photo by Brenna Chapman
| School of Journalism | The University of Montana |
May-Summer 2001
Archives: October 2000 November
2000, December 2000, February
2001, March 2001, April
2001,
NEARLY
A PERFECT PICTURE
Photojournalism program finishes
second in national Hearst competition;
School of Journalism finishes sixth overall
After a year of nationwide competition, the University of Montana photojournalism
program has finished second in the nation in the Hearst Journalism Awards program,
and professor Keith Graham says the credit belongs to the students.
Visiting professor Laura Camden agreed. "It’s amazing that a small
program can compete with the big-name schools," Camden said. "It speaks
for the dedication and camaraderie of the students."
Brenna Chapman, a senior from Glastonbury, Conn., pushed Montana toward second
place when she finished fourth individually in the picture
story competition.
|
photo by Brenna Chapman |
Chapman entered her picture
story on a boy with fetal alcohol syndrome.
"There’s so much student support," Chapman said. "But I
feel like you have to work hard for yourself."
Chapman received $750 for her fourth place finish. In other competitions this
year, senior Cory Myers finished in third place in the sports and news category
and eighth place in the portrait and personality category. John Locher placed
seventh in the portrait and personality category.
Each place carried money awards, and the Hearst Foundation donates matching
funds to the University of Montana photojournalism department. Some of the money
is used for the copying and mailing of photos for future competitions, Camden
said.
Both Chapman and Myers have been asked to submit additional photos by May 23
for the semifinal competitions. Photographers placing in the top four move on
to the next round of competition. Out of the 12 asked to submit additional photos,
six students will be chosen to compete in the National Photojournalism Championship
in San Francisco in June, vying for scholarship awards ranging from $1,000 to
$5,000.
Internships and the good photojournalism courses are a factor in the success
of the competition, Graham said. Some of the photos that received
photo by Brenna Chapman |
awards in the competition
were taken during internships and others were class assignments, he said.
Graham also attributed the success of UM’s photojournalism school to Patty
Reksten, who taught at UM for 15 years and created the foundation of the program.
The University of Florida placed first in the photojournalism competition, followed
by UM and Western Kentucky University, tying for second.
Montana finished sixth among all journalism schools, when considering all three
disciplines: photo, radio-television and print.
Scholarship fund
aims to help students
emulate alumnus,
WSJ reporter Jeff Cole
A scholarship fund in the
name of Jeff Cole, the University of Montana School of Journalism graduate and
The Wall Street Journal aviation reporter who died in a plane crash last January,
will strive to develop reporters with the same fairness and competitive spirit
that Cole took to work every day.
The Jeff Cole Legacy Fund will be used to award scholarships to students with
qualities similar to Cole, in addition to providing internships, guest lectures,
workshops, and resources for UM’s School of Journalism. Maria Little, Cole’s
widow, hopes to raise $500,000 for the fund and secure two UM internships a
year with Dow Jones, she said in a telephone interview from her office in Seattle.
"My goal is to make the UM journalism school one of the top three in the
country," she said.
So far Little has raised $55,000, including a $20,000 donation from UM President
George Dennison.
Cole had worked for The Journal since 1992, with a year-long stint at The Seattle
Times in between.
He graduated from UM’s School of Journalism in 1981 and went on to work
as the Missoulian’s Deer Lodge correspondent and as a business writer.
He first covered aviation when he joined the Everett Herald in Washington state
and continued on the beat for the St. Paul Pioneer Press in Minnesota before
landing a job at The Journal.
Cole was killed Jan. 24 in a plane crash near Denver after interviewing Atlas
Air Chairman Michael Chowdry, the pilot of the Czech-built jet fighter. Cole
was 45.
Little, who had been friends with Cole for 10 years but only married to him
for 17 months, got the news of the plane crash when she was away from home on
business, she said. She was alone in a hotel room near Burbank, Calif. and knew
she couldn’t drive, so she waited for Bruce Orwall, The Journal’s
Los Angeles Bureau reporter and Cole’s best friend, to arrive. As Orwall
and his wife drove Little to their home, she said she remembers being in shock,
but thinking, "I have to keep him alive in some way." That’s
when she thought of the scholarship fund.
