August 2008 Thanks for a great year
My one-year term as ETSPJ president ended July 31, and I want to thank everybody for a great year. I have developed friendships with many of you, and I appreciate your support and encouragement. I have been honored to serve you.
I am confident we will have another great year this year. The ETSPJ board has some incredibly hard-working volunteers, and I think they will continue to help to make our chapter the most active in the region.
Our new president, Mia Rhodarmer, has already shown that she is a dedicated, well-organized leader. And the ETSPJ board has some new members who, I am certain, will bring a lot of new ideas and enthusiasm. In the meantime, I will continue to serve on the ETSPJ board, and I have also been asked to lead the national SPJ Membership Committee. I’ll try to let you know how that goes.
Looking back, here’s a quick recap of what the East Tennessee SPJ chapter did last year:
•Continued to grow, recruiting new members and maintaining a roughly 50 percent increase in our membership, compared to two years ago;
- Promoted SPJ’s national high school essay contest and judged local entries
- Offered a freedom of information workshop at the University of Tennessee and an FOI panel at the regional conference in New Orleans
- Held a joint ethics panel with public relations professionals and organized workshops on newsroom leadership and shooting videos for the Web
- Chatted with legislators during our annual legislative luncheon and talked online with former SPJ president Christine Tatum during our Welcome Back Picnic at UT
- Recognized outstanding journalism at the Golden Press Cards awards ceremony, which featured current SPJ President Clint Brewer
- Sold 375 tickets to the Front Page Follies, our big annual scholarship fund-raiser, and brought in more than $18,000 in the auctions
- Set up a new Web site and enjoyed a winter holiday party.
I have written up this information in the annual report I submitted to the national SPJ staff in May, and I will be happy to forward you a copy if you would like to read it. Just let me know. Please also feel free to tell the ETSPJ board if you have ideas for programs or other events that you would like us to offer. I think I speak for the board when I say that we would like to make our programming as practical as possible.
Finally, I encourage you to attend at least some of our events. Doing so will make your investment in SPJ even more valuable because you will have the opportunity to learn more about your craft as well as have the chance to meet or “hang out” with your peers in the region. With your help, the East Tennessee SPJ chapter can have another great year.
John Huotari is the city hall reporter at The Oak Ridger. One can reach him by phone at (865) 220-5533 or by e-mail, john.huotari@oakridger.com.
February 2008 Keeping the Watchdog Alive
In January, I wrote a series for The Oak Ridger on the compensations earned by leaders of local nonprofit organizations. I was surprised at how many people told me they enjoyed the series; I probably got more feedback from that one series than I had from my previous two years worth of stories combined.
While the series itself might not have been groundbreaking, I did learn a lesson from talking to readers about it. The lesson is: People have a hunger for investigative reporting. They have ideas about issues they think journalists ought to look into. They want us to hold governments and other groups accountable. And they want reporters to dig deeper to find new information, going beyond press conferences, meetings and speeches.
Those of you who live in Knox County already know this. Last year, residents in your county overwhelmingly supported the media’s efforts to expose government wrongdoing.
Unfortunately, though, some people think this kind of reporting will be harder to do as industry layoffs and hiring freezes continue, and staff sizes shrink. Less reporting could mean that citizens would know less about their governments, businesses and other organizations. That could have a profound impact on our democracy and way of life.
But I’m not ready to give up just yet. I am hopeful that determined reporters will continue to do some in-depth reporting, even when they are under pressure to produce daily stories. I know it’s not easy, but I think well-trained reporters can do it.
That’s why I’ve proposed a training session for “watchdog” reporters at the SPJ National Convention in Atlanta later this year. A session like this was one of the highlights for me at the 2007 convention in Washington, D.C.
Of course, there are other ways to keep alive this type of reporting. I am encouraged by some of the nonprofit media groups that have sprung up across the country and are emphasizing the importance of investigative journalism, from voicesofsandiego.org to Pro Publica.
Please let me know if you have ideas or inspirational stories about how to improve watchdog journalism. I serve on SPJ’s national Project Watchdog Committee and can share your ideas or stories with other journalists across the country.
Our readers and viewers are counting on us.
