“How To Make Audio Podcasting Work For You” will take place Friday, May 6 at the Madison Area Technical College – Downtown campus, 211 North Carroll Street, in Madison. Morning sessions and lunch will be held in Room 240; a hands-on training session will be in Room 421. It will begin at 10 a.m. with registration starting at 9:30 a.m

Podcasting training is free for SPJ members. There is a charge of $10 for students, who are eligible to attend the morning sessions, $20 for other morning-only session attendees, and $30 for attendees of the morning and afternoon sessions. The later session will be a hands-on training course in audio recording and editing for a podcast that is limited to 20 attendees.

Register here.

A catered lunch and snacks are included with all registrations. The morning sessions will be turned into podcasts, and the podcast links will be made available after those sessions have ended on the Writer’s Life Lecture Series podcast.

Madison College’s Journalism Program, of the School of Arts and Sciences, is generously sponsoring the event.

The session schedule is as follows:

9:30-10:00: Registration

10:00-11:00: “Podcasting 101 For Journalists”
Led by Madison College journalism instructor Larry Hansen, this session will offer an overview of the medium’s role in news coverage as well as covering the do’s and don’ts of podcasting along the way. Hansen will be joined by fellow Madison College instructor and former Wisconsin Public Radio Morning Edition host Terry Bell and Isthmus staff writer Dylan Brogan.

11:00-12:00:”Podcasting in Wisconsin’s Newsrooms”
Wisconsin journalists will share their experiences with producing podcasts for their respective news outlets while sharing tips for getting started. Panelists include Katie O’Connell, producer and host of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s “Behind the Headlines” and “Unsolved” podcasts; Jason Galloway, Wisconsin State Journal Badgers football beat reporter and host of “The Red Zone” podcast; James Mills, freelance journalist, author, and creator of “The Joy Trip Project” podcast

12:00-1:00 – Lunch and Networking

1-3:15: “Podcasting Basics: A ‘Hands-On’ Workshop”
Get a hands-on approach to recording audio, sound editing, and voicing while pulling together a sample podcast. A focus will be on the program, Garage Band, but trainer Terry Bell will also provide tips for other free programs available. This program is limited to 20 attendees; slots are filled on a first-come, first-serve basis.

Panelists may change. Register here.

Direct questions to Breann Schossow, SPJ Madison secretary, at [email protected] or journalism instructor Larry Hansen, at [email protected].

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February 23, 2016

Contact: Mark Pitsch, (608) 252-6145; Bill Lueders, (608) 669-4712

Open Government Advocates to Take Show on the Road

Advocates of open government in Wisconsin are planning a three-day, eight-city informational tour to highlight the importance of the state’s open records law, in the wake of unprecedented attacks from state lawmakers and others.

“An open society depends on open government. Wisconsin residents understand that,” says Mark Pitsch, president of the Madison chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists and an assistant city editor at the Wisconsin State Journal. “Last summer’s attempt to gut the records law is just one of several recent examples of official disregard for the public’s right to know. It’s time for education and vigilance.”

The “Open Government Traveling Show” will take place from Tuesday, March 15, through Thursday, March 17, as part of national Sunshine Week, the annual “celebration of access to public information.”

The events—free and open to the public—are aimed at helping Wisconsin residents understand the open records law and how to use it. Each 90-minute presentation will feature a tutorial on the records law and examples of its use by journalists and advocates.

Participants will include representatives of the Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council, the Madison chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists, the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty, the Center for Media and Democracy, the MacIver Institute for Public Policy and Wisconsin Democracy Campaign.

The tour is also supported by the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism. Each stop has its own local sponsor.

The traveling show will take place in the following locations:

La Crosse: March 15, 2 p.m. La Crosse Public Library. Local sponsor: La Crosse Tribune.

