Open Space at Journalism Conference

[Peggy Holman]

Friends,

I'd promised myself that I'd wait until I'd caught up on the messages in the
list before reporting on the OS I just did at a national journalism
conference (Associated Press Managing Editors).  I've given up and will just
send this update into the mix.

It went superbly.

First I did a breakout session on appreciative inquiry.  It was small but
meaningful for the those who came.  I'd say the most frequently mentioned
thread in the stories of great journalism was how human they were.  There
was a journalism student in the
room who said what he was hearing about the very best stories went against
everything he was being taught about the appropriate way to do stories.  In
the closing, one of the people said, "We really have to consider a whole new
paradigm for our newsroom."

College journalism students put out a newspaper about the conference on each
day of the conference.  Not every session made it into the paper, but this
session, even with only 12 attendees, was there.  So the impact moved out of
the session and into the larger conference.

The open space on "Journalism that Matters", which was a plenary, was well
received.  After 3 days of speaker panels, not surprisingly, many said the
OS was the best part of the conference.  One person said he got more ideas
per minute during the OS than during any other part of the conference.  And
the really good news -- the board has committed to doing a similar "Newsroom
Summit: Journalism that Matters" around the country.  That was ultimately
our goal.  To that end, on Monday, one of the board members who volunteered
his state (Connecticut) as a starting point , contacted the APME president
about getting started.  This is going to fly!  I'll keep you posted as
things progress.


Peggy


P.S.  As an aside, it was fascinating to hear the how journalists view 911
and its impact on them.  It has been quite emotional for them since one
impact is they are selling more newspapers and reaching new audience for the
first time in 20 years.  Many
talked about how exciting it was to see teenages carrying newspapers!  So in
the midst of the pain, they're grappling with how they can keep this new
audience reading.  The other theme that came up frequently was how human the
stories were than had the most impact; not just telling human stories but
giving readers a glimpse of their humanity.  The impression I had that most
surprised me is
what a narrow view of the world most of these folks have!  They seem to
think they are sharing the complete picture!  It amazes me and I never
discussed it with any of them because I just didn't know how to do it in a
meaningful way.


______________________________
**** Please note new address:  peggy at opencirclecompany.com ***

Peggy Holman
The Open Circle Company
15347 SE 49th Place
Bellevue, WA  98006
425.378.8331 (fax)
425.746.6274

www.opencirclecompany.com

*
*
==========================================================
OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
------------------------------
To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options,
view the archives of oslist at listserv.boisestate.edu,
Visit:

http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html