Fall 2012 Murphy Reporter

ReporterMurphy

Fall 2012

The Importance of Mentoring

The SJMC Mentor Program Enters its 30th Year

SJMC senior Stephanie Dentinger and Heather Arnston, senior brand sociologist at Minneapolis-based advertising agency Carmichael Lynch

School of Journalism & Mass CommunicationUniversity of Minnesota

PUBLISHING EXCELLENCE AWARDS

AWARD WINNER

AWARD WINNER

2012

AWARD WINNER

MINNESOTA MAGAZINE & PUBLISHING ASSOCIATION

2012

MINNESOTA MAGAZINE & PUBLISHING ASSOCIATION

TABLE OF CONTENTS

DIRECTORAlbert Tims

EDITORSarah Howard

DESIGNSarah Howard, Nicholas Khow

EDITORIAL ASSISTANTTaylor Selcke

CONTRIBUTING WRITERSSue Couling,

Alexandra Eastman

COPY EDITORLetta Page

PHOTOGRAPHY Sarah Howard, Scott

Theisen, Mark Vancleave

ALUMNI RECORDSMary Achartz, Julie Golias

PRINTINGBolger Printing

2012–2013 SJMC Alumni Society Board Members

Sarah Bauer, presidentChad Haldeman, vice president

Amy Nelson, secretaryNina Bouphasavanh

Demian BrinkMatt Burgess

Daniel GoreVictoria HoshalSarah Howard

John LutterMary Tan

FEATURES

08 The Importance of Mentoring The SJMC Alumni Society Board Mentor Program enters its 30th year.

12 A Whole New World SJMC embraces app creation and development.

14 Dual Degree Offers New Educational Opportunity Students can now earn an M.A. and J.D. concurrently thanks to a partnership between SJMC and the U of M Law School.

17 Sidney “Skip” Bliss Honored with Ralph D. Casey Award Wisconsin newspaperman receives honor named for SJMC’s first director.

30 Faculty Research Spotlight Assistant professors Heather LaMarre and Jennifer Ball share their research.

DEPARTMENTS

04 HEADLINES Dhavan Shah Visits SJMC 4

New Members Join Alumni Board 4

A New Face for Student Services 5

SJMC Honored at AEJMC Convention 5

Partnership with FOX’s Creative U 6

Alumni Spotlight: Zach Sussman 6

ACEJMC Site Team Reviews SJMC 7

Murphy Reporter Wins 3 MMPA Awards 7

18 EVENTS Fall Forum Event with Chuck Porter 18

Mentor Program Kick-off 19

See Change 20

Data Journalism Panel 22

IRE Workshop 22

Edward R. Murrow Fellows 23

27th Annual Silha Lecture 24

26 STUDENT NEWS

28 FACULTY NEWS 31 ALUMNI NEWS & NOTES

33 DONOR REPORT

35 IN MEMORIAM

The Murphy Reporter is published semiannually by the University of

Minnesota School of Journalism & Mass Communication for alumni,

faculty, staff, students and friends of the school.

Send questions or comments to [email protected] or

Murphy Reporter, 111 Murphy Hall, 206 SE Church St.,

Minneapolis, MN 55455

The University of Minnesota shall provide equal access to and opportunity in its

programs, facilities and employment without regard to race, color, creed, religion, national

origin, gender, age, marital status, disabil-ity, public assistance status, veteran status,

sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression.

This publication is available in alternative formats upon request. Direct requests to Sarah Howard at 612-625-8095 or [email protected].

Murphy ReporterFall 2012

08 12

24

17

18 20

Murphy Reporter FALL 2012 3

I’m pleased to report that a recently completed, comprehensive self-study evaluation of the School and the findings of a team of external program evalua-tors resulted in a recommendation to the Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communications that SJMC be fully re-accredited for an-other six year period. The on-site evalua-tion team’s recommendation is subject to review and endorsement by the Council’s accrediting committee in mid-March and the full accrediting council when they meet in May.

National accreditation helps guarantee academic programs adhere to rigorous standards of quality and that they engage in continuous improvement. The School has long valued national accreditation, and it has been continuously accred-ited since the founding of a structure for national accreditation in journalism education by the American Council on Education in Journalism in 1945.

The faculty and staff are gratified by the site team’s finding of full compliance on all nine standards of accreditation and take seriously their recommendations for ways to further strengthen our program. An area for increased investment relates to support for internship opportunities. While the Twin Cities provides robust internship opportunities throughout the school year and while we aggres-sively promote and support internships — both paid and volunteer — we have a

responsibility to go into the community to establish new internships, monitor the quality of internship experiences and bring greater focus to national and international internship opportunities. Our self-study demonstrated that staffing for internship management and career development needs review. Even so, the on-site team observed, “Students appear to rely principally on advising at the School level, a process that focuses on the student’s major and the total plan of learning. This system appears to be unusually thorough, conscientious and of a high order. The School’s culture, which involves every full-time faculty member in the academic advis-ing process, places serious emphasis on the unit’s academic and career advising process, and effectively so.”

Given the University of Minnesota’s Twin Cities campus performance goal of increasing four-year graduation rates, it was most gratifying to document that the School’s exceptional curriculum manage-ment and student advising is yielding a four-year graduation rate of 79.4 percent. This rate greatly exceeds the Twin Cities campus-wide aspirational goal of 60 per-cent. Equally impressive is the five-year graduation rate of 93.2 percent.

As noted in the School’s self-study and the on-site team’s report, it remains a pri-ority to strive for greater diversity among our instructional staff, both full-time faculty and part-time professional adjunct instructors.

We also strive to incorporate diver-sity into our curriculum. Our students recently completed a project for Minne-sota Public Radio exploring the growing diversity of the Twin Cities region by documenting the 200 different languages currently spoken in the region’s public schools. (I urge you to explore this very important student-produced story about our increasingly diverse community at z.umn.edu/sjmcmpr.)

We are committed to fostering diversi-ty, curriculum innovation, operational ef-ficiency, active professional engagements, technology-enhanced curriculum delivery and national and international leadership in research and scholarly impact. I believe you’ll find compelling evidence of these core commitments in this issue of the Murphy Reporter.

Best,

Albert R. Tims

Director, School of Journalism & Mass Communication

Setting the Standard

PETE

R B

ECK

HEADLINES

For three days in late Sep-tember 2012, SJMC alumnus Dhavan Shah (Ph.D., ’99) came to SJMC as the first Mitchell V. Charnley Distin-guished Visiting Professor, an appointment named after the former SJMC professor. As part of his visit, Shah interact-ed with graduate students and faculty to cross-collaborate on research findings and methods.

Shah is currently the Maier-Bascom Professor at the Univer-sity of Wisconsin-Madison. “It’s fun to come back,” Shah told a room full of graduate students and faculty. “I sat right where you are and was taught by some of these same professors.” In his short residency, Shah gave a number of presenta-tions, including a public lecture titled, “Mobilization, Social-ization and Participation in a Digital Age: Building the Com-munication Mediation Model” and a workshop presentation for graduate students about research methods within digital media spheres. Shah also contributed to a number of undergraduate- and graduate-level classes within SJMC, including JOUR 5777: Contemporary Problems in Freedom of Speech and Press,

JOUR 5501: Communication and Public Opinion and JOUR 8003: Changing Media Environment. Shah’s research examines the social psychology of commu-nication influence. His main focus is effects on social evalua-tions, political judgments and civic participation. At the University of Wisconsin-Madison, he also serves as the director of the Mass Communication Research Center, Sci-entific Director of the Active Aging Research Center and a Core Leader in the Center for Excellence in Cancer Communication Research. –S.H.

Shah visited assistant professor Seth Lewis’s Jour 8003: Changing Media Environment graduate class.

Dr. Dhavan Shah Named 2012 Mitchell V. Charnley Distinguished Visiting Professor

SJMC Alumni Society Board Welcomes Two New Members

In its September 11, 2012 meeting, the School of Journalism & Mass Communication Alumni Society Board welcomed two new members: Matt Burgess (B.A., ’00), creative director at OLSON and Victoria Hoshal (B.A., ’82), director of business development

at d.trio marketing group. Upon graduating from SJMC, Burgess received his portfolio certificate from Miami Ad School and began working on Best Buy’s holiday and Geek Squad campaigns. Then, he moved to Campbell Mithun to work as a copywriter on such accounts as Burger King, H & R Block, Land O’ Lakes, Nature Valley and Partnership for a Drug-Free America. In 2008, Burgess joined OLSON where he is now a creative director. His clients include

the University of Minnesota, and he has won numerous awards for his work, including Effies, OBIEs and FCS Portfolio Awards.

Hoshal began her career in develop-ment and, in 1997, became founder, CEO and creative director of Legacy Catalogue, a national brand of home furnishings and ac-cessories. She later became a direct market-ing account executive at the Star Tribune in 2007. In 2009, she moved to her current role at d.trio marketing group. At this award-winning direct and multi-channel agency, she is responsible for securing new business opportunities and clients. Burgess and Hoshal take the place of two longstanding SJMC Alumni Society Board members whose terms were up in 2012: Ray Faust (B.A., ’95), vice president of national and emerging media sales at the Star Tribune Media Company, and Brad Madson (B.A., ’84), executive director of community rela-tions for the Minnesota Vikings.

4 Murphy Reporter FALL 2012

Dhavan Shah

SAR

AH

HO

WA

RD

HEADLINES


On November 30, 2012, SJMC faculty and staff gathered to celebrate the 100th birthday of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication.

With a new student services coordinator and undergraduate and graduate stu-dent personnel coordinators, fall semester saw a complete turnover in the Student Services office. Rebecca Rassier joined SJMC as the student services coordinator in December

2011 after the retirement of longtime student services coor-dinator Linda Lindholm. In this role, Rassier advises SJMC majors with program plans and curriculum. She also serves as the head of both undergraduate and graduate student services. Rassier has worked at the University of Minnesota for 11 years and was previously in the individualized degree programs and the community and media advising commu-nity, both within the College of Liberal Arts. “In working in different departments across the University, I had always worked with journalism students and just loved working with them,” she said. “This department has a great faculty and is very student-centered, which appealed to me.” After more than a year as the undergraduate student per-sonnel coordinator, Angie Rehn was named graduate student personnel coordinator in August. In this role, she assists graduate students and the director of graduate studies, as well as assists in coordinating graduate affairs. “I’m excited to be part of the world of graduate affairs,” she said. “Having worked with both graduate and undergraduate students in SJMC is a pleasure.” Prior to coming to SJMC, Rehn was an admissions adviser at Century College in White Bear Lake, Minn. With Rehn moving to serve graduate students, there was an opening in undergraduate affairs. It was filled in Novem-ber when Aundrea Billings joined the team as undergraduate student personnel coordinator. Previously a career adviser and student services coordinator at the McNally Smith Col-lege of Music in Minneapolis, the University of Minnesota graduate was excited to return to her alma mater. “I always wanted to come back to the U,” Billings said. “The journalism students are very driven, focused and ambitious.” Together, these three assist undergraduate and graduate students in all matters and work to see that SJMC students have the assistance they need. “We have a great team here

that is very good at problem solving,” Rassier said. –S.H.