Eau Claire: March 15, 7 p.m. Centennial Hall, Room 1614, UW-Eau Claire. Local sponsor: Eau Claire Leader-Telegram, UW-Eau Claire chapter, Society of Professional Journalists

Wausau: March 16, 10 a.m. Marathon County Public Library. Local sponsor: Wausau Daily Herald-USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin

Green Bay: March 16, 2 p.m. Green Bay Public Library. Local Sponsor: Green Bay Press-Gazette-USA TODAY NETWORK-WISCONSIN

Appleton: March 16, 7:30 p.m. Appleton Public Library. Local sponsor: Appleton Post-Crescent-USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin

Sheboygan: March 17, 10 a.m. Sheboygan Public Library. Local sponsor: Sheboygan Press-USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin

Waukesha: March 17, 2 p.m, Waukesha Public Library. Local sponsor: Schott, Bublitz and Engel S.C.

Janesville: March 17, 7 p.m. Blackhawk Technical College. Local sponsor: Janesville Gazette

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The American wheat beer will debut March 16 at a celebration of Sunshine Week, the annual event honoring open government and the First Amendment. The celebration takes place from 6-9 p.m. at Next Door, 2439 Atwood Ave., Madison.

Sunshine Wheat features brewers malt, flaked wheat and crystal wheat from Wisconsin-based Briess Malt and Ingredients Company and Brewer’s Gold hops from Gorst Valley Hops of Mazomanie. It will feature an exotic dry hop. Sunshine Wheat will hold 4.8 percent alcohol-by-volume, 22 IBUs and a 5.6 SRM.

The Wisconsin Newspaper Association is the lead sponsor of the SPJ Madison-Next Door Brewing event. Other sponsors include WKOW, Wisconsin State Journal, With Gusto, Isthmus, and the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism.

Oct. 1, 2014

The Madison chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists was distressed to learn that press minders sought to prevent reporters from interviewing people who attended a Mary Burke campaign event in Milwaukee on Monday, Sept. 29, featuring First Lady Michelle Obama.

The good news is that the campaign of gubernatorial candidate Burke and the White House have a chance to get it right. Obama is returning to Wisconsin for a Burke campaign event in Madison on Tuesday, Oct. 7. We call on the White House and the Burke campaign to allow reporters to speak to event attendees at any time – before, during or after the event. A Burke campaign spokesman told us today there would be no restrictions at the Madison event.

According to reporters, aides to both the Burke campaign and the White House sought to prevent reporters covering the Milwaukee event from speaking with event attendees until the event ended. Here’s how Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reporter Meg Kissinger described it on Facebook:

“To say that I was creeped out is an understatement. This is what reporters do in America: we speak to people. At least that’s how I’ve been doing things — at all kinds of political events — since 1979.”

One press minder even told the chairman of the state Democratic Party to stop talking to a reporter because he was inside the press pen. The Burke spokesman told us he intervened and allowed the interview to proceed.

These are not the only restrictions that have been imposed by campaigns on the media in recent years. Wisconsin-based reporters have noted increasing attempts to prevent them from doing their jobs, including holding pens, limits on who can be interviewed, and more.

During the 2012 presidential campaign, for example, the campaigns of President Barack Obama and Vice Presidential nominee Paul Ryan hand-picked event attendees to be interviewed, one reporter told SPJ. That year campaigns for the Wisconsin U.S. Senate candidates roped off media from people attending Election Night parties in an effort to prevent interviews. At the Republican state convention this year, party officials told some reporters not to interview delegates in the audience.

As we near Nov. 4 and campaign season accelerates, we urge the political parties and individual campaigns to grant the press open access to candidates, supporters and event attendees.

Contact: Mark Pitsch, Madison SPJ president, 608-252-6145

This statement has been updated from an earlier version to correct a description of reporter’s events involving an interview with the state Democratic Party chairman.

Aug. 28, 2014

Contact: Mark Pitsch, president, Madison pro chapter Society of Professional Journalists, 608-252-6145

MADISON – The Society of Professional Journalists this week named its Madison pro chapter to this year’s “Circle of Excellence” for helping revive SPJ’s UW-Madison campus chapter.

The Circle of Excellence is a collection of awards that recognizes outstanding work in five areas: First Amendment/freedom of information, professional development, chapter communications, diversity and campus relations.

SPJ Madison secretary Breann Schossow, weekend assignment editor at WKOW-27, worked closely with UW-Madison students and professor Lucas Graves to help revive the campus chapter.

