American Journalism Historians Association
The mission of AJHA, founded in 1981, is to advance the study of journalism and mass communication history, to foster support for the field, and to recognize outstanding achievement in the teaching and research of journalism and mass communication history. The association considers “journalism history” to mean a continuous process, emphasizing but not necessarily confined to subjects of American mass communications. It should be viewed not in the context of perception of the current decade, but as part of a unique, significant, and time-conditioned past.

American Society of News Editors
The American Society of News Editors advances the cause of quality, independent professional journalism. Founded in 1922 to “defend the profession from unjust assault,” ASNE is primarily an organization of newsroom leaders in the United States. Visit ASNE.org for information on how you might benefit by joining ASNE and how to join. ASNE is 90 years old as an organization and focuses on providing leadership for journalism organizations and academic organizations and for startup journalism endeavors. And, in some ways, we are starting from scratch. This summer ASNE moved its headquarters from Reston, Va., to the Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute on the University of Missouri’s campus in Columbia. It’s symbolic yet practical. Ye, we will partner with you. Yes, we can help you. Yes, you can help ASNE news organizations. “Reynolds is focused on innovation and how to preserve and carry forward the most essential values in journalism, including investigative journalism, the preservation of free speech and First Amendment rights, in ways that can engage the public,” says David Boardman, ASNE vice president and executive editor of the Seattle Times. “That aligns just perfectly with ASNE’s mission, and we saw some great potential for synergy with that organization.” ASNE will join organizations like Investigative Reporters and Editors and the National Freedom of Information Coalition in calling the University of Missouri home. In fact, “ASNE’s role is more important than ever,” says Susan Goldberg, ASNE president and Bloomberg News’ executive editor. “The more chaotic and changing and growing our industry is, the more we need effective and ethical leadership of these organizations. ASNE’s job really is to help journalism newsroom leaders manage change and to champion excellent journalism standards. Managing change is one of the most pressing needs of newsroom editors.” In this era of partnerships and collaboration, ASNE is expanding membership to include digital, broadcast and academia. ASNE is all about rebuilding and refocusing its mission. “We want to position ourselves as the thought leaders of journalism on any platform,” Goldberg says.

J-Lab: The Institute for Interactive Journalism
A center of American University’s School of Communication, J-Lab is a catalyst for innovations in journalism that help journalists, educators and citizens use new technologies to launch entrepreneurial news sites, grow access to responsible news and information, and learn how to adapt to the changing digital news ecosystem. J-Lab funds new approaches to journalism, researches what works and shares core insights though its publications, five websites, e-learning modules and in-person training designed to inspire and equip news providers to adapt to the changes. J-Lab has trained more than 6,000 journalists and journalism educators in recent years at its interactive summits, panels and symposia. It is currently focused on supporting and networking entrepreneurial university news startups. This year’s COA/J-Lab luncheon features several of these initiatives. A wrap-up of a recent summit of those sites is here: http://www.j-lab.org/ideas/category/blogically-thinking/trending-university-news-sites/. J-Lab has a respected 10-year track record of turning ideas into action. Our 90 pilot projects have been highly successful, our innovation awards are known throughout the industry, our research is cited regularly by others. Through these and other activities, we create space for experimentation, identify what works, and apply those insights to the future of journalism.

Journalism Education Association
The Journalism Education Association is the largest scholastic journalism organization for teachers and advisers. Put simply, we educate teachers on how to educate students. We fulfill this goal through numerous activities: We provide training around the country at national conventions and institutes. We offer national certification for teaching high school journalism. We publish print and online resources on the latest trends in journalism education. We provide avenues for virtual discussion among teachers, as well as communities and mentoring to learn best practices. We monitor and actively defend First Amendment and scholastic press rights issues across the country. Among JEA’s more than 2,500 members are journalism teachers and publications advisers, media professionals, press associations, adviser organizations, libraries, publishing companies, newspapers, radio stations and departments of journalism.