John Huotari is the city hall reporter at The Oak Ridger. He can be reached by phone at (865) 220-5533 or by e-mail at john.huotari@oakridger.com.
December 2007 Great Year Behind, Great Year Ahead
This year has gotten off to a great start for the East Tennessee SPJ chapter, and I think next year will be just as good. The current ETSPJ board of directors began serving in August. Here are highlights of what we’ve done so far this year:
- Had great program attendance. I estimate about 40 people turned out for each of the three events we’ve had since August: the September Welcome Back picnic, the October SPJ/PRSA ethics panel and the November Video for the Web workshop.
- Learned a lot. Among other things, we got to chat online with former national SPJ president Christine Tatum and learned how to shoot Web videos with cameras costing as little as $120.
- Set up a new Web site. It’s available at www.etspj.org. I encourage you to check it out.
- Gained 10 members. They are either new members or people who have rejoined after letting their memberships lapse. We’re getting close to the 75-member mark. If we reach it, we’ll be considered a large SPJ chapter, as opposed to a small one.
We’ve got more in store for you next year. In January, I hope we can have another “Lunch With the Legislators.” This event offers a preview of issues and legislation likely to come up in the General Assembly in Nashville. Our legislative lunch in January 2007 was one of our most well attended and enjoyable events.
On Feb. 6, 2008, the University of Tennessee is bringing author and journalist Seymour Hersh to Knoxville. I have offered to help promote his speech.
March will be busy. We have agreed to participate in SPJ’s high school essay contest. Shopper-News Editor Larry Van Guilder has agreed to chair the contest, and several other chapter members have volunteered to help. Besides that contest, we have proposed a freedom of information program in March. It will focus on Tennessee’s open meetings and open records laws. SPJ has awarded the East Tennessee chapter a $500 grant for the program. We are still working out the details, but potential panelists so far include Commercial Appeal reporter Marc Perrusquia, state Sen. Randy McNally and Frank Gibson, executive director of the Tennessee Coalition for Open Government. Also in March, we have proposed an open meetings panel for the SPJ Region 8/12 conference in New Orleans March 28-29. If accepted, the program could focus on the News Sentinel’s lawsuit against the Knox County Commission. News Sentinel Editor Jack McElroy has said he is interested in participating, although details still have to be worked out.
Other programs in the works are a possible ethics program in April, the annual Golden Press Cards Awards ceremony in May and, in July, the Front Page Follies, our annual scholarship fund-raiser. We will provide additional details for those programs later.
October, 2007 UT, ETSPJ Working Together
I want to say happy anniversary to the faculty and staff at the University of Tennessee’s School of Journalism and Electronic Media, or JEM. As we reported in the last Spot News, the school is celebrating its 60th anniversary this year. In honor of the anniversary, the school is hosting a variety of industry speakers, many of whom are alumni.
I recently met with Peter Gross, the school’s director. He and I talked about ways the school and the East Tennessee SPJ chapter might continue to work together putting on events that benefit journalists. We also discussed ways we might help promote each other’s events, including through e-mail notices and hyperlinks between the ETSPJ and JEM Web sites. Those are www.etspj.org and www.cci.utk.edu/jem.
Stay tuned—or check our Web sites—for more information on possible upcoming programs and promotions.
I should point out that ETSPJ and UT already have a significant working relationship. For example, ETSPJ helps support the annual Alfred and Julia Hill Lecture at UT, provides $3,000 per year in UT student scholarships, assists students traveling to SPJ conventions and contributes to the establishment of a $50,000 UT scholarship endowment fund. ETSPJ also hosts an annual Welcome Back picnic for UT students and faculty members, and we try to hold some of our meetings on or near campus in order to encourage students to attend.
Meanwhile, UT faculty members advise the college’s student SPJ chapter, serve on our board and belong to our chapter. They help organize and promote our events and help in other ways as needed. I thank them for their support. I have gotten to spend a lot of time with several of these faculty members and have seen their passion for journalism, both as a profession and as an academic discipline. Their dedication inspires me. In the past year, I have also gotten to know Peter Gross and Mike Wirth, dean of the College of Communication and Information. They have attended some of our events, and I want to thank them for doing so.
With our relationship as strong as it is, I am optimistic that ETSPJ and UT can continue working together for many years to come.
