The New Jersey Society of Professional Journalists will hold their annual Awards Luncheon, June 21, 2008 at the NJPAC. Details to follow.

Award winners will be announced on the chapter's Web site in early May

Check NJSPJ.org for updates.

At the Abromson Community Center‚ University of Southern Maine‚ 88 Bedford St‚ Portland‚ ME

Featured All Day Saturday:
DISASTERS ON DEADLINE
Co-sponsored by Maine Association of Broadcasters

If our nation is at risk of terrorism and if your community is at risk of a natural disaster‚ then your newspaper‚ radio or television station is at risk covering disasters on deadline.

The SPJ/Northeast Region presents DISASTERS ON DEADLINE by the Missouri School of Journalism. In this day-long workshop for newspaper‚ radio and television journalists‚ learn how to perform at your peak when the need is greatest and the hindrances most severe. This is a matter of commercial success‚ public service and - in the case of radio and television stations - a matter of Federal Communications Commission mandate.

Here is what you will learn:

• How to mobilize your staff in the least amount of time to get news from the scene and get information on the air‚ online and in print.
• How to safeguard your reporters and photojournalists in the field - at the disaster or terrorism site.
• How to work with the increasingly confusing array of emergency responders and local‚ state and federal officials who have authority and sometimes jockey for control of disaster/terrorism situations.
• How to take the high road on ethical issues - privacy‚ sensationalized information‚ exaggeration of the degree of danger‚ news judgment in the face of rapid-fire competition.

A special feature of this day-long workshop: Templates for a CRASH BOOK‚ the one tool that will walk you through the easy to forget details required to provide excellent news coverage and public service.

SPJ Region 1 includes: Connecticut‚ Maine‚ Massachusetts‚ New Hampshire‚ New Jersey‚ New York‚ Central/ Eastern Pennsylvania‚ Rhode Island & Vermont.

For complete details of the two day conference‚ download the brochure.

Knight Digital Media Center - University of California‚ Berkeley‚ Graduate School of Journalism

Application Deadline for all three seminars: April 11‚ 2008

The Knight Digital Center Multimedia Training Program is accepting applications for 20 fellowships per workshop for journalists to attend these seminars that combine practical instruction in multimedia reporting with in-depth exploration of issues in online publishing.

Participants will receive six days of intense hands-on instruction on how to do multimedia stories for the Web‚ including:

• Using digital video cameras‚ photo cameras and audio recorders;
• Doing story boards‚ stand-ups‚ voice overs and other broadcast techniques;
• Digital video‚ audio and photo editing;
• Creating photo slide shows in Flash;
• Web page creation and multimedia Web site design.

Fellows create multimedia projects as part of the seminar. In addition‚ there are evening and noontime presentations by online publishing experts on the most pressing issues in digital media.

WHO SHOULD APPLY: Professional print and broadcast journalists seeking multimedia skills. Fellowships include lodging‚ meals and instruction.

Cost of travel to the workshop must be paid by the applicant’s news organization.

HOW TO APPLY: An application form and instructions are available online.

We are accepting concurrent applications for the May‚ June and July 2008 workshops. Applicants may apply to any or all of the workshops. Because we receive far more applications than we can accommodate‚ applicants are encouraged to apply for multiple workshops to increase their chances of being accepted into one of them.

APPLICATIONS MUST BE RECEIVED BY APRIL 11‚ 2008

If you have any questions‚ please contact Lanita Pace-Hinton‚ director of multimedia training‚ at pacel@berkeley.edu or (510) 643-7429.

The Knight Digital Media Center is a collaboration of USC Annenberg School for Communication and the University of California‚ Berkeley‚ Graduate School of Journalism‚ funded by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. Additional funding for the multimedia training seminars is provided by the Ethics and Excellence in Journalism Foundation.

For more information on the Knight Digital Media Center and other programs we offer‚ please visit our main Web site.

Need some guidance? Not sure if you should stay or if you should go? Want to help aspiring journalists get their start?

The Society of Professional Journalists’ Mentor Match-Up program is here to help.

SPJ’s Mentor Match-up aims to promote great journalism by introducing journalists of different experience levels and similar interests. Participating journalists are encouraged to communicate by e-mail‚ phone and occasional personal visits. SPJ helps make a match but leaves it to program participants to decide the nature and frequency of their communications.

The program is open only to SPJ members. Journalists wanting to serve as mentors must have more than five years of professional experience. Journalists who want mentoring must have less than five years of experience.

Sounds like something you’re interested in?

Log on to www.spj.org/mentor.asp for more information

PLEASE PASS ON AND POST IN NEWSROOMS!

Free Wallet Cards Summarize New Jersey’s Open Government Laws

As part of its long support for freedom of information in New Jersey‚ the New Jersey Chapter of SPJ has since 2002 distributed more than 1‚000 wallet cards providing useful summaries of the main provisions of the state’s two main laws concerning open records and open meetings.

The cards – one covering the Open Public Records Act (“OPRA”) and one covering the Open Public Meetings Act (“The Sunshine Law’) – are provided free as a handy reference for journalists‚ public officials and the public.