WVU P.I. Reed School of Journalism students and faculty will participate in upcoming events honoring West Virginia veterans.

PR students collect veterans’ histories

Eight public relations students will participate in the “Take a Veteran to School” program in schools throughout northern West Virginia, to recognize veterans for their service and capture the stories of area veterans.

The West Virginia Cable Telecommunications Association (WVCTA), led by local cable operators Suddenlink Communications, Comcast and Time Warner Cable, brings the History™ channel’s “Take a Veteran to School Day” program to high schools throughout West Virginia. U.S. Senator Jay Rockefeller, a member of the Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, helped launch the program last fall at Robert C. Byrd High School in Clarksburg, W.Va.

The student team will assist in executing the events and lead efforts to interview the participating veterans about their wartime experiences for official submission to the Library of Congress American Folklife Center Veterans History Project. In addition, the students will assist in capturing and documenting each event through still photography and video. The team’s goal is to collect 24-28 veteran stories for submission to the national project in 2009.

More on WVU Today.

More about the “Take a Veteran to School Day” program.

More about the Library of Congress American Folklife Center Veterans History Project.

Faculty member presents WWII documentary

On Tuesday, Nov. 10, Associate Professor Joel Beeson will show part of his documentary, “Fighting on Two Fronts: The Untold Stories of African American WWII Veterans,” as part of an event hosted by the WVU College of Human Resources and Education.

“Salute to West Virginia World War II Heroes in History” is a series of special events beginning at 5 p.m. in the Erickson Alumni Center ballrooms. The events are open to the public.

More on WVU Today.

More about Beeson’s documentary.

It takes a special breed of attorney to devote a career to defending those facing the death penalty, and WVU journalism professor John Temple was intrigued by those who spend their life dealing with death.

The result is Temple’s second book, “The Last Lawyer: The Fight to Save Death Row Inmates,” published this week by University Press of Mississippi.

“The Last Lawyer” is the true story of a law firm’s fight to save a death row inmate and how an idealistic attorney, Ken Rose, and his diverse band of investigators and lawyers fight to overturn their client’s death sentence. The book chronicles Rose’s decade-long defense of Bo Jones, a North Carolina farmhand convicted of a 1987 murder.

“There are other books about death penalty cases, but I wanted to focus on the legal minds and personalities who devote their lives to this work,” Temple said. “The characters and stories I came across were even more compelling and inspiring than I’d imagined.”

In recognition of the book’s debut, the WVU College of Law and the Perley Isaac Reed School of Journalism will co-host a panel discussion, The Last Lawyer: A Conversation About Justice, Journalism, and the Death Penalty, Nov. 12 at 5:30 p.m. in the WVU Law Center’s Marlyn E. Lugar Courtroom. The panel will be moderated by WVU College of Law Dean Joyce E. McConnell and will focus on the case covered in the book, issues surrounding the morality and constitutionality of the death penalty and the journalistic process. Panelists include Temple; the book’s central figure, death penalty attorney Ken Rose; West Virginia appellate lawyer, Lonnie Simmons; and sentencing mitigation expert Jay T. McCamic.

The event, which will include a Q&A session, is open to the public. A book signing and light refreshments will follow.

Temple is an associate professor and associate dean at the School of Journalism. He spent five years as a behind-the-scenes reporter for “The Last Lawyer,” following the case and the setbacks and triumphs Rose’s team faced as they gradually unearthed evidence to help save their client’s life.

Rose is one of the few U.S. attorneys who has almost exclusively represented death row inmates his entire career. While working the case featured in “The Last Lawyer,” Rose also built the North Carolina-based nonprofit law firm, The Center for Death Penalty Litigation, which is dedicated to representing capital defendants and assisting attorneys representing persons charged or convicted in capital cases.

Simmons, a 1982 WVU College of Law alumnus, is widely recognized as one of the first lawyers in the country to use DNA testing to free an innocent person from prison. Simmons has successfully prosecuted a substantial number of appeals before the West Virginia Supreme Court, including appeals of wrongful death verdicts, employment discrimination claims, personal injury actions and criminal convictions.

