DC profile: Two-time Pulitzer winner Clarence Page (BSJ ’69)
- Posted by Robert Stewart on 09/1/2010
On my recent trip to Washington DC I was bound and determined to talk with 1969 JSchool graduate Clarence Page. The hour-long interview touched on a wide range of topics, from his first journalism experiences in high school to making sense of Marshall McLuhan.
Because of youtube’s limitations on how long a video can be, I broke up the interview into five parts. In part 1, Page shares his views on how to balance the academic demands of college with the need to gain hands-on experience.
Part 2: Page’s early interests in journalism, and why he chose to study at Ohio University.
Part 3: Page, on the need for journalism students to be flexible when they come out of school. Of particular interest to me is his discussion about an international opportunity early on in his career.
Part 4: Page, on the changes he has witnessed in journalism and media during his career.
Page 5: Page discusses his contributions to journalism.
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DC profiles: Zapotosky (BSJ ’08) and Louttit (BSJ ’08) discuss recent changes at WashPo
- Posted by Robert Stewart on 09/1/2010
On my recent trip to Washington DC, I interviewed two relatively new graduates who share the distinction of landing first jobs out of JSchool at the Washington Post.
Matt Zapotosky and Meghan Louttit (twitter: @mlouttit) have been full-timers at the Washington newspaper for a little more than two years. Yet, as these interviews indicate, they already have first-hand experience when it comes to the organization changing how it operates.
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DC profile: Andy Alexander (BSJ ’71)
- Posted by Robert Stewart on 08/28/2010
- tags: alumni
I recently returned from Washington DC, where I interviewed eight JSchool alums. Today I’m featuring the second of those eight, Andy Alexander (BSJ 715), ombudsman for the Washington Post.
I’ve known Andy for many years, and had heard several legendary tales about his time as a student. I was determined to track him down on my recent trip to DC to ask him about some of these stories. What I learned about his experiences while a student at OU was far more compelling than even the legends. In the first video, Andy explains why he didn’t spend as much time in the classroom as he should have (hint: The Post). He also describes his three international "internship" experiences, starting with the summer between his first and second year.
In this video, Andy describes his long-standing commitment to diversity in media.
In this final video, Alexander discusses his commitment to giving back to Ohio University.
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DC profile: Phil Ewing (BSJ ’05)
- Posted by Robert Stewart on 08/27/2010
I recently returned from Washington DC, where I interviewed eight JSchool alums. Today I’m featuring the first of those eight, Phil Ewing (BSJ ’05), a reporter for Navy Times.
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Downing (BSJ ’10) hits the ground running
- Posted by Robert Stewart on 08/26/2010
- tags: alumni
Garrett Downing graduated from the JSchool this past June. He already had landed a position with WEWS in Cleveland. I recently received this email, which he has given me permission to republish.
Life in Cleveland for me is going well.... I’ve adjusted to the early hours (even though it still takes about three cups of coffee to wake up) and I’m getting the chance to do a number of different things.My first month on the job, I was in the middle of our team’s coverage on the LeBron James fiasco. It was a great way to get thrown to the wolves, and we ended up setting all kinds of traffic records for our site with that coverage. It was great to have a hand in that, and some of my work ended up getting picked up nationally. I couldn’t believe it when I went on yahoo.com and my byline was the main story on the site!
Recently, I’ve been covering the Browns training camp and pre-season, and the plan is for me to continue covering the team for the website throughout the season. I definitely did not think I would be covering the NFL two months into my first job. Here’s an article I wrote for our site.
Also, I am going to have a big role in high school football. I’m basically in charge of the web product for our high school football coverage, and I’m building relationships with local schools to have them send us video to put on our TV broadcasts, and online. As part of the high school coverage, I’m also going to get some on-air opportunities. If things go according to plan, then I should be making my Cleveland TV debut this weekend!
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Scholars convene at AEJMC in Denver
- Posted by Robert Stewart on 08/14/2010
- tags: research
Back in May, grad director Mike Sweeney wrote a blog post about the faculty and grad students who were headed to AEJMC in Denver to present their research.
We’re all safely back from Denver now, and I’m happy to say that OU, the Scripps College, and the JSchool in particular, showed up in impressive form. In addition to the participants noted in Mike’s blog, I was struck by the number of alums from our program who not only attend but present their research. In addition to all of those folks I’ve been privileged to meet and know in the past 20+ years, former director Ralph Izard pointed out a number of key individuals in the AEJMC organization who got their doctorates from the JSchool before my arrival in 1987. Made me very proud.
