Time to Reflect on Day 1 of SND Web Design Boot Camp

NASHVILLE-- In the music city, I suppose it's appropriate to sing the praises of the New York Times' Tyson Evans and the Senior Interactive Designer at National Public Radio, David Wright-- the facilitators for the Society for News Design's first Web Design Boot Camp.

Thanks to these two guys, I now know more about CSS besides the fact that the letters stand for "Cascading Style Sheets." Nearly 12 years after taking my first class in HTML (Hypertext Markup Language), this computer language makes a whole lot more sense to me.

When I took that Web class at the University of Georgia in 1998, there were no applications like Firebug, a plug-in for Firefox that allows us to go beyond just "viewing source" on Web pages, or Coda, which makes writing HTML code and "marking up" text so much easier.

All of a sudden, designing Web pages doesn't seem so intimidating. Well, that was until we started actually looking at the CSS code this afternoon. Can you feel your eyes glazing over? (not sure how to answer that)

By the time we adjourned for the evening at 6 p.m. tonight, I did feel like I have a very basic understanding of the design strategy that utilizes CSS.

I do my share of workshops and seminars (you have to if you're going to teach students multimedia journalism). But, I can't ever remember sitting in a classroom of top-notch newspaper designers from all over the country.

I was told yesterday that 28 people had registered for this first ever SND quick course focused on Web Design. During the introductions this morning, I realized we had those responsible for the design of the Orlando Sentinel, Los Angeles Times, (Florence) TimesDaily and Shreveport Times.

Not only were newspaper designers in the crowd today, but students from Michigan State filled a run in our classroom along with a web designer for NCAA and one of the designers for the kiosks at the Newseum.

If tomorrow is anything like today, the SND Web Design Boot Camp will be worth the drive through rain non-stop from Tuscaloosa to Nashville and the 4 a.m. wake-up call this morning.

We shall see.

Time for Spring Break

It's that time of year again-- when the weather is kind of in between winter and spring and the thoughts of "getting away" are prominent in our minds.

One adult laughed today when I mentioned that I was leaving for "spring break." I can only imagine she was thinking how nice it would be to take a vacation every March.

Spring Break is surely one of the benefits of working in an academic environment. Even though it mostly manages to fall during the third week of March-- allowing me to celebrate my St. Patrick's Day birthday while on Spring Break-- I would prefer it be later in the spring semester. The first week of April is ideal.

At the University of Alabama, where I am a member of the faculty, our break falls this year the week of March 16th.

But, I guess anytime we can take a breather from the day-to-day demands of work and school, we should take full advantage.

For me, it will be a "working vacation" as I do a couple of site visits and attend an academic conference at the University of Mississippi next week.

But, I hope to be providing updates here a lot more often during this next 10-day period as I hit the road and depart Tuscaloosa.

March 1 Snow: Alabama's Big Twitter Event?

While the short-lived winter weather was not that unexpected here, it was fun to follow thanks, in part, to the Twitter technology.

I haven't gathered any statistics on the use on the microblogging tool. But, anecdotally if James Spann's (Meteorologist at Birmingham's ABC affiliate, WBMA-TV) followers jumped from about 1500 when he started cut-ins at 1 a.m. to 1662 now, that's an indication of just how many people are catching on to this combination of a e-mail and message boards.

Those with Twitter accounts could "follow" Spann and get his updates while also including a symbol "#bhamsnow" that Twitter uses to gather all the comments about this news event.

Like Spann indicated last night, the advantage is that it keeps everyone from being too long, but it also helps you keep up-to-date on what's happening.

I suppose if all of those people with information to share were your Facebook friends, then that would be the medium for this exchange.

With Twitter, I re-connected with all friends and met new people, whose blogs I checked out in the process.

For the last few years, the broadcast, cable and newspaper media have utilized the user-generated photographs as a big part of their coverage.

