Final 'Sorting Through the Smoke' workshop set

The workshop will be held in Prestonsburg, Ky., on July 17. For a brochure, click here. For a registration form, click here.

Journalism storytelling workshop scheduled Oct. 2

No matter how newspapers are changed by technology, new business models and factors yet unknown, their journalists will keep performing at least two basic functions: telling citizens what they need to know, and telling stories about them.

Storytelling is as old as the human race, and one of the things that makes us human. It is also something that could be crucial to the future of newspapers, whether through narrative accounts of people’s lives; new, digital forms using photography, audio and video; or multimedia combinations.

To help community newspapers tell stories in new ways, or ways that may be new to them, The Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues will present a one-day workshop, tentatively titled “Storytelling with Narratives in Print and Pictures,” at the University of Kentucky in Lexington Friday, Oct. 2.

The storytellers will be Stephen Bloom, left, author and journalism professor at the University of Iowa and writer for The Oxford Project, a 2008 book of photographs and narratives of the people of Oxford, Iowa; photographer David Stephenson, who recently left the Lexington Herald-Leader after helping the newspaper break new ground in storytelling with audio, video and still photography; and Amy Wilson, feature writer and roving rural reporter for the Herald-Leader and former reporter for the Orange County Register in California.

The idea for the workshop began with Bloom, who hopes to help community newspapers, especially those in rural America, publish the kind of deeply personal narratives that are part of The Oxford Project, which has won widespread praise. Filmmaker Ken Burns said of it, “This powerful confessional book draws its strength from the truth that so-called ordinary people, not those with bold-faced names, are actually the heroes of our American drama." Hank Steuver of The Washington Post wrote, “People don’t get much more real than this.” More information on the book is available at www.OxfordProject.com.

“These narratives are important stories that cut to the heart of life in rural America,” Bloom says. “Yet seldom, if ever, do we see these kinds of deeply personal narratives appear in rural newspapers.  I'd very much like to share with rural journalists how I went about interviewing residents, and why such journalism is essential to the future of rural newspapers.”

Stephenson and Wilson, left, have won many journalism awards and have collaborated on several multimedia stories for the Herald-Leader, some of which are available at www.DavidStephenson.com.

“We are lucky and proud to have such a great lineup of experts,” said Al Cross, director of the Institute. “They will help rural journalists tell compelling stories in a variety of ways, which our business increasingly demands.” More details on the workshop will be announced soon, first on the Institute’s Web site, www.RuralJournalism.org . For more information, contact Cross at 859-257-3744 or al.cross@uky.edu.

International weekly editors' group hands out annual prizes for editorials and public service

The International Society of Weekly Newspaper Editors concluded its 2009 conference on June 28 after recognizing 12 weekly editors for their editorials and giving its highest award to a man whom one nominator dubbed the dean of the organization: Garrett Ray, former editor and owner of the Littleton Independent in Colorado and retired faculty member at Colorado State University. (Read more)

Ray's awards included the 1980 Golden Quill, which ISWNE gives to the editorial deemed the best of the Golden Dozen, 12 editorials that are recognized at the group's awards dinner and reprinted in its quarterly magazine, Grassroots Editor. For the latest edition of the magazine, with the award winners and their editorials, click here. For a capsule rundown of the winners and the conference, click here.

Murders mean it's time to set the record straight: There's no evidence Obama wants to ban guns

We think it's time for rural newspapers and broadcast stations to disabuse their readers, listeners and viewers of the notion that President Barack Obama plans to take their guns away. There is absolutely no evidence of that, despite commercials you may hear from gun shows or the assertions you hear and read from Second Amendment advocates on talk radio and Web sites. Generally, Democrats have learned that gun control is politically problematic. "Gun control advocates are, frankly, disappointed in the president’s unwillingness to move ahead on even the mildest of gun control measures," which he endorsed in his campaign, Bob Herbert writes in The New York Times.

It's time to set the record straight because the mistaken belief appears to be driving some to commit murder. The man who killed a guard at the Holocaust museum left a note in his car saying “You want my weapons — this is how you’ll get them,” Herbert notes. He reports that the man who "used a high-powered rifle to kill three Pittsburgh police officers in April, reportedly believed that Zionists were running the world and that, yes, Obama was planning to crack down on gun ownership." A friend of the shooter said he “feared the Obama gun ban that’s on the way.”

Hebert's column is normally available only to newspapers that buy it, but we bet the Times would grant permission for a one-time publication. If you don't want to do that, or Herbert or the Times are too liberal for your taste, plenty of online material is available to help you write a story or commmentary from whatever point of view you have. Two of the best sources are FactCheck.org and PolitiFact.com, which have been debunking these tales since the National Rifle Association started distorting Obama's record and platform when he was running for president.

Obama said during his campaign that he would reinstate the assault weapons ban, "go back after kitchen-table dealers, and work to end the gun-show and Internet sales loopholes. In the first year, I intend to work with Congress on a national no-carry law, one-gun-a-month purchase limits, and bans on all semi-automatic guns." To some people, that's heavy gun control. But it's not taking away people's guns. Let's give them the facts.

Other recent news items:

Eastern Kentucky experts have different visions for the coalfield, but agree on need for education

Gray Construction Co. makes major gift to Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues

Agriculture secretary pushes for carbon credits for ag and forestry, with USDA oversight; disagrees with EPA on measuring ethanol's carbon footprint

Different strokes for different folks: Covering election of first black mayor in small town with civil-rights trauma

Seeing need for local ownership, former owner buys back paper

Check out the health of your local bank

Small-town banks have generally been less affected by the financial crisis, but many have relatively high "troubled asset ratios," according to a Web site created by Wendell Cochran of American University's Investigative Reporting Workshop. The site uses Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. data to calculate the ratio. It also displays quarterly data on assets, loans, deposits, loan-loss prevention, delinquent loans and other criteria used to judge the strength of a bank. The site provides data for 2007 and 2008, a period that saw a dramatic increase in troubled assets for many banks. To use it, click here. And keep an eye out for data on the stress test federal regulators are applying to banks. The comptroller of the currency said March 30 that some data would be released, but didn't say what or when. For the comptroller's Web site, click here.

Institute recognized for work in E. Ky.

The Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues received this year's Media Award from the East Kentucky Leadership Foundation, for its role helping rural journalists tackle tough stories and keeping rural communities informed. The award presentation included a TV story by Marie Luby of WYMT-TV in Hazard. IRJCI Director Al Cross told Luby, "It's a lot more difficult to be a good, ethical, hard-nosed journalist in a small town than it is a big city because you never know when someone's going to come in, walk right in to your office, no receptionist or security guard, and start banging on your desk about something you wrote."

To read Luby's story and watch an interview with Cross, click here. To watch the award presentation (the Institute segment begins in the 33rd minute), click here and click on the video player. For a transcript of Cross's remarks, click here.

Related: ABC documentary and follow-up on the children of Appalachia didn't go far enough, but it could help; Appalachian journalists have a role to play

SUPPORT RURAL JOURNALISM!
The Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues is supported by the University of Kentucky and donors to an endowment that is matched by state funds. To make a tax-deductible donation to the Institute, via a secure Web site, click here. To make a pledge, via the same site, click here. For the Institute's annual activity report for 2008, click here.