A New Face for Student ServicesSJMC student services begins fall 2012 with new staff

SJMC Honored for Contribution to AEJMC

The 2012 annual convention of the Association for Education in Jour-nalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC) celebrated the organization’s 100 year anni-versary. At the convention, held in Chicago, SJMC was recognized

with an award for its commitment to journalism education through the work of former faculty member J.O. Rankin, who was one of 20 found-ing members of AEJMC. Rankin was a professor at the Minnesota College of Agriculture in 1913 and was editor of agricultural publications for the University. He also served as the Field Crops Editor of the Experiment Station Record for the U.S. Department of Agriculture from 1909-1912. Prior to coming to the University of Min-nesota, Rankin was also a professor at multiple institutions, including Iowa State College, the University of Tennessee and Talladega College. AEJMC is a membership organization of scholars in the fields of journalism and mass communication. It holds an annual confer-ence for those who are interested in teach-ing journalism or mass communication, and collects statistics regarding the journalism and mass communication programs in universities nationwide. –Alexandra Eastman

SJMC Celebrates AEJMC’s 100th Birthday

Rassier assists a student with his program plan.

Rassier

Rehn

BillingsSA

RA

H H

OW

AR

D

WA

LLY

SW

AN

SON

SAR

AH

HO

WA

RD

HEADLINES


Alumni Spotlight: Zach SussmanZach Sussman (B.A., ’05) is the marketing director for CRAVE Restaurant Group, a growing dining destination with locations in the Twin Cities, Cincinnati, Florida and Omaha, Neb. Here, he tells us about his career and how his training in strategic communication led to success.

What does your role as marketing director for CRAVE involve? The role involves a little bit of everything I love, including strategic communication, public relations, advertising, social media, digital marketing, partnerships, community engagement, business development, event planning, media buying, staff acquisition and development, integrated campaigns and much, much more.

When did you decide marketing was the career path for you? I was always interested in marketing, but I didn’t know exactly what I wanted to do with my career when I entered the University of Minnesota. My undergraduate experience at SJMC led me to an internship at International Dairy Queen, which evolved into a full-time role upon graduating. I learned an incredible amount during my time at IDQ and eventually utilized the skills I acquired to secure a role in the Relationship Building Media department at Life Time Fitness, a company and brand that I greatly admired. When the startup restaurant group, CRAVE, approached me in the spring of 2009, I was instantly hooked by the concept. They were in need of someone to take their marketing program to the next level, and I have been overseeing all of the company’s marketing activity ever since.

How did your education at SJMC prepare you for your career path? The breadth of coursework offered by the strategic communication track gave me a variety of skills that have proven indispensable through-out my career. I never expected to go into public relations as a profession, but the coursework at SJMC enabled me to work at a very high level with PR agencies, which has benefitted me tremendously throughout my career.

Where do you see your career taking you in the future? I would love to oversee the continued growth of CRAVE and all of our other brands for as long as the role remains challenging and engaging. It’s the dream job that I never knew I wanted, and couldn’t be happier to have it. I’ll continue to keep an open mind, learn what I can from the amazing people I work with and enjoy the present with CRAVE. –Taylor Selcke

SJMC Partners with FOX’s Creative U In fall 2012, SJMC became one of the 15 schools partnering with FOX’s Creative University, a program that allows students to create campaigns for sports organi-zations around the country. FOX Sports developed the program to expand their platform into the academic world at select universities. Students enrolled in JOUR 4259: Strategic Communication Case Analysis were tasked with creating a campaign for FOX Sports North and the Minnesota Timberwolves with a focus on engaging fans and enhancing enthusiasm for the team. The 20 students were made into three teams, who presented their final campaigns to representatives from FOX Sports and FOX Sports North. The class was led by professor John Eighmey, the Raymond O.

Mithun Chair in Advertising, who volunteered to take on the project when the University of Minnesota was contacted by FOX Sports. “It’s a great opportunity for students to col-laborate with one another and work on a campaign,” he said.

SAR

AH

HO

WA

RD

Sussman (far right) attends a ribbon cutting for a new CRAVE location in Cincinnati with the partners of CRAVE Restaurant Group.

Top: Mike Dimond, vice president and general manager of FOX Sports North, Chris Hannan, senior vice president of FOX Sports Media Group, Rebecca Ross Mielke, director of communications at FOX Sports North, Nikki White, director of marketing/on-air presentation at FOX Sports North, Christina Appleton, marketing manager at FOX Sports Net hear student presentations. Left: Students gather following their presentations.

PHO

TO C

OU

RTES

Y O

F ZA

CH

SU

SSM

AN

HEADLINES


SJMC Undergoes Review by Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communications

In October 2012, SJMC underwent accreditation, an extensive review conducted every six years by the Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communications (ACEJMC), and was visited by a site team of four journalism educators and professionals. After its review, the site team is recommending full accreditation. The accreditation process begins with an intensive self-study: a complete evaluation of all the School’s activities throughout a five-year period. The report included detailed information about all facets of SJMC’s undergraduate program and features nine accreditation standards: mission and his-tory; curriculum; diversity and inclusiveness; full and part-time faculty, scholarship and research; student services; resources, facilities and equipment; professional and public service; and assessment of learning outcomes. This nearly 300-page document (with more than 500 pages in supplemental material) was then sent to ACEJMC and four site team members appointed by the accrediting council in early fall 2012. The site team, led by Christopher Callahan, dean and univer-sity vice provost from the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication, also included Jan Slater, interim

dean for the College of Media at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; Pat Thompson, director of the Student Media Center at the University of Mississippi; and Ward White, strategy officer at Edelman. During their three-day visit in mid-October, the site team evaluated the School, its programs, faculty and adjunct instruc-tors and the facilities. In their report, the group cited highly productive research faculty, fully engaged students, professional practicums, a col-legial environment among faculty and between students and faculty, impressive facilities and a four-year graduation rate at nearly 80 percent as highlights of the program. The site team did identify a few areas for improvement including adjunct faculty diversity, a lack of public relations fac-ulty and the need for additional staff support for the tracking of internships and career development. The site team’s report will be presented to the accrediting committee in March 2013. The recommendation will go to the full accrediting council in mid-May 2013. The site team’s follow-up report can be found at sjmc.umn.edu/about/selfstudy.html.

Site Team Recommends Reaccreditation

Murphy Reporter Wins Three Awards at Minnesota Magazine & Publishing Association Annual Awards

On Nov. 1, 2012, SJMC’s alumni magazine, the Murphy Reporter, was awarded three honors from the Minnesota Maga-zine & Publishing Association. The magazine, which is published twice per year, won gold in the Profile Article category for Education publications for the feature “The Art of Magazines” by SJMC alumnus Tim Gihring (B.A., ’95). This article, published in the Spring 2012 issue, profiled two alumnae of SJMC who are at the helm of the award-winning American Craft magazine and have ushered the magazine through a design and editorial renewal. The magazine won silver in the Single Page or Spread Design

for Education publications for “Where in the World is Jane Kirtley,” published in the Fall 2011 issue. This infographic highlighted locations around the globe to which Silha Professor Jane Kirtley had traveled to promote her new book on media law for the U.S. State Department. The magazine won bronze in the Feature Article for Educa-tion publications for the feature “Taking the Lead,” written by SJMC faculty member, alumnus and Pulitzer Prize-winner Chris Ison (B.A., ’83). The feature highlighted the interesting and dynamic paths journalism majors are taking to write and report across multiple platforms.

“I’m so honored that our magazine has been recog-nized by MMPA,” said Murphy Reporter editor and SJMC alumna Sarah Howard (B.A., ’06). “We are working toward more dynamic content and in-depth features by a variety of writers, so it’s great to receive this honor and have our work recognized.” The Murphy Reporter has been honored previously by MMPA when it took bronze in the Feature Article category for “Remembering Mitch,” in 2009.

BY SARAH HOWARD

PHOTOGRAPHY BY MARK VANCLEAVE

THE IMPORTANCE OF MENTORING


The University’s longest-running and largest mentor program enters its 30th year

SJMC student Joseph Fishbeck with his mentor Tad Johnson, managing editor of Sun Thisweek newspapers


Imagine you’re entering your senior year at the University of Minnesota. You’re finishing your classes and gradu-ation is in sight. You have an internship or two under your belt, but what’s next? For many, the thought of entering the job market and picking a career path is daunting. Where do you turn?

For 30 years, the SJMC Alumni So-ciety Board Mentor Program has paired SJMC juniors and seniors with Twin Cities professionals in the journalism and mass communication fields to help answer these questions and assist with the transition into the “real world.”

In 1982, then-SJMC Alumni Society Board president Carol Pine (B.A., ’67), who is now owner of Pine & Partners, saw the need for mentors to guide SJMC majors. “I had this interest in mentoring and saw how important it was in people’s careers,” she said.

The program kicked-off in 1983 with nine alumni mentors, but it grew quickly. Soon the board had to recruit outside of the alumni network. “When we started seeking more mentors, many of whom weren’t alumni, the most gratifying part was when we explained the program and its importance, not a single person turned us down,” she said.

“The program grew quickly because it touched a nerve,” Pine said. “For stu-dents, it was something they wanted and needed, that senior person who can ad-vise them. For mentors, it was the perfect way to not only give back to the school, but to give back to the profession.”

Today, the year-long program has between 50 to 70 student participants and the network of professionals who have served as mentors is well into the hundreds.

Many who were mentored as students return to serve as mentors years later. “When I was a senior at SJMC, I was paired with Nicole Reichert at Cargill,” said Sarah Dubois (B.A., ’09), now an ac-count executive at Fleishman-Hillard and a 2012-2013 mentor. “She provided me insight into the public relations industry from a professional perspective. Having a mentor gave me added confidence to help determine what area of public rela-tions I wanted to pursue. I wanted to give back and provide this insight to another student.”

When it comes to SJMC’s mentor pro-gram, that spirit of giving back is strong. In 2012, SJMC put out a call for alumni mentor program volunteers and received nearly 100 responses from profession-als willing to donate their time to SJMC majors. “Every single one of us remem-bers the difference mentors made in our own lives,” Pine said. “Students need that professional in their corner.”

To participate in the program, SJMC juniors and seniors attend a manda-tory information session and complete an in-depth application, which asks the students what they’d like in a mentor and where they see their career going. Next, the SJMC Alumni Society Board steps in. Board members painstakingly go through the applications and help pair

the students with professionals in their networks.

Once the matches are made, the students and mentors attend a kick-off event to meet for the first time, talk about their goals and set up future meet-ings.

But there are limitations. From the program’s inception, three expectations have been constant: The program has a beginning and an end (but mentors and students may choose to continue their relationship outside of the program); the mentors and students must meet a mini-mum number of times; and the program’s intent is not solely to find a job for the student. “The program has lasted because everybody who has run it along the way has been conscious of the ground rules,” said Pine.

For many students, mentors provide guidance and can help steer the direction of their careers. “[My mentor] helped me decide what specific path I wanted to take in the advertising world,” said Chad Kluge (B.A., ’12), an assistant engage-ment planner at Carmichael Lynch who was paired with Sarah Tukua, an account planner at Carmichael Lynch, in 2011. “I thought I was going one direction, but she helped me see a different path, and that’s altered my career in a way I never imagined.”

Mentors provide that additional level of guidance students just simply can’t get in class. “My mentor really helped me decide what I wanted in a job,” said SJMC senior Cole Ranzau, who was paired with

Johnny Surprise, director of business development and client strategy at CPC Inter-sect, in 2011. “I don’t think there are a lot of people who can go into a job and say ‘This is what I want,’ but now that I’ve had this experience with Johnny, I have that insight,” Ranzau said.

“Mentoring is impor-tant because of the career growth,” said Scott Meyer, interim president and CEO of the University of Minnesota Alumni Association. “There is obviously an opportunity in which a mentor can help shape and guide your career growth.”

Students turn to mentors to provide them objective advice. “A mentor is someone Chad Kluge and mentor Sarah Tukua at Carmichael Lynch

SAR

AH

HO

WA

RD


who is willing to take a step back and say, ‘I’ve been there and here’s what you can do,’” said Kluge.

