By Maria Hechanova
Voices
There are 25 amphibious vehicles in the Boston Duck Tours fleet. Some of them are restored originals from WWII. Highlights of the tour include seeing the Boston Public Garden and cruising the Charles River.

Maria Hechanova
Voices

Journalists share their thoughts on the social networking phenomenon.

Twitter is being used by major news organizations like CNN, National Public Radio, and The New York Times. Sreenath Sreenivasan, a new media professor at Columbia University, says that it’s like radio in 1912 and television in the 1950s.  “News organizations are deciding what they’re going to do with it and the smart ones are using it to reach a wider audience.”

The Orange County Register is a newspaper that encourages its staff to use Twitter and other social networking Web sites.  “Management keeps track of what stories generate the most clicks, and that’s a method by which our success is judged,” arts and entertainment writer Richard Chang said.

Twitter is like the Wild West in a way, Chang said. “We don’t know where it’s going, but it’s important so we’re all on board.”

Four other journalists share their thoughts on the social networking phenomenon, Twitter.

Ann Curry

Ann Curry
News Anchor, Today; Co-Anchor, Dateline

Ann Curry started using Twitter this spring and says, “it rocks!”  Curry explains why she likes using it and what to look for when verifying information.  She says it offers an outlet to include information that didn’t make it into the traditional broadcast.  Follow Ann Curry on Twitter.

[podcast]http://blogs.aaja.org/conventionnews/wp-content/podcast/Curry_FINAL.mp3[/podcast]

Elizabeth Chuck, aka datelinenbc.

Elizabeth Chuck
Web Producer for NBC News and msnbc.com

Elizabeth Chuck recalls how Twitter played a factor in reporting the emergency landing of Flight 1549 in the Hudson River in January.  She says her news organization is still experimenting with how they use it.  Follow Elizabeth Chuck’s tweets on Twitter.

[podcast]http://blogs.aaja.org/conventionnews/wp-content/podcast/Chuck_FINAL.mp3[/podcast]

John Schiumo, aka Schiumo.

John Schiumo
Host – NY1 The Call

John Schiumo is the host of NY1’s television show, “The Call,” which airs in New York.  Each day, the TV news program asks its viewers to decide the top news stories by having people vote online.  Schiumo talks about Twitter’s popularity and why journalists should be careful when using it to make contacts.  Follow John Schiumo on Twitter.

[podcast]http://blogs.aaja.org/conventionnews/wp-content/podcast/Schiumo_FINAL.mp3[/podcast]

Sandeep Junnarkar

Sandeep Junnarkar
Associate Professor @ CUNY Graduate School of Journalism

Sandeep Junnarkar teaches online journalism and believes that new media is the future of the industry. In this phone interview, he discusses why Twitter can be a useful tool for journalists. Follow Sandeep Junnarkar on Twitter.

[podcast]http://blogs.aaja.org/conventionnews/wp-content/podcast/Junnarkar_FINAL.mp3[/podcast]

This year's keynote speaker features John Yang, NBC News correspondent.

By Jackie Watanabe
Voices

NBC News correspondent John Yang says no other job appeals to him more than being able to tell other people’s stories. Yang, a first-generation Chinese American, has always been a journalist.

Before transitioning to television news, Yang was a reporter and editor for nearly 10 years at The Washington Post. He has also worked for The Boston Globe, Time Magazine, and The Wall Street Journal.

Q: How did you get into journalism?

A: Once I found out what a journalist did, it became sort of natural for me. I’ve always been someone who wanted to know what’s going on. I’ve always been very nosy. I’ve always wanted to know what’s really going on. What’s the story behind the story? How did all this happen? Who’s really pulling the strings and how is he making all this happen? I’ve always wanted to be the first one to tell people things, to walk into a room and say, “Guess what just happened?”

Q: How did you make the change from print to broadcast news?

A: Broadcast was something that always interested me, but I never knew quite how to make that jump. At The Washington Post, they were doing more and more into getting involved in television – sort of cross-branding – having reporters available for cross talks, and I did a fair amount of those for The Post.

