UMass Alumni Association Scholarships

The UMass Alumni Association is offering several scholarships next semester-the deadline is Feb. 4, 2010. Check the website for applications and details. They include:

Leaders in the Making Scholarship
Four $2,000 scholarshipt given to promising sophomores and juniors with diverse records of achievement in academics and volunteerism.

Life Member Scholarship for Interns
One $2,000 scholarship given to a sophomore or junior to help defary the cost of a sumemr, unpaid, away-from-home internship.

Michael W. Morris Scholarship
One $2,000 scholarship given to an undergrad from Lawrence or Lowell. This scholarship is offered in honor of Lawrence native and longtime UMass Amherst champion Michael W. Morris '63.

Senior Leadership Award
Twenty-five $500 savings bonds will be given to graduating seniors who have demonstrated outstanding leadership and service to the campus community. Students must be nominated by faculty and staff.

If you're interested in applying, watch for our workshop early next semester--we'll explain the application process, and give tips on how to write a terrific essay.

Student Journalism Awards With Winter Deadlines

Beyoncé's ten Grammy Award nominations are fine and well, but why not win your own awards? Below is a list of four journalism contests open to full-time student journalists like yourself. Whether you're interested in money, a trip to Japan, or just good resumé fodder, consider entering your best work. Email Prof. McDermott at mcdermott@journ.umass.edu for help editing your best work and filling out the forms.

• The 2009 David S. Barr Award for Student Journalists
Entries due by January 29, 2010. Submit print or broadcast work that "helped to right a wrong; corrected an injustice; or promoted justice and fairness" published in 2009. See the website for an official application form. The winner will receive $1,500.

• The Roy Howard National Collegiate Reporting Competition
Entries due by February 27, 2010. The nine students who win this competition will travel to Japan for nine days next June. Send in a complete entry form, a portfolio of print, photo or broadcast work, a letter of recommendation, a 400 word essay, and a resumé. Complete information and the entry form are on the website.

• Society of Professional Journalists Mark of Excellence Awards
Entries due by January 27, 2010. The SPJ chooses regional winners in print, radio, TV, and online journalism, and those winning entries are forwarded to the national contest. All entries (which can be submitted online) must have been published in 2009, and no students who have
professional non-internship experience may apply. There is a $18 entry fee. See the website above for more specific entry categories and requirements.

• National Press Photographers Association Student Clip Contest
NPPA members ($65 yearly for students) can submit quarterly to this contest. For images taken between September and November, the deadline is Dec. 15, 2009. What's nice about this competition is that the images needn't have been published. The categories are News, Sports, Feature Single, and Feature Multiple (Photo Story).

THIS THURSDAY! Lisa Williams on Startups for Journalists

Journalistic entrepreneur Lisa Williams, will speak on Thursday, December 3 in Bartlett 206 at 4 p.m.; the topic: Startups for Journalists. Lisa will talk about what it takes to set up your own web-based venture, using your journalistic skills, passion and ambition. In short--one path in the future of journalism. Or at least, your future in journalism.

I hope you'll join us in welcoming Lisa, who is the founder and CEO of placeblogger.com, and a

Knight News Challenge Fellow. Here's her bio:

Lisa Williams is the founder and CEO of the largest searchable index of local weblogs, Placeblogger.com. It was a winner of the Knight 21st Century News Challenge Award, a program aimed at funding innovative, open-source tech projects that promote new forms of journalism and access to civic information.

In 2008, she participated in TechStars as one of only ten teams out of 400 to be selected for seed funding and intensive mentoring as part of TechStars' annual start-up incubator program.

Before Placeblogger, Williams started H2Otown.info, a nationally recognized citizen journalism community site covering and talking about Watertown, MA, where she lives and works. She has also worked with Boston.com on online community, social networking and blogging. Before that, she was director of the Enterprise Software research group at Yankee Group, a Boston area technology analyst firm.

As an appetizer, here's a post from her blog about what journalism students need to know to set up and run a website on their own.

The changing face of sports and sports media

Sports coverage is undergoing some huge changes: ESPN now has a "hyperlocal" Boston site, and Comcast Cable is developing its own broadcast sports content.

At the same time, leagues like the National Hockey League and Major League Baseball are developing their own direct channels to fans via the web. But what are the ethical considerations when the league owns the channel that's covering a sport?

That's one of the topics in a series over at the Nieman Journalism Lab: the Shifting Media Power in Sports.

A blog is not enough

Here's a great post from copyblogger with some harsh realities about blogging.

Harsh Reality #1: No one is reading your blog

As far as anyone can figure, there are about 200 million blogs around the world. Technorati tells us there are about 900,000 blog posts made every 24 hours.

Lots of other good info on this site about social media.

And here's a great piece on how to write a great travel blog.

Professor Whitehead goes to Washington

Professor Ralph Whitehead was part of a panel (along with Vice President Joe Biden) at the Center for American Progress earlier this month--the topic: The Challenges Facing the Middle Class in the 21st Century Economy.

Here's the video.

Don't just aggregate, curate!

We're heading into the home stretch in the Entrepreneurial Journalism class, and students are preparing their project prospectus and developing the look and feel of their "for-profit" web journalism projects. The goal is to develop a project that an "investor" will provide startup funding for. (It's just pretend, but still.)

Some great projects have emerged from this class, and I think everyone's learning a lot about entrepreneurship and what it takes to shepherd an idea to fruition. On December 7, they'll face our very own Dragon's Den, two judges who will decide which projects should get the venture capital money.

Journalistic entrepreneurship was the big buzz at the Online News Association Conference held in San Francisco last month, and I'm using tons of what I learned there in my classes. The main takeaway from this poynter.org coverage? Don't just aggregate, curate! Check it out.

Dan Baum's latest: what to do when an assignment heads south

Former New Yorker writer and current freelancer Dan Baum is back up and blogging, here's his latest, a worthwhile read on what to do when a freelance writing assignment doesn't pan out.

By the way, I got this link via Dan's twitterfeed. Put him in your "follow" list--he's always got something worth reading, and his followers hear about it first.

Facebook use: Networking or notworking?

The New York Times reports. You decide.

Study abroad next semester?

There's a new scholarship being offered through SBS. Find out about it here.