WMBA-TV's Flickr Photostream gathered more than 2,000 pictures. After a quick check of some of the other media, I think this is BIG WINNER for user-generated content.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution showcased about 30 photos on its site.

Cross-promoting this element helps drive traffic to one's Web site.

While we had the consumer/citizen-driven today, we also have a community around this Twitter technology, a larger one than would probably have been found on a weathercentric Web site.

Some of those who might not read Spann's Weather Blog, will follow those who have something to say about the weather.

In some ways, the Twitter audience online could get things before the over-the-air audience. You were "behind the scenes" listening to Spann as he got ready to go on the air.

As we examine the role that microblogging plays in newsgathering, Alabama's Winter Storm of 2009 will provide an interesting case study. All one has to do is look at the "#bhamsnow" on Twitter.

2 p.m. Last Snowman Standing

I suppose it's not surprising that today's snow event here in Tuscaloosa was short-lived.

By the time our Sunday services ended at nearly 1 p.m., the snow that had blanketed the church grounds was all gone.

On the way home, I managed to find ONE lingering sign of today's memorable winter weather-- a lone snowman down the street from my house that was still standing, though some of his features were already on the ground, an apparent victim of the above-freezing temperatures.

You can see from the brown grass that the sun quickly melted away our white blanket, the heaviest such blanket in at least a couple of years for our city in West Central Alabama.

While I haven't seen any official snowfall totals for our area, I would imagine 2-3 inches fell in the city of Tuscaloosa.



It's a good thing that I didn't let the winter weather keep me home. Though, a lot of my fellow church members did.

We only had 5 people in my Sunday School class that usually has about 15 or more. And, my quick head count showed only about 120-130 people in our 10 a.m. service that usually has more than 500 attendees.

7:30 a.m. The Ultimate Dilemma

When they say "If you don't have to travel on the roadways, don't" that's usually good advice.

But, do you follow that when it comes to church?

I don't think the above advice has been given for today. But, it's worth noting as a point of reference.

Like myself, many Alabama residents are pondering that question-- do I go? do I stay home? With 8 a.m. services minutes away, that decision would be a timely one.

Most churches are probably not going to cancel all of their services. A good number will.

Back home in Richmond, Virginia, where I grew up the son of a church deacon and deaconess, that decision was always to hold services for those who could attend.

My father actually played a role in clearing snow from parking lots so that we could have services.

So, it's laughable almost that when you don't even have to clear away snow, churches would not have services.

That said, even experienced winter weather drivers (I drove over snow-paved highways in Northern Kentucky for two weeks during the Blizzard of 1993) can get rusty.

Here are factors we might consider in that ultimate Sunday morning dilemma:

1. Am I using the winter weather as an excuse to stay home?
2. Are conditions bad enough that I would not go to work?
3. What will I miss if I do not go to services today?
4. Do I have a role in today's Sunday School or church that someone else can cover?
5. Are there hazardous areas over which I have to travel (bridges, overpasses) that are likely impassible?

And, then there's the age-old "What Would Jesus Do?" query. Not to mock those who use the phrase as truly an evangelistic strategy, but should we ask that question. There's no reference in the Bible (that I can recall) to snowy conditions under which Jesus had to travel.



The Decision

I live in a cul-de-sac at the foot of a hill. The street is a little wet, but not icy and impassible. If the roads were really bad, this back road deep in a subdivision would be some indication of what I could expect.

And, one other issue that a friend brought to my attention-- will insurance companies assist if you have an accident? That can depend on whether local authorities have declared a certain winter weather emergency.

The roads have not been cold enough to freeze over. There's one overpass between here and church-- and I can take a different roate so I don't even have to go over that overpass.

So, I'll leave 30 minutes early-- just in case-- but to church I will go.

6:30 a.m. Time for a 2008 vs. 2009 snow comparison

In academic research, we say it's important to always have a comparative element in our studies. Well, here's my attempt at an actual comparative element in reporting on my second newsworthy snow event since moving to Tuscaloosa, Alabama in January 2003.

