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Spot NewsA publication of the East Tennessee Chapter

of the Society of Professional Journalists

Vol. 13, No. 3 March 2007

Visit us on the web at www.discoverET.org/etspj

R obert Krulwich, whom TV Guide called the mostinventive reporter in television, will speak at theUniversity of Tennessee on Monday, April 26 at 8 p.m.

The Emmy-award-winning science correspondent for ABCTelevision and National Public Radio has titled his presentationWhat a Reporter Learns from Dylan, Coltrane, andChumbawamba Journalism as Music. He plans to illustrate

his talk with clips from television and radio.The event will be in the Shiloh Room of the University

Center and is free and open to the public.One of Krulwichs two national Emmy Awards honored a

special show on Internet privacy; the other recognized a pro-gram on the cultural history of the Barbie doll. He won theAmerican Association for the Advancement of ScienceExcellence in Television Award in 2001 for a Nova special onthe human genome.

Science reporter Robert Krulwich will speak on at UT March 26

See SCIENCE TALK on Page 2

See WORKSHOP on Page 2

SPJ writing workshop with Leon Alligood is open to all comersBy Elenora Edwards, program chair

L eon Alligood, staff writer with The Tennessean,Nashville, will lead a workshop on descriptivewriting the afternoon of Thursday, March 29,ponsored by the East Tennessee Chapter of the Society

f Professional Journalists.The workshop title is The Tall Thin Man vs. the Gent

With a Round, Luminous Countenance: Using descrip-ive languagewhy, when and how much.

Descriptive language can paint a word portrait for aeader, Alligood points out. It can set apart your sub-ect in the readers mind and give him or her an image tohold onto as you tell a story.

But bewaredescriptive language can be dangerousf the writer is just showboating. Descriptive languagehould enhance the storytelling, not detract from it.

The workshop will be conducted in two segments,

with a break in between, from 1:30 to 3:45 p.m. on thecampus of Pellissippi State Technical CommunityCollege, 10915 Hardin Valley Road, within sight of thePellissippi Parkway just north of Kingston Pike.

At this workshop, Alligood, an award-winning writer,

will explore the tricks of crafting descriptive languageand using it in stories for the readers benefit.

Alligood has been with The Tennessean for nine yearsand before that was on the staff of the Nashville Bannerfor 11 and a half years. Earlier he was a staff writer at theClinton Courier-News for four and a half years.

As a reporter for The Tennessean, Alligood wasembedded with the 101st Airborne Division in bothAfghanistan and Iraq. For the past seven years he hastaught feature writing at Middle Tennessee StateUniversity. He is finishing a master

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ETSPJ Officers and Board of DirectorsEd Hooper, presidentJean Ash, vice president for Front Page Follies,

communications coordinator, secretaryMia Rhodarmer, vice president for Golden Press

Card awards (co-chair)Dan Foley, treasurer Dorothy Bowles, immediate past president, Spot

News editor, Golden Press Card awards co-chair Elenora Edwards, program chair John Huotari, membership chair Christine Jessel, Follies auction chair

Adina ChumleyAnn LloydLisa Hood Skinner Randy TedfordGeorgiana VinesLetters to the Editor Policy: The board encouragesletters to the editor of Spot News. Like letters policiesat most newspapers, we ask that letters be limited to200 words or less. Letters will be subject to editing for space and content. Send e-mail toetspj.communications@gmail.com

Mark your calendar March 17 : Happy Hour at

Barley's, 6:30,March 26: Robert Krulwich, Hill

Lecture at UT, 8 p.m.March 29: Writing workshop

with Leon Alligood of Tenn-

essean, Pellissippi, 1:30 p.m.March 30-31: Region 12Conference in Fayetteville, Ark.

April 1: Board meeting,Mandarin House West at 5 p.m.

April 26: Town Hall meeting,County Commission and openmeetings law, East TennesseeHistory Center, 7 p.m..

May 4: Golden Press Cardawards dinner, 6 p.m.

July 21: Front Page Follies,Knoxville Convention Center

He won the duPont Award from ColumbiaUniversity for his investigative series Frontline on PBS.

New York magazine describes him as the man who sim-plifies without being simple.

Krulwichs speech is this years Alfred and Julia HillLecture. The Hill Lecture series brings distinguished sci-ence journalists to campus to share their thoughts on sci-ence, society, and the mass media.

The lectures are made possible by an endowmentcreated by Tom Hill and Mary Frances Hill Holton inhonor of their parents Alfred and Julia Hill, founders of The Oak Ridger . The Hill familys endowment of thelecture series was a gift to the University of TennesseesSchool of Journalism and Electronic Media in theCollege of Communication and Information.

Krulwich holds a bachelors degree from OberCollege in United States history and a law degree fromColumbia University. He lives in New York City withis wife and two children.

The University Cen ter is at the corner Cumberland Drive and Phillip Fulmer Way. Parking iavailable in a garage on Phillip Fulmer Way next to thUniversity Center and in free lots south of the parkingarage.

The East Tennessee chapter of SPJ contributesthe event for refreshments following the lecture.

For more information, contact Dr. Mark LittmanSchool of Journalism & Electronic Media, 974-8156littmann@utk.edu.

of fine arts degree at GoucherCollege.

He has won numerous awardsfrom SPJ, Tennessee PressAssociation and the Best of Gannettand was a runner-up for the DartAward.

Alligood lives in Lebanon withhis wife of 31 years, Bertie. Theyhave two adult sons, a perfectgranddaughter and a dog, U.G. Lee(shes ugly, get it?).

The workshop will cost $5 fornon-SPJ members and will be free tomembers. One should call or e-mailElenora E. Edwards, SPJ programchairman, to preregister or to ask

questions. Contact her at (865) 457-5459 or eleedwards@aol.com.

