Get your tickets now for AAJA Seattle’s biggest fundraiser of the year! This year’s banquet will be held on Jan. 28 at 6 p.m. at Acquabar in Belltown. Silent auction proceeds will go toward the Northwest Journalists of Color scholarship, which has supported more than 100 college students since the mid-1980s.

Highlights of this year’s banquet include:

• Up-and-coming Taiwanese American comedian Yola Lu
• Photo booth by Ava Van of Ava Van Photography
• Full 8-item dinner
• Performance by Trackademics
• Dancing after 10 p.m.

Our emcee for the evening will be Elizabeth Dinh, reporter, KOMO 4 News.

Ticket prices will go up, so get yours soon: http://lunarnewyear2012.eventbrite.com/

All ages welcome.

It sounds implausible that members of the digital generation who document their lives on social networks would delude themselves that way. But let’s forget about Facebook’s bottomless memory and humor them for a moment, because they almost had a major impact on our school’s interpretation of the First Amendment.

On Oct. 26, the Student Senate at Western introduced a resolution that would have allowed sources to back-edit Western publications’ content. It proposed that students or alumni featured in a publication could, one to 10 years later, tell the publication to delete the content and wipe it from the online archives.

I’m guessing most people reading this are journalists. While you folks pick your jaws up off the floor or try to control your incredulous laughter, I’ll explain the reasoning behind the proposal.

The statement of context that went with it included this line: “It has been pointed out that the redaction of true statements does not happen in ‘real world’ publications. By design, student life is not ‘real life.’ It is more of a Petri dish or practice run.”

Perhaps the Petri dish metaphor is better than my scrimmage one. It certainly made for a fun editorial cartoon, which the Western Front opinion section ran on Nov. 1 next to the editorial board’s scathing commentary.

About 35 people attended the Senate meeting the following night. The chairs in the room filled up; many people sat on the floor. As editor-in-chief of The Western Front newspaper, I addressed the Senate along with the editors-in-chief of two of our other award-winning student publications. The chair of the Student Publications Council, Peggy Watt — who also chairs the journalism department and teaches media law — spoke with us and helped us answer questions.

We hoped to make two points that night:
1) This resolution showed an appalling lack of regard for the First Amendment. Censorship of online archives is still censorship. Censorship of student publications is still censorship.
2) The resolution was toothless. The Student Senate merely advises the Associated Students board of directors, elected officials who would also have to approve the measure for it to “go into effect.” I put that in quotation marks because even if that happened, it could not be enforced. Student publications are independent of the student government, the administration and any other body we might cover — or scrutinize.

This resolution, and many of the questions we got, seemed rooted in a basic fear or misunderstanding of journalism. Senators asked us about our fact-checking and corrections policies (both airtight), and whether there had been any instances of plagiarism (Peggy could remember only one in the past 10 years). Peggy had to remind them this wasn’t about libel or inaccuracy, but about people agreeing to be sources and years later changing their minds. The whole thing seemed more like a discussion of press credibility than of press freedom.

But that’s OK. We knew going in that it would be a teaching moment. Because it was unconstitutional and unenforceable, we didn’t have to spend much time arguing against the resolution itself. Instead, we got the rare chance to give the student body an inside look at how publications operate, and perhaps quell some of their concerns.

The Senate killed the resolution at its next meeting. Nine Senators voted against the resolution and two abstained; no one voted in favor of it. I’m not sure how many of those “no” votes were because of press freedom and how many were because the resolution was unenforceable (and thus a waste of the student government’s time). I’d guess a little of both. I would like to know the reasons behind the two abstentions, of course, but I don’t know those either. They still say a lot.

I can’t fault the Senators for considering the resolution. A student wrote it and the Senate chair introduced it as per his job description. I was glad Peggy and the editors were invited to speak at the meeting so the Senators could make an informed decision. The Senate should be so thorough with everything it considers.

The week after the vote, the Student Senate chair dropped off a present for me in The Western Front’s mailbox. It was a Petri dish with the First Amendment taped inside it. He asked that I consider it an olive branch. I suppose I do. He and I are, after all, both navigating the same great experiment in democracy — one that is an essential part of “real life.”

AAJA should be proud of this little website. It’s an important community resource in the online landscape of Pacific Northwest journalism sites. Don’t believe me? I too was shocked when a research study that came out at the 2010 Journalism That Matters conference put aajaseattle.org on the map – literally. Use the Zoom (+) button below and look at the center of the map.

Data visualization of the Pacific Northwest News Ecology, Jan 2010

Over the years, as the site’s founding editor, I’ve watched it grow and become a part of our chapter’s strategy for building community online and reaching out to members hungry for training, mentoring and jobs.

