They say the blame lies not with them but with shoddiness in the traditional news media and especially the blogosphere.
The above quote was extracted from a November 13 New York Times story headlined, “A Senior Fellow at the Institute of Nonexistence,” written by Richard Pérez-Peña. It’s the kind of story that student journalists should be required to read. Many, I think, would regard what the pranksters did as cool.
The headline-quote is from a staff member of the Poynter Institute during a five-day workshop in St. Petersburg, Florida, October, 2008. It has, for me, a lot to say about the J-curriculum undergoing review in my department at Hunter.Â
A writer for Hunter’s alumni magazine is working on an article about my students trip to Denver to report on the Democratic National Convention. I’m not sure when it will be published but I thought I would publish the questions she asked of me via email and my responses. I’m still working to document the trip so responding to the query was beneficial for me. And it might be a decent reading for anyone interested in innovative ways of teaching undergraduate journalism, especially in light of this economic crunch that could seriously defer students’ plans to attend graduate journalism schools.
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Below is a facsimile of a recent email to my department. It’s oblique but I think still informative for anyone cruising this site. But first some background: My department’s journalism initiative has been faltering for years and years. The faltering started as soon as Serafina Bathrick announced her retirement and the chair who replaced her was planning to dump the J-effort. I wouldn’t go along with the plan, disrupted it and got tenure despite my obstinance. But that fueled an internecine war that continues to this day.
Nevertheless, here is the “memo” to my department as it is reconsidering its program [the College is undergoing a Middle States accreditation review].Â
I will be writing a lot about the Democratic Convention even though it ended August 28 and the Republican event is about to begin. There was so much going on and I’m not just referring to the political wheeling and dealing and the pageantry. I’m going to provide a kind of behind-the-scenes look. Journalism technology, for example, was on awesome display.
— From Jonathan Mena:
The Presidential race for the White House has become the most watched and anticipated election in the world.
All eyes will be on America come this November as recent polls show that the race will be a neck-and-neck battle. This election will be history in the making and the WORD will be there to report thanks in large part to New America Media, NAM, a national collaboration and advocate for over 2000 ethnic news organizations, The Ford Foundation, which provided a grant for a multimedia ethnic reporting project that includes the WORD and of course Professor Gregg Morris who is a master at knowing what buttons to push to get a job done.
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A peak at the work-in-progress by Special Correspondent Jonathan Mena who is coordinating the technical backbone for the WORD’s reporting on the Democratic National Convention. I have been really impressed with my students preparation for this historic event. And so I want to give a behind-the-scenes look at what they are doing to prepare. Mena allowed me to show some of his tests as long as I make sure that the real final projects are uploaded and clearly identified.
Below is a test. It will be revised shortly.
 … it looks like I will have a very busy year. Right now the first class is a three-weeks intensive reporting training class and while my reporting professor was describing the class I couldn’t help but remember the hardest class I took at Hunter: Advanced Reporting!“
I’m posting this information because so many Hunter students have earned scholarships and awards and because NAHJ is serious about its mission:
The National Association of Hispanic Journalists is proud to announce the winners of the 2008 Â Awards and Journalism Awards, which include Maria Hinojosa, a pioneering radio, print and TV journalist and book author, receiving the prestigious NAHJ Leadership Award for her social justice stories in all media formats.
