J-WEEK SCHEDULE (as of April 7, 2008)

JOURNALISM WEEK 2008:
NEW FRONTIERS ON THE LAST FRONTIER

J-WEEK DATES:
-Thursday, April 17th.  6:30 pm Opening Reception.  Refreshments and panel discussion on the state of Alaska journalism. 
-Friday, April 18th.  Workshops. Daytime and Evening.
-Saturday, April 19th.  Workshops and Awards Banquet. 
-Sunday, April 20th.  Morning workshop at KTUU-TV with Boyd Huppert.

WORKSHOP FEES.
J-Week is FREE to Alaska Press Club members. Annual membership is $25 for working journalists, $10 for students. Daily Rate: $25 a day for non-members.  $5 for students enrolled in high school or college.  No charge for Anchorage Senior Citizen Center members.

J-WEEK LOCATION:
Anchorage Senior Center.  Most of the events (except where noted) will be held at the Senior Center on 1300 East 19th Avenue, where there’s plenty of parking and wireless Internet.

LODGING.
Qupqugiaq Inn.  Pronounced: coop-coo-gee-ack. Translation:  10-legged polar bear. Reasonable rates at this newly remodeled inn.  A limited number of rooms have been reserved for the Alaska Press Club.  640 West 36th Avenue.  Call Kathy Miller, Monday-Friday @ (907) 563-5633.  Or e-mail Kathy:  .  See website: http://www.qupq.com ((Note: only a few rooms left))

BANQUET
Doors open at the Senior Center at 6:45pm.  Keynote speaker:  national columnist Leonard Pitts Jr.  Menu:  Choice of Halibut Olympia or vegetarian entrée, Stuffed Egg Plant. Spring Mix Salad, Anti Pasto, Sautéed Vegetables, Roasted Red Potatoes, Rice Pilaf and Bananas Foster.  Tickets purchased in advance by members:  $25.00.  Tickets at the door and for non-members: $30.00.  To reserve tickets, e-mail:  .

J-WEEK SCHEDULE

THURSDAY NIGHT, April 17th.

6:30-9:00pm
OPENING RECEPTION. No host bar. Panel Discussion. The Changing Landscape of Alaska Journalism begins at 7:00pm. It’s ironic that the polar bear is the symbol of the Alaska Press Club. Like the polar bear, reporters are becoming an endangered species. The ranks of reporters have thinned, especially in rural areas. Newsrooms are smaller. Journalists are expected to do more with less. How will they adapt? With fuel skyrocketing in the Bush, is it even possible for a reporter to survive on the low salaries that have traditionally been paid? Moderated by Larry Campbell, Associated Press.

FRIDAY MORNING, April 18th
8:00-9:00am. Registration.
9:00-10:15am
PANEL DISCUSSION. The Graying of Alaska. Alaska used to be a state for the young and the adventurous, where people left when they retired. But that picture has changed dramatically. Are news organizations up to speed on the issues facing today’s seniors? Panelists: Lisa Demer, Anchorage Daily News; David Washburn, Senior Voice; Yup’ik Story Teller John Active; AARP’s Ann Secrest; Senior activists Everett Jay Flynn and Rita Hatch. Moderated by Michael Carey, host of Anchorage Edition.
EDITORIAL VOICE. Building Civic Capital. The heart and soul of a newspaper is its editorial voice—a voice that’s not afraid to speak truth to power, comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable. But the opinion page can also be a voice that promotes good causes, exercises and encourages civic leadership, and helps define the public agenda. Al Cross, director of the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, shows you how to strengthen your town and your newspaper’s relationship with it.
PHOTOJOURNALISM. Multi-media on a Shoestring. Tips from Janet Jensen, NPPA Region 11 Still Photographer of the Year, on how to shoot images, gather audio and combine them using inexpensive software to produce audio slide shows for the web.