The NBC affiliate in Washington, D.C., approached The Post in the late 90s about doing some joint ventures. One of the ideas was to turn the business section into a branded business report in the morning, ahead of the “Today” show. They were going to call it the Washington Post Business Report. They asked a number of us to audition and make tapes and they picked me. I discovered the joys of morning television and getting up at ungodly hours. I discovered I liked it and was good at it, had fun doing it, and got offers out of it, and that’s how it happened.

Q: You’ve covered a broad range of topics – everything from things here in the nation to world affairs. What has been the most challenging thing for you?

A: There are all sorts of different challenges – understanding complex stories in a short amount of time and becoming an instant expert on something.

That’s the one challenge about covering the White House. Stories and topics just pop up, and you don’t necessarily see them coming. Covering the Hill, you sort of know when topics are coming. When bills are moving through committees into the floor, you get up to speed on them as they are being drafted. At the White House, things pop up. Things happen around the world, and suddenly you have to become an expert on Myanmar or Burma when the typhoon hit last year.

I can talk about just about any topic for about two or three minutes, and then you’ve exhausted my knowledge. It’s sort of like being at a cocktail party. You keep running into people and having to come up with different topics to talk about.

Q: Do you think your background affects your reporting?

A: I think everyone’s background affects their reporting. No one comes to this as a blank slate. We’re all products of who we are, and we approach stories based on who we are and where we come from and what our backgrounds are. I’m going to approach a story differently than a colleague. It has to do with ethnicity, it has to do with being Asian, but it also has to do with growing up in the Midwest, growing up in a small town.

Q: How do you assess media coverage of the Asian community?

A: I think it could be better. I think that there is a tendency in a lot of reporting to lump the Asian communities together. It’s not just the Asian community. I see the same thing in reporting on Latinos and Hispanics.

I think it’s getting better because of having more Asian and Latino reporters who can bring sensitivity to the coverage.

Q: What do you think could be done to improve the coverage?

A: I think it’s all about just reporting. It’s getting out to the community and talking to the people and understanding. So much of this is just good basic journalism. It’s just going out and understanding the communities and understanding the differences and the subtleties of the communities.

Q: What do you think about media convergence and if it’s the future of journalism?

A: It’s not just the future, it’s the present. I think that it’s smart to have as many skills as you can have to be as versatile as you can be to be able to move within these roles.

I think that that is the way that journalists are going to be working in the future. All the walls are breaking down, and we are all doing all sorts of different things.

Q: Your advice for people trying to reinvent themselves?

A: Embrace it! Don’t be afraid of it. It’s fun! When I got offers to move to television, it made me stop and think about where I was and what I was doing. I was at a newspaper that I really loved. I loved The Washington Post. But I realized I could stay the rest of my career at The Post, so it was a good thing and a bad thing. At age 40, someone was offering to pay me to learn a new skill, and I thought, how can I pass that up? If it didn’t work out, at least I’d have a taste of a new skill or at least I’d have the basis of a new skill. I think you just have to keep growing and learning and discovering new things.

Things are changing. The business environment is changing. the technology is changing. You have to deal with what you’ve got now and play the hand that you’re dealt with.

Q: And finally, your thoughts about AAJA?

A: Well, just how much AAJA means to me. … It’s a great reminder to me that whenever I go there that I stand on the shoulders of those who have gone before me. That’s really why I’m so committed to the organization. I really feel that it has been incumbent on me to try and do what little I can do to give what boost I can to those who are coming up behind me.

Credit Voices photo staff

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By Sherene Tagharobi
Voices

AAJA program guides line the table behind the registration desk on Wednesday, August 12th.

By Patrick Lee, Jackie Watanabe and Yowei Shaw
Voices

There is an air of uncertainty at this year’s AAJA Convention.

Amid a slimmer job fair, fewer attendees and not quite as many cocktail parties hangs a hint of fear – not only about the future of journalism, but the future of AAJA itself.

