2020 Region 11 Conference: Real Skills for Real News offers range of programs in Hawaii

2019 SPJ Excellence in Journalism Convention

Chad Blair
Board Director


Excellence in Journalism 2019
San Antonio, Texas, Sept. 5-7
https://excellenceinjournalism.org/

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It was an excellent conference, my first, and much more substantive than the Online News Association conference (my fourth) a week later in New Orleans. I might go to the 2020 one in D.C.

A common theme was how work stress is hurting journalists, and what to do about it. I wrote about that for Civil Beat, so I will not recap things here.

https://www.civilbeat.org/2019/09/you-think-your-job-is-stressful-at-least-youre-not-me/

I will focus here on EIJ-SPJ. There is too much to report, so I will just offer a few takeaways:


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Social Media and Violence

It was strange to see armed guards at every escalator at the hotel. But Texas had been the recent location for two mass shootings, so it was understandable.

Hawaii has not had to deal with such an incident since at least the Xerox shooting of several decades ago, so I don't know how relevant this is. But I was impressed with the panel titled "280 Character News: Staying Ethical When News Breaks on Twitter."

It included a Dallas reporter who talked about her coverage of one of those shootings. I was struck by her observations of how friends and relatives of shooting victims can really hate the media in the early hours and days of an incident, but how they appreciate being reached out to later after things have settled. In this sense, we are vultures at first but comforters later, if we can be sincere in our reporting.

"Don't be rude is a good standard to live by, don't force yourself on people" she said.

The panel was really about social media, and there were those who recalled when Facebook and Twitter were banned in newsrooms but are now essential. Journalists must continue to be very careful about posting their opinions online, and certainly anything that is not fact-checked.

"Don't be stupid," said one person. "People don't need to know you are having a bad day."

Twitter and Facebook may also not be in the journalism mix soon, as other platforms come along.

Also, hashtags may be on their way out because they are too dehumanizing.

Hate Groups

The Trump administration continues to dominate so many narratives, but when it comes to hate groups, the message is to call them out for what they stand for.

A panel from The Atlantic titled "Covering Extremism in the Age of Trump," for example, said newsrooms are becoming more frank about how to cover "white supremacy, ideological extremism, and hatred in all its forms."

"Calling something racist is not subjective," said one person. "It's better than trafficking in euphemism."

This should be understood in the context that white supremacy is far from something new or novel - think Nazi Germany, slavery, American Indian genocide, eugenics. What's different is the Internet's ability to amplify matters and a president who stokes it all.

"Part of this is just a tech story," one person said.

Prediction: race and racism will be at the center of the 2020 presidential election.

Labels

In a panel titled "Say This, Not That. Writing Ethically and Inclusively," these and other questions were raised: "Are you cisgendered? A survivor? Latinx? Did someone 'die by suicide'? Was there an 'officer-involved shooting'? More than ever, advocates, activists and experts are insisting that journalists adopt certain terms and abandon others."

It was a wonderful panel that challenged the way journalists identify the people they cover. Do you call someone a felon or a formerly incarcerated person, for example? The former term is loaded.

"Think about these expressions critically and ask if it is the best way to characterize it based on facts," we are advised.

A related panel - "Serving All People: Combating Bias When Covering Race and Religion" - raised similar concerns.

Excerpt: "Bias is ingrained in all of us. Our implicit, unconscious bias leads to errors in how we as journalists perceive truth, remember events and, most importantly, make decisions about people. In short, bias limits our truth-telling."

Random Observations

It's amazing how much Spanish is spoken in San Antonio, including at the conference.

A good many of the conferees were younger women, many of color. I was one of the middle-aged white guys who are declining in number and who almost all wore a dark blazer.

Conference room names at the Grand Hyatt included Lone Star, Travis, Crockett and Houston. The Alamo is remembered.





Award for SPJ Hawaii's Stirling Morita
INDIANAPOLIS - The Society of Professional Journalists has selected Jonathan Make and Stirling Morita to receive the Howard S. Dubin Outstanding Pro Member Award for contributions to their SPJ chapters and regions.

Each year, this award is given to no more than two members - one from a chapter of 75 or more members and one from a chapter of less than 75 members. The award is in honor of Howard Dubin, longtime member of SPJ's Chicago Headline Club. Dubin not only contributes time and money to the Society, but also remains dedicated to service at the chapter level.

Jonathan Make is a dedicated member of the Washington, D.C., Pro Chapter. For the past five years, Make has been a board member of the chapter, one of SPJ's largest, and is the immediate past president, after serving two years. His involvement is not limited to his chapter. Make is active on Twitter and Medium helping share SPJ news and updating members on what is happening at the national level. Make epitomizes grassroots support because he also organizes comments and suggestions from a group of more than 50 other chapter leaders around the country via an email list to pass along to SPJ national leadership.

Stirling Morita has been an active SPJ member for more than 30 years. He has served on the Hawaii Pro Chapter Board of Directors, including as president, for at least 20 years. Morita works behind the scenes on several Hawaii Chapter projects including helping young journalists obtain internships, organizing annual contests, fundraising efforts through the Gridiron Show and organizing a variety of interesting speakers and forums. Morita also organizes the chapter's annual dinner and regional conference.