Little will meet with Dean Jerry Brown of the School of Journalism several times
a year to discuss how the fund will be used each year, she said. She will also
interview students recommended for scholarships in Cole’s name.
Cole and Little had bought 20 acres in Stevensville, and Little still plans
to build on the land and move to Montana one day.
Steve Lipin, Cole’s editor at The Journal, said in a January Journal article
that Cole talked about reporting the way a cowboy would talk about roping a
big steer. Cole used to say, "Together we’re gonna lasso this baby
down." Or, "We’re gonna let some line out and watch this sucker
come to us."
"Cole felt the journalism school gave him a chance for a real career,"
Little said. Before attending UM, he worked on a feed farm, and while he was
a reporter for the Missoulian he drove a UPS truck for extra money, she said.
At the time he was married to his first wife and had two small children. "He
was thinking about what he could do for his family," Little said.
Although Cole was considered one of the top seven reporters by Dow Jones, he
didn’t live an extravagant lifestyle, according to Little. He often wore
sweats and Cole’s neighbors didn’t know he was a reporter for The
Journal until after he died, Little said. He wrote many of his stories camped
out on the dining room table in their 1,400 square foot home in Federal Way,
Wash., she said.
Cole’s editors have recently told Little that he was responsible for as
many as 20 percent of The Journal’s scoops, she said. Now The Journal can’t
get some of the stories Cole could have gotten, because sources say they won’t
talk to anyone but him.
"There will never be another Jeff Cole," Little said. "But through
the legacy fund we can give students a wonderful start and bring out his best
traits."
Tax-deductible contributions or stock contributions can be sent to:
|
The
Jeff Cole Legacy Fund
P. O. Box 24615 Federal Way, WA 98093 |
R-TV
faculty celebrates
10 years of telling the stories
from Montana's backroads
From Mann Gulch to Medicine
Lake, the public television show "Backroads of Montana" has been highlighting
small-town Montanans for 10 years.
The show, which first aired on Montana PBS on May 19, 1991, recently celebrated
its ten-year anniversary. The anniversary celebration included an hour-long
episode that aired May 20, followed by a half-hour retrospective program, looking
at the accomplishments of producers Gus Chambers, Ray Ekness, William Marcus
and John Twiggs.
Ekness is an assistant professor in the School of Journalism's Radio-Television
department. Chambers and Twiggs both teach as adjuncts.
The program's fifteenth episode included segments on Medicine Lake, the National
Wildlife Refuge, the Fort Union National Trading Post site, historical roadside
markers, and an artist in Billings.
"Everybody’s got a story," said Chambers, who is also a producer
for the University of Montana's Broadcast Media Center. "Sometimes we like
to take a look at the smaller stories, the ones where people don’t think
there’s something special."
Chambers, Ekness and Marcus started the program because they thought it would
be fun to meet people throughout Montana. Ekness said he came up with the idea
after seeing similar shows in other states. Twiggs joined the group in 1995.
The foursome find story ideas from small-town newspapers and various Montana
journals. The Great Falls Tribune is especially good, Marcus said.
Sometimes, while they shoot a segment, they'll find another story. And even
people in the grocery line give them ideas, Marcus said.
Marcus, who is also director of the Broadcast Media Center, said "Backroads
of Montana" is successful because it features the people who don’t
usually make the news.
"Montanans like to see themselves and their neighbors on TV," he said.
"It’s the combination of notoriety and humility that makes it successful."
Among the Montanans featured in the ten years of "Backroads" are a
Butte man who drives a mirror-covered Oldsmobile, a couple who built a teepee
from bailing twine, and the best cowboy polo player in Montana.
The show also has a good sense of humor, Marcus said. The producers are careful
to not make fun of the people they feature, but the humor usually comes out
in what the people do.
"People (in small towns) are so genuine," Twiggs, also a producer
of the broadcast media center and an adjunct professor. "They haven’t
been jaded by the media. It’s hard to capture that with a TV camera, but
I think we do."
"Backroads" videos
are available for purchase at www.montanapbs.org.