“Yeah, there’s worry, and it’s based in reality,” said AAJA National Treasurer Candace Heckman. “I’m not going to sugar coat anything, the industry’s in trouble.”

AAJA will likely end the year with a deficit of more than $100,000, Heckman said. Funding for some programs already has been cut. Further cuts may be on the way, and some members are talking of fundamental changes to AAJA programming.

Last November, AAJA foresaw the probable shortfall and scaled back its revenue projections for the coming year. But even anticipating a $38,000 deficit when planning its annual budget has proven insufficient to keep the organization’s financial projections on track. AAJA is now looking for more money from non-media companies.

Maya Blackmun, interim executive director, believes finances have not yet gotten to the point where drastic changes are needed. The group’s endowment, currently $930,000, can provide a cushion as a last resort, she said.

Members, however, have already felt some effects of the budget crunch in ways big and small at this year’s convention – from the lack of free tote bags usually given out at registration to a drastic reduction in funding for Voices, the convention’s student-produced publication.

“Everything is at risk of being cut. Everything,” said Heckman. “But I don’t think anything is at risk of being eliminated.”

But there are signs of hope as well.

J Camp, AAJA’s multicultural high school program, received an unexpected donation of $25,000 this year to seed an endowment. The program’s directors, Clea Benson and Angie Lau, said AAJA national board members have assured them financial support will continue. Other initiatives, including some scholarships, cannot be eliminated because of legal requirements from trusts and donors. And the Executive Leadership Program for mid-career journalists kept most of its regular programming this year, cutting only its annual reception.

The hardest-hit program so far has been the student news project. In past years, the project’s budget has exceeded $100,000, said Janice Lee, outgoing deputy executive director. This year, AAJA chopped the budget by more than half, resulting in a shorter project schedule, minimal funding for professional mentors, less equipment and no technical support.

“We appreciate what we’ve gotten, but we’ve sacrificed a lot, too,” said Marian Liu, the project’s director. “Seriously, why else would you work your brains out for free? … It’s a passion project.”

A controversial proposal was recently sent to the advisory board, recommending that AAJA downsize Voices to a less expensive mentoring program with no news training. The plan – drafted by Thomas Lee, a reporter for the Star Tribune of Minneapolis, and Janice Lee – argues that because of tough times and less student interest, the program’s budget should be cut by more than one-third, to $15,000. They were scheduled to formally present their plan to the advisory board Saturday morning at the Seaport World Trade Center.

In reaction, some have formed a letter-writing campaign to save the project.

Thomas Lee defended his plan. A former Voices student and editor for eight years, Lee said the project helped him profoundly, but his goal is to get AAJA members thinking about concrete responses to this and future years’ budget woes.

“Feelings are not a policy proposal,” he said. “AAJA has to start making some hard decisions. I think, up until now, we’ve been sort of nibbling around the edges … you need a strategic plan.”

No such plan currently exists. AAJA’s last five-year strategic plan ended in December, and board members said they can’t draft a new plan until it hires a permanent executive director. The unexpected departure of recently hired Executive Director Ellen Endo has compounded AAJA’s problems, raising questions about the organization’s direction and pointed questions about transparency among its leaders.

Even the best-case scenario for finances this year – where AAJA breaks even on the convention and receives all of its outstanding donation pledges – is fairly grim. Since AAJA depends on the convention as its big money-maker, barely covering its costs in Boston will result in an overall loss for the year.

One possible revenue source is increasing non-media sponsors. AAJA’s fundraising policy prohibits government sponsors and controversial groups, such as alcohol companies. But such decisions are often made on a case-by-case basis. The U.S. Census Bureau, for example, bought a job fair booth this year, and Bud Light has sponsored AAJA’s karaoke night for several years.

Both the National Association of Black Journalists and the National Association of Hispanic Journalists accept non-journalism sponsors, although NABJ makes a point not to take money from government agencies. NAHJ, however, accepted $50,000 this year from the U.S. Army, and its top eight sponsors this year were non-media.

