Study Video with Me in Perpignan, France

I'm going to be teaching videojournalism next summer for the Institute for Education in International Media's study-abroad program in Perpignan, France.

It’s a four-week multimedia program co-sponsored by San Francisco State University and ieiMedia. Students will study French language and culture, as well as reporting and multimedia storytelling, for the first week and then focus intensively on video shooting and editing in Final Cut Express for the last three weeks.

Students will each produce at least one short, documentary-style video as well as text stories about the community; together they will create an online video gallery about the city.

We've got room for about 20 beginning and advanced students, from all schools and disciplines (and from all over the world). The program is open to undergrads, recent grads, and grad students. Here's some basic info for those who might be interested.

When: June 24 - July 23, 2010.

Where: Perpignan is near the Spanish border, eight miles from the Mediterranean. (See map.)


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Tuition: $4,900 + airfare ($200 early-bird discount for those who apply by Jan. 15, 2010). Scholarships are available to SFSU journalism majors only, although financial aid is generally not available for summer study-abroad programs.

Credits: 3 transferable, upper-division journalism units from the SFSU College of Extended Learning. The course is called JOUR 677 Multimedia Study Abroad.

Faculty: I'll be teaching the video module. Jennifer Ward, assistant managing editor-interactive media for the Fresno Bee, will teach Multimedia Storytelling and serve as technology director. Laird Harrison, a former correspondent for TIME and People magazines who lived in France for a year, will teach Reporting. Rachele Kanigel, an associate professor of journalism at SFSU and a former news reporter, will direct the program.

Equipment: The program will provide digital video cameras and computers with video editing software for teams of students to share. Students are encouraged to bring their own equipment as well.

Language: Most classes (except 30 hours of French instruction) will be taught in English. In your reporting you will work with interpreters.

Apply: Students must fill out an application (PDF)and submit one letter of recommendation, along with a $500 deposit. Deposits will be refunded only if a student is not accepted into the program.

More info: PerpignanProject@gmail.com or ieiMedia's Website.

California Shield Law Covers Student Photog

According to an NPPA report: "A San Francisco State University photojournalism student who was at the scene of a neighborhood street killing does not have to surrender his photographs to police, a judge ruled last week, because the student was working as a journalist in the eyes of the state's shield law."

It's a complicated case:

Police were ordered to return evidence they had seized from the student's apartment after the 22-year-old SFSU student refused to talk to police about what he'd seen on April 17 when a 21-year-old man was shot and killed during a dice game. The photojournalist refused to answer police questions at the scene, according to the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, so police obtained a search warrant to get the photographer's DNA and to search his apartment.

The student has not been identified by name, according to the San Francisco Chronicle, because he fears for his own safety.

Police response to the judge's ruling was crass, at best. "We're just going to try to find another angle - we're just going to find some witnesses who aren't cowards, like this student is, hiding behind the shield law," police Lt. Mike Stasko of the police homicide detail told the Chronicle. There have been no arrests made in the killing of Norris Bennett, the shooting victim.

Superior Court Judge Tomar Mason ruled that the California law that protects journalists allows them to keep sources confidential and to withhold unpublished information from law enforcement. Mason ordered police return the photographer's item to him and quashed the search warrant, ruling that the fact that the student was acting as a journalist at the time was "uncontroverted."

The student's attorney, Michael Ng, said his client had been working on a project on the Bayview-Hunters Point neighborhood when the incident occurred, and that the photojournalist had been trying to shop the essay around to papers such as the Wall Street Journal and the Bay Area News Group chain of dailies.

Read Wired Magazine's in-depth report, with enlightening background info on previous shield law rulings.

Full disclosure: This is my student. He truly does not want his name used because he fears that the killer will come after him, plain and simple. To be honest, I am not sure how I feel about the shield-law principle in this instance... but I am happy for my student.

My Student is Hanging in the White House

Kudos to my former SFSU student Andrew Craft, photojournalist extraordinaire at the Fayetteville (NC) Observer. His memorable photo of a soldier departing for Iraq was framed and presented by the city to Michelle Obama, who was touring the Fort Bragg area to investigate military family support services.

As you can see in the first minute of this C-Span video, the First Lady said: "This picture is moving... It says so much...It's going to go up in my office tomorrow..."

The photo, entitled "Tearful Departure," depicts Capt. Shelia Jenkins comforting her daughter, Khadyajah, 7, while holding the hand of her husband, Chief Warrant Officer Claude Jenkins, as he departs on a bus to his flight to Iraq.

Andrew was recently named the 2008 North Carolina Photographer of the Year by the North Carolina Press Photographers Association -- for the second year in a row. It makes a professor proud!

My Student, The First Photographer

Forgive me while I kvell about a couple of former students...

First, congrats to Pete Souza, on his Today Show appearance — and on his appointment as the official White House photographer for Barack Obama.

It's been a stellar year for Pete... and a stellar career.

Pete's book "The Rise of Barack Obama" made the New York Times' bestseller list in 2008. Pete was working for the Chicago Tribune when he began covering the president-elect long before Barack Obama became a household name.

Pete actually will know his way around the White House better than our new president, as Pete also was the official White House photographer for Ronald Reagan! Pete published a book of images from those years titled "Images of Greatness: An Intimate Look at the Presidency of Ronald Reagan."

You can enjoy his online portfolio here, with pictures not only of Reagan and Obama, but ranging from Wrigley Field to post-9/11 Kabul.

Pete was in one of my earliest photojournalism classes at Boston University, back in ... well, a few years ago.

And to prove that I'm a bipartisan professor, my former San Francisco State University student Shawn Thew has scored the current cover of Rolling Stone magazine -- with an image of a forlorn looking George W. Bush that was used for a humorous photo-illustration.

Keep up the great work, guys! Just call me Proud Prof!

2 Summer Abroad Multimedia Programs

San Francisco State University's Journalism Department and the Institute for Education in International Media will co-sponsor two summer programs in multimedia storytelling next summer. One is in Armagh, Northern Ireland, July 15-August 16, 2009, the other in Urbino, Italy, July 1 to July 30, 2009.

Students from all universities and majors, as well as recent graduates, are welcome to apply. Students will earn 3 units of journalism credit through the SFSU College of Extended Learning. Students will learn various aspects of digital storytelling -- including photography, video, writing for the Web, blogging, and Web design -- and will produce an online multimedia documentary about the local community.

For Urbino contact UrbinoProject@gmail.com; for Armagh contact ArmaghProject@gmail.com. For more information and an application visit http://www.ieimedia.com/.

Multimedia Job Opportunity

San Francisco State University’s Journalism Department seeks a tenure-track Assistant Professor with expertise in multimedia, digital delivery of news media, and media entrepreneurship.

The successful candidate must have at least five years experience with online journalism and multi-media news delivery and some experience teaching journalism. Teaching responsibilities will include undergraduate-level courses in such areas as multimedia/online journalism, digital skills (Excel, interactive maps, searchable databases), publication/graphic design, and media entrepreneurship. The candidate should be forward-thinking about journalism in the 21st century and will be expected to assist the department in shaping its evolving multimedia curriculum as it prepares students for professional careers in an industry that’s undergoing profound transformation. SFSU is an AA/EO employer.

MORE INFO: http://www.journalism.sfsu.edu/jobopening.shtml