Here are some photos I took at the convention in Denver:
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Top jschool graduates for 2010
- Posted by Robert Stewart on 08/10/2010
Selecting top graduates has never been an easy job, yet every year since I’ve been on the faculty we’ve collectively rolled up our sleeves to select students from each of our sequences, a top "overall" senior, as well as top masters and doctoral graduates.
I’ve sometimes wondered over the years if this was such a good idea, given how many outstanding graduating seniors and grad students we have each year. Sure, there’s always a "top" GPA, but rarely does that translate into who wins top graduate awards. After all, a journalism education is more than just about grades.
On the other hand, our winners invariably are in the top 5-10% grade point averages. They also have had the kind of impact outside the classroom that means they will be remembered for years to come. So, once again, we used the occasion of our annual awards banquet to recognize top graduating seniors. The text below borrows heavily from the script that Tom Hodson read from at the banquet.
This year we salute the following top graduates:
Advertising: Lauren Miller
From day one, Lauren Miller hit the ground running in the Scripps School of Journalism. Lauren graduated with 40 hours more than the minimum of 192. That says much about her intelligence, motivation and focus.
Lauren has been active in the American Advertising Federation National Student Competition every year, including presenting for the Coca Cola team in her freshman year. She served as Ad Club’s treasurer, was a member of the executive board of directors, marketing and research director and campaign director during her time at Scripps. It’s no surprise that due to her commitment and hard work, Ohio University won the National Competition in 2008. And the 2009 Ad Club’s campaign for the Century Council will launch this year.
During her time at OU, Lauren was also a sales representative for University Directories and was ranked number one on the team. According to her professors, no one has done so well in the advertising sequence and accomplished so much for the OU Advertising Association.
Broadcast: Drew Schaar
Drew walked into WOUB radio and TV his sophomore year and never looked back. He’s been extremely active with WOUB’s Newswatch program, radio newscasts and websites as an anchor, producer, and reporter. He recently finished producing an hour-long live program on the Diabetes Crisis in southeast Ohio.
Drew interned at WBNS-TV in Columbus and two television stations in Dayton. He’s also been a peer mentor the last three years for the Learning Community program and he has done an outstanding job. He’s active in the student chapter of the Radio Television Digital News Association, and recently attended the national convention in Las Vegas. Drew also is involved with Omicron Delta Kappa, a community service and leadership organization.
Carr Van Anda: Bethany Williams
This is the first year we’ve given an outstanding senior award in the Carr Van Anda sequence. We felt the need to do so because we now have quite a number of students electing this inter-disciplinary option.
Bethany Williams transferred into the Scripps Journalism School after her freshmen year. Using the Carr Van Anda option, she has pursued her interest in documentary journalism, blending courses in broadcast journalism, Media Arts & Studies as well as courses from the Film School. And she did all of that while maintaining a near perfect GPA.
Bethany interned with the NPR program "Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me" last summer and plans to pursue her career as a documentary film maker.
Bethany graduated in March and recently returned to the U.S. from a six-week writing trip to Europe.
Journalism HTC: Emily Grannis
Our outstanding HTC senior, Emily Grannis, was campus senior writer for The Post since March 2007, reporting on the OU administration and Faculty Senate as well as student affairs and the Student Senate.
Emily has had a number of internship opportunities during her years at OU. During the summer of 2007, she worked at the Center for American Progress in Washington, D.C. Since Fall 2007, she has worked with me when I’m serve as a visiting trial judge, doing independent work in legal research and writing.
She’s contributed print and online content to the Legal Times, a weekly Washington, D.C. newspaper, and she’s worked in the Public Information Office (PIO) of the Supreme Court of the United States.
Her outstanding honors thesis on the development of the Paraguayan press is titled "Hard Pressed: The Paraguayan Media and Democratic Transition, 1980s-1990s."
Magazine: Sarah Binning
The Outstanding Magazine Senior, Sarah Binning, knew without doubt that she’d chosen the right career path after she served as editor in chief of Southeast Ohio magazine for the Spring 2010 issue ??" In case you haven’t purchased your copy yet, look for the issue with the cover featuring three child ballet dancers. She was also the magazine’s copy chief for the Winter issue, adeptly supervising a staff of eight copy editors.
