Some time ago, I mentioned to Dr. Starr that I'd like to put this saying of his on a shirt:
"Every time a newspaper fails, we lose a little freedom."
I finally did! Here is the early version of the shirt:
I'm ordering one to test the print quality and then I'll ship the first one to Dr. Starr. (Note: I'm slowly migrating the Aggie Journalists shirts over to Printfection, because the CafePress terms of service are untenable.)
Our destroyer task group was based in Subic Bay, two hours up the coast from Manila Bay. At 0330 each morning for four days, we stood out of Subic Bay and steamed south, arriving in Manila Bay two hours later, just before dawn. Our task was to soften up Corregidor as much as possible before the paratroopers went in for the final clean-up. I did not envy them. ... We bombarded Corregidor as long as it was daylight. For two days, the Nicholas and others steamed close to the cliffsides, point-blank-range close, to draw Japanese fire from the tunnel openings. The idea was to find the guns and silence them. But we had to give the Japanese first shot. The scheme worked. We were shot at continually and we silenced quite a few of those cliffside guns. ... Because it was a continuing fight, we stayed at battle stations all day every day. We took individual breaks for meals. Breakfast and supper were served during the two-hour run between Subic and Manila. Dinner was not served as such. Each unit in the ship sent one or two men at a time to eat. We ate in a hurry and hastened back to our battle stations. Mine was on the bridge, so I was witness to much of the action. ... After Corregidor, the Nicholas participated in the landings at Zamboanga, Cebu, Borneo, and Okinawa, and, finally, the Japanese surrender in Tokyo Bay.
Dr. Starr is on Facebook, and you can tell from all the posts by his former students how highly we regard him. Go check him out!
1ST LEDE WRITETHRU: EDS NOTE TIME REFERENCES THROUGHOUT
OK, so as soon as I say this, they announce the Tech game won't be televised. Kickoff will be at 2:30 and I anticipate we'll try to schedule the reception for, say, 12:30.
Kickoff time for the Tech game will be determined by TV plans, and they apparently don't have to make that plan final until six days before the Oct. 30 game. Rest assured that we'll adjust -- the Fall Reception will happen at a suitable time for Aggie football-goers. Usually if it's a morning game, we'll have the reception shortly afterward; if it starts midday or later, we'll have it beforehand. Either way, our site, Room B-111 (the "POD") in Cain Hall, is very close to Kyle Field. Nice and handy!
(TK, for those who haven't been taught the antiquated jargon, stands for To Come. I dunno why the K. Maybe baseball fans made it up. At least I finally found out what CQ means...)
The flags are up for Memorial Day, but I've got a different kind of celebration in mind! Since I missed the real retirement party for Texas A&M's Dr. Douglas Starr on May 21, I'm throwing a little party right here on the blog for him.
He's taught journalism at A&M since 1986, first in the Department of Journalism and then in the Department of Ag Leadership, Education and Communications. That makes 4.8 bajillion of us he's instructed. Feel free to jump in the comments and post a note or story about Dr. Starr!
KBTX recently interviewed him for its Voices of Veterans series, so you can watch the man himself talk about his experience joining the Navy at 17, in 1943. He had to wait until his 18th birthday to be sent into combat, and then "a month later, we were in the Marshalls shooting up the place." Watch Parts One and Two at KBTX.com.
Even in a calm sea, destroyer sailors eat with one hand while balancing their trays with the other, and walking is always a test of balance. Destroyer sailors develop sea legs quickly—a special roll that, ashore, singles out the destroyer sailor from among other ship crews. In a rough sea, life takes on a new meaning as the ship rolls and pitches and leaps and falls and slings itself about like a thing alive and berserk. Normal ship’s work is suspended because it cannot be performed. Ship’s cooks cannot prepare proper meals, producing only beans and coffee as long as the rolling and pitching continue.
What do you think of the idea being bandied about that governments as a last resort should bail out failing newspapers? DPS: It's a terrible idea, and it is against the Constitution. The First Amendment in the Bill of Rights states: "Congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of speech or of the press."
