2012 Linda Yu Broadcast Scholarship Winner

Congratulations to Natalie Cheng, this year’s recipient of the Linda Yu Broadcast Scholarship!

Natalie will be entering her junior year at the University of Missouri. She is double majoring in business and journalism, focusing on entrepreneurial, emerging and converged media. In addition to taking classes, she has been a producer and reporter at mid-Missouri’s NBC affiliate, KOMU-TV, the multimedia editor for the university’s student paper, a reporter for NPR affiliate KBIA and a producer and marketing team member for the Mandarin branch of media startup Newsy. Natalie is from Lisle, Ill., but went to high school at Phillips Academy in Andover, Mass.

Natalie will spend this summer interning at WBBM-CBS 2 in Chicago. The scholarship is given in honor of AAJA-Chicago Chapter co-founder and WLS ABC 7 anchor Linda Yu.

 

Unity 2012 Stipends

There’s no excuse not to go to Unity 2012 because we are giving away registrations! (Unity 2012 will run in Las Vegas from August 1 through August 4.) The AAJA Chicago chapter board has decided to cover registration costs for two members and two students to attend Unity.

The deadline to apply for a stipend is 6 p.m., Wednesday, March 21. You must be a current member of the Chicago chapter to apply.

We want to help student and full members defray their costs of attending a great conference that will feature training workshops, a job fair, networking and lots of opportunities to meet our brothers and sisters from NAHJ, NAJA and NLGJA. You don’t want to miss out!

Please answer the following short questions and e-mail the form to Erin Chan Ding, AAJA Chicago Chapter Treasurer. Stipend selections will be based on a timely response and financial need. If you have already registered for Unity, you are still eligible for a chapter stipend.

Thanks very much and hope to see you at Unity this summer! Stay tuned for upcoming chapter events.

Name:
Phone number:
E-mail address:

Will you be attending Unity as a student or a full member?

Are you currently employed? If so, who is your employer?

Why are you interested in a stipend to attend Unity 2012?

What are you hoping to gain from attending Unity?

In exchange for a stipend for Unity, would you be willing to commit to volunteering at a future AAJA Chicago chapter event?

Thanks so much for your interest! Please feel free to contact the board if you have any questions.

Chicago Headline Club Events

The Chicago Headline Club has two upcoming events that it would like to share with our members. Please spread the word and invite other journalists that might be interested in attending.

 The Chicago Headline Club, Citizen Advocacy Center and Center for Open Government present:

 Open Government Training for Journalists and Citizen-Journalists

Free training seminar for journalists, citizen-journalists and any interested individuals. Celebrate Sunshine Week by learning the best practices for obtaining access to government records and helpful methods for effectively using the Illinois Freedom of Information Act and Illinois Open Meetings Act.

When: Saturday, March 17, 2012, 12 – 2 p.m.
Where: ITT Chicago-Kent College of Law, 565 W. Adams, Room 580

Maryam Judar (Citizen Advocacy Center), Natalie Brouwer Potts (Center for Open Government) and Angela Caputo (The Chicago Reporter) will address:

  • Freedom of Information Act (FOIA): the nuts and bolts of making a request, getting help from the Attorney General’s Public Access Counselor, appealing FOIA denials, obtaining records in the most useful format, submitting standing requests and how to sue the public body. We will review sample FOIA letters and discuss common FOIA problems.
  • Open Meetings Act (OMA): monitoring government meetings, how to spot and challenge an improper closed session, and typical First Amendment issues. We will review examples of OMA violations.

We will leave time for general questions from the audience. For specific advice, you will have an opportunity to speak with the attorneys after the training to set up a free consultation.

RSVP: Please email the Chicago Headline Club at chc.spj@gmail.com to confirm attendance by March 16, 2012. Please indicate any specific topics you would like the training to address in the RSVP.

