Journalist convention held in Denver
DENVER – The Native American Journalists Association held its 23rd annual convention June 7 – 9 at Marriott Tech Center in Denver. The conference, ”We Talk, You Listen: A Tribute to Vine Deloria, Jr.,” was attended by more than 170 students. Participants enjoyed workshops and discussions encompassing a variety of important topics such as media business planning, interview techniques, investigative reporting, rural news networking and breaking into Internet media. Emphasis was also placed on column writing, photojournalism and political cartooning.
One highlight of the conference was a session of one-on-one critiques offered to students by professional broadcast journalists. Increasing Native involvement in broadcasting is a particular concern of NAJA. This summer, assisted by National Public Radio and the Radio-Television News Directors Foundation, NAJA created Broadcast Camp, an introduction to broadcast journalism for teachers and American Indian students. CNN recently pledged $50,000 for this endeavor.
Kim Baca, Navajo/Santa Clara Pueblo, NAJA’s outgoing interim executive director, said American Indians are needed in the fields of radio and TV journalism.
”With the help of CNN and other broadcasters, we hope to create new avenues for Native students as radio and television professionals,” she said.
Each year as part of the convention, NAJA selects 25 college journalism majors to participate in a weeklong training workshop during which they produce a daily newspaper, radio or television newscast, or news Web site. Native Voice, the paper they produce, is printed, published and distributed at the convention. The broadcast news clips they produce air on local radio and television stations. The student Web site features text, static pictures, streaming audio and video, and podcasts. Another activity geared toward high school students is Project Phoenix, a journalism camp where students produce the newspaper Rising Voices. Samples of these student projects are available on the NAJA Web site.
The election of NAJA’s officers for 2007 – ’08 also took place at the conference. According to a release, they are Mike Kellogg, Navajo, publisher of the Stillwater (Okla.) News Press, treasurer; Shirley Sneve, Rosebud Sioux, executive director of Native American Public Telecommunications, Neb., secretary; and Bryan Pollard, Cherokee, editor of The Cherokee Phoenix, Okla., vice president. Ronnie Washines, Yakama, outgoing vice president, was re-elected to a second term on the board; and one new board member, Rhonda LeValdo, Acoma Pueblo, a journalism graduate student at the University of Kansas in Lawrence, was seated.
Cristina Azocar, Upper Mattaponi, last year’s board treasurer, was seated for a second term and was elected board president. Azocar is an assistant professor of journalism at San Francisco State University and director of the Center for Integration and Improvement of Journalism. She is the author of the Reading Red Report 2007, an investigation of mainstream newsgathering practices and news coverage in American Indian communities. The report analyzes more than 1,000 news articles from nine large circulation mainstream newspapers to determine how the press treats Indians.
”I’m honored to be able to give something back,” Azocar said in a release. ”With the upcoming move to the University of Oklahoma and the UNITY: Journalists of Color convention in Chicago next year, we will be busy. I promise to work very hard to make this a successful year.”
The board also announced the hiring of Jeff Harjo, Seminole, editor of the Kickapoo Traveling Times, as NAJA’s new executive director.
NAJA plans to close their offices at the Al Neuharth Media Center, on the campus of the University of South Dakota in Vermillion, July 18. The Gaylord College of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Oklahoma in Norman is expanding its offices to accommodate the organization. Sources say they are unsure of the exact date that the expansion work will be completed, but they are anticipating reopening sometime in the fall.