The Art of Access: Strategies for getting public records to improve your reporting and life

Stretched thin with daily stories, Web postings, and extra responsibilities? Feel like you can’t do the kind of depth reporting you want? Or maybe you just want to improve your reporting skills and bolster your already stellar stories? Then make sure to attend this special session on strategies for acquiring public records by Society of Professional Journalist Freedom of Information Committee Chairman David Cuillier.

When: Tuesday, May 11 | 6:30-8:30 p.m.

Where: Murphy Hall Room 100 | University of Minnesota | 206 Church Street SE, Minneapolis, MN 55455 [Parking info]

Cost: Cost: $10 (SPJ Members) | $15 (non-members)

Sign up now!

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When: 6:30 p.m. Thursday, March 25

Where: Griggs Midway Building, 540
Fairview Avenue N., St. Paul
(corner of University Ave. and Fairview Ave.)

Cost: Free and open to the public

What: An SPJ workshop on covering the GLBT Community: the mishaps, triumphs, and mistakes of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender coverage, and how to take gay journalism in Minnesota to the next level.  A discussion with: straight reporters who cover GLBT issues, gay journalists, and GLBT community leaders.

Download a copy of the event flyer here.

This event is sponsored by the Minnesota Pro Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. It is free and open to the public.

The Minneapolis Star Tribune, Minnesota’s largest daily newspaper, receives 15,000 comments to its online stories every month. The St. Cloud Times receives comments by the thousands, as does the Pioneer Press.

But are they worth anything?  Or as David Brauer, media reporter for MinnPost.com recently characterized it, are on-line comments nothing more than “a cesspool” of hate, personal attacks and other sentiments that aren’t worth the electrons they occupy?

A distinguished panel of experts, including online editors, columnists, reporters and a media lawyer, discussed the phenomenon this week at a forum sponsored by The Minnesota News Council and the Minnesota Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists.

If there was any consensus, it was that readers’ online comments are popular.

“Four to five percent of all online users comment online, which may not sound like a lot, but many commenters are active, repeat users,” said Star Tribune Assistant Managing Editor/Digital Terry Sauer.

There was less agreement on a variety of other points, however, such as whether comments should be monitored, and whether they’re harmful. More »

Photos and video are now available online from the September 29 forum, The Comment Conundrum.

CLICK HERE to view photos on Flickr

CLICK HERE to view video from the event.

All photos by Scott Theisen for MNC/MNSPJ.
Video by Jeff Achen for MNC/MNSPJ.

Support your Twin Cities-area citizen journalists and spread the word about the Citizen Journalism Academy. The program seeks to help everyone wanting to practice journalism do so accurately, ethically and fairly. Along with SPJ national, the University of St. Thomas and its student SPJ chapter are sponsoring the event June 13 at the University of St. Thomas.

Participants will explore a variety of topics including journalism ethics, media law, and access to public records and meetings. The $40 registration fee includes lunch and all course materials.

Register soon! The deadline is June 8 and seating is limited.

by Jerry Dunklee, Professor of Journalism, Southern Connecticut State University
Quill Online

Sometimes journalists need to go back to basics. Beginning reporters are told to gather the five W’s and the H and find the lede among them.

More experienced hands have internalized these daily requirements of the job. They collect the facts, ask the questions that lead to compelling quotes, search documents and write the article or broadcast piece to tell the story as clearly as possible.

But I’ve noticed a trend that concerns me as a news consumer and especially as someone who pays attention to ethical issues. We seem to be moving more and more toward less precise and meaningful attribution of sources.

This is a basic tenet of good journalism and, of course, written in SPJ’s Code of Ethics: “Identify sources whenever feasible. The public is entitled to as much information as possible on sources’ reliability.”

For obvious reasons, the journalism community has concentrated on anonymous sources in recent years. That is important, and many news organizations have rewritten their internal ethics guidelines to deal with anonymity.

But that is not the issue here. It’s the daily use, or lack thereof, of clearly articulated sources for too much of our reporting.

“Experts say …” “Economists say …” “Republicans say …”

Really? Which experts? What are their qualifications to comment? Who pays their salary or grant money?

Read the rest of the article here.

The Minnesota Professional Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists cordially invites you to the 2009 Page One Awards Banquet.  This event honors the best in Minnesota journalism from 2008.

This year’s featured speaker is news legend Tom Brokaw.

Thursday, May 14, 2009
Reception begins at 6 p.m.
Dinner served at 7 p.m. More »

Pictured: Al Tompkins from the Poynter Institute (by Scott Theisen for MN SPJ)

On September 21, 2008 MN SPJ convened a panel including journalists, law enforcement and city government officials to discuss why so many journalists were arrested during the RNC, and how the arrest of journalists can be avoided in the future.  The discussion was moderated by Al Tompkins from the Poynter Institute.

You can watch video of the entire event online.  The event video is separated into four parts.  Click below to watch.  Also visit our Flickr page to see photos from the event.

Your Credentials, Please:  Video Part I

Your Credentials, Please:  Video Part II

Your Credentials, Please:  Video Part III

Your Credentials, Please:  Video Part IV

…And Get it Published

When:  Tuesday, October 14, 2008 | 7:30 p.m.
Riverview Library – St. Paul

Last year, SPJ assembled a panel of experts to talk about the book business in Minnesota: agent or not agent, self-publishing, fiction and non-fiction, the marketability of your ideas…You asked us to assemble a new panel and do it again.  More »

The Media and Law Enforcement at the RNC — What Went Wrong, What Went Right?

Monday, September 22 | 7:00 p.m.
Coffman Memorial Union Theater
University of Minnesota East Bank

Journalists who reported from the RNC as well as representatives from law enforcement, city government and media law experts will join together in a discussion moderated by Al Tompkins from The Poynter Institute.

What happened during the RNC that led to so many journalists being arrested?  And how can journalists do their jobs in the future without a similar result? More »