Multimedia journalism educators bootcamp

Borderzine’s annual program, the Dow Jones News Fund Multimedia Training Academy has trained more than 60 media and journalism instructors from Hispanic-serving colleges and universities throughout the United States. Through this program we have created partnerships with University of Texas Pan American, University of Texas at San Antonio, Columbia College in Chicago, California State University Northridge, Imperial Valley College, Fullerton College, University of Central Florida, Florida International University, East Tennessee State University, and Universidad Autónoma de Ciudad Juarez among others. 

Shakespeare gets border style in bilingual Romeo and Julieta performances in El Paso

Courtesy KCOS El Paso

KCOS, El Paso’s PBS station, and Shakespeare on the Rocks, El Paso’s premier classical theater company, are partnering this winter to present Romeo and Julieta, a bilingual adaptation of Shakespeare’s famous play. Set in 19th century Mexico, in this version of Romeo and Julieta, the Montagues speak English, the Capulets speak Spanish, and together English is spoken.  The aim is to contextualize Shakespeare into a more local and familiar setting. Romeo and Julieta will be presented in four different venues throughout our border community between January 22nd and February 1st. Venues include UTEP, La Fe Cultural and Technology Center, the Philanthropy Theater and even a performance at UACJ in Juarez.  All performances are free and open to the public.

5 underreported stories of 2014

By Wesley Juhl – SHFWIRE.com
WASHINGTON – While important stories about the Ebola crisis, Islamic state group and nationwide protests dominated headlines this year, the news media neglected other important stories. Several prominent journalists met at the Woodrow Wilson Center in December to discuss the most underreported stories of 2014. No one at the event would admit to missing an event outright – one journalist said that would be tantamount to admitting to malpractice – but they shared news they said should have gotten more widespread attention. 1. Loose nukes in Pakistan
Pakistan has at least six nuclear sites and could have as many as 200 nuclear devices by 2020.

Two young girls dressed up to celebrate the Fourth of July take in the scenic view of El Paso, Texas, and Juarez, Mexico, from Tom Lea Park on Rim Road. Photo credit: Kate Gannon

Borderzine’s  top stories of 2014

Borderzine.com readers showed a wide range of interests in the most viewed stories of 2014. Not surprisingly, among our top-ranked stories and columns were issues of immigration and border policies ranging from a migrant humanitarian crisis and immigration reform to a call for deporting an ill-mannered Canadian pop-star. Also popular were stories about the economy, small businesses and sustainability efforts. Other top stories looked at drugs, corruption, abuse and human rights struggles. Still, many readers also found inspiration in family tradition and an exhibit of street art.

LGBT advocates push for broader nondiscrimination law

By Wesley Juhl – SHFWire.com
WASHINGTON – A new report by the Center for American Progress prompted renewed calls for legislation to protect the LGBT community from discrimination. Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., the lead sponsor of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act in the Senate, spoke Dec. 10 at the progressive think tank’s headquarters about the importance of such legislation. Sarah McBride, the lead author of the CAP report, said that progress made by the LGBT community in the last 10 years highlights the issues it still faces. “A lot of Americans think that LGBT discrimination is a relic of the past,” she said.

Our Lady of Guadalupe Street Art (Photo Gallery)

 

EL PASO – On December 12 Catholics the world over, especially in Latin America, celebrate the feast day of the Virgin of Guadalupe. In Mexico this is one of the most important holidays of the year. Our Lady of Guadalupe is the patron saint of Mexico. She is called La Reina de Mexico the Queen of Mexico and is quite a cultural icon. In 1999 Pope John Paul II proclaimed Our Lady of Guadalupe a patron saint of all the Americas. Photography students at UT El Paso compiled this gallery of images of Our Lady of Guadalupe seen on murals and signs throughout the city.  

Kerry Washington as Olivia Pope in Scandal. Photo courtesy ABC.

‘Scandal’ fashion hits the racks in El Paso

By Estefania Y. Seyffert

EL PASO – Fans of the hit ABC TV series “Scandal” have been delighted to find the fashion of their favorite character available in a local store. Scandal joined forces with The Limited Store’s head designer Elliot Staples, costume designer Lyn Paolo, and actress Kerri Washington, to create an affordable collection reflecting the style of Washington’s character, Olivia Pope. “People want to dress like Olivia Pope, they want to be Olivia Pope,” said Sarah Perez, sales lead manager at The Limited at Sunland Park Mall

Although most of the collection is made to resemble the type of clothing Olivia Pope would wear, some highlighted pieces such as a crème wool coat and a charcoal jacket are as seen on the show. Some pieces have tags that inform shoppers which articles of clothing have already been seen in the series

Fashion Merchandising student Claudia Garza at Texas State University in San Marcos explains how the extensive detail and neutral color palette gives the career clothes a more feminine feel. “Sometimes people think career clothes or professional attire would age somebody, however this collection brings about some modern twists,” Garza said.  

