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Newsletter

Spring 1997 Issue


The battle's over and it's time to help the wounded

By Roger Ruthhart
NINA President
For five years or more, the board of directors of the Northern Illinois Newspaper Association has been locked in a battle over the future of journalism education at Northern Illinois University. We fought for the preservation of the master's degree program and lost. We fought for the preservation of faculty positions and lost. Finally we fought especially long and hard for the preservation of the Journalism Department and lost that battle as well.
At its January, 1997 meeting the NINA board agreed it's time to stop fighting.
Since the demise of the journalism department we have discussed with other institutions, the possibility of moving the NINA affiliation to another school with a greater commitment to print journalism. In the end we have learned how valuable the historic link between the NIU journalism program and NINA is. No other school can offer, or appreciate, that sense of history.
At the January meeting, the board also agreed that history has taught us that NINA functions best when the head of the NIU journalism program is also the executive secretary of NINA. Jerry Thompson, retired adviser of the Northern Star, has been the glue that has helped hold us together following the merging of the Journalism Department into Communication. However, without official ties to the department he has been handcuffed in running NINA's affairs.
The board has passed a resolution thanking Jerry for his service and asking him to remain active as a member of the board of directors. He accepted. The board then approved the appointment of Dr. Lois Self, chair of the Dept. of Communication, as the new executive secretary.
In making the appointment, the board acknowledged the need to make several changes since Dr. Self does not have a journalism background and is busy trying to rebuild her department -- something near and dear to NINA. The board agreed to the following division of duties, previously handled by the executive secretary, as suggested by myself as president.
* Jim Killam, adviser at the Northern Star, will take over the duties of producing a newsletter (at least quarterly) and keeping the NINA Web site updated. Board members will be asked to contribute regularly and updates from the Department of Communication will be included as well. Jim also has agreed to become a member of the NINA board.
* The duty of formulating an agenda, calling a meeting and notifying board members of the meetings now will fall to the NINA president.
* The second vice president will record meeting minutes and distribute them to board members, with an official copy of minutes to be maintained by Dr. Self at the Department of Communication.
* The NINA treasurer will mail dues notices and collect and record dues as paid.
* The first vice president will continue to handle planning for the annual meeting. All other duties will be retained, or coordinated, by Dr. Self as executive secretary.
In making the decision, the board strengthened its ties to both the new Department of Communication and the Northern Star. We also hope that the new division of duties will strengthen the communication and cooperation between all three organizations: the department, NINA and The Star.
While acknowledging that one of NINA's goals must always remain working with NIU to assure that students receive the training necessary to become quality newspaper employees, the board also acknowledged that new opportunities to work with the expanded Department of Communication should be explored. Dr. Self reported that members of her staff outside of journalism are looking forward to working with NINA as a resource as well, and efforts will be made during the months ahead to reintroduce the NINA board and its membership to the Communication staff and curriculum.
When I began my term as president of the NINA, I was concerned that I might be remembered as the group's last president. Instead, as I prepare to hand the office to John Etheredge of the Oswego Ledger-Sentinel, I am happy to report that through the cooperation of Dr. Self, we seem to be headed in a positive direction.
My optimism is guarded, however.
I still believe there is cause for concern that the administration at NIU will further cut journalism offerings within the new Department of Communication.
I also believe that while the hours each of us has to dedicate to NINA have been devoted to the preservation of the journalism program, we have fallen behind in looking for ways to improve our own organization and its service to its members. That is something we will address in the immediate future.
And there is much work to be done by Dr. Self and the Communication faculty and staff to rebuild and modernize the journalism offerings within the department. NINA must be prepared not only to offer suggestions, but serve as a resource in addressing that major undertaking.
I hope that our membership can be counted on to help with these challenges that lie ahead.