“Just because these government organizations may sponsor you, it would be stupid to think our members are not going to cover them fairly,” said Ivan Roman, NAHJ’s executive director. “We have a very strong policy of donors or sponsors not dictating anything.”

Even seeking non-media companies, however, may not be enough. ELP Director Dinah Eng said she asked Bank of America this year but was turned down.

“Everything will have to be re-evaluated,” Heckman said. “And we’re going to have to make some serious decisions about how to scale back.”

Amazon

By Jackie Watanabe
Voices

The Amazon Kindle2 is like a newspaper, minus the paper.

The 10-ounce Kindle delivers through wireless technology and Sprint’s national 3G data network, allowing users to download copies of their favorite newspaper anywhere, anytime. There are no monthly wireless bills, and The Boston Globe, The New York Times, and San Francisco Chronicle are just a few of the papers available. Users also can choose from more than 300,000 books for less than the price of most paperbacks. Kindles can store more than 1,500 books, newspaper, magazine, and blog subscriptions.

A special electronic display looks remarkably similar to actual paper.

“When I first started using (the Kindle), I had a tendency to reach up to turn the page,” said Lloyd LaCuesta, the South Bay Bureau Chief of Oakland, Calif.-based KTVU-TV. “It’s a matter of pressing a button to turn the page, (but) I still had this kind of book mentality in my mind.”

Owning a Kindle, LaCuesta said, has changed his reading habits.

“I don’t have to put on a robe and worry that the neighbors are going to see me when I pick up the newspaper,” he said, chuckling.

LaCuesta and others think the device is the future of newspapers. But there is skepticism within the industry, especially because the Kindle versions of the paper don’t feature ads.

“The problem with the Kindle is it can’t do advertising, traditional advertising,” said Vindu Goel, Deputy Technology Editor of The New York Times. “You can’t really replicate the newspaper page. It looks different, and of course, as much as advertising has gone down, advertising is still the bread and butter of every print publication.”

Another drawback is the price. At $299, reduced from $359, the device may still not be affordable for many.

The good news is newspaper subscriptions are cheaper through the Kindle. Boston Globe Kindle subscribers pay $9.99 a month. Regular home delivery can cost nearly five times that much.

Audrey Kuo

By Audrey Kuo
Voices

I considered it a real bonding moment when my mother mentioned she’s annoyed with spelling mistakes in e-mails.

I pretty much jumped out of my seat, unleashing a rant about misplaced apostrophes and commas.

Always practical, my mom responded: “Well, if everyone knew where to put the commas, you wouldn’t have a job.”

True – sort of.

As a copy editor, I do sometimes move commas around, but my copy-editing brethren and I also write headlines, check facts, spot holes in stories, stop libel, ferret out bias and stereotypes and weigh ethical concerns against journalistic merit.

To me, it seems obvious that copy editors are essential in the production of solid journalism. And yet, as I was working on Voices stories about the shifting media landscape, I was shocked to hear just how many newsrooms are bypassing copy desks to post directly online.

I appreciate the need to break news quickly, but I value journalistic integrity more. The distinction between journalists and bloggers has become irrelevant, yet it’s still important to define basic standards for journalism.

Journalism is about finding truth and being accurate, and it’s simply impossible to do that without copy editors.

Errors are already on the rise. Last month, Washington Post ombudsman Andrew Alexander documented recent mistakes and chalked them up to a declining number of copy editors.

“Small errors will continue,” he concluded, adding that he hoped readers would note them and “also show some patience and understanding.”

Yes, some errors are unavoidable, but readers should not have to bear with us while we flail around trying to figure out the truth.

As a reporter, I’ve gotten details wrong, like when the copy chief at my college paper – the fifth person to read my story – mentioned that I might want to fix a quote that implied the Americans won the Battle of the Alamo.

It’s just not possible to read your own copy objectively.

Journalism requires rigorous standards and vigilance about accuracy. The American Copy Editors Society has been pushing back against cuts to copy desks, making sure news organizations understand this battle is more than just about comma placement.

