Oona Palmer's photograph of dancers enjoying a cloudy Irish day is one of dozens of photos by UM journalism students on exhibit at a Missoula art gallery.
| School of Journalism | The University of Montana |
April 2001
Archives: October 2000 November 2000, December 2000, February 2001, March 2001,
DEAN
STONE NIGHT
Students awarded $80,000
in scholarships, cash awards
Great Falls Tribune projects editor Eric Newhouse couldn’t have won the
Pulitzer Prize without strong newspaper competition throughout Montana, he said
at the UM School of Journalism's Dean Stone banquet. He also noted that the
students attending the banquet will be participating in that competition in
the future.
"I couldn’t have done it without the Tribune," he said about
writing his 12 articles about alcoholism, which won him the Pulitzer Prize.
"The Tribune couldn’t have done it without the strong competition
all over the state. It’s a signal of excellence of what we are doing here,
which brings me to you. You are the future of journalism."
Seventy-five future journalists were awarded more than $80,000 in scholarships
during the banquet. Some of the recipients of the larger scholarships included
Anne Sundberg, who won the $3,650 Billings Family Scholarship; Courtney Lowery,
who won the $3,750 Albert Erickson scholarship; Arianna Robinson who won the
$3,500 Montana Broadcasters Association Joe Durso Memorial Scholarship, and
Tracy Whitehair who won the Larcombe Family Scholarship, worth more than $5,000.
The banquet is unique to the School of Journalism, said Lynne Kisling, assistant
to Dean Jerry Brown and organizer of the event. Other departments don’t
have as much money to give to students. And other departments usually choose
scholarships based on an application process.
But the School of Journalism faculty chose most of the scholarship recipients
awarded at the Dean Stone banquet, making it a mystery as to who will win them.
"It’s a blast," Kisling said before the banquet. "It’s
all a mystery. Students don’t know who will receive the scholarships. There’s
a lot of anticipation."
Most awards come from private donors, many of whom either graduated from UM’s
Journalism School or are journalists who think highly of the school. Many of
the donors were in attendance and handed out the awards.
In addition to speaking at the banquet, Newhouse donated historic documents
to the School of Journalism that belonged to his father, John Newhouse, who
was a journalist for Lee Enterprises in Wisconsin during the sale of the Anaconda
mining newspapers in 1959, according to professor Dennis Swibold. John Newhouse
had planned to write a book about the Anaconda newspapers, one of the most dominant
media organizations of its time in the United States.
Swibold will take a sabbatical leave to study Anaconda journalism and the Newhouse
documents, made up of notes and interview transcripts, could prove to be valuable,
he said.
"I am thrilled to share some of my dad’s work with you," Newhouse
said during the banquet. "And I’m thrilled Dennis will look at it
and share his scholarly work."
The School of Journalism began holding Dean Stone banquets in 1957 when Nathaniel
Blumberg was the dean. When the school’s scholarship fund started increasing,
Blumberg decided to start the event to honor students’ achievements, professor
Carol Van Valkenburg said. He named the banquet in honor of A. L. Stone, who
was dean of the School of Journalism from 1919 to 1942.
"It’s a time for recognition, a time for donors to see what we’re
doing and a time for students to congratulate each other," Kisling said.
UM
broadcaster wins
1st place in
Hearst
When Katrin Frye, a University
of Montana journalism student, received a certified letter notifying her that
she had won first prize in the William Randolph Hearst Foundation competition
for the news radio category, she said she had to read it 20 times to believe
it was true.
Then Frye, a broadcast journalism and history double major, called her professor,
Denise Dowling, to share the good news.
The prize comes with $2,000, which Frye, a junior, said will go towards school
costs for next year. The School of Journalism also receives matching funds for
her award, which professors in the Radio-Television department believe is first
first-place award one of their students has won in the Hearst competition.
William Randolph Hearst founded the William Randolph Hearst Foundation in 1945.
The organization donates money and holds competitions to benefit education,
health, social service and culture.
Frye has a chance to enter another round of judging that could win her another
cash prize and a trip to San Francisco for a radio workshop and awards banquet
– if she places in the top five again. Frye must submit two more radio
stories for the second round.
Frye said she was "totally taken aback" when she found out she won
the award. "I had a lot of fun making the stories," she said. "But
I never would have guessed they were that good."
At Dowling's urging, Frye submitted two stories that she completed in a broadcast
reporting class last fall. One of the two-minute stories was about sports fans
and violence. She had read an article in the Washington Post about a father
who was killed during a fight at a hockey game, prompting her to investigate
violence at high school sports games in Montana, she said.