McCamic is president of McCamic, Sacco, Pizzuti & McCoid, PLLC, based in Wheeling, W.Va., and is a 1984 graduate of the WVU College of Law. He was the Federal Criminal Justice Act Resource Counsel for the Northern District of West Virginia until the appointment of a Federal Public Defender in the Northern District. Since 1996, he has been the Criminal Justice Act District Representative for the Northern District of West Virginia. He has been involved in Federal Death Penalty litigation in both West Virginia and Pennsylvania, has been designated as “learned counsel” in death penalty matters and has tried federal death penalty cases to verdict in both jurisdictions.

McConnell, the William J. Maier Jr. Dean and Thomas R. Goodwin Professor of Law at the WVU College of Law, said Temple’s book provides a window into the “tragically flawed” death penalty system.

“In ‘The Last Lawyer,’ John Temple chronicles a real lawyer’s struggle to free a wrongfully convicted man whom most would have ignored,” said McConnell. “By taking us along on this journey, Temple creates a legal thriller that reads like fiction, but is real. As Ken Rose struggles to defend Bo Jones against the odds, we experience the highs and the lows of death penalty defense.”

Additional details and the link to the webcast are available at http://law.wvu.edu/lastlawyer and http://journalism.wvu.edu.

More on WVU Today.

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Fulbright Scholar and Iraq native Yassin Ismaeel is working toward a Master of Science in Journalism degree at the SOJ, something he says he could never have imagined in Saddam Hussein’s Iraq. Now Ismaeel calls Morgantown home. Read the complete story at WVU Today.

The WVU P.I. Reed School of Journalism and the School of Journalism Alumni Association will host its inaugural Alumni and Donor Recognition Ceremony on Friday, Oct. 9, at 6 p.m. in Martin Hall.

The Alumni Association will present its annual awards to the best and brightest graduates and friends of the School of Journalism. Awards include “The P.I. Reed Achievement Award,” which is the highest honor the Association bestows upon a graduate of the School in recognition of his or her outstanding career achievements; “The Friend of the School Award,” which recognizes individuals for their exemplary support and commitment to the School; “The Martin Hall Cornerstone Award,” which honors School of Journalism graduates and Alumni Association volunteers; and “The P.I. Reed Young Alumni Award,” which is given to alumni who have graduated in the last 10 years and have achieved a high level of success in their profession.

The School of Journalism Alumni Association award recipients for 2009 include:

P.I. Reed Achievement Award – Hoppy Kercheval
The radio “dean” of West Virginia broadcasters, Harvey “Hoppy” Kercheval (MSJ, 2005; BSJ, 1977) joined West Virginia Radio Corp. in 1976. Through the years, Kercheval’s assignments have included news, sports and talk. A native of Jefferson County, Kercheval began as a news anchor/reporter at WAJR in Morgantown while attending WVU. After graduating with honors from the School of Journalism, Kercheval took over as news director at WAJR and helped start the state broadcast network, Metronews. Kercheval was named vice president of operations in 1991. In 1993, he created Metronews Talkline, which has become a signature program of the network. In addition, Kercheval has been a key member of the Mountaineers Sports Network. He has been honored with many awards, including the West Virginia Broadcasters Association “Broadcaster of the Year” award in 2002.

P.I. Reed Achievement Award – John Veasey
John Veasey (BSJ, 1959) has been with Fairmont newspapers since 1958 when he joined The Times West Virginian staff as sports editor. He was named managing editor of the Fairmont Times in 1970 and editor of the Times West Virginian in 1976 when the two newspapers merged. Veasey was born in Florida but moved to Morgantown during his sophomore year in high school. He is a graduate of the School of Journalism and is a past president of the West Virginia Sports Writers Association and the United Press International Editor’s Bureau. He has written a daily column for the Times West Virginian since the mid-1980s. In August 2006, he was the recipient of the Adam R. Kelly Premier Journalist Award, presented by the West Virginia Press Association. In October 2009, Veasey was inducted into the Fairmont State University Athletic Hall of Fame.

