• Talbot says goodby to teaching
• Student Documentary Explores Montana Gambling
• Remembering Lem Price
• First Pollner Lecture a success
• J-school alum wins national SPJ Award
• Grad student snags top library award
• Broadcast students win J-school’s first-ever Emmys
• J-school prof and student team up, win $$ for research project

Talbot says goodbye to teaching

John Talbot, the Renaissance man whose most recent career was teaching media management at the School of Journalism, is turning in his grade book at the end of the Spring 2002 semester.

Talbot’s zest for life is reflected in his résumé. He is a singer, a bicyclist, a crusader for more public land and fewer billboards, the former publisher of the Missoulian and a former CIA man. His service to Missoula, to newspapers, to the Journalism School and to dozens of other causes has been long, steady and affectionate.
When he became Missoulian publisher in the 1970s, Talbot had already served his CIA stint in Paris in the 1950s and had handled international flight operations for TWA. He ended his Lee career in the 1980s as a vice president for newspapers.

He has sung with the Missoula Symphony Chorale for 30 years. In 1987 he helped create Missoula’s renowned International Choral Festival and serves on its board. He also helped create the Five Valleys Land Trust in 1988 and sits on that board as well. And he’s on the board of SAVE, a non-profit trying to reduce the number of billboards in Montana.

Former J-school Dean Charlie Hood first asked Talbot to teach a media management course in 1984. Talbot has been at it ever since, offering the course each spring.

Although Talbot is leaving the classroom, he’s not leaving the Journalism School. He’ll continue to serve on the J-School Advisory Council and to spearhead fundraising efforts for a new journalism building.

In his own words, here are his thoughts on leaving the classroom:

 

In 1984 when Dean Charles Hood asked me if I would be willing to develop and teach a news-media management course at the Journalism School, I was both interested and grateful. It was an interesting proposition because I thought of myself as somewhat of a student of management styles and skills and also because the idea of finding out if I could teach had great appeal.

I was grateful because the prospect of giving up a job as a newspaper group manager for Lee Enterprises looked to me as though it would leave a very large amount of time on my hands, and I couldn't quite see a life of full-time work in the yard. It was also flattering to have a man who had been a good dean, as well as a good journalist, think I could do something so different from my past life.

Today, after teaching the course for 19 years, I can say I was absolutely right to be both interested and grateful. The attempt to make management of the news media interesting and relevant to about 700 students during those years kept me fascinated and engaged to an extent I find hard to believe. In satisfaction it was right up there with being publisher of a decent newspaper.

Today I am also more grateful than ever to Dean Hood for giving me the chance to teach and know these students and be part of a truly remarkable faculty. I say remarkable because I have never known a group working together who liked each other, helped each other and supported each other like the faculty at the School of Journalism. This group could be used as a case study in the Media Management class for its outstanding motivation, spirit and teamwork.

My very sincere thanks to Dean Hood, the other deans for their sensitive leadership and the faculty members with whom I have been so proud to teach. The years with them have been wonderful years.

Student Documentary Explores Montana Gambling
Show will have special premiere on May 17

Seniors in the J-school’s Radio-Television Department will present their capstone project, a one-hour television documentary exploring gambling in Montana, on the night before graduation.

"Montana Gambling: Hold it or Fold it?" premieres in a special showing at 7:30 p.m. May 17 in the University Center Theater. A reception precedes the show at 7 p.m.

Students interviewed gaming business owners who see the benefits of gambling in jobs and the economy, as well a businessman who headed the Laurel Crimestoppers and stole to support his gambling habit.

Students also traveled to the Montana women’s prison to interview a convicted murderer who says gambling led her to ruin.

"Both sides have compelling arguments for and against gambling in Montana," said R-TV Department Chair and Professor Bill Knowles, who acts as faculty adviser on the project along with Professor Ray Ekness. "Students present those arguments in an unbiased, down-the-middle approach that will allow viewers to draw their own conclusions."

Students staff all positions in producing the documentary. They conduct research and interviews, write the stories, narrate, shoot videotape, and edit the final product. Student producer Danielle Dellerson of Bigfork called the work a bonding experience for her and her classmates.

"This has been one of the most demanding and rewarding projects I’ve ever worked on," said Dellerson.
Student director Jasper Hiatt of Missoula heads the technical team. "I hope we’ll be able to bring gambling into a new light for the people of Montana," he said. "Our goal is to educate so people can make good decisions."

Students shot the documentary on location in Polson, Browning, Cut Bank, Billings, Crow Agency, Livingston, Butte, Virginia City, Kalispell, Helena, Missoula and Spokane, Wash.

The documentary’s broadcast premiere is set for Tuesday, May 28 at 7 p.m. on Montana PBS.

Remembering Lem Price

Lem Price, a gifted photojournalist who was just about to start his first full-time job as a newspaper photographer, was killed in a car accident in Missoula on April 20. He was 24 and the father of two children. Price graduated from the UM School of Journalism in 2001 and had completed several internships, the most recent at the Associated Press in Seattle.

See the Kaimin story about his death, written by J-school senior Paul Queneau, the Kaimin's editorial, and a Missoulian story about Lem's legacy and his funeral, written by J-school graduate Michael Moore.

See a gallery of Lem's photographs.

First Pollner Lecture a success

The family of T. Anthony Pollner visited the school for the first Pollner lecture. From left are Anthony's parents, Ben Pollner and Alice Thorpe Pollner; Sasha Moritz and Amy Pollner Moritz, Anthony's sister; and Edward Pollner and his wife, Lisa. Edward Pollner is Anthony's brother. At right is J-school professor Carol Van Valkenburg, who introduced the family. Pollner's family created an endowment in his memory that will bring a distinguished journalist to the UM campus for one semester each year. (Photo by Ray Ekness)

The family of T. Anthony Pollner, a 1999 Journalism School graduate who died last year in a motorcycle accident, came to Missoula for the inaugural Pollner lecture on April 22.

The Pollner family has established the T. Anthony Pollner Distinguished Professorship, which brings a distinguished journalist to campus for one semester a year to each a class, work with Kaimin students and deliver a public lecture.

About 100 people gathered in the University Center Theater for the lecture, delivered by Jonathan Weber, the J-schools first Pollner professor. See journalism student Lacy Chaffin's story on the lecture.

J-school alum wins national SPJ Award

Julie Sullivan, a 1985 graduate of the School of Journalism and a reporter at the Oregonian in Portland, recently won a national award for feature writing from the Society of Professional Journalists.

The award, announced May 1, was for a story titled "This is How We Live," a searing account of one couple's struggle after their nearly 2-year-old twins were diagnosed as autistic.

Ten years ago, one child out of 5,000 was afflicted with autism. Today, the incidence is one in 500 children, Sullivan found.

From the story: "As the girls grew, they grew harder to control, bolting out of cars, jumping off the top of dressers and stairs and running into walls. They stripped in Target, screamed in the supermarket and smeared feces on their bedroom wallsÉ.Inside [the house], they moved like Sherman's army, breaking pictures and knickknacks, drawing on walls. Rachel would hit Renee so hard she would sob. Renee urinated all over the house. Donna pulled up the soiled rug in the girls' bedroom and put down industrial carpet and eventually, linoleum. The girls pulled up the linoleum and ate the adhesive."

Sullivan's story placed first in SPJ's feature writing category for newspapers with a circulation of 100,000 or greater. The full story is available for purchase on the Oregonian's Web site.

Grad student snags top library award

Jed Gottlieb, a first-year print graduate student, won the first prize of $350 in an essay contest sponsored by UM's Mansfield Library.

The contest asked students to describe up to 50 books that would make up an ultimate collection. Jed's entry, titled "Diversity and the Desert Island," focused on the idea that readers need a wide range of ideas, themes and emotions to make it through life.

The top five books on Jed's list?

• Hero with a Thousand Faces, by Joseph Campbell
• The Riverside Shakespeare
• The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald|
• A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again, by David Foster Wallace
• The Art of Fiction, by John Gardner

Broadcast students win J-school’s first-ever Emmys

Two University of Montana Radio-Television juniors have won scholarships from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, better known as the Emmy organization. This is the first time UM students have won these prestigious awards.

Kim Dobitz of Morristown, S.D., will receive the $1,500 Elizabeth Wright Evans Scholarship, and Jennifer Karen Guay-Kuglin of Missoula will receive the $1,500 Pat Egan Scholarship from the academy’s Seattle-Northwest Chapter. The scholarships will be presented June 15 at the regional Emmy Awards Gala in Seattle.

In her letter to the scholarship committee, Dobitz said her passion for television and sports began early. She told a story about being raised on a ranch and playing newscast with her two sisters. "My sisters used to set up an old folding table for me to use as an anchor desk, then we used a home video camera to focus on the talent (which would always be me)," she wrote. Dobitz said her passion for journalism continues to grow as she learns more about people and the mystery of telling a person's story.

Dobitz has had two internships in Bismark, N.D., one as a reporter for a local radio station and one as the assignment director for the news at the local FOX affiliate.

Denise Dowling, Dobitz's academic adviser at UM, said she is constantly impressed by Kim. "I find her to be thoughtful, engaged and always ready to work." Dowling said.

Jennifer Karen Guay-Kuglin told the committee she also created a pretend television show when she was in the third grade. She currently holds two jobs in the Missoula market: one at KECI Television as a technical director and also at KBGA-FM, the UM student radio station, as a news director and reporter.

Her adviser, Ray Ekness, said Jenny is a team leader who will be a great addition to a television station in the future. "She's a great director and editor," he said. " I know I don't have to worry when she's directing on of our student newscasts."

J-school prof and student team up, win $$ for research project

RTV honors student Lindsey Lear has won a $1,000 undergraduate research scholarship from the University of Montana for the 2002-2003 academic year.

Lear's winning proposal, submitted jointly with Professor Clem Work, entails a two-stage process. During the fall, Lear will apprentice with Work, assisting him in research for a book on the Montana origins of First Amendment jurisprudence. The book project focuses on the period before, during and after World War I, when political dissent in Montana was severely repressed.

In the spring, Lear will work on her own related research project as the foundation of a radio or television documentary. The award will fund costs of the research project up to $500. Lear will also present her findings at the 2003 Conference on Undergraduate Research at UM next April.

The new program of student-faculty undergraduate research awards is supported by UM's Office of Research and Development. Faculty and students in fine arts, humanities, journalism and social sciences are eligible. The annual awards are made by the Undergraduate Research Committee.