The 2009 Picture

The shrubery on my front lawn has a tad bit more snow on it this year.

This is the picture taken minutes ago from my sidewalk just out the front door. The branches have a little bit more of the white stuff. Of course, the time of day might be a factor-- and the time when the snow started.

But, at the moment the snow is tapering off here in South Tuscaloosa. So I'm not sure time will be much of a factor.

The 2008 Picture

Here is the shot was taken 14 months ago from virtually the same vantagepoint mid-morning.

Last year, there was a lot more media build-up to what turned out to be snow, but a bit laughable when you come from mid-Atlantic and have lived in Cincinnati. Those are places where we see REAL snow.

My memories of this snow is mostly how it lasted for just a few hours and then melted.

6 a.m. Another Weekend Snow Encounter

Not quite a surprise, but certainly exciting-- a Sunday morning snow event for those in Tuscaloosa.

Within the last half-hour, I decided to venture out the front and back doors of the house to get a few pre-dawn photos of the white stuff.

Maybe it's a good thing that the news media in Alabama under-played this in the days leading up to the winter weather event. That's always when something really happens.

While we've had a dusting that lasted for just a few hours last January (2008), these are the only memorable snow events for me in this town. Last January's snow was on a Saturday.

Slick roads are being reported here in Tuscaloosa and around the area. But, Sunday morning is certainly about the best time for this to happen. And, by the time, people actually have to be going to somewhere, this brief snow event will have passed us by.

The hazardous conditions on my deck are probably an indication of the conditions on some of the overpasses and bridges in the area.

Has the Snow Threat Been Under-reported?

It's 1 a.m. on Sunday, March 1 and for the last 10 or 11 hours, I've been combing the wires, looking at news web sites looking for evidence that the Alabama media are getting excited about the forecast for snow.

In the early evening newscasts, most of the Birmingham media were leading with tornado damage from East Alabama.

Maybe we've all gotten geared up for snow too many times and it doesn't happen here.

Within the last hour, the most-watched, trusted, well-known weather personality in the state, James Spann of Birmingham's ABC affiliate WBMA-TV, did his first cut-in on TV.

I'm excited about what he's doing on his blog with this coverage.

And, this will be first winter weather event where TWITTER will be in use.

It will be interesting to see how this all plays out over the next 12 hours.

An update on travel in 2009

This map shows places I have visited thus far in 2009



View Larger Map

Conference Shifts From Speeches to Solutions

As the afternoon begins, the more than 200 attendees at the Doing What Matters for Tuscaloosa's Children Conference have split into five groups to begin to talk about solutions to some of the problems facing the county's youngest residents.

"Parental involvement is the missing key for us," said Connie Coleman, a counselor at Hillcrest High School and a presenter for an afternoon session on Dropout rates and prevention. "I think parental involvement is the key to student success."

Coleman listed five common characteristics of students who drop out of school

1. Chronic attendance problems
2. Failing one or more courses of reading-language arts and/or math
3. Significant history of discipline issues
4. Being held back in one or more grades
5. Remaining isolated and uninvolved

"A dropout is no an individual problem, it's a societal problem" Coleman said. "Sometimes dropout cannot be avoided. It's our job to provide students options at this point."

Other topics that are being addressed in the breakout sessions: youth depression and suicide, advocacy with legislator, Impact Alabama, Drugs and youth.

Large Crowd Gathers As Children's Conference Begins

More than 200 people packed the Sellers Auditorium this morning as the "Doing What Matters for Tuscaloosa's Children" Conference kicked off on the University of Alabama campus.

The state's leading advocate for children kicked off a line-up of speakers and sessions that will address such issues as poverty, school dropout and youth depression and suicide.

"I think we need to be able to address the needs of children on a continuum," said Marquita Davis, commissioner for the Alabama Department of Children's Affairs.