The Friend of the School Award – William Nutting
William Nutting serves on the board of directors for Ogden Newspapers Inc., is the West Virginia representative for the Southern Newspaper Publishers Association and serves as a member of the Pennsylvania Newspapers Association. The Nutting family and the Nutting Foundation have been strong supporters of the School of Journalism. In 2000, they established the Ogden Newspapers Visiting Professorship in Journalism. They are also supporters of the Ogden Newspapers Seminar Series and the Ogden Newspapers Multimedia Classroom (205 Martin Hall). William Nutting also serves as a member of the School’s Visiting Committee and on the WVU Board of Governors. He earned his bachelor’s degree from Harvard University and his law degree from University of California-Los Angeles in 1986.

The Martin Hall Cornerstone Award – Stephanie Beddow
Stephanie Beddow (MSJ, 1993; BSJ, 1990) has served on the School of Journalism Alumni Association Board since 2001. She has served as secretary, vice president and, most recently, as president (2006-present) of the Association. Beddow also served as president and as a board member of the North Central Chapter of the School’s Alumni Association from 2001-04 and 2002-04, respectively. In addition to her service to the Association, Beddow most recently was the director of donor relations for the WVU Foundation. Before that, Beddow worked as a territory sales manager for Bertek Pharmaceuticals and as a public relations specialist for the Mary Babb Randolph Cancer Center.

The P.I. Reed Young Alumni Award – Justin Weaver
Fairview, W.Va., native Justin Weaver (BSJ, 2007) has forged a successful career at ABC since graduating from WVU. Weaver started at the network as an intern for “Good Morning America” during his senior year. After graduation, Weaver was hired as a desk assistant but was promoted to the booking department in just a few short months. Since then, Weaver has been a segment producer for “Good Morning America” in New York City, Washington, D.C., and now Chicago. While in school, Weaver placed fourth in the television category of the Hearst Journalism Awards Program. He was also among a team of students who placed in the top three of the national Society of Professional Journalists’ “Mark of Excellence” competition for the “Starting Over” Katrina project website.

School of Journalism Dean Maryanne Reed will also formally announce the establishment of the School’s new giving societies and dedicate the new wall of honor, installed last spring to acknowledge and honor the generosity of the School’s top supporters.

In addition, recipients of the 2009 “Golden Quill Teaching Awards,” Dr. George Esper and Jan Boyles, also will be recognized. In spring 2009, The School instituted its own student-selected instructor awards for outstanding teaching. Esper and Boyles are the first recipients of the awards.

Alumni and friends of the School of Journalism are encouraged to attend the ceremony. Questions should be directed to Kimberly Brown, Director of Communications, at 304-293-3505 ext. 5403 or Kimberly.Brown@mail.wvu.edu .

-WVU-
cv/10/06/09
CONTACT: Kimberly Brown, School of Journalism
304-293-3505 ext. 5403

More at WVU Today.

Just because an organization or individual has a good story to tell doesn’t mean they know how to tell it or who to tell it to. That can be especially true of nonprofits.

That’s where Dr. Rita Colistra at the Perley Isaac Reed School of Journalism come in.

“Often times, these nonprofits are all that people have to turn to when they’re in need—especially in smaller, more isolated areas,” says Colistra, an assistant professor in the School of Journalism. “Therefore, educating these organizations about how to effectively reach their key publics, whether through the media or other means, is essential in helping them generate awareness and getting their messages across in order to help their fellow community members.”

That’s one of the reasons Colistra recently led a public relations workshop hosted by Travel Beautiful Appalachia Inc. in McDowell County, W.Va., covering such topics as how to promote organizations, reaching key publics and how to effectively work with the media.

Executive Director of TBAI Sharon Walden coordinated the free workshop, which took place at the historic Ashland Company Store, based on surveys collected from the local community that indicated an interest in public relations training.

“One of Travel Beautiful Appalachia’s missions is to bring expertise to the people,” said Walden.

Colistra provided a booklet for participants that contained information about public relations resources. The tool book included templates and examples for several formats of public relations in the media. The topics included new releases, broadcast writing tips, PSA guidelines, media advisories and a letter-to-the-editor format.

“We had not seen some of the proper formats before, so the book and templates will help us better promote our organizations,” Walden said.

Workshop attendees also engaged in a group exercise designed to develop story pitches to the media. Nonprofit employees from SAFE (Stop Abusive Family Environments), SHED (Safe Housing Economic Development), TBAI, AmeriCorps Vista and private citizens received positive critiques and tips from Colistra about how to create newsworthy pitches for their organizations and business ventures.

Mary-Ann Caskey-Drake attended the workshop to learn PR tactics on how to market and promote her book of poetry, “Timeless Reflections.”

“Finding the right target of readers is one of my problems,” said Drake, “but everything in the workshop was very useful.”

A native West Virginian, Colistra feels interactive workshops are an effective way to reach out to local communities across the state.

Colistra has provided her expertise and services to other state departments and organizations through similar workshops since beginning her career at WVU, including the WV Division of Forestry and nonprofit Flex-e-Grant recipients.

Colistra earned both her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the P.I. Reed School of Journalism before heading to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to complete her doctoral studies as a Roy H. Park Fellow.

Founded in 2005, TBAI’s mission is to focus on the unemployed and underemployed in the McDowell, Wyoming and Mercer county areas and to work with local businesses and entrepreneurs. The Public Relations and Marketing Workshop was funded by the WV HUB, the Benedum Foundation and the WV Development Office. For more information about TBAI, visit www.tbaiwv.org.

More at WVU Today.

When marketing professional Chris Nicely was researching graduate schools, he wanted a program to teach him the “science of marketing” so he could be more effective at his job. After looking at several programs nationwide, he chose the master’s degree program in Integrated Marketing Communications at West Virginia University’s P.I. Reed School of Journalism.

Now a year-and-a-half into the online program, Nicely has already garnered top honors for two advertisements in his integrated marketing campaign, “A Different Place.”

Nicely is vice president of marketing at Holland Home in Grand Rapids, Mich., a company that provides the full continuum of care for seniors, including housing, home care and hospice services to those 65 and older. He recently submitted several marketing examples from the campaign to the National Mature Media Awards and won a Silver Award and a Merit Award for his television and radio spots.

Nicely credits the IMC program with helping him understand the overall process of creating an integrated marketing strategy for the campaign.

“The senior services industry in Grand Rapids is highly competitive,” he said. “I knew that we must communicate our strongest messages in an integrated approach for maximum impact on our target market.”

Nicely said he began by identifying the marketing characteristics that were important to his audience. He decided the most cost-effective tactics to reach his market were television, radio, direct mail and sales literature. Then he set to work creating the campaign, starting with the direct mailer and sales literature. He built the TV and radio scripts on this foundation.

“All four tactics communicated the marketing messages in a consistent way,” said Nicely. “This assured me of two things: each tactic would communicate the same strategic message, and there would be a cumulative effect from medium to medium.”

Although he still has a year to go before he graduates with his master’s degree, Nicely points to his awards as evidence that he is already applying what he has learned in his IMC coursework.

“The courses in the IMC program focus on the specific areas of marketing communications that are absolute necessities for today’s professionals. In particular, my coursework on audience insight, managing brand equity, creative strategy and conducting media analysis was very helpful,” said Nicely.

IMC Program Director Chad Mezera says that Nicely’s experience is illustrative of the program’s “learn it today, use it tomorrow” philosophy.

“The IMC program was designed to be not only flexible but also practical,” said Mezera.

“Students often tell us they are able to immediately apply what they learn to their careers. That’s the beauty of this program. Students don’t have to wait until they complete the degree to put their knowledge to work.”

Nicely said he is looking forward to his next year as a student in the IMC program.

“The Advanced Creative Strategies course will help me better mesh my artistic ability with my organization’s profit goals, while the capstone course, which focuses on campaigns, will be a nice, final tie-up of the entire IMC program.”

After graduation, Nicely plans to continue his work in the senior services industry, positioning Holland home to expand and compete regionally and nationally.

CONTACT: Angela Lindley
School of Journalism, IMC program
304-293-3505 ext. 5432

Students taking Shott Chair of Journalism Lois Raimondo’s photojournalism course this fall are about to learn that visual journalism goes beyond the lens.

“It’s going to be a photography course, but not just about pictures,” said Raimondo. “It will be about perception and self-awareness. We will improve communication, and deepen understanding, if we develop, and act from, a greater critical knowledge of our own peculiar limitations.”

Before joining the West Virginia University Perley Isaac Reed School of Journalism faculty, Raimondo most recently worked as a staff photographer at The Washington Post. Prior to her 10 years at the Post, she worked as a freelance photographer and writer and spent four years as chief photographer for The Associated Press bureau in Hanoi, Vietnam. Raimondo’s work has appeared in such publications as National Geographic, The New York Times, Smithsonian Magazine, Newsweek and Time.

Raimondo’s journalism, both pictures and words, has received national and international recognition. In 2005, Raimondo was awarded the Alicia Patterson Journalism Fellowship to report on the rise of Islamic Fundamentalism in Pakistan. She spent the year working in Baluchistan and Waziristan.

Raimondo was also awarded the Edward Weintal Prize for Diplomatic Reporting in 2002 for her front-line reporting from the war in Afghanistan. The award committee cited both her photographic and written reports from the field.

As a print reporter, Raimondo worked on an investigative series for New York Newsday about corruption in a public housing project that was named a Pulitzer Prize finalist in 1989. Her photographic work has also received White House News Photographers Association awards, National Press Photographers Association awards and the Casey Medal for Service.

At the WVU School of Journalism, Raimondo will teach photojournalism courses, work on special projects and help build the School’s international programs.

“Our students are fortunate to have a journalist of Raimondo’s caliber teaching and sharing her experiences,” said Maryanne Reed, Dean of the School of Journalism. “She’s passionate about telling stories through words and pictures and brings to the program a unique global perspective.”

Raimondo, a native of Rocky Point, N.Y., began her journalism career in 1982 as a sound technician, producer and interpreter for CBS News in Beijing, China. She holds two master’s degrees, one in news-editorial from the University of Missouri-Columbia and one in comparative literature (Chinese and Japanese) from Indiana University.

The Shott Chair of Journalism was established in 1984 by the Hugh I. Shott Jr. Foundation in honor of the Shott family’s more than 100-year history of leadership in West Virginia’s news media. The chair is a faculty position in journalism – print, broadcast or new media – designed to enhance the quality of journalism education in the state.

Read more at WVU Today.

The world-renowned Ford Foundation is lending its support to the West Virginia University Perley Isaac Reed School of Journalism’s award-winning multimedia web project, West Virginia Uncovered: Multimedia Journalism from the Mountains.

The Ford Foundation recently awarded the School of Journalism a $100,000 grant to help rural newspapers adapt to the demands and opportunities of the digital age.

Associate Dean and Professor John Temple and a small group of students launched the West Virginia Uncovered project in fall 2008. Students and faculty have traveled throughout the state working with newspaper staff to create multimedia content for their Web sites.

During the spring 2009 semester, team members also conducted training sessions for newspaper reporters and staff members on producing and delivering their own multimedia content.

To date, participating newspapers include the Hampshire Review, the Parsons Advocate, the Nicholas Chronicle and the Charleston Daily Mail. Temple plans to expand the project in fall 2009 to help newspapers recruit citizen journalists and create interactive features for their websites.

