Oct. 7, 2009
Kevin Z. Smith Installed as President of the Society of Professional Journalists
Long time Mountain State journalist and educator is first West Virginian to head SPJ
Special to Huntingtonnews.net
Kevin Z. Smith, a long time West Virginia journalist and educator, was installed as president of the nation’s largest journalism organization recently in Indianapolis, Ind.
Smith becomes the Society of Professional Journalists’ 94th president, the first from West Virginia and only the fourth person from academics to lead the group in the organization’s 100 years. Smith will serve as president until October, 2010, the time of the next convention.
Smith has been at Fairmont State University for five years. He teaches reporting, mass communication theory, publication design and photography, as well as serves as the advisor to the college newspaper, yearbook and website. Smith spent 25 years in newspapers, working for papers in Grafton, Parkersburg, Fairmont and Morgantown before becoming a college professor. He also worked for Bloomberg Financial News in Washington, DC.
SPJ has more than 8,000 members and is celebrating its 100th anniversary in 2009. SPJ is recognized as the largest, oldest and most prestigious journalism group in the U.S. and represents the broadest spectrum of journalists. Its missions are to advocate for press rights, high ethical standards and promote diversity in the profession.
“This is an incredible honor and an incredible challenge,” Smith said at the convention. “To lead the largest journalism organization in the country at a time of great uncertainty in our profession is an enormous responsibility. Many are calling this the worse time in the history of American journalism and it’s my goal to see that SPJ maintains the leadership role its carried all these years, in good and bad times. Many journalists, members of SPJ or not, are looking for direction and help and SPJ will not just weather this climate change but grow and progress during it,” Smith said.
Smith has been a member of SPJ for 30 years, inducted into the group as a senior at West Virginia University.
Smith became seriously active in SPJ in 1987 when he joined the national ethics committee. He assisted in writing an ethics book for the Society in 1993 and chaired the committee from 1995-97 as the committee rewrote the organization’s code of ethics, the first major undertaking of revising the code in more than 70 years.
He also served as the West Virginia Sunshine chair, 1990-95, working to advocate open meetings and records. In 1997 he served on the national board of directors as a campus adviser at-large member, representing college students’ interests in the Society. He served as a chapter adviser to students at Miami University, Ohio and was twice an officer in the West Virginia profession chapter of SPJ.
Smith remained on the ethics committee until 2006 when he went back onto the board as a regional director representing West Virginia, Ohio, Michigan and western Pennsylvania. After a year as a regional director, he ran for and won the secretary/treasurer position and became chairman of the Society’s finance committee and served on its foundation board. In 2008 he defeated a challenger for the president-elect position, guaranteeing him the presidential position this year.
Smith said his biggest responsibility is to get SPJ in a lead position to help decide the future of journalism.
“We represent the most journalists of any group in our nation; we should be knee-deep in the discussion about how to fix journalism. I have assembled a task force that will look at the best models for news and business and I expect them to create a report on their findings and solutions early next year,” he said. Additionally, we are working to make sure many of our displaced journalists have services and programs to help them retrain or regain employment.”
Smith said additional goals for the upcoming year will be to stabilize membership and grow it during the difficult time. He will ask for a revisit of the ethics code to see if it can be adjusted to reflect the changes in news gathering and reporting over the last 12 years, particularly with the internet’s emergence. He will move vigorously at getting a national shield law passed to protect journalists from revealing their confidential sources in federal cases, will improve on SPJ’s involvement on international journalism matters, push harder for government compliance of public rights including opening records and meetings on all levels and create a better base of diversity in newsrooms around the country.
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Kevin Z. Smith Installed as President of the Society of Professional Journalists
Long time Mountain State journalist and educator is first West Virginian to head SPJ
Special to Huntingtonnews.net
Kevin Z. Smith, a long time West Virginia journalist and educator, was installed as president of the nation’s largest journalism organization recently in Indianapolis, Ind.
Smith becomes the Society of Professional Journalists’ 94th president, the first from West Virginia and only the fourth person from academics to lead the group in the organization’s 100 years. Smith will serve as president until October, 2010, the time of the next convention.
Smith has been at Fairmont State University for five years. He teaches reporting, mass communication theory, publication design and photography, as well as serves as the advisor to the college newspaper, yearbook and website. Smith spent 25 years in newspapers, working for papers in Grafton, Parkersburg, Fairmont and Morgantown before becoming a college professor. He also worked for Bloomberg Financial News in Washington, DC.
SPJ has more than 8,000 members and is celebrating its 100th anniversary in 2009. SPJ is recognized as the largest, oldest and most prestigious journalism group in the U.S. and represents the broadest spectrum of journalists. Its missions are to advocate for press rights, high ethical standards and promote diversity in the profession.
“This is an incredible honor and an incredible challenge,” Smith said at the convention. “To lead the largest journalism organization in the country at a time of great uncertainty in our profession is an enormous responsibility. Many are calling this the worse time in the history of American journalism and it’s my goal to see that SPJ maintains the leadership role its carried all these years, in good and bad times. Many journalists, members of SPJ or not, are looking for direction and help and SPJ will not just weather this climate change but grow and progress during it,” Smith said.
Smith has been a member of SPJ for 30 years, inducted into the group as a senior at West Virginia University.
Smith became seriously active in SPJ in 1987 when he joined the national ethics committee. He assisted in writing an ethics book for the Society in 1993 and chaired the committee from 1995-97 as the committee rewrote the organization’s code of ethics, the first major undertaking of revising the code in more than 70 years.
He also served as the West Virginia Sunshine chair, 1990-95, working to advocate open meetings and records. In 1997 he served on the national board of directors as a campus adviser at-large member, representing college students’ interests in the Society. He served as a chapter adviser to students at Miami University, Ohio and was twice an officer in the West Virginia profession chapter of SPJ.
Smith remained on the ethics committee until 2006 when he went back onto the board as a regional director representing West Virginia, Ohio, Michigan and western Pennsylvania. After a year as a regional director, he ran for and won the secretary/treasurer position and became chairman of the Society’s finance committee and served on its foundation board. In 2008 he defeated a challenger for the president-elect position, guaranteeing him the presidential position this year.
Smith said his biggest responsibility is to get SPJ in a lead position to help decide the future of journalism.
“We represent the most journalists of any group in our nation; we should be knee-deep in the discussion about how to fix journalism. I have assembled a task force that will look at the best models for news and business and I expect them to create a report on their findings and solutions early next year,” he said. Additionally, we are working to make sure many of our displaced journalists have services and programs to help them retrain or regain employment.”
Smith said additional goals for the upcoming year will be to stabilize membership and grow it during the difficult time. He will ask for a revisit of the ethics code to see if it can be adjusted to reflect the changes in news gathering and reporting over the last 12 years, particularly with the internet’s emergence. He will move vigorously at getting a national shield law passed to protect journalists from revealing their confidential sources in federal cases, will improve on SPJ’s involvement on international journalism matters, push harder for government compliance of public rights including opening records and meetings on all levels and create a better base of diversity in newsrooms around the country.
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