No matter what format we use to deliver information, we need people to vet those stories and to consider the ethical standards that set journalism apart from speculation.

I wonder what lawsuit or catastrophic error it will take for news organizations to figure out how essential copy editors are – and I worry that we ask too much of readers when we seek forgiveness for our sloppiness.

They deserve better.

- Audrey Kuo is a member of the American Copy Editors Society and a recent recipient of the Aubespin Scholarship.

Courtesy of Rick Rocamora

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I-Ching Ng

Voices

For 18 years, documentary photographer Rick Rocamora turned his lens to the Filipino soldiers who were hailed as war heroes in their home country but were shunned as second-class veterans in the United States.

During World War II, the Filipino soldiers fought alongside American troops in some of the bloodiest battles in history against the Japanese occupation. Many were injured; some were killed in incidents such as the notorious Bataan Death March. Their efforts were seen as instrumental on the Pacific front of the war.

But ever since the war ended, these veterans have been struggling to gain U.S. citizenship and benefits that were promised by the U.S. government. Filipino American photographer Rocamora documented their plight in poignant black and white photos which formed his new book, “Filipino World War II Soldiers: America’s Second-Class Veterans.”

Since 1992, about 20,000 Filipino veterans have left their families behind and came to the United States. A sizable group descended in the crime-infested Tenderloin district of San Francisco. They came hoping to fulfill the residency requirement to gain their U.S. passports and, eventually, relocate their family members to the dreamland for which they had fought. But their temporary stay turned into decades of frustrated efforts to gain overdue recognition and compensation for their service.

“I felt I lived their lives; my photographs are their combined life experiences,” Rocamora said of the dwindling number of veterans who still live in the United States, which he estimates at about 4,000.

Many of the veterans, who are now in their 80s and 90s, spent their first nights in the country in homeless shelters, he said, and later moved into squalid rooms coated with mildew. They collected cans and garbage for a living.

“I looked after them and became a walking social service agency,” said Rocamora, who took some veterans to their doctor’s visits and got them free meals at soup kitchens and local churches. With no families by their side, some even died while holding Rocamora’s hand.

Many veterans later were dealt another harsh reality – a new immigration regulation enacted nearly a decade ago stipulates they need to earn at least $20,000 per year to be eligible to sponsor their family members from the Philippines. That policy left many of them stranded in the United States.

A former sales manager at the Dow Chemical Company, Rocamora, 62, quit his job and became a full-time freelance photographer in 1991. “I hope my images can remind all of us that we should never forget what they have endured,” he said of his nearly two-decade-long project.

Rocamora rallied with others for years to garner support for legislation that would compensate Filipino veterans. The latest legislation, the Filipino Veterans Equity Act of 2008, was passed by the House of Representatives, but the bill died on the Senate floor.

The economic stimulus package approved by President Barack Obama in February included the authorization of a one-time compensation of $15,000 for Filipino veterans who have become U.S. citizens, and $9,000 for those who are yet to become U.S. citizens or still living in the Philippines. However, the new policy still awaits funding.

Rocamora also captured the proud moments when the veterans donned their Purple Heart medals and conducted their daily chores. He was keenly aware that U.S. veterans receiving the same decoration were awarded $1,000 in compensation, while the Filipino veterans who fought with them were only entitled to half of the sum.

“With the same bravery and injuries (suffered), a Filipino’s life is only worth half of an American’s,” Rocamora said.

Job seekers fill the convention floor on Thursday, Aug. 13. | Daniel Sato / Voices

By Patrick Lee
Voices

Last year, newsrooms saw the biggest plunge in employment in 32 years – a loss of 5,900 jobs at U.S. daily papers.

Last month, the U.S. Department of Labor announced the unemployment rate was 9.5 percent, the highest in 26 years.

Last week, 272 students began preparing for classes at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism.

More than 1,100 students applied to the program for this fall, a 44 percent increase from 2008. This surge in applications reflects growing numbers of students at graduate journalism schools across the country over the last decade. In the fall of 2007, the year with the most recently available data, national enrollment in journalism and mass communications programs jumped by 10.3 percent – the highest increase since 2000.

