Online chat on journalism

I have been invited to participate in an online chat on women in journalism, which is this Thursday at noon (Eastern time). The invitation came from a journalism professor and research Scott Reinardy, who was an editor/professor at the Missouri School of Journalism during my time there. A few years ago, he was working on research for his paper, "Female Journalists More Likely to Leave Newspapers." I participated in the study and then in a follow-up interview.

Reinardy tracked me down again late last year to ask if I would participate in an online chat he was moderating on the topic. After seeing the list of other participants, I realized I already know two of them. My ties with one go way back to Southern Illinois Children's Choir and my time at Our Lady of Mount Carmel grade school. (She was in both with me, though she was a few years older.) Another was my instructor during my two-week Dow Jones bootcamp training at Penn State before my internship in Michigan.

If you're interested in the chat, I believe this is the place to go Thursday. I'm not sure of the technical aspects, but I believe anyone can join us. The chat is scheduled for noon to 12:45 p.m. (eastern).

Here's the promo I have. (I can't find it online to link to it, so I'll copy and paste it.):

A summer 2009 Newspaper Research Journal study reported that 62 percent of women working in newspaper newsrooms have some intention of leaving journalism, citing exhaustion and cynicism, two components that can lead to burnout. Of women 27 and younger, more than 74 percent answered "yes" or "don't know" to the intention-to-leave question.

The study's researcher Scott Reinardy of the University of Kansas will lead a LIVE online chat, where he'll discuss these results with women still working in journalism and some who have left.

Meet the Panelists   Sara Bondioli is a production/copy editor at Roll Call, the newspaper of Capitol Hill, where she designs pages and edits copy for the print edition as well as helps to refresh and maintain RollCall.com. Previously, Sara worked as a designer at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch in the news, features and sports departments. She graduated from the University of Missouri with degrees in news-editorial journalism and political science. Sara currently lives near Washington, D.C., and enjoys seeing the Capitol each day on her way to the office.

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Carrie Brown began working as an assistant professor of journalism at the University of Memphis in the fall of 2008, teaching media writing and mass communication theory. Her dissertation research involves an in-depth case study of a metropolitan daily newspaper's efforts to grapple with changes to its newsroom structure, culture, and daily routines. Brown received her MA in communication from the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania. Brown has worked as a daily newspaper reporter and editor, and also managed a training program for the Committee of Concerned Journalists for three years.

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Kelly Davenport is a former copy editor and current graduate student, pursuing a Master of Fine Arts in fiction at the University of Idaho. She worked for five years at The News Tribune in Tacoma, Wash., where she also designed pages, blogged and slotted copy. While in Tacoma, she and four other copy editors were recognized as the best headline writers in the country in 2005 by the American Copy Editors Society. Previously, she worked as an editing intern at The Plain Dealer in Cleveland. At the University of Idaho, she teaches three sections of freshman composition. Her work was nominated in 2009 for the Associated Writing Program's Intro Journals Project in fiction. She is a graduate of the University of Missouri-Columbia School of Journalism.

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Rachel George has been covering high school sports for the StarNews in Wilmington, N.C. since she graduated from St. Bonaventure University in 2006. In her time with the StarNews, she has seen the newspaper industry change. She has learned how to edit audio and video as well as learning HTML code to maintain 41 Web pages. She also hosts a successful video show and has the StarNews' top-read blog. In addition to covering games and writing features, she has produced several award-winning investigative and enterprise projects.

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Marie Hardin, associate professor of journalism at Penn State University, is associate director of its John Curley Center for Sports Journalism. She teaches journalism and classes that focus on sports and society at the undergraduate and graduate levels. Her research concentrates on diversity, ethics and professional practices in mediated sports. Her work has been published in Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, Sociology of Sport Journal, Journal of Sports Management, among others. Recent research has focused on social attitudes and values of sports journalists and bloggers and on the experiences and career paths of women in sports journalism. Hardin received her Ph.D. in 1998 from the University of Georgia. Before completing her Ph.D., she worked as a newspaper reporter and editor; she has also worked as a freelance magazine writer.

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Reni Winter is a laid-off journalist, a casualty of the Gannett Corp.'s 10 percent staff reduction in December 2009. Her position as night editor at the Journal & Courier was eliminated, and at that moment her 25-year journalism career ended. During her career she amassed numerous awards for news and feature writing as well as diversity and community involvement. She has been a staff writer/columnist and editor for the New Orleans Times-Picayune, Picayune Item and Biloxi Sun-Herald in Mississippi and most recently the Journal & Courier in Lafayette, Indiana. Winter is now working as a bilingual marketing & sales assistant at a trucking insurance company. She continues to write, and is collaborating on a children's book. She also is the owner/grower of Winterhaven Wildflowers, a native plant and butterfly preserve in Central Indiana and is very active in the restoration of the northern habitat of the monarch butterfly.

Meet the Moderator & Author

Female Journalists More Likely To Leave Newspapers

Scott Reinardy, Ph.D., is an assistant professor in the William Allen White School of Journalism and Mass Communications at the University of Kansas. He was a reporter and editor for 18 years at five different daily newspapers.

Reinardy earned his doctorate from the University of Missouri, and was a city editor at MU's laboratory newspaper, The Columbia Missourian.

Reinardy's primary research interests include the examination of stress and burnout of journalists, organizational change in newspaper newsrooms, newsroom layoff survivors, ethical development of journalists, sports journalism, and experiential education of young journalists. His research has appeared in Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, Newspaper Research Journal, Journalism & Mass Communication Educator, Atlantic Journal of Communication, The Journal of Law & Education, Journal of Sports Media, among others. Reinardy's work has been presented at several national and international conferences, including the Society of Professional Journalists, Associated Press Sports Editors, the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, International Communication Association, American Journalism Historians Association, and Broadcast Education Association.

Reinardy joined the KU faculty in August 2008. Prior to KU he taught at Ball State University for three years.

He is also the co-author of "The Essentials of Sports Reporting and Writing," Routledge, 2009.