Journalism Centennial
Past Pulitzer Prize winners
Last week was one of the biggest events in the history of the Journalism school. All of the journalism students could go for free so there was no reason not to go. Journalism classes were canceled for the centennial so we were able to go to the events. There were many events to kick off the celebration including Freedom Sings, a multimedia presentation on the First Amendment by using banned music from across the decades.
One of my favorite events was the past Pulitzer Prize winners sharing the stories for which they won one of the most esteemed journalism awards. Jacqui Banaszynski, who teaches intermediate writing and advanced reporting, shared her story AIDS in the Heartland about the life of a gay couple dying of AIDS. I found it interesting how diverse the stories were. Banaszynski’s story, she said, was a love story. The other stories were investigations and watchdog stories.
On Friday there was a technology summit. I heard from people who are implementing different models of journalism including such as Propublica.org, which is investigative reporting that is supported a large donation (or endowment). It’s goal is to find abuses of power. In a world where there is less room and money to devote to investigative journalism, it is great to be able to have opportunities to support this vital watchdog role.
The restaurant was busy that weekend. As I was refilling waters, I could hear discussions about journalism at pretty much each table. It was really interesting to just hear snippets of conversations—a lot of the time it revolved around the future of the industry—the same theme of the entire conference.
The centennial brought in some big names such as Ken Paulson, editor of USA Today and editors from the New York Times, St. Petersbug Times and the Kansas City Star, just to name a few. This just goes to prove that the MU School of Journalism is top notch. The new Reynolds Journalism Institute provided a great backdrop for this event. The building is finished and it is great, just in time for the Centennial. So much work went into it, I think that it went really well and was a complete success.