Condenan en El Paso la muerte de los estudiantes y la corrupción en México

Shine a Light for Mexico! “Ayotzinapa Sin Fronteras” from Jesus Genaro Limon on Vimeo. Por Sharon Murillo

EL PASO — El pasado 26 de Septiembre 46 estudiantes de la Escuela Normal Rural “Raul Isidro Burgos” en el estado de Guerrero, México, fueron víctimas de la violencia y corrupción de la policía y el grupo criminal Guerreros Unidos. Estudiantes normalistas habían viajado de Ayotzinapa, Guerrero a Iguala, para recolectar fondos y exigir mejores condiciones para su escuela. Sin embargo, esa noche se convertiría en una pesadilla para ellos y la sociedad mexicana.  Esa noche marcaría la historia de México como una de las mas grandes tragedias del país.

Fire, dance, fun fuel Odd Lab entertainment project

Odd Lab, a flow arts entertainment troupe, found a new level of expression while preparing for its performance at El Paso’s Chalk the Block festival in October. “This pushes us to a theatrical production standard that we’ve never had the incentive to really accomplish,” said Georgina Armendariz-Ramirez, director and coordinator of the group. Find out more about Odd Lab at their website here. Members of Odd Lab, who practice on Rim Road overlooking the city, spent up to 12 hours a day perfecting their skills and planning for the 7th annual Chalk the Block, which drew more than 30,000 people to Downtown El Paso October 10-12. The group unveiled a 20 minute Shadow Box Theatre show as well as a 40 minute fire show that were developed especially for the festival.

Celebra la Comisión Internacional de Límites y Aguas 125 años de razón y diálogo

Por Myriam Cruz

En este año de 2014, estamos de fiesta, celebramos el triunfo de la razón, el diálogo y la diplomacia, celebramos los 125 años del establecimiento de la Comisión Internacional de Límites y Aguas (CILA), con su Sección Mexicana y su Sección Estadounidense, una institución que nos marca el camino de lo que significa tratar con tus vecinos de manera pacífica, y que ha dejado una profunda huella en nuestra historia y seguirá siendo crucial en el desarrollo de esta bendita frontera. Una forma de trabajar única, porque las secciones de cada país siempre están consultando entre sí, -con todo lo que eso conlleva, lidiar con cultura, puntos de vista, lineamientos de los gobiernos, y por supuesto, personalidades; trabajando para el bien común de todos, mexicanos y estadounidenses, los que vivimos en las ciudades y los agricultores que esperan con gran anticipación las descargas del río para empezar una nueva cosecha y un nuevo sueño. “CILA es ejemplo de cooperación fronteriza en el mundo”, dijo Enrique Serrano, Presidente Municipal de Ciudad Juárez, en septiembre 2014. Como a veces pasa, la razón de su creación se desprende del Tratado de Guadalupe-Hidalgo, cuando México pierde más de la mitad de su territorio y hay que establecer una nueva Línea Divisoria Internacional, en los tiempos en que se hacían los deslindes y marcaciones a través del compás y observando las estrellas, viajando por meses y acampando en medio de la nada para establecer la nueva frontera. Sucesivas convenciones van estableciendo las delicadas funciones de la CILA, usando los instrumentos a la mano de acuerdo con la época, para dirimir desde los límites de cada país -las fotografías que ilustran la forma en que se medían los aforos de agua, en canastilla a mitad del rio en los 40’s, hasta las modernas estaciones telemétricas que se utilizan actualmente, que nos van llevando por los entramados de un largo camino para repartir de manera justa lo que nos corresponde a cada uno.

Dale un efectivo “like” a las elecciones – Los millennials no ejercen su derecho al voto

Por Elizabeth Giadans

Los de la generación del milenio [“millennials” en inglés] vivimos en un tiempo donde hablamos sobre la violencia como si fuera algo regular, común y corriente. Los temas del entretenimiento y deportes consumen nuestro tiempo. Pero cuando de política o economía se trata, nos quejamos pero no hacemos nada. Nuestra generación representará el 40 por ciento de los votos en los Estados Unidos en el 2020. Un estudio del Pew Research Center revela que somos la generación más liberal en el país.

