the opportunity to put their foot in the door and make possible internship and job connections.

SPJ encourages students to attend and take advantage of this opportunity for helpful resume critique this Tuesday at 5 p.m. in Baker 231.

SPJ to hold journalism toolbox discussion

Holly Moody, Reporter

Ohio University’s Society of Professional Journalists will be discussing various online journalism tools and resources in order to help students further their journalism careers on Tuesday, October 4 at 5 p.m. in Scripps 111.

Students will be able to gain insight on tools such as Poynter.org, an informational journalism website with the latest in journalism news, events, training, and how-to’s on news gathering, using social media, and more.

“We realize that there are not always chances for students to learn everything about the journalism profession and how to further their careers,” said Mirfendereski.

In addition, students will be shown resources via websites on how to shoot video, use photo shop and other journalism technologies.

“People want to learn these tools but sometimes can’t find the time because of classes,”said Mifendereski.

The event is open to all students and majors.

Ed2010 and SPJ host local bands to battle at the Union

Story // Mat Roberts, Reporter

On Feb. 24, the Ohio University chapters of Ed2010 and Society of Professional Journalists presented the hottest show in Athens  — Battle of the Bands.  Completing its second year in the making, this fundraising event garnered the attention of an enthusiastic audience at its Union venue.

The event included a trio of vigorous performances including Matt Reid & TGP, Millions of Michael Jordans, and Dr. Beat and the Beatoffs.

Jeff Trasin (left) and Matt Reed (right) of Matt Reed & TGP battle it out at the co-hosted Battle of the Bands.

Before the fundraising event began, Dr. Bob Stewart, director of the E.W Scripps School of Journalism, and the Bob Stewart Band kicked off with a short performance to warm the incoming crowd.

Dan Weiner (drums), Greg Bikowski (bass), John Ortman (harmonica), Elliot Abrams (lead guitar) and Bob Stewart (guitar/vocals) began the night with a few songs including “I Got this Feelin’,” “Coming for You” and “What I Remember Most.”

Placed in front of a panel of judges including Scripps alumnus Jason Stone, disc jockey for Power 105, the competing performances vied for the prize of one day of studio time at 3-Elliot Studio.

After the warm-up came the first performance of the night delivered by Matt Reed & TGP. The Columbus-born band used their funk and soul style to win the crowd’s attention.  Using a wide array of sounds emanating from keyboards, bass, beats and a duo of vocals, Matt Reed & TGP set the bar high for the following performances. The band is comprised of Matt Reed (Vocals), Jeff Trasin (Keyboard, Decks, Vocals), Jon Hammond (Bass) and Cliff Lefevre (Drums, Sampler).

To continue the battle, Millions of Michal Jordans donned red cut off T-shirts with a star surrounded by Michael Jordan logos.  This athletic-inspired band was led by Kyle Truitt (Drums), Greg “Ay” O’Hearn (Bass), Jared Kurzawa (I-lead), Nathan Moore (II-rhythm).

The last band to make an impression on stage was Dr. Beat and the Beatoffs. The traditional instrumental flood of sounds was a great way to end the night. With Ian Lesage (Guitar/Vocals), John Kammere (Bass) and Nick Kopko (Drums), the trio of OU music majors entertained the audience who waited for the conclusion of the battle.

After the final performance, judges gave a critique of the bands on their musical creativity, stage presence and audience involvement.  Matt Reed & the TGP left with this year’s Battle of the Bands prize, while SPJ walked away with yet another successful fundraising event under their belt.

SPJ explores depths of reporting from professional outlook

Story // Nicole Spears, Reporter

Ohio University’s Society of Professional Journalists will collaborate this week with the Institute for International Journalism (IIJ) and other OU organizations to deliver a compelling double-feature on investigative reporting.

Today Rebecca Hamilton, special correspondent on Sudan with The Washington Post and Pulitzer Prize recipient for investigative reporting, will visit OU to speak on issues she is covering in Sudan. All students are encouraged to attend this event held in Scripps 111 at 5:10 p.m.

The event, also sponsored by the African Studies Program and by the War and Peace Studies Program, will be nothing if not timely, considering the influence that the unfolding Sudanese government will have on U.S. relations in the upcoming weeks.

As a graduate of Harvard Law School, Hamilton did not initially have journalistic aims. But her concerns and aspirations to help this region of Africa have led her to become a published author and sound reporter on the topic.

