Photo credit: Masthead photo courtesy of Greg Wagoner Photography via Creative Commons license on Flickr.
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Greetings from the Indiana Professional chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. Our organization works to promote and protect First Amendment freedoms and encourages training for current and future journalists by offering professional development opportunities and college journalism scholarships. We also recognize the accomplishments of the state’s top journalists through the annual Best of Indiana Journalism Awards. Our chapter is proud to represent journalists in Indiana, birthplace and modern-day home of the national Society of Professional Journalists.
Get all our latest news below and use the menus to link to information about scholarships, contests and our events. Thanks for visiting.
Announcing the 31st Annual Best in Indiana Journalism Awards, recognizing outstanding performance in journalism in 2009, sponsored by the Indiana Professional Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists.
Finally, you, your colleagues, and your organization can gain the recognition you deserve in the state’s only “open” Indiana journalism contest. Entrants do not need to be members of SPJ, and entries can be submitted by news organizations or individuals.
The contest showcases the best in Indiana journalism, funds SPJ scholarship programs, and allows your name to be heralded at the awards banquet. This year, the banquet will take place Friday, April 23 at the Indianapolis Marriott North, 3645 River Crossing Parkway. Enter your journalism triumphs, and mark your calendars now!
ALL ENTRIES MUST BE RECEIVED BY 5 P.M. FEBRUARY 1, 2010.
IMPORTANT DOWNLOADS
Categories brochure: Professional
Categories brochure: Student
Call for entries / professional and student contest form
Special honors nomination form
Contest entries will be accepted by mail or online at www.spjcontest.com after December 31, 2009. See the brochure for important details.
For questions, please email contest coordinator Rob Higley or call him at 317-578-1440.
The Indiana Professional chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists will post the 2009 Best in Indiana Journalism Awards categories in the coming days. This year the contest will accept online submissions in most print, radio and Web categories.
Some other highlights:
· Nominations are accepted from news organizations or individuals.
· Nominees need not be members of the Society of Professional
Journalists.
· All entries must have been published or broadcast during calendar
year 2009. A series of stories must have started publication or broadcast in 2009.
· Award submissions must be received by 5 p.m. Friday, February 1.
· For questions, contact Rob Higley, contest coordinator, at (317)
578-1440 or rhigley@revealconsulting.com.
Three members of the chapter’s Board of Directors have met with the new state public access counselor, telling him of SPJ’s longtime advocacy for open government.
Access Counselor Andrew Kossack said during the meeting that he wanted to be active in informing the public and government officials about the state’s Access to Public Records and Open Door laws. He mentioned doing so through education sessions and use of the office’s Web site.
Kossack comes to the access counselor position after working in labor and employment law at the Indianapolis firm of Barnes & Thornburg for two years. He says during that time he was “on the business end” of some government records request denials.
SPJ Project Sunshine state chairman Gerry Lanosga told Kossack of SPJ’s support for creation of the access counselor’s office in 1998 after a group of Indiana newspapers detailed the failure of many local government officials to follow the public records law. Chapter President Amy Wimmer Schwarb and Chapter Secretary Tom Davies also attended the meeting.
Dear SPJ members,
SPJ leaders are outraged that the Obama administration has reversed course and is now proposing changes that essentially render useless S. 448, more commonly known as the Free Flow of Information Act. If implemented, the administration’s changes would weaken the proposed shield law and offer little to no protection to reporters who refuse to disclose confidential sources.
Click here for the SPJ news release.
Most frustrating to SPJ is that the administration’s latest stance is an about face to the support the administration gave early in the process. The revisions are in direct opposition to the promises President Obama made regarding a federal shield law during his campaign and his previous actions as a senator.
It is up to us now to hold President Obama to his promise and to encourage the administration to reconsider its position and focus on the importance of a federal shield law and how vital it is to the existence of a free press and an informed citizenry.
Voice your support!
One way we encourage you - and all journalists - to support S. 448 is by writing editorials or asking your news outlet to write editorials about the federal shield law. Let’s use our tools to help the Obama administration get back on track.
