SPJ.org Weekend Edition

Read the latest SPJ Leads: Name change survey + communications postgrad internship

Catch up with the latest SPJ Blog Entries:
– Language matters: Think before you write
– Live from home: Streaming federal trials (finally!)
– Live Chat Transcript: Discussing SPJ’s potential name change
– Combining your love for music with journalism
– Live Chat, Monday at Noon ET: Discussing SPJ’s potential name change

Keep up with the latest SPJ News:
– SPJ joins amicus brief urging Court to restrict government from punishing speakers in designated fora
– SPJ calls on New York Court of Appeals to quash subpoena against Jana Winter
– Sigma Delta Chi Foundation gives $48,500 for national investigative journalism training program
– Sigma Delta Chi Foundation gives $10,000 to For Journalism for data journalism training
– Sigma Delta Chi Foundation gives $12,500 for national training program for police and journalists

Mark your calendar for some upcoming events and deadlines:
– Wed, Jan 22, 2014: Postmark Deadline: Pulliam/Kilgore Freedom of Information Internships [Internships] [Students]
– Fri, Jan 24, 2014: Mark of Excellence Awards Submission Deadline [SPJ Awards]
– Sat, Feb 01, 2014: SPJ Chapter Grants Application Round 3 Deadline [Grants] [Leaders]

Become part of the nation’s largest, most broad-based journalism organization for just a few dollars a month with our new AutoDues billing option. It’s designed to make all the benefits of membership easily fit into anyone’s budget with a low, automatic payment that gives you access to everything SPJ offers — networking, training, advocacy and more.

SPJ AutoDues gives you the ability to pay both national and local chapter dues with low, monthly payments. Donations to SPJ or the Sigma Delta Chi Foundation may be bundled in as well.

Get all the details — including how you can sign up today — right here.

Are you interested in submitting an idea or program proposal for the Excellence in Journalism 2014 conference, Sept. 4-6 in Nashville? Send us your thoughts!

Call for Programs
If you have an idea for a conference session and are interested in taking part in the convention, please submit your proposal. Use this form to submit specific program proposals with topic, content, and suggested speaker (even if yourself). Deadline for submissions: January 2014.

Call for Conference Ideas
Don't have a specific program to propose? No problem. Use this form to submit general conference topics and speakers you'd like to see without specific program titles or descriptions. The conference programming committee will use this feedback to develop specific programs.

Mark of Excellence Awards: The Mark of Excellence Awards honors the best in collegiate journalism. Judged at the regional and national level, the annual competition offers categories in newspapers, magazines, photography, radio, television and online journalism. Entries due January 24, 2014 at midnight ET.

Sigma Delta Chi Awards: The Sigma Delta Chi Awards are among the premiere prizes in the profession and recognize achievement in all forms of journalism: print, television, radio, graphics, magazines, research, newsletters and online. Entries due February 7, 2014 at midnight ET.

New America Award: SPJ's New America Award honors public service journalism that explores and exposes an issue of importance to immigrant or ethnic communities in the United States. Entries due February 7, 2014 at midnight ET.

National High School Essay Contest: SPJ wants to increase high school students’ knowledge and understanding of the importance of the Free Media to our lives. The top three national winners receive scholarship awards. Postmark deadline March 7, 2014.

The Society of Professional Journalists annually awards two Pulliam/Kilgore Freedom of Information Internships. One intern works in the offices of the Society's First Amendment legal counsel in Washington, D.C. The other intern works at the Society's National Headquarters in Indianapolis.

The interns research and write about freedom of information issues while assisting the Society’s Freedom of Information Committee and First Amendment legal counsel in preparing SPJ’s annual Freedom of Information Report. Other responsibilities may include working on the SPJ website and assisting with SPJ programs and initiatives.

Interns receive a stipend of $400 per week and work during a mutually agreeable 10-week period during the summer. Recipients are notified in late February and should arrange to start their internships in late May or early June.

Applications must be postmarked by January 22, 2014. Get all the details, including how to apply, inside.

The SDX Foundation has partnered with For Journalism to offer online classes on various topics, including data visualization, data science/statistics, mapping and web coding. The topics that For Journalism has initially proposed are meant to address technical skills that journalists need to have in an increasingly digital and Web-first industry.

Ultimately, this type of training is available from different sources, but what differentiates For Journalism from others is its comprehensive scope. The courses aren't meant to be one-time events such as webinars, but rather long-term classes that take participants from beginning to end. Lessons will include e-textbooks and virtual study groups with peers. In this sense, courses will be more like a semester-long college class than a one-hour lunchtime webinar.

Visit forjournalism.com and start learning today!

SPJ's On Demand sessions are available to all SPJ members at any time and are included as part of your SPJ membership.

New Series: Data Visualization
— Part 1: Spreadsheets
— Part 2: Publishing
— Part 3: Editing
— Part 4: Coding: Putting it Together

Additional topics include:
— Smartphone Journalism
— Personal Branding
— Freedom of Information: Acquiring Records
— Freelancing
— Using Social Media Tools
— Basic Video Techniques
— Using Blogs and Video

Follow this link to see all available sessions.

Not an SPJ Member? View a sample video here, and then join SPJ to see the others!

SPJ's Code of Ethics is voluntarily embraced by thousands of writers, editors and other news professionals. The present version of the code was adopted at the 1996 SPJ National Convention.

Do you think the SPJ Code of Ethics needs to be updated? Do you think it's sufficient in its current form? Let us know! Please use this form to submit your ideas about the possibility of revising the SPJ Code of Ethics. SPJ will work over the next year to discuss and evaluate any ideas and will present any proposed changes during the 2014 Excellence in Journalism conference in Nashville, Tenn.

Review the Code
Read the complete text, presented in several languages, inside.

This free site from the Society of Professional Journalists contains thousands of links helpful for reporters, editors, educators or anyone else doing research. Edited by former Los Angeles Times reporter and DePaul instructor Mike Reilley, the site is organized by beats and industry topics such as Public Records, Crime, Legal Issues, Science, Environment, Journalism Jobs, Sports and more. The Toolbox is updated twice weekly and several times a day during prominent global breaking news events.