Don’t Sell Those Textbooks--- Build a Library!

RICHMOND, Va.-- It’s Christmas Day 2007!

Aside from all the traditions of opening gifts and welcoming family for Christmas dinner, here at home (REAL HOME—as in Richmond, Virginia) there’s also a chance to reminisce about our days of the past.

As we decorated the Christmas tree last night, we found some lights that my brother and I believe were the same ones that we used some 30 years ago. Some of bulbs were missing and we determined those needed to be discarded.

Christmas traditions are but one topic on which to think about the way things used to be.

For me, the bookshelf in my bedroom is always a chance to reflect and remember.

Every time I come back here (at least twice or even three times a year), I’ll pull a book from the shelf and re-read something that might have been written 10 or 20 years years ago. There are a couple of titles that were handed down by my parents—they’re 40 or 50 years old.

At least half of the titles that are on the shelf are old textbooks from high school and college. I spent so much money on textbooks each semester at Howard that I could not imagine letting go of them as so many students do today. In fact, many of my books are key references for me now as a college professor.

It’s 15 years since I received my B.A. in news-editorial journalism, longer since I’ve used many of these books.

But, the FOUR math books—Algebra, Geometry, Algebra II and College Algebra/Trigonometry—those were all from my high school years. Actually, my high school decided to get rid of some textbooks near the end of my time and I was able to grab copies of my math books.

I never thought math was my strong topic, but I enjoyed the challenge of solving the equations and working the problems. I went on to take an extra semester of “Functions,” a college course at Howard. I often think what would have happened if I had advanced in this area?

After that advanced placement (AP) class in Calculus, I knew I could handle any math someone threw at me. Well, I’m a “WORD” person now—a journalist who happens to be teaching journalism.

But, my old textbooks (because I refused to SELL them) provide interesting pathways to the past and might even help me help ANOTHER generation of students tackling math.

Well, I’ll end this post on the math note. We’ll tackle another subject when I come back here in March on spring break. It will be my 38th birthday—so that will give me another reason to reminisce.

Mixed News from Washington on media ownership and FOI

The good news comes from Capitol Hill as the House voted for amended Open Government Act today.

While not unexpected, the bad news comes from SW Washington where the Federal Communications Commission has voted to revise the newspaper-broadcast cross-ownership rule allowing newspapers in the nation’s 20 largest markets to own one radio or TV station.

Unless the change is pre-empted by a vote on Capitol Hill, most observers say this opens the door to more consolidation. We’ll have to see about that.

For now, we can celebrate what members of Congress have done in the interest of free and open government--

“Passage of the FOIA bill will allow not only members of the press but all Americans to hold their government more accountable,” Society of Professional Journalists President Clint Brewer said in a press release this afternoon. “In a time when First Amendment rights are under attack almost daily in this country, this bill is a major step to ensuring America has a free press and a government that is transparent and open.”

Today’s vote comes days after the U.S. Senate passed Openness Promotes Effectiveness in our National (OPEN) Government Act (S. 849) last week. The legislation improves the process by which the federal government carries out the Freedom of Information Act.

It creates an independent ombudsman to resolve citizen disputes, helps agencies strengthen FOIA, creates a tracking system for the public to easily track the status of requests and allows requesters to more effectively recover legal costs incurred when agencies improperly deny requests.

As the newspaper-broadcast cross-ownership, there are some members of Congress who disagree with the Commission. Last time the FCC tried to change media ownership rules, the U.S. Court of Appeals overturned the proposed changes. That was 2003. Today we have a very different political environment and that may make all the difference.

Nonetheless for those of us who follow convergence activity in the media, this new development from the FCC gives us a new topic for discussion and exchange.

Semester ends, Fifth anniversary approaches

Well, it's been a memorable fall semester for those of us in the Department of Journalism at the University of Alabama-- memorable in that we have moved forward under the direction of a new department chair.

The television world is quite different from academe in that change happens so much faster. In five years, one is likely to have at least two managers as people move about from station to station.