For Hispanics, same-sex marriage another sign of generational culture shift

By Vanessa Hornedo, Hispanic Link News Service
WASHINGTON, D.C., Oct. 8 –The Supreme Court’s recent decision to not hear five states’ appeals that challenge same-sex marriage, coinciding with the majority of states now accepting the rapid social change, leaves the nation’s 54-million Hispanics trying to determine where their cultural heritage fits in. “Hispanics have been lagging a couple of steps behind and this will move our community to be more embracing,” Armando Vázquez-Ramos, professor of Chicano and Latino Studies at California State University, tells Hispanic Link News Service. “We have to go beyond the traditional teachings of the Catholic Church relative to same-sex marriage and gay and lesbian communities in Latino families because it’s not typically accepted.”
According to a 2013 Pew Research Center National Survey, 55 percent of Latinos identify as Catholic – a faith which denounces marriage between two people of the same gender. Bishop Richard Malone, who chairs the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Laity, Marriage, Family Life and Youth, and Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone, chairman of the USCCB’s Subcommittee for the Promotion and Defense of Marriage, responded in a joint statement released Oct.

New marijuana laws in U.S. violate international treaties

By  Kara Mason, SHFwire.com

WASHINGTON – Marijuana’s legalization in Colorado and Washington has put the U.S. in violation of multiple international treaties for the past two years. And with Oregon, Alaska and Washington, D.C., possibly following suit, it could be bad news for the U.S. on the international stage, says a new Brookings Institution report. The U.S. government has been a strong supporter of three treaties that outlaw marijuana until 2012, Wells Bennett, a fellow in national security law at the Brookings Institution Governance Studies program, said at a recent forum in Washington, D.C.

But the Obama administration has been relatively quiet about the federal and international laws the two states are breaking. The federal government has taken no action in Colorado or Washington regarding legalization. “It’s a problem because we’re straining the limits of an international drug control regime that most participants, including the United States, have long understood to be quite strict,” Bennett said in a blog post on the Brookings Institution website.

Ebola coverage too important to be a competition, editor tells journalists

After reports of an El Paso hospital closing its emergency room over a possible Ebola case burned like wildfire through social media Friday, Bob Moore, editor of the El Paso Times, posted the following cautionary note on his Facebook account:

“Something important to remember about reports of the closure of the Del Sol ER and any possible connection with Ebola:

Hospitals across the country have been dealing with concerns about possible Ebola cases. They react with an abundance of caution, as is appropriate. But in every case except those tied to the case in Dallas, tests have all turned up negative. We in the media should be informative but not alarmist.”

On Saturday the hospital released a statement saying its emergency room did not close. It explained that a patient’s symptoms and answers during a screening process triggered infectious disease protocols.

A dachshund races across the field at the St. Luke's Great Dachshund Stampede 2014, Oct. 4.

Hot dog! It’s the Great Dachshund Stampede

LA UNION, NM — Call them wiener dogs, hot dogs or dachshunds. The folks who turned out for the Great Dachshund Stampede 2014 at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church just call them a lot of fun. According to the Rev. Daniel Cave, more than 100 dachshunds from three states came out for the highlight of the church’s annual country fair on Oct. 4, 2014.

Gallery: The Street Photography of David Smith-Soto

Images from David Smith-Soto’s 60-years of street photography were taken during his travels as a journalist in Latin American, European and U.S. cities.  They include images from Oaxaca, Ciudad Juarez, Guatemala, Tangier, Paris and Madrid. Related Story: Street Photography exhibit, rare Beatles print to help journalism students

 

 

Street Photography exhibit, rare Beatles print Oct. 23 to help journalism students

Borderzine.com, a digital publication based at UT El Paso that focuses on achieving diversity in news media, announces an exhibit of photographs by  journalism professor David Smith-Soto at the Glass Gallery of the Fox Fine Arts Center on the UTEP campus, October 23 to 31. An opening reception of the exhibit at 5 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 23 will help celebrate the 6th anniversary of Borderzine, an award-winning web news portal and online community for Latino student journalists. Attendees will learn about the online publication’s future plans and programs, and have an opportunity to help send UTEP multimedia journalism students to news internships throughout the United States. A celebration of photojournalism

The 24 prints from Smith-Soto’s 60-years of street photography were taken during his travels as a journalist in Latin American, European and U.S. cities.  They include images from Oaxaca, Ciudad Juarez, Guatemala, Tangier, Paris and Madrid.

