Multimedia News Producers Conference: the SJMC’s Institute for New Media Studies is hosting a two-day conference August 11-12 for professional journalists charged with producing multimedia content for online publications. The conference will feature both discussion and hands-on sessions focused on improving audio, video and Flash storytelling skills. Session topics will include: what we know about digital storytelling use and usability; online storytelling concepts, tools and training; and working with your newsroom. Conference faculty include Mindy McAdams of the University of Florida; Regina McCombs of StarTribune.com; INMS director Nora Paul; and Joe Weiss of the Raleigh News and Observer Online. For more information, visit the conference website.


New Media Research at the U of M: An Interdisciplinary Conference on New Media and Internet Studies: On September 14 and 15, the Institute for New Media Studies will host a conference focusing on the new media and internet research taking place at the University of Minnesota. The conference will showcase cutting-edge research being done on campus; build a network of University of Minnesota researchers and scholars interested in examining new media and technology; foster interdisciplinary collaboration in creating and writing research proposals; and eventually produce a “state of the university” paper on new media/internet studies campus research. For more information, visit the conference website.

21st Annual Silha Lecture featuring Geoffrey Stone: On Wednesday, October 4, 2006, the SJMC’s Silha Center for the Study of Media Ethics and Law will host its 21st annual Silha Lecture. This year’s lecture, entitled “The Freedom of the Press v. The National Security,” will be delivered by Geoffrey Stone, professor and former dean of the University of Chicago Law School. Professor Stone is a nationally-known expert in the field of constitutional law and is the author of Perilous Times: Free Speech in Wartime from the Sedition Act of 1798 to the War on Terrorism (2004). Perilous Times received the 2005 Robert F. Kennedy Book Award and was named the Best Book in History by the Los Angeles Times Book Prize in 2004. The Silha Lecture will be held in the Cowles Auditorium of the Humphrey Institute at 7 p.m., and will be followed by a reception and book signing with Professor Stone. The Silha Lecture is free and open to the public. For more information, contact silha@umn.edu, call 612-625-3421, or visit www.silha.umn.edu.

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Professor Jane Kirtley was quoted in numerous national media outlets over the summer, including US News & World Report, the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Duluth News Tribune, the Star Tribune, the Pioneer Press, Public Radio International, National Public Radio, CBS News, ABC News, and several Associated Press stories. She was also a guest on a number of radio shows, including appearances on WCCO, Minnesota Public Radio, XM Public Radio, KQED, WWRL-AM (New York), KUOW-FM (Seattle), KABC (Los Angeles), KPFA (Berkeley, CA), Wisconsin Public Radio, KTSA (San Antonio), Minnesota Public Radio, and WJGR (Jacksonville, FL). Kirtley was also quoted in July 12 Star Tribune story about Katie Couric’s visit to the Twin Cities, which was closed to the press. Her comments about Couric were picked up by several media-related blogs.

In early August, adjunct instructor Patrick Strother was quoted in the Star Tribune and numerous other daily newpapers, including USA Today, regarding the Northwest Airlines labor dispute.

Professor Kathleen Hansen was quoted in a June 7 piece on Minnesota Public Radio about the sale of the Duluth and Grand Forks newspapers to Forum Communications. Hansen was also interviewed for a KARE-11 news story on the same topic on July 26.

Professor Gary Schwitzer was quoted in a July 5 story on the News-Medical.net website entitled “Media coverage of obesity outweighs smoking cessation stories.” Schwitzer was also quoted in an July Editor & Publisher article, talking about his award-winning website, HealthNewsReview.org.

INMS director Nora Paul was quoted in a July 26 Christian Science Monitor story entitled “Today's blog: more creative, less political” about the media image of bloggers.

Adjunct instructor John Rash was quoted in a July 28 story on KARE-11 news about political ads in the senate race between Mark Kennedy and Amy Klobuchar. In the piece, Rash says that the “folksy humor” in Kennedy’s TV ads are meant to “soften Kennedy’s image.”