My vision for AAJASeattle.org was and still is a place for our members – especially students and freelancers – to post their profiles, share links to their stories and offer emerging, diverse journalists a platform to display their storytelling in new media (and maybe get constructive comments). I think it could realize that vision with a staff of three to five dedicated volunteers.

The chapter’s costs to keep the site up are minimal – a server hosting account and domain name – but the content our authors contribute is priceless.

The blog post items, which chronicle chapter news and turbulent times of our profession, come from members willing to donate their time. And sometimes we get photos and videos posted of chapter events.

With no advertising, no dedicated staff and sporadic blog posts, the site has attracted nearly 7,000 visits over the past year (yes, we track it using Google Analytics). We set up the site so that @aajaseattle sends out a tweet for every new post.

Now it’s time for a new editor with fresh ideas and energy to assume the duties and nurture the site’s evolution.

This is a great VOLUNTEER opportunity for anyone who hopes to be a web producer, blogger or site manager some day.

Skills you will develop as site editor:

Blogging about a community.

Recruiting and managing contributing writers.

Tracking and interpreting site analytics.

Managing the WordPress platform.

Skills we’d hope you have or are willing to learn if you want this gig:

Knowledge of basic HTML tags and how to tag content to improve search.

Knowledge of any blogging platform, i.e. WordPress, TypePad, Tumblr, Blogger.

Proficiency in editing copy.

Editorial judgment and basic understanding of libel, privacy and copyright.

The time commitment is minimal – an hour a week, perhaps – but you could spend more time if you want to create something cool. Definitely something to list on your resume when you apply for jobs at news websites.

If you’re interested in volunteering, please email Sanjay Bhatt, chapter president/aajaseattle.org editor, at sbhatt@seattletimes.com. Please write “AAJASeattle.org – Editor” in the subject line. Thanks!

Rachel Solomon is a print reporter turned radio broadcast journalist who was recently hired as a morning news producer for 97.3 KIRO FM.

Solomon received a Bachelor’s in Communication from the University of Washington in June where she spent time writing for the college’s student newspaper, The Daily. Her interest in radio led Solomon to produce a monthly This American Life-inspired radio podcat focusing on campus-life.

Her work has ended up in The Seattle Times, National Native News, KUOW, KPLU and KPBCS.

Listen to episodes of Solomon’s program “The Bark & The Bite” online.

Joanna Nolasco snagged an internship this summer at The Oregonian covering Washington County news after spending six months interning for The Seattle Times.

Nolasco was the recipient of the 2011 Northwest Journalists of Color Scholarship. The NJC scholarship program awards students in Washington state demonstrating talent and commitment in journalism.

She has also interned for The Cambodia Daily in Phnom Penh, Cambodia in the summer of 2010.

Nolasco studies Journalism and Political Science at the University of Washington and is expected to graduate in 2012.

If you or a friend of yours is hunting for work, here are some job listings recently posted to a leading job site for journalists. If you’ve heard of other job openings that aren’t listed here, please submit a comment with the job lead and we’ll make sure it gets posted.

If the employer asks how you heard about the job, please tell them “AAJA.” And if you GET the job, please consider making a donation to AAJA Seattle this year. Thanks!

Philanthropy Reporter, Puget Sound Business Journal
http://www.journalismjobs.com/Job_Listing.cfm?JobID=1261623

Business Reporter, IntraFish.com
http://www.journalismjobs.com/Job_Listing.cfm?JobID=907082

Reporter, Issaquah Press
http://www.journalismjobs.com/Job_Listing.cfm?JobID=681518

Reporter, Tri-Cities Area Journal of Business
http://www.journalismjobs.com/Job_Listing.cfm?JobID=1258644

Reporter, The Daily (created for digital tablets)
http://www.journalismjobs.com/job_listing.cfm?JobID=1261522

Photo/Video Editor, The Chronicle (Centralia)
http://www.journalismjobs.com/Job_Listing.cfm?JobID=1262236

Editor, Whitman College
http://www.journalismjobs.com/Job_Listing.cfm?JobID=1262976

Writer, Whitman College
http://www.journalismjobs.com/Job_Listing.cfm?JobID=1262977

Visiting Instructor in Journalism, University of Oregon
http://www.journalismjobs.com/Job_Listing.cfm?JobID=1259175

Managing Editor, The World (Coos Bay, Ore.)
http://www.journalismjobs.com/Job_Listing.cfm?JobID=1261596

The Bulletin (Bend, Ore.)
is looking to fill four newsroom jobs: