Students get lessons from media pros

Wire service veteran Tad Bartimus talks to students in the News-Ed Reporting 3 class.

A wide variety of media professionals visited classes at the School this fall, enriching the academic experiences of students and faculty.

Photographer Jay Maisel, whose name has become synonymous with light, color and gesture, visited the School in September. He taught photojournalism classes and gave a public talk to the Student Photographers of Colorado and the American Society of Media Photographers. Maisel's images have been used for advertising, editorial and corporate communications and have been exhibited widely and purchased for private, corporate and museum collections.

He visited as a Hearst Professional-in-Residence. His most recent books are "Jay Maisel's New York" and homage to the World Trade Center, "A Tribute" (jaymaisel. com/).

Bob Giles, a member of the School's advisory board and curator of Harvard University's Nieman Foundation for Journalism, visited with faculty and talked to News-Editorial classes in November about newspaper ethics after Jayson Blair. Giles was a senior vice president of the Freedom Forum, a nonpartisan, international foundation dedicated to freedom of speech and of the press. He served as editor in chief of the Freedom Forum's Media Studies Journal and directed an in-depth study of fairness in the news media. He also was instrumental in a major Freedom Forum initiative to increase the number of people of color working in newspaper newsrooms.

Wiida Fourie, a former reporter and editor and now a journalism instructor in Pretoria, South Africa, visited classes in September as a Hearst Professional-in-Residence to talk about her research in the coverage of crime and violence, representations of women and minorities, and the dominance of American media in Africa.

On Oct. 9, editors and publishers from Colorado Press Association-member newspapers met with Dean Paul Voakes, visited News-Editorial classes at the School and spoke with students about journalism careers. The contingent included Bronson Hilliard, managing editor, and Randy Miller, publisher, Colorado Daily; Kay Turnbaugh, publisher, Nederland Mountain-Ear; Sue Deans ('75 MA), editor, Boulder Daily Camera; David Furnas, general manager, Colorado Hometown Newspapers; Chris Cobler, editor, Greeley Tribune; Rob Carrigan, publisher, Woodland Park Ute Pass Courier; Andy Stone, editorial director, Colorado Mountain News Media, and Ed Otte, executive director, Colorado Press Association.

Members of the Colorado Broadcasters Association also visited broadcast classes in October. The group included Derrick Dalton, general manager, and Tom Sides, news director, at KWGN-Channel 2; Greg Haufman, sales representative at KBCO-FM in Boulder; and Marilyn Hogan, CBA president. They also assisted in a critique of broadcast students' weekly "NewsTeam Boulder" broadcast.

Media consultant and former CNN vice president for news planning David Bernknopf presented a coaching session for students, "Telling Your Story to a TV Audience," during his visit as a Hearst Professional-in-Residence in October.

Kevin Carroll, a "catalyst" for Nike, visited the School as a Hearst Professional-In-Residence, teaching classes and working with advertising students in October.

Former Associated Press special correspondent Tad Bartimus was a Hearst Professional-In-Residence at the School Oct. 6-9. She was a bureau chief, war correspondent in Vietnam, foreign correspondent in Europe, Northern Ireland and Latin America and special roving correspondent in the United States for The Associated Press for 25 years.

Bartimus writes the nationally syndicated column "Among Friends" for The Women Syndicate. She also founded the Journalism and Women Symposium (JAWS) in 1985, an organization that aims to help female journalists and writers achieve their full potential.

Her latest book is "Worn Torn: Stories of War from the Women Reporters Who Covered Vietnam."

Veteran television news executive Av Westin talked to the News-Team class this fall during a visit to Colorado to speak at and host the regional Emmy Awards.

In a news career that spanned more than half a century, Westin spent 20 years at CBS News as a reporter, editor and producer and director of news programs including "CBS Report" and "Eyewitness to History."

After moving to public broadcasting for two years, he joined ABC News. where he spent 21 years. At ABC, he was executive producer of "ABC Evening News" and "World News Tonight." Westin is a Freedom Forum Fellow.

Sheila Solomon, Chicago Tribune recruiter, met with News-Editorial students and faculty during her Nov. 4 and 5 visit to the School.

Author, PR veteran and free-lance writer Kam Kaminske ('71) spoke to public relations students in the first week of November (kamkaminske@earthlink.net).