Sarah has immersed herself in a variety of journalism experiences outside Scripps as well. She was an intern at Teen Voices Magazine in Boston, an alternative publication whose staff and college-age interns mentor some eighty Boston teen girls as editors each year. During winter breaks she interned at her hometown paper, The Bryan Times, reporting on farm and education news, creating online videos and designing the paper’s entertainment pages.
Sarah also minored in English, and earned a near perfect GPA.
News Editorial: Emily Mullin
Emily Mullin, just couldn’t wait to jump in to her chosen career.
In the summer before she started classes at OU, Emily worked as a freelancer for her hometown paper in Latrobe, Pennsylvania. That fall, she adopted a new hometown paper and started a four-year stint writing for The Athens News. During that time she’s been an opinion columnist, campus reporter and editorial assistant.
Emily didn’t limit her experience to newspapers, she also worked for The Government Channel in Athens and was a talk-show host for the All Campus Radio Network. And she served as one of our Student Ambassadors.
Emily has had internships with the Tribune-Review newspaper of Greensburg, Pennsylvania; the Scripps Howard Foundation Wire in Washington, D.C.; and Columbus Business First. Most recently, she has worked as a freelancer for the Cincinnati Business Courier.
Along the way, she earned a First Place SPJ Mark of Excellence Award, and last fall she was one of only 40 college students nationwide chosen to attend the Business Journalism Consortium in New York City. Emily recently learned that she’s been named a Pulliam fellow, and will work on the business desk at the Indianapolis Star this summer.
Online Journalism: Ryan Lytle
Our top online journalism senior is Ryan Lytle. Ryan transferred into the Scripps Journalism School after his second year at OU.
In the past two years he completed three internships with the Cincinnati Enquirer’s website, the washingtonpost.com, and most recently with the Today Show. Ryan was fortunate to be working at the Today Show when OU defeated Georgetown in the Big Dance. And of course Today Show co-host and alum Matt Lauer wanted to celebrate, so Ryan made his network debut, chest bumping, and nearly knocking out Matt on live TV!
When Ryan wasn’t off in New York or Washington, he worked at The Post, WOUB, and Speakeasy, all while maintaining a terrific GPA.
Public Relations: Adria Courtot
Our Outstanding PR Senior’s accomplishments become even more impressive when you know she only transferred to Ohio University two years ago and then still had to transfer into our program.
From the moment she stepped foot on campus, Adria Courtot was determined to achieve her goal of transferring into Scripps. She joined PRSSA and ImPRessions right away and made a big impact with both. She served as PRSSA’s Vice-President of Internal Relations and she previously edited PRSuccess, the chapter newsletter.
In ImPRessions she served as an Account Executive where she supervised ten other students on the Up ’Til Dawn account. Adria interned with the Athens Area Chamber of Commerce.
Adria was an excellent student who maintained a high GPA and was on the Dean’s List and was the recipient of the Dean’s Scholarship.
Overall Outstanding Senior: Chelsea Toy
Chelsea Toy exemplifies the entrepreneurial spirit necessary to succeed in the modern media business. She produces hard news, long-form features, press releases, and marketing plans. She blogs, tweets, and shoots video. She speaks Spanish and Swahili and has basic conversational skills in German and Malay.
She interned with a magazine and a PR firm in South Africa, and Amnesty Int’l in Washington, D.C. She worked as a senior campus reporter for the Athens News, covering OU politics and the ongoing budget crisis.
During the past four years, Chelsea won 10 journalism awards and scholarships, including the competitive Roy W. Howard National Collegiate Reporting Award and the David L. Shashower Visionary Scholarship in Communication from Liggett-Shashower in Cleveland.
In her free time, she competes in rodeos and has earned national and Canadian barrel-racing titles. For her senior honors project, she launched The Barrel Racing Blog, which receives 3,000 hits each month and she explored the ethical issues involved when journalists cover communities of interest in which they participate.
Not surprisingly, she already has a full-time job as an assistant editor for Horse & Rider where she will produce content for its four-color glossy consumer magazine and companion web products, as well as develop a social media strategy.
Chelsea also has excelled in the classroom, transferring into the Honors Tutorial College as a sophomore and earning a near-perfect GPA. She served our school as a Scripps Ambassador and helped recruit dozens of top ranking prospective students by leading tours and sharing her college experiences with them. We wish continued success as she moves into full-time professional life.