Here at Alabama, we've had an acting/interim department chair or coordinator for three full academic years (2004-2005, 2005-2006, 2006-2007). Finally this past summer, Dr. Jennifer Greer joined us from the University of Nevada-Reno. Since coming on board, we've successfully revised our undergraduate curriculum and begun searches to fill one current and one anticipated faculty opening.

We even have new faculty Web pages on the University of Alabama Web site. I love my new photo.

It's worthwhile reflecting on what might otherwise appear to be internal business.. But it's not really internal if it involves one of the best journalism programs in the Southeast. Good news travels fast. So, I'm just helping it travel faster.

I've learned how important leadership is to the success of even an academic department. We had a leader for several years who retired and without an immediate replacement, we didn't move forward, per se.

Nonetheless, the fall semester ended December 7 with a wonderful holiday luncheon at which time we recognized the outstanding students who assisted us in the department this semester.

You can see more photos on my Flickr site.

With the end of each fall semester, I'm reminded of my move to Alabama, which occurred just after the Fall Semester 2002 ended for me at the University of Georgia.

I've now officially been in Tuscaloosa five years-- as long as I was in Athens-- the only other place outside of my hometown of Richmond, Va. where I've lived that long.

In 2008, that tenure in Athens falls to 3rd place in locations George Daniels has lived the longest--and Tuscaloosa moves up to 2nd. I suppose it IS the stability that I was seeking as I transitioned from the world of television news to the world of higher education.

Did Rehema Ellis cross the line?

This week NBC Nightly News has been running a series of special reports on the status of African-American women.

Last night (Wednesday), the story focused on the number of single mothers in the African-American community.

Near the end of the report, NBC News correspondent Rehema Ellis, an African-American woman herself revealed that she herself is a divorced single mother with a young child.

In the tag (the live portion of a news report that followed the pre-recorded portion), she articulates her struggle with doing the series as a black woman.

I thought this was a bit odd for a reporter to step out of her role as a reporter and begin to reveal her own experience. I wondered if, in fact, she crossed the ethical line of reporting in an objective fashion.

It just so happens that we're doing an journalism ethics unit in BOTH of my classes this week. So, for my overwhelmingly female senior-level course for journalism teachers, I played the report.

The mostly female audience thought Rehema added a degree of authenticity to her report by first being a black woman and secondly providing that as a part of her story.

It brings to mind the whole issue of whether a person of color brings more authenticity to a story that focuses primarily on the experience of those from an under-represented racial group. Would an objective white male be able to see more CLEARLY what these women were saying -- by asking the TOUGH questions instead of commiserating with the other black women who have had trouble finding a mate.

As a single black male,I, personally, was troubled by some of the comments of the women in the piece. So, perhaps I am not in a position to OBJECTIVELY evaluate whether Rehema's link to this particular topic cROSSED The ethical line.

As I told my students today, by disclosing her own experience to viewers, Rehema, in fact, did let viewers know exactly where she stood in doing this report. That disclosure is important part of what we consider to be ethical way of doing journalism.

Video edited on a PC- not bad

Checking out this new video camera, I feel like Mike Wendland, "the tech guy" formerly of Detroit's WDIV-Channel 4. (The self-proclaimed tech guy now is the convergence editor and technology columnist at The Detroit Free Press.)

Honestly I don't think of the Windows machine as the best place for video editing or multimedia production. I know thousands use the Adobe Premiere and other applications on the Windows machines to do video production. But, I've been partial to the Macintosh when it comes to video.




With this second test of the Flip Video camera on the PC side-- using Windows MovieMaker, I'm convinced it's a workable alternative.

Yes, the audio is very scratchy. That REALLY bothers me. But, one cannot expect much from a very low-end piece of equipment. The idea is to have moving video to EXPAND what one can do just with text.

Today most of our students come to us relatively familiar with the PC or Windows machines. Macintosh computers are NEW for them. Most of them will work on a Windows machine at home (as I do). But, what I wanted to show is a workable way to capture and work in multimedia on the Windows side, if you happen to be in that situation.