After attending many high school basketball games, Frye said she found Montana
fans aren’t too violent. But referees had their war stories.
"One ref had a carrot and a belt buckle chucked at him," she said.
Frye’s second award-winning radio story was about foreign exchange students.
Frye asked one student from Denmark and one from Hong Kong about their cultures
and how each was faring in the United States. She learned about Danish Christmas
traditions and how the student from Hong Kong was afraid to drive in the snow.
Both students missed home, but they like what they were doing at UM, Frye said.
Frye submitted two more stories for the second round. One is about repetitive
motion injuries in the workplace, and the other is a profile on Nate Schweber,
a journalism student who was voted second best disc jockey in Missoula by readers
of the Missoula Independent, an alternative weekly.
The Bush administration recently voted down a bill that required businesses
to provide worker’s compensation for injuries caused by repetitive motion,
such as typing, Frye said. The Clinton administration had initiated the bill,
but it was costing businesses a lot of money.
For her radio story, Frye researched UM’s worker's compensation policy
and said she was pleased to find that the university will continue to cover
repetitive motion injuries.
Frye said she tries not to think about how her newest entries will fare in the
Hearst competition. "It’s daunting," she said.
Frye, a native of Nyack, N.Y., said she likes writing broadcast stories better
than being in front of the camera. After graduation, she said she wants to work
for PBS, Nova, National Geographic or the Biography and History channels.
"I couldn’t do something stagnant, sitting in a cubicle all every
day," she said. "I want to travel, go to new places, learn and get
paid to do it."
To hear Frye’s award-winning radio news stories using the mp3 format,
click here for Katrin Frye's story about high school sports violence.
click here for Frye's story on foreign exchange students.
These links should either play the stories from your web browser or download them to your computer. On Macintosh, the file may download to your desktop. Double click on the file icon to play the story. If these links don't work, download Quicktime Player from Apple.
UM
students capture
Freedom Forum's
Chips Quinn internships
Four University
of Montana journalism students have been awarded summer internships through
the Chips Quinn Scholars program.
Three of the students – Jennifer Perez, Olivia Nisbet and Kodi Hirst –
will spend ten weeks working for the Great Falls Tribune. Nisbet will be a photographer
and Perez and Hirst will be reporters. Tara Dowd will intern with the Spokesman-Review
in Spokane.
The program, sponsored by The Freedom Forum, provides paid internships and $1,000
scholarships to minority students who are enrolled in a college or university
that has significant numbers of students who are members of ethnic or racial
minority groups, according to the Chips Quinn Scholars Web site.
Perez, a UM senior, said she will gain valuable experience in daily reporting
as a city desk reporter at the Tribune. She said in the past she has mainly
covered tribal issues and she looks forward to covering other topics.
Nisbet worked as a sports clerk and a reporter for the Great Falls Tribune after
high school. "It will be interesting," she said. "They’ll
be able to see how much I’ve improved since then."
The Chips Quinn Scholars program was started in 1991 by the father of Chips
Quinn, the Web site said. Chips Quinn was the editor of the Poughkeepsie Journal
in New York until he died in a car accident at the age of 34.
Since the program started in 1991, 499 students have participated, according
to the Web site. This summer, 80 to 100 students will participate in internships
through the program, Perez said.
The internships also come with a weeklong orientation in Arlington, Va. to prepare
students for their internships, Perez said.
Photojournalism
students
exhibit their craft
at Missoula art gallery
by Dickie
Bishop
Montana Kaimin
(reprinted with permission)
Point, meter, frame, focus, shoot, and voila: you have what most photographers
like to call a picture.
And, according to Keith Graham, University of Montana student-photographers
are some of the best at taking those pictures.
|
Oona Palmer's photograph of dancers enjoying a cloudy Irish day is one of dozens of photos by UM journalism students on exhibit at a Missoula art gallery. |
a photojournalism
professor in UM's School of Journalism. "We've got good students here who
have really expressed themselves in a very fine manner."
Those fine expressions
went on display April 6 at the Dana Gallery at 123 West Broadway for the 2001
Photojournalism Student Exhibition. The exhibit will continue through April
30.
After review by Graham and Laura Camden, a visiting assistant professor in photojournalism,
48 works by 23 different students were chosen for show. The pictures will range
in style from abstract, to humorous, to mysterious, Graham said.
"We've got a lot of good work," he said. "It really shows the
students' progression and where their journey in the program has taken them."
