Moderator Anne Kavanaugh (left) and panelists prepare for the discussion.

SPJ DePaul’s Freedom of Information Panel discussion on Thursday offered tips on using FOIA requests and insight to how investigative journalists work.

The two-hour panel, moderated by DePaul adjunct journalism instructor and former TV news reporter Anne Kavanaugh, featured panelists Tim Novak and Chris Fusco of the Chicago Sun-Times and Mick Dumke of the Chicago Reader. The free event drew nearly 50 people to the basement theater at DePaul’s Daley Building, 14 E. Jackson Blvd.

Miss the event? Craig Newman of the Chicago Sun-Times archived live-tweets and background in a Storify.

SPJ DePaul Vice President Lauren Camplin (left) and Publicity Coordinator Ali Trumbull work on the social media presentation.

SPJ DePaul traveled to Brother Rice High School on Dec. 13 to teach a journalism class how to utilize social media for news-gathering and reporting. Three students in the class already used Twitter, but the chapter helepd register the rest of 20-plus students on the social media site.

Chapter members Tabitha Hurley, Ali Trumbull, Lauren Camplin and Katie Karpowicz covered Twitter etiquette with the students, such as picking an appropriate Twitter handle, hashtags and how to retweet. Twitter is essential for students interested in journalism because people are relying more on social media sites for news delivery.

SPJ DePaul Secretary Tabitha Hurley, a Brother Rice alum, makes a point during the presentation.

SPJ DePaul wanted to make the students aware that Twitter is going to play a large role in their journalism careers, if they choose to have one. Most professional journalists are required to tweet regularly in their jobs.

The chapter also showed the class websites such as Twitpic and HootSuite that allow you to upload pictures to your Twitter or manage multiple Twitter accounts easier.

Multiple accounts are great managing professional and personal Twitter accounts. It is always important to remember to be professional when tweeting when representing a news organization or when applying for internships or jobs with a news outlet.

Other key lessons: Remember to act professional when using Twitter, have personality and fact-check what people tweet before using the information.

Visit the awards site for rules, entry deadline (Jan. 25, 2012), past winners and categories. Cost is only $9 per entry if you are an SPJ DePaul member, $18 for non-members.

Flynn McRoberts (left), of Bloomberg Business News, offers advice to SPJ DePaul Vice President Lauren Camplin.

SPJ DePaul completed its professional development campus chapter requirement on Oct. 28 with a “10-Minute Mentors” event at its downtown Loop campus newsroom.

Student members brought their resumes and sought career advice from some of the leading journalists in the Chicago area. The chapter would like to thank the journalists for taking time out of their busy schedules to help our students:

Jane Hirt, Managing Editor of the Chicago Tribune                      

Tran Ha, RedEye

Flynn McRoberts, Bloomberg Business News

Shia Kapos, blogger at Crains Chicago Business

Abdon Pallasch, Chicago Sun-Times political reporter

Sandra Guy, Chicago Sun-Times reporter 

Cassandra Gaddo, Managing Editor & Electronic Media Editor at Today’s Chicago Woman magazine 

The chapter also would like to thank College of Communication internship director Graciela Kenig for helping plan the event.

Tran Ha (right), of RedEye, advises new SPJ DePaul member Monica Carter.

Bennett actively challenged audience members to remain positive about journalism’s future and find new ways to incorporate innovative approaches. While she pointed out that research and curation were still integral parts of reporting, the future of successful journalism also involves thinking how we can report news in creative ways. In Bennett’s words, if the field doesn’t catch up, news can become the middleman and the middleman can be cut.

During her session at the Excellence in Journalism national convention, Bennett also established three trending advancements including mobile, augmented reality, and gaming. All of these areas are quickly growing and Bennet believes it’s time for the news industry to begin experimenting with these technologies to reach audiences.

Bennett ended the lecture on a positive note, emphasizing that the industry is full of opportunity and the future of journalism is a bright and innovative one.

-Lauren Camplin, SPJ DePaul Vice President 

Technology doesn’t replace journalism, but “empowers it,” said Robert Hernandez, a USC journalism professor, at the Excellence in Journalism convention recently in New Orleans.