Davis talked about the state's 0-5 Initiative, Office of School Readiness, Head Start Collaboration and Office of Family and Policy Issues- areas that her department covers.

While her focus was on students before they get to kindergarten, that was the only population Davis addressed during her 30-minute presentation.

"How can we not at the state level address the needs of parents," she said.

Davis complimented Tuscaloosa on its Jump-Start Program, which prepares students for kindergarten. She cited it as a model for the rest of Alabama.

"I want to take that across the state, Davis said. "Children come ready to learn. Our investment should be on the front end."

ONA Proves Journalism Has a Future

NASHVILLE-- I realize several days have passed since the Online News Association workshop. But, there's nothing like a head cold to re-order your priorities.

Now that the virus appears to be breaking and I'm not nearly as congested as I was in the hours following the workshop, I can more clearly see the impact of the workshop on what we're teaching students and what's happening in the industry.

First off, it's clear the Journalism DOES Have a Future. But, it's not just because there's the Internet. We have a more sophisticated answer, a fine-tuned vision of that future because of this workshop.

And, what better place for that vision to come into focus that The Freedom Forum's First Amendment Center, which found itself in the Nashville area headlines Friday. A story involving a local judge and some faked invitations made for interesting side story from our gathering.

I think there are five lessons I learned from the workshop:

1) There's a right way and wrong way to blog

I've got to say-- ONA may have saved the best for last. Full disclosure: I missed the keynote speaker, Janet Coats, due to a mid-day conference call. But, I have to say the last workshop of the day on bloggers and journalism was the BEST of the day. Put Tammi Marcoullier and Rex Hammock on a panel together and you have a great combination. It was a pleasure to met the founder of Hammock, Inc. and hear from a blogger from WKRN-TV. Previously, I've always thought of WKRN-Channel 2, the Young Broadcasting Station in Nashville as a distant number-three behind WSMV-4 and WTVF NewsChannel 5. But, listening to BLogger Christian Grantham from the WKRN blog, Nashville is talking, , I have a different impression.

My favorite term of the day-- bloggers are "curators" of the news. I will review my online notes from this session and even change the way I teach my students to blog.

2) Re-purposing video is not just a possibility, but an expectation

Here at University of Alabama, we've operated from the position that most newspaper newsrooms are not investing in high-end video editing software. But, after attending Val Hoeppner's session at the workshop, I'm having to re-think that particular idea. Her three categories of video were a part of my lecture on video editing in class THIS WEEK. But, I have to admit I had not considered talking much about Avid until hearing her story on what's happening at IndyStar.com and lots of other Gannett Information Centers (as they're now called)

3) Building an online audience is just as important as being online

If there's one thing I will remember it is the idea that when we post online, we're not just doing it for ourselves, we are doing for an audience who we hope will come back. Tammi Marcoullier's session on link journalism gave me some ideas for how to augment both my home page and my blog site. But, most of all, she emphasized the importance of Publish 2 tool in allowing you to speak to multiple audiences at once.
As I've picked up more followers at these various gatherings I've attended, I want to give them a reason to continue following me.

4) Taking Twitter seriously is a skill

Along the same lines as Number 3 is the idea that being in Twitter is more than just sending Tweets. It's got to be a conversation. I have to admit I have not used my tweets to do much more than one-way communication. So I'm under-utilizing this online resource. Perhaps some of my Twitter followers will want to comment (respond) to this item.

Speaking of followers, Anniston Star Online Director Justin Thurman's tweet last month was what made me decide to re-up with ONA and come to the Nashville workshop. Thanks Justin!

A big plus of making the trip for gatherings like this is finding out what online editors and web directors like Justin are doing day-to-day. Even though Justin and I work together through UA's Knight Fellows in Community Journalism, we're on opposite sides of the state (a 2-hour drive apart). So Nashville was a meet-up for us.
Checkout the candid shot of J.T. on his cell phone.