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Professor Gary Schwitzer has been named one of seven winners of the prestigious Knight-Batten Award for Innovations in Journalism. Schwitzer won the award for creating HealthNewsReview.org, a clearinghouse Web site for health news that helps journalists write accurate medical reports and consumers find useful health news. “I’m thrilled that HealthNewsReview.org is being honored as an innovation in journalism,” said Schwitzer. Read the press release.

INMS director Nora Paul and Professor Kathleen Hansen are semifinalists for a statewide competition for $25,000 in start-up money for a new venture involving their “NeverWinter Nights” project, in which the two modified the computer game for use in journalism classes. Hansen and Paul are working with three colleagues at Pine Technical College to develop a more appropriate game system on which the journalism game, and any other type of educational scenario, can be built.

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Students at the University of Minnesota, including a number of SJMC majors, have revived The Ivory Tower, an undergraduate art and literary magazine. The SJMC is also a co-sponsor of the magazine, which features poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, artwork, and photography. An online version of the magazine is available at http://www.ivorytower.umn.edu/.

 

Professor Jane Kirtley was an invited participant in the Aspen Institute's Arab-U.S. Media Forum roundtable on June 7-9 in Maryland. The topic of the roundtable was “Intolerance and Freedom of Expression.” The program is part of the Aspen Institute's Communications and Society Program. Together with Don Gemberling, retired director of Information Policy Analysis at the Minnesota Department of Administration, Kirtley led a workshop on “Openness in Government: Citizens and Sunshine” on June 12 at the League of Women Voters national convention in Minneapolis. On June 29, Kirtley was one of two lecturers who conducted a teleseminar, “Government Organizations, the Freedom of Information Act and the Importance of Transparency” for the public affairs and government section of the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) on June 29.

Ph.D. student Maureen Schriner was lead writer for daily and executive summaries for the Mayo Clinic National Symposium on Health Care Reform, held in Rochester May 21-23. Schriner is a freelance communicator for Mayo Clinic and several other Minnesota organizations.

Adjunct instructor Patrick Strother presented “Brand Matters: Direct Marketing’s Effect on Brand Building” to the national Direct Marketing convention in New York City in June.

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On August 9, the INMS welcomes Elivira Garcia de Torres, a scholar from the University Cardenal Herrera in Valencia, Spain, who will spend five weeks at the University of Minnesota consulting with INMS director Nora Paul. Garcia de Torres is a principal researcher for the Media in Cyberspace project, funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Education.

Adjunct instructor Lynn Nelson invited five communication professionals as guest speakers to her Jour 4259 Cases in Strategic Communication Planning and Thinking class during spring semester. Mike Martorelli, principal at JohnsonMartorelli, a Minneapolis marketing communications firm, lectured about branding; Joe Deckenbach, formerly account supervisor at Weber Shandwick Worldwide, spoke about crisis communication; John Fleming, executive vice president and chief marketing officer of Wal-Mart Worldwide, talked via speaker phone about the discount giant's communications and public relations challenges; Tony Minnichsoffer, communication manager, East Central Energy, explained how to deal with challenging communications scenarios; and Marti Jones, an associate at Nelson’s PR firm, the Links Group, who worked for the American Red Cross in Washington, D.C. during 9/11 and its aftermath. Students reported to Nelson that they appreciated the chance to learn about “real world” communication issues, responsibilities and day-to-day tasks from the guest speakers.

Ph.D. student Maureen Schriner hosted several senior-level communicators as guest lecturers in her Jour 3279 PR Writing course, including Thomson West senior communications director John Shaughnessy; Star Tribune Capitol reporter Patricia Lopez; Padilla Spear Beardsley vice president Paul Omodt, City of Eagan communications director Tom Garrison; and Mary Sandok of Xcel Energy’s media relations.

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July 2006