Paul Cheung

NewsTrain will be in New York City on June 6-7 for a two-day workshop on covering disasters and tragedies, including how to help staff cope with the emotional toll of such stories.

Diversity Scholarships Available: The Associated Press Media Editors Foundation is offering diversity scholarships to its New York City NewsTrain workshop, June 6-7, for print and broadcast journalists and students who are pursuing careers in journalism. 

The scholarships will cover the cost of the two-day workshop along with the recipient’s accommodations and travel expenses, if needed.

Candidates in the New York metro area will have the best chance. In all, up to five scholarships will be awarded. Interested journalists and students of color who need assistance attending NewsTrain in New York should send a resume, cover letter and several clips or examples of their work by May 15 to Sally Jacobsen at sjacobsen@ap.org.

Program and speakers

• Digital Coverage (Robyn Tomlin, Editor of Digital First Media’s Project Thunderdome) : When a major story breaks, people turn to the web and mobile news feeds to get caught up on key developments. This session will focus on how to create an advance plan for digital coverage for any major breaking news story and on the best tools to use to help your newsroom execute top-notch coverage in real time. We’ll walk through a checklist of things to consider when news breaks and over the days the follow.
• Storytelling (Wendell Jamieson, Deputy Metro Editor of The New York Times):As coverage of a major tragedy unfolds, daily breaking news stories should be supplemented by other forms, short to mid-range enterprise, that provide depth, context, and the human story to coverage. What forms are available and how they work.
• Emotional Health (Bruce Shapiro, Executive Director of the Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma): How to recognize and cope with the personal emotional stress associated with covering major tragedies.
• Managing Emotional Health (Bruce Shapiro and Santiago Lyon, Vice President and Director of Photography of the Associated Press): A session for editors and managers on how to recognize and help deal with emotional stress among the staff you supervise, co-workers, other people around you.
• Social Media Reporting Tools (Mandy Jenkins, Interactives Editor with Digital First Media’s Project Thunderdome): Social media can be a powerful asset for reporting during major tragedies. This session will cover tools and tips for finding sources connected to the story, fact-checking social media tips and curating social media to augment coverage.
• Disaster Plans (Hollis R. Towns, Executive editor of the Asbury Park Press and Michael Bass, Director of global news operations for The Associated Press): Does your newsroom have a plan for when a major tragedy breaks? An overview on the basis elements of a newsroom disaster plan and how to prepare and develop one for your newsroom.
• Field Gear (Tim Donnelly, Photo Operations Manager for the Associated Press and David Martin, Video Journalist and Producer for The Associated Press): An overview of the gear – simple to high-tech – that can be used when the big story breaks and staff is in the field for extended periods of time under difficult circumstances.
• Smartphones for Journalists (Yvonne Leow, Video Editor of Digital First Media’s Project Thunderdome): A guide to the best smartphone apps for reporters working in the field.

I was recently interview by World Journal about how I started in journalism and what I hope to achieve at the AAJA convention.

In celebration of Asian-Pacific American Heritage Month, AAJA is recognizing a dozen Asian-American photojournalists throughout the month of May. Our first feature photographer is Dai Sugano.

Dai found his passion for photography when he moved to Seattle from Japan as an international student. Find out more about Dai.