“Sometimes you need that person to sit you down and tell you what to expect,” said Pine. “Providing that realistic point-of-view is so important.”

But mentoring doesn’t solely help the students. Mentors themselves can benefit. “You have to practice what you preach,” said Surprise. “The things that I was helping Cole with I had to be success-ful just the same. It’s being real, being honest, being a great communicator.”

Students can help professionals with their own outlook. “Especially with how quick media is changing, students give a fresh perspective,” said Twin Cities Public Television reporter, longtime journalist and former SJMC Alumni Society Board president Mary Lahammer (B.A., ’95).

In fact, Twin Cities Public Television president Jim Pagliarini says their sta-tion has turned to “reverse mentoring” tactics, in which students teach older generations new skill sets.

The program also serves as a way for alumni to stay in touch with Murphy Hall. “It’s a way for us professionals to keep connected to what’s going on in the school,” said Pine. “Through the students, we see what they’re learning in class and what they’re prepared for.”

“The students are just so engaged,” said Lahammer. “It’s rewarding to see how completely prepared and engaged these SJMC grads are.”

Many mentors get involved because they’ve seen the importance of mentors in their own career path. “Being a mentor

is very important to me because it’s one way that I broke into the advertising industry,” said Tukua. “Mentors have that wisdom and knowledge and they’re so willing to pass that on.”

And one thing rings true: Mentors are willing to help students and are quick to give advice. “I wanted to share the knowledge that I have,” said Tukua. “I really believe in mentoring because we’re here to help people out. At the end of the day it’s all about people and the relation-ships that you have. By being a mentor, you make the next generation that much stronger.”

“The opportunity to have someone who is objective and someone who is watching out for your best interests in your career is a huge advantage,” said Meyer. “Interacting with someone who is a professional and has been involved in the field allows for such personal growth.”

“Mentors want to be there and they want to help out. Ask questions and pick their brains,” Ranzau advised.

For many, the mentoring relation-ship goes beyond the year-long program. “Following the students and giving them advice about their careers is so reward-ing,” said Lahammer. “I love working with students on their resumé tapes, serving as a reference and continuing to work with them on their professional development.”

And given changing technologies, mentoring is sure to take on a new face in the coming years. Meyer emphasizes a new dimension that mentoring will take at the University of Minnesota: virtual mentor matching. “We have 500,000

U of M Alumni around the world,” said Meyer. “With the amount of alumni and the technology available, I see an oppor-tunity for us to pair students with alumni who are working in different parts of the world through technology.”

These advancements are only going to strengthen the spirit of mentoring at the University of Minnesota. And SJMC’s program will continue to thrive. “When we started the program 30 years ago, this type of career oversight wasn’t part of main-stream thinking,” said Pine. “Our school was ahead of its time and really helped pioneer the importance of mentoring.”

Left: 2009 graduate Sarah DuBois of Fleishman-Hillard with 2012-2013 mentee Rah Riley. Above: SJMC Alumni Society Board member John Lutter with SJMC student Hope McCullough.

HEAR WHAT OUR MENTORS & STUDENTS SAYMentor/mentee pairs tell us about their

experience in the program. Watch these videos online at sjmc.umn.edu/ugrad/mentor.html or snap the QR code with your smart phone.

Mentor Johnny Surprise and Cole Ranzau

Mentor Sarah Tukua and Chad Kluge


A Whole New World

SJMC embraces

app creation and development

By Taylor Selcke

Illustration by Nicholas Khow

Mobile applications have revolution-ized the way content is packaged and presented in recent years. As communica-tion evolves, the University of Minnesota — and SJMC in particular — is working to better prepare students for digital careers upon gradation. Through two new course offerings, students are taking advantage of the opportunity to work with evolving technology.

In fall 2012 semester, SJMC dove headfirst into the revolution with the course WAM App: Creating an App for the Weisman Art Museum. The result was an interdisci-plinary collaboration that brought together journalism, art history and design students to develop an interactive platform for the museum on one of the most popular inven-tions of the past few years: the Apple iPad.

“The WAM App class is an important initiative for SJMC because it demonstrates how we’re being innovative and how we are investigating the storytelling aspects of journalism in new 21st century ways,” said course adjunct instructor Camille LeFevre. “We’re being collaborative by bringing col-leges and students to work together toward a common goal.”

The course, which spans an academic year, allows students to get hands-on experience in the app development process — from idea conception to coding. The 13 individuals enrolled spent much of the first semester gathering information, conduct-ing situation analyses and forming app concept pitches to present to the Weisman staff. The spring semester will find them creating the app itself.

“We have been working with WAM directly,” said Emily Ehlert, an SJMC senior enrolled in the course. “Working with a client and figuring out what they want is definitely useful.”

While Weisman Museum staff will decide on the final content of the app, concepts the students are incorporating include an introductory video from the museum’s director and chief curator Lyndel King, information about the museum’s history and architecture and maps to

the public art around campus. The Weisman’s artworks, and how users will engage and interact with the art, will play a large role in the finished product.

“Twenty-thousand people walk by the Weis-man every day,” LeFevre said. “The Weisman has study space and great artwork to look at. You can pop in for five minutes. One of our charges, per the Weisman staff, is to figure out how the app can engage users and then get them through the door. How do we let them know that art can be a part of every-day life and can be a transformative experi-ence? We want that all to somehow happen with the app so that people will say to themselves, ‘I want to go to that museum.’”

During the 2013 May term, students seeking a similar new media experience can register for the fast-paced, three-week course Odyssey in Photojournalism: An iPad Portrait of A Minnesota Town.

When adjunct instructor David Husom began looking for the perfect place to host his new course, he knew he wanted a small town — “but not too small” — close to the Twin Cities. After briefly considering loca-tions such as Austin and Wilmar, Husom and co-instructor Mike Zerby decided that Red Wing was the ideal spot.

“We picked Red Wing because there are a gazillion stories there,” Husom said. “Everything from sand mining, which is very controversial, to Red Wing Shoes — the largest American-made shoe company. There’s a theater community, there’s a pot-tery studio, it’s a port-town. There’s just a lot going on, a lot of stories.”

Up to 16 students will have the oppor-tunity to fully immerse themselves in the city — sometimes even staying overnight — and soak up its stories for a period of three weeks. During this time, they will become photojournalists and writers, track-ing down the inspiring, engaging narratives that make Red Wing unique.

Husom wants his students to draw inspiration from others in the field. “There was a journalist, Charles Kuralt, who did on-the-road, five-to-10 minute stories on CBS. One guy he found was ‘the bicycle man.’ He’d go to small towns and find beat up bicycles, fix them up and give them to kids. So the story was how he influenced this town by providing this service. We want to find that kind of stuff, individuals who are interesting, telling a good story.”

During this experience, Zerby said that students may have the opportunity to become the subjects of stories themselves, as Red Wing’s The Republican Eagle and Twin Cities media will be invited to observe students at work. “Ultimately, the students’ work will be offered for publication or broadcast in those same media outlets,” he said.

And, of course, the end result of the stu-dents’ hard work will be a product ready-made for the iPad. Husom and Zerby have not decided whether this project will best be served by publishing an Apple iBook or by employing a platform like The Atavist — a nonfiction storytelling app — but both expect this to serve as a portfolio piece for students to show future employers.

“There’s precedent in the journalism community for doing a really in-depth study like this, but we’re combining that with learning this new technology and coming back with it in a way that’s differ-ent,” Husom said.

While both classes are new to the University, LeFevre and Husom hope to see their courses repeated in future semesters. “I went into the first class and said to the students, ‘This is an adventure,’” LeFevre said. “None of us had ever done this before. It’s a great learning experience for all of us.”

The class demonstrates how we’re being innovative and

how we are investigating the storytelling aspects of journalism in new 21st century ways. –Adjunct instructor Camille LeFevre

SAR

AH

HO

WA

RD

The landing pages of three iPad app concepts created by students enrolled in WAM App: Creating an App for the Weisman Art Museum.

Through a partnership between SJMC and the University of Minnesota Law School, students can now earn their M.A. or

Ph.D. in mass communication and a J.D. concurrently.

Dual Degree Offers New Educational Opportunity for Students


By Taylor SelckePhotography by Mark Vancleave


Holly Miller wasn’t planning to go to law school immediately after finishing her undergraduate degree, but a poor economy and bleak job outlook forced her to reconsider as she completed her Bach-elor of Arts degree in journalism at the University of Minnesota in May 2010.

Instead of taking her chances in the job market, Miller accepted a spot in the University of Minnesota’s Law School, where she decided to pursue her passions of law and journalism by enrolling in the dual degree program offered by the Law School and the School of Journalism & Mass Communication.

Upon graduation in May 2013, just three years after beginning the program, Miller will hold a master’s degree in mass communication and a juris doctorate from the Law School.

“I went to law school with a specific interest in media law,” Miller said. “I think the program has allowed me to re-ally focus on that area of interest in a way that I couldn’t have by just going to law school.”

The program, which entered early stages of formulation in 2006, allows students to complete either a master’s or doctorate in mass communication and a juris doctorate in a condensed amount of time. Typically, it will take a student two years to obtain a master’s degree, three to four years to get a doctorate, and three years to complete law school. In this intensive dual degree program, an M.A./J.D. typically takes three years while a Ph.D./J.D. takes a little more than five years.

“The dual degree program saves students time in terms of the number of credit hours they need to take,” said SJMC assistant professor Amy Kris-tin Sanders, who was instrumental in launching the program. “It can save them tuition as opposed to taking the two degrees separately,” she said. “It also, from an educational perspective, allows them to integrate two disciples into their studies at the same time.”

The dual degree program was the brainchild of SJMC Director Albert Tims, Silha Professor Jane Kirtley, former SJMC Director of Graduate Studies Brian Southwell and former SJMC assistant professor Michael Stamm. Sanders, who completed a similar dual degree program at the University of Iowa, joined the team in fall 2007.

While dual degree programs have be-come increasingly popular in a variety of

fields across the country, there are only a handful that cross between a journalism school and a law school.

“This is certainly not the only program in the country, but one of the benefits is that not only do we have a top ranked law school, but we also have a top ranked journalism program,” Sanders said. “We are in a giant media market, which makes us a good venue to host one of these programs.”

Students in the program spend their first year solely on West Bank, taking all of their classes in the law school. As they be-gin their second year, time is split between the law school and SJMC. Dual degree stu-dents take 15-18 credit hours, as opposed to the 9 credit hours typically required of SJMC graduate students.

“The biggest drawback for the pro-gram is that it’s challenging,” Sanders said. “These students take a large number

By Taylor SelckePhotography by Mark Vancleave

Not only do we have a top ranked law school, but we also have a top ranked journalism program. –Assistant professor Amy Kristin Sanders

Batchelder and Miller in class at the Law School

Batchelder and Miller walk the Washington Avenue Bridge that connects the West and East Banks.


of credit hours, they’re highly involved and they’re very ambitious students. The biggest hindrance to success in this pro-gram is the time management skills. But as a general rule, the students that we have now and the students that we hope to attract in the future crave that kind of challenge.”

Miller was up to the challenge. Since of-ficially beginning the dual degree program in fall 2011, she has been splitting time between the two schools as well as acting as a teaching assistant, being a research assistant in the Silha Center for the Study of Media Ethics and Law and editing the center’s publication, the Silha Bulletin.

“When you’re going back and forth between East Bank and West Bank, you want to make sure you’re keeping up with all of your friends and fellow students in

both programs,” Miller said. “It’s really important to me that I’m spending time in the journalism school and participat-ing in the graduate student culture there as well as making sure that I’m doing the same thing at the law school.”

As the first ever student to go through the program, Miller also faced the chal-lenge of solving problems that had never been dealt with before and acting as a “guinea pig” when it came to figuring out how the program operates.