5) ONA is cool

I've been a member of the Online News Association before, but never attended one event. Having recently renewed my membership, this $25 workshop was a GREAT value for the money. The speakers/facilitators were well-informed in their area and I walked away with tips that I could immediately put to use. Other journalism organizations to which I belong could learn a lot from ONA about how to put on a workshop that have a maximum "take-away" value.

Speaking of other journalism organizations, I can't forget my encounter with Former Society of Professional Journalists National President Mac McKerral, who is on faculty at Western Kentucky University. Before heading back the icy roads of the Bluegrass, Mac took a quick shot with me.

200 posts in Four Years

As I am about to post this update, I realized this is my 200th posts. But I've been doing this since 2005.

By most true bloggers' standards, 200 posts in four years is probably not a big deal. In fact, most true bloggers wouldn't let five days past without a posting.

Get I still have a ways to go with this blogging thing.

Occasional postings are not the way to develop a real following.

But, there are only so many hours in a day.

That's the real deal.

Time to Celebrate Life, Work of Lionel C. Barrow

This weekend journalism and mass communication education lost a giant and a trailblazer in the passing of Lionel C. Barrow, Jr.

Now in my sixth year as an assistant professor here at the University of Alabama, I know neither my career as a broadcast journalist nor my current full-time role as a journalism professor would have been possible were it not for the hard work of Dr. Barrow.


As a cum laude graduate of the Howard University School of Communications and the 1991 recipient of the Lionel C. Barrow Minority Doctoral Scholarship, I know firsthand the impact Barrow had the lives of so many across the fields of journalism and mass communication.

Funeral arrangements were incomplete as of this writing on Sunday evening. Barrow's passing was announced on Howard University's radio station, WHUR-TV earlier in the day. I'm told that plans are now in the works for a memorial service to be held at Howard University in mid-February.

For the last few years, Dr. Barrow has lived in the Tampa Bay area as his wife, Dr. Frederica Harrison Barrow, is on the faculty in the School of Social Work at the University of South Florida.

Most recently, Dr. Barrow and I sat on a panel at the 2008 AEJMC Annual Convention in Chicago entitled "State of the Division and Discipline: Re-envisioning Minorities & Communication."

I had no idea that would be the last time I would get to hear him talk passionately about the importance of opening doors of journalism and mass communication education to people of color.

He was dedicated even in the final months of his life to diversifying the ranks of our JMC professorate.

Even as I write this posting, I recall Dr. Barrow's suggestions about the research I presented on the panel. Even though I only got to know him in the last seven years, he's certainly been a mentor to me and countless oithers like me who work in this field.

Established in 1970, the Barrow Minority Doctoral Scholarship honors Professor Lionel C. Barrow, Jr., former Communication Theory & Methodology (CT&M) Division head and Dean Emeritus of Howard University.

Dr. Barrow earned his doctorate from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and has held a variety of leadership positions in industry, academia, and the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC).

His work was noted in a recent article in Diverse Issues of Higher Education on AEJMC's steps to intensify its effort in the area of diversity.

Dr. Barrow was the second dean of the Howard School of Communication, serving from 1975 to 1985, following the tenure of founding dean Tony Brown.

The Barrow Scholarship is intended to aid doctoral students complete their dissertation research and academic studies.



When I received the award at the 2001 AEJMC Convention in Washington, it was my first time meeting the former dean of my alma mater.

Since then, I've become acquainted with his work as Chair of the Commission on the Status of Minorities.

In one of the best ways to honor his work, I recently took a more active role in CSM as the newsletter editor.

It's just one small way I can give back to an organization in which Barrow had such a critical role.

Even now as I await a decision on my application for tenure and promotion, I know that regardless of the outcome, I owe a great deal to Lionel C. Barrow for helping me get to this point.

My life has been richer not only because of my experience as an undergraduate at what is now the John H. Johnson School of Communications in a program Dr. Barrow steered for so many years but also because of the financial support of the Barrow scholarship I completed my dissertation and am making an impact on journalism in a whole other way.