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 The Chicago Headline Club presents

Journalists and Trauma: How to Cover it and How it Impacts You
A panel discussion moderated by WGN’s Randi Belisomo

When: Tuesday, March 27, 6 pm
Where: Loyola University, 820 N. Michigan Ave. (entrance on Pearson) Regents Hall, Lewis Towers, 16th Floor

Panelists:

Frank Ochberg, MD, a psychiatrist, mental health expert, and one of the founding fathers of modern psychotraumatology who has helped to define and research post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), especially Victimization Symptoms as a distinct subcategory of PTSD, and Stockholm Syndrome, among his many accomplishments for which he received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies. He has received the Golden Award of the Academy of Traumatology (1998), and a Senior Fulbright Scholarship (South Africa) in 2002.

Ochberg has recently devoted much of his time to educating journalists about trauma, and, in recognition, the Dart Center’s Ochberg Fellowship was named for him. Ochberg Fellows, like Pulitzer Prize-winning writers, must demonstrate exceptional writing skills as well as thorough investigation of their topics.

Julia Lieblich is an award-winning human rights journalist whose work has appeared in the New York Times Magazine, the Washington Post, Time, Life, and Ms. A former religion writer for the Chicago Tribune and the Associated Press, she is an assistant professor of journalism at Loyola University Chicago.

After receiving a Master’s degree in Theological Studies from Harvard’s Divinity School, Lieblich went on to work as the religion writer for the Associated Press and the Chicago Tribune, a business writer for Fortune magazine, a correspondent for ReligionLink, and was honored as an Ochburg Fellow at the well-known Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma.

Her new book, Wounded I am More Awake, follows the story of Esad Boskailo, a doctor who survives six concentration camps in Bosnia and emerges with powerful new lessons for healing in an age of genocide. The gripping account raises questions for healers, survivors, and readers striving to understand the reality of war and the aftermath of terror. Is it possible to find meaning after enduring crimes against humanity? Can people heal after trauma?

Jeff Kelly Lowenstein serves as the Database and Investigative Editor for Hoy, the Chicago Tribune’s Spanish-language newspaper.

Prior to working at Hoy, Lowenstein was a staff reporter for five years at The Chicago Reporter, a bimonthly publication that does investigative work around race and poverty issues. He is also president of the Dart Society, an organization of journalists that works to tell stories about trauma and violence with sensitivity and compassion, and that also works to help journalists deal with the impact of doing that work.

Jeremy Lin Viewing Party with TAP-Chicago

Jeremy Lin’s coming to town!

We can’t get tickets to see him play in person, so here’s the next best thing – a viewing party of the Bulls vs. Knicks game! Join AAJA-Chicago and the Chicago Taiwanese American Professionals (TAP-Chicago) for a joint viewing party.

Date: Monday, March 12
Time: Drink specials start at 6:30 pm. Tip-off is at 7 pm.
Place: Theory Sports Bar & Grill, 9 W. Hubbard

For more information, check out the Facebook page for the event. We hope to see you there!

Reminder: ELP Introductory Session

For those of you interested in AAJA’s Executive Leadership Program 2012 Introductory Session (June 28 – July 1 in New York, NY), the deadline to apply has been extended to March 9.

For more information, click here or contact Marcia Santillan, AAJA’s professional programs coordinator, at MarciaS@aaja.org/415.346.2051 x107.

 

Reminder: Early Bird Unity Registration Deadline

The deadline for Unity early bird registration is coming up fast. If you sign up by Friday, March 16, the rate is $325 for professionals and $150 for students. After March 16, the cost will be$400 for professionals and $225 for students.

For more information on Unity, which will be held August 1-4, 2012 in Las Vegas, click here.

AAJA Media Advisory on Jeremy Lin Coverage

AAJA published earlier this week a media advisory for journalists covering Jeremy Lin. We are republishing it here. Questions and comments can be directed to mediawatch@aaja.org.

AAJA Media Advisory on Jeremy Lin News Coverage

Feb. 22, 2012

As NBA player Jeremy Lin’s prowess on the court continues to attract international attention and grab headlines, the Asian American Journalists Association (AAJA) would like to remind media outlets about relevance and context regarding coverage of race.

In the past weeks, as more news outlets report on Lin, his game and his story, AAJA has noticed factual inaccuracies about Lin’s background as well as an alarming number of references that rely on stereotypes about Asians or Asian Americans.