Make no mistake: I still think Mac's iLife package (with iMovie) and other applications built for the Macintosh like Final Cut Pro Express and Final Cut Pro are superior.

But, with MovieMaker and an inexpensive camera like the Flip video camera, quick video capture and editing is do-able. Additionally, with the audio editing program Audacity, the audio editing program, one can also do audio editing relatively easily.

$119 Camcorder In Service

As I get ready for my Reporting and Writing Across Media class in the Spring, I've been checking out the latest digital media capture tools. Every time I teach this course, the tools are more and more accessible.

The number of students with digital cameras is its highest ever. In fact, I think it's fair to assume most students know how to get digital images-- either by taking them with a digital camera or having film processed to CD.

At the beginning of this year, Former Tuscaloosa News Online Director Dwayne Fatheree predicted video would be the NEXT BIG THING.



With this $119 video camera, I can see what he means. Today, I unpacked the video camera, gave it try on the deck behind my house.

I just realized today that BLOGGER allows us to upload videos directly to our blog.
So we're trying that feature in this particular posting.

WTVR, WWBT to Switch Owners

Big news that I just read last night-- my old TV station-- my HOME STATION WTVR-TV in Richmond is being sold.

This picture was taken in the 1980s when I was an intern (Summer 1989). But, you can see the old WTVR newsroom-- Martha Quinsenberry (spelling?) producing a newscast behind me. I was just finishing my freshman year at Howard University when I got this internship.

As reported in the Richmond Times-Dispatch earlier this month, Montgomery, Ala.-based Raycom Media is purchasing my former competitor, WWBT-TV, which is being sold by Lincoln Financial Corp.

This shot taken in the 21st century shows the Channel 6 set today-- as part of the Raycom Media family.



This might not mean a lot to most people-- even those from Richmond, Va. or IN Richmond, Va. Fifteen years ago (when I was employed at WTVR, the CBS affiliate) if you had told me that we would be up for sale and our arch competitor was going to be bought by our parent company, I would not have believed it.

But, it's a different day and different time. In 1992, there was a passion at the South's First Television Station that perhaps is not there now. In those days, Elliott Wiser was the news director and as tough of a boss as he was, we REALLY competed with our friends/rivals at Channel 12.




Nowadays, when I go home and watch Channel 6, I don't see that same passion. Perhaps I'm wrong. Perhaps I've gotten the "big head" after working in larger markets in Cincinnati (WLWT from 1993 to 1995) and Atlanta (WXIA from 1995 to 2000).

Nonetheless, I was pleasantly surprised to read on the Alabama Broadcasters Association weekly e-mail about Raycom Media's decision to purchase WWBT-TV from Lincoln Financial, the latest owner of what were Jefferson-Pilot TV stations, WBT-TV (Charlotte) and WWBT-TV in Richmond.

Hey, it makes sense-- WWBT is s dominant number-one station... in part because of its stable talent. After I left the Richmond market (and sometimes when I was there), my own parents became faithful WWBT-12 News viewers. So, if you own folks don't watch your station, it's no wonder that it becomes a less valuable property.

What will be interesting to watch is WHO will buy WTVR. As the cliche goes, "ONLY TIME WILL TELL."

Al Gore, MySpace top Day 2 panels

COLUMBIA, SC-- "An Inconvenient Truth" is making the headlines today for more than one reason. Early this morning, we learned that Vice President Al Gore is sharing the latest Nobel Peace Prize for his work on the documentary.

But, here at the convergence conference, it was Al Gore's acceptance of an Academy Award that was the focus of at least one presentation on convergence and pop culture.

Two different papers were presented on the hot topic of social networking. MySpace, in particular, was the subject one graduate student's study at University of Central Florida.

And, the big news that I learned just moments ago, there's now a blog for The Convergence Newsletter. Check it out.

It's lunchtime and we still have three afternoon panels to go.