National Federation of Press Women
The National Federation of Press Women is a dynamic nationwide organization of professional women and men pursuing careers across the communications spectrum. We are a mix of journalists, public relations professionals, editors, designers, free-lance entrepreneurs and authors sharing their knowledge and experience across media platforms. For 75 years, NFPW has promoted the highest ethical standards while looking toward the future by offering professional development, networking and protection of our First Amendment rights. We offer conferences, competitions and recognition, a job bank, a First Amendment Network, discounted libel insurance, and education fund grants to help members take advantage of professional development opportunities. We also support student activities and education with an emphasis on ethics and editorial rights.

NewsGuild-CWA communications
Originally founded by print journalists in 1933, The Newspaper Guild is commonly known today as NewsGuild, a union of 21^st century media workers that fights for quality jobs and equality in the workplace; for truth, accuracy and integrity in journalism; for transparency at all levels of government and bureaucracy; and for the freedoms established by the First Amendment. Our 25,000 members in the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico are employed in every area of traditional and digital media, as reporters, photographers, editors, designers, advertising sales representatives, circulation workers, business staff and more. We also represent independent translators, interpreters, non-profit organizations’ staff and smaller but growing groups of other employees, including a new unit of ESL (English as a second language) teachers in New York City. As the result of a 1997 merger with the Communications Workers of America, our collective voice is strengthened by 650,000 fellow members and tens of thousands of active retirees. Nationwide, our journalists and other members are frequent guests in classrooms, from elementary schools through college. Several of our locals have also begun teaching community courses in partnership with their newspapers. A unique summer program led by our San Francisco-area local is training college journalists about the media and the value of unionism. We are eager for other opportunities, and invite educators to contact our national headquarters, or the NewsGuild local nearest to them. Contact information and links are online at NewsGuild.org.

Scripps Howard Foundation
Established in 1962, the Scripps Howard Foundation is the corporate philanthropy of The E.W. Scripps Company, a 134-year-old media company with newspapers and TV stations in more than 30 markets and an array of digital products and services, including social games. Mike Philipps (mike.philipps@scripps.com) is president and CEO of the Scripps Howard Foundation. The Foundation’s largest expenditures support journalist excellence, diversity and a free press. Among Foundation programs of specific interest to AEJMC members: annual institutes that foster academic leadership skills and the teaching of entrepreneurship as it relates to journalism; twice-monthly “How I Got That Story” webinars offered free of charge to journalism educators, students and professionals; Semester in Washington; Visiting Professors and Professionals in Social Media exchange; multimedia internships for partner school students and a journalism study trip to Japan through a collegiate reporting competition. Ohio University’s Scripps College of Communication and E.W. Scripps School of Journalism and Hampton University’s Scripps Howard School of Journalism and Mass Communication receive general support from the Foundation as do named programs on more than a dozen campuses nationwide. The Foundation’s prestigious Scripps Howard Awards annually honor journalists and college educators with $175,000 in prizes. In addition, the Foundation supports communities in which Scripps does business and the philanthropy and volunteer work of Scripps employees and retirees. Two scholarship programs are offered to employees’ children. For more information about specific programs, contact Sue Porter, vice president/programs, at sue.porter@scripps.com or visit the Foundation’s website at www.scripps.com/foundation.

Southern Newspaper Publishers Association
Southern Newspaper Publishers Association is committed to the preservation of responsible journalism and the long-term economic strength of newspapers. SNPA provides newspaper executives with information, ideas and best practices to anticipate competitive challenges and grow in an evolving media market. Its innovative training programs focus on issues that are critical to the professional success of the thousands of employees who work for newspapers. In 2013, SNPA will launch an initiative to create a dynamic liaison with journalism schools and departments throughout the Southeast. Journalism educators may join the Association, and are welcome to attend SNPA programs.

