Post by Okwes on Dec 21, 2006 10:43:54 GMT -5
Jodi Rave: More American Indian journalists needed Posted: November
24, 2006
by: Gale Courey Toensing
<http://www.indiancountry.com/author.cfm?id=552> / Indian Country Today
www.indiancountry.com/content.cfm?id=1096414069
<http://www.indiancountry.com/content.cfm?id=1096414069>
Click to Enlarge <http://www.indiancountry.com/pix/1096414069_large.jpg>
<http://www.indiancountry.com/pix/1096414069_large.jpg> Photo by
Gale Courey Toensing -- Jodi Rave NEW HAVEN, Conn. - Jodi Rave has a
message for aspiring young Native journalists: The newsrooms of America
need you, because more Indians in newsrooms mean more stories and
awareness about Indian issues.
Rave, a member of the Mandan and Hidatsa tribes, covers Indian issues on
a national basis. She was a guest speaker Nov. 16 at Yale University's
Native American Cultural Center, where a dozen or so students and a few
members of the public gathered to hear her talk on ''American Indian
Journalism in the 21st Century.''
Rave is a columnist and writes stories for Lee Enterprise, which has 58
newspapers in 22 states. She has worked for Lee Enterprises since 1998
and has been based at the Missoulian newspaper in Missoula, Mont., since
2004, when she completed a Nieman Fellowship at Harvard University.
An award-winning journalist, Rave has received top honors from the
Native American Journalists Association, the Nebraska Associated Press,
the University of Nebraska and the U.S. Army, and has been honored twice
by Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism for her reporting
on race and ethnicity. She grew up on the Fort Berthold Reservation in
North Dakota and graduated from the University of Colorado at Boulder.
Alyssa Mt. Pleasant, Tuscarora, assistant professor of American Studies
and History and the Howard R. Lamar Postdoctoral Fellow at the
university's Lamar Center for the Study of Frontiers and Borders,
invited Rave to speak to her students as part of a semester-long series
of speakers.
The two women noted a recent trend - the ''infiltration'' of American
Indian professors into Ivy League universities. Harvard recently hired
its first Indian faculty member, and Yale has three Indian faculty
members.
Rave equated the universities' trend to Native journalists in the
country's newsrooms. With around 60,000 reporters at work in newsrooms
around the country, only around 300 are self-identified American
Indians, Rave said.
''I think that really affects the kind of media coverage that you get.
Just having a Native person in the newsroom, even if it's just a copy
editor, your views get heard and it sparks other people to do more
coverage. I know in our newsroom we've got more and more reporters
covering Native issues just because they're becoming more aware of it,
so if you're interested in journalism, I'll give you one of my cards
before I leave. I know some great programs!'' Rave told the students.
Rave said she had always wanted to cover Indian issues even though many
of her colleagues don't.
''They don't want to be pigeonholed. They want to cover cooking or
business or whatever, but I've never been of that mindset. I've always
felt there was a lack of coverage of national issues in the daily
newspapers. That's a huge perspective that's missing,'' Rave said.
But Rave discovered quickly that there were no jobs for someone who
wanted to fill the national vacuum in Indian news. She tried
unsuccessfully to pitch the idea to papers all over the country.
Finally, chance and circumstances converged and her paper decided to
embrace the idea of a national Indian beat.
''My job was created for me. The planets sometimes all align, and it was
one of those situations where I had an editor who was supportive, a city
editor who was supportive and the managing editor. They had that much
faith,'' Rave said.
The reading public responded enthusiastically to Rave's stories.
''It was just like a light had turned on for the entire community,
because people hadn't seen Indian stories before. They were hearing
different perspectives and they liked it. And it hasn't changed. Every
day I get e-mails from people saying thank you for writing or I'm a fan
of yours - I love to hear that. It makes me realize that it's making a
difference and I'm doing what I believe in. I don't care about those
other journalists who don't want to write about Indian issues, because I
do and I always have,'' Rave said.
Passionate about the subjects she covers, one of Rave's greatest recent
successes was the Montana Legislature's appropriation of $13 million in
public education funding for Indian history and culture. The state's
30-year-old constitutional mandate to provide that curriculum to K - 12
students had been completely ignored, but Rave's yearlong coverage
raised awareness and support for the appropriation.
''That particularly story affected the entire state. People began to
realize, 'Oh, this does pertain to us. This is important. It's not just
the students, but the teachers who have to learn this stuff, and higher
education people who have to teach the teachers,' and it was just a web
that affected everyone. People were paying attention, because I was
writing about it,'' Rave said.
There is so much more work to be done in the newsrooms of America, Rave
said.
''It's sometimes just a little overwhelming thinking I'm the only Native
person in the country writing about Native issues on a national beat.
I've a really strong advocate for more Native representation in the
newsroom. I think it's critical now,'' she told the students.
But, like all professionals, Rave was looking for the next story, and
turned to the students.
''I'd love to hear what your experiences are like here on campus,
because I'm going to write a column about my visit here to Yale, but I
need to hear what's on your minds. I can't write without people's
voices,'' she said.