Reflections on Day 1

COLUMBIA, SC-- Well, it's approaching midnight and it's taken me an hour to capture the highlight of today-- the Gannett presentations.

What will I remember most from today-- well it depends on whether you're talking about research or teaching.

The highlight of the day researchwise was my colleagues-- Tim Brown and Tim Bajkiewicz's research on convergence efforts at local stations and specifically at Tampa's News Center.

These guys are playing in an area that directly relates to my scholarship-- and I know they share my interest in what's happening with television newsrooms. Their research is very fresh, current and relevant not only to those in the academic community, but those in the industry.

The "Writing Across the Media" half-day workshop left me with a different impression about my goal in teaching cross-media reporter.


Stressing the importance of being able to take ideas back to our classroom that we can implement NEXT WEEK, Augie Grant's review of the core concepts of this area of instruction was just what I needed.

His list of "basic technical skills" was accompanied by a more nuanced view of what our priorities ought to be in teaching students how to report NOW and more importantly, in the future.

"The Fisher Grid" is a takeaway method for immediately putting my students into the cross-media reporting mindset.

My head is already full-- even if I got back on I-20 and went back to Tuscalooosa right now, the trip would have been well worth my time.

But we still have two more days.

2007 Conference Features Convergence the Gannett Way

COLUMBIA, SC-- It’s all about the consumer—that’s the word from the top man at the Gannett Co, who was the keynote speaker at tonight's dinner for the 2007 Convergence Conference.

My former boss, Craig Dubow, shared the company’s strategic plan which has as its centerpiece a makeover of all of its television station and newspaper newsrooms into information centers.

“Our world is truly platform agnostic at this point,” Dubow said. “This industry has really shifted.”

A former head of Gannett broadcasting and general manager at Atlanta’s WXIA-TV (where I worked more than seven years ago), Dubow took over as chairman of the nation’s largest chain of newspapers and more than 20 television stations and dozens of Websites within the last two years.

“What the information center concept is all about is hyper-local,” Dubow explained.

As Dubow explained, the four components of the plan are digital delivery, innovation, the information center and leadership and diversity.


Along with Dubow, several top managers from his company including the general manager of the Gannett-owned CBS affiliate here in Columbia, WLTX.

Earlier this afternoon, Dubow’s person person on new media, Jennifer Carroll, gave conference attendees a tour of the many local microsites that have launched in markets such as Cincinnati and Indianapolis that augment and facilitate community conversations.

Carroll shared concepts such as “crowdsourcing” and Web sites built around databases that expand the online user’s experience beyond reading news.

Gannett's News-Press in Fort Myers has won an award for its crowdsourcing concept from the CinciNavigator and http://www.indymoms.com/http://www.indymoms.com/http://www.indymoms.com/ has drawn unprecedented Web traffic.

“Let’s keep it about the journalism, but let’s do it with an engaged audience, more clarity and more immediacy than ever before,”Carroll said .

Panel 1: Looking Back at the Past 5 Conferences

COLUMBIA, SC-- As the first panel ends, we’ve been taken back to the last five convergence conferences—with a retrospective that reminds us of the common themes that have come from these gatherings.

Having worked at multiple institutions, Jeff Wilkinson, now working as coordinator of the International Journalism Programme at United International College in China, provided 18 lessons learned from previous conferences. His presentation, “May I have a bandage please,” focused on the bleeding edge of teaching convergence at three institutions.

“When you say students know the technology, be careful, because they may surprise you,” Wilkinson said.

Wilkinson was followed by Tony DeMars, now at the University of Houston, who explained how his own teaching has transitioned from a traditional way of teaching media to a whole new perspective back to a mix of old and new.

“ The six years I’ve been involved have drastically changed my teaching,” DeMars said.

DeMars tied into his presentation research that came from his experience at WGEM-TV and a faculty internship at KHQA-TV in the Quincy, IL market.

Culture of change is the topic that Kolodzy focused on in her presentation.

