Journalism is in danger south of the border

MEXICO CITY---Hola! As MSU’s campus is shrouded in ice and snow, I undertook the arduous task of
heading off to Phoenix and Mexico City on a development trip and to a meeting.

The development piece was successful, and I had a wonderful meeting with former
Starbucks VP Wanda Herndon, a funny, witty, talented and terrific lady who splits her
time between Phoenix and Seattle. She has a great story to tell, and she’ll be on campus
next year to do so.

The trip to Mexico City was for the winter meeting of the Association of School of
Journalism and Mass Communication. It’s a workshop format with the main focus this
year being the possibilities of exchanges and opportunities for U.S. students with
schools in Mexico, Chile and Peru. One of the more tantalizing opportunities is a
modestly priced three week intense Spanish Language. For $2,299 students can spend
three weeks taking language and immersion classes. The cost includes the classes,
housing with a Mexican family (students share a double room) and three meals a day.

I have long believed the U.S. needs to be more fluent in languages other than our own.
For a journalist, fluency in a language like Spanish would be invaluable. My pathetic
attempts at Spanish after a year of intermittent study embarrass me. My French is better
though rusty from lack of use. I still default to it.

I also am chairing a panel on reaccreditation. As a recent veteran of the process, the
idea is to help deans and directors in other schools with some practical tricks.

But, the most moving part of the conference was the speech at the opening reception by
longtime J-School supporter, Alejandro Junco, publisher and CEO of the largest chain of
newspapers, Grupo Reforma. Alejandro funded our Mary Gardner Scholars program to
honor his former teacher and mentor, the late Dr. Mary Adelaide Gardner.

Junco is largely credited with creating U.S. style journalism in Mexico which led to
significant reforms and the emerging democracy that is Mexico today. But Mexico is also
a place of great danger for journalists and anyone who dares challenge the rising
insurgency of drug cartels, or narco-terrorists, as he calls them. His is a call to arms.
I’ve linked his speech for you. Read it, please. The threat to us on our southern border is
real—should Mexico implode we will have a greater terrorist problem on our border that
anywhere else in the world.

With courage and at great personal risk, he is working to identify the systemic and
endemic problems, and he is asking for help through funded research projects that could
include a broad spectrum of graduate and senior undergraduate students with a mass
distribution project (this is where journalism becomes critical). Stay tuned for more on
this.

But most importantly read his speech. His belief is if that some key micro problems can
be solved, then small steps like this will transform Mexico and the process can be
replicated in other nascent democracies around the world.

I’ll be back on campus next week. Adios until then.

You're back and it's started!

Welcome back to what we here at MSU euphemistically call the spring term. How it can be spring in January when it’s frigid, snowy and always gray is beyond me. But, hey, we are ever the optimists!

Hope you all had a terrific break and are ready to hit the books. It’s an exciting term ahead beginning with next week’s presidential inauguration. The State News is send a team to cover that live.

Want a chance to win a $1,000 prize and a $3,000 scholarship? In these tough economic times, that could be really, really helpful. The catch—you just need to write a 2,500 (or less) word essay and enter it in the Howell Essay Contest.

This year’s question is: Editorial cartoons have been a part of daily newspapers’ election coverage for decades, and these caricatures of candidates produce biased messages that can be construed as propaganda.* How did this and/or other forms of comedy assist in or combat the circulation of propaganda during the 2008 presidential election season? Analyze and cite examples from print and broadcast media (i.e. daily newspapers, Saturday Night Live, the Daily Show, the Colbert Report, late-night talk shows, etc.).

The contest is funded by the Walter S. and Syrena M. Howell Award and Scholarship Fund.

*The goal of the Howell Essay Fund is to encourage student analysis of propaganda defined as “the use of unproven and/or unverifiable assumptions in a report or statement of allegations reflecting the view and interests of its advocates.”
Please note: If a student is receiving financial aid, the award of a scholarship or prize money could impact him/her.

Entering is easy! Just pick up an application in the bins on the third floor by the elevator near the J-School Offices. Only Com Arts & Sciences majors are eligible to enter. Deadline: 5 p.m., Friday, Jan. 23, 2009

Stay tuned juniors for the soon to be announced Mary Adelaide Gardner Scholarship application deadline. The scholarship will pay a full year’s tuition for the lucky soon to be senior. More to come on this later.

J-School faculty and students were big winners again this year at the Great Lakes Environmental Film Festival in Bay City, Michigan on a snowy Saturday, Jan. 10. Congratulations to Lou D'Aria and Amol Pavangadkar and their students from the J-School’s Knight Center for Environmental Journalism in the School of Journalism for their big wins (second year on a row!) for college videos and PSAs at the 2009 Great Lakes

Andrew Price and Kevin Wilt won $1,000 and first place in the college feature category for "Meltdown," their film about the impact of climate change on the Arctic. The film's production was overseen by Lou D'Aria, a Knight Center instructor in the School of Journalism, and it was broadcast on WKAR-TV last summer.

Anisa Abid, who graduated with a master's degree in environmental journalism from MSU in December, won second prize in the college feature category for her documentary about biodiversity in Madagascar. Anisa has been hired to work at National Geographic Television.

Adam Rademacher and six other MSU students won first and second place in the college PSA Short category for the videos they created as part of Amol Pavangadkar's classes at MSU. Both these spots were a part of the Bioeconomy project, which was launched late last semester (http://ej.msu.edu/bio_economy/index.html). Other members of the team included Matt Kus, Brent Kreystan, Robert Peek, Tim Veldman, Josh Frank and Steven Scherba.

Today we said good bye to our current dean Dr. Chuck Salmon who is heading off to a research position in Israel with his family. Good luck, Chuck. We also welcome interim dean Dr. Brad Greenberg who will take over the helm until a permanent dean is selected. The search for Chuck’s replacement is ongoing.