Board, NIU act to prevent repeat of '96 contest problem

By Roger Ruthhart
NINA President

One contest that northern Illinois journalists have looked forward to for decades is the one sponsored by the Northern Illinois Newspaper Association and administered by the journalism faculty at Northern Illinois University.
It is with mixed emotions, therefore, that we report that the entries of several prominent papers were omitted from judging last summer. While we would like to think that the contest is above such problems, this isn't the first time there has been a mixup and it probably won't be the last. Being in the business of reporting the facts, we thought it was important for NINA members to hear about the situation first-hand from their organization.
While NINA provides the structure for promoting the contest, we traditionally have had no direct involvement or input into the contest. Whatever coordination was needed between NINA and the journalism faculty was provided by the department head who also wore the hat of NINA executive secretary. With the departure of NIU Journalism Chairman Dan Riffe, and the merger of the journalism and communications departments, we lost that toggle switch between the two organizations. The merger also resulted in staff members being involved in the contest this year who hadn't been involved before.
Due to limited space in one secretary's office, some entries were stored in a nearby office which houses the Public Relations Society of America, also affiliated with the department. When student officers returned in late August, they moved a large box of entries without informing anyone. Later, when entries were moved to another room to prepare them for judges, this box of entries was left behind. It was not until post-contest questions began that anyone realized what had happened.
This past year we lacked the usual involvement by NINA's executive secretary/department head. Our executive secretary, Jerry Thompson, retired adviser to the Northern Star, is not part of the faculty and has no supervisory power over department staff. The lack of normal oversight eliminated a chance for catching the error early.
As a result, the entries of the Joliet Herald-News, Elgin Courier-News, The Regional News and Reporter newspapers of Palos Heights, and Star Newspapers of Chicago Heights were not judged in the 1996 contest. Their entry fees have been refunded.
``I hope we can work together to restore the credibility of NINA's newspaper competition and our relationship with all NINA members. I would also ask your forbearance for any culpability the department may have had in this very distressing and embarrassing situation this year,'' said Dr. Lois Self, chair of the communications department. ``In future cooperative ventures involving NINA and our department, much clearer lines of responsibility, procedures and accountability measures will be in place and in practice.''
To that end, Dr. Self and the staff and faculty of the Communication Department have agreed to complete a thorough review of the contest and the procedures governing it. Input from the NINA board and its members has been sought and welcomed. One area that will be scrutinized is the cross-check system throughout the contest process.
In addition, the NINA board voted in January 1997 to name Dr. Self executive secretary of NINA (see story on page 1), thus restoring the role the department chair has traditionally held and putting control of the contest back in the hands of the executive secretary/ department chair.
The NINA board of directors and NIU Communication Department deeply regret the omission of these entries from judging.

Dues revised; no more per-flag fee

Several concerns about member dues were addressed at January's NINA board meeting, resulting in several revisions. First, the per-flag fee, which traditionally had been added to the base amount, has been eliminated.
Also, a 250,000-and-over circulation category has been added, and annual dues for each of the seven categories were increased by $10 -- the first such adjustment in many years.

NINA appeals to high schools, colleges

Under the leadership of First Vice President John Etheredge, NINA hopes to attract high school and college newspapers and journalism programs to its membership. Educators and advisers are being invited to this year's Spring Conference, and discussion is under way to involve college newspapers in the annual fall contest. There are 43 colleges, universities and community colleges within NINA's area of coverage, all of which represent opportunities for NINA to become involved in educating future journalists.

Copley's photo architect headlines spring conference

Look at any northern Illinois Copley newspaper and you'll see Greg Mellis. Not his face, but his impact.
Mellis was instrumental in retooling the photo operations at Joliet, Aurora, Elgin, Waukegan, Naperville. If you doubt his impact, check a list of the awards hauled down by Copley newspapers and photographers in the past three years. Now, he's general manager of "60504," Copley's niche publication in the Fox Valley Villages area.
On April 17, Mellis will address NINA's Spring Conference in hopes of helping newspapers upgrade their photography. He and other Copley photo experts will conduct two morning sessions, dealing with what makes good newspaper photography and how newspapers can achieve it, even on a tight budget.
Before directing other photographers, Mellis earned numerous accolades for his own work. Four times, he was selected Regional Photographer of the Year by the National Press Photographers Association. In 1994, his series on children and inner-city violence earned him the prestigious Robert F. Kennedy Award for Photojournalism.
Mellis also directed the establishment of a photo-network link to all Copley newspapers in Illinois and California.
Two simultaneous sessions will be offered after lunch. One features Tom Wallace, Director of Photography for the Northern Illinois Copley group, in a hands-on Adobe Photoshop demonstration at the Northern Star.
The other session will feature a dialogue between attendees and NIU journalism educators. The topic: How can journalism schools better prepare students for newspaper careers? NIU Communication Chair Lois Self will moderate the forum. She encourages NINA members to bring ideas, suggestions and constructive criticism.

Spring Conference at a glance

When: Thursday, April 17

Where: NIU Campus Life Building

Cost: $15 a person (includes lunch)

Schedule
9:30 a.m. Registration

10 a.m.-noon Greg Mellis
photography
(2 sessions)

Noon-1 p.m. Box lunch
(provided)

1-2:30 p.m.
A. PhotoShop
demonstration
Northern Star

B. Journalism
Education
forum

2:30-3:15 p.m. Reception
Sponsored by
NIU Communication Dept.

To register: Call (815) 753-0707.
Payment can be made at the door, but please register by April 8 so we know how many lunches to order.

Free-speech forum focuses on Internet

The Internet's new and perplexing free-speech issues will be the topic of an afternoon program April 3 at NIU.