“The issue is not the nirvana of convergence,” said Janet Kolodzy. Acting chair of journalism at Emerson College in Boston. “It’s the journey not the endpoint that is convergence.”

Kolodzy talked about the risk-averse culture of the academy.

“Our entire point is what we’re trying to do is to peer over the horizon,” said Augie Grant, the coordinator and convenor of each conference, which next year will focus on the participatory Web. “The reason we’re here, the reason we’re doing the research is to understand what is the next step”

Having recounted some of the problems or challenges from the past five conferences, Kolodzy was very optimistic about the next step and the progress made.

“We are beginning to figure out what you need to keep, what you need to throw away and what we need to modify, Kolodzy said.

Convergence Conference Begins!

COLUMBIA, SC--After a morning session on "Writing Across the Media," the sixth convergence conference formally begins this hour at Scuth Carolina ETV.

At the University of South Carolina's Newsplex, we are getting things started with a panel from three people who have attended all five previous conferences.

I'll be posting throughout the next three days from this gathering.

First Amendment Issue or Publicity Stunt?

I can't believe on a night when I have a million things to do-- several deadlines approaching and classes for which to prepare, I've spent nearly an hour looking over the media coverage of Andrew Meyer's treatment at the University of Florida.

Earlier this evening, I watched CNN air and re-air and re-air (as cable networks do) the tape of Meyer being Tasered during a speech by Senator John Kerry yesterday.

The "Day 2" story was the protest at UF by several students outside the UF Police Department and a newser by UF President Bernie Machen.

The Gainesville Sun gets the BEST COVERAGE award for this story. Their multimedia, up-to-the-minute stories online are quite comprehensive.



One of the things provided on the Sun's Web site is a link to a Facebook page set up by the UF Students who staged today's protest.

Now that I'm on FACEBOOK, I was able to log in and read some of the student comments about the whole case.

One of the UF students, who did his own checking around about what happened at the forum wrote on FACEBOOK:

"It should also be noted that the officers were NOT the ones responsible for having Meyer removed. They were the ones to ENFORCE the rule, but the guy in charge of "Accent presents John Kerry" or whatever it was called, specifically requested that the officers escort him out. That incident was the SECOND TIME that the police had to talk to Meyer about calming himself down and being respectful to the others present at the forum."

Nathan Ogden's comments were the first time I've heard anyone say that Meyer had been talked to earlier in the forum.

Now I have no way from Tuscaloosa to independently verify (as a good journalist would) the detailed minute-by-minute accounting of what took place last night.

But, a late evening report (on the Sun's Web site) notes that the police report suggest that Meyer was playing up for the cameras. The officers filing the report suggested that Meyer himself told the police they didn't do anything wrong.

I say all of this to say when you watch that video on YouTube. I (like many of my colleagues) have viewed the LONG version and the short version, which was posted by CNN-- and one version on Jacksonville CBS affiliate WTEV Channel 47's Web site, it would appear that the tasering is uncalled went WAY over the top.

But, it appears to be a stretch to suggest this is an issue of one's First Amendment rights being trampled.

When a person is removed for being disruptive during an event, the disruption is the issue-- NOT the content of the person's speech. Should the police have tasered him at all? Well, that's another issue.

As a journalist, I'm more concerned about the tendency to attach a "First Amendment" label to ANYTHING that happens to involve someone speaking out.

While we are entitled to the Freedom of Speech, once given the time to speak our mind (ask our question), we also have to remember that our rights should not impede the free speech of someone else.

Some students have suggested Meyer was seeking a bit of publicity. Well, he got it.

I haven't looked at his Web site. But, I would imagine it's gotten a lot of hits as well.

And, I'm going to help ADD to those hits, but providing a link to it in this posting.
The Web site apparently has been updated by his friends.

Whether or not there's a First Amendment issue at play, the whole incident (and the media frenzy) is a GREAT case study for my introduction to journalism class. I certainly intend to use it.

Stay tuned for more developments on this.

