The News Reporting & Writing class and the Uptown Exchange student newspaper at Truman College welcome you to chat with working journalists on a variety of topics, including how to pursue stories for publication and broadcast. Join high-caliber media professionals visiting our school to share with the next generation of journalists-in-training.
LEFT: Tribune music columnist Greg Kot speaks on November 14th.
SCHEDULE: Discussions take place in Room #2963 of Truman College (1145 W. Wilson, Uptown, Chicago).
WEDNESDAY 9/14, 11:40 a.m. — Former feature writer and editor of the Wilmington Morning Star in North Carolina, CLIFTON TRUMAN DANIEL directs public relations and writes web stories that represent Truman College to the world. Daniel will speak on his journalism experiences and the differences between news writing and PR. He will also talk about specific approaches to online reporting and writing.
WEDNESDAY 9/21, 12:30 p.m. — ChicagoNow blogger PATRICK BOYLAN also publishes the hyperlocal neighborhood news start-up, the Welles Park Bulldog. This session will focus on internship opportunities at the Bulldog and journalism job-hunting in general as the media landscape continues to change with new tech and new business models.
WEDNESDAY 9/28, 12:30 p.m. — Producer LARRY DUNCAN helped found Labor Beat in 1983 and started shooting video for broadcast on the Chicago Access Network in the ’80s. Affiliated with the radio program Labor Express, Duncan’s video show bills itself as “Independent Rank-and-File Media,†broadcasting in eight cities around the Midwest and the eastern U.S. Duncan will talk about how his interests in documentary film and the Chicago labor movement developed into a cable news show that recently completed its 632nd episode of documenting international labor and union trends.
WEDNESDAY 10/5, 11:40 a.m. — MARK GUARINO (above) has covered everything from breaking news to politics to the world’s greatest bands. He is currently a staff writer for the prestigious Christian Science Monitor, covering the Midwest as well as national news and analysis. He’s also a freelancer for several publications and a prolific playwright. His full-length play, All the Fame of Lofty Deeds (a collaboration with the Welsh-born punk musician and painter Jon Langford), received its world premiere by the House Theater of Chicago in November 2009.
WEDNESDAY 10/12, 11:40 a.m. — Award-winning investigative reporter and Medill School of Journalism graduate JEFF KELLY LOWENSTEIN worked on staff at the Chicago Reporter and now helps plan the nuts and bolts of investigative reporting at Hoy, Chicago’s Spanish-language daily. He’ll talk about developing the instincts of an investigative reporter and writing with style.
WEDNESDAY 10/19, 11:40 a.m. — A Chicago Sun-Times staffer since 1987, news columnist NEIL STEINBERG delivers commentary and reporting to our city four times a week, in addition to his other writing credits for The Washington Post, The New York Times, Sports Illustrated, and many other publications, on top of authoring six books, such as his most recent memoir titled, Drunkard, which The New York Post called “at once hysterically funny and cringe inducing.”
WEDNESDAY 10/26, 11:40 a.m. — From public radio station WBEZ’s community bureau on Devon Avenue, ODETTE YOUSEF covers Chicago’s North Side. Before she joined WBEZ in March 2010, she was a reporter for WABE-FM, the local NPR affiliate in Atlanta, where she covered local politics, business, criminal courts, and health systems, among other subjects. An award-winning journalist who has also been a producer of NPR’s Talk of the Nation, Yousef will discuss covering a beat and audio storytelling.
WEDNESDAY 10/26, 12:30 p.m. — Truman graphic design instructor and author ALEXIS STEINKAMP teaches artistic visual communication with cutting-edge computer tools and an eye for high-impact imagery. She’ll talk about design basics on Adobe InDesign and how to approach laying out a news publication.
MONDAY 10/31, 11:40 a.m. — With expertise from the University of Chicago Latin American Studies program, AARON COHEN covers jazz and world music as Associate Editor of DownBeat Magazine. Cohen’s book on Aretha Franklin’s Amazing Grace album has recently been published, and he’s also co-editing autobiographies of Maurice White and Rick James. He’ll discuss music journalism, arts writing, and what it was like to interview and hang out with James Brown.
WEDNESDAY 11/9, 12:30 p.m. — Truman alumnus NANDIKA DOOBAY graduated in 2009 with an Associates of Arts in Journalism and drafted her first journalistic writing in the Uptown Exchange, where she won an award for arts writing. Since then, she has worked as a reporter for the Wicker Park/Bucktown Pipeline covering crime, politics, and community events, and penning a weekly column, “Linkypoos.â€
MONDAY 11/14, 11:40 a.m. — Since 1990, GREG KOT has been chief music critic at the Chicago Tribune where he comprehensively covers popular music and reports on music-related social, political, and business issues. In addition to radio-show and book projects, Kot has article credits in Rolling Stone, Details, Vibe, and many other publications. He will talk about A&E writing, blogging, and broadcasting.
WEDNESDAY 11/16, 12:30 p.m. — Truman English professor CHRISTINE AGUILA has been photographing construction of the college’s parking garage and student services building since 2008. Using her current work on this project, she will discuss basic photojournalism principles and techniques while reviewing the history of Truman’s recent campus development.
WEDNESDAY 11/23, 12:30 p.m. — JESSE MENENDEZ says he’s not a music critic, just a fan of music, and that’s how he hosts the Music Vox on Vocalo Chicago Public Radio (89.5 FM) direct from Navy Pier, where he plays some of the best Chicagoland music every Monday through Friday night. He’ll talk about live one-on-one interviewing and the thrill of disc-jockeying in an online/radio production studio.
WEDNESDAY 11/30, 11:40 a.m. — Publisher of the Gay Chicago newspaper, CRAIG GERNHARDT speaks about the biz and new media of journalism, including his work as an on-the-ground neighborhood journalist-blogger in Rogers Park and upcoming developments in creating a community publication.
MONDAY 12/5, 11:40 a.m. — Truman Communications faculty ROBERT HUGHES has had a distinguished teaching career notable also for his publishing of a book-length memoir and regular contributions to the Chicago Tribune, WBEZ’s “848,†and the “My Turn†section of Newsweek. Hughes will talk about how he started writing and how he now teaches students to become perspective writers.
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