10:30-11:45am
REPORTING. Courting Sources. AP’s National Political editor, Ron Fournier, likens developing new sources to going out on a date. Some ideas on how to build a beat in today’s competitive media environment.
STORY TELLING. Finding a Voice. National columnist Leonard Pitts Jr. has pointers on how to find your voice as a writer by studying the voices and techniques of others.
ISSUES: Native Corporations and the Alaskan Economy. From politics to the Native corporation board room—to the newsroom and the university, Edgar Blatchford has watched Native corporations transform the state’s economy. In this session, the inside scoop on how to cover a story that’s largely gone untold.
FRIDAY AFTERNOON, APRIL 18th
12:00-2:00pm. LUNCH. Tales from the Campaign Trail. Get a broad sweep of the presidential horse race from AP’s national political online editor Ron Fournier, who writes a weekly column on the state of the race. Ron’s presentation will be followed by a meeting held by Associated Press, to seek input from Alaska journalists about its services. Also meet AP’s new Alaska Bureau Chief, Jodie DeJonge. Order lunch from the Senior Center’s Arctic Rose Restaurant. Good food, reasonable prices—one of the best kept secrets in town.

2:15-3:30pm
PANEL DISCUSSION. Global Warming. Call it what you will, global warming or climate change. It is clearly having a profound impact on Alaska—more so than in any other state. As coastal villages crash into the sea, polar bear habitat and glaciers shrink, how can Alaska’s journalists best cover Alaska’s ringside seat of this worldwide environmental crisis. Panelists: Deborah Williams, president of Alaska Conservation Solutions; Dan Fagan, columnist, Anchorage KFQD talk-show host; Chris Rose, columnist, executive director of the Renewable Energy Alaska Project; and Matt Cronin, molecular geneticist, wildlife biologist, and research professor at UAF’s research center in Palmer. Moderated by Susan B. Andrews and John Creed, journalism/humanities professors at the University of Alaska’s Kotzebue branch in Northwest Arctic Alaska.

STORY TELLING. Creative Approaches to Everyday News. How to make your basic nuts-and-bolts stories more interesting. We’ll focus on impacts, getting real people into a story, easy use of sound, stand-ups and finding different voices. The focus is on radio, but the information is relevant to any news operation. With Ed Schoenfeld, Regional News Director of CoastAlaska Public Radio, and Jessica Cochran, “AK” Producer from the Alaska Public Radio Network.
BUILDING COMMUNITY. Relationship Journalism. Rural and community journalism boils down to relationships—an asset when it comes to gathering information, a liability when the information isn’t handled with sensitivity. Al Cross, director of the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, will show you how to build closer, continuing relationships with your sources, your subjects and your audience—while fulfilling the institutional role of accountability journalism envisioned by the First Amendment.
NEW FRONTIERS. Media Eggs: What Will Hatch Next? Blogger extraordinaire and media maven Aliza Sherman Rishdahl will take a look at the latest trends including social networks beyond Facebook and MySpace, microblogs such as Twitter and Tumblr, and 3-D virtual worlds like Second Life.

3:45-5:30pm
NEW FRONTIERS. Mining the Web. Going WAY beyond Google. How to mine the hidden web for the gold that will enrich your journalism. Al Tompkins shows you a lot of “cool stuff.”
3:45- 4:45pm
CAREER: Following your Passion. Balancing work and family is never easy for a reporter. But at some point in your career, you may come to a crossroads that will require some tough decisions. Career Coach Lynne Adrine talks about preparing for those critical turning points and how to incorporate ethical decision making into the process.
NEWS COVERAGE: Extreme Reporting. Practical advice on working in hostile environments. From deserts to snow-covered mountains to war zones, Julius Strauss knows all about “going to extremes.”

FRIDAY EVENING, April 18th.
5:00-5:30pm
THE INDUSTRY. The Future of American Journalism and the Extinction of Dinosaurs. From Wall Street to Main Street, market forces are forcing radical changes in journalism. Pulitzer Prize winner Joel Shurkin asks the question: Can a publicly owned corporation run a great newspaper?
5:30-6:00pm.

THE INDUSTRY. The Rise of Independent Media. Thanks in large part to the Internet, independent media are booming. Journalist and media critic Jeff Cohen looks at why it’s a good thing.
6:00-7:00pm.
RECEPTION. Pizza and politics, a combination that can’t be beat.
7:00-8:30pm
PANEL DISCUSSION. Race, Sex & Politics. After this election year, politics will never be the same again. Not when it comes to race and gender. A panel of veteran political reporters and diversity experts give their take on what could be the defining presidential campaign of the century. Panelists: Lynne Adrine, former ABC News Producer; Al Cross, head of the Institute for Rural Journalism and Communities Issues; Ron Fournier, Associated Press Political Online Editor, Leonard Pitts, Jr., Pulitzer Prize winning columnist, Larry Campbell, Associated Press and Bill McAllister, KTUU political reporter. Moderated by Steve Lindbeck, manager of APRN, KSKA Radio and KAKM-TV.