But why are students flocking to an industry that is crumbling before their eyes?

Steve Brill puts it bluntly: “I think people are just behaving stupidly.”

Brill – founder of American Lawyer and co-founder of Journalism Online, a new company aimed at helping publishers generate revenue by charging for online content – says the cost-benefit analysis simply doesn’t add up: Thousands of dollars in tuition for a chance to gain entry into a field of closing doors.

But for the upcoming generation of journalists, it still seems too early to give up. Several recent college graduates interviewed said to break into journalism, they would be willing to work multiple jobs, parlay their skills into social media enterprises or – as evidenced by the numbers – go back to school.

“There’s something new to learn for the first time, probably since the advent of television, and that’s the advent of digital journalism,” explained Steve Shepard, founding dean of the City University of New York’s Graduate School of Journalism.

CUNY has also seen a 40 percent increase in applications for this fall, the biggest jump since the school opened in 2006.

A year ago, however, graduate school was not even on Juana Summers’ list of post-college options. A convergence journalism major at the University of Missouri with three semesters until graduation, Summers felt she was well-qualified for a wide array of journalism jobs and that graduate school would be overdoing it. But when she started job-hunting this summer, her options proved to be more limited than she had planned.

“The majority is freelancing, unpaid,” said Summers, currently an intern at the Austin (Texas) American-Statesman. “That’s not what I’m looking for.”

With the final semester of her undergraduate years looming over her, she has started seriously considering journalism graduate school as a way to defer undergraduate student loans for a few years, wait out the industry and make herself an even more competitive job candidate.

Lee Becker, a journalism professor and researcher at the University of Georgia, would point out that Summers’ situation is not unique. He has collected journalism-related statistics since 1988, and the job market figures for 2008, released on the first day of the AAJA Convention, show as dire a picture as ever.

“I can tell you that the market is much worse than it was last year,” he said. “We don’t know if students will simply shift and go into PR or advertising or something like that, or whether they will go into engineering or some other kind of occupation.”

For some, journalism school offers a safe environment to refine reporting skills, test new technologies and brainstorm new ways to make journalism profitable online.

“What better place to experiment than at an academic level where all great minds are coming together to figure that out?” said Vadim Lavrusik, an incoming graduate student at Columbia. “Plus, not that many people are hiring right now.”

Lavrusik, who graduated in the spring with a journalism degree from the University of Minnesota, is betting that $40,000 of tuition for 10 months of school will help him figure out how to get paid to report for an online publication, despite the state of the industry. Others, like Laura Bennett, applied to graduate programs because it was the only path that could provide her with a semblance of stability in an industry with no easy entry point.

“J-school is structured: You take classes, you write papers, you get grades, you graduate,” she said in an e-mail. “Journalism, needless to say, is not.”

Having just graduated from Yale, Bennett deferred her acceptance to Columbia’s graduate program to pursue a Fulbright scholarship in Spain. In one year’s time, she said, her decision on whether to attend graduate school will be wholly based on the job prospects she has – or doesn’t have – upon her return.

While the uptick of interest in journalism has some experts puzzled, others say vocational decisions don’t always depend on job market. Some decisions, said Sree Sreenivasan, Dean of Student Affairs and new media professor at Columbia, simply stem from an individual’s desire to make sense of their surroundings through journalism.

“After 9/11, we saw a spike in interest in journalism because people wanted to go in and explain the world,” he said. “This is another time I think we’re going to see more interest in business journalism, see more interest in explaining complex issues, politics.”

And that’s the spirit incoming student Lavrusik exudes when he talks about his reasons for pursuing journalism. A self-proclaimed “new media journalist, social media enthusiast,” Lavrusik’s passion lies in telling stories about what goes on around him – and hopefully finding a way to make money doing so, even if it takes a $40,000 investment upfront.

“I’m sure I’ll figure it out during the school year,” he said. “We’ll see where things take me.”