Workshop . . . from Page 1

Science Talk . . . continued from Page 1

Leon Alligood, Tennessean reporter andadjunct professor at MTSU will teach anSPJ-sponsored writing workshop March29.

2 -- SPOT NEWS

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By James Fields

A n Internet search shows thou-sands of American victims of Middle East and Islamic terror-ists in dozens of attacks from February

1970 to Sept-ember 2001. That

and other inci-dents, such as the1979 seizure of the U.S. Embassyin Tehran andsubsequent 444days captivity for52 diplomats,

have hardened American attitudestoward Muslim individuals and nations.

But there is another side to thatstory the existence of Islamic gov-

ernments friendly to the U.S. and thefact that millions of Muslims are U.S.citizens. Discussing the role of massmedia in sharing this other side was ledby UT faculty experts in an ETSPJ pro-gram March 1 at the Knoxville NewsSentinel.

Dr. Rosalind Gwynn e came to UTin 1981 to teach Arabic; now her cours-es include Islam andits holy book theQuran. She saidthat after 9-11 therecame a question,Why are Muslimsnot rejecting theperpetrators of vio-lence? Answer:Muslims dont criti-cize other Muslimspublicly. But theyhave varied opin-ions, which themedia need to covermore.

D r . P a l m i r aBrummett teachesMiddle Eastern history and the rhetoricof cross-cultural encounters. Concern-ing events of 1979 in Iran, she said thatMedia were deferential to governmentand official sources and the presstends to focus on spokespersons.

Asked Why aremany Iraqis fightingU.S. forces,Brummett said Notall, not even many.The fighters are thosewho, under Saddam,had power. Theydlike to regain it andknow that some daythe U.S. will leave.

Both professorsmade media contentsuggestions forIslamic and Mideastnews, notably not per-petuating stereotypi-cal notions:

The public needs to know that not

all Mideast people are religious; someare sectarian. More coverage is needed about var-

ied opinions among Muslims. Sunnis vs. Shiites are similar to

Serbs vs. Croats. Mideast violence is 20th century,

not from time immemorial. Mideast education is not truly char-

acterized by boysin the Madrasasnodding as they

recite Koranicverses.

More analysisis needed; forexample theBritish model of 1920 is not wor-thy of emula-tion, a referenceto some WorldWar I victornations planningthe partition of Iraq into separateprovinces

more recently suggested for separatingKurds, Shiites, and Sunnis.

Asked to name media that presentsuch topics well, the speakers namedthree: Broadcast - BBC, Magazine -The New Yorker, Newspaper - ChristianScience Monitor.

SPOT NEWS -- 3

Dr. James Fields

Drs. Palmira Brummett and Rosalind Gwynne

Dr. Samir El-Ghazaly and Sarah El-Ghazaly

Program promotes better news coverge of Middle Easterners at home and abroad

Suggested readingKaren Armstrong, Islam: A Short

History, The Modern Library(New York, 2000) 222 pages.

Albert Hourani, A History of the Arab Peoples, HarvardUniversity Press (Cambridge,1991) 551 pages

Martin Gilbert, Israel: A History,William Morrow and Company(New York, 1998) 750 pages.

Closer to home, Gwynne tal

about Knoxville Muslims who habeen here since at least the mid-1970At first they had no mosque becauthey declined a mortgage based Islamic teaching that opposes requiriand paying of interest. As thincreased their fund for an all-cash costruction, prices also increased. Beventually the mosque was built.

Whats the current Muslim poption here? The answer, Maybe twothree thousand, was provided by

guest Dr. Samir El-Ghazaly, originaly from Egypt, now professor and heof the UT Department of Electrical aComputer Engineering. (He was joinin the audience by his daughter, SarEl-Ghazaly, a UT student who writes the Daily Beacon.)

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1802 Pinoak CourtKnoxville, Tennessee 37923

4 -- SPOT NEWS

Jess Baily, director of the State DepartmentsWashington Foreign Press Center, will speak at 3 p.m.on March 20 in the Shiloh Room at the UniversityCenter on the UT campus. The title of his talk is RealWorld Public Diplomacy: Connecting Across the

Static.Baily will speak about current challenges in U.S.

public diplomacy from the perspective of a practitioner.The term static is used to conjure up interference orimpediment, including the very electronic media usedto conduct our public diplomacy efforts. How do you cutthrough the limitations of the technology to communi-cate real understanding?

Baily has been director of the State DepartmentsWashington Foreign Press Center since August 2005. Heand the FPC staff of 14 help the 2,000 resident foreigncorrespondents and visiting journalists cover the UnitedStates by providing access to authoritative sources anddeepening their understanding of U.S. politics, society,business and culture.

A career member of the Senior Foreign Service withthe rank of Counselor, Mr. Baily joined the ForeignService in 1985 and has served in press and culturalaffairs positions in Bangladesh, Senegal, Thailand and

Turkey. Prior to his current assignment, he wCounselor for Public Affairs at the U.S. Embassy in ThHague, Netherlands.

A native of Cincinnat i, Mr. Baily has BA sumcum laude from Yale University and MA in Europe

History from Columbia University. He speaks FrenchTurkish and Thai. He is married to Capie Polk and thehave one son, Noah.

The program is sponsored by the School Journalism & Electronic Media, the College oCommunication and Information with assistance fromthe Howard H. Baker Jr. Center for Public Policy.

Foreign Press director to discuss real world diplomacy at UT on March 20

Meet and greet on St. Pats Day

Journalists! ETSPJis buying the snacksand welcomes jour-nalists --print,broadcast, Web --to join in the fun atBarleys at 6 p.m.