Videos capture a taste of autumn on the border

As the scorching heat of the summer gives way to afternoon rains and cooler temperatures in the low 80s, residents along the Texas, Mexico border begin to prepare for rituals of autumn.  Some of the staff of Borderzine for the fall 2014 semester practiced their multimedia skills by capturing signs of the season in our community. 1. Abuela’s Chicken Soup

This is the time of year when stock pots on stoves across the nation simmer with the comforting goodness of chicken soup. Here, reporter Marilyn Aleman presents a typical El Paso version prepared by her mother using big chunks of vegetables and corn still on the cob. The wine for the cook is optional.

Senate told policy changes needed to reverse economic inequality in U.S.

By Rocky Asusta – SHFWire.com

WASHINGTON – Skewed economic policies are a driving factor for economic inequality in the United States. That’s the opinion of witnesses at a hearing held by the Senate subcommittee on economic policy Sept. 17 chaired by Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore. Areas of significant difference in policy were taxes and deficits, trade and globalization, regulation of business and labor protection. “Every day thousands of lobbyists come onto the hill and seek to influence policy debates, usually in favor of the interests of more affluent citizens.

Message to news media: Embrace diversity if you want to survive and thrive

Editor’s note: This commentary is part of Borderzine’s continuing series about the growing urgency to transform newsrooms into diverse work places. By Hugo Balta

Diversity doesn’t happen easily. It is slow progressive change. The pundit who asks, “why don’t they just hire more _____,” fails to understand the fiscal constraints in which media companies operate under. Newsroom budgets continuously contract in the ever-changing new technology economy.

Borderzine names digital pioneer as web content manager

Borderzine, a digital media outlet dedicated to promoting diversity in media, has named multimedia editor and digital strategist Kate Gannon as digital content manager. Gannon has more than 25 years experience on the leading edge of change in newsrooms. She was news systems editor at the El Paso Times where she oversaw technology research and training for journalists and supervised the newsroom’s new media department for online, broadcasting and non-daily publications. In 2005, Gannon was named new media manager of content for the Fort Collins Coloradoan where she helped develop multimedia, data and other digital strategies to successfully grow Coloradoan Media Group into the leading news and information provider in Northern Colorado. She returned to El Paso in 2011 with her husband, El Paso Times Editor Robert Moore, and has been working as a digital content and social media consultant. “I believe Kate’s extensive experience as a journalist, new media manager and teacher make her an excellent fit for Borderzine,” said Borderzine Director Zita Arocha.

Border writer Charles Bowden remembered for his passion for the truth

By Dylan Smith – TusconSentinel.com

Reporter and author Charles Bowden — he eschewed the term “journalist” — is

dead. The longtime Southern Arizonan recently moved to New Mexico and focused

his work on the dangerous turmoil of Ciudad Juarez. Bowden was a dogged investigative reporter and brilliant storyteller with a passion

for the truth. A finalist for a 1984 Pulitzer Prize, he won numerous other awards and

the respect of reporters everywhere with his gritty yet painstaking work. “People felt that so much of his work dwelt in the dark side and was mired in

negativity.

Borderzine.com to offer immigration reporting classes at IRE San Francisco

Four experienced immigration journalists will provide a series of training workshops on mining and visualizing data for effective immigration storytelling at the Investigative Reporters and Editors conference in San Francisco Saturday, June 27. The four workshops will teach journalists how to mine immigration data and research for compelling immigration stories and provide hands-on instruction on using open source software to create visualizations for data driven immigration reporting. The workshops will be held at the Marriot Marquis in San Francisco and led by veteran immigration journalist Lise Olsen of the Houston Chronicle, AP reporter Martha Mendoza and data expert Claudia Nuñez of Los Angeles. Borderzine Director Zita Arocha will provide an introduction to multimedia storytelling about immigration and how to use U.S. Census data to report on diversity within local communities. The conference also features additional workshops on immigration, human rights and U.S. demographics by journalists Alfredo Corchado, author of “Midnight in Mexico,” Bob Ortega, Cindy Carcamo, Ana Arana, Bernice Yeung, Vanessa Hua, and others.

Poet Leslie Ullman to share her Progress on the Subject of Immensity in UTEP reading

EL PASO — In a casita lined with windows looking out over the high desert landscape of Taos, New Mexico, eyes filled with space and light, poet Leslie Ullman’s mind cleared. “I found myself sketching out poems that questioned the sovereignty of the mind, sometimes making fun of it, sometimes sympathizing with its limitations and treadmill existence, and often turning it into a character.”

These verses of clarity found themselves collected in Ullman’s latest book, Progress on the Subject of Immensity, probing inner and outer spaces, questioning conventional notions of “knowledge.”