Robert M. O'Neill, director of the Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression, will address some of today's most pressing free-speech issues, paying particular attention to the controversial Communications Decency Act. After his speech, O'Neill will moderate a Socratic dialogue, with panelists from various campus constituencies.

The program begins at 1:30 p.m. in the Riley Courtroom of the NIU College of Law, in Swen Parson Hall. A reception in the Thurgood Marshall Gallery of the College of Law will cap the event. The program is free and open to the public.

Sponsors include the NIU president's office, the College of Law, the Northern Star and NINA.

NIU journalism enters new era, seeks to expand NINA's role

By Lois Self
NINA Executive Secretary
Greetings! I am delighted to introduce myself to newsletter readers as chair of the Department of Communication and as NINA's next executive secretary. New in both roles, I really appreciate the welcoming and cooperative spirit I've found in this organization. After several meetings with the board and thorough and thoughtful discussion with the Executive Committee about the future association of NINA and our department, I eagerly look forward to working with you in developing stronger links between our academic and professional communities.
President Roger Ruthhart has outlined some reorganizations of responsibilities of NINA officers and board members in a recent letter to you. I am confident these changes bode well for our future.
Let me first assure you that journalism is alive and well at Northern Illinois University. Our new department has undergraduate majors and minors in both Journalism and Communications Studies and a masters degree in Communication Studies which includes journalism courses and offers flexibility in specialization. Our combined undergraduate programs produce the largest number of undergraduate degrees of any department at Northern. We are very proud of the quality and diversity of our faculty and students and their achievements. From my vantage point, I already can see the benefits of cooperation and cross-fertilization between our departmental areas of journalism, media studies, organizational and corporate communication and rhetorical studies.
Tensions associated with the merger are abating; camaraderie and energy are growing in the new department. And, at a time when enrollments are down in the rest of the university, our department's enrollments are strong, we're actively recruiting students. Specifically, interest in journalism seems to be reviving. So, as Twain said, the rumors of (our) demise are premature. Spread the word!
Here are a few news items of particular interest to NINA members:
* Last December, after 17 years at Northern, Professor Russ Elder, who taught photojournalism and graphics, retired so his wife could take an "offer she couldn't refuse" with State Farm and they could relocate to Bloomington. All of us in the department will miss Russ's good humor and dedication to students.
Fortunately, the department was able, with the support of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, to hire NINA board member Rick Baert, copy editor with the Arlington Heights Daily Herald, to team teach graphics with Donna Peterson, a specialist in desktop publishing. To teach advanced photojournalism, we recruited Copley's Northern Illinois Director of Photography, Tom Wallace. Based on student responses so far, we want to continue exploring such connections utilizing journalism professionals to enrich our courses.
* The department recently received from Scripps League Foundation a grant in excess of $70,000, the largest single gift in Journalism's history at Northern, to support journalism education. A major portion of these funds will be targeted for technology upgrades to help prepare our students for the contemporary world of electronic and digital journalism and interactive media.
* This summer, July 27-Aug. 1, we will host a journalism and media camp for high school students (full details on page 6). Please help us in promoting this great opportunity for students in your area and consider contributing to our camp scholarship fund or sponsoring a local student.
* This year for the first time, NIU's Presidential Commission on the Status of Women is sponsoring a journalism award for coverage of women's issues at NIU. The contest is open to NIU students who have written and published the stories in local media in the past year. The award will be given at the April 18 Journalism Banquet. For details, call Dorothy Chow of the PCSW at (815) 753-8081. Applications are available at the Northern Star or the Department of Communication office.
We look forward to meeting with you and sharing interests and ideas at the upcoming NINA Spring Conference, April 17. We'd like to invite you to join members of our faculty for a reception at the end of the conference day.
Please feel free to visit, call or write regarding any concerns or ideas you have for our department or for NINA. My phone number is (815) 753-7028 and you can reach me by e-mail at LSelf@niu.edu.

