Largest, activity-packed workshop set for July 5-15 at the University of Alabama

Dr. George Daniels is co-director of the Workshop.

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. -- The College of Communication and Information Sciences has accepted 30 students for its largest Multicultural Journalism Workshop.

Formerly the Minority Journalism Workshop, it was renamed last year in its 20th year to reflect the growing diversity of students attending the workshop. Participants include all racial and ethnic minorities, first-generation college students and others from underserved populations.

Students learn reporting, editing, writing, graphics, production, broadcasting, the business of journalism and online/new media technologies from top educators and journalists.

Mervin Aubespin, a native of Opelousas, La., and Tuskegee University graduate, will be the opening banquet speaker on July 5 at the Cypress Inn. It will be the seventh visit to UA for the retired Louisville Courier-Journal executive and former National Association of Black Journalists president.

Ron Agnew, executive editor of the Clarion-Ledger in Jackson, Miss., will address the awards banquet on July 15, also at the University Club. Agnew is an Ole Miss graduate. Top camper awards will be presented and many camper parents will attend.

Between banquets, students will produce a newspaper, a TV program, write for the College's Web site, learn about college life and get their first instruction in news gathering, writing on deadline, interviewing, photography, editing, graphic design, time management, media law, news judgment and ethics, They will use the latest in digital video and computer equipment in the UA journalism department, WVUA7-TV, Center for Public TV and Radio and the McWane Center Newsroom Studio in Birmingham.

They will tour UA public radio and TV facilities, campus media, the College of Communication and Information Sciences and Cox Radio in Birmingham ( WBHK-FM, WBHJ-FM, WBPT-FM, WAGG-AM, WODL-FM, WZZK-AM, WZZK-FM). Dave DuBose, outstanding alumnus in UA's Telecommunication and Film Department in 2002, is vice president for marketing at Cox and is former news director for Alabama Public Radio (WUAL-FM), the College's NPR affiliate.

The annual workshop costs $30,000. Free to participants, it gives students insights into college life and mass communication jobs. Students 14-18 years old live with a roommate in a UA dorm, eat in UA dining halls, study in UA libraries and play in UA recreational facilities. To be accepted for the program, they had to compete for slots by submitting grades, writing samples and recommendations from teachers and local journalists.

In a special feature of this year's workshop, inner city newspapers published with grant support from the Scripps Howard Foundation (Memphis) and the McWane Center and Alabama Press Association Journalism Foundation (Birmingham) are sending their staffs for the first time.

This year's MJW is financed by grants from Cox Radio, Inc., of Birmingham, the Knight Foundation, The Tuscaloosa News, the Mobile Register, Alabama Press Association Journalism Foundation, Alabama Broadcasters Association, Mercedes-Benz USA International, and for the 21 st consecutive year, the Dow Jones Newspaper Fund.

One of the oldest of its kind, the workshop is part of the College of Communication and Information Sciences' Multicultural Journalism Program, whose goal is to recruit and prepare students from diverse backgrounds for media jobs.

"MJW is an excellent recruiting tool for the University and the department of journalism," according to Dr. Edward Mullins, journalism department chairman and 21-year MJW veteran.

"The workshop and related activities have started more than 1,000 students on a career crucial to a democratic society," Mullins said. "At Alabama, we know that for the mass media to represent all people fairly and for our own program to improve, more minorities are needed in our classrooms and, ultimately, in the mass media."

In addition to the workshop, the College supports a minority organization (Capstone Association of Black Journalists and Mass Communicators), job fairs; placement services for MJW alums; a visiting/mentoring program; and lifetime job tracking and counseling.

"Many MJW alums have gone on to some of the nation's most important newspaper, magazine, broadcasting, public relations, online and advertising organizations," Mullins said.

These organizations include the Washington Post, Dallas Morning News, St. Petersburg Times, Detroit News, Detroit Free Press, Newsday, Birmingham News, TV stations in Atlanta, New Orleans and Miami, Newsweek magazine and scores of small- and medium-sized newspapers, TV stations and regional magazines.

"And they stay in touch. Many return to help out the next generation of practitioners. In addition to being our largest workshop, this workshop has also attracted the largest number of visiting professionals and lecturers, about 50 in all. Workshop alumni and visitors serve as a national network, helping Alabama youngsters find jobs," Mullins said.

Visiting professionals teach and coach. Professional day this year is Thursday, July 8. They will coach students as they gather information, take pictures and write their stories for the College's Web site, DatelineAlabama.Com, for VOICES, the workshop tabloid, and for VOICES ON TV, Mullins said.

"Every year we plan a workshop that gives participants a true taste of what it's like to be a college student and a journalist," said Kathryn Adams, in her third year as workshop director. "After 10 days, many of these students will have a good feel for journalism and will be excited about getting a college education and energized to pursue journalism as a career. We are proud of our program and the fact that it has been a premier opportunity for future journalists since the early 1980s."

Dr. George Daniels, UA assistant professor of journalism, is a Howard University and University of Georgia graduate. A similar workshop at Howard in the 1980s influenced him to become a journalist. And as a graduate assistant in Athens, he served on the staff of the University of Georgia 's minority workshop.

Today, he is co-director of UA's workshop and chairman of the UA Multicultural Program Committee.

"For many high school students, workshops like ours can be a life-changing and career-defining experience," said Daniels, whose dissertation at Georgia took him to Alabama high schools to study factors related to choosing a mass media career.

Other members of the MJP Committee are Aubespin, Dr. Caryl Cooper, assistant dean, College of Communication and Information Sciences; Marie Parsons, director emeritus, Multicultural Journalism Workshop; Sherrel Wheeler Stewart, assistant city editor, Birmingham News; Andy Duncan, assistant director, Alabama Scholastic Press Association; Chad Hullett, president, CABJ; Mullins and Adams.