"This is wonderful exposure for the students," Graham said. "It
gives others a chance to see who these kids are and what kind of talent they
have. Also, this is a great state for photography, and this exhibit will show
some of its grandeur."
After three years as a photojournalism professor, Graham says that he finds
UM students to be somewhat separated from the norms of the photojournalist society
and is proud that he has had the chance to work with such a style.
"Our photographers are different than most," he said. "We try
to tell a story with our work and visually stimulate people with what we do.
It's a student body of work rather than just one student's work. It's going
to be a great show. I'm really proud with what they've done."
Lido Vizzutti, a UM photojournalism student and the photo editor for the Montana
Kaimin, is one of the students who has work in the exhibit.
"I think we're all really excited to show something that we've done and
that we're proud of," Vizzutti said. "I'm also equally excited to
have my stuff shown with so many other great prints and having it be a part
of the collection of talent that there is here. There are so many great photographs,
I'm really glad that mine got in there with them. It's something people should
see."
The Dana Gallery is at 123 West Broadway in Missoula. The exhibition will run
through late May and is free, though students' prints are for sale. For more
information call (406) 243-2238.
|
Jason Begay |
UM journalism students Jason Begay and Shannon Comes at Night worked as reporters for the conference newspaper at the annual American Society of Newspaper Editors meeting, this year in Washington, D.C. The convention focussed on issues of diversity, and the two UM students wrote multiple stories about diversity in the nation's newsrooms.
|
Shannon |
Begay wrote
about Attorney General John Ashcroft's speech to the convention, and wrote a
column about the paradoxes of preferential treatment for journalism students
of color. Comes
at Night wrote about high school journalism, among other subjects.
The University of Montana was the only journalism
school to have more than one student on the ASNE Reporter 2001 staff. Begay
and Comes at Night had the opportunity to work with editors from such newspapers
as the New York Times, theDetroit Free Press and the Newark Star Ledger. To
see their work, visit http://www.asne.org.
The School of Journalism has recieved an $11,000 Broadcaster-in-Residence grant from The American Society of Journalism and Mass Communication. The grant will allow the School of Journalism to bring in working professionals from KHQ-TV in Spokane to speak, give seminars and workshops, and spend one-on-one time with students and faculty. KHQ has recently joined forces with the Spokesman-Review newspaper to deliver news in multiple media, what journalists are calling the "convergence" of technologies.
|
Students in Sally Mauk's broadcast reporting and writing class conduct a press conference with Peter Nielsen of the Missoula County Health Department and Sandy Stash, vice president for ARCO. Nielsen and Stash spoke with students in March regarding pollutants and the Milltown dam. Mauk was recently awarded three Edwin R. Murrow regional awards. |
Sally
Mauk,
an adjunct instructor in the School of Journalism who is also the news director
for KUFM radio, has won three regional Edward R. Murrow Awards. Mauk won for
a series of five stories titled "Fires of 2000" entered in the Continuing
Coverage category. She also won for her story "Native Games" in the
Feature category, and for "Copenhagen Jazz" in the Best Writing Category.
National winners will be chosen from among the regional winners.
The School of Journalism accounted for much of the March issue of The Quill,
the national magazine produced by the Society of
Professional Journalists. Ian Marquand of KPAX-TV in Missoula, who
is the head of SPJ's Freedom of Information committee, wrote about the battle
between Linda Tracy, a student in the school's radio-television department,
and the city of Missoula. Tracy had filmed clashes last summer between police
and crowds in downtown Missoula, and she resisted the city's subpoena of her
unedited film by claiming protection under Montana's shield law. She won. Marquand
featured her fight in his column about freedom of information issues. In the
same issue, Sharon Barrett, a professor in the School of Journalism,
wrote about a Columbian journalist who risks her life to report on her war-torn
country.... Barrett and Michael Downs, a visiting assistant professor,
have been making dents in the world of fiction. Recently Barrett had two short
stories accepted for publication in the literary reviews Wind and Potomac Review.
Downs published a short story in the literary review Witness last fall, and
has another story forthcoming in the review Willow Springs from Eastern Washington
University. The story from Witness – "Prison Food" – has
been selected for the anthology "Best American Mystery Stories, 2001"
published by Houghton-Mifflin. Also, Downs' article about copyright and parody
titled, "Holy Parody, Batman!" appeared in the May/Summer issue of
The Writer's Chronicle, published by the Associated Writing Programs. The article
can be read at http://awpwriter.org/articles.htm
J-School News
| School of Journalism | The University of Montana |
April 2001
Editor: Michael Downs, visiting assistant professor
Reporter: Eva Dunn-Froebig
