Snapshots

Building a civic culture, keeping your edge

Steven A. Smith

Steven A. Smith '72, editor of the (Salem) Statesman Journal, was a keynoter at the recent Civic Innovations in Newsrooms and Classrooms. Hosted by the SOJC, the workshop was attended by working journalists and journalism educators from across the country, and was sponsored by the Pew Center for Civic Journalism and AEJMC’s Civic Journalism Interest Group.

Journalists and educators saw how news organizations use civic journalism to find better stories and re-establish bonds with their readers, viewers and listeners. Smith gave a talk on "Building a Civic Culture, Keeping Your Edge."

Communication professionals named to serve SOJC advisory board terms

Two professionals with many years of experience were recently named to the Journalism Advancement Council, the School’s advisory board. The new JAC members are Richard Ward ’77, and Craig McCoy.

Richard Ward

Craig McCoy

Ward worked for 18 years at Foote, Cone and Belding/San Francisco before leaving in 1995 to help launch Infoseek. In 1997, he joined AOL as vice president of Interactive Marketing. McCoy is the former owner of McCoy Broadcasting, which owned Eugene radio stations KPNW, KDUK and KODZ. McCoy is active on the board of the McCoy Foundation in Newberg.The JAC, established by Dean Everette Dennis in 1984, provides assistance to the dean and faculty with issues that benefit students, such as enhancing and improving curricular programs and generating major gift support to fulfill School needs.

Students from Professor Jim Upshaw’s Information Gathering class celebrate the day they turned in their final projects. When polled, students had varying amounts of sleep over a 48-hour period. One went to bed at 10 p.m., satisfied with her project. Others hadn’t slept much in 24 to 48 hours.

The class, affectionately referred to as “Info Hell,” dedicates a term to researching and writing a 15-page report focusing on a selected public policy issue. The report is complete with a 35-source annotation, and upon completion is usually almost 100 pages.

This class was developed in the 1980s by Professors Duncan McDonald and Lauren Kessler. Since then, this class has challenged pre-journalism majors—a “C” grade in this course is required to obtain full major status. Despite the endless hours of work and the many sleepless nights, students are surprisingly thankful for the experience. They believe that the research skills they have learned will be a benefit once they enter the work force.