Adam Giardino ’11 Pushes for Change in the Press Box

Posted on April 6, 2022April 1, 2025 by UConn Journalism

Adam Giardino ’11 came to UConn with the goal of pursuing a career in sports. It wasn’t until he got in front of the microphone at WHUS that he found his calling in broadcasting. While working in the profession, he found another passion pushing for social change in the broadcast booth. The journalism and communication alumnus discusses how he started the Black Play-by-Play Broadcaster Grant & Scholarship Fund in the wake of George Floyd’s death, and how he continues to chase his big league dreams at UConn.

Interview by UConn Journalism senior Ty Reeves ‘22.

Read the full story on UConn Today.

Journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones Discusses Race and US History at UConn Event

Posted on April 1, 2022April 20, 2022 by UConn Journalism

Journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones scribbled in a notebook during her
March 30 appearance in the UConn Student Union and proceeded to ask a question of interviewer Prof. Manisha Sinha. (Photo by Marie K. Shanahan/UConn Journalism)

Journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones had one goal as a history major at the University of Notre Dame: to not take a single class in European history.

Growing up in Waterloo, Iowa, in the 1980s and ’90s, she heard all about European influences on America and not a word about Black contributions to the birth of a nation. So, when she advanced to college and took her first Black American history class, she pledged to delve only into the stories of other nations, creeds, races, and genders.

“It was like I could breathe for the first time,” she told a UConn audience Wednesday about that initial Black American history class she took.

Before college, she said she assumed Black people hadn’t had any influence on the country and its communities, because no one around her made mention of their contributions. Certainly, her teachers would have said something, she said, because aren’t they supposed to spotlight the most significant historical impacts?

But “we have not had neutral history,” she said. And Black “history has not been part of the standard way we have studied history.”

Since those days, Hannah-Jones has dedicated her career to advocating for people of color and prompting change in how the country discusses race.

Hannah-Jones joined UConn history professor Manisha Sinha on March 30, 2022 for a conversation on producing “The 1619 Project” with The New York Times Magazine, winning the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary during the pandemic, and what being patriotic means to her.

Read the full story by Kimberly Phillips on UConn Today.

Scenes from our Local News Job & Internship Fair on 3/26/22

Posted on March 29, 2022March 29, 2022 by UConn Journalism

Thanks to all who attended UConn Journalism's first Local News Job & Internship Fair on March 26, 2022. The fourth floor of Oak Hall was buzzing with students, faculty, alumni and recruiters from 14 local news organizations: The Connecticut Mirror, CTNewsJunkie, CTExaminer, Hearst Connecticut, Journal Inquirer, The Day, Republican-American, Connecticut Health Investigative Team, Patch, Turley Publications, Willimantic Chronicle, NBC Connecticut, FOX61 and WFSB News. We hope to make this an annual Spring semester event.

Join the 2022 Planet Forward Storytelling Summit on April 7

Posted on March 25, 2022April 1, 2025 by UConn Journalism

At a moment of urgency and crisis, stories can motivate and mobilize, inform, and engage.

The University of Connecticut, through UConn Journalism, is now a member of the Planet Forward Consortium, a network based at George Washington University in Washington, DC dedicated to advancing solutions-oriented storytelling from students reporting about the climate, food, water, sustainability, conservation, and environmental justice.

On Thursday, April 7 from 1-3pm, Planet Forward will host the 2022 Summit, “The Storyteller's Journey: Navigating Crisis, Seeking Solutions. The event will gather experts, media leaders, and young people from around the world to offer solutions and share narratives that address the planet’s most pressing problems.

Special guests include celebrity chef and humanitarian José Andrés; National Geographic Explorer Arati Kumar-Rao; Adobe Creative Cloud’s Mala Sharma; director of FAO North America Jocelyn Brown Hall; and manager of storytelling and engagement at Project Drawdown Matt Scott.

Additionally, winners will be announced from this year’s Storyfest competition, featuring the best of student environmental journalism from around the country. UConn Journalism student Zoey England is in the running for the grand prize —a trip to Alaska in June with Lindblad Expeditions to report on climate change.

Students, faculty and staff from all UConn departments are invited to cheer on Zoey and join a stellar gathering of experts and students.

Attend from your own computer or drop by Oak 439 anytime from 1-3 p.m. to be a part of this exciting event!

We hope you will join us at the Summit for this exceptional learning and networking opportunity. Discover how you can amplify stories and communicate strategies to help move the planet forward.

