NAJA Alerts, NAPT, News, Announcements - June 12th, 2007
Azocar Elected NAJA President - New Board Members, Executive Director Chosen
DENVER_June 11, 2007_Cristina Azocar, (cazocar@sfsu.edu) , the director of the Center for Integration and Improvement of Journalism and an assistant professor of journalism at San Francisco State University, was elected Sunday as president of the Native American Journalists Association by the board of directors.
Azocar (Upper Mattaponi) was re-elected to a second, three-year term on the board during NAJA's annual convention. She previously has served as NAJA's secretary and treasurer.
"I joined NAJA as a student in 1992, and I'm honored to be able to give something back to an organization that I grew up with," Azocar said. "With the upcoming move to the University of Oklahoma and the UNITY: Journalists of Color convention in Chicago next year, we will be busy. I promise to work very hard to make this a successful year."
Azocar succeeds Mike Kellogg (Navajo), publisher of the Stillwater (Okla.) NewsPress, who was elected treasurer by the board. Bryan Pollard (Cherokee), editor of The Cherokee Phoenix in Tahlequah, Okla., was elected vice president. Pollard previously served as NAJA secretary. Shirley Sneve (Rosebud Sioux), executive director of Native American Public Telecommunications in Lincoln, Neb., was elected NAJA secretary. Newly elected to the board was Rhonda LeValdo (Acoma Pueblo), a graduate student in journalism at the University of Kansas in Lawrence. Ronnie Washines (Yakama), NAJA's outgoing vice president, was re-elected to a second term on the board.
The board also announced the hiring of Jeff Harjo (Seminole), editor of the Kickapoo Traveling Times, as NAJA executive director. Harjo succeeds Interim Executive Director Kim Baca (Navajo/Santa Clara Pueblo), who will leave the organization when NAJA moves to Norman, Okla., at the end of July.
Based in Vermillion, S.D., NAJA is a national nonprofit that works to encourage American Indians to pursue journalism careers and works with media organizations to encourage fair and thorough coverage of Indian people and issues.
Newspapers Make Progress In Native American Coverage
CONTACT:Cristina Azocar, 415-338-7437 or cazocar@sfsu.edu
DENVER_June 11, 2007
Newspapers in states with high American Indian populations are covering Indian people with more accuracy and cultural sensitivity, but more training and hiring of Native journalists are needed for unbiased stories, according to a new report analyzing print coverage of Native Americans.
The 2007 Reading Red Report, released during the Native American Journalists Association's 23rd annual convention, found many fewer objectionable headlines and stories than a 2002 report, but still discovered stereotypical terms such as "warpath" and "peace pipe" in stories published from Jan. 1, 2005 to Dec. 31, 2006.
"We still have a long way to go," said Cristina Azocar (Upper Mattaponi), director of the Center for Integration and Improvement of Journalism and an assistant professor of journalism at San Francisco State University, who led the project. "Papers such as The Tulsa World and The Albuquerque Journal covered a diversity of subjects on Indian people, but still used more non-Native sources than Native ones."
Azocar, who was elected NAJA president during the convention, said researchers analyzed 1,741 articles in newspapers in cities that had high American Indian populations, including Albuquerque, Anchorage, Los Angeles, New York, Oklahoma City, San Diego and Tucson. The study looked at whether the news coverage portrayed Native Americans positively, negatively or neutrally, if Native sources were used and whether stereotypical terms appeared in print.
Researchers discovered that 75 percent of the articles were neutral and only 6 percent had a negative tone toward American Indians. The study also found that a majority of the coverage was about arts or entertainment, education and casinos, although very few stories had datelines from reservations.
But despite improvement in coverage, researchers said they still found stereotypical phrases such as "happy hunting grounds" or "on the warpath." Both those terms were discovered in The New York Times. One was a movie review and the other about a woman's fight to save a plot of land. The study also found instances of inappropriate uses of several words in headlines, including "reservation," which was found in The Tulsa World topping a story about Mato Nanji, the lead singer of the band Indigenous. The headline: "Without reservation."
The best stories came from newspapers providing beat coverage on Indian people, including The Albuquerque Journal, The San Antonio Express News and Tulsa World. "Local Native Americans were profiled as everyday people doing positive and negative deeds or provided interactions between Natives and others," researchers said about the papers.To view the report, go to: http://www.naja.com/.