Hernandez, who organizes the weekly #wjchat tech-journo Twitter chats, has five main rules that he follows when writing online and using social media.

Throughout the session, Hernandez made references that pointed out how even though social media is at our fingertips it “doesn’t replace the phone or in-person interviews.”

As journalists we need to be aware of how social media is affecting our reporting and news organizations around the world, especially with many apps and websites that can break down the facts almost instantly.

One of the most mentioned quotes (and one of Hernandez’s rules) that young journalists were advised to follow was, “If your mom tweets that she loves you, check it out.”

Hernandez cautioned that finding information via social media does not necessarily make it true.  Social media does not do our reporting for us, and as journalists we still need to investigate and fact check.

Hernandez also made a point that there is no privacy on the Internet and that as a journalist it can be extremely hard to keep your personal life and private life separate.  He said to “be genuine and be real because you want that credibility.”

During the presentation, Hernandez also touched on Foursquare, referring back to some of his previous rules reminding everyone to “be open.”

Just like the rest of social media sites, check-ins on Foursquare are not factual. Foursquare gives people the opportunity to check in at any place and also has the potential to create revenue because of its built in advertising.

With all kinds of social media in the palms of our hands, citizen journalism is on the rise and fact checking has become more important than ever.

Hernandez made it clear that journalists are building an online brand for themselves and that social media will continue to rise in popularity. He cited these statistics as examples: there are 2,315 tweets a second, Facebook’s population ranks it as the world’s third-largest country and YouTube is the second-largest search engine behind Google.

-Tabitha Hurley, SPJ DePaul Secretary

Members of SPJ DePaul's executive board accept the SPJ National Campus Chapter of the Year award at the Excellence in Journalism conference awards luncheon in New Orleans on Sept. 26. (From left: Ewa Lyczewska, Nick Tarantino, Tabitha Hurley, Katie Karpowicz, Meredith Gonsalves, Lauren Camplin and Ali Trumbull. (Photo by SPJ / Nikki Villoria - NVPhotography)

NEW ORLEANS — SPJ DePaul received the Society of Professional Journalists National Campus Chapter of the Year and Region 5 Campus Chapter of the Year awards this week at the Excellence in Journalism convention at the New Orleans Sheraton Hotel.

The honors give SPJ DePaul three awards – one each at the national, regional and local levels – in its first full year of existence. In June, SPJ DePaul was named Most Outstanding Student Organization by DePaul’s Office of Student Affairs.

SPJ DePaul was selected as the top student chapter in Region 5 (Illinois, Indiana and Kentucky) along with 11 other regional finalists. SPJ’s Vice President for Campus Chapter Affairs selects the winning national chapter from the 12 regional finalists.

The SPJ awards cover work done during the 2010-11 academic year. The awards were based on programming and events such as freedom of information, diversity community service, ethics and project watchdog (journalism education).

“DePaul presented cutting-edge programming, a successful membership recruiting campaign and strong communications within the chapter and beyond,” SPJ noted in its award announcement. Read the official SPJ press release.

Some of SPJ DePaul’s accomplishments:

• The chapter founded #spjchat, a Twitter chat held weekly during the academic year that explores issues in journalism. Guests have included Andy Carvin of NPR and Steve Buttry of Journal Register Company. The weekly chats drew up to 150 participants in some weeks.

• Students conducted interviews with journalists at the 2010 SPJ National Convention and produced a video about social media and issues in journalism.

• Students organized a panel discussion on diversity in media coverage with media members and other campus organizations, including the Korean Student Organization and Act Out. Read the story.

• Student members taught a social media seminar at Marist High School in the South Suburbs in December.
• Recruited 52 chapter members in its first year.

Members of SPJ DePaul’s student executive board from the award-winning group are: President Nick Tarantino, Vice President Lauren Camplin, Secretary Meredith Gonsalves, Membership Coordinator Katie Karpowicz, Programming Coordinator Ali Trumbull, Events Coordinator Megan Bower and Publicity Coordinator Katie Rosebrock.

