Photo from Flickr user MrJoro, licensed through Creative Commons. His stream: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mrjoro/

By Frank Barrows

As we all settle back into our work after the holiday weekend, here’s a reminder of Thursday’s gathering of the Greater Charlotte Chapter of the Society Professional Journalists.

It’s “A Conversation With Kathleen Purvis,” a talented journalist for The Charlotte Observer who has earned a national reputation as a food writer. Few human endeavors occupy more of our time, focus, energy or resources than eating, and although Kathleen specializes in food, her work is far from narrow in scope. Her portfolio has included everything from a massive investigation of why low-income neighborhoods have few full-service grocery stores to a new book, “Pecans: A Savor The South Cookbook”, from the University of North Carolina Press. Her work for The Observer has won numerous awards, and she has been named one of the country’s top food editors. (Here’s her blog.)

We’ll get together at 6:30 p.m. Thursday at the Dilworth Neighborhood Grille, 911 East Morehead Street.

Please join us. It’ll be a great way to start the New Year.

I hope to see you there.

Frank Barrows

Christina Brooke of ElisaRay performs at Area Fifteen on Jan. 1, 2011.
Photo licensed through Creative Commons, from James Willamor. See Willamor Media’s Flickr stream.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bz3rk/

The Charlotte Arts Journalism Alliance is inviting local freelancers and writers to its first conference, “Covering the Arts,” in January.

Cost is $35 ($15 for students). The arts journalism conference will be from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Jan. 12 at the UNC Charlotte Center City Building, 320 E. Ninth Street.

Speakers include Rick Thames, Meg Freeman Whalen, Glenn Burkins, Jeremy Markovich, Mary Curtis, Rick Thurmond, Mark Kemp and more. (Here’s the whole list.)

The alliance is a collaboration with UNC Charlotte and five media outlets: the Charlotte Observer; WCNC-TV; WFAE; Qcitymetro; and Charlotte Viewpoint.

It’s funded through the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts.

For details and to sign up, see the alliance’s conference site.

WSOC’s Blair Miller (left) and Dr. Michael Bitzer “tweetcast” from the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte.

By Frank Barrows

On Nov. 1, nearly on the eve of the election, we’ll have the chance to talk with Dr. Michael Bitzer of Catawba College, one of the Carolinas’ most respected – not to mention most insightful and wittiest – political observers.

At 6:30 p.m. at the Dilworth Neighborhood Grille (911 East Morehead Street, Charlotte), he’s our guest for our regular first-Thursday-of-the-month gathering. It promises to be a great night, with lots of discussion about the Nov. 6 election and lots of ideas and information from Dr. Bitzer that will help shape your coverage.

If you don’t already know him, I hope you’ll take this chance to meet Dr. Bitzer. He’s a good a friend of our chapter, and is associate professor of politics and history at Catawba College. You can get an idea of the depth of his thinking and research, as well as his sense of humor, at his blog, NC Politics; his post on Tuesday was a fascinating look at early-voting trends in North Carolina. Or you can follow him on Twitter at @CatawbaPolitics.

Dr. Bitzer is among our state’s most widely quoted experts on elections and campaigns, writing for WFAE this campaign season at The Party Line. He’s also been quoted by people like Charlie Mahtesian at Politico.

This evening is one more part of your chapter’s award-winning initiatives and programming for your professional development. Plus, our meetings are a splendid place for networking.

Please join us, and let your colleagues know about this event: “A Conversation With Michael Bitzer,” 6:30 p.m. on Nov. 1 at the Dilworth Neighborhood Grille.

Photo courtesy of Dr. Michael Bitzer.

Tom Sorensen

It’s part of our regular series of first-Thursday-of-the-month events at which we have discussions with people who are of particular interest to area journalists.

SPJ is an important asset for journalists, and we’re hoping that you’ll take this opportunity to learn more about the Charlotte chapter. In these times of transition in our profession, the company of other journalists is vital for networking, the exchange of ideas, and learning from each other. What’s more, our chapter just won the national organization’s annual award for most outstanding professional-development-and-training programs.

At the session with Tom Sorensen, we’ll have a spread of heavy hors d’oeuvres. The evening promises to be a great time. Everyone’s welcome.

Mark it now on your calendar: 6:30 p.m., October 4, at the Dilworth Neighborhood Grille, 911 East Morehead Street.

Our website traffic showed you read us. You really really read us.

Now comes “the ask.” (We’re learning from all those PACs that came to town to raise money.)