SAG Fights Discrimination Lawsuits
Submitted by Shaun Tsumi
June 9, 2007
According to the 2006 LM-2 reports, SAG paid the law firm of O'Melveny & Meyers nearly 1.5 million dollars in legal fees. Since 2001 the union has been fending off discrimination lawsuits.
The Screen Actors Guild, has faced multiple termination and racial discrimination cases since 2001. After settling seven others, it has continued paying O'Melveny and Myers' Eric Amdursky to fight allegations brought by Dr. Patricia Heisser Metoyer, the guild's former affirmative action director in April, 2001. The case is still in litigation scheduled for September 28, 2007 hearing in the Superior Court County of Los Angeles for additional legal fees to be paid to O'Melveny & Meyers.
"SAG is well advised to get it resolved, because with the evidence we have they don't want to go to trial," said Rick Hicks, of Beverly Hills-based Hicks & Hicks, representing Metoyer. "If they do go to trial they are going to have real heartburn."
SAG, which has said that the allegations are without merit settled these cases for undisclosed amounts in addition to the legal fees paid and has declined to have any officials address the allegations for attribution.
Hicks said that Metoyer, on the job for little more than a year, ended up in the bad graces of other SAG officials when she reported to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission that the union was exaggerating the number of minorities on its 270-person staff.
"When she got in there she actually started doing something and she stepped on some toes. Some people didn't like that," Hicks said. "They decided to retaliate and they did it with a vengeance."
Yup'ik voters need more, lawsuit says
Submitted by Alyssa Macy
VOTING RIGHTS: Oral, written help at polls lacks, ACLU claims.
By MARY PEMBERTON
The Associated Press
Published: June 12, 2007
Last Modified: June 12, 2007 at 12:42 AM
A federal lawsuit was filed Monday on behalf of Native voters in the Bethel area whose primary language is Yup'ik. The lawsuit filed by the Native American Rights Fund and the American Civil Liberties Union of Alaska seeks to have state and regional election officials provide oral and written voter assistance to Yup'ik-speaking voters in the region…
Daniel Levitas
State Legislative Strategies for Felon Enfranchisement
c/o ACLU Voting Rights Project
Native American Public Television Clips
Job Opening: Marketing Director
Native American Public Telecommunications (NAPT) supports the creation, promotion and distribution of Native Media -- through the Internet and Public Radio and Television.
Develop, implement and evaluate marketing plans and strategies for NAPT products and services. Plan and manage marketing budgets and campaigns. Oversee the design and publication of all promotional materials. Develop and implement market analysis strategies.
Bachelor's degree in Marketing, Advertising, Communications, Business or related field plus two years marketing or related experience in industry or business required; equivalent education/experience considered. Internet marketing, marketing campaign management and excellent writing skills necessary. Prefer knowledge of Native American cultures.
Review of resumes will begin July 9, 2007.Apply at https://employment.unl.eduFind out more information about NAPT at www.nativetelecom.org
Find out more about the University of Nebraska - Lincoln (UNL), where NAPT is located, at http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=7uxi4acab.0.ugrrabcab.8fvnpcbab.7046&ts=S0252&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.unl.edu%2FUNL is committed to EEO/AA and ADA/504. If you require an accommodation, please call (402) 472-9333 ext. 214.
FOX-2007 American Indian Summer Institute
The American Indian Summer Institute invites American Indian participants behind-the-scenes of the entertainment industry in an intensive six-day hands-on workshops, lectures, and field trips in Los Angeles, July 15 - 20.
Training will include advanced and beginner tracks. Participant desired age range is 18 - 25. Institute covers the cost of the program and lodging, airfare is participant's responsibility.
Participants may also apply to NAPT producer opportunity fund to cover half the cost of airfare.Overview of American Indian Summer InstituteRegistration FormNAPT Producer Opportunity Fund Application
Call For Native Writers - Deadline, July 1st
Borderlands Theater, founded in 1986, seeks to develop plays or theatrical works by indigenous writers focusing on the Tohono O'odham, Pascua Yaqui, Tohono Akimel and Cocopah communities.
