IUPUI

HSPA Honors James Brown, Journalism Dean

HSPA Award Winner, James W. Brown

INDIANAPOLIS - The Hoosier State Press Association honored James W. Brown, executive associate dean of the Indiana University School of Journalism at IUPUI, with its 2006 Distinguished Service Award Wednesday during its Governor's Reception, part of the association's Annual Meeting and Government Conference, at the Indianapolis Marriott Downtown.

Gov. Mitch Daniels presented the traveling trophy to Brown following a citation for his years of service to HSPA, professional journalists across Indiana and his college students.

"While examining his service to the professional journalism community in Indiana and HSPA itself, one should remember his efforts also benefit citizens and society at large - locally, statewide and nationally," HSPA Foundation Director Karen Braeckel said. "His willingness to share his knowledge and creativity both in and outside the classroom directly affects the very method of disseminating information."

Brown serves HSPA by giving opinions on ethical issues as they arise, offering assistance to improve the quality and learning experience of editorial competitions, and presenting at seminars, Braeckel said. He developed HSPA's digital photo contest to allow photographers to submit entries in the format they use professionally. He convinced all four professional journalism groups in the state to use the same format to save time and money. HSPA became the first state press association in the country to switch to a digital contest format.

"He continually challenges me to upgrade our contests to include the latest technological advances in our industry," Braeckel said. "This year he says we need to add a multimedia category - just when I thought we had everything covered."

Through part of IUPUI's civic engagement efforts, Brown allows professional journalists to train in one of its computer labs and learn new technology through hands-on experience over the students' spring break, Braeckel said. And, in the past eight years, he presented at three HSPA Newsroom Seminars to help working journalists keep up with ethics and technology issues.

While all journalism professors in general serve the industry by training our future reporters, photographers, editors, designers and others, Brown goes beyond the norm, Braeckel said. While serving as Indiana's Society of Professional Journalists president in the early 2000s, the chapter won the Outstanding Large Professional Chapter Award for Region V that includes Chicago. Throughout the years he served on several national SPJ committees as well. He personally handles SPJ's photo contest that even necessitated some original computer programming.

He also co-hosted a conference on computer-mapping with the Associated Press Managing Editors in September 2002 to train working journalists in the new technique. But sharing his expertise with computers in journalism did not start there.

In 1989 he served as one of three founders of the National Institute for Advance Reporting and was executive director until 1996. The institute's mission was to improve reporting methods. IUPUI hosted the first of six national conferences and essentially nationalized computer-assisted journalism. HSPA cosponsored the sixth in 1994 along with SPJ and the Inland Press Association.

HSPA Executive Director David Stamps said, "Jim Brown is a true friend to HSPA and Indiana journalists. It is most appropriate we honor him for his outstanding service to the association, the HSPA Foundation and journalism in general."

The annual Distinguished Service Award recognizes a present or former employee of an HSPA-member newspaper or an individual affiliated with journalism through a university, college or newspaper association and an exemplary professional who brings credit to the newspaper industry. Honorees must make a significant impact on the newspaper industry in Indiana through service to the HSPA, perform outstanding service to the newspaper industry in general, and/or demonstrate service in the local community that reflects positively on its newspaper.