Hamilton’s speech will focus on the issues concerning Sudan, such as its current state and the challenges it will face as the country separates.

“This will help our students understand why we should care about international issues,” said  Yusuf Kalyango, director of the IIJ and a Scripps professor. “Sudan has been a very critical country to the United States.”

Kalyango has worked with the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting for the past two years. As a result of this relationship, OU students are given the privilege to meet a new international journalist each quarter.

In addition to the event tonight, SPJ will be meeting Joe Mahr, OU alumnus and Chicago Tribune watchdog reporter, this Friday, March 4.  Mahr, an OU Honors Tutorial College graduate, has received a Pulitzer Prize in investigative journalism for his story on the Vietnam War.

“I’ll talk a bit about my journey from OU to the Tribune, some stories I did along the way and my approach, in general, to investigative reporting,” Mahr says. He also says that he will lead a very open-ended presentation, with plenty of room for questions and discussion.

Scripps students are always encouraged to make the most of these opportunities to meet and speak with such distinguished guests.

Professor Robert Stewart, director of the School of Journalism, views both speakers as great role models for his students because they are journalists who are going beyond telling the story.

“When our students are exposed to really interesting journalists, it shows them what can be done,” Stewart says. “Students will be inspired to strive for greatness.”

ImPRessions promotes long night to raise money

Story // Alex Felser, Contributing Writer

In its fourth year, Up ‘til Dawn’s annual event, OhioMoves, decided to change the format of their six-hour fundraiser for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital by adding a Battle of the Bands event.

Seven different acts performed during the event on Sunday including three bands, two solo acts, Title IX (Ohio University Women’s Chorale a cappella ensemble) and a rapper, with the winner being determined by the amount of addresses collected from their fan base. The winning band, Flow Town Four, received a cash prize of $175 raised by ImPRessions.

Volunteers stuff envelopes for the letter sending party.

OhioMoves was the unique name conceived by ImPRessions for this year’s Up ‘til Dawn’s annual event in which the organization raises money for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital through a letter sending party campaign requesting donations.

Up ‘til Dawn is a nonprofit student-run organization located on college campuses all around the country, which raises money for the hospital located in Memphis, Tenn. St. Jude’s relies completely on donations to fund its operations and is known for never declining a patient without health insurance. Brad Jones, the executive director of Up ‘til Dawn on OU’s campus, played a key part in organizing the event with support pro- vided by Account Executives Cori Sherman and Colleen Veeley of OU’s ImPRessions.

“They play a pretty substantial role,” Jones said.

ImPRessions managed the advertising and coordinated sponsorships to help fund the event, Jones said.

Also, they hung banners, advertised through Facebook and Twitter, sent out press releases and visited various student organizations to spread the word of the event.

Planning for the event began in September 2010 and was considered highly successful with roughly 2,300 letters drafted on Sunday, Sherman said.

Admission to the event was a payment of $5, or people could bring in addresses for use in the letter sending party.

As for funding the event, almost everything was donated toward the cause.

To cover the costs of napkins, plates and other necessities, smaller events such as fruit sales on Court Street helped generate the money, Jones said.

Baker supplied free use of facilities while ACRN supplied the sound system. All acts involved in the competition donated their time. And local restaurants, Abrios, Broney’s, GoodFellas and Pita Pit contributed to the food supplied.

As for the reason of format change this year, “It was kind of boring last year,” Sherman said, adding that the decision to have a battle of the bands put a new twist on the event in “hopes people [would] have more fun with it.”

“We [wanted] people to stay for more than an hour like in previous years,” Sherman said.

Although people were able to donate at the event, “the main goal [was] to have people bring in 20 addresses,” Sherman said.

Students and organization that attended the event were able to have it count toward any community service requirements they may have needed fulfilled.

“We want[ed] people to not view the event as community service, but as a battle of the bands and to come out and have lunch and watch bands,” Sherman said.

As for counting the donations, it typically takes two or three weeks for them to start coming in, Sherman said.

A few incentives promoted participation this year as all attendees who provided 20 addresses received a T-shirt, and those who provided 35 addresses were entered in a drawing to win an Apple iPod Touch.

As for everyone else involved, “There’s no incentive for us to perform,” Jones said.

“We expect[ed] people [would] just want to participate because they know it’s going toward a good cause,” Jones said.

Up ‘til Dawn also plans to team up with ImPRessions for a 5K scheduled in the spring.

