newsroom – Page 12 – Montana Journalism

September 24, 2015September 24, 2015 montanajournalism Dean Abramson, Events, J-School

To our supporters and fellow J-Schoolers…

The year is off to a fantastic start here at the UM J-School. The smoke from the summer fires has cleared, and we’re enjoying blue skies and cool fall weather. Our students and faculty are hard at work already.

Our student produced show, “Business: Made in Montana,” will air Oct. 22 at 7:30 p.m. on MontanaPBS. The Kaimin, our school newspaper, is moving more content online, while the printed edition has become a full-color weekly publication. The Montana Journalism Review is off to a strong start with a new staff, and a wealth of new stories to produce.

This year’s Pollner professor is Kevin Van Valkenburg. He is a distinguished reporter and known for his work with the Baltimore Sun, ESPN.com and ESPN the Magazine. He will present a talk titled “The Art of Storytelling Will Always Be What Matters, Not the Medium.” The annual lecture will take place Oct. 19th at 7:00 p.m. and, as always, the event is free and open to the public.

As we move forward into the new school year, we invite you to celebrate with us. The festivities begin this homecoming weekend.

Join us for our alumni showcase and J-School reception. The showcase is Friday, September 25 at 2 p.m. in Don Anderson Hall, room 210. As usual, we are inviting some of our recent grads to tell us stories of their experiences in the nation’s newsrooms. This is a great chance to see how our students are adapting to the changes in our ever-evolving industry. As we move into the digital age, our students must learn new skills and we must modify our idea of traditional media. We teach our students to maintain the same level of integrity and ethical conduct as we have taught our alums for the past 100 years.

We hope to see you after the showcase. Join us for a reception in the A.B. Guthrie Library (3 – 4 p.m.). We look forward to sharing a libation, catching up on your news, and talking football.

--UM J-School Dean Larry Abramson

September 22, 2015September 24, 2015 montanajournalism guests, J-School

Eli Saslow returns to J-School

Students in the Pollner Seminar, along with faculty and other students, were treated to a visit from Pullitzer prize winning journalist Eli Saslow.

Monday, September 21st, For an hour and a half Saslow, who taught at the Journalism School as the T. Anthony Pollner Distinguished Professor in 2010, spoke on reporting and structuring long form narrative stories.

Photo of Eli Saslow — “I think that my best reporting comes when I’m the same version of myself in both places,” said Saslow.

Saslow, who writes for The Washington Post and ESPN the Magazine, described his work as an attempt to humanize the national issues of the day by telling the stories of people at their center. His stories have connected his readers with people for whom complex issues such as food insecurity or deportation are hard realities. To prepare for his visit, students in Kevin Van Valkenberg’s Pollner Seminar read Saslow’s article “After Newtown shooting, mourning parents enter into the lonely quiet,” in which he profiled the Bardens, a family who lost a son in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings.

To capture the powerful emotions in the story, Saslow spent two weeks with the Bardens. Dedicated that kind of time to the subjects of his story is something he said is central to his reporting. Saslow repeatedly emphasized the importance of making subjects feel comfortable with a reporters presence, even during interviews. “Ask a question five minutes into the conversation, then ask the same question 50 minutes in and you get very different answers,” Saslow said.

Many of the students’ questions dealt with the emotional toils of Saslow’s reporting, along with the ethical questions he faces spending time with people in difficult situations. Saslow emphasized for students the importance of finding stories you can care about as a journalist, and of keeping an eye on the big picture and the impact well reported stories can carry. He also described the value in being as observant, and as much as possible unobtrusive, reporter.

“I’ve interviewed Obama in the oval office and I’ve interviewed other people who have never talked to a reporter,” Saslow said, “I think that my best reporting comes when I’m the same version of myself in both places.”

By Andrew Graham

September 21, 2015September 22, 2015 montanajournalism Awards, J-School, Student

Senior ESPN Writer comes home

Each semester, the T. Anthony Pollner Distinguished Professorship endowment brings exceptional talent from the working world of journalism to teach a seminar class. This fall semester, ESPN the magazine and ESPN.com Senior Writer Kevin Van Valkenburg is carrying on the tradition; except that he is the first Pollner professor to be returning home, and the first to have known the endowment’s namesake.

Photo of Kevin Van Valkenburg — Kevin Van Valkenburg is a 2000 graduate of the UM School of Journalism.

The program began in 2001, when Anthony Pollner, a graduate and former staff member on the Montana Kaimin, died in a motorcycle accident. Van Valkenburg and Pollner were friends and co-workers at the Kaimin during their shared time at the University.

“Anthony was someone who inspired a lot of us,” Van Valkenburg said.

In addition to being back at the University, town and state that he calls home, Van Valkenburg is excited to pass along his enthusiasm for story telling in all its forms, and inspire the kind of ambitious work he knew Anthony loved.

Professor Henriette Lowisch, who first came to the University as a Pollner Professor, sees Van Valkenburg as a natural continuation to a great tradition. “The idea of the Pollner professorship is to inject the reality of the industry into the J-school,” she said.

Van Valkenburg’s experience with a wide variety of media – radio, website and magazine writing, makes him a real asset to students. “That’s such a unique experience he brings,” she said.

Students in Van Valkenburg’s class are learning the nuances of writing great non-fiction and embracing the challenge inherent in a Pollner Seminar. “Sometimes, from really awful things, can come wonderful things,” said Van Valkenburg.

By Andrew Graham