To register and learn more about Planet Forward, visit: https://www.planetforwardsummit.org

Journalist and activist Marvi Sirmed has found safety and academic freedom through UConn’s Scholars at Risk Network

Posted on March 17, 2022June 26, 2023 by UConn Journalism

Illustration by Sean Flynn / University Communications

In 1991 in Pakistan, there was a surge of women being burned.

A stove would burst, the official report would say – a terrible accident – and only the young bride of the family would be injured or, more often, killed.

“It was very intriguing for me,” says Marvi Sirmed, a journalist and activist who was one of the rare young women working at a newspaper in Pakistan at the time. “When I started digging, first they said, ‘Oh, you know, because in the kitchen, only the daughter-in-law works, so everyone else remains unhurt.’”

Most newspapers in Pakistan at that time employed only one woman, says Sirmed, and that woman was known as the “lady reporter” who would exclusively write for women. Articles about the latest fashions, or recipes, or romantic short stories were the sorts of topics that women in the patriarchal society should be reading, according to the men who ran the newspapers.

Sirmed, who was working as the editor of her newspaper’s weekly women’s edition, felt otherwise.

“I kept digging for four or five months for this story, and some of these incidents would be accidental,” she says, “but most of it was because the daughter-in-law did not bring enough dowry. So, it was a dowry killing, or an honor killing, concealed into accident.”

Her enterprising journalism was not welcomed.

“I brought several stories of the survivors of these ‘accidents,’ and my editor just refused to entertain that,” she says. “He said that women buy the women’s edition because they want to read more about the pleasant subjects. But what you are doing is exactly what they don’t want to know and what we don't want to put in our publication, because these are not pretty faces. If you want to do a modeling session with a high-ranking model girl who would display good apparel, we are all for it. But these faces of burned women, it’s absolutely a ‘no’ story.”

The stories of the burned women were far from the last time Sirmed would face opposition, controversy, harassment, personal attacks, and outright violence for the stories she wanted to tell and the light she aimed to shine on some of the darkest corners of Pakistani life and governance.

In fact, she’s still telling those stories, and working as an activist for change in Pakistan and other South Asian countries, though she’s now more than 7,000 miles away from her home country, in the United States and teaching at UConn through the University’s longstanding and unique partnership with the international network Scholars at Risk.

Read the full story by Jaclyn Severance on UConn Today ↠

Register for our Local News Job & Internship Fair on March 26

Posted on March 11, 2022March 29, 2022 by UConn Journalism

UConn Journalism will host a Local News Job & Internship Fair on Saturday, March 26.

WHERE: UConn Journalism Department, Storrs Campus, Oak Hall, Fourth Floor South.

WHEN: Saturday, March 26 from 10 a.m. to noon.

WHY: UConn Journalism is committed to strengthening the local news landscape in Connecticut and the region. We want to help connect local newsrooms with aspiring, well-trained young journalists.

We know that strong local journalism builds social cohesion, encourages political participation, educates and empowers people. Local journalists inform and guard the public they serve. Local news helps us see, know, care about and understand our communities. It drives conversations and serves as the public record.

CONFIRMED NEWS ORGANIZATIONS: NBC Connecticut News, FOX 61 News, Hearst Connecticut, The Connecticut Mirror, WFSB Channel 3 Eyewitness News, Connecticut Health Investigative Team, The Day, Journal Inquirer, Republican-American, Willimantic Chronicle, New Britain Herald, CT Examiner, Turley Publications and Patch.

WHO: This event is co-hosted by our new UConn student SPJ chapter. It is open to all college journalism students in Connecticut, especially members of other SPJ student chapters and seniors graduating in May 2022.

PARKING: Parking is available for a fee in the South Garage at the UConn Bookstore, next to Gampel Pavilion. Lot and street parking on the Storrs Campus is free on weekends. Closest parking lots to Oak Hall are located behind the Dodd Center, Manchester Hall and Arjona Building. There is street parking available along Whitney Road.

Registration for this event has ended.

Prof. Steve Smith recognized by POYi for Issue Reporting Picture Storytelling

Posted on March 3, 2022March 3, 2022 by UConn Journalism

UConn Journalism Prof. Steven G. Smith ’s long-term picture story about a daughter caring for her 85-year-old father in the final stages of dementia was recently recognized by the 79th Pictures of the Year International (POYi) competition.

"A Daughter's Long Goodbye, A Caregiver's Journey" shows how dementia and COVID-19 have given Leandra Manos the battle of her life.

