PR Day on Nov. 5

If you want to attend PR Day on Nov. 5, you’ll need to buy your ticket in advance … and the deadline to purchase advance tickets online is Monday, Nov. 2.

Tickets are $25, and that includes lunch, the keynote speaker, and a choice of afternoon panel sessions, and job/internship fair. Log on to brownpapertickets.com to buy tickets.

For more information, check out the PR Day web site.

Some good advice

In a recent blog post, JMC alum Ryan Sholin offers some good advice for J-school students. His basic concept — become an expert at one thing digital and at one thing analog — also makes sense for students majoring in public relations and advertising.

Sholin, who is now director of news innovation at Publish2, a collaborative journalism web site, graduated from JMC’s master’s program last spring. His thesis project was a journalism site called ReportingOn, which was funded by the Knight News Challenge. (Disclosure: I was one of Sholin’s thesis advisors.)

Word count spreadsheets

I’ve added a link to download the word count spreadsheets for 100W, s. 2,  to the Resources page of this blog.

The word count spreadsheet is a Microsoft Excel document. You must submit a completed copy of this document at the end of the semester to demonstrate that you’ve fulfilled the 8,000-word GE requirement for this class.

Here is the direct link to the spreadsheet: http://cynmccune.com/100w/wordcount-f09.xls

See a broadcast, earn extra credit

KTEH (Public Television 54) is broadcasting a town hall meeting on the mortgage crisis at 6 p.m. this Sunday, Aug. 30 … and JMC students are invited to join the studio audience.

“Facing the Mortgage Crisis,” a live program, will feature a panel of local mortgage and foreclosure experts answering questions about coping with the mortgage crisis.

By taking part in this broadcast, you’ll have the opportunity to see how a five-camera shoot is handled. Broadcast Prof. Diane Guerrazzi adds that the KTEH station manager will give students a tour of the control room after the broadcast.

To reserve a spot in the studio audience, please email KTEH (ljohnson@kteh.org). Include your name, telephone number, email address, and number of tickets you would like. If you have a question for the expert panel, please include it.

When: 5:45 p.m., Sunday, Aug. 30
Where: KTEH, Channel 54, 1585 Schallenberger Road, San Jose

P.S. If you write a blog post about this experience, you can also earn 10 points extra credit for 100W.

Broadcast internships

Sabrina Hughes, producer of KNTV’s Press:Here, is looking for some interns. She writes:

“I am looking for 2 interns that are interested in technology and business reporting to help me work on Tech Now and Press:Here.  I am now producing Press:Here, and we have become KNTV’s most successful show. It takes a lot of work and we could really use some help.

“The interns would be doing some writing, editing and web updating in the internship and also have the chance to go out to the Tech Museum for Tech Now shoots and get a tape together.”

If you’re interested, contact Hughes at sabrina.hughes@nbcuni.com.

P.S. Thank Bob Rucker for passing on this internship opportunity.

Doug gets enterprising

You can read Doug Cardozo’s enterprise article, Jadakiss is Back, on Universal Music’s The New Music Report blog, which is taglined as “an L.A. guide to new music releases and events from Universal Music.”

Now I don’t know bupkiss (consider this a “Word of the Week” from me) about Jadakiss — or about rap, for that matter — but I do know good writing, and I like Doug’s review.

So, way to go Doug! And I encourage the rest of you to get enterprising about getting something published this semester … whether it’s a letter to the editor or a short news article or news feature (150-250 words) for our own JMC Journal blog.

JMC scholarships

The JMC website has just been updated with information about the $20,000 in scholarships available to JMC students. You can download the application instructions and the list of scholarships as a Word doc. The application deadline is Wednesday, April 1, 2009.

I encourage you to look at the list of scholarships ― you might be surprised how many you are eligible for. And there’s no limit to how many you can apply for! Wouldn’t you like a piece of that cash?

Resume resources

Since you’re working on resumes and cover letters this week, I’ve added some resume-writing links to the Texts/Resources page of this blog. You’ll find them listed under the heading Samples & Examples.

Online students

If you’re new to 100W and enrolled in section 81 (the online section of this class), the first thing you’ll need to do is set up a blog and send your blog’s web address to Lecturer Cynthia McCune. (You can find my email address on the Instructors page of this blog).

If you’ve never blogged before, go the the Starting a Blog page (note the page tabs above, under this blog’s headline) for directions. Your first blog assignment is to write a blog post introducing yourself.

Once you’ve done that, be sure to click on the page links to this site’s pages to review the syllabus, class schedule, list of assignments and texts/resources … to get situated and get caught up.

Please note: We are encouraging students enrolled in the online section of 100w to attend one of the “on ground” sections taught by me or Dona Nichols, if at all possible. Our sections are Monday/Wednesday at 12 noon in DBH 224, 1:30 in DBH 222, and 3 p.m. in DBH 224. If you cannot attend any of these sections, please let me know ASAP so I can make arrangements to send you supplementary materials and in-class exercises.

Welcome to 100W

Clearly, I have been remiss. We are now a week into the spring semester, and I have yet to post a “Welcome to 100w” blog post. So … welcome!

If you are taking MCom 100W with me or Dona Nichols this semester, consider this blog site your home base. On this site, you’ll find the class schedule, links to assignments and other resources that will help you pass this class.

Because of popular demand (as the saying goes), JMC is in the process of adding another section of MCom 100W. It’s listed as an online section (section 81) because no single time period would accommodate enough of the students who are waiting to add it. However, in reality it will be more of a blended/online class, with most assignments submitted via blog. We are also highly recommending that you attend one of our existing class sections.

Dona Nichols and I will share the teaching and grading load for this new section of 100w, section 81. I’ll handle the class through the end of March; she’ll take over after spring break. We team-taught two sections of 100w last semester, so we think it’ll work.

We will give first dibs on adding this new section to those students who are already on a 100w wait list — for one of Dona’s sections, for my section or for Tom Ulrich’s section. If there’s any room left, we’ll entertain other requests.

Since I’m taking the first half of the class, please contact me if you want to add the class. (You can find my email on the instructor’s page of this blog.)