SPJ launches #SPJchat tonight on Twitter

Want to chat live with prominent journalists and leaders in our industry?

SPJ has just the thing: #SPJchat.

SPJ is launching a new weekly live Twitter chat on hot topics in journalism. It's called #SPJchat, and it's slated to take place at 8 p.m. Eastern/7 p.m. Central each Thursday, starting tonight.

#SPJchat is being coordinated by Mike Reilley, the man behind SPJ's Journalists Toolbox site and adviser to the SPJ chapter at DePaul University. (We're also welcoming Mike as a member of the Digital Media Committee.)

If you're totally new to live Twitter chats, Mike has posted a step-by-step primer at this link.

The first #SPJchat sounds like it's going to be great. The topic will be "Online Storytelling and Best Practices," and the guest are slated to be:

• Mark Briggs, author of Journalism 2.0
• Mark Luckie, Washington Post national innovations editor, author of The Digital Journalist’s Handbook and founder of the 10000words Blog
• Mandy Jenkins, social media producer at TBD.com

And next week's topic is slated to be "Copy Editing and Social Media."

So follow @spjchat on Twitter for more updates, and we'll see you at #SPJchat!

Focusing on freelancing with SPJ's Internet radio show/podcast

Freelancing will be the hot topic tomorrow when "Your SPJ Membership," SPJ's live Internet radio show, hits the airwaves again. The episode airs live at 1 p.m. Eastern/noon Central, but if you can't tune in then, you can catch up later by listening to it as a podcast, either on BlogTalkRadio.com or via iTunes -- you can listen through your browser or download the audio to your iPod.

Listen to internet radio with SPJ on Blog Talk Radio

Four Nashville stations to share Governor's Award for flood coverage

Round-the-clock coverage of Nashville's 2010 floods have earned Nashville's four commercial television stations the highest honor given out by the people who give out the Emmys.

WKRN, WSMV, WTVF and WZTV will receive the Governors’ Award, the highest honor from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences when it holds the Mid-South Emmys awards ceremony Jan. 29.

Among the numerous nominations received by the major stations for their journalistic output in 2010, WKRN, WSMV and WTVF were also nominated for the news excellence Emmy.

The awards ceremony will be held at the Schermerhorn Symphony Center. RSVP by Jan. 15. More info is available on the academy's Nashville chapter's Web site.

Social media ethics training Thursday in Knoxville

Our friends in the East Tennessee chapter of SPJ are holding a cool program next Thursday at the News Sentinel offices -- it's on social media ethics.

The speakers include James Pilcher, business reporter for the Cincinnati Enquirer and a member of the SPJ national board (who also serves with me on the SPJ Digital Media Committee) and Enquirer lawyer Jack Greiner.

The program is free and open to the public. Read more on ETSPJ's Web site.

Tune in at 12 noon Thursday for SPJ's live Internet radio call-in show

Tune in to "Your SPJ Membership" on BlogTalkRadio.com. Holly Fisher from the national SPJ committee on membership will talk about SPJ's e-Campus online training program, and national Treasurer-Secretary John Ensslin will talk about chapter programming.

Listen to internet radio with SPJ on Blog Talk Radio

Save the dates, everyone!

Nashville will play host to next year's spring regional conference for Region 12, so mark your calendars for the weekend of March 26, 2011. Time, place TBA. Watch this space for more details.

And the national convention next year will be in New Orleans -- a double convention SPJ is putting on with the nice folks at the RTDNA (that's Radio Television Digital News Association -- it used to be the RTNDA, the Radio Television News Directors Association) coming up Sept. 25, 2011.

Deadline is tomorrow for registration for May 17 "Access Across America" event at Belmont

National FOI Expert Brings
"Access Across America" Tour to Nashville

"Doing FOI When You're SOL"

WHO: Presented by David Cuillier, National SPJ Freedom of Information chair and co-author of the recent book "The Art of Access"

WHAT: The Society of Professional Journalists and National Freedom of Information Coalitions are co-sponsoring a 45-day road tour of the United States to train journalists and citizens in accessing public records. Cuillier's tour covers more than 35 states and more than 60 groups.

To see the tour itinerary, with a map, go to http://blogs.spjnetwork.org/aaa/?cat=5. Cuillier blogs daily at http://blogs.spjnetwork.org/aaa/.

"So far, in meeting with 315 people, mainly journalists, I'm finding that people at the local level are having great difficulty with law enforcement, more than anything. Not much of a surprise, but the problems seem quite bad," Cuillier says. "Basically, journalists are reliant on public information officers who can choose to release what they want and withhold what they want. A lot has changed since reporting 20 years ago when incident reports were provided unredacted for anyone to look at in police station lobbies. It wasn't that great then, when I was a reporter. Now it is terrible.

"But one thing I have found is that people appreciate a reminder of why transparency is so important," he adds. "Without it, we're all in a world of hurt."

WHEN: Monday, May 17,11 a.m. registration
Two-hour session -- 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.

WHERE: Curb Event Center, Beaman A, Belmont University
On the Belmont Campus facing Belmont Boulevard. Park in the attached Curb Center parking garage. Turn left off Belmont Boulevard going south onto Bernard; the garage entrance is on the left. Attached is a PDF of the campus map.

COST: $20 per person, including box lunch

RSVP: E-mail Frank Gibson at fgibson@tcog.info no later than May 12 at 11 a.m.