This past September, the program gained its second student. Cassandra Batchelder came from the University of Missouri in Columbia, where she received her undergraduate degree in journalism. It wasn’t until her first year in the Univer-sity of Minnesota’s Law School that she heard about the dual degree program and

decided to apply.

Since she was accepted, Batchelder has relied on Miller to help her through similar challenges to those Miller faced as the program’s pioneer. The two have even started the Media Law Society in the law school to attract students who share their interests and are curious about the legal side of journalism.

“I would not be a functioning human being without Holly Miller,” Batchelder joked. “She and Dr. Sanders have pro-vided me with so much guidance and support in terms of what classes to take and just providing really great insight on what the program looks like and how to succeed.”

Although Sanders hopes to see the program grow, she is adamant about being conscientious of resources in the journalism school and making sure each student seeking this dual degree gets the attention they need.

“We’re not going to have 50 people in this program at any one time,” Sanders said. “You have to gauge the demand of the program with what the market needs, and right now, this kind of program can give students a competitive edge in the job market. So it’s a pretty good time to have this program developing.”

For both students, their dual degree has been a selling point in job interviews. Miller has accepted a job with Faegre Baker Daniels in Minneapolis upon graduation and Batchelder plans to work for Robins, Kaplan, Miller & Ciresi in Minneapolis in summer 2013.

Batchelder and MillerMiller works in the Silha Center

Batchelder in JOUR 8001: Studies in Mass Communication


Ralph D. Casey/Minnesota Award Goes to Sidney “Skip” Bliss

SJMC Director Albert Tims presented the Ralph D. Casey/Minnesota Award to Sidney “Skip” Bliss on Oct. 30, 2012 at the Inland Press Association’s annual conference in Chicago. The award recognizes distinguished leadership and service in the newspaper industry. Bliss is the president and CEO of Bliss Communications, a multimedia company with newspapers, specialty publications, websites and radio stations serving audiences in Wisconsin, Illinois and Upper Michigan. Bliss serves as publisher of Wisconsin’s Janesville Gazette, which was purchased by Bliss’s great-grandfather in 1883 and now serves as the company’s flagship publication. Bliss began working in the circulation department of the Janesville Gazette while attending college. Following graduation, Bliss worked in sales at an affiliated radio station in West Bend, Wisc. and was soon promoted to sales manager. When Bliss re-turned to Janesville in 1974, he also returned to the Janesville Gazette. Over the next 15 years, he advanced from advertising manager to general manager to president and ultimately pub-lisher. In 1992 he was named CEO of Bliss Communications. Bliss is described as a hands-on manager who has a passion for the business. “There is certainly something special about a place where the owner is ‘on the ground’ and is as involved as Skip is,” longtime Janesville Gazette editor Scott Angus said. Bliss Communications is known for its longtime employees and its conviviality. “One of the biggest reasons people stay at Bliss is that the business is run like a family,” Angus said. “He’s always talking to his employees and you can just feel that family atmosphere. He wants the company to feel that way and that matters to him. It’s a special company in that way.” A trademark of Bliss’s career has been his entrepreneurial

spirit. In 2007, Bliss made a $22 million investment to open the Janesville Gazette Printing & Distribution Plant. When the plant opened, the high-tech press had the capacity to do com-mercial work in addition to printing the Janesville Gazette. Bliss approached newspapers and weekly shoppers in the area to be printed at his plant and was quick to sign on a Russian news-paper in the Chicago area — the first of many ethnic papers to move printing to the new plant. In an effort to recruit more clients, Bliss gave customers incentives to bring other papers to the state-of-the-art printing facility. Because of this ingenuity, the plant has emerged as a large-scale printer for papers in the Midwest. Bliss has been involved in both his community and newspa-per organizations. He serves on The Forward Janesville Board of Directors, a group that strives to ensure the health and pros-perity of business and industry in Janesville and Rock County, and he serves as vice chairman of the community development authority in Fontana, Wisc. Bliss was also president of the In-land Press Association from 1999-2000. “He’s always generous with his time and resources,” said Ray Carlsen, former executive director of the Inland Press Association. In his presentation of the award, Tims pointed out that Bliss takes entrepreneurial risks. “You are an innovative and vision-ary leader,” Tims said. “You have contributed greatly to the media industry . . . [and] are, simply put, the kind of industry leader this award was created to honor.” The Ralph D. Casey/Minnesota Award is named for SJMC’s first director. It is presented each year to a publisher, editor or senior newspaper staff member who has a distinguished record of leadership and service in the industry. –S.H.

Wisconsin newspaperman receives honor named for SJMC’s first director

Skip Bliss accepts the Ralph D. Casey/Minnesota Award. SJMC Director Albert Tims with Bliss.

PHO

TOS

BY

ALL

ISO

N W

ILLI

AM

S

EVENTS


2

PHO

TOS

BY

SC

OTT

TH

EISE

N

On October 11, 2012, SJMC welcomed alum-nus Chuck Porter (B.A., ’67) at the eighth annual Fall Forum for the Professional M.A. in Strategic Communication. Porter is co-founder, partner and chairman of national advertising firm Crispin Porter + Bogusky, as well as chief strategist for its hold-ing company MDC Partners. Nearly 100 invited guests — including mem-bers of the professional community as well as current and former students of the program — gathered in the West Wing of the Campus Club to hear Porter speak about advertising creative, his own national campaigns and the future of the industry. “What you do is more important than what you say,” Porter said of his attitude toward clients. “In order to really affect market perfor-mance, we have to get closer and closer to the product.” Porter’s presentation included much of his agency’s own work, including campaigns for Domino’s, Best Buy, Kraft Macaroni & Cheese and Burger King. Porter discussed how the shape of his agency has changed over the years with locations in Miami, Boulder and London and how one must continue to adapt. “As we’ve grown, we’ve real-ized that every brand is a challenger brand,” he said. “If you don’t think like a challenger, you’re going to get eaten up.” Porter also talked about the need to think outside of the box and adapt to client and prod-uct needs. “We never start with advertising,” he said. “We always start with an idea, and some-times it involves advertising and often times it doesn’t.” The following day, Porter met with advertis-ing students at Murphy Hall. In the hour long session, students told Porter their career aspira-tions — from copywriting to creative and design — and he offered each a piece of advice about entering the job market.

1: Doug Spong, John Eighmey, Chuck Porter, Dave Therkelsen, Judy Kessel, Steve Wehrenberg, Albert Tims and Jim Lukaszewski. 2: Eighmey introduces Porter. 3: Current student Derrick Biggs and his wife Rachael. 4: Barbara and Jim Lukaszewski. 5: Current student Kelly Valusek. 6: 2009 graduates Michael Schommer and Becky Hennen. 7: Porter. 8: Porter meets with advertising students.

National Advertising Executive Visits SJMCSJMC alumnus Chuck Porter speaks at the Professional M.A. in Strategic Communication’s annual Fall Forum

1

3

4 5

8

76

PHO

TO B

Y S

AR

AH

HO

WA

RD

EVENTS


On Saturday, November 17, 2012, more than 40 SJMC juniors and seniors and their mentors gathered at McNamara Alumni Center to kick off the 2012-2013 SJMC Alumni Society Board’s Mentor Program. The program, which has been organized by the SJMC Alumni Society Board since its inception in 1983, pairs students with Twin Cities profes-sionals. The mentors come from a variety of fields across journalism, strategic communication and mass communication. To participate in the program, student complete applications about their career goals and interests and then the board works to connect the students with professionals in the alumni network and in the board members’ own personal networks. Once the matches are made, the kick-off event is a chance for the mentor and student to meet for the first time and to talk about their goals for the year. This year’s event began with a video from SJMC alumnus and University of Minnesota Alumni As-sociation interim president and CEO Scott Meyer. “This event is a really exciting time,” Meyer said. “This opportunity sets [the students and mentors] on a whole new path.” SJMC Alumni Board President Sarah Bauer talked about the importance of having a mentor. “Mentors can help guide your career,” she said. “Take advantage of this great opportunity to learn as much as you can.” Kathy Hansen, director of undergraduate stud-ies at SJMC, echoed Bauer’s comments. “Remem-ber, there are no stupid questions!” she remarked. From here, the mentors and students will meet throughout the school year. The mentor will work with the student to help guide their career and help with post-graduation transition. “It’s great to work with the students,” said mentor Aaron Smith of OLSON. “Being able to watch the students grow and learn is so rewarding.” –S.H.

1: More than 40 SJMC students and their mentors gathered in McNamara Alumni Center’s A.I. Johnson Great Room. 2: SJMC senior Matthew Abdo. 3: SJMC senior Sarah Tobin with Spencer Leuning, a business analyst at US Bank. 4: McKenna Ewen, multimedia producer at the Star Tribune, with SJMC senior Morgan Mercer. 5: Kathy Hansen. 6: SJMC senior Sarah Wiley with Ali Buckneberg, communications specialist at Gray Plant Moody. 7: SJMC students Katie Askew and Julia Burke. 8: SJMC senior Janice Bitters with Andy Mannix of City Pages. 9: SJMC senior Ben Fleishman with Liz Gray of OLSON.

PHO

TOS

BY

MA

RK

VA

NC

LEAV

E

SJMC Alumni Society Board Mentor Program Kick-offMore than 40 SJMC students meet their mentors

1

2 3

4 5

6 7 8 9

EVENTS

chan

gese

e


2

3

4

EVENTS

For the third year, See Change: The Power of Visual Communication invited innovators, artists and legends to the University of Minnesota for a two-day conference celebrating and exploring the innovative work being done across the visual spectrum. The conference, held May 15-16, 2012, began with a keynote from advertising legend George Lois. Most well-known for his groundbreaking covers for Esquire magazine (added to the permanent collection at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City in 2008), Lois also created the “I Want My MTV” campaign, helped introduce VH1 to the market and created the new marketing category “gourmet frozen foods” with his name Lean Cuisine. Other clients have included Jiffy Lube, Tommy Hilfiger, Xerox, USA Today and ESPN. Lois, author of Damn Good Advice (For People with Tal-ent!), addressed the crowd on the opening evening of See Change to inspire and, of course, to speak openly. Lois, well-known for his frank and sometimes vulgar language, told the crowd he didn’t care for the references to popular television show “Mad Men” when describing his career. Instead, Lois shared his tips for creative success without the martinis, including “Think long, write short and great work is one percent inspiration, 9 percent perspiration and 90 percent justification.” The innovative nature of the program carried through to the next day with featured speakers Joe Duffy, creative direc-tor and founder of Duffy & Partners; Greg Benson, furniture designer and founder of Loll Designs and Epicurean Cutting Surfaces; data visualizer and founder of Pitch Interactive Wesley Grubbs; photographer Tim Mantoani; Stephanie Pereira of Kickstarter; kinetic artist and Rube Goldberg machine designer Joseph Herscher; Aesthetic Apparatus designers Dan Ibarra and Michael Byzewski; photographer John Midgley and Austin Kleon, artist and author of Steal Like an Artist. The program was kicked-off by Mark Wheat, a disc jockey on Minnesota Public Radio’s The Current. The See Change conference began with an endowment from former SJMC faculty member Smitty Schuneman and his wife, Pat. SJMC alumna and former Schuneman student Mary K. Baumann and AIGA Minnesota’s Brent Stickels were recruited to act as program directors, along with steering committee members Steve Bickel, Joe Duffy, Michael Hart, Will Hopkins, Daniel Jasper and Steve Nie-dorf. The 2012 See Change conference would not have been possible without their guidance or the support of SJMC, Jerry Broeckert, the Minnesota Journalism Center, AIGA Minnesota and the College of Design.