I look forward to the opportunity to continue Dr. Barrow's legacy even as I become more active as a journalism and mass communication scholar and teacher.

Later this year, when AEJMC recognizes the first recipient of the association's Equity and Diversity Award, we will ALL be thinking of Dr. Lionel Barrow. For it was his hard work that helped position the association to bestow such an honor.

Visitors Stop By This Week to See What We're Teaching about Journalism

The Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communication is sending a team of five professors and working media practitioners to see if we're doing the right thing by our students.    

It's called an accreditation review and most of the best j-schools (journalism schools) go through it every six years.   

An ACEJMC Stamp of Approval is the equivalent of the Good Housekeeping Seal for journalism education. 

The accrediting council looks for such things as class size, placement, labs and facilities, faculty credentials and qualifications, assessment and diversity in making its decision. 

Just 112 programs in the country are accredited by ACEJMC.  The University of Alabama is one of three (Auburn University and Jacksonville State are the other two) accredited programs.  The University of North Alabama in Florence is planning to apply for accreditation in the next few years. 

It will interesting to see what the team of reviewers have to say as they drop in on our classes and chat with us over the next few days.

As if this accreditation review were not enough, we have another team of reviewers arriving at the end of the week to specifically review our Public Relations program.   One of reasons that our public relations  major is one of the largest in the college is its high-quality program that is reviewed every few years by the Public Relations Society of America.

As a news reporting instructor who teaches public relations majors often in my classes, I'll get a chance to visit with that particular team of visitors as well. 

Of course with any review, you always want to put your best foot forward.   But, at the end of the day, what these visitors should see is the good work that we're doing every day in our classes. 

The week for me will end in Nashville as spend the day at the Online News Association workshop at the Freedom Forum's First Amendment Center on the Vanderbilt University campus.    

Like those of us in the Society of Professional Journalists and those of us who teach have been saying all along-- JOURNALISM HAS A FUTURE, ONA has made that the topic of what looks to be an exciting day where those in the online world can focus on how we do good journalism in the current environment.  

More on "Journalism Has a Future" in future blog postings.   

Stovall Does It, Now The Real Work Begins

KNOXVILLE, Tenn.-- As I watched him listen to all the exchange between the faculty and industry voices in the room, Jim Stovall, the Edward J. Meeman Distinguished Professor in the School of Journalism and Electronic Media, who organized ICONN, was clearly proud of all that we accomplished in a short time.

Jim has been talking about this idea of a wire service and a network of journalism educators who are teaching Web journalism for a good while. On Friday as the two-day meeting here wound down, his vision was finally coming into view.

We talked a great deal about organizational issues for ICONN-- who's going to be in charge? will students and faculty be working together? What about those who were unable to be here for this meeting?

Those logistical issues are certainly important.

But, equally as important -- and more daunting for most of us without a programming or computer background is getting this web tool, OCHS, to work for us as a content management system. It's an interesting challenge. I often am the person who is considered by some to be the "techno enthusiast."

However, in a room with Joseph Agreda, the Tennessee Journalist operations manager and Jay Baird from Mochi Media as well as Bob Benz from Radiant Markets (formerly of Scripps Interactive), I felt like the one who needed to bone up on his technical skills.

This re-tooling and retraining that we faculty will have to do to make this Web tool work is exactly what makes bringing digital into our teaching such a challenge.

As I leave Orange Country, I will have to say that Knoxville will be the place where I realized I could do this Web thing-- the technical side. I developed a new level of confidence that a Content Management System is no longer something that I leave to "tech staff" to do for me.

iConn represents a new beginning for me as a journalist operating in the multimedia age. And, for that, and to Jim Stovall, I'm eternally grateful.

Let the real work begin. Joseph

ICONN Sparks New Faculty Friendships

MY NEW FRIEND FROM HARDING U-- The Intercollegiate Online News Network (ICONN) Founders Conference afforded me the opportunity to meet another j-school professor. Dr. Jim Miller, the man behind Jim Miller's Menial Musings, is starting a web journalism class at his university in Searcy, Arkansas.