SATURDAY MORNING, April 19th.
8:00-9:00. APRN Member Meeting.
8:45- 10:30am
NEW FRONTIERS. How to Tell Multi-Media Online Stories… without breaking the bank, killing your people, or ruining journalism. Al Tompkins has10 Laws for Online Multimedia Storytelling: What Works and Why.
9:00-10:15am
STORY TELLING. Brilliant Writers: How do they do it? And why didn’t I do that? Pulitzer Prize Winning writer Joel Shurkin will talk about the path to better writing, which starts with knowing the difference between typing and writing.
PHOTOJOURNALISM. Video Basics. If you’re a radio or print reporter whose job now includes shooting video on the WEB, this is the workshop for you. Some pointers from award winning photographer Scott Jensen about you can use video to tell stories and to capture “moments.”
POLITICS. Why Do They Lie? But more important: how do you catch them? Some advice from AP’s national political online editor Ron Fournier on how to hold politicians accountable and write with more authority.

10:30-11:45am
STORY TELLING: The Write Stuff. If you write for video, this session will be loaded with tips to strengthen your scripts. Fill your toolbox with a dozen techniques that will help you craft the perfect line. Learn the secret of writing to video, not over it. 2007 national Emmy winner Boyd Huppert demonstrates the magic that can happen when the right words are married to the right pictures. In this time of media convergence, the perfect session for radio and print reporters transitioning to visual storytelling—or those who may soon be.
PHOTOJOURNALISM. Capturing Culture in Your Own Backyard. Due to language barriers and cultural differences, immigrant communities are often misunderstood or simply unnoticed by the mainstream media. Janet Jensen, NPPA Region 11 Photographer of the Year, will help you develop sources and showcase the diversity in your community.

NEW MEDIA: WEB Extras for Small Media Operations. How to liven up your website with limited staff time and energy. We’ll focus on easy extras, such as links, photos, short videos, interview clips, and connections to previous reports, blogs and other media. We’ll also talk about how to help overworked staff take part in web efforts. The focus is on radio, but the information is relevant to any news web operation. With Ed Schoenfeld, Regional News Director of CoastAlaska Public Radio, and John Proffitt, Director of IT Services, Alaska Public Media.

SATURDAY AFTERNOON, April 19th.
12:00-2:20 pm
LUNCH & PANEL DISCUSSION. Talking Back to Talk Radio. Media Critic Jeff Cohen, KFQD’s Dan Fagan, KENI’s Rick Rydell and other radio talk show hosts tackle the role of talk radio in a democracy. This session will be followed by an Alaska Press Club Annual Meeting to elect new officers. ($8.00. Sandwich. Soup or Salad.)
2:30-3:45pm
PHOTOJOURNALISM. Light Play. Improve your lighting with this fast and furious workshop by photographer, Clark James Mishler. Bring your lighting gear and see how you can, with a few alterations, make your subjects leap off the screen! You are guaranteed to learn something new and useful. For still photographers and videographers alike.
PANEL DISCUSSION. Brave New Media. The Ethics of Blogging. From blogs to user-generated content…the ethical land mines of online journalism. Hear from local reporters as well as some of our other J-Week presenters: Lynne Adrine, Jeff Cohen, Ron Fournier, Aliza Sherman Risdahl . Moderated by UAF’s Lynne Snifka. .
STORY TELLING: Writing with all Five Senses. To veteran Alaska journalist Larry Campbell, having a nose for news literally means using your nose, as well as the rest of your senses, to bring your writing to life. Learn how to tap into this font of inspiration for powerful, memorable stories.

