Kids scrambling to get interviews, putting together news stories and shooting video are not activities you normally associate with a summer day camp.But for a few campers with Asperger's Syndrome it's all in a day's production.

For the first time in Wichita, about 60 preschool through high school students with Asperger's syndrome, a high-functioning form of autism, expressed themselves through journalism at Camp SSTAR (Social Skills Technology Asperger Recreation), hosted by Heartspring at 8700 E. 29th St. North."We have seen kids in the last 24 to 48 hours go from being shy and timid to laughing, smiling, having fun," said Connie Coulter, the camp's founder and director of Community of Autism Resources and Education and Autism Outreach. "Just like any other camper would."

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Trainee journalists at Brighton's Journalist Works media training company are now getting experience in a business-to-business environment as well as traditional news reporting. In addition to spending a week on the local evening paper, The Argus, students will also have the opportunity to do work experience with The Grocer. Based in Crawley, The Grocer is the flagship weekly title of the publishing group William Reed and was recently voted the number one B2B magazine in Britain.

Paula O'Shea, managing director at Brighton Journalist Works, said: "It's a fantastic chance for our students to experience real jobs in a B2B environment as well as a daily regional newspaper." The scheme has already led to a recent Journalist Works graduate being snapped up by The Grocer straight after her course.

Adam Leyland, editor of The Grocer, said: "We are delighted to offer this work experience to encourage students embarking on this course, and to give them an insight into B2B publishing in general, and The Grocer in particular." The row over taxpayer-funded town hall freesheets providing unfair competition for local papers has rumbled on.

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Journalists in today’s fast-paced world of information sharing need trusted and innovative methods to grab the public’s attention, according to a seminar aimed at journalism students, professional writers, bloggers and those in public speaking positions. The George Orbanek Journalism Workshop attracts University of Colorado journalism professors to teach participants around the state about navigating the Internet and integrating new technologies into the media.

One session was conducted at Mesa State College on Friday, and another takes place today.This is the second year of the workshops, which are funded for three years by the Cox Foundation and are named after former Daily Sentinel publisher George Orbanek, who retired in December.

“The idea is to bring some of what is learned in the classroom to the outlying areas of the state,” said Alan Kirkpatrick, director of the program. Mesa State sophomore and mass communication student Hannah Odenall said the class showed her how to navigate the World Wide Web to research stories.

The classes are presented by Paul Voakes, dean of CU’s mass communication department; Tony Perri, an adjunct professor; Burt Hubbard, an investigative reporter at The Rocky Mountain News; and CU graduate assistants Sara Havig and Scott McElroy.

The Carnegie Corporation of New York and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation have announced plans for a three-year journalism initiative designed for undergrads.  The program is designed to help journalism students adapt to changes in the field of communications while still applying traditional media techniques.  There will also be a strong emphasis on international relations.

 The twelve schools selected to participate in the initiative are the University of North Carolina--Chapel Hill, Northwestern University, the University of Missouri, the University of California at Berkeley, Arizona State University, the University of Maryland, Columbia University, Syracuse University, the University of Nebraska at Lincoln, the University of Southern California, the University of Texas--Austin, and Harvard's Kennedy School of Government.  As part of the program, each school will work with News21, an experimental news outlet.

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The American University of Dubai (AUD) on Wednesday announced the opening of the Mohammad Bin Rashid School of Communication to offer degree programmes from September this year.

The journalism courses, which have been designed in collaboration with the US-based University of Southern California, will be taught in both Arabic and English. "The mission of this school is to serve the local community and the Arab region," Jihad Nader, Provost and Chief Academic Officer said in a press conference held at the university campus on Wednesday.

"There is a shortage of professional Arab journalists in the UAE and the region, so it is important to establish appropriate curricula that teach the necessary skills needed to practice this profession, taking into consideration the language and culture of the region," he added.

 The undergraduate majors offered include new media, print and broadcast journalism, media and communication, and TV, radio and cinema studies. A master's degree with a concentration on Integrated Marketing Communication is awaiting accreditation and is expected to be offered next year, said Elias Bou Saab, Executive Vice-President of AUD.

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The University of California expressed its opposition to a bill currently in the California legislature that aims to prohibit high schools and public universities from taking disciplinary action against journalism advisers for protecting students' freedom of speech.

The letter, sent to the bill's author Senator Leland Yee (D-San Francisco) on June 16, not only states UC's opposition to the bill, but goes on to declare that all UC campuses would refuse to comply with the potential law. In the letter, UC argues that the bill is not limited only to journalism teachers, but would extend the protections to all UC employees - something UC views as potentially problematic.

"Although the university goes to great lengths to ensure academic and speaking freedoms, we must also have the right to take appropriate measures if a faculty member or UC employee fails to observe instruction standards or university policies," the letter states.

The UC system has existing laws and policies that protect the freedom of speech for students and faculty, the letter states. UC argues that if SB 1370 were enacted, it would be more difficult to uphold existing standards for curriculum content and methods of instruction.The bill's proponents believe UC is misreading the application of the bill, said Jim Ewert, legal counsel for the California Newspaper Publishers Association. The bill seeks to close a major loophole in California's student speech laws, he said.

While student speech rights are directly protected under current law, there are no laws protecting the journalism teachers who advise and instruct the students, Ewert said. There have been several instances of institutions - primarily high schools - punishing advisers for printing stories that are critical of or embarrassing to the administration.

"They're not being punished for printing something that is salacious or downright obscene," Ewert said. "Principals are asking teachers to break the law."Some cases have resulted in the dismissal of qualified journalism instructors with inexperienced replacements who are more willing to obey the requests of the administration, he said."This bill protects advisers, and in doing so protects student speech and journalism," Ewert said.

Legislators amended the bill last week in order to clarify its function. While they did not change the content of the bill itself, they emphasized that the bill targets freedom of speech for students - not a deviation from classroom curriculum, as the letter from UC suggests, said Adam J. Keigwin, communications director for Yee.

"It's about protecting teachers who are facilitating student free speech rights," Keigwin said. "The bill is not meant to change curriculum standards."Roughly half a dozen university and college advisers have approached Yee's office to offer support for the bill, Keigwin said. One is a faculty member from a UC campus, but asked to remain anonymous in the interest of his job and reputation.

"They don't feel comfortable coming forward because they're afraid of retaliation from their administration," he said.Senate Bill 1370 was officially approved by the senate by a vote of 35 to 2 on Apr. 21. It is scheduled to be heard in the Assembly on Monday.

The Institute on Political Journalism (IPJ) will host its annual Journalism Award Luncheon on Tuesday July 15 at the National Press Club in Washington. IPJ sponsors three awards that recognize journalists from across the country for excellence in economic, investigative, and collegiate reporting. Cash prizes accompanying the awards total nearly $30,000, among the largest annual cash prizes in journalism.

The Clark Mollenhoff Award for Excellence in Investigative Reporting will be awarded to the reporters David Heath and Hal Bernton from The Seattle Times. Their series "The Favor Factory" is a groundbreaking blend of print and online investigative journalism. They reveal a system in which congressional members secure funds for companies and get generous campaign contributions in return. This prize is named for the late Pulitzer-Prize winning reporter who conducted groundbreaking investigations into the influence of organized crime in American society and carries a $10,000 prize.

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Following the celebration of world sports journalist day in the Gambia, the General Sectary of the sports Journalist Association of the Gambia Ms. Sainabou Kujabi has called on all sports journalists in the Gambia to come togetherand unite as one.
Speaking during the occasion held on Saturday July5th 2008 ,at the Youth Monument in West field, Ms Kujabi called on all sports writers in TheGambia to come together and put aside anyform of differences among theirselves and come together to work towards a common goals.

She also pointed the importance of sports journalism in the promotion of sports towards national development. She said “ if there were no sports journalism the nation will not know much about our games and our athlete might not even be regconised. In recognition of this significant role, I would therefore urge all stake holders to work with the Sports Journalist Association of The Gambia in realizing sports forexcellence”.

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Former Sports Editor of The Hindu to sports journalism was recalled with a touch of nostalgia at a function to mark his birth centenary at the Kasturi Srinivasan Hall here on Tuesday. Gurunathan, who joined The Hindu in 1928, died in harness in 1966.

Speakers, headed by former Test cricketer and former chairman of the BCCI selection committee, C.D. Gopinath, paid glorious tributes to SKG’s professionalism and painstaking work.

Acknowledging SKG as the mentor, Mr. Gopinath recaptured with a feeling of poignancy SKG’s guiding role during the tour of England in 1952. Mr. Gopinath recounted the bitter moments created for him by the insensitive team’s leadership and explained how SKG always managed to assuage the ruffled feelings. “He was a real Guru,” observed Mr. Gopinath.

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A behind the scene tour of blogdowntown's Newsroom was the final topic for the Society of Profesional Journalists' Citizen Journalism Academy, held Saturday at Loyola Law School's Robinson Courtroom. Our own publisher, Eric Richardson, presented the interface as an example of molding technology to fit a site's vision.

The conference focused on introducing new bloggers and online new-media reporters to journalism ethics. It gave solid information on how freedom of speech can and cannot protect what one publishes online as a news source. The audience was very attentive listening to Gary C. Williams, a member of the Loyola Law School faculty, introduce the basics of media law.

Representing the local blogosphere was David Markland, who shared a session with Chicago's Steve Rhodes on similarities and differences between reporting and writing for blogging and the same for traditional news.