Harding is not a university I would have thought of first when I think web journalism. Thanks to ICONN, this school is now on the radar as we look at places that are on the cutting edge of teaching multimedia and web journalism.





OTHER FACULTY COLLEAGUES-- Jon Glass, Syracuse University (in the white sweater), suffered through my constant jabs about him being from "Newhouse" (the school I once dreamed of attending as a high school journalist).

Jon has a dual background as a technical staff person who is supporting the digital instruction at SU. (He's also a Florida Gator and a native of Alabama-- who has loose ties to Auburn U., but we won't hold that against him)

Meanwhile at my alma mater, the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Georgia (where I received both my master's and doctorate),there are two advocates -- Mark Johnson (see below) from the faculty and Harry Montevideo (In the gray sweater) from the award-winning student independent study daily, The Red and Black.

Even though I was from Alabama, I was VERY PROUD of my school, UGA, having two very vocal and leading voices in making ICONN go. I look forward to working with Jon, Mark and Harry! I think this gathering was a little heavy on the testosterone. Still there were people like Lyn Lepre, a former UT-Knoxville faculty, who brought insights from her experience at Marist College in Poughkeepsie, NY.





A CLEAR VOICE FOR DIGITAL JOURNALISM-- I take nothing away from all the attendees at ICONN. But, this guy, Mark Johnson, who is leading the digital news instruction at University of Georgia's Grady College of Journalism, was most memorable in his articulation of the challenges we have ahead.

His frank assessment of what is needed as we move forward is something on which I know I will reflect again and again. My only regret is that Mark and I missed each other by two years (He joined the Georgia faculty two years after I completed my Ph.D. in 2002).

Knoxville Brings Memories of What Was My Personal Life

KNOXVILLE, Tenn.-- As we begin the second day of the Intercollegiate Online News Network (ICONN) Founders Conference, it's as good a time as any to depart from the professional and share some personal thoughts about this city and what it means to me to be part of something new in a place with so many personal memories.

I realized yesterday as I was driving up I-75 from Chattanooga how familiar the road signs and exits were to me. That's because I actually had driven this stretch of interstate so many times in another life.

You see there was a certain female to whom I had taken a great liking and who lived in this city back in mid 1990s when I was working as a television news producer at WXIA-TV, NBC's Atlanta affiliate.

She was a friend from college with whom I had worked so closely and connected so well, I just knew that this was a person who would always be in my life. I consider(ed) her my best friend.

Sidebar: When we teach blogging in our journalism courses, one of the things we have to help our students understand is the opportunity that blogs can play for less formal writing that extends, expands and even personalizes a story.

This posting "personalizes" my whole experience here at ICONN

This was the campus where my friend and I used to hang out. She lived only a mile away from the UT-Knoxville campus. She worked part-time at one of the local hospitals and took classes at both Roane State and Pellissippi State Technical Community College.

I remember driving about 30 miles west of here to surprise her at her graduation from Pellissippi State Technical Community College. I remember driving up from Atlanta on Valentine's Day with a surprise care basket one year. I even remember taking a memorable shopping trip with her out to Sevierville, Tenn. (She worked for a short time in Sevier County, just east of Knoxville).

On the UT-Knoxville campus, she and I would go to the Health Sciences Library and hang out. She would study while I would read periodicals. But, at the time, I had begun to ponder the idea of graduate school.

I had even visited the NBC affiliate here, WBIR-TV, wondering about the opportunities in this television market, which was much smaller than either Atlanta or Cincinnati, the city in which I worked before moving to WXIA.

