When best was saved for last

Last month's Unity Convention in Chicago turned out to be the best function I attended during my tour of duty in the United States of America.

There was fun, training and exploration. I had them all.

The world's largest journalism convention, held between July 23-27, only happens once every four years. I thought I was lucky to attend this year’s fete that assembled more than 6,000 journalists.

It brought together members and supporters of the Asian American Journalists Association (AAJA), National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ), National Association of Hispanic Journalists (NAHJ) and the Native American Journalists Association (NAJA).

There were many experienced journalists at the conference in the city whose weather was not as hot as what I am used to at my host region, Kansas.

On April 16, 2008, The Star’s director for Strategic Development, Randy Smith, and I enjoyed a nice dinner where we mingled with many journalists at an AAJA gala night. Martin Bashir, co-anchor of ABC’s “Nightline” and correspondent on “20/20”, delivered an exciting keynote address, where he underscored the need for diversity in newsrooms in the U.S.
He spoke on why the media needed to cover race and other diversity issues.

The convention itself was packed with many seminars and workshops, many of them taking place at the same time. It meant I needed to choose wisely on which events I needed to attend. Below is summary of a few that I attended and what I gained from them.

Leadership summitI learned what a top editor really does – managing reporters, copy and coordination of other editing staff under him. I also learned what publishers look for when seeking to recruit a new editor. The seminar offered tips on how white and black people, Asians and Latinos can better understand each other. In a nut shell, editors need to work hard to ensure improved communications in a newsroom.


Introduction to essential media
Two seasoned print journalists, Belinda Long (Graphics Reporter, South Florida Sun-Sentinel) and Karsten Ivey (Assistant Graphics Director, South Florida Sun-Sentinel) offered an intensive workshop on Flash technology. After attending a multimedia workshop earlier last month, this workshop helped to bolster my theoretical skills regarding the technology for new media publication. I learned how (better) to use of slide-shows on web sites and with digital video. Flash technology, I was told, can make a media presentation stand out. The session was interactive, and offered some basics of use (and production) of simple projects using flash.

And in a related session on Multimedia storytelling: Mastering the machines, presented by the Knight Digital Media Center, I learned scenarios that would help improve multimedia platforms, to take care of the migration of audiences to online media. That means that reporters have to be trained so they successfully transition to a web-centric publishing and broadcasting environment. The session covered techniques such as storyboarding, digital video and photography, capturing and editing sound, and the basics of creating a Flash slide show.

Watchdog reporting in a diverse world: Digging in to serve your community
How to engage in in-depth reporting projects during the times of diminishing economic resources and tight government controls was at the top of the objectives of this workshop. It helped me understand the basics of investigative reporting, with a value-added twist: How to use investigative reporting techniques to dig into issues of special relevance to communities of color and other under-represented populations.

Advice and insight on story development and access to data and documents by using the latest technological tools was provided. Panelists also gave instruction in effective interviewing skills, managing documents, tracking statistical trends, and learning how to locate hard-to-find sources and historical documentation.

The Diabetes Explosion: A Call to Action for Journalists of Color
I learnt that, other than my country Kenya, diabetes is now an epidemic among African Americans, Hispanics, Native Americans, and Asians in the United States. Obesity, heredity, socio-economic status and lack of access to health care were cited as some of the key causes of the disease. Experts at the function explored why multicultural populations are disproportionately affected by type 2 diabetes.

Managing Your Career How to Get a Media Grant
I learnt some of philanthropic foundations that award millions of dollars in media grants each year for innovative journalistic projects from investigative reporting to foreign correspondence to documentaries.

On Sunday, June 27, Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama came to town. I attended his live show with CNN before a capacity crowd that was the last event at the UNITY convention. He made the convention his first public appearance after his trip to Europe. He discussed his candidacy, current issues and concerns pertinent to communities of color.

After the Obama function, Randy and I visited the nearby Field Museum, where I enjoyed all that was on display. And I found remains of two lions that killed 140 workers during the construction of the Kenya Uganda Railway, in the 1800, on display. I remembered home.

Away from the convention, I was disappointed that a close friend of mine, Lynn Franey, was leaving The Star. Unlike 120 staff members who left the newspaper company in June as it seeks to remain afloat in the face of the ongoing economic melt-down (and massive migration of advertisers to the internet), Franey was leaving to start a new career – a fifth grade school teacher.

For my short time at The Star, Franey, an minority and immigrations reporter, remained close to me – helping to shape me on the newspaper’s style of writing besides doing fun things outside of the office, often with her five year-old son, Declan.

Her own Metro boss, Anne Spenner, broke the bad news: “Franey, a highly versatile, high-energy reporter, is leaving the paper for the rewards and runny noses of elementary education.”

“We will remember Lynn's talents as a reporter and writer, her superb beat work, her organizational skills and her drive.”

“We also will remember the stories she wrote. For one series, she spent six weeks with a family of illegal immigrants so she could take readers into their lives. While in higher ed, she wrote about the town-and-gown battle when UMKC wanted to raze 50 homes. She also chronicled the weird and doomed reign of UMKC Chancellor Martha Gilliland, including a revealing last-days story built on Gilliland's e-mails,” said Spenner.