By S

arah

How

ard

Pho

tos

by M

ark

Vanc

leav

e

Mark your calendars: SEE CHANGE 2013

May 21–22, 2013seechangeconference.org

Visual Communication and Innovation

Annual conference enlightens visualists

1: Wesley Grubbs of Pitch Interactive. 2: Greg Benson, co-founder of sister companies Loll Designs and Epicurean Cutting Surfaces. 3: George Lois. 4: Guests look at Tim Mantoani’s Behind Photographs Project. 5: Pat and Smitty Schuneman with SJMC Director Albert Tims. 6: Brent Stickles, Lois and his son Luke. 7: WCCO’s Mark Rosen introduces Lois. 8: Author Austin Kleon signs his book, Steal Like An Artist. 9: Stephanie Pereira, Kickstarter’s Director of Art Programs

1

7

5

6

8

9

EVENTS


More than 55 journalists and journalism students from around the Midwest attended the Investigative Reports & Editors Watch-dog Workshop held September 29-30, 2012 at Murphy Hall. On Saturday, both print and TV jour-nalists gathered in the day-long session to hear from a variety of speakers who covered topics such as data journalism, open records, election reporting, the art of interviewing and effective Internet use. On Sunday, workshop attendees gained hands-on computer experience in analyzing datasets to identify trends, spot inconsisten-cies and gain other insight. –Sue Couling

On September 28, 2012, more than 40 stu-dents gathered in Murphy Hall to hear about data journalism and to learn how to become engaged with this burgeoning field. The event featured a panel of Twin Cities journalists on the cutting-edge of data journal-ism: SJMC student and AP-Google Scholar Kevin Schaul; computer-assisted data reporter for the St. Paul Pioneer Press MaryJo Webster; director of news technology at MinnPost Kaeti Hinck; and senior reporter for the Public Insight Network at American Public Media Jeff Severns Guntzel. The panel was moderated by SJMC assistant professor Seth Lewis. The panel emphasized innovation and cutting-edge technology when using data to tell stories, and stressed the importance of journalists’ understand-ing of the numbers they use in storytelling. –S.H.

1: On Sunday, Jaimi Dowell of IRE and NICAR led a hands-on workshop in Computer-Assisted Reporting Training. 2: MaryJo Webster, computer-assisted data reporter for the St. Paul Pioneer Press spoke in a session about digging deeper with data and documents. 3: Guests gather on a Saturday morning to learn more about investigative reporting. 4: Ron Nixon of The New York Times led a session about kickstarting election coverage in time for the 2012 Presidential Election.

Journalists Hone Skills at IRE WorkshopMinnesota Journalism Center co-sponsors two-day Investigative Reporters & Editors Watchdog Workshop

Panel Explores Careers in Data JournalismStudents learn about the growing field of data-driven journalism

1: Data Journalism panelists Kevin Schaul, MaryJo Webster, Kaeti Hinck and Jeff Severns Guntzel. 2: SJMC student Schaul with moderator and SJMC assistant professor Seth Lewis. 3: Audience members listen to the panelists. 4: Webster and Hinck.

1

2 3

4

PHO

TOS

BY

SU

E C

OU

LIN

G

1

2 3 4

PHO

TOS

BY

SU

E C

OU

LIN

G

EVENTS


In November 2012 — during the 2012 Presi-dential Election — 19 international journalists from 16 European countries visited the University of Minnesota as part of the Edward R. Murrow Program for Journalists. Made possible through a partnership with the Minnesota International Center and the U.S. Department of State, the trip allows journalists to explore the United States and learn about our politics, culture and international relations. The Murrow Fellows, who hailed from such coun-tries as Russia, Norway, Switzerland and Turkey, started their trip with informational panels about the two proposed Constitutional Amendments on Minnesota’s ballot: the marriage amendment and the Voter ID amendment. “I finally understand the Voter ID amendment!” said Alina Anghel, a televi-sion reporter from Romania. “It was great to hear both sides and learn more about this issue.” Following the panel, journalists were paired with a Twin Cities media professional with a similar reporting interest. Editors, writers and pro-ducers from such entities as the Star Tribune and KSTP-TV participated. “The job shadowing was so interesting and I learned so much,” said Uros Urbas of Slovenia, who was matched with John Vomhof Jr. of the Mpls./St. Paul Business Journal. On Election Day, the Fellows visited a polling place to observe voting processes and then visited the St. Paul campaign office of President Barack Obama. Then, they toured Minnesota Public Radio to learn about how the station was covering the election. On the following day, the Fellows heard from SJMC faculty members Heather LaMarre, Amy Kristin Sanders and Brendan Watson about the impact of the election and a debrief of campaign practices. The program finished with a panel discus-sion about the Affordable Care Act (commonly re-ferred to as Obamacare) and its impact on business and American health. –S.H.

1: The Murrow Fellows with staff from SJMC and the Minnesota Journalism Center. 2: Mike Tegeder of the Church of Gichitwaa Kateri and St. Francis Cabrini Church and Kevin Petersen, co-founder of the Pro-Marriage Amendment Forum. 3: Uros Urbas interviews a voter on Election Day. 4: MPR News Director Chris Worthington speaks to the Fellows. 5: Barack Obama communications staffer Preston Maddock is interviewed by Mary Elizabeth Regan of Ireland. 6: Astrid Meland of Norway speaks with a Barack Obama campaign volunteer. 7: The Fellows gather outside of Barack Obama’s St. Paul campaign office. 8: Jackie Crosby of the Star Tribune and Vidya Venkataraman speak about healthcare. 9: John Rash speaks about media and politics.

Edward R. Murrow Fellows Visit MinnesotaMinnesota Journalism Center hosts international journalists for eighth year

1

2 3

4 5

6

7 8 9

PHO

TOS

BY

SA

RA

H H

OW

AR

D


A recent outing to an upscale New York seafood restaurant awakened Lynne Rossetto Kasper, moderator of the 27th annual Silha Lecture, author and host of American Public Media’s “The Splendid Table,” to changes in the world of restau-rant reviews. A couple sitting at a nearby table realized their “fresh” fish had been frozen and complained to the waiter. “Then the waiter made a huge mistake,” she said. “He debated with them.” Ros-setto Kasper watched the response: in the midst of the incident, the customer began texting on his cell phone. Assuming the customer was posting a negative online review of the newly opened restaurant, Rossetto Kasper thought, “This is the new world of restaurant reviewing. I wonder how long this place is going to be open.”

Changes in the ethics of how restau-rant critics approach their work in light of the rise of popular online sites such as Yelp and Urbanspoon were at the fore-

front of the Oct. 25, 2012 event, titled “A Question of Taste: The Ethics and Craft of Restaurant Reviewing.” The panel in-cluded Rick Nelson, restaurant critic and food writer for the Minneapolis Star Tri-bune, and Michael Stern, who, along with his writing partner Jane Stern, created the “Roadfood” empire, which celebrates regional dining around the country.

Rossetto Kasper, Stern, and Nelson contemplated the “new world” of online reviews posted by “ordinary” patrons. “Part of me thinks that the more people talking, tweeting, blogging with a burn-ing interest in my subject, the better,” Nelson said. Nelson and Stern agreed, however, that the lack of context about the reviewer’s background and potential motives may mislead readers. “You have to do a lot of reading between the lines and take things with lots of grains of salt,” Stern said.

Discussing the ethics that drive their work, Nelson and Stern highlighted different approaches to the craft. While Stern’s photograph is featured on his website and he and Jane Stern discuss their work with chefs, Nelson does all he can to maintain anonymity to avoid receiving special treatment at restaurants. At the Silha Lecture, he sat hidden behind an umbrella in front of the 350-person overflow crowd in the University of Min-nesota’s Cowles Auditorium. With the possibility of restaurateurs and chefs at-tending the event, Nelson wanted to keep his identity a secret.

“There is nothing worse than being recognized [as a critic] in a restaurant,” Nelson said. Because he is based in Min-neapolis and regularly reviews restau-rants in the community, Nelson said it is important that he has dining experiences similar to those of his readers. He makes multiple visits at various times of the

Tasteful JournalismPanelists discuss the ethics of their work as restaurant food critics and the impact of a changing media environment on

the restaurant industry at the 27th annual Silha Lecture

By Cassie BatchelderPhotos by Scott Theisen

1: Panelists Rick Nelson of the Star Tribune (who prefers to stay anonymous), Lynne Rossetto Kasper of American Public Media and Michael Stern of RoadFood.com. 2: Silha Professor Jane Kirtley. 3: More than 350 guests fill Cowles Auditorium. 4: Nelson, Rossetto Kasper and Stern. 5: Stern. 6: The Silha family with speakers. From left: Kirtley, Rossetto Kasper, Stern, Helen Silha, Alice Reimann, Mark Silha, David Reimann, Gordon Barnett, Steven Silha. 7: Rossetto Kasper. 8: Helen Silha.

1

2

2


day, sometimes alone, to offer well-round-ed reviews. Stern, on the other hand, is often only able to make one visit while on the road. “For us, the experience and the hospitality of the staff are essential,” Stern said. “A lack of hospitality, or even hostility, is the very worst thing.”

For both writers, their reviews are rooted in serving other diners. Nel-son said his goal is to provide accurate information for his audience and tell an entertaining story. Stern’s goal with most reviews is to highlight why a reader would want to seek out a particular restaurant, adding, “Food is all about what it means to people.”

Silha Center activities, including the annual lecture, are made possible by a generous endowment from the late Otto Silha and his wife, Helen.

Full audio and video of the lecture is available on the Silha Center website at silha.umn.edu

4

3

5

7

6 8

STUDENT NEWS


UNDERGRADUATE STUDENT NEWS

In fall 2012, jCode was created for stu-dents interested in the intersection between journalism and computer science. With a tagline that states, “we’re teaching each other what we won’t learn in class — specifically in the data journalism world,” the group has set out to teach basic technologies for using data

in a journalistic way. From programming to technology basics, the weekly meetings feature hands-on tutorials to critiques of recent data journalism. “I started jCode because I have had unbelievable opportunities in the media world because of my computer science skills,”

said Kevin Schaul, a journalism minor and computer science major. “But I’ve had to largely teach them to myself. Newsrooms are begin-ning to realize that having journalists with these skills are essential.”

In fall 2012, students enrolled in JOUR 5174: Magazine Editing and Production created FIN, a magazine about the end of the world.

Meaning “the end” in French, the magazine’s inspiration came from the Mayan prediction that the world will end on December 21, 2012. Still reading? Well, the Mayans may not have been correct, but it was still a fun

idea for a new publication. “When we were in the process of brainstorming ideas for the topic of our magazine, we instantly fell in love with the concept,” said Taylor Selcke, SJMC senior and editor of FIN. “Because it is such a timely topic, we realized that no other capstone magazine class after us could produce a publication on the same topic, which was very appealing.” But the content of the magazine doesn’t focus solely on the Mayan prediction, nor is the whole magazine about the world ending. The ed-itorial line-up includes an in-depth look at what the world’s four largest religions say about end of the world predictions, a feature about three Minnesotans who have experienced the “end of the world” personally (one was paralyzed, the others lost loved ones under tragic circumstanc-es), a story about people who have made money off of the Mayan prediction, a how-to article on throwing an end of the world party and more. For more information about the magazine, visit finmagazine.sjmc.umn.edu.