4:00 -5:15pm
BUILDING COMMUNITY. Rural Journalism: A Calling. Rural Journalism is recognized as a specialty in New Zealand and Australia. But in America, it’s seen mostly as a training ground and often as a backwater. Yet small communities everywhere often face bigger civic challenges than their metropolitan cousins. They require reporters who know and care about the communities they serve, who grasp the impact of broader issues. Al Cross, director and one of the founders of the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, tells the story of the Institute and invites you to network with other rural reporters across the country.
THE INDUSTRY. Misadventures in Corporate Media. A light-hearted but hard-hitting look at national TV news today. In this session, journalist and media critic Jeff Cohen offers both humor and inspiration, but most important of all, affirms the importance of independent journalism in our democracy.
CAREER. Newsroom Politics: Choosing Your Battles. As journalists, we fight many battles to get the story. Slippery sources and slippery Slopes. Byzantine bureaucracies. But sometimes the biggest battles are fought in the newsroom. Career Coach Lynne Adrine talks about how to develop some winning strategies that will help you keep your job, your sanity – and most important of all, your integrity.
4:00-5:45pm
STORY TELLING. Compelling Stories on a Daily Deadline. “If I only had more time!” Who hasn’t expressed that frustration while shooting or writing a story under deadline? This session will explore techniques that will help you work not only more efficiently, but in a way that will produce the kinds of focused stories viewers will remember long after the newscast ends. 2007 national Emmy winner Boyd Huppert includes an exercise in this session that might just change the way you think about telling stories.

SATURDAY EVENING, April 19th.
7:00-10:00pm. BANQUET AND AWARDS. Doors open at the Senior Center at 6:45pm. Keynote speaker: national columnist Leonard Pitts, Jr. Presentation of 2nd Annual First Amendment Award to Anchorage Daily News Cartoonist Peter Dunlap-Shohl. Music by “60/40”
SUNDAY MORNING. April 20th.
9:00-11:00am.
Note: Held at KTUU-TV, Channel 2.
STORY TELLING: A Team Sport. Good things happen when reporters and photographers learn to “dance” together. KARE-TV’s Boyd Huppert will share what he’s learned working with some of country’s best photographers, including four NPPA National Photographers of the Year. Whether you report, shoot or edit, this session is designed to make you a better teammate.

ALSO PART OF J-WEEK:
EXHIBIT: A Cold Eye. 25 years of editorial cartoons from Anchorage Daily News cartoonist Peter Dunlap-Shohl. Over the decades, he’s played a role similar to that little boy in the Hans Christian Andersen story, who points out that the emperor has no clothes. Despite some of the insane politics in Alaska, Dunlap-Shohl’s cartoons help preserve our sanity. Anchorage Senior Center.
EXHIBIT. Breaking News. How the Associated Press has covered war, peace and everything else. A companion exhibit for the first book about AP since 1940. Takes readers into bureaus and out to the field to experience firsthand AP’s groundbreaking reporting on war, politics, crime, disasters and sports. Anchorage Senior Center.
EXHIBIT: Quest for Beauty. Photographs from the seven part series Bob Hallinen did for the Anchorage Daily News. Photos include: Miss Alaska, body building, tattoo and piercing, charm school, drag queens and others looking at beauty and what people do to be beautiful. MTS Gallery at 3142 Mt. View Drive. Opening: 6-9pm on Friday, April 18.

BOOK SALE. The Farthest North Chapter of the Society for Professional Journalists will host a book sale during the conference. Come check out a wide selection of books from Marion Street Press, a company that specializes in books for writers and journalists. You’ll find practical writing guides and reference books perfect for gifts, to keep or to update your newsroom’s reference collection. Your purchases will help support the Farthest North Chapter. While you’re there, talk to chapter board members, learn more about SPJ and tell us how the chapter can best serve journalists in Alaska.
SOME OF THE PRESENTERS:
LYNNE ADRINE. Former ABC News producer, now a college professor, life coach and motivational speaker.

EDGAR BLATCHFORD. Founder of Alaska Newspapers and associate professor at the University of Alaska Anchorage. Served on the cabinets of two governors. Former chairman of Chugach Alaska Corporation and mayor of Seward.

LARRY CAMPBELL. Home grown journalist and Assistant Bureau Chief for Alaska, Washington, Oregon and Idaho for the Associated Press, Campbell teaches a popular writing workshop, “Writing for all the Five Senses.”

AL CROSS. Likes to call himself the “extension agent for rural journalists.” Cross became director of Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, after 26 years as a reporter for the Louisville Courier-Journal. He’s a former SPJ national president.

JEFF COHEN. Associate professor of journalism at Ithaca College. Cohen is a journalist and media critic who founded the national media watch group FAIR in 1986. His new book is “Cable News Confidential: My Misadventures in Corporate Media.”

