Regional conference addresses today's news gathering techniques

Chapter president Jennifer Croshaw reports on the conference, held in Hawaii

By Jennifer Croshaw, San Diego Pro Chapter

Entertainment editor, SignOnSanDiego.com

Disaster reporting, multimedia production and shield laws: They’re getting SPJ Region 11 journalists talking. And they were among the lead topics at the regional conference April 12-14 in Honolulu, Hawaii.

More than 70 journalists, journalism educators and students attended the event, held at the Ala Moana Hotel. Panels ranged from Disaster Management to Ethnic Media to examining how different mediums are disseminating news via the Internet.

Though the lead-off panel on disaster management seemed ill-suited for a journalism conference, its experts presented an informative overview of our region’s response and notification systems. At a keynote dinner, Adm. Gary Roughead talked about his role as commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet.

Other panels were right on target. Journalists from the Associated Press, San Francisco’s KPIX and the Honolulu Advertiser spoke about the quickly evolving culture change taking place in newsrooms.

“What could be the right answer today might well turn out to be the wrong answer tomorrow,” said KPIX webmaster Jim Parker on the differing Web strategies of news outlets.

Sandra Oshiro, the Advertiser’s managing editor for digital and multimedia, spoke about the company’s evolution from a print product to an “information center” and its mantra of “post or perish.”

With more than 100 breaking news posts per day, an increasing emphasis on hyper-local, community-contributed content and more than 24 staff members creating multimedia, the Advertiser’s online efforts have increased monthly traffic by more than 30 percent over the last year, according to Oshiro.

At the keynote lunch, more than 100 people listened to Lance Williams, the San Francisco Chronicle reporter under contempt charges for disclosure of sources used in reporting about BALCO and steroid use by professional athletes. Williams’ reporting partner Mark Fainaru-Wada spoke at the San Diego chapter’s 2006 journalism awards banquet, and both men continue to generate significant interest in the journalism community.

At the lunch, Williams said that while reporting on the story was “every reporter’s dream,” he and Fainaru-Wada didn’t have a secret angle. He said they followed the oldest lessons in newsgathering: conducting the cold-call interview and working old sources.

Williams also spoke about the importance of a federal shield law, stressing journalists get over their reticence in supporting it.