New Student Group Combines Computer Science and Journalism

SJMC senior Jeff Hargarten has been accepted to News21, a prestigious news training

program in which stu-dents from around the country create a news project that is picked up by national outlets, such as NBC.com or The Washington Post. To participate in the program, students must first be nomi-nated by their institu-tion. Then, when the student is selected by News21, they attend

an online class taught by Leonard Downie Jr., former editor of The Washington Post. After completing the class, students head to the Wal-ter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University

in Phoenix during summer 2013, where they will begin working on the project with world renowned instructors, including Pulitzer Prize-winner Steve Doig of The Miami Herald. In the past, News21 projects have focused on such hot-button issues as voting rights and food safety. In 2013, the project will focus on veterans as they return home from war. “Working with other student journalists from across the country will be an amazing experience,” said Hargarten. “I like the energy of collaborative journalism and I hope to use my tech, design and data journalism skills as well to enrich the story.” Hargarten is currently a reporter at the Minnesota Daily, has been published in the St. Paul Pioneer Press and was a student reporter for the Murphy News Service. He will also participate in the spring 2013 practicum course at the Star Tribune.

SJMC Student Accepted to News21 Program Student Magazine Explores the End of the World

SJMC senior Matthew Abdo — along with his siblings Mari and Jake — make up Lynhurst, a “family band” named after their neighborhood park in Minneapolis. In 2012, the band released its third studio album Twirl and has performed around the country at such festivals as SXSW in Austin, Tex. and Summerfest in Milwaukee. Abdo plays guitar and keyboards with brother Jake and harmo-nizes with lead singer Mari. As kids, the siblings attended Grammy camp. Their first full-length album was 2009’s Field Day, followed up by 2011’s One Of These Days. The band also recently released a holiday song, “It Really Is (A Wonderful Life)” on Holiday Lights, Vol. 4, a compilation album ben-efitting Minnesota charities.

Student Performs with “Family Band” Lynhurst

VIN

OTH

KU

MA

R B

.

Hargarten

SAR

AH

HO

WA

RD

Abdo performs on stage with Lynhurst


STUDENT NEWS

GRADUATE STUDENT NEWS

As the professional master’s in strate-gic communication began its eighth year in fall 2012, it also welcomed its largest co-hort: 23 students. The two-year program is renowned for training its students to be communica-tion leaders across various industries, and is open to students who currently have full-time occupations. The program allows students to receive their master’s degree in two years through night school classes. The 2012-2013 cohort features those who work in a variety of communication, marketing and branding positions at local firms such as Campbell Mithun and Car-michael Lynch, as well as nonprofits, the University of Minnesota and corporations such as General Mills. The 23-person class will move through the program as a cohort, taking almost all

of their classes together and working with one another on projects and pitches. “The cohort model allows these professionals to get to know one another, work together and really establish each other as lifelong business contacts,” said professor John Eighmey, the program’s director. The curriculum focuses on theory and best practices within the strategic commu-nication field. Courses include Psychology of Advertising, Generation and Selection of Campaigns, Mass Communication Re-search and more. Applications are now being accepted for fall 2013 admission and must be re-ceived prior to June 15 for September admission. Those interested should be currently working in the communications field.

Sarah Cavanah recently completed a second stint as a judge for the statewide high school journalism competition in Oklahoma. As part of her participation, she judged mid-size and small schools’ yearbooks for the contest, which is run by the Oklahoma Scholastic Media.

Natalie Hopkins-Best and Ruth DeFoster presented their paper “Construction of Min-nesota Muslim Identity: A Critical Analysis of Twin Cities Media,” at the 2012 AEJMC con-ference in August.

Bob Larson published “Forgetting the First Amendment: How Obscurity-Based Privacy and a Right to Be Forgotten Are Incompatible with Free Speech” in the Winter 2013 edition of Communication Law and Policy, Volume 18, No. 1.

Jennifer Lueck published “Friend-zone with benefits: The parasocial advertising of Kim Kardashian,” in the October 2012 edition of the Journal of Marketing Communications.

Rebecca Swenson recently completed her doctoral dissertation, “Brand Journalism: A Cultural History of Consumers, Citizens and Community in Ford Times.” She is now an assistant professor of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resource Communication at the Uni-versity of Minnesota’s College of Food, Agri-cultural and Natural Resources.

In summer 2012, Whitney Walther received the College of Liberal Arts Graduate Research Partnership Program fellowship. The summer stipend supports research partnerships be-tween CLA faculty and students enrolled in CLA graduate programs. Walther used the award to work with assistant professor Heather LaMarre to further explore the effects of corporate polit-ical behavior, as well as the influence of political entertainment within that context.

Strategic Communication Professional M.A.

Continues to GrowGraduate program enters eighth year

with largest cohort ever

BECOME A COMMUNICATION LEADER. TAKE YOUR CAREER TO THE NEXT STEP.Apply now for the Professional M.A. in Strategic Communication.

Earn your master’s degree in two years with night classes. sjmc.umn.edu/grad/stratcomm.html

SAR

AH

HO

WA

RD

Cohort 8

FACULTY NEWS


KATHY HANSEN and NORA PAUL have been awarded a “Building a Bridge between the Knight News Challenge and JMC Programs” grant, funded by AEJMC and the Knight Founda-tion. The $7,600 grant will fund enhancements to the serious game “Topic Tiles” and the de-velopment of curricular and training resources to allow educators and college journalists to deploy the news game building tool in classes and in student media.

KATHY HANSEN participated in the College of Liberal Arts’ First Year Experience Program. In

the program, all incoming freshman were asked to read “Never Let Me Go” before arriving on campus for Welcome Week 2012. Students selected themes related to their interests and Hansen led the session titled, “The Power and Privilege of Social Media.”

JISU HUH’s paper, “Dietary Supplement Adver-tising in the U.S.: A Review of Regulation and Research,” has been published in a recent issue of the International Journal of Advertising. Huh also published, “How Korean and White Americans Evaluate and Use Online Advertising and Non-Advertising

Sources for Prescription Drug Information,” in the Drug Information Journal.

Adjunct instructor DAVID HUSOM received an OIT Fellowship from the University of Minneso-ta in 2012. The grant is to study iPad and mobile device technology for publishing long form visual journalism for photojournalism students on location to view and edit images and communi-cate with a photo editor and other students.

Adjunct instructor KENT KAISER presented his paper, “Athletes in the Twittersphere: An Empirical Study of Implications for Traditional Gender Differences in Communication,” at the annual conference of the North American Society for the Sociology of Sport in New Orleans in November.

In October, Kaiser presented “A Longi-tudinal Analysis for Collective Action Framing, Counterframing, and the Impact of Exogenous Shocks in Major American Gender-equality Conflict,” at the 35th annual conference of the Organization for the Study of Communication, Language and Gender in Tacoma, Wash. Kaiser has also recently published a book, “Company Town: An Oral History about Life in Silver Bay, Minnesota, 1950s-1980s.” The book was funded by a grant from Minnesota’s Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund administered by the Minnesota Historical Society.

JANE KIRTLEY took part in two panels at the AEJMC annual convention in Chicago in August 2012: “Pro-Journalism Legal Best Practices: Using the law and legal education to support journalism schools as news providers: Carnegie Media Law Task Force Recommendations” and “Legal representation and resources, including the role of media liability insurance, the general counsel’s office and school-based and outside legal resources.” Kirtley was also a discussant at a refereed paper research session sponsored by the Law and Policy Division. The session was “‘Bad’ Speakers & ‘Bad’ Speech: Libel, Prior Restraints and True Threats.” In October 2012, Kirtley visited Kyrgyzstan for the U.S. State Department. As part of her

visit, Kirtley gave a lecture to students at American University about online issues, met with various media groups, spoke with students at Osh State Uni-versity about the concept of freedom of speech and participated in a number of interviews.

In March 2012, Kirtley visited Thailand in a trip sponsored by the U.S. State Department. There, she gave a number of lectures on libel and led a workshop titled, “Criminal Libel and Slander: U.S. Perspectives.”

On October 10, 2012 HEATHER LAMARRE spoke at the 2012 MIMA Summit with a talk titled “From Employee Tweets to Facebook Complaints: Developing a Social Media Strategy for Improved Customer Relations, Corporate Reputations, and Brand Image.”

Adjunct instructor ELIZABETH FOY LARSEN has published “Unbored: The Es-sential Field Guide to Serious Fun,” a book that explores new and creative activities for children.

SETH LEWIS published “The Tension between Professional Control and Open Participation: Journalism and its Boundaries” in Informa-

tion, Communication & Society; “From Journal-ism to Information: The Transformation of the Knight Foundation and News Innovation” in Mass Communication and Society; “Developing Ideas for In-novation in Journalism” in J/i Educator and “A Matter

of Life and Death? Examining How Newspapers Covered the Newspaper Crisis” in Journalism Studies. At AEJMC’s annual convention in August in Chicago, Lewis presented “An Analysis of News Innovation Contest Submissions to the Knight-Mozilla News Technology Partnership” to the Newspaper and Online Division and “Imagining the Future of Journalism Through Open-Source Journalism: A Qualitative Study of the Knight-Mozilla News Technology Partnership” to the Communication Technology Division. Also at AEJMC, Lewis participated in two panels: “What’s Next for Research and Participa-tory Journalism?” and “Developing Research Partnerships with Media Organizations.” In May 2012, Lewis presented two papers to the Journalism Studies Division of the Inter-national Communication Division: “Open Source and Journalism: Toward New Frameworks for Imagining News Innovation” and “Research in an Era of Openness: Methods for Diverse and Dispersed Journalistic Spaces.” NORA PAUL gave a session titled “The Eyes Have It: Eyetracking News Website Usability” at the Minnesota Broadcasting Association’s conference on October 22, 2012.

FACULTY NEWS


AMY KRISTIN SANDERS, along with graduate student Natalie Hopkins-Best, presented a paper titled, “What is the Status Quo? A Survey of Communication Law Courses in U.S. Journalism

& Mass Communication Programs” at the 2012 Broadcast Education Association’s national conference in Las Vegas, where it won the top paper award in the Cur-riculum, Assessment & Administrative Division.

Sanders and Hopkins-Best also pre-sented two papers at the 2012 AEJMC national conference in Chicago. “The Calm Before the Storm? Indecency Regulation in the 1990s” was funded in part by the University of Minnesota’s Grant-in-Aid program. “Re-Defining Defamation: Psychological Sense of Community in the Age of the Internet” will be published in Communication Law & Policy in fall 2012 and was funded in part by the University of Minnesota’s Faculty Sum-mer Fellowship Program. Sanders and graduate student Meagan Manning presented their paper, “On the Road to Tenure, Thou Shall Not Blog? A Look at Legal Protections Versus Academic Freedom for Uni-versity Professors,” at the 2012 National Com-munication Association conference in Orlando, Fla. Sanders’ book chapter, “Obscenity, Cyber-bullying and Sexting” will be published this winter in “Social Media & the Law,” an edited volume from Routledge Publishing. Sanders and University of Florida professor Lyrissa Lidsky spoke at Brigham Young Universi-ty Law School in October 2012. The three-hour colloquium focused on how courts are applying old laws to cases involving new technology.

DONA SCHWARTZ recently had her work featured on The New York Times photography blog, Lens. Schwartz’s award-winning exhibit “In the Kitchen” was on display at the Appleby Hall Art

Gallery at the University of Minnesota through-out fall semester 2012. The exhibit was also displayed at Altered Esthetics Gallery in Min-neapolis, Minn. in summer 2012.

Adjunct instructor DAN SULLIVAN returned to the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center in Water-ford, Conn. on October 6, 2012 for a perfor-mance-cum-panel discussion of O’Neill’s “lost” (but recently rediscovered) 1920 play, Exorcism.

DAVID THERKELSEN visited Kobe, Japan in November to present his “Message to Action” model, developed and published with Ph.D. student Christina Fiebich.