SPJ DePaul incoming president Meredith Gonsalves (left) and incoming secretary Tabitha Hurley accept the award. (Courtesy Photo)

SPJ DePaul was named the university’s “most outstanding student organization” June 1 at a Leadership & Involvement Celebration on the Lincoln Park Campus.

The Division of Student Affairs and The Student Leadership Institute selected SPJ DePaul from more than 225 campus organizations.

SPJ DePaul became a fully recognized student chapter by the Society of Professional Journalists  Board of Directors in April. DePaul’s student chapter has 59 members, making it one of the largest in SPJ Region 5 (Illinois, Indiana and Kentucky).

Jaime Black of ChicagoCoversUnited and Dynasty podcasts makes a point during the panel discussion. (Photo by Lauren Camplin/SPJ DePaul)

More than 40 students and members of the Chicago music community gathered at DePaul University’s College of Communication on May 19 to explore the ethical issues, impact of technology and the future of covering Chicago’s music scene.

The event was live-tweeted using the hashtag #SPJchat. Go to the Twitter page to scroll through tweets from the event to see what panelists said.

Discussion included how new Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel and the city can improve relations with the music scene, ethics of the job and how technology has influenced coverage of music. The ethics discussion included this clip from the movie “Almost Famous.”

The event was sponsored by SPJ DePaul, moderated by Richard Giraldi of LoudLoopPress and organized by executive board members Katie Karpowicz and Ali Trumbull.

Click on the link below to read panelist bios. Their Twitter accounts: @rgiraldi,@jaimeblack and @izatchu .

Meet some of our panelists:

Jaime Black: Black began his career in the music industry at the age of 15 as an intern for Q101. He has served as the producer of Q101′s Chicago music program, Local 101, for over a decade now. In 2005, he launched Dynasty Podcasts, Chicago’s first music podcast series and network. He currently interviews Chicago talent and tastemakers and chronicles the Chicago music culture and community at Chicagoverseunited.com.

Richard Giraldi, Moderator-Panelist: Giraldi’s music journalism career began in New Orleans, La. After graduating from Loyola University New Orleans with a bachelor’s degree in journalism, he went on to become a staff writer and editorial assistant for OffBeat Magazine, a prominent Louisiana blues and jazz publication. Giraldi moved to Chicago in 2008 when he was accepted into DePaul University’s M.A. in Journalism program and quickly began freelancing for local entertainment publications including ALARM magazine, Chicago Innerview and TimeOut Chicago. In 2009, Giraldi founded LoudLoopPress.com with web designer Josh Reed with a mission to specifically cover Chicago’s local music scene, and in 2010 Loud Loop Press was voted Best Local Music Blog in the Chicago Reader. In addition to LoudLoopPress.com, Giraldi’s concert and album reviews can occasionally be found in the Chicago Sun-Times.

Anne Holub: Holub is the editor of Gapers Block’s music section, Transmission. A Virginia native, she moved to Chicago eight years ago from Montana, where she received a MFA in creative writing from the University of Montana — a graduate degree that has come in handy in her ongoing role as blogger and music critic. She makes great sweet pickles.

Amy Phillips: Phillips is the News Editor at Pitchfork Media. She has contributed to The Village Voice, Spin, the Philadelphia Inquirer, Seventeen, and countless other publications. A native of Philadelphia, she currently lives in Logan Square.

Neptali Figueroa: Figueroa has been in the Chicago music scene since 2003. He established a boutique management company, Run With It Mgmt (RWIMChicago.com) and has focused on promoting, booking, and developing Chicago artists for regional and national exposure. Through managing, live booking and promoting, Neptali helps Chicago musicians branch out and take a step towards the next plateau of their musical careers.

President-Meredith Gonsalves

Vice President-Lauren Camplin

Secretary-Tabitha Hurley

Treasurer-Ewa Lyczewska

Event-Program Coordinator-Katie Karpowicz

Membership Coordinator-Nick Tarantino

Publicity Coordinator-Ali Trumbull