Julie Sullivan,
class of 1987, won a Pulitzer Prize as part of The Oregonian's team that
exposed serious flaws in the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service. The
Oregonian won the Pulitzer for public service reporting. Sullivan and three
other reporters reported and wrote the series, which was called "Liberty's
Heavy Hand." The judging committee cited the Oregonian for "its detailed and
unflinching examination of systematic problems within the U.S. Immigration and
Naturalization Service, including harsh treatment of foreign nationals and other
widespread abuses, which prompted various reforms."
"It was kind of dramatic; we were all in a conference room with the Associated
Press Web site up on a large screen so we could see it pop up,'' Sullivan told
Barbara LaBoe of The Montana Standard in Sullivan's hometown of Butte. Sullivan
previously worked for The Spokesman-Review in Spokane, Wash., where she had
won the Best Newspaper Writing Award for short news writing from the American
Society of Newspaper Editors.
To read the Oregonian's
prize-winning series, visit http://www.oregonlive.com/ins/.
Students in the School of Journalism ended the spring semester by producing two publications and one video documentary. For the ninth consecutive year, students in the Native News Honors Project produced a newspaper tab of stories covering the lives of Montana's Native Americans. This year's issue focuses on the economy on Montana's reservations. "A mixture of compassion, tribal politics and a lack of business acumen havae doomed assorted Fort Belknap tribal businesses and cemented a tradition that seems nearly impossible to change," writes senior Jason Begay in his article about business on the Fort Belknap reservation. "There's another reason why banks won't lend to Indians at Rocky Boy's (Reservation)," writes junior Jared Miller. "All reservation land is held in trust by the tribe. Trust land cannot, in most cases, be used as collateral." The Native News tab will be distributed inside the Missoulian newspaper and some articles will be reprinted in the Great Falls Tribune.
Also at the printer is the Montana Journalism Review, due out in June. The 30th issue of MJR focuses on what journalists have learned
 |
covering wildfires, and
in particular covering the wildfires of the Summer of 2000. John Blackstone
of CBS News, Sherry Devlin, an adjunct in the School of Journalism and
reporter for the Missoulian, and graduate student Oona Palmer all wrote
articles about wildfire and journalists. Other contributors to the issue include
Patricia Sullivan, former executive editor for the online version of
the Industry Standard, Stewart O'Nan, a novelist writing about his foray
into journalism; and Brian Kennedy, former owner and editor of the Hungry
Horse News writing an appreciation of Mel Ruder, Montana's first Pulitzer
Prize-winner in journalism. MJR was produced by nine students who edited and
designed it, and who sold advertising.
Twenty students in the Radio-Television department produced a documentary that
shows how methamphetamine use has ravaged Montana. The documentary, "Meth:
Dark Cloud Over the Big Sky," debuted on May 18 at the University Center
Theater before a crowd of about 200 people. The hour-long documentary has run
once on Montana PBS and will air again on Friday, June 29 at 8 p.m. The program
features interviews with former users of the drug – which is
also known as crank or speed – law enforcement, and families and friends
of two young women who died from their use of methamphetamines. The journalism
students traveled throughout Montana to report the story. "I'm
proud of our students," said Denise Dowling, an R-TV assistant professor
and one of the advisors for the documentary. "This documentary really became
a mission for them. They hope their work can save just one person or at least
help one parent recognize they have a kid with a problem." Journalism
student Kathy Weber narrates the documentary, which was produced by Lisa
Zimmerman and directed by Dan White. Copies of the video can be purchased
for $23.95 through the Radio-Television department at (406) 243-4081.
John Twiggs, an adjunct instructor in the School of Journalism's Radio-Television department, has been chosen to attend the WGBH Producers Workshop to be held at WGBH Boston, July 8-16. The Corporation for Public Broadcasting and the Public Broadcasting Service chose twenty people to join the workshop from among 150 applicants. Another adjunct, Sally Mauk, received three recent awards in her capacity as Montana Public Radio news director. Mauk won in the 2001 Northwest Regional competition of the Society of Professional Journalists for spot news reporting, feature news reporting and investigative reporting.
J-School News
| School of Journalism | The University of Montana |
May 2001
Editor: Michael Downs, visiting assistant professor
Reporter: Eva Dunn-Froebig