SHAYLA THIEL-STERN has been awarded the Mary Ann Yodelis Smith for Feminist Scholarship, which funds scholarship with the potential to make significant contributions to the literature

of gender and media and is awarded by the AEJMC Commission on the Status of Wom-en. Thiel-Stern applied for the $500 award, named after the for-mer director of SJMC, based on her book-in-progress, “From Dance Halls to Facebook,”

about American mass media representations of teen girls during the past 100 years. Thiel-Stern co-authored a refereed paper ses-sion for the Commission on the Status of Women titled “Girlhoods in the Golden Age of U.S. Radio: Music, Shared Popular Culture, and Memory.”

Thiel-Stern also presented the essay “Cultural Hegemony and the Audience in the Age of Social Media: Produsage vs. Temptation” at the PF&R panel session “Whose Revolution? Gramsci, History and the Power of Media in the 21st Century” for the Cultural and Critical Studies and History Divisions. Thiel-Stern published two book chapters during summer 2012: “The Challenges of Teach-ing Girls (Re)Presentation of Self and Others Through Media Studies and Citizen Journalism” appears in the book “Girls’ Literary Experiences In and Out of School: Learning and Composing Gendered Identities,” edited by Elaine O’Quinn and published by Routledge, and “Collabora-tive, Productive, Performative, Templated: Youth, Identity and Breaking the Fourth Wall Online” appears in “Produsing Theory in a Digital World: The Intersection of Audiences and Production in Contemporary Theory,” edited by Rebecca Ann Line and published by Peter Lang.

BRENDAN WATSON has published, “Perceived Threat, Immigration Policy Support and Media Coverage: Hostile Media and Presumed Influence,” along with Daniel Riffe, in the International Journal of Public Opinion Research in 2012. Watson also published “Ideologies drive journal-ists’ attitudes toward the

oil industry” in the Newspaper Research Journal, Volume 33, Number 2.

MARCO YZER’s article, “The Role of Interper-sonal Communication in Mass Media Cam-paigns,” has been selected as the 2012 winner of the Distinguished Article Award for the Health Communication Division of the National Com-munication Association.

SJMC Welcomes New Events Manager In May 2012, SJMC welcomed Sue Couling as the events manager for the Minnesota Journalism Center. In this role, Couling designs and executes professional outreach activities for the Center and serves as a point-person for SJMC events. “Getting to know the Twin Cities media community has been really fun for me,” she said. “Putting together events for journalists and communicators has taught me a lot about the field.” Couling was previously events manager for the Women’s Foodservice Forum and was a destination research executive for Carnival UK. She has an extensive background in marketing, events and project management.


Faculty Research SpotlightMeet faculty members and learn about their research

This being an election year — how has that changed your workload? I’ve done a lot of work with local and national media, talking about the role of social media in politics during the elections and about how some of the policy issues in Minnesota — such as voter ID and gay marriage — are being covered in the media. As far as research goes, my grad students and I have been doing a lot of work in two main areas. We’re looking at the role of late-night satire, such as Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert’s shows, and how that’s shaping people’s opinions of the president, of the challenger and of the candidates generally. A second line of research that I’m involved in pretty heavily is looking at online political news and information — whether it’s from an elite source like The New York Times online or postings on Facebook — and how that affects a person’s attitudes and opinions of the candidates, the elections and the issues.

What role did social media play in this election? One of the most interesting things about social media is how it’s creating a new public sphere, an em-powerment of the citizen to have a voice. Political discussions with your neighbors and with your friends have always been important, but now, instead of small groups, people are discussing with millions of people through social media. Average people are hosting debate-watching parties and then live-tweeting or posting their thoughts to Facebook. Social media is really engaging people in new and different ways.

What else are you working on? My grad students and I just started a project on what we’re calling “corporate political behavior.” We’re looking at this new phenomenon in which social media is forcing transparency: companies saying where they stand politically. In today’s world, these companies are coming out very vocally on one side of an issue. They’re having to think about how giving money to a certain candidate will affect how their employees feel and their relationship with the public.

Why did you decide to enter the academic world? Before I did go the academic route, I spent four years working in market research. I really enjoyed that, but realized I had far too much curiosity to continue to do research for clients. I had too many big questions that I wanted to answer.

How would you define your area of expertise? I define my areas of interest as consumer psychology and health communication. I’m interested in advertising, but particularly within a promotional health context. All of my research so far has focused on direct consumer pharmaceutical advertising. There are a lot of issues in terms of how consumers assess the credibility of those ads, how they are being designed and if those designs adhere to the regulations and serve the public. From that, I’ve developed a keen interest in trust and how trust is cultivated in advertising.

What research are you currently working on? I’m looking at the use of emotional appeals in pharmaceutical advertising. Particularly, messages that have a really strong use of emotion to deliver the message and how that impacts perceived risk and trust of these messages. I’m also testing different ways of delivering messages to college-aged women that promote multivitamin usage and if the source of a message — whether it is a national health organization, a university health organization or a peer student group — differentially affects credibility and trustworthiness.

Why did you choose the University of Minnesota for your teaching and research? There were so many aspects that I found attractive here. It’s great being in a metropolitan area because of the media market. We can really relate what we’re doing in the journalism school and connect it with professionals in the community. We have opportunities for students that wouldn’t be available at other universities that are in smaller towns. I just felt like this was a great, supportive environment for me to be launching my research career and teaching. –T.S.

HEATHER LAMARREAssistant Professor Ph.D., The Ohio State University

JENNIFER BALLAssistant Professor Ph.D., University of Texas at Austin

FOCUS: Political communication, politics and social media

FOCUS: Consumer psychology and

health communication


ALUMNI NEWS & NOTES

SANJAY ASTHANA (PH.D., ’03), an associate professor at the College of Mass Communica-tion, School of Journalism at Middle Tennessee State University, has published “Youth Media Imaginaries from Around the World.” The book explores how media engagement is being carried out through case studies of five youth media initiatives around the world.

STEPHEN BERGERSON (B.A., ’70) has been chosen as the Children Cancer Research Fund’s 2011 Volunteer of the Year Award, an honor given to volunteers who have shown exception-al interest and enthusiasm to CCRF’s mission, events and programs. Bergerson, an attorney with Fredrikson & Byron in Minneapolis has provided 25 years of pro bono legal services to CCRF, including registering its trademarks, enforcing its trademark rights and assisting with various fundraising agreements and pro-motions. He also serves as an emeritus board member for the organization.

JOSEPH BONYATA (B.A., ’94) has been named director of publications at the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship at Brigham Young University.

DAVID BUTWIN (B.A., ’61) has published “A Minnesota Kid,” a memoir set in postwar St. Paul. The book features numerous mentions of the University of Minnesota and even Murphy Hall and The Min-nesota Daily.

KATHERINE ROBERTS EDENBORG (M.A., ’01; PH.D., ’11) started as an assistant professor at the University of Wisconsin-Stout in fall 2012. She teaches journalism, media and writing classes in the English and Philosophy depart-ments.

ALEX GATERUD (B.A., ’11) is now working as a web editor at Tiger Oak Publications’ commu-nity lifestyle magazines. The cluster of feature-oriented monthly magazines focus on Edina,

Maple Grove, St. Louis Park, Lake Minnetonka, Woodbury, White Bear Lake, Plymouth and the Southwest Metro.

BETTE HAMMEL (B.A., ’47) published, “Legendary Homes of the Minneapolis Lakes,” along with Karen Melvin in November 2012.

LAURA HEDLUND (B.A., ’87) is co-host of the radio show Food Freedom Radio on AM950, the Progressive Voice of Minnesota. She has worked in sales at AM950 since 2004.

STEVE HEDLUND (B.A., ’73) was awarded the Hedley Donovan Award at the 2012 Minnesota Magazine & Publishing Association Awards in November. Hedlund is president of GS Media & Events, a division of Good Sam Enterprises, LLC. Previously, he was president of Ehlert Publishing Group and AGI Events. The Hedley Donovan Award recognizes a publisher, editor or senior magazine executive who has received broad recognition in the magazine publishing arena and has been instrumental in one or more successful magazine enterprises.

JULIE JONES (PH.D., ’10), associate professor at Gaylord College of Journalism at University

of Oklahoma, has been named the new chair for the National Press Photog-raphers Association’s News Video Workshop, held annually on the University of Oklahoma’s campus for more than 50 years.

JOSEPH LINDBERG (B.A., ’10) is now the breaking news reporter at the St. Paul Pioneer Press. He previously interned at the paper as a senior through the Pioneer Press Practicum class and worked at the Fairbault Daily News covering government upon graduation.

TELL US WHAT YOU’RE UP TO

We love to hear what our alumni are doing. Whether it’s a job change, a new book or a move across the country, keep SJMC and your fellow alumni updated. Email [email protected] with

your updates. Please include your name and graduation year.

SJMC ALUMNI SOCIETY BOARD UPDATE

The SJMC Mentor Program is such a high-light for the SJMC Alumni Society Board each year. The board of directors takes great pride in finding talented profes-sionals in the Twin Cities

journalism, advertising and public relations community to match with enthusiastic SJMC undergrads. This year, we selected 45 talented students to participate in the pro-gram and recruited professionals working in all walks of business and communications to serve as their mentors for the next year. We have a very active alumni community, and often I’m asked how to get involved with the Alumni Society Board and its programs. Earlier this year, we put out a call for men-tors, and we were floored by the response. Nearly 100 local alumni volunteered their time and talent to mentor an SJMC student. Although we have far more mentors avail-able than students to mentor, we continue to find ways to get alumni involved in our work. We have several committees that aim to engage students and alumni through vari-ous programs including the annual mentor program, awards programs like the Award for Excellence and the Above the Fold Award, networking and social events for alumni, and programs designed to connect students with working professionals in and outside of the classroom. If you would like to get more involved with our work and give back to the SJMC, please sign-up for one of our committees at z.umn.edu/sjmcalumnicommittee.

Sarah E. Bauer (B.A. ’06) SJMC Alumni Society Board President


ALUMNI NEWS & NOTES

MINNESOTA DAILY ALUMNI ASSOCIATION UPDATE

We kicked off the fall semester with a focus on growth and development for Minnesota Daily staff. In September, we held a resume workshop where staff members received tips on how to build a

strong resumé. The students were able to meet one-on-one with Daily alumni to get personalized feedback. We also held an in-terview workshop in October to help prepare students for what they will be facing as they begin interviewing for jobs. We are beginning to work out the details of our fundraising event in the Spring for staff, alumni, and friends of the Daily. Con-nect with us on Facebook (facebook.com/mndailyalumni), Twitter (@mndailyalumni) or LinkedIn for updates.

Lindsey Shirey (B.A. ’05) MDAA president

BE IN [email protected]

facebook.com/mndailyalumni

@mndailyalumni

The Minnesota Daily Alumni Group

GAIL MARKSJARVIS (B.A., ’73) has released a new edition of her book, “Saving for Retirement Without Living like a Pauper or Winning the Lottery.”

MARGARET (FOR-NELL) MAUNDER (B.A., ’41) visited Murphy Hall for the first time in nearly 60 years (her last visit was in 1953) when she attended the Inves-tigative Reporters &

Editors workshop in September 2012.

JENNIFER MOORE (M.A., ’06; PH.D., ’12) started a tenure-track position as an assistant professor in the Department of Communication and Journalism at the University of Maine.

DAVID RAE MORRIS (M.A., ’91) had two films premiere in fall 2012. The first, “Integrating Ole Miss: James Meredith and Beyond,” premiered on Mississippi Public Broadcasting and explores the University of Mississippi as a microcosm of the Civil Rights Movement in the state and across the nation. His second film project, “Yazoo Revisited,” is a full-length documentary about the racial and political history of Yazoo, Miss. — his father’s hometown.