SWECJMC
SWECJMC is a regional affiliate of AEJMC with member schools in an eight-state region including Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas and Utah. SWECJMC is the founder of the Southwestern Mass Communication Journal, now also available online at http://southwesternmcjournal.wordpress.com/about/. Each fall, SWECJMC hosts a symposium research conference where faculty members and students present referred papers and posters.

<<Council of Affiliates

 

<< AEJMC News Ads

How to Live on 24 Hours a Day

(Article courtesy of AEJMC News, September 2012 issue)

I just returned from the AEJMC annual conference in Chicago, one of the most inspiring summer conventions I attended over the past thirty years or so. What made it so special, in my opinion, was that we not only celebrated AEJMC’s 100th anniversary but reflected on how our profession evolved over the course of a century of teaching journalism and mass communication. One of the sessions the Standing Committee on Teaching offered on Saturday morning was designated as a Centennial Session because we discussed “What We’ve Learned In Our First 100 Years.” This session was audience-driven as the four panelists responded to questions submitted by attendees (in person) and those who could not attend (via Twitter). One of the topics that came up in this session and in several other sessions this year was the notion of work-life balance, or work-life integration, as some researchers call it.

One of the highlights of this year’s conference was an exhibition of products that entered the U.S. market in ca. 1912, such as Oreo cookies, Kewpie dolls, the Erector Set, Life Savers, Morton Salt, Goo-Goo Clusters, Necco Wafers, and many others. Also on display was a selection of books published in or around 1912. Thanks to outgoing AEJMC President Linda Steiner, these books were given away to winners of a special drawing throughout the conference.  I was one of the lucky winners and chose the book How to Live on 24 Hours a Day by Arnold Bennett.* The title seemed intriguing.

I never thought I could learn something about time management from a book published 100 years ago, but I was in for a pleasant surprise as I started reading it on the plane home from Chicago.

The premise of Bennett’s book is that time is the “inexplicable raw material of everything. With it, all is possible, without it, nothing. (…) You wake up in the morning, and lo! your purse is magically filled with twenty-four hours of the unmanufactured tissue of the universe of your life! It is yours. It is the most precious of possessions. (…) And no one can take it from you. It is unstealable. No-one receives either more or less than you receive. Talk about an ideal democracy! In the realm of time there is no aristocracy of wealth, and no aristocracy of intellect. Genius is never rewarded by even an extra hour a day. And there is no punishment. (…) You cannot draw on the future. Impossible to get into debt! You can only waste the passing moment. You cannot waste tomorrow.” (p. 10)

Because of our intellectual curiosity, however, we tend to want to do more than we can fit into a day’s cycle. The wish to accomplish something outside of our formal obligations seems to be common among humans—perhaps especially for academics who have a desire to build knowledge.

Bennett, who lived in the suburbs of London and took a daily commuter train to get to the office, suggests that we consider our 9 to 5 (or so) work schedule as “the day” and the hours preceding and following it are nothing but a prologue and an epilogue. Just take a moment and record the time you spend every day going to work and coming home. Think of these two times as the “bookends” to your day. Unless you are taking public transportation there is really nothing you can do productively while driving to and from your office except, maybe, listening to books on tape or to BBC World on satellite radio to keep your mind sharp and up to date. If your bookends (or “margins” as Bennett calls them) are disproportionally large compared to your work day, you may want to restructure your life. For example, and these are my suggestions (not Bennett’s), you may choose to telecommute one day a week, or spend your designated research day at home, or teach hybrid courses with 50% class time face-to-face and 50% online.

If we wish to live a full life, according to Bennett, we must find a way to create a “day within a day” that we control. By that he means that we need to arrange for an “inner day” similar to a Chinese box inside a larger Chinese box, or a Russian doll within a doll. You may say “I’m too tired for that” to which Bennett would reply that “mental faculties are capable of continuous hard activity; they do not tire like an arm or a leg. All they want is change—not rest, except in sleep.” (p. 22)

Change, or variety, seems to be the key to maximizing a day’s 24 hours. Bennett offers a few general tips on how to make more efficient use of your time and increase productivity:

Employ all of your senses. Set aside some time (yes, put it on your calendar!) to experience something that is aesthetically pleasing or uplifting. This may be a visit to an art museum, or a stroll through the botanical garden, or attending a play, or listening to a piece of classical music, or savoring a gourmet meal in the good company of friends. This will stimulate your creative thinking and problem-solving skills.