First ride on CrimsonRide

If you're in Tuscaloosa, Ala, you probably have seen the new white transit buses with the Univ. of Alabama signage on them.

Welcome to CrimsonRide, the biggest change in transportation in decades for Tuscaloosa and the University.

All summer, I've had students in my reporting class doing assignments on the debut of the system, which has been under discussion for more than a year.

Today, the first day for the 2007-2008 parking decals, those of us who work at the University adjusted to new parking arrangements.

For me, it was a bit frustrating not being able to access the Campus Drive Parking Deck from what is a PARTIALLY COMPLETED Hackberry Lane. The much-publicized traffic switch for Hackberry Lane is NOT yet done. So, you have to access the Campus Drive lot from a different street. I'll have to figure that one out tomorrow.

After driving through some construction zones, I ended up parking in front of the AIME building this morning and hoofing it across campus to Graves Hall, where I am in a two-day workshop this week.

This afternoon, I rode the GOLD bus for the first time- back to the Ferguson Center stop-- across from my parking lot. I passed a lot of traffic -- at 4:45pm. I worry that this could be a MAJOR problem-- too many cars still on campus along with 15 transit buses.

I couldn't help but think what it will be like NEXT Thursday, the first Tues/Thurs class day. I'll have a late afternoon class and be leaving campus around 6 p.m.

As the cliche goes, only time will tell.

For now, I'll just say Welcome CrimsonRide!

WNBC's "Live at Five" Dead

What does a guy in Tuscaloosa, Ala. care about a New York City newscast going off the air?

Well, I used to watch "Live at 5" on Channel 4 as a kid whenever I visited New Jersey where my cousin (now in Richmond, Va.) used to live.

Much of my great affection for local television news came from viewing it in what is still the nation's number-one media market-- New York City.

I remember even before going to college at Howard Univ. watching WNBC's Live at Five broadcast with Sue Simmons and Jack Cafferty. That would have been in the 1980s.

Now Jack is on CNN and Sue is still anchoring the program... well until September 10 when a new schedule begins on WNBC-TV.

WNBC's 5 p.m. newscast was the ORIGINAL "Live at Five." This week the management at WNBC announced they're replacing the afternoon newscast with an Entertainment program, EXTRA.

Station management says viewers have longer commutes and they can get the news at that hour lots of other places. There's the Fox News Channel, MSNBC, CNN. Essentially the early afternoon newscast is not where the viewers are.

The television station where I worked the longest, WXIA-TV, Atlanta's NBC station realized this years ago when it nixed 11Alive News at 5 (a newscast I helped produce for a short period) and debuted "Atlanta's Evening News" at 7 p.m.

The end of "Live at Five" is big enough story that it made The New York Times today. The means history will record that an era in local television news has ended.

The piece in the New York Daily News, though, came out a day earlier.

Well, maybe it's not THAT dramatic. But, it's worth jumping on my blog to comment on this change.

The next time I go to New York, I'll only be able to see Sue on the 11pm news with her late night news partner, Chuck Scarborough. Chuck will be anchoring WNBC's new 7 p.m. newscast that will follow NBC Nightly News.

Hey-- the one thing in life that is constant is CHANGE.

From Ideas to Action- Scripps Institute 2007

Six weeks after the Ted Scripps Leadership Institute in Indianapolis on the Indiana University-Purdue University-Indianapolis (IUPUI) campus, our local efforts to step up professional development, keep government open and promote ethical newsgathering are just now hitting.

For most college chapters, the Society of Professional Journalists chapter activity is rather low this time of year.

At the moment, I’m preparing for a planning luncheon for our chapter officers.

Topping that agenda will be the plans/goals that I drafted for the chapter following the Institute, which took place the first week of June. The key word is “drafted.” These strategic goals are only ideas that the officers and the chapter’s other co-adviser need to embrace even before putting the vision before the entire chapter membership for a vote.

Leadership styles and management strategies were among the topics on which we focused during our three days at the Scripps Institute. It was refreshing to see how many other journalists had the leadership style as I. But, it’s just as important to realize htose leadership styles in the other chapter officers.