Ohio Sunshine Summit issues call to change

Story // Mat Roberts, Reporter

For university students, the journalism profession can be a challenge in respects to learning journalistic rights and public policy.  Unfortunately, the ability to access public records and to maintain first amendment freedoms has hit a barricade for some public universities.

On February 26th, Ohio University’s Society of Professional Journalists and Radio Television Digital News Association will be co-hosting the first Ohio Sunshine Summit. The conference is being put in place to discuss press freedom issues between student and professional journalists. The goal of the conference is to draft a policy to the Ohio Board of Regents and the University System of Ohio. Over half of general public records cannot be reached student journalists in Ohio, making the summit a necessary step to preserving rights of accessibility.

“Last year, OU conducted its own audit to fix this problem that has spread all over the country, so it will be interesting to see what student leaders do to stand up and standardize the issue,” said Evan Millward, former president of the Ohio University Society of Professional Journalists and chairman of the Ohio Sunshine Summit.

While the OU chapters of SPJ and RTDNA sponsor the summit, the co-hosted event invites other JSchools in Ohio to partake in the conference as well.  The two organizations have collaborated to deliver a presentation that will provide attendees a better understanding of the open records issues faced at their respective institutions.  Jamie Ratermann, president of OU SPJ, said one of the functions of SPJ is to keep people on their toes with pertinent issues in the journalism industry.

“It is the jack of all trades and being a part of the society informs you about things that you should be fighting for such as knowing your rights as a journalist and how to perform at the best quality,” Ratermann said.

The summit will open with a discussion of the growing debate of university policy and first amendment rights. Led by Amiee Edmondson, a Freedom of Information Act specialist and Dennis Hetzel, executive director of the Ohio Newspaper Association, the conference will begin with an overview of rights protected by Sunshine Laws.

After the opportunity to network with a wide array of panelists and speakers, the students will work together to propose a plan for clear policies to Board of Regents Chancellor Eric Fingerhut. SPJ President Hagit Limor will end the day with a review of the many ideas and questions discussed by attendees.

“My experience at Ohio University, specifically the week I spent summers ago working with WOUB and the upcoming Ohio Sunshine Summit, will be as close to the real world, hands-on experience one can get,” Millward said. “Everything I learned will be here.

Millward added that is excited to hear Chip Mahaney and Lawan William speak about ways to obtain information in an ever-growing world of online media. Another important speaker to be present at the event includes Vince Duffy who will help in the student rights seminar.

“We need to build a foundation so that we can know our rights and freedom of information not only as journalists, but as taxpayers,” Millward noted.

Ultimately, the main purpose for the journalist of this summit is to understand the importance of fighting for the right to information and how to go about protecting that right.

“The speakers are important for this issue because they bring such a different perspective and help us get what we want from the university,” Ratermann said.

For more details on the event or to view the full agenda, head to www.ohiosunshinesummit.com.

SPJ to provide insight on entertainment side of journalism

Story // April Jaynes, Reporter

Where would the journalism world be without its critiques, reviews and opinions? Journalism has the power to reach beyond strictly hard news, and readers sometimes need a whole- some dose of entertainment and criticism.

Today, Society of Professional Journalists meets in Scripps 111 to discuss review writing for journalists with Professor Michael Sweeney, the associate director for graduate studies who will teach a Review Writing and Criticism course this spring.

SPJ Programming Co-Chair Graylyn Roose invites Sweeney to not only highlight review writing and criticism, but to provide guidance specifically on the new paths the entertainment beat is taking.

Roose said the reasoning behind an SPJ meeting on review writing is because journalists continue to enjoy writing critiques, while readers take pleasure in the reading review- style articles.

“I think media reviewing won’t really go away,” Roose added.

Leading the meeting will be Sweeney followed by Roose who will lead an open discussion on the changes being made in review writing.

Sweeney plans to pitch his spring quarter course, JOUR 363: Review Writing and Criticism, to SPJ members and discuss the current employment market for journalists who plan to enter this area of journalism.

As a former entertainment editor for The Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Sweeney will focus part of the meeting on the issue of generating income in the Web industry and the transition from print to Web.

“The job openings are collapsing in the print industry, and they’re moving to the Web,” Sweeney said. “That is very exciting and dynamic because it means virtually anybody can become a critic with followers.”

Review-style writing will not only contribute color to the journalism world, but it also benefits both readers and writers in unique ways.

“It’s how we make intelligent choices about our entertainment,” Sweeney said. “We spend a great amount of our time looking for ways to entertain ourselves, so it only makes sense that we would rely on news and criticism to help us figure out why and how best to spend that time.”

