NYC lecture: web tips for journalists

Sree Sreenivasan, Dean of Student Affairs and new media professor at Columbia's journalism school, e-mails:

Folks: I am teaching a class Wednesday morning and have lots of room for guests. If you happen to be free and want to come for a free session, please stop by. No RSVP needed.

* Wednesday, 10:30-noon
Smarter Surfing: Web Tips and Tricks Every Journalist Should Know

Columbia Journalism School, LECTURE HALL
116th St & Broadway (#1 train to 116th St)

If you can't make it, most of the material I will be covering is available on http://www.SreeTips.com

Columbia's career services dean offers job search advice

Don’t wait for editors to invite you to interview for a job opening, advises Ernest Sotomayor, assistant dean of career services at Columbia University’s journalism school.

Instead, invite yourself.

“If you travel across the state or country and take the initiative [to contact editors] and say you’re just looking to get a half hour of guidance or want to explore possibilities, they’re usually willing to sit down and talk with you,” he says.

Indeed, The Hill reporter J.T. Rushing took that approach and landed his dream job covering the U.S. Senate.

I recently interviewed Rushing, Sotomayor and others for an advice column I wrote on finding a journalism job in last month’s issue of Quill. Below is some additional advice Sotomayor offered that didn’t make it into my column.

• Get to know the people who hire at media outlets you’re interested in, and see if you can get your foot in the door by freelancing for them, he says. “A lot of it is getting to know recruiters, hiring editors – people in the organization that you can turn to for advice and counsel on what sort of jobs are available … what their needs are, how to freelance [for them].”

• “Look back to school,” he also recommends. “Alumni connections are always great… Journalism professors have worked all over the world, and they know people everywhere. A lot of people like to get recommendations from professors who can give them extra insight into a job candidate.”

• Finally, be open-minded. “It’s like being a reporter in the field writing a story. You spread your wings and look at different possibilities and keep your options open … How willing you are to get up and move from where you are is a factor. The smaller the size of the geographic territory for your job search is, the few possibilities there are … Just be open to a lot of different possibilities. The more things you’re willing to consider, the more opportunities you make available to yourself.”

-Mark Grabowski

Networking is key in journalism job search

Your dream newsroom job may be available right now, but there’s a good chance you’ll never know. Like virtually every other industry, many jobs in journalism aren’t officially advertised. There are ways to find out about them, but it takes effort. To find out how, read my latest Quill column, which contains advice from reporters, hiring editors and Columbia Journalism School's dean of career services. -Mark Grabowski

Free NYC event: Panel of prize-winning environmental journalists

The John B. Oakes Award
For Distinguished Environmental Journalism

Honoring Exceptional Contributions to the Public Understanding of
Environmental Issues

Monday, February 11, 2008

The Journalism School at Columbia University
2950 Broadway @ 116th Street
Lecture Hall, 3rd Floor

Panel Discussion 5:00 p.m.

Reception 7:00 p.m.

2007 AWARD WINNERS

Last Chance: The Fight to Save a Disappearing Coast
Bob Marshall, Mark Schleifstein, Matt Brown & photographer Ted Jackson
The Times-Picayune

Blighted Homeland
Judy Pasternak
Los Angeles Times

Cold Rush: The Coming Fight for the Melting North
McKenzie Funk
Harper's Magazine

R.S.V.P.
Laura Reizman, Prize Coordinator
(212) 854-7650, lr2259@columbia.edu

Panel on covering youth violence

The Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma presents:
Getting it Right: Reporting on Youth Violence

Tuesday, January 29, 2008
5:30 - 7:00PM

Graduate School of Journalism
Columbia University
World Pulitzer Room
116th Street and Broadway
New York, New York

Even as crime hits record lows in New York, among teenagers around the nation gun homicides, gang violence and police shootings of young people are on the rise. Yet while shootings in suburban schools, churches and malls generate media controversy, epidemic levels of teen homicide in cities like Los Angeles, Philadelphia, and New Orleans attract scant attention.

Covering violence by and against young people in cities around the country poses particular challenges to journalists. What stories are being told, and not told? How can the roots of this national crisis be explained? How can the voices of teenagers, neighborhoods and communities be represented more effectively? How can journalists get the story right?

Panelists:
David Meeks, City Editor, Times-Picayune, New Orleans, LA
Joseph Rodriguez, Photojournalist, author of East Side Stories and Juvenile,
Brooklyn, NY
Clarivel Ruiz, Director, Youth Programs, DCTV, New York, NY
Susan Snyder, Staff Writer, Philadelphia Inquirer, Philadelphia, PA

Moderator:
Bruce Shapiro, Executive Director, Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma

To RSVP, email Kate Black at kate.black@dartcenter.org

-Mark Grabowski