Tag: University of Miami

Followup to Chinese blogger death post

I posted this last week about a Chinese blogger who was beaten to death. Here is an update on the case from David Barboza, a New York Times business reporter based out of Shanghai:

Bloggers Push China to Prosecute Beating Death

It’s encouraging to learn that “[c]ity officials in Tianmen in Hubei Province in central China are being punished and investigated for their role in the killing of the man, Wei Wenhua, the general manager of a construction company, and the beatings of five villagers during a dispute on Jan. 7, the state-run news agency Xinhua reported.”

As a side note, I had the pleasure of meeting David when I was in China last summer on a UM study abroad trip. Here is a story I wrote about him.

School of Comm dean finalist for Syrcause spot

Here’s a breaking news story I reported Tuesday night, thanks to an item from Romanesko:

Communication dean finalist for spot at Syracuse University (The Miami Hurricane)

This was the first local reporting of the story, which broke in Syracuse. It has more background and the first public comment from Grogg.

Opening Knight

The University of Miami‘s Knight Center for International Media named its two chairs this morning:

Joe Treaster (left) formerly of The New York Times, and Rich Beckman formerly (right),of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Their appointment comes almost one year after the Knight Foundation announced a $10 million grant to the school.

Here is the UM press release, here is a letter from the NYT’s business editor and below is a video of the press conference:

We’re on our first deadline of the semester, so I’ll add more to this post after we finish. Stay tuned.

UPDATE, Jan. 17 @ 9:58 P.M.: Both of these guys look like great additions to the School of Comm. Their words at press conference were very encouraging.

Check out two of Beckman’s projects from when he was head of visual communications at UNC:

The Ancient Way (about elders in Galicia, Spain)

Chiloé Stories (about language of native people on Chiloe Island, Chile)

Back in action…sorta

The newsroom was abuzz for the first time in more than a month.

Editors abound. Couches pulled out. Ideas overfloweth.

It was great to see everyone again after break for The Miami Hurricane‘s first staff meeting of the semester. Old faces and new faces, all ready to get back into action (please excuse the cliche).

Here are some of the topics we discussed:

  • Copyediting all possible content before layout, which will begin with first issue
  • Outlook for multimedia this semester and what role the multimedia editor and assistant multimedia editor will play
  • Preview of Web site overhaul, which will be a collaborative, semester-long effort; Art Director/Visuals Editor Will Wooten, Webmaster Brian Schlansky and I will take the lead, working with other staffers and Chris Delboni’s CNJ 442 class
  • New Sunday meeting structure
  • Outline of SG spring election coverage timeline
  • What everyone’s favorite color is
  • Adjustments to process for editorials
  • Emphasizing the importance of blogs and being connected
  • Highlighting that we are not just a newspaper, but a news organization

Weigh in: What would you like to see from the paper this semester?

Bloggers’ thoughts that student journalists should heed

Similar to the links I posted on journalism education a few days ago, here are some bloggers’ thoughts on the skills and such that student journalists should note.

Further notes on the new journalism skillset » Invisible Inkling (Ryan Sholin)

Teaching Online Journalism: Dreams vs. reality in journalism ambition (Mindy McAdams)

What sort of things should an aspiring journalist be thinking about? (Rob Curley)

Take note of what these three detail and be sure to subscribe to their blogs.

I’m glad I waited a day to publish this post, because Ryan Sholin wrote a post called Your real competition, which links to related Paul Conley and Dave Cohn posts, that all student journalists should be aware of.

If you go to interview for an internship or job at a place that says what Ryan writes below, you’ll A) Not be exposed to the kind of working environment that will help you compete for jobs and B) Probably not have a job very long because the organization will become irrelevant to most readers, especially younger ones.

“If you’ve said the words ‘Oh, well we’ve always done it that way’ in the last FIVE YEARS, you have a problem with addressing the question of who is competing with your organization.

If you’ve said the words ‘Oh, but that won’t work here’ in the last THREE YEARS, you definitely have a problem with addressing the pace of change in the news business.”

I’ll soon post a Top 10 list of advice for student journalists that will help them to stay relevant, viable and competitive in the evolving world of journalism.