“It was simply a delight to help the students re-start their chapter,” Schossow says. “They’re passionate and wanted their fellow journalism students to benefit from the opportunities that SPJ offers.

Earlier this year, SPJ named Madison chapter president Mark Pitsch its Howard S. Dubin Outstanding Pro Member of the Year in the small chapter category. Since 2011, the Madison chapter has twice been a finalist for small chapter of the year.

The Madison pro chapter serves to support journalism and journalists, promote First Amendment and ethical principals, and help the public understand what journalists do. SPJ membership is $75 annually.

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Panelists: Tim Kelley, Jacki Witkowski, Kristian Knutsen and Dietram Scheufele.

More than 30 local journalists and members of the public gathered on Tuesday, Nov. 26, 2013 for a panel discussion hosted by the Madison chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists, “Trollish Behavior and the Future of Online Comments.”

Panelists included:

• Dietram Scheufele, the John E. Ross Professor in Science Communication at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Honorary Professor of Communication at the Dresden University of Technology in Germany. His research examines the role of social media and other emerging modes of communication in our society.
• Tim Kelley, digital media manager at Madison.com
• Jacki Witkowski, internet director at WKOW-TV
• Kristian Knutsen, web editor with Isthmus and thedailypage.com

Listen to audio of the panel discussion here:

The state’s Republican-led budget committee may have done no greater favor for the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism than voting to evict it from two tiny offices in UW-Madison’s Vilas Hall.

Since the early morning, back-room decision surfaced last week, the center has received the kind of national attention – from media and political sources of all ideological stripes – only winning a Pulitzer Prize might have generated.

But that’s the good news. The bad news is that the decision, labeled petty and vindictive by conservative talker Charlie Sykes and yet to be fully explained to the public, is just the latest in a series of high-profile attempts by public officials to stifle a free and open media:

• The Obama administration targeted the Associated Press and a Fox News reporter for doing their jobs – seeking information from government sources that could be important for the public to know.

• Gearing up to convince voters to let him lead the state’s public school system, Rep. Don Pridemore identified reporters he perceived as liberal and told his staff in a grammatically challenged memo to demand their questions in writing.

• Last fall, the Senate campaigns of Republican Tommy Thompson and Democrat Tammy Baldwin corralled the media in roped off pens that made conducting interviews and taking photos and video more difficult.

And just last week, prior to its annual convention, the state Democratic Party refused to allow Capital Times reporter Jack Craver to cover the event because of alleged journalistic misdeeds. Maybe he failed to treat the party and its leaders with the kind of kid gloves and deference expected of a political reporter from a self-proclaimed “progressive” newspaper. Recall, this is the same political party that forcibly kicked out another reporter last year, this one from Wisconsin Reporter, a conservative media outfit that writes from a “free-market” perspective. Ironically, Craver first caught the DPW’s attention by writing about, yes, the party’s dismissal of Wisconsin Reporter journalist Ryan Ekvall.

One of the more popular parlor games among journalists these days is debating which gubernatorial administration, that of Gov. Scott Walker, a Republican, or Gov. Jim Doyle, his Democratic predecessor, has better deflected and delayed routine media inquiries. Walker’s government seems to have one-upped Doyle’s. But to his credit, Walker has been downright magnanimous in answering questions from the press after various events in Madison and around the state. Something tells me he and his advisers find value in allowing him to tell the public why he does what he does. Were it so among state agencies.

Do you sense a pattern here? Perhaps Democrats and Republicans have found something on which they agree.

It bears repeating that the city of Madison was named for the Father of the Constitution and the author of the Bill of Rights. James Madison believed that a truly democratic society relied on the free flow of information. His colleague Thomas Jefferson believed a free press was vital to the sharing of information.

There’s still a chance the Legislature will reverse the decision to remove the WCIJ from UW-Madison. The backlash has been that swift and nearly universal. And if it doesn’t, Gov. Walker could always veto the provision.

Whatever happens in the short term, however, the investigative center will continue to thrive. Nothing spells success in journalism like doing good work, and making a few enemies.