Short dramatic material: story telling, monologues, dramatic songs or musical pieces, dramatic scenes, sketches, and treatments of any style or genre are encouraged. Description and Registration Info
Open Dialogue XI: Global Connection To Cultural Democracy, July 12-15, Denver
The Association of American Cultures (TAAC) hosts this gathering of artists, arts organizations, cultural policy leaders and academics from diverse communities to explore global connections, arts and cultural policy initiatives, and issues affecting many cultural, ethnic, and racial communities.
Panel session and symposium topics include cultural democracy, technology and the cultural landscape, global migration and the immigration debate. Professional development workshops on topics such as performing arts, technology, and arts funding will also be offered.
Conference Information
From Our Community
Terry Jones (Seneca), co-producer of Casino Nation, was one of many filmmakers honored June 5 by the National Museum of the American Indian, American Indian Community House, Renew Media, Sundance Institute Native Initiative, and Tribeca All Access, for their contributions to Native film.
Casino Nation has been selected for broadcast on the PBS series POV in 2008. Jones will also be a panel presenter at AFI/SilverDocs Festival June 12-17.
Search For Classic Louis Hine Photo
From Nancy - HELLO THERE, CAN YOU PLEASE HELP ME?
I would love to know where to find a copy of the Louis Hine photograph of Mohawk ironworkers, 4 or 5 of the guys, on the Rockefeller Center construction site, back in the1930's on a lunch break. One guy is lying on a beam.
If you have any info, please write me - bobbieo@digitaldune.net and I will forward the information to Nancy.
TO SUBMIT an ARTICLE, OPINION PIECE, COMMENTS to the Native Unity Digest, e-mail bobbieo@digitaldune.net.
NATIVE UNITY - A place for Native American Peoples to solidify their tribes to make a positive impact on the cultural, social, economic and political fabric of American society and a place for non-Natives to better understand the ways of the American Indian.
AIROS NATIVE NETWORK plays music, news and other great programs from Indian Country - www.airos.org
FOR NATIVE CELEBRITY NEWS - go to www.nativecelebs.com
Visit Vietnam Vet. LARRY MITCHELL at http://www.potawatomivet.com and click on his blog at the site.
NATIVE BIZ LEARNING CENTER - www.learn.nativebiz.com was developed for tribal education specialists serving tribal communities. Any tribal community can register at NO COST.
NAJA ALERTS, POTPOURRI - Every Tuesday when available.
DENVER_June 11, 2007_Cristina Azocar, (cazocar@sfsu.edu) , the director of the Center for Integration and Improvement of Journalism and an assistant professor of journalism at San Francisco State University, was elected Sunday as president of the Native American Journalists Association by the board of directors.
Azocar (Upper Mattaponi) was re-elected to a second, three-year term on the board during NAJA's annual convention. She previously has served as NAJA's secretary and treasurer.
"I joined NAJA as a student in 1992, and I'm honored to be able to give something back to an organization that I grew up with," Azocar said. "With the upcoming move to the University of Oklahoma and the UNITY: Journalists of Color convention in Chicago next year, we will be busy. I promise to work very hard to make this a successful year."
Azocar succeeds Mike Kellogg (Navajo), publisher of the Stillwater (Okla.) NewsPress, who was elected treasurer by the board. Bryan Pollard (Cherokee), editor of The Cherokee Phoenix in Tahlequah, Okla., was elected vice president. Pollard previously served as NAJA secretary. Shirley Sneve (Rosebud Sioux), executive director of Native American Public Telecommunications in Lincoln, Neb., was elected NAJA secretary. Newly elected to the board was Rhonda LeValdo (Acoma Pueblo), a graduate student in journalism at the University of Kansas in Lawrence. Ronnie Washines (Yakama), NAJA's outgoing vice president, was re-elected to a second term on the board.
The board also announced the hiring of Jeff Harjo (Seminole), editor of the Kickapoo Traveling Times, as NAJA executive director. Harjo succeeds Interim Executive Director Kim Baca (Navajo/Santa Clara Pueblo), who will leave the organization when NAJA moves to Norman, Okla., at the end of July.
Based in Vermillion, S.D., NAJA is a national nonprofit that works to encourage American Indians to pursue journalism careers and works with media organizations to encourage fair and thorough coverage of Indian people and issues.
Newspapers Make Progress In Native American Coverage
CONTACT:Cristina Azocar, 415-338-7437 or cazocar@sfsu.edu
DENVER_June 11, 2007
Newspapers in states with high American Indian populations are covering Indian people with more accuracy and cultural sensitivity, but more training and hiring of Native journalists are needed for unbiased stories, according to a new report analyzing print coverage of Native Americans.