JANET JENSEN. Photojournalist for the Tacoma News Tribune. NPPA Region 11 “Still Photographer for the Year.” A primary focus of her work at the Tribune is covering Tacoma’s ethnically diverse communities.

SCOTT JENSEN. (No relation to Janet.) Currently KTUU-TV’s director of photography. His most recent accomplishment: winner of the 2008 Ernie Crisp Television News Photographer of the Year, NPPA’s highest award for television photojournalism.

RON FOURNIER. National online political editor for the Associated Press. Hear his take on the presidential race and the latest political trends.

BOYD HUPPERT. General assignment reporter at KARE-TV in Minneapolis with a national reputation as a storyteller and teacher. A longtime faculty member at the NPPA’s Advanced Team Storytelling Workshop, held each year in Lexington, Kentucky.

JULIUS STRAUSS. A British print journalist who spent several years working as a foreign correspondent in Bosnia, Kosovo, Afghanistan, Iraq and other war zones. In 2007, he was appointed to the Atwood Chair in the University of Alaska Anchorage Journalism Department.

CLARK MISHLER. One of the most sought-after photographers in Alaska. Author of “Anchorage: Life at the Edge of the Frontier.” Mishler will do a session on lighting, helpful to both still and video photographers.

LEONARD PITTS JR. Columnist for the Miami Herald, described as one of the most emotionally engaging columnists of our time. Offers candid opinions on culture, race, families, relationships and the politics of the human condition. Won the Pulitzer Prize for commentary in 2004. The author of “Becoming Dad: Black Men and the Journey to Fatherhood.”

ED SCHOENFELD. Regional news director for CoastAlaska, a consortium of eight Southeast Alaska Public Radio stations. Ed will lead discussions on creative approaches to every day news and how to liven up your website with a small staff.

ALIZA SHERMAN-RISDAHL. An Alaskan web pioneer named by Newsweek magazine as one of the top 50 people to watch on the Internet.

JOEL SHURKIN. UAF’s current Snedden Chair. Shared the 1979 Pulitzer Prize for the Philadelphia Inquirer’s coverage of Three Mile Island. He is author of nine non-fiction books, most recently the 2007 biography, “Broken Genius: The Rise and Fall of William Shockley, Creator of the Electronic Age.”

AL TOMPKINS. Ethics and New Media guru for the Poynter Institute in Florida. An expert on Internet research and the art of broadcast story telling.

ALSO AT J-WEEK:
CARTOON EXHIBIT: A COLD EYE. 25 years of editorial cartoons from Anchorage Daily News cartoonist Peter Dunlap-Shohl. Over the decades, he’s played a role similar to that little boy in the Hans Christian Andersen story, who points out that the emperor has no clothes. Despite some of the insane politics in Alaska, Dunlap-Shohl’s cartoons help preserve our sanity.
PHOTO EXHIBIT: BREAKING NEWS. How the Associated Press has covered war, peace and everything else. A companion exhibit for the first book about AP since 1940. Takes readers into bureaus and out to the field to experience firsthand AP’s groundbreaking reporting on war, politics, crime, disasters and sports.
BOOK SALE. The Farthest North Chapter of the Society for Professional Journalists will host a book sale during the conference. Come check out a wide selection of books from Marion Street Press, a company that specializes in books for writers and journalists. You’ll find practical writing guides and reference books perfect for gifts, to keep or to update your newsroom’s reference collection. Your purchases will help support the Farthest North Chapter. While you’re there, talk to chapter board members, learn more about SPJ and tell us how the chapter can best serve journalists in Alaska.
FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT J-WEEK, e-mail Rhonda McBride at or contact Johanna Eurich at 562-7776.
WOULD YOU LIKE TO HOST A PRESENTER? We’re looking for members to pick up our visiting VIP’s at the airport and take them out to lunch or dinner. Contact Rhonda McBride at .

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Latest Conference News

April 08 2008
J-Week ‘08 Program Available to Download

The program for the 2008 J-Week events is now available as a downloadable Adobe Acrobat PDF.
Download it now: jweekprogram08.pdf.

March 30 2008
Watch this space

We will continue to post updates about the 2008 conference at alaskapressclub.org. Thank you for your continued support!