Funds from the Ford Foundation grant will be used to support web development, project staff, travel and research during the upcoming year and to lay the groundwork for expanding the project beyond West Virginia.

“This grant will take our project to a new level,” Temple said. “We’re already doing great work with newspapers, but this will help us measure the impact of what we’re doing and begin to recruit other universities and colleges to do similar projects. In addition, we’ll hire a web developer to work with community newspapers to help improve their Web sites.”

In addition to the Ford Foundation grant, the project received a two-year, $85,000 grant from the McCormick Foundation and a $10,700 WVU Grant for Public Service in 2008.

In 2009, the West Virginia Uncovered project was also awarded an $85,000 grant from the Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation.

The Ford Foundation was chartered in 1936 by Edsel Ford. Founded to advance human welfare, it is a resource for innovative people and institutions around the world. The Ford Foundation receives some 40,000 proposals a year, however, it only awards 2,000 grants.

The project Web site is available at http://WVuncovered.wvu.edu/.

Photo Captions:
—Photo 1: WVU journalism student Andy Smith learns the basics of recording video for the West Virginia Uncovered project.
—Photo 2: Kendal Montgomery photographs the newlyweds, James Snodgress and Kasha James, during their camouflage-themed wedding in Summersville, W.Va., as part of the West Virginia Uncovered project.
—Photo 3: West Virginia Uncovered project participants are (front, left to right) Jessica Rhodes, Steve Butera, and Andy Smith; (second row, left to right) Tricia Fulks, Megan Bowers, Leann Arthur, Elaine McMillion; (third row) Andrew Barnes, Kendal Montgomery, Erin Wooddell and Erin Murray; (back row) Bill Kuykendall and John Temple.

Official press release available on WVU Today.

Joel Beeson, associate professor in West Virginia University’s Perley Isaac Reed School of Journalism, has received a first-place, national award for “Best Practices in Teaching of Diversity” by the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC).

He will receive the award and present his winning entry, “Civic Engagement, New Media and Journalism: A Template for the Organic Incorporation of Diversity into a New Journalism Curriculum,” at the organization’s annual meeting in Boston, Mass., in August.

Beeson’s work in diversity-conscious service learning has been honored in recent years by the Congressional Black Caucus Veterans’ Brain Trust, Society for Professional Journalists and Broadcast Educators Association, among others.

Beeson challenges students to imagine how stories can be told with different voices, perspectives and media while empowering them to practice new journalism with more dimension and cultural awareness.

Official press release at http://wvutoday.wvu.edu/news/page/7865/.

West Virginia University P.I. Reed School of Journalism Dean Maryanne Reed was recently elected to the Association of Schools of Journalism and Mass Communication (ASJMC) Executive Committee. She is one of only eleven nationally elected members.

The ASJMC Executive Committee is the governing body for the association of journalism and mass communication administrators. The association provides a network for deans, directors and chairs, as well as special programming and publications, on accreditation, curriculum revision, strategic planning and development. Some 200 journalism and mass communication schools belong to the association nationwide and 10 schools belong internationally.

Reed will begin her work on the ASJMC Executive Committee this fall. Her three-year term begins October 1, 2009, and ends September 20, 2012.

Reed joined the School’s faculty in 1993. Before being named Dean in 2004, she chaired
the broadcast news program and taught courses in broadcast news writing, television reporting and producing, documentary production and journalism history.

Reed has produced television documentaries and news features for public and commercial television. Her award-winning documentary “Righteous Remnant: Jewish Survival in Appalachia,” originally aired on West Virginia Public Television and was distributed nationally by PBS. Her feature on children and mountaintop mining aired on “Nick News” on the Nickelodeon Cable Channel.

Reed also directed students in the production of an Emmy award-winning documentary profiling five cancer patients, “Cancer Stories: Lessons in Love, Loss and Hope.” The documentary aired on West Virginia Public Television in December 2003 and has been distributed nationally by the National Education Television Association.