The SPJ International Community has two leaders from The World Affairs Council for our July 28 ICTalk. We will be speaking with the CEO and President of the World Affairs Council, Bill Clifford, and the Executive Director of the Montana World Affairs Council, Chris Hyslop. We will discuss how local journalists can build stories that reflect a global connection to local issues or a local link to an international story. The organization has roots going back 100 years and connects foreign and local affairs in more than 90 cities around the United States makes foreign affairs less foreign. Register HERE

For now we are still holding meetings on Zoom. Please let us know if you want to attend this meeting. You can request a ZOOM link by dropping us a note at spjdcchapter@gmail.com

SPJ/LA to explore the give-and-take between journalists and PIOs

Government agencies bring on public information officers to make sure critical information reaches the public. But for those PIOs, can the obligation to serve their agency run counter to their responsibility to the public?

SPJ/LA will explore those and other issues on Thursday during the virtual panel “Just Doing My Job: Protecting the Agency vs. Serving the Public.”

The panel, which begins at 7 p.m.(PT), will feature journalists and public affairs experts from across the region.

The event will be moderated by Ben Davis, journalism professor at Cal State, Northridge. Appearing with him are:

• Lisa Derderian, Public Information Officer, City of Pasadena
• Susan Hirasuna, Anchor/Reporter, FOX 11
• Claudia Peschiutta, Daily News Editor, KPCC-FM
• Kerri Webb, Director of Public Information and Government Relations, El Camino College

For more information, contact Nathan Solis at njsolis@gmail.com.

To RSVP for the event, please click here by 4:00pm (PT) on Thursday, March 3.

Register HERE for this online session.

America’s public schools are coming under unusually strong attention from the general public — scrutiny communities typically rely on journalists to provide.

The issues are as disparate as masking mandates and COVID-19 testing; decisions around the spending of federal pandemic relief funds; the pros and cons of virtual vs. in-person learning; gun threats; and a rising trend of lawmakers and parents’ demanding that schoolchildren not be taught certain subjects such as human sexuality and the history of racism.

Journalists face multiple barriers, many government- or district-imposed, to covering these complex topics. Practices like filtering all interviews through public information officers seriously impairs journalists’ ability to cover these weighty subjects, while prohibiting teachers, school staff and other key education officials from sharing their stories. Add in policies that limit access to key education-related data-sets, and answering the public’s questions in a timely, thoughtful, and detailed manner becomes exceedingly difficult.

In honor of Sunshine Week, expert panelists will explore the impact of these government restrictions on press coverage of public schools and how to work around them. Produced by the Society of Professional Journalists and the National Press Club Journalism Institute, the discussion will offer strategies and tools to overcome these barriers.

Panelists include:
– Eva-Marie Ayala, Education Lab editor for The Dallas Morning News
– Frank LoMonte, professor at the University of Florida and counsel at CNN
– Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, AFL-CIO
– Moderator: Delece Smith-Barrow, education editor at POLITICO