Cultivate your own self. Aspire to learn something new that has seemingly nothing to do with your discipline. It will stimulate your mind and may lead to greater efficiency and productivity.

Set aside time to reflect. “We are supposed to be reasonable, but we are much more instinctive than reasonable. And the less we reflect, the less reasonable we are.” (p. 38)

Control your mind. Don’t let worrying steal your precious time! Worrying keeps you up at night. Clear your mind before you call it a day so that you can regenerate while you sleep.

I would like to add three “time-saving” teaching tips:

Follow a tightly written syllabus. If your syllabus has any loopholes, even the smallest ones, your students will find them. From my experience as department chair, I can tell you that most grade appeals come from students whose instructor did not have an airtight syllabus. When a student challenges a grade the appeals process demands extra time from the instructor, the department chair, the dean’s office, and the Appeals committee.

Be firm in saying “No!” If you give in to a sob story by one of your students and you show leniency, other students will try to exploit your generosity. Then you may end up spending the rest of the semester on the defensive, which demands more time and causes unnecessary stress.

Anticipate disruptive behavior and be prepared to respond appropriately. Most of the undergraduate students in our classrooms today are members of a generation called “Generation Rx.” (Millennials already entered the workplace and “Xers” have moved on to be administrators and executives.) The unique challenge educators face with the “Prescription Generation” is that we are often surprised by unpredictable behaviors some of our students display in class. These may be symptoms of a disability such as Autism or Tourette Syndrome, or they may be caused by the fact that a student took his/her medication too late, or forgot to take it, or the medication was being adjusted or switched, or the medication has side effects that cause behavioral changes. While we are not medical professionals trained to know the difference we should know what to do (and what not to do) when a student displays disruptive behavior in class so that we are not wasting anybody’s time. Please ask your university’s office for Faculty Affairs or your Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning for information and guidance regarding this matter.

So, whenever we say “Someday, when I have more time, I will do such-and-such!” let’s remind ourselves to maximize the time we have today. Carpe Diem!

*Bennett, Arnold (2007). How To Live On 24 Hours A Day. Mineola, NY: Dover. (Originally published in 1908 by The New Age Press, London.)

By Birgit Wassmuth
Kennesaw State University
AEJMC Teaching Committee

<<Teaching Corner

Continuing AEJMC’s Mission 100 Years Later

(Article courtesy of AEJMC News, July 2012 issue)

AEJMC at 100 is a large, diverse organization with dozens of interest groups and divisions, with representation from programs of all sizes and with members from around the globe. Still, we’re united by a common goal—to prepare the next generation of journalism and mass communication professionals, researchers and instructors.

At the heart of that goal is our mission of teaching. In 1912, teaching was the focus of the new American Association of Teachers of Journalism. As journalism classes and programs were popping up around the country, founding members voted to hold an annual conference focused on teaching and to collect statistics related to journalism in higher education. The research committee was formed in 1924, and professional freedom and responsibility was included formally in 1964.

How We’ve Changed
Clearly, teaching has changed over the past century. The first conference was amended only by men, and in 1927, AATJ listed 55 women among the 430 journalism teachers nationwide. Today, the gender ratio is much different: Female faculty members outnumber men in some programs, and most of us teach more women than men in our courses.

The scope of what we’re teaching has expanded. Courses in the 1910s prepared students for careers in newspapers and magazines. Today, we teach classes in research, theory, diversity, ethics and political communication while imbuing students with skills needed for careers in advertising, public relations, electronic media, online and social media. I sometimes wonder what AATJ founder Willard G. Bleyer would have thought of my writing for Twitter lecture in my newswriting and reporting course.