Pay attention to that man behind the curtain

By Jim Killam
NINA Communications Coordinator
The Wizard of Oz evoked fear and trembling while he was still a mystery to Dorothy and her friends. Once they realized who the wizard really was -- a normal man projecting his image onto a huge screen -- there was nothing to fear.
The same could be said about writing. Too many would-be writers decide early that they can't do it because they don't have "the gift." What seems forbidding and mysterious to beginners only needs to be "demystified." Like the wizard, what once seemed magical and intimidating becomes possible to conquer.
Maybe that's a fancy way of saying this: If writing is to have a future, good writers need to show others how they do what they do. The idea, voiced by Tom Newkirk of the University of New Hampshire, became the informal theme for a colloquium on "The Future of Writing," held in January at The Poynter Institute.
So we're supposed to demystify the writing process. Sounds logical. But, can we honestly say it happens in our newsrooms as much as it ought to? Do we work daily to demystify the writing process, to show writing as a craft as well as an an art? Or do our editing styles and systems tell reporters we don't care? Just crank out those six stories a week and don't fret about making an acceptable story into a great story. There just isn't time.
I think we miss opportunities to light fires in young writers ...to show them that life as a writer can be so much more than an endless assembly line of mediocre stories. And maybe, in the process, we damage the future of writing by sending this silent message: Don't agonize over making your writing better. Just turn in what's acceptable and move on. Feed the beast.
No good editor would defend that kind of system as a model for newspapers. Why, then, do we let it develop and fester? Why do we forget what lured most of us into this business in the first place: the love of writing?
Maybe it's because we mistakenly believe good writing will happen naturally, and sustain itself. Then we wonder why our best writers leave in frustration ... and not just over money.
Don't give up, no matter how small your staff or how cruel your deadlines. Here are some practical steps toward improving the writing at your paper:
* Start a weekly writer's group, maybe over lunch. Encourage people to bring in samples of good writing, from your paper or elsewhere. Then, tear it apart and talk about why it works. Look at writing style, structure, paragraph lengths, etc.
* Do a written critique of your paper every day, with an eye toward good writing. Keep it in the forefront of all talk about improving the quality of your paper.
* Encourage risk-taking. Leave the inverted pyramid in the dust and experiment with different story forms. And, reward people for trying ... even if they fail.
* Identify people on your staff who work well with other writers, and give them time to coach. Start by coaching the better writers on your staff rather than those who are struggling. That'll build enthusiasm in both the coach and the writers. Then you can tackle your "project" staffers with more confidence.
* If you haven't already, buy the book, "Coaching Writers," by Roy Peter Clark and Don Fry. It'll inspire your would-be coaches.
* Start an in-house newsletter about writing. Show good examples and have staff members write "how I did it" pieces. A good example of this type of newsletter is "Wordsmith," produced by Kevin McGrath, writing coach at The Times of Munster, Ind. He'll send you a copy if you e-mail him at mcgrath@howpubs.com. Or, write him at The Times, 601 W. 45th Ave., Munster, IN 46321.
*Develop a writing philosophy for your paper. John Christie, general manager for the Sun-Sentinel in South Broward County, Fla., emphasizes these points: complete and accurate information, clarity, precision and economy, form follows function, and freshness and grace.
No editor has time for all of these. Any editor, though, could make time for one or two. Make it your goal to "demystify" writing and help your paper reach a new level of quality. Pay attention to that man behind the curtain.
And, in some small way, you'll help protect the future of writing.

NIU revives summer journalism camp

The NIU Department of Communication is offering a Journalism and Media Camp for high school students July 27-Aug. 1.
The camp will provide a working experience for students interested in newspapers or TV and radio production. Campers will tour area newspaper, television and radio facilities and work with resident specialists in their areas of interest.
Journalism opportunities include learning to write for newspapers and television, searching the World Wide Web for news and information, producing a camp newspaper and developing on-air performance skills.
Media opportunities include creating television and radio productions, learning to write radio and television scripts, developing television directing skills, audio and video editing, camera operation, audio engineering and on-air performance.
Camp instruction will be provided by Journalism and Media Studies faculty in NIU's Department of Communication, and by area practitioners in print journalism, broadcast and media production.
The camp is open to students who have completed grades 9, 10, 11 or 12. Minority students are encouraged to apply. Campers will stay on-campus in NIU residence halls. The residential fee for the camp, including room and board, is $375. The commuter fee is $300. Some scholarship assistance will be available. Community and professional organizations interested in sponsoring a student scholarship should contact the Department of Communication at (815) 753-1563.
Students interested in more information about the camp should contact the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Office of External Programming, Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, IL 60115, or call (815) 753-5200.

Future journalists seek mentors

At the Northern Star, students and advisers always have relied heavily on alumni and other professional journalists for informal training and advice. Now, the opportunity becomes formal. A mentoring program started this year in advertising is ready to expand to the newsroom and other areas.

Here's how it works: Interested students sign up for a mentor, and indicate one or two specific areas of interest (e.g. print advertising sales, sports writing, Web publishing, etc.) In the meantime, professionals sign up to be mentors, indicating their areas of expertise. Then, we match each student with a mentor. The pairs then talk periodically, in person or by phone or e-mail.

As anyone who's ever taught knows, the teacher always learns more than the student. You might find new energy and ideas for your own career. And, you might help groom a potential employee for your company. If you're interested in being a mentor, please contact Jim Killam or Maria Krull at (815) 753-4239 or 753-0707.


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