Mark Pitsch is president of the Madison pro chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. He is an assistant city editor at the Wisconsin State Journal.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Mark Pitsch, 608-252-6145

MADISON – The Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism is an important part of the media landscape in Wisconsin. Its criminal justice, environmental, political and other reporting has garnered national and statewide attention – including by the Wisconsin Legislature – and its work is made available for free on the center’s website and to media outlets statewide.

The center’s work with UW-Madison has been an effective collaboration that has allowed young journalists to obtain vital training. It offers the public a look at the changing journalism present and the kind of journalism operations that will exist in the future.

The center is nonpartisan, and its work seeks to hold government officials accountable for decisions that affect all Wisconsinites. The state is richer for its presence.

The Madison pro chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists supports the work of the center. Further, it is a partner with the center on the annual Watchdog Awards; our organization’s vice president is a center employee.

Journalists across the country are increasingly subject to scrutiny and retaliation by political leaders of both parties. We don’t understand why the Legislature’s Joint Finance Committee is requiring the center to leave UW-Madison, and we wish lawmakers had subjected this proposal to public debate. We believe the center will thrive, with or without a physical presence in the UW-Madison School of Journalism and Mass Communications.

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In a letter to a friend, Thomas Jefferson wrote, “Our liberty cannot be guarded but by freedom of the press, nor that be limited without danger of losing it.”

Jefferson noted in his letter to John Jay that Americans should be “governed by reason and truth” and that the most effective avenue toward such “is the freedom of the press. It is, therefore, the first shut up by those who fear the investigation of their actions.”

Recent actions by the U.S. Department of Justice endanger our liberties by putting a chill on the work of journalists and discouraging whistleblowers from coming forward with evidence of government wrongdoing. The DOJ actions also raise the question of whether the government is deliberately seeking to silence the press. As a result, we are writing to urge your support of a federal shield law, the Free Flow of Information Act of 2013 (H.R. 1962 and S. 987).

A federal shield law would protect journalists’ confidential sources and the public’s right to hold its government accountable. While 49 states and the District of Columbia have some sort of shield protections, such a law does not exist at the federal level and its absence jeopardizes the ability of the press to do its job.

A shield law would ensure the kind of democracy envisioned by Jefferson. It would require judicial review of executive branch subpoenas of journalists’ records. Such a review would provide a key check on executive branch power. News organizations should also have the opportunity to challenge government subpoenas in court.

A free and open press is key to a vital democracy. Our city, Madison, Wisconsin, was named for James Madison, father of the Bill of Rights. Madison believed that a healthy democracy depends upon a knowledgable citizenry: “The advancement and diffusion of knowledge is the only guardian of true liberty.”

We don’t like the idea of journalists – who are to hold government accountable – turning to government for protection. But the Department of Justice’s unconscionable action seeking wide-ranging information and records about the Associated Press without the news agency’s knowledge must be addressed. The Free Flow of Information Act would provide a qualified privilege for journalists to protect confidential sources and allow us to do our jobs, and to, like Madison hoped, provide citizens with the knowledge they need to make informed decisions in a representative democracy.

Sincerely,
Mark Pitsch, president, and members of the executive committee of the Madison pro chapter, Society of Professional Journalists

Agenda

May 6, 2013

I. Call to Order
II. Approval of Minutes
III. Treasurer’s Report
IV. Membership Report
V. President’s Report
A. Midwest Journalism Conference
B. Watchdog Awards
C. Carrie Johnson: April 18
D. Simpson Street Free Press: Open House April 30
VI. DISCUSSION/ACTION: Chester Wells Event Update
VII. DISCUSSION/ACTION: Reimbursement: $50.00, Mark Pitsch, 4/18/13
VIII. DISCUSSION/ACTION: Host Business Journalism training Sept. 28
IX. DISCUSSION/ACTION: Bylaws update (to be voted on in June; can be amended at meeting)

EXISTING: Section 2 – An executive committee may be created to consist of officers and one or more past presidents. The executive committee may act on behalf of the Chapter. Action shall be by majority vote.

PROPOSED: Section 2 – An executive committee may be created to consist of officers, one or more past presidents, and others nominated by the president and approved by the Chapter or executive committee. The executive committee may act on behalf of the Chapter. Action shall be by majority vote.

X. Upcoming events
XI. New Business
XII. Adjourn