Susan Stabley said it best in an interview with Holly Edgell on a national SPJ blog:

Organizations like SPJ must provide support or our craft will be unable to fulfill its mission. There’’s a reason why journalists became journalists, and it’’s not the money. But we can’’t continue to do our jobs and keep the faith without reinforcement.

And this:

SPJ on the chapter level allows journalists to reenergize each other and also mentor each other. On a national level, SPJ sets a bar, enforces ethics, celebrates excellence and guards our First Amendment rights. We need this, perhaps now more than ever.

Again, thanks for letting us be of service. Here’s how you can join.

From @ncbrian on Flickr, aka @GreyMasterBrian on Twitter.

Bonus: Free tastings of the soda pops of the South, from Cheerwine to the Vietnamese Dragonfruit.
Reservations recommended. People without credentials are welcome with regular museum admission. Go here for more details.

Image credit: @ncbrian on Flickr, used through a Creative Commons license.

Here’s a link roundup of resources available for journalists covering the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte.

Many come from our successful July 28 seminar, “Ready, Set, Go,” on covering conventions. University of North Carolina student and journalist Melissa Abbey wrote a summary of that seminar, and Society of Professional Journalists National President John Ensslin, who has covered three national conventions, spoke at the seminar and shared his tips on his blog.

Note: The law allows police in North Carolina and Florida to search your digital devices if you are being arrested, according to Andy Sellers of the Digital Media Law Project. Sellers also notes that digital networks in crowds can become overloaded, so do not count on your phone to work. Consider using old-fashioned paper identification and reference materials as a backup.


For emergencies

If you run into trouble and can tweet, a couple of moves might come in handy.



• Please feel free to send a tweet to the Greater Charlotte Society of Professional Journalists’ account at @charlottespj if you run into legal issues. Ensslin notes in his roundup that national SPJ has a legal defense fund.
• 
Free Press uses the tag #journarrest for cases in which journalists are arrested.
• From the National Press Photographers’ Association, General Counsel Mickey Osterreicher is tweeting from @nppalawyer.
• From the North Carolina ACLU, Chris Brook, legal director, is available for your calls at his office (919-834-3466) or cell phone (919-830-4228).
• Charlotte-Mecklenburg police representatives have held several meetings with local media and community members. Deputy Police Chief Harold Medlock met with the Greater Charlotte Chapter of SPJ in June. Here are notes from that meeting.

The roundup

Social media resources

Many of these came from a Poynter chat led by Mallary Tenore on Aug. 24 with Ethan Klapper, Jeff Sonderman and Charlotte’s own Mary Curtis.

• Phone apps and a map for covering the DNC, including screenshots of apps from the Charlotte Observer and the DNC host committee.
• A Charlotte DNC Twitter guide by Ted Boyd, director of Historic South End, a subsidiary of Charlotte’s Center City Partners. It includes hashtags and local media accounts.
• Tumblr’s elections.
• Five apps for tracking and fact-checking political news.
• How to verify – and when to publish – news accounts posted on social media, from Poynter.
• A replay of the Poynter chat on using social media in election coverage.
• 25 ways to use Facebook, Twitter and Storify to improve political coverage.
• From the Atlantic: “9 Concrete, Specific Things We Actually Know About How Social Media Shape Elections.”

During the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, the Greater Charlotte Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists plans to monitor the social media flow and staff its Twitter and public Facebook accounts. The emphasis will be on Twitter communications, but Facebook is there for backup.

We’re here especially to help national and international journalists with specific questions pertaining to journalism that only other journalists can answer. We’re also here to help Charlotte journalists, connecting them to resources as needed.

We’re using volunteers for this effort: SPJ chapter secretary Andria Krewson, who will be in uptown Charlotte during many of the DNC activities, and UNC Charlotte communications student Caroline Lilly. They will try to answer any questions or make referrals to others, and complicated matters might require further direct discussions offline.

Follow us on Twitter and like us on Facebook if we can be of service. And local journalists in the Carolinas: We’d love you to join the chapter, which has no local dues, and the national organization. It’s a good deal.

DNC in 2012 “Make it possible for me…” page in iPhone app.

Here’s part of what you get with the DNC in 2012 app if you choose, “Make it possible for me to be a hipster.”

National Journal’s convention iPhone splash page.

National Journal’s convention iPhone calendar.

Splash page for the app from Event Farm and Bloomberg for exchanging tickets to events and building a personal event calendar.

The Charlotte Observer’s DNC app provides news, an event list and features from local journalists.

The Observer’s app includes features on local attractions beyond hotels and restaurants, such as the city’s growing greenway system.