The 2007 Reading Red Report, released during the Native American Journalists Association's 23rd annual convention, found many fewer objectionable headlines and stories than a 2002 report, but still discovered stereotypical terms such as "warpath" and "peace pipe" in stories published from Jan. 1, 2005 to Dec. 31, 2006.
"We still have a long way to go," said Cristina Azocar (Upper Mattaponi), director of the Center for Integration and Improvement of Journalism and an assistant professor of journalism at San Francisco State University, who led the project. "Papers such as The Tulsa World and The Albuquerque Journal covered a diversity of subjects on Indian people, but still used more non-Native sources than Native ones."
Azocar, who was elected NAJA president during the convention, said researchers analyzed 1,741 articles in newspapers in cities that had high American Indian populations, including Albuquerque, Anchorage, Los Angeles, New York, Oklahoma City, San Diego and Tucson. The study looked at whether the news coverage portrayed Native Americans positively, negatively or neutrally, if Native sources were used and whether stereotypical terms appeared in print.
Researchers discovered that 75 percent of the articles were neutral and only 6 percent had a negative tone toward American Indians. The study also found that a majority of the coverage was about arts or entertainment, education and casinos, although very few stories had datelines from reservations.
But despite improvement in coverage, researchers said they still found stereotypical phrases such as "happy hunting grounds" or "on the warpath." Both those terms were discovered in The New York Times. One was a movie review and the other about a woman's fight to save a plot of land. The study also found instances of inappropriate uses of several words in headlines, including "reservation," which was found in The Tulsa World topping a story about Mato Nanji, the lead singer of the band Indigenous. The headline: "Without reservation."
The best stories came from newspapers providing beat coverage on Indian people, including The Albuquerque Journal, The San Antonio Express News and Tulsa World. "Local Native Americans were profiled as everyday people doing positive and negative deeds or provided interactions between Natives and others," researchers said about the papers.To view the report, go to: http://www.naja.com/.
SAG Fights Discrimination Lawsuits
Submitted by Shaun Tsumi
June 9, 2007
According to the 2006 LM-2 reports, SAG paid the law firm of O'Melveny & Meyers nearly 1.5 million dollars in legal fees. Since 2001 the union has been fending off discrimination lawsuits.
The Screen Actors Guild, has faced multiple termination and racial discrimination cases since 2001. After settling seven others, it has continued paying O'Melveny and Myers' Eric Amdursky to fight allegations brought by Dr. Patricia Heisser Metoyer, the guild's former affirmative action director in April, 2001. The case is still in litigation scheduled for September 28, 2007 hearing in the Superior Court County of Los Angeles for additional legal fees to be paid to O'Melveny & Meyers.
"SAG is well advised to get it resolved, because with the evidence we have they don't want to go to trial," said Rick Hicks, of Beverly Hills-based Hicks & Hicks, representing Metoyer. "If they do go to trial they are going to have real heartburn."
SAG, which has said that the allegations are without merit settled these cases for undisclosed amounts in addition to the legal fees paid and has declined to have any officials address the allegations for attribution.
Hicks said that Metoyer, on the job for little more than a year, ended up in the bad graces of other SAG officials when she reported to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission that the union was exaggerating the number of minorities on its 270-person staff.
"When she got in there she actually started doing something and she stepped on some toes. Some people didn't like that," Hicks said. "They decided to retaliate and they did it with a vengeance."
Yup'ik voters need more, lawsuit says
Submitted by Alyssa Macy
VOTING RIGHTS: Oral, written help at polls lacks, ACLU claims.
By MARY PEMBERTON
The Associated Press
Published: June 12, 2007
Last Modified: June 12, 2007 at 12:42 AM
A federal lawsuit was filed Monday on behalf of Native voters in the Bethel area whose primary language is Yup'ik. The lawsuit filed by the Native American Rights Fund and the American Civil Liberties Union of Alaska seeks to have state and regional election officials provide oral and written voter assistance to Yup'ik-speaking voters in the region…
Daniel Levitas
State Legislative Strategies for Felon Enfranchisement
c/o ACLU Voting Rights Project
Native American Public Television Clips
Job Opening: Marketing Director
Native American Public Telecommunications (NAPT) supports the creation, promotion and distribution of Native Media -- through the Internet and Public Radio and Television.
