Case in Point

Joel BelzCase in P0int columnWJI Times ObserverAs I reflect back on this economically trying year, two institute programs stand out as being inventive and attuned to the cultural climate: the New York Convergence Course and the Belz International Media Fellowships. As media programs around the country—both professional and academic—were being reduced or eliminated, we mounted our most expensive and professionally relevant course to date. We continued our second decade of programs as strong as ever with as much excitement and thankfulness as at the beginning eleven years ago.Lauren Green

WJI Times Observer

Case in Point column

We redesigned our May/June New York course to focus on convergence media. That is, we focused not only on writing, but on photo, audio and video journalism for the web and blogging. This required increased teaching staff, training and more equipment but it also resulted in more of our grads getting internships than ever before, because they were acquainted (if not conversant) with current media technology. We celebrated the close of the intensive course with a speech by Lauren Green of FOX News.

Our second major new effort was the inauguration of the Belz Fellowships, which enabled seven journalists from Africa to attend our conference in Tampa held in partnership with the annual convention of the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ). We had over 40 African applicants from 17 countries for the Fellowship stipend. Ten were selected, but only seven could come because of visa restrictions.

Jonathan Tobin

Additionally, in May, we sponsored our Luncheon Lecture Series in New York featuring Joseph Bottum (First Things), Jonathan Tobin (Commentary), Kevin Williamson (National Review), and Philip Gourevitch (The Paris Review) among others.

Mizell Stewart III

In August, we held our annual conference for minority Christian journalists and the attendant Samuel Cornish Memorial Lecture featuring Mizell Stewart. In October, we sponsored a three-part series on convergence media at the College Media Advisers’ national convention in Austin. In December, we will sponsor Manny Garcia to give the journalism as a calling seminar for Urbana 09 in St. Louis.

Most importantly, two dozen WJI grads interned and got jobs at such news organizations as The Jerusalem Post, CBS News, New York Daily News, Essence magazine, Sports Illustrated, Tikkun, New York Times, Tacoma News Tribune, NY1-TV, and Portland Press Herald.

So, despite tough economic times, the World Journalism Institute continues to fulfill its mission of recruiting, equipping, placing and encouraging Christians in the mainstream newsrooms of America first and then the world. For those of you who participated in this year’s history, a hearty “Thank you.” And we would invite all our readers to financially support the 2010 journalism programs of the World Journalism Institute.