Just as important as the strategies, goals and vision for our chapter is having a firm understanding of the national organization and where it’s going.

One of the highlights of the Scripps Leadership Institute was the question-and-answer session with the top national SPJ officers. President-Elect Clint Brewer (from the City Paper in Nashville) delivered a “State of the SPJ” address and took questions from Institute attendees.

Caring about the future of journalism is a reason why one might be involved in SPJ. The Scripps Institute helped me get a view of how we can make this all-important organization even better.

The Institute wasn't all work. We had a little "play" time on Friday night as I had a chance to go "duck-pin" bowling for the first time. Sue Porter from the Scripps Howard Foundation probably bowled better than I.




It may have taken six weeks fro me to write this summary of my experience. But, my enthusiasm for what I do as an SPJ co-adviser is no less intense now than it was when I attended the Institute last month.

Now the real work begins.

Update on MJW

Like many other streams of thought or promises to POST-- this one appears to have gone un-addressed.

The MJW program is moving into it's second week tonight. I hope to post some photos I took soon.

Diverse group arrives for MJW 2007

Diversity of places, diversity of people and diversity of experiences are just three ways to describe the 17 students who make up the cohort of high school students attending the 2007 Multicultural Journalism Workshop here at the University of Alabama.

This is the first in a series of postings over the next 10 days from “MJW,” as the program is affectionately called. I’ll be among the faculty members working with this talented group selected from the nearly 200 inquiries the University initially received about the workshop that is in its 24th year of existence.

I'm planning to use this particular blog posting as a "teaching tool" tomorrow (Monday) as I'm talking about multimedia and multi-platform reporting. You'll notice I have NO QUOTES and a lot of first names in this posting, two characteristics of the first-person, casual writing style of many bloggers.

During tonight’s opening banquet and orientation on the University campus, I had a chance to meet all 17 students and hear about some of their experiences and backgrounds.

I think I probably connected in some way with most of them. There was Alex from Montgomery who is attending the workshop after just completing the tenth grade at Montgomery’s Booker T. Washington Magnet High School just a few blocks from the Alabama State Capitol.

I remember being in the tenth grade when I attended UJW, the Urban Journalism Workshop in at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Va. in 1986.

Like Alex, I had not done much journalism writing, but was just simply loved to write.

Then there was the “ATL” crew, the three students from Metro Atlanta, where I lived for two years and worked for five as a news producer at WXIA-TV’s “11 Alive News.”

One student is a rising junior at Grady High School, which shares the name “Henry Grady” with my alma mater, the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Georgia.

Grady High School is a magnet program for communication while The Westminister Schools is home to an athlete attending our workshop. Carrington Jackson plays basketball, football and tennis. Now he’s going to add newswriting to his portfolio.

According to Wikipedia Web site, The Westminster Schools has the largest endowment of any non-boarding secondary school in the United States. The school's expressed mission is "to develop the whole person for college and for life through excellent education."

Closer to home, we have students here from every region of Alabama including the Shoals Area, the Anniston/East Alabama, South Central Alabama (including Selma and Montgomery) and Mobile as well as Sumter County in the far western part of the state.

Did I mention one of our students was part of the scrapbook team that took first place at Alabama’s Beta Club Conventions?

I told Brooke that we know we will have a great scrapbook from the 24th Annual Multicultural Journalism Workshop.

As one who scrapbooks or blogs from every trip I take, I know Brooke from Winston County High in Double Springs, Ala. is going to teach me a thing or two about chronicling one’s experiences.

This year’s class has students from as far away as Camden, South Carolina and as close as Tuscaloosa’s Northridge High School. In fact, I met Adelaide O’Neal at another journalism workshop here on the UA campus just about a year ago. She’s going to the editor of state and regional award-winning Northridge Reporter in the fall.