Please give careful consideration to the following tips to ensure fair, accurate and sensitive portrayals of Lin and others who are Asian American.

AAJA and AAJA MediaWatch stand ready to assist any news organizations that have questions or concerns about news coverage and race. We all have the same goal: good journalism.

OUR GUIDELINES

Stop to think: Would a similar statement be made about an athlete who is Caucasian, African American, Latino or Native American?

Use caution when discussing Lin’s physical characteristics, particularly those that feminize/emasculate the Asian male (Cinderella-story angles should not place Lin in a dress). Discussion of genetic differences in athletic ability among races should be avoided. In referring to Lin’s height or vision, be mindful of the context and avoid invoking stereotypes about Asians.

THE FACTS

Jeremy Lin is Asian American, not Asian (more specifically, Taiwanese American). It’s an important distinction and one that should be considered before any references to former NBA players such as Yao Ming and Wang Zhizhi, who were Chinese. Lin’s experiences were fundamentally different than people who immigrated to play in the NBA. Lin progressed through the ranks of American basketball from high school to college to the NBA, and to characterize him as a foreigner is both inaccurate and insulting.

Lin’s path to Madison Square Garden: More than 300 Division I schools passed on him. Harvard University has had only three other graduates go on to the NBA, the most recent one being in the 1950s. No NBA team wanted Lin in the draft after he graduated from Harvard.

Journalists don’t assume that African American players identify with NBA players who emigrated from Africa. The same principle applies with Asian Americans. It’s fair to ask Lin whether he looked up to or took pride in the accomplishments of Asian players. He may have. It’s unfair and poor journalism to assume he did.

Lin is not the first Asian American to play in the National Basketball Association. Raymond Townsend – who’s of Filipino descent – was a first-round choice of the Golden State Warriors in the 1970s. Rex Walters, who is of Japanese descent, was a first-round draft pick by the New Jersey Nets out of the University of Kansas in 1993 and played seven seasons in the NBA; Walters is now the coach at University of San Francisco. Wat Misaka is believed to have been the first Asian American to play professional basketball in the United States. Misaka, who’s of Japanese descent, appeared in three games for the New York Knicks in the 1947-48 season when the Knicks were part of the Basketball Association of America, which merged with the NBA after the 1948-49 season.

DANGER ZONES

“CHINK”: Pejorative; do not use in a context involving an Asian person on someone who is Asian American. Extreme care is needed if using the well-trod phrase “chink in the armor”; be mindful that the context does not involve Asia, Asians or Asian Americans. (The appearance of this phrase with regard to Lin led AAJA MediaWatch to issue a statement to ESPN, which subsequently disciplined its employees.)

DRIVING: This is part of the sport of basketball, but resist the temptation to refer to “an Asian who knows how to drive.”

EYE SHAPE: This is irrelevant. Do not make such references if discussing Lin’s vision.

FOOD: Is there a compelling reason to draw a connection between Lin and fortune cookies, takeout boxes or similar imagery? In the majority of news coverage, the answer will be no.

MARTIAL ARTS: You’re writing about a basketball player. Don’t conflate his skills with judo, karate, tae kwon do, etc. Do not refer to Lin as “Grasshopper” or similar names associated with martial-arts stereotypes.

“ME LOVE YOU LIN TIME”: Avoid. This is a lazy pun on the athlete’s name and alludes to the broken English of a Hollywood caricature from the 1980s.

“YELLOW MAMBA”: This nickname that some have used for Lin plays off the “Black Mamba” nickname used by NBA star Kobe Bryant. It should be avoided. Asian immigrants in the United States in the 19th and 20th centuries were subjected to discriminatory treatment resulting from a fear of a “Yellow Peril” that was touted in the media, which led to legislation such as the Chinese Exclusion Act.

Special thanks to AAJA members Ji Hyun Lee, Ursula Liang, Danny O’Neil and Jay Wang for their contributions to this advisory.

NOTE: This post was updated Feb. 23, including a correction to the reference about which schools passed on Jeremy Lin.