Sweeney added that the approach to review writing and criticism is similar to that of news writing, yet it maintains a few striking differences.

“You can look at both news writing and criticism writing as presenting information to an audience that comes to some kind of conclusion,” Sweeney said.

There’s information gathering within both kinds of writing, but review writing and criticism calls for more of your personal analysis. There’s a lot more of you.”

Sweeney also added that entertainment writing acts as a guide to journalists to help determine where they will head in the industry.

“Life’s too short,” Sweeney said, “do something you love.”

SPJ to examine sensitive issues from bird’s-eye perspective

Story // April Jaynes, Reporter

What images does the term “marginalized groups” bring to mind? More importantly,  how are these images perceived?  Perhaps looking to the media with careful consideration can shed some light onto these underlying views.

This week, SPJ plans to do just that. An analytical approach to media concerning its portrayal of marginalized groups of citizens and a discussion among members will be led by SPJ Treasurer Emma Morehart and INC Co-editor Sarah Grothjan.

Morehart said SPJ wants to discuss this issue with an observant perspective because of its sensitivity and its importance for unbiased journalism.

“I think it’s really important for journalists, regardless of what they’re writing about,  to take a step back and analyze the work of their colleagues and of themselves,” she said.

Specifically, SPJ plans to review video and story clips concerning minorities from various news sources for attendees to analyze.

Morehart said stories that deal with a white man accused of murder compared with stories of minority groups accused of the same crime, are the kinds of articles that will be presented to members for discussion. Morehart said the spark for this meeting was Black History Month, but SPJ would like to cover more than just racial minorities.

She added that NBC’s Dateline series about families struggling economically will be analyzed because the issue of poverty may portray individuals differently if not correctly addressed.

“I’m not sure I can say media portrays minorities in a negative way, but I think in journalism, if there’s a portrayal of two different groups of people in a different way, then that’s not being as objective as we can be,” Morehart said.

Feeling the need to distinguish the race of a person involved in a news story may not be objective, but it has become embedded in our culture, Morehart said.

Additionally, researching information on this touchy topic isn’t an easy task.

“It’s been hard to find stuff that is interesting in and of itself,” Morehart said.

When researching for minority news, Morehart said the first hit she got was from 1999, but the most recent was from 2005.

“I wonder if people just think it’s not an issue anymore,” Morehart said.

She added that she isn’t sure whether there is a specific change that needs to happen regarding the portrayal of marginalized groups in news.

“If as much objectivity as possible is the goal in journalism, then I only think it’s wise that we step back and stop thinking about what we write and look at what other people are writing. [This provides] a broad idea of how the news covers different topics, different groups or different countries,” said Morehart, emphasizing that it is easier to be more objective by obtaining more perspectives.

Morehart said the goal of the upcoming meeting is to encourage members to analyze the issue as best as possible and come to their own conclusions.

“There really is no one opinion about how minorities are covered in the news.”

SPJ brings Hollywood to weekly meeting

SPJ showcases variety of journalism-related films to convey important changes in industry

Story // Leah Petrovich, Contributing Writer

The Ohio University chapter of Society of Professional Journalists is changing its routine this week with a movie night that lends itself to journalism history. SPJ programming co-chair, Graylyn Roose, said the typical meetings are meant to “educate members with different and useful information that will help to prepare for a career in journalism.”

SPJ has had past success in preparing workshops and programming speakers for meetings, and this movie is meant to be equally as fun and educational. The agenda for the night will include watching various journalism-related movie clips and observing how journalism has changed and how it has stayed the same throughout history.

A few titles members can count on seeing are: “All the President’s Men,” “Goodnight and Good Luck” and the classic, “Citizen Kane.” SPJ will show three to five minute clips, and afterward the group will have a discussion about the Hollywood portrayals of the journalism industry.

With anticipated bits of inaccurately reflected journalism in the film, a goal of the SPJ discussion will be to highlight ways to improve the negative connotation Hollywood has given journalism. Roose explained that another issue of discussion will be online blogging. Roose said online blogging is an aspect of journalism that has changed and will be illustrated in the movie clips.

Because tonight’s SPJ event differs greatly from the usual speaker or workshop, new members are encouraged to attend and enjoy the films.

“SPJ always enjoys seeing new faces,” Roose said.

The meeting will be held in Scripps 111 tonight at 5 p.m.