The Society of Professional Journalists is dedicated to raising awareness and educating on how news is covered and how journalists approach stories. To that end, we offer a slate of journalists from around the New England region who will come to your high school, college, public library or civic group to speak about the thorny issues of covering news in an age of budget cuts, limited resources, made-up stories, and Administrative jabs as content proliferates and journalists, none-the-less, adhere to their code of ethics.

To request a speaker email joycepellinocrane@gmail.com.

Choose from a variety of topics, including:

  • The Changing Face of Hyperlocal News Coverage — Are you wondering what’s happened to your community newspaper? The paper arrives every week but the stories are sparse and the paper is thin. Budget cuts have changed how news is covered and are prompting journalists to move to other venues such as community access television stations and alternative publications. Learn how local news coverage is shifting and where you can find news in your own city or town
  • Covering Sports in the Era of Brady and Belichick — A recent ESPN story by Seth Wickersham entitled “For Kraft, Brady and Belichick, is this the beginning of the end?” created a stir around the New England region. Brady and Belichick denied some of the damning information contained in the story, but ESPN stood by it. Covering sports is a science unto itself. Hear what sports reporters experience as they cover big name winning teams.
  • The #MeToo Movement and other Hashtags — How does a news story originate from a hashtag? From #MeToo to #RealDonaldTrump, hashtags aggregate tweets and posts to tell a story that journalists must organize and compose. Let us show you the evolution.

OUR SPEAKERS INCLUDE:

PETER J. CARUSO
Media Lawyer, Caruso & Caruso, LLP

Speaking Topics: Access to courts, municipalities, public forums, other closures; public records; open meetings; defamation; privacy; drones; pre-publication review; subpoenas (never comply as a journalist); reporters’ notes; all newsroom issues.

Peter J. Caruso has been a media lawyer since 1977. He represents multiple news organizations today. Arguments for the media at the U.S. District Court, U.S. Appeals Court, Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, Appeals Court, Superior Courts, District Courts, Juvenile Courts; Clerk’s Hearings. Attorney in the Willie Horton Case (newspaper received the Pulitzer Prize); Pam Smart case; Allan Eagleson case; Boston Red Sox/Yankees brawl case (opened after suit); suppression hearing case decided in 2017; General Counsel for the Massachusetts Newspaper Association; founding member and current director of the New England First Amendment Coalition; lectured for New England Press Association, New England Newspaper and Press Association, New York Press Association, and Practicing Law Institute. He is the only attorney inducted into the New England Newspaper Hall of Fame.

JOYCE PELLINO CRANE 
Multimedia News Director at Westford Community Access Television, Westford, MA

Speaking Topics: Covering Local News in Transitioning Times; Filling the Void of the Disappearing Community Newspaper

Award-winning journalist Joyce Pellino Crane is a former Boston Globe correspondent and the current news director of Westford Community Access Television. She is the former editor of the Westford Eagle and Littleton Independent, newspapers for two communities located northwest of Boston. Crane is the recipient of an editorial award by the 2015 Best of GateHouse, and a first prize award for commentary from the New England Newspaper and Press Association. She won a total of six NENPA awards for reporting and writing between 2011 and 2015.

Crane holds a master’s degree in business administration from Suffolk University and a bachelor of arts degree in broadcasting and film from Boston University. In December 2016 she completed a six-course specialization through Coursera.com/Northwestern University resulting in a certificate in social media marketing.

MICHAEL MORISY
Chief Executive of MuckRock

Speaking topics: Public records and the Freedom of Information Act, Digital Media Entrepreneurship, and Free Speech in the Digital Age.

Michael Morisy is the founder and chief executive of MuckRock, a non-profit public records
tool that helps tens of thousands of journalists around the world file, track, and share their
Freedom of Information Act requests through a simple and intuitive interface. Since its founding
in 2010, MuckRock has helped investigate issues ranging from the secret history of American
intelligence agencies to police militarization to massive backlogs in rape kit testing. The
organization has successfully sued the CIA to force the release of millions of pages of
documents online, and was found in a recent study to be the most valuable digital resource for
records requesters. He was previously a John S. Knight Fellow at Stanford and an editor at the
Boston Globe.

COLE ROSENGREN
Staff Reporter for Waste Dive, Washington, D.C.

Speaking Topics: Where your trash goes and how the system works; overview of the national food waste problem; labor issues in the waste and recycling industry; trends in packaging ordinances and bans; how to get involved with local media in your community.

Cole Rosengren is a staff reporter for Waste Dive, a trade publication for the waste and recycling industry. Rosengren is also host of the weekly show Techno Trash on Boston Free Radio (Fridays at 6 p.m.) and secretary-treasurer of SPJ New England. His work has been published by Fusion, Univision Noticias, City Limits, Gotham Gazette, Hunts Point Express, Mott Haven Herald and Dorchester Reporter.

Cole has a Master’s of Art in Urban Reporting from the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism and a B.F.A. in Writing, Literature & Publishing from Emerson College. Originally from Maine, he now lives in Somerville, Massachusetts.