Some of the students are on a mission—to go back to their high schools and revive or reinvigorate their school papers. Aaron, a student a Cordova High School in Walker County, plans to go back and inspire the rest of his Blue Devil schoolmates to get their newspaper going again.

Aaron is one of three students from the Birmingham Metro area. We also have students from Ramsey High in the City of Birmingham and Briarwood Christian High School.

After spending most of this past academic year working in the Knight Fellows program based at The Anniston Star, it was great to see one from the Anniston-Oxford area. Ashley is a student Faith Christian School.

Several of the students have already learned how to use Adobe InDesign and at least a third of the students brought their own digital cameras.

I can already predict this will be the most visually-skilled of the classes we’ve had in recent years.

Over the next ten days, these students will learn the journalism craft as they put out an edition of Tuscaloosa’s newest community publication, The West End Journal.

Closing Out Seven Cities, Six Weeks

Unfortunately, both my iBook and digital camera were stolen enroute to Columbia last month. Hence, the reporting on the Seven Cities, Six Weeks tour had to be cut short.

It was when I stopped to take photos at the South Carolina State Capitol in Columbia June 21 when I realized the camera was missing.

It, along with my laptop computer (and nearly two years worth of production work) were removed from the backseat of my automobile.

No, they should have been left there. That has turned out to be a VERY EXPENSIVE mistake.

It was the most devastating loss of equipment that I've ever experienced. Two weeks later, I can at least write about what happened here.

Reflecting on Fourth of July Worship

Thanks to a unique worship experience today, Independence Day 2007 will always stand out in my mind.

What was called “A July 4th Morning Celebration of God” didn’t draw a standing-room only crowd at Tuscaloosa’s Cornerstone Full Gospel Baptist Church.

But everyone who needed to be there was present. The 150 or so of us in addition for the unprecedented two-hour service heard some of the best preaching on freedom this side of heaven.

I couldn’t continue on with my holiday activities without pausing to report and reflect on them.

Like the Bible says, seven is the number of completion and today’s 4th of July celebration would not have been complete without each of the seven ministers’ sermonettes that focused us on our freedom that comes from being a son or daughter in God’s family.

The senior pastor, Bishop Earnest Palmer, who developed today’s service only within the last two weeks kicked off the tag-team preaching by introducing the scripture from first four verses of the 12th chapter of Genesis. He was followed by our youth pastor and our executive pastor and our director of protocol.

Even as a member of Cornerstone for about two years, I don’t remember a time when this many members of the church’s ministerial staff shared God’s Word in a single service.

“Our independence must be radical,” said Elder Lionel Grant, director of youth ministries. “What we’re doing today is radical.”

Grant’s remarks were echoed by Elder Tomalisa Washington, who noted that despite it being Independence Day some people still don’t “feel very liberated.”

“In order to get what God has for you, you have to release what’s in your hand,” Elder Washington said.

Her husband, Freddie Washington, who also is an elder and serves as Cornerstone’s executive pastor echoed her comments.

“One of the hardest lessons to learn is when it’s time to get out,” he said.

While the first three sermonettes focused on the passage from Genesis, the latter four messages used Biblical passages from the New Testament to explain our liberation by faith.

“We’re in transition,” said Minister Tschalla Jerido, who explained the significance of the 4th of July coming at the midpoint of the year, a time for us to reflect on how we are progressing toward those goals we set for 2007 and what lies ahead in part-time of the year.

There was so much of God’s Word preached today that it’s hard to recount it all. Those were some of the things that stood out in my mind.

Admitting that she was not as focused on her freedom as an American because she was “born free,” Elder Arleta Riley challenged those to focus on that freedom we were not born with”

“I wasn’t born saved,” she said. “When you’re freed from something, you’re released to something.”

As I reflect on this morning’s service, I feel released to not only report on what occurred, but to think differently and appreciate the freedom that comes in being released to do greater things not at new level (a phrase Bishop Palmer doesn’t like).

Instead, Bishop Palmer has encouraged us to go to a “new dimension” in our thinking and our way of operating this year.

The work continues.