Masters student: Aisha Mohammed
Aisha Mohammed wrote what Pat Washburn considers to be one of the top five papers in his two and a half decades of teaching the historiorgraphy class. She wrote about magazines produced by sex workers for sex workers.
Doctoral student: Jen Lovejoy
Jennette Lovejoy has a history of publishing and presenting academic articles that would be impressive for a tenure-track assistant professor, and she has yet to defend her thesis. She already has a job with the University of Portland. And she throws a football with a nice, tight spiral.
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Read the (QR) code to learn more
- Posted by Robert Stewart on 07/30/2010
- tags: advising
This year we’re embracing QR codes "linked" to videos to help our incoming students better grasp our new curriculum as well as the transition from quarters to semesters.
"Q2S," as it’s referred to here at OU, involves not only creating a new semesters-based curriculum (which we’ve done), but explaining that new curriculum to students who will be transitioning from the one academic calendar (quarters) to the other (semesters). Most important is this "bottom line" question: Will students graduate on time when they start on one calendar and finish on the other?
I’m happy to report that yes, journalism students starting under quarters and ending on semesters
OK, back to the topic of this post.
Prof. Cary Frith and I worked together to create explanatory videos, posted to YouTube on the /scrippsjschool channel, which explain key parts of our new curriculum. Most important, the videos explain how students starting out this fall will follow our new semesters-based curriculum, even though semesters don’t begin for two more years. By doing so, students will easily transition to semesters in the fall of 2012, while also enjoying the benefits of our new (and improved, we think) curriculum.
Here’s where the QR codes come in. By creating a QR code linked to each video for each part of our advising process, we can make it easy for a student (or parent, for that matter) to review -- at their convenience -- any topic related to our academic advising process.
Here’s how it works.
1. Print out the newest advising checksheet from our website (or, you can simply display it on your computer screen).
2. Point the camera on your smart phone (e.g., iPhone) at one of the QR codes on the checksheet (or at an image of a QR code below). NOTE: your smart phone needs to have an installed QR code reader app* for this to work.
3. Assuming you have ’net access via wireless or a cell tower, your phone should then "register" the QR code and start pulling up the video that we’ve "linked" to that particular code. (Caution: make sure your data plan can support downloading videos without adding a substantial cost!)
For example, the QR code at the top of the advising checksheet provides an overview of the advising process.
It’s linked to this video, featuring Prof. Frith providing an introduction to advising at OU and the JSchool.
By the way, don’t worry if you don’t have a smart phone. You can get to the videos on your computer by going to scrippsjschool.org/advising, a special part of our website focused on the Q2S process.
The following QR codes, which also are on the printed checksheet, likewise are "linked" to videos that explain the various parts of our new curriculum.
QR code for the journalism core requirements
QR code for general requirements and gen eds
QR code for specialization requirement
*If you can’t locate a QR code app for your phone, check out this site: i-nigma
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Props from Pittsburgh Magazine
- Posted by Robert Stewart on 07/28/2010
The JSchool received some good publicity from the current issue of Pittsburgh Magazine (pittsburghmagazine.com).
The article reviews well known majors at lots of colleges and universities in the region. For Ohio University, Pittsburgh Magazine suggests that "Right" brainers consider, you guessed it, journalism.
"As journalism moves online, the news is that Ohio University’s E.W. Scripps School of Journalism continues to rank among the top journalism schools in the United States. Majors can choose nontraditional undergrad course sequences such as advertising, online journalism and public relations."
Unfortunately, the article also contains a common factual error in implying that "famous alumni include TODAY’s Matt Lauer." In fact, Matt graduated with a degree from the School of Telecommunications*, not Journalism. But hey, it certainly is the case -- as was also pointed out -- that "that’s why a Scripps undergrad usually lands an internship on that NBC-TV show each year."
I should point out that sometimes we are lucky enough to have TWO interns at a time at the TODAY show. That would not happen without Matt Lauer’s loyalty to Ohio University.
*Now called the School of Media Arts and Studies.
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Good advice from an organizer
- Posted by Robert Stewart on 07/24/2010
Samantha Bartlett, who is heading up the JSchool’s social media account next year, posted valuable advice about how to stay organized.