...
You have 45 years of experience in journalism and teaching it. From your experience and vantage point, is there anything newspapers can do that they're not doing to improve their chances of surviving? (Editor's note: Prof. Starr crossed out the "45" in his reply and typed in "57 years, 1952-2009.") DPS: Attract young readers of news by focusing on their age group. Ask young people what kind of news they want and add that to the mix. Return to the time-honored requirements of reporting. Use the inverted pyramid approach to writing news, giving readers the whole story in the first one or two sentences, because most readers do not read through any news story. Use simple English and simple sentences and proper punctuation and grammar. Reduce the length of international and national stories by cutting unnecessary detail that people don't read. Ensure that reporters report accurately and objectively, without opinion and conjecture, except in analyses and columns. Ensure that analyses and columns draw conclusions based upon stated fact. Publish more local news, news of what's going on in the newspaper's geographic jurisdiction.
You have said that every time a paper fails, all of us lose a little bit of freedom and people don't realize that. With the prospect now that many newspapers across America are on the brink of bankruptcy, what do you think the effect will be on our society if they don't make it? DPS: The United States as we know it will disappear; it will no longer be a nation of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. One by one, all of our freedoms will disappear; the Bill of Rights, of freedoms, will be meaningless because there will be no freedom of speech or of the press. Without a free press, there will be no one to keep an eye on the government and to tell the people what the government is doing and is planning to do.
"Every time a paper fails, all of us lose a little bit of freedom," eh? I might just have to make a shirt out of that.
In any case, here is a big hearty WHOOP for Dr. Douglas Perret Starr, and for all our veterans. Former students of Dr. Starr, you can still connect with him on Facebook! And if you get a chance to catch up with him in person, a little birdie told me he likes sugar cookies.
Since 1986, Aggies have been learning the principles of journalism from Dr. Douglas Starr, a wonderful man who always has time for his students and former students -- and who was my first friend on Facebook and the first member of our Aggie Journalists Facebook group. So this is a sad announcement for journalism students and grads of A&M. But it's a retirement well deserved, and I hope he'll be relaxed and happy in no time! Here's the official word from Dr. Dunsford:
Doug Starr is retiring at the end of August.
We are collecting letters or other items from former students and former colleagues. If they would send their items to me at the address below, that would be great. We’re also collecting for a retirement gift. Any contributions can come to me as well, or to Debbie King, 107 Scoates Hall, MS 2116, TAMU, College Station, 77843-2116.
His official retirement party will be Friday, May 21, at the REC Center on Campus. Details will be along soon.
Thank you!
Deb Dunsford
Deborah W. Dunsford, Ph.D. Senior Lecturer and Program Coordinator Agricultural Communications and Journalism Texas A&M University7 127 Scoates Hall, MS 2116 College Station, Texas 77843-2116 979-458-3389; fax 979-845-6296 dunsford (at) tamu.edu
Former journalism professor Dave Mayes is retiring from Texas A&M AgriLife Communications. A reception honoring him will be held at 5–6:30 p.m. Wednesday, January 13, 2010, at the Community Center, TAMU Student Apartment Complex, 202 Charles Haltom Ave., College Station, Texas
Cards and letters to be included in a memory book may be sent to Judy Winn, TAMU 2112, College Station, Texas 77843-2112 or j-winn2@tamu.edu, 979.845.2808.
Contributions toward a gift may also be sent to Lonnette Ray, TAMU 2112, College Station, TX 77843-2112, 979.862.1460. Please make checks payable to Texas AgriLife Extension.
The new SPJ chapter will elect officers and adopt by-laws on Dec. 2. The core group of students has already held three organizational meetings. After last night's meeting, they established a Facebook page. Here's the link: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=183472526081
The 20-page special edition of The Battalion marking the 10th anniversary of the deadly Bonfire collapse came out yesterday (its cover is the image at left). KBTX interviewed Batt staffers, including Amanda Casanova '10 and Matthew Woolbright '12, about their work preparing the issue; you can watch that video here.