24, 2006
by: Gale Courey Toensing
<http://www.indiancountry.com/author.cfm?id=552> / Indian Country Today
www.indiancountry.com/content.cfm?id=1096414069
<http://www.indiancountry.com/content.cfm?id=1096414069>
Click to Enlarge <http://www.indiancountry.com/pix/1096414069_large.jpg>
<http://www.indiancountry.com/pix/1096414069_large.jpg> Photo by
Gale Courey Toensing -- Jodi Rave NEW HAVEN, Conn. - Jodi Rave has a
message for aspiring young Native journalists: The newsrooms of America
need you, because more Indians in newsrooms mean more stories and
awareness about Indian issues.
Rave, a member of the Mandan and Hidatsa tribes, covers Indian issues on
a national basis. She was a guest speaker Nov. 16 at Yale University's
Native American Cultural Center, where a dozen or so students and a few
members of the public gathered to hear her talk on ''American Indian
Journalism in the 21st Century.''
Rave is a columnist and writes stories for Lee Enterprise, which has 58
newspapers in 22 states. She has worked for Lee Enterprises since 1998
and has been based at the Missoulian newspaper in Missoula, Mont., since
2004, when she completed a Nieman Fellowship at Harvard University.
An award-winning journalist, Rave has received top honors from the
Native American Journalists Association, the Nebraska Associated Press,
the University of Nebraska and the U.S. Army, and has been honored twice
by Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism for her reporting
on race and ethnicity. She grew up on the Fort Berthold Reservation in
North Dakota and graduated from the University of Colorado at Boulder.
Alyssa Mt. Pleasant, Tuscarora, assistant professor of American Studies
and History and the Howard R. Lamar Postdoctoral Fellow at the
university's Lamar Center for the Study of Frontiers and Borders,
invited Rave to speak to her students as part of a semester-long series
of speakers.
The two women noted a recent trend - the ''infiltration'' of American
Indian professors into Ivy League universities. Harvard recently hired
its first Indian faculty member, and Yale has three Indian faculty
members.
Rave equated the universities' trend to Native journalists in the
country's newsrooms. With around 60,000 reporters at work in newsrooms
around the country, only around 300 are self-identified American
Indians, Rave said.
''I think that really affects the kind of media coverage that you get.
Just having a Native person in the newsroom, even if it's just a copy
editor, your views get heard and it sparks other people to do more
coverage. I know in our newsroom we've got more and more reporters
covering Native issues just because they're becoming more aware of it,
so if you're interested in journalism, I'll give you one of my cards
before I leave. I know some great programs!'' Rave told the students.
Rave said she had always wanted to cover Indian issues even though many
of her colleagues don't.
''They don't want to be pigeonholed. They want to cover cooking or
business or whatever, but I've never been of that mindset. I've always
felt there was a lack of coverage of national issues in the daily
newspapers. That's a huge perspective that's missing,'' Rave said.
But Rave discovered quickly that there were no jobs for someone who
wanted to fill the national vacuum in Indian news. She tried
unsuccessfully to pitch the idea to papers all over the country.
Finally, chance and circumstances converged and her paper decided to
embrace the idea of a national Indian beat.
''My job was created for me. The planets sometimes all align, and it was
one of those situations where I had an editor who was supportive, a city
editor who was supportive and the managing editor. They had that much
faith,'' Rave said.
The reading public responded enthusiastically to Rave's stories.
''It was just like a light had turned on for the entire community,
because people hadn't seen Indian stories before. They were hearing
different perspectives and they liked it. And it hasn't changed. Every
day I get e-mails from people saying thank you for writing or I'm a fan
of yours - I love to hear that. It makes me realize that it's making a
difference and I'm doing what I believe in. I don't care about those
other journalists who don't want to write about Indian issues, because I
do and I always have,'' Rave said.
Passionate about the subjects she covers, one of Rave's greatest recent
successes was the Montana Legislature's appropriation of $13 million in
public education funding for Indian history and culture. The state's
30-year-old constitutional mandate to provide that curriculum to K - 12
students had been completely ignored, but Rave's yearlong coverage
raised awareness and support for the appropriation.
''That particularly story affected the entire state. People began to
realize, 'Oh, this does pertain to us. This is important. It's not just
the students, but the teachers who have to learn this stuff, and higher
education people who have to teach the teachers,' and it was just a web
that affected everyone. People were paying attention, because I was
writing about it,'' Rave said.
There is so much more work to be done in the newsrooms of America, Rave
said.
''It's sometimes just a little overwhelming thinking I'm the only Native
person in the country writing about Native issues on a national beat.
I've a really strong advocate for more Native representation in the
newsroom. I think it's critical now,'' she told the students.
But, like all professionals, Rave was looking for the next story, and
turned to the students.
''I'd love to hear what your experiences are like here on campus,
because I'm going to write a column about my visit here to Yale, but I
need to hear what's on your minds. I can't write without people's
voices,'' she said.