J-School – Page 3 – Montana Journalism

February 1, 2017 montanajournalism Events, Feature, J-School

Susan Carey to Deliver Cole Lecture at UM

Susan Carey, veteran aviation reporter at The Wall Street Journal, will deliver the annual Jeff Cole Distinguished Lecture at 7 p.m. Monday, Feb. 13, at the University of Montana. The event, which is free and open to the public, will be held inside the Alexander Blewett III School of Law Room 101.

The talk, titled “Old School in the New Journalism Era,” is the ninth installment of the UM School of Journalism’s annual Jeff Cole Distinguished Lecture Series. The series honors Cole, a Butte native who graduated from the School of Journalism in 1980. He was the aeronautics editor at The Wall Street Journal when he was killed in a plane crash while on assignment in January 2001.

Carey joined the Journal at age 25 to cover coal mining, steel, labor unions and Appalachia. She later covered airlines, aerospace and tourism in Europe where she witnessed the fall of the Berlin Wall. From there, she reported for the Asian WSJ in Hong Kong and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

While in Asia, she met Jeff Cole. She describes him as “a wonderful friend and an inspiration.”

The lecture is supported by the Jeff Cole Legacy Fund, which also offers an annual scholarship and a spring dinner for students who work at the Montana Kaimin, UM’s independent student newspaper.

The UM School of Journalism launched in 1914, and has trained generations of journalists in print, broadcast, photography and, more recently, new media. The school regularly ranks among the top 10 journalism schools in the United States.

December 19, 2016 montanajournalism Feature, Graduate, J-School, Student

MJR 2017 publishes “Far From Comfort” edition

MJR staff members pose with the newest edition of the magazine.

The new edition of Montana Journalism Review tracks Western journalists as national and global events push them past their comfort zones.

From local coverage of refugee resettlement to an experiment in right-wing news immersion, the 2017 issue of MJR scrutinizes how news professionals are responding to growing distrust in the media and ongoing changes in the industry.

Titled “Far From Comfort,” the magazine examines advocacy journalism, emerging business models and gender gaps in sports coverage and news management.

“With the proliferation of fake news and echo chambers, we worked hard to find stories that advance the conversation and show the state of the media in the western United States,” Managing Editor Claire Chandler said.

Work on the 46th edition began last spring, when Editor-in-Chief Henriette Lowisch and Executive Editor Keith Graham, both journalism professors, selected the student staff that puts together the annual magazine founded by J-School Dean Nathaniel Blumberg in 1958.

Over the following seven months, student editors, writers, photographers and designers learned how to problem-solve and work together as they brainstormed story ideas and headlines, recruited contributors, sold ads and got the 68-page book ready for print.

While Art Director Delaney Kutsal envisioned the magazine’s design elements, from color scheme to formatting, senior editors Diana Six, Katy Spence, Dakota Wharry and Bayley Butler handpicked stories and took them through three rounds of editing. Contributors to MJR 2017 include former Missoulian Editor Sherry Devlin and Wyofile reporter Dustin Bleizeffer as well as J-School alums Evan Frost, Tess Haas, Carli Krueger and Hunter Pauli. Current faculty, graduate and undergraduate students also wrote and photographed stories, including staff writer Maddie Vincent and staff photographer Olivia Vanni.

In October, final drafts were sent off to Copy Chief Taylor Crews, who organized her team for the stringent fact-checking and copy-editing process. Designers got their hands on copy in early November and faced a quick two-week turnaround.

In addition to the print magazine released on Dec. 16, 2016, MJR published its stories on its website at mjr.jour.umt.edu, under the leadership of Web Editor Matt Roberts. It also produced Framing a Movement: The Media at Standing Rock, a web documentary orchestrated by Senior Editor Kathleen Stone and funded with the help of the J-School’s Blumberg Fund for Investigative Journalism and UM President Royce Engstrom.

Montana Journalism Review is the product of a journalism capstone course offered each fall. The magazine is financed through ad sales and support from the School of Journalism. The print edition is sent out to 750 subscribers across Montana, the nation and the world.

November 16, 2016November 17, 2016 montanajournalism Events, Feature, J-School, Student

MTJA Kicks Off New Trip With A Look Inside Fukushima

Stay up to date with Montana Journalism Abroad on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

In May 2017, a group of Montana Journalism Abroad (MTJA) students will travel to Japan and report on the issues that continue to affect people displaced by a trio of disasters that struck the northeast part of the country in 2011. On March 11 of that year, a severe earthquake triggered a tsunami that decimated coastal towns, and damage from the wave led to the meltdown of nuclear reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant. The nuclear fallout forced citizens to drop everything and leave their homes behind. After five years of clean-up efforts, the government has started to encourage people to return to their homes, but many people remain fearful of lingering radiation.

During their trip, the students will tour the affected areas, interview citizens and government officials, and then produce a multimedia package that tells the stories of the Fukushima nuclear disaster. These stories of displacement will resonate with Montanans who are no stranger to natural and industrial disasters, such as wildfires and leaking mine waste. As the group prepares for the trip, they are raising public awareness of the ongoing challenges of Fukushima residents.

With the screening of the documentary “Alone in Fukushima,” students invite the Missoula community to take a closer look at life inside the red zone. Just seven miles away from the nuclear power plant, Naoto Matsumura is the only person left in town. He risks the radiation to look after the domesticated animals that families left behind. Japanese filmmaker Mayu Nakamura follows Matsumura on his quest to care for the creatures and save them from starvation.

This Thursday, November 17, join the students of MTJA as they screen “Alone in Fukushima” at 6:30 p.m. in room 210 of the J-School. After the film, the director will skype in from Japan for a Q&A session. Admittance is free, but any donations are welcome and will help reduce travel costs.

Check out the trailer for Mayu Nakamura’s documentary “Alone in Fukushima” on YouTube.

By Jana Wiegand