Technology hasn’t just changed what we teach; it’s also changed how we teach. We’ve found new ways to deliver information in the classroom and via distance. We have PowerPoints, Flickr accounts, class WordPress sites, group Twitter feeds, Blackboard course shells and eWorkbooks. Now we don’t need to know only our topic areas; we need to be technology experts.

Still, the beauty of our roles as teachers is that we can embrace our personal styles. Two of our top professors in my department, for example, don’t use those tools. They face their classes armed only with a dry erase marker, a blackboard and a passion for their subject. And they earn some of the highest student evaluation scores at the university. I’m humbled when I watch them teach—and watch the students listen to them with rapt attention. Replace their dry erase marker with chalk, and it’s clear that what worked in the classroom 100 years ago still can work today.

Continuing Our Commitment
As our predecessors did a century before us, we’ll meet in Chicago this year committed to teaching the next generation. This year’s AEJMC program again is chock full of excellent sessions aimed at encouraging and recognizing excellence in teaching. Our divisions and interest groups have many offerings focused on teaching, including the Great Ideas For Teachers (GIFT) session and the Promising Professors workshop.

The elected Standing Committee on Teaching also has been working to keep teaching programming front and center. We hope many of you will amend our scheduled sessions:

• Wednesday, Aug. 8, 6 to 9:30 p.m. — “Getting Started in Teaching Journalism: Tips From the Vets.” This pre-conference workshop (registration and small fee required) is designed for newer teachers. Participants will leave armed with innovative teaching tips and a new teaching veteran to keep in touch with as questions arise.

• Thursday, Aug. 9, 10 to 11:30 a.m. — “2012 Best Practices in Teaching Writing across Media.” This session features winners of our annual competition sharing their winning entries on creative and innovative ideas for teaching writing. Attendees receive a booklet with the winning entries.

• Friday, Aug. 10, 1:30 to 3 p.m. — “The Doctors Are In.” Speed da4ng meets group therapy for effective teaching as participants pick one of seven simultaneous teaching topic discussion tables to share ideas and ask questions. When the bell rings, participants move to another table or stay to continue their discussion. This session is designed for all teachers.

• Saturday, Aug. 11, 8:15 to 9:45 a.m. — “Teaching JMC, A Talk and Tweet Session: What We’ve Learned in Our First 100 Years.” We pulled together instruction experts to answer your questions, hear your concerns, and address current issues teachers face. Tweet your questions ahead of time: Use #AEJMCTeach100 in your tweet to: @laldoory. Email your questions to laldoory@umd.edu. And share your questions in person at the session.

By Jennifer Greer, Chair
University of Alabama
AEJMC Teaching Committee

<< Teaching Corner

The AEJMC Council of Affiliates has launched a new competition that began with AEJMC’s Centennial conference in August 2012 in Chicago, our first annual Industry Research Forum. The interdependence between the academy and the professional and industry organizations it serves provides an opportunity for collaboration on research that can benefit everyone.

The Council of Affiliates of AEJMC, which consists of member organizations related to the fields of journalism and mass communication, is therefore sponsoring this Industry Research Forum designed to strengthen that academy/industry link.

Three winners of $1000 each presented their research at the AEJMC Conference.  Mike Philipps and the Scripps Howard Foundation provided an additional $1000 so a third award could be made. The three winners are as follows and can be found here:

“Media Entrepreneurship: Curriculum Development and Faculty Perceptions of What Students Should Know,” Michelle Ferrier, Elon University

“Best Practices in Managing News Website Comments,” Mitch McKenney, Kent State University

“The Ten Percent Dilemma: The Opportunities and Challenges of Managing Newspapers in the Digital Age,” Paul Steinle, professor emeritus, Southern Oregon University; Sara Brown, Valid Sources, Seattle

AEJMC Council of Affiliates