POYi judge Nikki Kahn commented, “This is a classic picture story that carries you through a journey, with so much intimacy.”

POYi is the oldest and one of the most prestigious photojournalism competitions globally. POYi recognizes excellence in photojournalism, multimedia, visual editing and documentary storytelling. Last year, the contest attracted over 40,000 entries.

Prof. Smith’s work was recognized as a finalist in the “Issue Reporting Picture Story” category. His work has been recognized eleven times by POYi over his career.

Over the last two years, Leandra has had many close calls with George getting out of bed and wandering around at night. Leandra’s solution is to sleep next to her father’s bed to prevent him from hurting himself. (July 9, 2021/Steven G. Smith)

After giving George a haircut, Leandra shows him his smiling face in a hand mirror. Both COVID-19 and dementia have made leaving the house for a haircut seem like an impossible endeavor. Leandra does most of her caretaking from her small two-bedroom home. (July 6, 2021/Steven G. Smith)

Leandra has a daily routine with her father, and she bathes and dresses him in the morning to prepare him for the day. Early on, the two used to manage the routine well together. Over time, George has become totally dependent on her care. (August 10, 2021/Steven G. Smith)

Overcome by her circumstances, Leandra sits on the front porch. One of George’s home healthcare providers unexpectedly stopped seeing George. Daily chores and yard work have been all but unattainable over the last two years because of her father’s constant needs. (November 8, 2021/Steven G. Smith)

Crawford to moderate book talk about women Vietnam war correspondents

Posted on March 1, 2022February 11, 2025 by UConn Journalism

You Don't Belong Here book cover — *Becker's new book tells the stories of Kate Webb, an Australian iconoclast, Catherine Leroy, a French dare devil photographer, and Frances FitzGerald, a blue-blood American intellectual.*

On Wednesday, March 16 from 7-8 p.m. the Westport Library is hosting a virtual event featuring journalist and author Elizabeth Becker, whose new book “You Don’t Belong Here: How Three Women Rewrote the Story of War” tells the story of three pioneering women Vietnam war correspondents.

Becker will be in conversation with Assistant UConn Journalism Prof. Amanda J. Crawford. The event will be held on Zoom. More information and registration details here: https://westportlibrary.org/event/you-dont-belong-here-how-three-women-rewrote-the-story-of-war-with-elizabeth-becker/

Sarah Al-Arshani ’19 selected for Widening the Pipeline Fellowship

Posted on March 1, 2022March 1, 2022 by UConn Journalism

Congratulations to Sarah Al-Arshani '19, one of 25 journalists selected for the National Press Foundation's Widening the Pipeline Fellowship. The program is designed to support early-career journalists of color and help them rise to positions of influence in U.S. newsrooms. Training topics include leadership, investigative reporting, accountability reporting, data journalism, multimedia skills and in-studio media skills.

Over the next 12 months, fellows will receive training in leadership, in-depth reporting and more to expand the pipeline of diverse journalists. Fellows will meet in Washington D.C. for a three-day workshop March 20-23, then meet once a month for virtual training sessions and return to Washington for a concluding training in 2023. The journalists are based in 18 states and hail from print, radio, TV and digital newsrooms.

Sarah is currently a news reporter at Insider, Inc.

*Widening the Pipeline Fellows receive one year of training in leadership, in-depth reporting and more to expand the pipeline of diverse journalists.*

Kyle Huson ’16 in Beijing to Cover Paralympics

Posted on March 1, 2022January 22, 2025 by UConn Journalism

Kyle Huson '16 says his experiences at UConn have prepared him for the pressure and excitement of covering the Paralympic Games (courtesy of Kyle Huson).

When Kyle Huson ’16 (CLAS) played competitive ice hockey, he’d lug his heavy gear to the rink. Now, he carries a laptop, and for the next week and a half credentials and a passport, as he covers the U.S. Paralympic Sled Hockey Team at the Paralympic Games in Beijing.

Huson, who majored in journalism and communication, is digital content manager at USA Hockey in Colorado Springs, Colorado, writing stories, posting content, and managing its social media channels. During the Winter Olympics, which closed Feb. 20, he stayed state-side and received content from staffers who were at the Games. But during the Paralympics, March 4-13, he’ll witness the action in China firsthand and provide his own accounts.

“A lot of what I do I owe to what I learned at UConn and the journalism and communication departments,” Huson says. “What I do is not just journalism-specific in terms of writing stories, but it’s also photography and videography. I’m able to provide in-depth content from different competitions and tournaments because of what I learned in my classes at UConn.”