Another more direct option is to contact the White House directly. Use this online contact form to express your disappointment for the revisions the administration made to the federal shield law bill. SPJ provides the following letter, which you can copy and paste into the White House’s online contact form, as an option for your correspondence to President Obama. We also encourage you to write your own letter to show the varying opinions from our members:
Continue reading SPJ Legislative Alert: Shield law in danger
 We express condolences at the death of longtime Ball State University journalism professor Earl Conn. He died Sept. 20 in Muncie at the age of 82.
Dr. Conn worked at various publications and was a high school teacher before permanently joining the Ball State faculty in 1964. He became journalism department chairman in 1984 and was founding dean of the university’s College of Communication, Information and Media in 1996. He retired from Ball State in 1998, a year after he was inducted into the Indiana Journalism Hall of Fame. Conn wrote six books, most recently “My Indiana: 101 More Places To See.”
Indianapolis Star executive editor Juli Metzger told The Star Press of Muncie: “He was not just a champion for journalism but also a wonderful historian, photographer, travel writer and just decent man.”
For more, see Ball State’s announcement on Dr. Conn’s death.
Know someone who you think should be in the Indiana Journalism Hall of Fame? Well, you’ve got until Oct. 1 to make sure they’ve been nominated for the Hall’s class of 2010.
The Hall’s selection committee and board of directors will be making their picks for the new inductees later this fall. Those selected will be inducted during a ceremony next spring at Indiana University in Bloomington, where the Hall of Fame is moving after a long association with DePauw University in Greencastle.
To see the nomination guidelines and a list of all previous inductees, go to the Hall’s web site.
The Indiana Pro Chapter established the Hall of Fame in 1966 and continues SPJ’s involvement. The chapter’s representatives to the Hall of Fame board are Julie Slaymaker and Tom Davies, and chapter member Nelson Price is the Hall’s current vice president.
Nomination letters and any supporting material should be mailed to:
Indiana Journalism Hall of Fame Association, Larry P. Taylor, Executive Secretary, P.O. Box 785, Bloomington, IN 47402.
If you’ve got more questions, e-mail Larry at injournalismhof [at] gmail.com.
The recent SPJ national convention included a presentation by former chapter President Kevin Finch on the start up of the Indiana Debate Commission and how other chapters around the country might take on similar projects.
The chapter provided some of the early seed money for the Debate Commission and remains one of its affiliate organizations. Kevin discussed the success and obstacles the commission had in organizing the three debates around the state for last year’s gubernatorial campaign.
Kevin was president of the Debate Commission last year, and he and other organizers _ such as chapter members Kyle Niederpruem and Gerry Lanosga _ deserve a great deal of credit for being able to put the debates on in the face of many competing interests among the politicians and the media.
The commission is considering possible debates in next year’s race for the U.S. Senate seat now held by Evan Bayh.
You can find out more about the Debate Commission at its Web site: www.indianadebatecommission.com.
You’ve probably heard that the Misprintz won the Battle of the Media Bands — again — and now we’ve got some photos to show it to you.
Check out these winners…
And the crowd…
The other bands… Continue reading See the 2009 BoMB in pictures…
The Indiana Professional chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists is pleased to report a donation from journalist Christopher Lloyd, formerly a feature writer and film critic at The Indianapolis Star. Lloyd announced the donation in a video posted Wednesday on his blog, Captain Critic.
Lloyd’s donation of $1,839.27 — the total, after taxes, of a settlement payment from Gannett Corporation — was made to the Sigma Delta Chi Foundation, the national education foundation of the Society of Professional Journalists. His donation stipulated that the foundation should use the funds to support educational programs administered by the Indy Pro chapter of SPJ.
Lloyd was among 14 employees laid off at the Star in December, seven of whom were included in a grievance filed by the News Guild that alleged that Gannett violated the seniority clause in the contract. Guild membership voted 56-45 in late August to accept a two-year contract that included dropping arbitration proceedings. Those seven, including Lloyd, were issued settlement checks by Gannett. Lloyd had lobbied against the contract, and determined he did not want to accept the settlement money from Gannett.
“Hopefully this money will go to some budding journalist — who knows, maybe one who will someday contribute to The Indianapolis Star,” Lloyd said. “Maybe, in that way, some small good will have come out of this whole long process.”
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