Develop, implement and evaluate marketing plans and strategies for NAPT products and services. Plan and manage marketing budgets and campaigns. Oversee the design and publication of all promotional materials. Develop and implement market analysis strategies.
Bachelor's degree in Marketing, Advertising, Communications, Business or related field plus two years marketing or related experience in industry or business required; equivalent education/experience considered. Internet marketing, marketing campaign management and excellent writing skills necessary. Prefer knowledge of Native American cultures.
Review of resumes will begin July 9, 2007.Apply at https://employment.unl.eduFind out more information about NAPT at www.nativetelecom.org
Find out more about the University of Nebraska - Lincoln (UNL), where NAPT is located, at http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=7uxi4acab.0.ugrrabcab.8fvnpcbab.7046&ts=S0252&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.unl.edu%2FUNL is committed to EEO/AA and ADA/504. If you require an accommodation, please call (402) 472-9333 ext. 214.
FOX-2007 American Indian Summer Institute
The American Indian Summer Institute invites American Indian participants behind-the-scenes of the entertainment industry in an intensive six-day hands-on workshops, lectures, and field trips in Los Angeles, July 15 - 20.
Training will include advanced and beginner tracks. Participant desired age range is 18 - 25. Institute covers the cost of the program and lodging, airfare is participant's responsibility.
Participants may also apply to NAPT producer opportunity fund to cover half the cost of airfare.Overview of American Indian Summer InstituteRegistration FormNAPT Producer Opportunity Fund Application
Call For Native Writers - Deadline, July 1st
Borderlands Theater, founded in 1986, seeks to develop plays or theatrical works by indigenous writers focusing on the Tohono O'odham, Pascua Yaqui, Tohono Akimel and Cocopah communities.
Short dramatic material: story telling, monologues, dramatic songs or musical pieces, dramatic scenes, sketches, and treatments of any style or genre are encouraged. Description and Registration Info
Open Dialogue XI: Global Connection To Cultural Democracy, July 12-15, Denver
The Association of American Cultures (TAAC) hosts this gathering of artists, arts organizations, cultural policy leaders and academics from diverse communities to explore global connections, arts and cultural policy initiatives, and issues affecting many cultural, ethnic, and racial communities.
Panel session and symposium topics include cultural democracy, technology and the cultural landscape, global migration and the immigration debate. Professional development workshops on topics such as performing arts, technology, and arts funding will also be offered.
Conference Information
From Our Community
Terry Jones (Seneca), co-producer of Casino Nation, was one of many filmmakers honored June 5 by the National Museum of the American Indian, American Indian Community House, Renew Media, Sundance Institute Native Initiative, and Tribeca All Access, for their contributions to Native film.
Casino Nation has been selected for broadcast on the PBS series POV in 2008. Jones will also be a panel presenter at AFI/SilverDocs Festival June 12-17.
Search For Classic Louis Hine Photo
From Nancy - HELLO THERE, CAN YOU PLEASE HELP ME?
I would love to know where to find a copy of the Louis Hine photograph of Mohawk ironworkers, 4 or 5 of the guys, on the Rockefeller Center construction site, back in the1930's on a lunch break. One guy is lying on a beam.
If you have any info, please write me - bobbieo@digitaldune.net and I will forward the information to Nancy.
TO SUBMIT an ARTICLE, OPINION PIECE, COMMENTS to the Native Unity Digest, e-mail bobbieo@digitaldune.net.
NATIVE UNITY - A place for Native American Peoples to solidify their tribes to make a positive impact on the cultural, social, economic and political fabric of American society and a place for non-Natives to better understand the ways of the American Indian.
AIROS NATIVE NETWORK plays music, news and other great programs from Indian Country - www.airos.org
FOR NATIVE CELEBRITY NEWS - go to www.nativecelebs.com
Visit Vietnam Vet. LARRY MITCHELL at http://www.potawatomivet.com and click on his blog at the site.
NATIVE BIZ LEARNING CENTER - www.learn.nativebiz.com was developed for tribal education specialists serving tribal communities. Any tribal community can register at NO COST.
NAJA ALERTS, POTPOURRI - Every Tuesday when available.
posted by BobbieoAZ @ 9:38 PM
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