A portion of the CLT Uptown map by cartographer Jeff Simpson, available for iOS for $1.99.

By Andria Krewson and Corey Inscoe

Take a look at four smart-phone apps and a gorgeous, detailed map available to help journalists get around during the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte.

The official DNC 2012 host committee app, made by AT&T Services, offers slick ways of pushing out information also generally available on the host committee’s website, like unique videos made by Charlotteans about Charlotte, and also offers more features like Google maps with restaurants and venues marked and integrated with basic information and a web link. You can mark as a favorite a restaurant, or a blog post or a video to store them on a separate tab for later.
The phone also has a “Make it possible for me … ” function, where you can choose to be a hipster (yes, a hipster) or “farm to fork foodie” or “museum/art lover,” tying into an activity of a certain duration and within a certain radius. The function essentially gives you a calendar or entertainment listing, and the icons are rather amusing (a mustache and glasses represents a hipster, and a bicycle represents outdoor activities). Cost: free.

The National Journal’s app, called Re:Con Conventions, includes information about both the Democratic and Republican conventions, including a list of delegate hotels and an events listing laid out in a tabbed calendar format by day, with events listings I haven’t seen anywhere else. The Journal appears to have partnered with DemList for some content and includes its own events, of course. It also has news, photos of key figures, integration with Google maps and the ability to quickly add events to phone calendars. It’s shorter on specific city information, but the calendar content for national organizations holding events in Charlotte is quite valuable. Cost: free.

Bloomberg’s convention app, made in conjunction with Event Farm, lets convention visitors swap tickets to events and helps event planners distribute tickets to individuals, groups or sponsors. It also shares Bloomberg news and integrates its Google maps with Yelp listings. (If you don’t allow it to use your current location, the maps don’t know where to go, though, displaying “Orlando” for me in Charlotte. I’d love more transparency and a toggle on-off switch for sharing my location with some of these apps, for when I’m home versus when I’m out.) You can get all the details from Folio. It requires you to set up an account with Event Farm before you can use the app (it asks for your phone number but doesn’t require it). It also integrates with Facebook and Twitter and has a search function for events. The icons and design are intuitive, using forms similar to mobile gmail, and you can add events listings to your very own schedule, integrated with your mobile calendar. (Tiny thing: the Charlotte version is called “My 2012 CTL” in its short form on the app’s icon and within the app in a few places. Charlotte is “CLT,” not “CTL.”) Cost: free.

Charlotte Observer DNC 2012 app: The Charlotte Observer released its own Democratic National Convention App earlier this week. It is available now for Android phones and should also be available on the iPhone soon. iPhone or Safari desktop users can access the app now at www.conventioncharlotte.com. (Doesn’t work for Firefox 14.0.1 yet, it appears. Works for Safari and Chrome.)
The app features news and information about the convention from Observer staff writers and wire services. In addition to a “Breaking news” section, there is a section about the delegates and weather updates.
The app also provides information on parties and events around the DNC, though the “calendar” list doesn’t seem to be in any particular order.
The “Explore Charlotte” section offers information and articles about local restaurants, bars, entertainment and even Charlotte’s greenway system from Observer staffers. This section may be the app’s most valuable asset, giving information about local things to do from the local writers.
The Observer also mapped hundreds of restaurants, bars, farmers markets and even gas stations on a Google map, which is available through the app. Cost: Free, though at last check it was quite a large file on the Android phone.

Finally, Charlotte cartographer Jeff Simpson has a gorgeous uptown Charlotte map with details like public art, sky bridges between buildings and even those pesky restaurants hidden inside larger buildings. He marks parking too, for anyone who actually plans to try to drive within the uptown loop. His app costs $1.99 in the Apple store.

Know of any others?

(Andria Krewson is a former Observer journalist in Charlotte now writing for Columbia Journalism Review’s Swing States project. Corey Inscoe is an Observer journalist covering primarily prep sports and also helping with convention coverage.)

Our guest for August is Desiree Kane, one of the founders of the PPL, which created a co-working space for independent and traditional media in uptown Charlotte during the Democratic National Convention. The group also has plans for round-table discussions, special guests, space for art and creative events. Desiree will give us the details.

Desiree, a communications strategist, is also an adviser to the John and James L. Knight Foundation, one of the early driving forces of CLTBlog and web strategist for Creative Loafing in Charlotte.

One last thing: Frank Barrows will deliver short remarks on the occasion of the first anniversary of our chapter receiving our charter. It’s our birthday!
When: 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 2
Where: Dilworth Neighborhood Grille, Morehead room.
Food and/or beverage at your own cost.