Manager of Student Publications Bob Wegener said, "I'm really proud of The Batt staff's work. People have been calling/e-mailing this morning to request extra copies."
You can read the full special edition online here.
Today, Batt staffer Doug Klembara '11 posted some marvelous images and a moving description of the 2:42 a.m. vigil on his blog. He gave me permission to reproduce the image below, of Aggies around the granite slab that marks where Centerpole stood. More of his photos are on his blog and his Flickr photostream.
At the Austin American-Statesman, Jay Janner '91 illustrated both the print and online coverage with his wonderful photographs. A gallery can be viewed here.
The San Antonio Express-News' Roy Bragg '80 wrote a great story about the Bonfire ceremony that both his paper and the Houston Chronicle used. Wegener said he will be using Bragg's story as a teaching tool in his work with A&M students.
Too many Aggies to count work at both the Bryan-College Station Eagle and at KBTX, which have both outdone themselves with anniversary coverage. This page lists all the Eagle's stories, and this page all the KBTX coverage.
FJSA members Nicholas Roznovsky '01 and Denise Mattox '03 did some civilian journalism. Click here for Roznovsky's excellent photos from the vigil and here for Mattox's touching remembrance of the events of that week in 1999.
My thoughts and love are with the families, the friends and relatives of the 12, with all those who worked our guts out on Bonfire through the years, with the lifelong friends I made on Bonfire and with all of the Aggie family. And now here's that Klembara photo I promised above:
Big thanks to FJSA's Jerry Cooper '63 for this heads-up. College of Liberal Arts dean Charles Johnson, who decided in 2003 to close Texas A&M's journalism department, will become a senior associate vice president for research effective Nov. 1, A&M has announced.
The press release says Johnson will oversee interdisciplinary programs. That sounds like it would include A&M's Journalism Studies program, which is an interdisciplinary minor. I've got questions out on that.
Another release says that Johnson's interim replacement will be executive associate dean Ben Crouch, who will serve "until the current national search for a dean of liberal arts is concluded."
Thank you again to FJSA's new treasurer, Nicholas Roznovsky, who took photos at the Fall Reception and posted this slideshow. Many familiar faces here... Bob Rogers, Ed Walraven, Kelly Brown, Scot Walker, Roznovskys pere et fils, Jerry Cooper, Roy Bragg and many others; speakers including outgoing president Rob Clark, associate dean Pamela Matthews, Bob Rogers scholarship recipient Kayla Slimp; and Hall of Honor inductee Welton Jones.
Rice will start Sept. 1, Matthews said, noting that an official announcement will come soon.
In the next couple of days, we'll have a full interview with Rice up on this blog. For now, here's a bit of background:
Rice, currently a lecturer with Journalism Studies, began teaching at A&M in Fall 2008. In an interview with FJSA at that time, he talked about the need to produce journalists who can work across all media platforms and about emphasizing basic reporting skills in his classes.
"... We need journalists who can report rapidly, write quickly, think on their feet and never abandon principles such as fairness and accuracy in the process. That, to me, is why sound journalism education is as important today as it has ever been," Rice said.
The second semester of A&M's Student Reporter Project has wrapped, and the program is changing along with its students.
This fall, the College of Liberal Arts project will kick off with writing workshops that the students themselves requested. The project now also extends over two semesters instead of operating one semester at a time.
Students accepted into the program get an experience that's designed by a 35-year newspaper veteran to feel like the way a newspaper works.
Coordinator Dale Rice has divided the project into beats -- Arts, Family, GA, Health, Justice, Media, Politics and Religion/Culture. "I wanted to give the students a sense of the way an actual newsroom operates and an understanding of beats," he says.
Liberal Arts' director of college relations, Leanne South, says, "The students who apply don't get college credit, but we do pay them for their stories. They apply because they want to develop their skills as a journalist, so they come in motivated and ready to learn from Dale."