I attended my first academic conference here on the UT-Knoxville campus as UT hosted what's now known as the AEJMC Southeast Colloquium. (AEJMC stands for the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication)

I watched research presentations at the conference at the Knoxville Hilton wondering if I could actually do that one day. (Of course, I eventually did do it lots of times as I worked on a master's and Ph.D. degrees)

Years later-- in this century -- the woman, who I identified as my best friend, married someone else in this town. To this day, I have not met face-to-face with the groom.

She invited me to the wedding. Ironically (or maybe not), I was in Chicago presenting a paper at an academic conference the same weekend.

Some have suggested that I intentionally missed this turning point in my best friend's life.

Perhaps this trip back to Knoxville, the place that holds so many memories, is not only about being a part of something new for my students learning Web journalism, but also about coming to terms with something old that happened in my own life.

As I reflect today, I bring "closure" (that's become a bit of a cliche) to what was and look to open what WILL BECOME in both my personal life and in my work with students in journalism via ICONN.

More Pictures from Day One

DOWNTOWN KNOXVILLE-- The view of the World's Fair Park is spectacular from our hotel, the Cumberland House Hotel. This is a vibrant campus and its proximity to downtown gives it a unique feel among schools in our beloved Southeastern Conference.




IN CLASS WITH Dr. Stovall-- James Glen Stovall is a legend in journalism and as the adviser for The Tennessee Journalist, the host for this gathering. This afternoon, I had the pleasure of visiting and briefly addressing his Writing for Mass Media class. To my surprise, one of my former students at University of Alabama, who transferred to UT-Knoxville, was there and came down front after class to make sure I knew she was there. What a nice surprise.




VIEW FROM THE TOP-- Mike Wirth, dean of the UT-Knoxville College of Communication and Information addresses the attendees at the ICONN Founders Conference dinner. I had the pleasure of sitting across from Dean Wirth and his lovely wife this evening.

UPI Reinvents Itself With New Generation of Students Online

KNOXVILLE, Tenn-- That "other" wire service-- the one that you heard about one day in school, but rarely saw- United Press International (UPI) is back!

As the Intercollegiate Online News Network (ICONN) is born this week here on the University of Tennessee campus, it appears an older journalism player is going through its own reincarnation. Tonight, we got a view of that as Michael Marshall, editor of UPI, shared a little bit of the vision for UPI-University, a major initiative of the soon-to-be 102-year-old news agency.

"We're finding a way to adjust our traditional values to a totally different environment," said Marshall, who plans to give more concrete details about UPI-U during his presentation tomorrow. "We're no longer a news agency in a traditional sense."

Today's college students are a big part of an effort by United Press International to shift the focus to more serious journalism.

As what Marshall termed 'a national and international showcase for young journalists," UPI-U is one way the agency is responding to respond to citizen journalism with news and information that is credible and reliable.

Formerly a news agency for afternoon newspapers, which began to go away in the 1980s with the proliferation of afternoon newscasts, UPI has been under serveral ownership changes before its purchase by News World Communications.

According to the mediaowners.com Web site, News World Comunications' owns the American news agency United Press International (UPI), acquired in 2000. Its flagship newspaper is the Washington Times, founded in 1982. Other newspapers published by News World include The Middle East Times (Egypt), Segye Ilbo (Korea) and Sekai Nippo (Japan). It also publishes magazines (Insight, The World & I, and Washington Golf Monthly).

MY TAKE

The one thing that bothered me about Marshall's remarks tonight was his assumption that there's something wrong with Citizen Journalism.

"The problem with citizen journalism is the whole issue of credibility," said Marshall.

I don't happen to subscribe to the view that all or most citizen journalism is unreliable. Instead, I happen to believe that it is our role as journalists in 2009 to embrace the role that citizen journalists can have in our information gathering. Properly trained, they become our co-laborers in the practice.

What some have called the "pro-am" model of journalism is a cutting edge way to re-shape our view of citizen journalists.

To the extent possible, we should help those citizens who want to do journalism to know how to practice it in a ethical manner.

I hope we'll engage Marshall on this issue as we continue or deliberations and discussions tomorrow.