Ullman is scheduled to read from her new book at UTEP’s Rubin Center Thursday, April 24 at 7 p.m.  She is professor emerita of creative writing at the University of Texas-El Paso (UTEP) and currently teaches at the Vermont College of Fine Arts. Ullman says that content with not finding answers, the poems instead linger, with calm alertness, in the realm of speculation. “This spirit of inquiry nudged subsequent poems into larger questions—an exploration of spaces inside us as well as outside us: the rhythms of seasons, the earth suspended in its matrix of space, the life of the body, the limitations of conventional Western religion, the nature of desire, and the pleasures—often the sensuous pleasures—of inquiry itself.”

As she wrote, she considered how “…in our youth we are naturally inclined to drive forward with all the powers of mind and body that we can muster—something that we continue to do as we build lives, families, and careers.” But she recognized that at some point, ambition—that willed effort—ceases to work. Ullman is the author of three poetry collections and her poems, reviews and craft essays have been published in a number of magazines and literary journals.

Dr. Allison Brownell Tirres, assistant professor at DePaul University College of Laws, addressed a crowd of students, local activists, concerned citizens and professionals as part of the University of Texas at El Paso Centennial Lecture series. (Héctor Bernal/Borderzine.com)

The past is prologue for U.S. comprehensive immigration reform

EL PASO  – Immigration policies from the past must be studied in order to reform them for the future was the premise of a lecture by Dr. Allison Brownell Tirres on the topic of deportation, a subject that is as crucial as it is complex for residents of the borderland. “I want to try and put these stories in an historical context and I also want to suggest how the past may help us rethink the future,” Tirres said. Tirres, an assistant professor at DePaul University College of Laws, addressed a crowd of students, local activists, concerned citizens, and professionals as part of the University of Texas at El Paso Centennial Lecture series. While guiding the audience through a century of immigration law, Tirres brought up many legal turning points including the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act along and the Magnuson Act also known as the Chinese Exclusion Repeal Act of 1943. Tirres demonstrated the relationship between those laws and the current severity of enforcement of U.S. immigration practices.

Borderzine seeks to redesign website

RFP: Request for proposal
Request for a web designer and developer to redesign the Borderzine website. Borderzine is a bilingual online magazine cultivating student journalists in multimedia reporting. The magazine is housed at the University of Texas at El Paso and it publishes stories about borders by student journalists and media professionals. The current Borderzine.com site has been around for several years now and our team believes it is time for the site to get a fresher look that reflects the changes in news media offerings and audiences’ needs, and exploits the Web’s new interactive tools. The work on the new design will include work on branding, look and feel, and functionality of the website according to specifications (see below).

Borderzine's city editor, Nicole Chávez, will receive the Student of the Year award from the National Association of Hispanic Journalists.

UTEP student journalist wins top NAHJ honor

UTEP Multimedia journalism major Nicole Chavez has won the student of the year award from the National Association of Hispanic Journalists. A resident of the U.S.-Mexico borderlands, she joins four other national journalists this weekend at a ceremony in Chicago to announce the annual NAHJ Journalist of the Year award winners. “It’s the perfect ending of a student journalist career and a great starting point for what I am about to become: a young professional,” said Chavez who was born in El Paso and raised in Ciudad Juarez. Chavez, who plans to graduate in December, is city editor this semester for UTEP’s online news site borderzine.flywheelsites.com and has completed internships at The Washington Post, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Brownsville Herald, and El Tiempo Latino, among others. She has been a reporter and editor for The Prospector and Minero Magazine at UTEP, and was one of the student reporters who worked on the award-winning Mexodus project that detailed the exodus to the U.S. and safer parts of Mexico of middle class Mexicans fleeing drug-related violence in their country.

The McCormick Specialized Reporting Institute will be heald in El Paso on September 26-29.

U.S. journalists selected for September immigration reporting workshop at UTEP

EL PASO – Borderzine.com has selected a diverse group of 17 online, print, broadcast and Spanish-media journalists to attend the McCormick Specialized Reporting Institute on Immigration on the UTEP campus September 26-29. Chosen from a diverse pool of 76 applicants from throughout the United States, those selected include freelance journalists and represent a good mix of geographic and ethnic diversity. Three UTEP student journalists will also receive scholarships to attend the workshop. During the three-day training the journalists will learn how to mine data and access other research to develop compelling and in-depth stories about immigration in their local communities. They will also learn about immigration policy and legislation from national experts, tour the border fence, learn how border journalists cover the issue and participate in a town hall meeting with local immigrant community leaders at Centro de Salud Familiar La Fe in the predominately immigrant Segundo Barrio community of El Paso.