Once reporters are assigned to their beats, the work begins.
Rice says, "The students are involved in what I see as a 'real-world' relationship with an editor. As a group, we brainstorm ideas for all the beats and then the reporters pursue those they feel have a good peg."
Most reporters are asked to generate three stories per semester about Liberal Arts faculty research that falls under their beat; they are paid $50 per story. Senior reporters earn more for stories that dig deeper.
"I'm there during the reporting process to help them formulate or test questions prior to their interviews if they want that assistance (and many of them do)," Rice says.
"Then, they submit the completed stories, which I treat as first drafts. I comment on them, raise questions, suggest ways to improve ledes or restructure the pieces and then -- and this is the critical learning part -- send them back to the reporters for rework and rewriting."
Working with their editor
Rice's reporting and editing experience comes directly into play as he helps the students prepare for interviews.
"I sometimes help them figure out how to approach difficult subjects through a series of questions. Other times I help them figure out how to pace an interview so they can get comfortable with a professor who may be an intimidating figure to them. Occasionally, I help them phrase a question on a subject they consider controversial or sensitive," he says.
"It's important to remember that some of these students have had no journalism training, so the first serious interviews of their academic careers may take place for the SRP. Consequently, I also see my role as one of confidence building in that regard."
The results are rewarding, he says.
"The students have reacted very positively to the experience and I've been very pleased with their work."
Students' stories are published online as the In Depth news journal and pitched to outside media through Texas A&M’s News and Information Services. "Satara Williams' story on a professor's advice for relationships was picked up by UPI and Times of the Internet and run by both on Feb. 10 -- just in advance of Valentine's Day," Rice says. (Read the article here.)
Changing to fit students' needs
South says, "This project is what I call an organic project in that we started it from scratch and are allowing student feedback and progress to guide how we should proceed."
The most recent change allows students to spend two semesters in the project, rather than one. "When Dale asked if they would be interested in continuing on for another semester, they jumped at the opportunity," South says.
Another student-driven change is the writing workshops Rice will teach at the start of the fall semester. "The students wanted them to focus on key story elements," Rice says. "There will be three: one on ledes, one on nut grafs and one on the use of quotes to advance a story."
Rice recently was awarded a $3,000 grant for audio and video digital equipment; he plans to incorporate video and podcasting first into his classroom teaching and then into the Student Reporter Project.
An early effort is the following video filmed by a reporter from the program, in which Rice and two of his students appear:
Any liberal arts major, as well as any student minoring in journalism, can apply for the program. "We have journalism minors, Batt staffers and some who have not elected to take a minor in journalism (perhaps this experience will change their minds and offer them an enticing peek into another educational possibility)," Rice says.
South says she is interested to see Battalion reporters applying for the program. "Part of that might be because they are taking one or more of Dale's classes," she says. "We take that as a good sign that they believe the Student Reporter Project is an activity worth their time."
But for now, the program is at capacity. "The slots are full for the fall," Rice says. "We will open applications for the spring mid-way through the fall semester."
Texas A&M journalism lecturer Dale Rice is one of six recipients of the 2009 College of Liberal Arts Summer Technology Institute grants, which provide $3,000 to add technology to a course.
"I'm using the proceeds to buy the equipment (video cameras and digital voice recorders) and software to add video and audio components to JOUR 303, Media Writing II," Rice e-mailed.
The institute provides technical support as the equipment is put into use. Faculty members' applications for the grants are evaluated competitively based on their innovation and impact on students.
Rice said his students will learn to produce videos and audio podcasts to go along with the print versions of their stories. "I plan to have the students publish an online magazine at the end of the semester with the best story of each student in 303, along with the accompanying videos and podcasts," he said.
Rice also hopes to introduce videos and podcasts into the Student Reporter Project, which he coordinates. Watch later this week for an update on that program.
"We're starting with six video cameras, four digital voice recorders and editing software for two Apple computers that will be placed in the computer lab where the class is held in Reed McDonald," Rice said.
"Fourteen students have signed up for 303 in the fall (compared with nine this spring) and there will be nine reporters in the SRP for the fall, so I think the demand will be pretty high. We'll probably handle that by allowing the students to check out a camera or recorder for one 24-hour period each week, so they will have to stagger use of the equipment. And we'll have to set up a schedule for editing time on the Apple computers.
"If it is successful, I am going to seek additional sources of funding to buy more equipment for the journalism and SRP students and to expand the video and audio components to the blogging class that I teach."
Dr. Randall Sumpter has resigned as the head of Texas A&M's Journalism Studies Program, said Associate Dean Pamela Matthews. Sumpter decided to work on his scholarship, said Matthews, who oversees Undergraduate and Interdisciplinary Programs in the College of Liberal Arts.
Sumpter has overseen the journalism minor program at A&M since its inception and has drawn notable journalists to instruct A&M students in the Journalists-in-Residence program. Journalists taking part in the program have come from every major newspaper in Texas as well as the New York Times, Washington Post, CNN and other outlets; many of them have been Aggies returning to their alma mater to teach and lead student projects for a week.
Watch for more updates on the Journalism Studies Program's future leadership, as well as updates coming very soon on the Student Reporter Program and a $3,000 grant that will directly benefit the students in JOUR 303, Media Writing II.
Bob Rogers, retired head of the Texas A&M Department of Journalism, sends this tribute to the late Donald C. Johnson. Thank you, sir!
In a perfect world, we would have the Donald C. Johnson Department of Student Media at Texas A&M, or, better still, the DJ Department of Student Media because he was DJ to hundreds of Battalion and Aggieland staffers. DJ brought to A&M a lifelong passion and respect for journalism and its critical place in society. Those qualities also gave him a strong belief in the freedom and integrity of student journalism. He was devoted to his students and their work and resisted any pressures that hinted of censorship. He was a fierce protector of Student Publications from occasional attempts from university administrators to take over its funds for other purposes. DJ came to A&M as newspaper technology was on the brink of cosmic changes from typewriters and Linotypes to computers. He embraced the new world and was instrumental in leading student publications and the Department of Journalism into it. He made the Battalion the first student newspaper in Texas, and perhaps the nation, into a computer-based operation. Only those who remember the bulky CRTs, the huge, finicky CPU and the horrid optical scanner system can imagine how difficult the change was. DJ spent untold hours making the systems work and training students to use them. As with everything else, he did it with total dedication. Only DJ's family (and perhaps golf and music) were more important to him than journalism and student publications. When he came to A&M he chose a house next to Briarcrest Country Club's golf course for two reasons, the golf and the music programs at Bryan High School for his children. He was himself an accomplished violinist and in later years organized reunions for his high school orchestra. He also was a voracious reader and kept cabinets full of clippings from all manner of publications. Don Johnson was a man of many interests and many talents, but most of all he was a journalist in the finest meaning of that word. And an Aggie in the finest meaning of that word, too.
Donald Cargill Johnson, known at Texas A&M as "DJ," died May 23. Our thoughts are with his family and friends. Here is an excerpt from the obituary in the Eagle:
Don's career as a newspaper editor with the Gannett Co. spanned more than 30 years, impacting innumerable lives through his professional and personal endeavors in New York and New Jersey. He made the transition to educating future journalists when he accepted the position of Director of Student Publications at Texas A&M University in 1977. Affectionately known as DJ to his students, Don spent more than a decade sharing his passions for integrity and the free press with Aggies.
There is a guest book on the Eagle's site where you can share and read comments and tributes to Mr. Johnson.
Our own dear Dr. Douglas Perret Starr wrote a great column for the Waco Tribune-Herald about the importance of journalism for the future of the United States. Dr. Starr, I wish I could give you a virtual hug, and I'll let your powerful words speak for themselves:
COLLEGE STATION — The United States is in jeopardy. Many newspapers have gone out of business and the rest are in deplorable condition.
If the news media shut down, the United States will no longer boast government of the people, by the people, for the people. The government will be in charge, and the people will be its pawns because there will be no free criticism of the government, no uncensored report on what the government is doing.
The good, the bad and the ugly of political blogging and how it is affecting communications is the subject of a new course at Texas A&M University taught by a 35-year newspaper veteran.
Dale Rice, who spent the last 19 years at the Austin-American Statesman, teaches the communications course and his aim is to make students better communicators and thinkers, keep them more informed about the American political process and above all, to learn that there is no such thing as a bad opinion—be it from the far left, the far right or even completely off the radar screen.
I checked in with Dr. Starr about his Distinguished Achievement Award (story here) and also asked him, just out of my own curiosity, for a little background on the Pulitzer. Here's what he says: ------------------- There is no finer award for a teacher than one that comes from the students. That award brought honor not for me alone, but also for the Department of Leadership, Education, and Communications. ...
Yes, I was a reporter, one of the team that helped the Vicksburg MS Post-Herald win the Pulitzer Prize in 1954. All of the reporters -- there weren't that many -- were assigned to cover the aftermath of the tornado. For my part, it was 48 hours of combing the streets, interviewing victims, and law enforcement officers, and national guardsmen about what they saw and heard, and describing the destruction that I saw.
I visited hospitals and interviewed the injured and the survivors (a difficult task for a reporter new to that situation), the doctors, the paramedics, the police, and sheriff's deputies. And I lived on Red Cross coffee and doughnuts.
What impressed me was the number of volunteers, ordinary citizens, who came from up to 200 miles away to help "because I figured they needed my help." That was the days before the special teams that we have today.
True, the power was down, but the telephone lines were out of whack. For some reason, the cityroom telephone was connected to the switchboard of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. To make a telephone call, we had to get an outside line from the cityroom and another outside line from the Engineers switchboard.
No matter how good a job we reporters did, the major credit goes to the backshop crew who somehow got power to the presses and put out the newspaper when it was needed.
A year after -- this did not figure in the Pulitzer Prize -- I did an anniversary piece and found that life had returned to normal, except that some families had fewer members. One of the buildings that collapsed was a movie theater. The roof fell down on the matinee audience that consisted mostly of children. Those who hid under the seats survived because the seats held off the roof. Fortunately, not many died.
Similarities are that people, teams and volunteers, helped those in need then and help now, without waiting to be called into action. I saw that in the immediate aftermath of the collapse of Bonfire.
Differences are that, in those days, since there was no television to speak of, people depended upon radio and the newspaper, and both worked to provide what was needed.
Dr. Starr has won numerous awards in his long career, not least of them a Pulitzer in 1954 with the staff of the Vicksburg (Miss.) Sunday Post-Herald for coverage of an F5 tornado that killed 38 people. I was curious and read up a bit on this, my mind on recent Hurricane Ike coverage, and thought I would share this description from the Vicksburg Post Web site:
Under the most difficult conditions, Publisher Cashman's staff, improvising without the gas to fire the Linotypes, worked to publish the newspaper and keep citizens informed as to the fate of their friends and families. They worked tirelessly to quell rampant rumors that spread in a darkened city, most of which was without power and communications.
And as a bit of lagniappe, here's a piece of Dr. Starr's own writing, about being an 18-year-old "tin can sailor" on the destroyer U.S.S. Nicholas.
My thanks to Bill Gibbs, Texas A&M AgriLife communications manager, for his help with this. Congratulations, Dr. Starr!
How can I post my item? To post a bio, news item or opinion piece, just e-mail it to the address above and I'll post it forthwith! No registration required for comments or our forum.
Who is this Sue person anyway? I'm a journalist, former Batt staffer, Class of '94, past president of FJSA and general goofball.
If you live in Austin and need anything done to a Mac, call MacTronics, 445-9699, for genius work done fair and fast by very nice folks (hi, Terri and Shane). This is an unsolicited testimonial - I just think they're great. Suffice it to say this blog wouldn't be up and running without them!
Posts