MICHAEL PHILLIPS (B.A., ’84) of the Chicago Tribune served as keynote speaker at the ACP/CMA National College Media Convention in Chicago on Nov. 4, 2012.

SADA REED (B.A., ’03, M.A., ’11) received the $1,000 Daughters of Norway Grand Lodge

Scholarship. She is a Roy H. Park Fellow at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill’s School of Journalism and Mass Communication.

SAM RICHTER (B.A., ’89) has been awarded the American Association of Inside Sales Pro-fessional’s 2012 Book of the Year Award for his best-selling book, “Take the Cold Out of Cold Calling.”

MELINDA ROGERS (B.A., ’03) was promoted to news editor at The Salt Lake Tribune, where she will oversee the newspaper’s education and communities coverage. Previously, she worked as the paper’s crime and courts reporter.

SAHANA SEN ROY (M.A., ’11) is working at The World Bank in Washington, D.C. as a quali-tative researcher in the public opinion research group.

NATALIE SINDT (B.A., ’12) is interning in the Office of Communications at the White House. The internship goes through December 2012.

MARK STEEN (B.A., ’92) has been named COO of Vaddio, a New Hope, Minn. manufacturer of robotic cameras and video switchers for the Pro AV and broadcast markets. Prior to this posi-tion, Steen was in a product development role at the company.

JENNIFER STOLTENOW (B.A., ’03, M.A., ’09) is the marketing communications manager for Post-It at 3M. Previously, she was an account supervisor at Colle+McVoy and an account executive at Campbell Mithun.

SJMC Alumnus Scott Meyer Named Interim President and CEO of UMAA

Scott Meyer (B.A., ‘04) has been named the interim president and CEO of the University of Minnesota Alumni As-sociation, beginning October 1. Meyer, who heads Scott Meyer Consulting and is a previous recipient of the SJMC Alumni Society Board’s Award of Excellence, has a longtime career in strategic, business and institutional management. Meyer is a founding member of the Twin Cities agency Mona Meyer McGrath (later named Mona Meyer McGrath & Gavin). Meyer helped grow the agency into Minnesota’s largest public relations firm, and, in 1988, it became part of the worldwide network of Weber Shandwick, the world’s largest independent public rela-tions firm. Meyer served as CEO of Weber Shandwick International and, later, chief strategy officer. In 2003 he moved to Lawson Software to become the chief marketing officer and in February 2011 he began working with the University — first as a consultant to University Relations and then as senior counselor to the office of new University president Eric Kaler. Meyer is a former Alumni Association board member and will serve the association in all strategic initiatives as the search for a permanent CEO is conducted.


DONOR REPORT

It isn’t hard to imagine how intimidating it can be to face the countless financial obstacles of college students. Textbooks, living costs and other expenses always seem to be looming, but this year the award of Chuck Porter’s generous scholarship helped relieve my financial tension significantly. After receiving the award, I was also given the opportunity to meet Chuck in person. Chuck was not only charismatic and witty, he was truly interested in my goals and future. I am very thankful to have met such an important, yet modest, figure in the advertising world.–Kelsie Klaustermeier, 2012-2013 Porter Prize recipient

Getting to meet Chuck Porter was a once in a lifetime experience. So often scholarship donors seem far removed from the students they’re helping, so it was great to meet Chuck and personally thank him for his generous gift. As an ad student it doesn’t get any better than getting to meet one of the great leaders of the industry.–Rachel Quast, 2012-2013 Porter Prize recipient

Through much exploration, I have discovered my passion: the ability to be creative and to visually express my creativity as an individual. I am pursuing a bachelor’s degree in Strate-gic Communication with an emphasis in Advertising, and two minors in Spanish and Art. Being a Chuck Porter Prize Scholarship recipient has not only encouraged this exploration to take on personal transformation but it has also opened up new opportunities. It was truly an honor meeting Mr. Porter to personally thank him for supporting my passion. –Sara Chars, 2012-2013 Porter Prize recipient

CHANGING LIVESWHY I GIVE

HOW GIVING HELPS


I think people do things that make them happy, and being able to help out some talented students makes me happy. Also, whatever I’ve accomplished in this business pretty much started with something that happened at the U. When I was at Murphy Hall, my advisor was Ginny Harris – she had been a terrific creative talent in the agency world and one day she stopped me in the hall, looked straight at me, and said “you’re crazy if you don’t go into advertising.” So I did, I got lucky and had some success, and I figure I owe her one. –Chuck Porter, SJMC alumnus, co-founder, partner and chairman of national advertising firm Crispin + Porter, as well as chief strategist for its holding company MDC Partners.

Chuck Porter with the 2012-2013 recipients of the Porter Prize scholarship: Sarah Chars, Kelsie Klaustermeier and Rachel Quast


DONOR REPORT


On the previous page, you had a chance to read the powerful testimonials of donor Chuck Porter, B.A. ’67, and his students about how scholarship opportunities have made vital differences in their lives. Many of you have chosen to make a life changing difference in the lives of our students through your giving, and my heartfelt thanks go out to each and every one of you. Many of us want to give more to help students but find it frustrating — or at a minimum, not wholly satisfying — that we don’t meet our student recipients until the pledge payments are made in full. The University of Minnesota Foundation has created a positive and proac-tive program to help all of us meet our philanthropic dreams in a more timely manner and provide more scholarship support to our most promising students. The program is entitled Fast Start 4 Impact, and it is a four year experiment. When you make a new endowment fund gift or pledge of $50,000 or greater, Fast Start 4 Impact will provide four years of funding to deserving students, starting within one semes-ter of your gift. You may pay your pledge over a four-year period. Many of you will recall that in the past we couldn’t make an award to a student until the pledge was fully completed. This especially donor-friendly program will provide the projected payout of your pledge imme-diately so that, while you are making your pledge payments, you’ll have the opportunity to meet and get to know the student whose life you are changing. Why is this so exciting? First of all, many of us have had the experience of having to wait until the full pledge is paid to see the impact of our support. Frankly, on some days, when you’re writing the check, it is only natural to ask, “When will this part be done so I can finally meet my student?” Most of us give to help others, and now you can be assured that your gift will go to work almost immediately. Naturally we have to remain consistent with our award-ing policies and procedures, but those policies can be implemented more quickly under this new program simply because we will have money from the U of M Foundation to bridge the award. And why is this so important now? Our progress in improving undergraduate gradu-ation rates has been most impressive (with our four-year graduation rate now at nearly 80 percent the School of Journalism & Mass Communication far exceeds the University average of less than 50 percent), and what we have learned is that the more financial support we can provide through scholarships, the better our graduation statistics become. I’d love to talk with you personally about this golden opportunity. If you have questions or want to learn more, please call me at 612-625-5031 or reach me at [email protected] In the meantime, thank you for all you do to help our remarkable students. They are wor-thy of your help!

Mary Hicks Director of External RelationsCollege of Liberal Arts

“Most of us give to help others, and now you can be assured that your gift will go to work almost immediately.”

Your Impact Made Faster

EVER

ETT

AYO

UB

ZAD

EH

Our generous donors provide scholarship opportunities, help with day-to-day operations and exclusively fund the Eric Sevareid Library and Digital Information Resource Center.

THANK YOUIf you’re interested in becoming an SJMC donor, please contact

Mary Hicks at 612-625-5031 or [email protected].


John Finnegan Sr., Former Pioneer Press Editor, Champion for Open Government and SJMC Alumnus, Dies

John R. “Jack” Finnegan Sr. (B.A., ’48; M.A., ’65), passed away October 2, 2012 after a long struggle with cancer. He was 87 years old.

Finnegan was nationally known as an advocate for open meetings and open-records laws

and was considered a pioneer for First Amendment rights. When he began his career, public officials were able to hide informa-tion, something that Finnegan believe hampered democracy. So in 1957, along with a colleague, Finnegan authored Minnesota’s

first open meetings law. He co-wrote and helped lobby for the passage of the 1974 Data Practices Act, which opened most records in Minnesota to the public. Because of his tire-less work to open access, Minnesotans have access to more information than most other states. His work opened records and meetings for all citizens, something Finnegan thought was vital so voters could properly judge the work of their elected officials.

Born in Walker, Minn. in 1924, Finnegan spent his child-hood working at the landmark Chase Hotel, which his family owned. In World War II, he worked in communications for the Army at the Battle of the Bulge. When he returned

from the war, he mar-ried Norma Tomte and enrolled at the Univer-sity of Minnesota. After graduating in 1948 from the School of Journalism & Mass Communica-tion (SJMC), his first job was as a reporter at the Robbinsdale Post. He then worked as a reporter

for the Rochester Post-Bulletin and was eventually hired by the Pioneer Press in 1951. Finnegan began at the St. Paul paper as a night general assignment reporter. After ten years, and after completing his

master’s degree in mass communication at SJMC, he became the associate editor of the editorial page, then executive edi-tor in 1967. After rising through the ranks, Finnegan became editor in 1970 — a role he held until 1985. He served as as-sistant publisher until his retirement in 1988. When Finnegan became editor he set his sights on winning the paper’s first Pulitzer Prize. By the time he retired, the paper had won two. Upon his retire-ment, the Minnesota Coalition on Govern-ment Information created the John R. Finnegan Freedom of Information Award, which is given to individuals and groups who demonstrate a commitment to the idea that democratic governments need the participation of an informed electorate. The award honors a Minnesotan or Minnesota institution whose work demon-strates leadership and commitment to the power of informa-tion to effect change. The award has honored some of the state’s strongest advocates for public access to government information and the public’s right to know. In 2001, Finnegan was inducted into the First Amend-ment Center’s Hall of Fame and in 2011, Finnegan was inducted into the State Open Government Hall of Fame, an honor administered by the National Freedom of Information Coalition. Finnegan was a longtime supporter of the University of Minnesota and was a member of the Chancellors Society. With former Star Tribune publisher Joel Kramer, Finnegan co-chaired SJMC’s effort in the University of Minnesota’s Capital Campaign in the early 2000s, raising more than $20 million for the school. Finnegan is preceded in death by his son Joseph. He is survived by his wife of 64 years, Norma, as well as sons John Jr. and James; daughters Roberta Deeney, Mary Maruska and Cara Finnegan; 11 grandchildren and one great-grandchild.

PHO

TOS

CO

URT

ESY

OF

THE

PIO

NEE

R P

RES

S

Laurabelle Zack Oatis (B.A., ’45), of Duluth, Minn., passed away on June 19, 2012. She was 88 years old. Upon graduating from the Univer-sity of Minnesota, Zack Oatis began a career at the Associated Press’s refer-ence library in New York. Here, she met William Oatis, her future husband and

the AP’s Prague bureau chief. She and William spent the early months of their marriage living in London before Wil-liam was assigned to Czechoslovakia in the early days of the Cold War. On his assignment, William was sentenced to 10 years in prison by a communist court after being forced to confess to espio-

nage. Laurabelle petitioned the court for his release, and the government was so moved that they eventually pardoned her husband. She and William returned to the U.S. to raise their family in Man-hattan, NY. She is survived by her son Jonathan and sister Audray Rees.

IN MEMORIAM

Murphy ReporterSchool of Journalism & Mass CommunicationCollege of Liberal ArtsUniversity of Minnesota 111 Murphy Hall206 Church St. SEMinneapolis, MN 55455

U of MN School of Journalism & Mass Communication Alumni

facebook.com/umnsjmc

twitter.com/umn_sjmc

YOU’RE INVITED!

SAVE THE DATE

SPRING SHOWCASE 2013

April 24, 2013TCF Bank Stadium

5 p.m.

See student workHonor donors

Celebrate alumni achievements

Documents

Fall 2012 Murphy Reporter