CCNMA News Bites

La Pluma Award Winners Announced
Professional and student journalists from print and broadcast submitted their work for La Pluma Journalism Awards. Here is a list of winning journalists. Winners will be recognized at the 13th annual La Pluma Journalism Scholarship and Awards ceremony Friday, Sep. 26 at the San Diego Union-Tribune.

PRINT
Best News/Investigative Story
Zach Fox
The North County Times
“Families Say Real Estate Agent Led Them into Crisis”

Best News/Investigative Story
Edward Sifuentes
The North County Times
“Families Say Real Estate Agent Led Them into Crisis”

Best Feature Story
Leslie Berestein
The San Diego Union-Tribune
“An Instant That ‘Felt Like an Eternity’ ”


TELEVISION
Best Television Feature Reporting
Elias Awad
Univision 17
“Cicatrices De Guerra”

Best Investigative Reporting
Tania Luviano
Noticias Mi San Diego, NBC 7/39
“Threat to the Country or Excuse?”


STUDENT
Best News Story
Rebecca Niebla
Southwestern College Sun
“Better Angels Journey for Human Rights”

Best Sports Story
Gerardo Rocha
Southwestern College Sun
“Feats of Wonder Lift Jags”

Best Feature Story
Sheilah Naajiibah Dasher
Southwestern College Sun
“To Name Our Pain”

Best News Photo
Denisse Manzano
Southwestern College Sun
“Marcha Migrante”

Best Sports Photo
Victor Muniz
Southwestern College Sun
“Sworn to Defend”

Best Feature Photo
Mariana Ricalde
Southwestern College Sun
“Mariachi Erases Border.”


Southwest Airlines Flies Students to Unity '08
Southwest Airlines, in support of the San Diego Chapter of CCNMA-Latino Journalists of California and Southwestern Community College, provided air travel to eight junior college journalism students attending the Unity Journalism of Color Conference in Chicago July 23-26.

The airlines’ support means Southwestern Community College students struggling to further their education during these tough economic times did not need to worry about getting to the conference.

"It felt great to get those tickets," said Vanessa Nevarez, a 23-year-old sophomore at Southwestern Community College. "It felt like we were one step closer to get to this conference which we had been planning on for months."

Nevarez, editor-in-chief of the award-winning Southwestern College Sun, said she and seven other students were determined to attend Unity even if it meant they’d need to fundraise the money themselves. The conference, which is only hosted every four years, will provide networking opportunities as well as training sessions for students and professional journalists of color.

Despite the desire to go, Nevarez said help from sponsors such as Southwest Airlines, has made the trip possible. "We wouldn’t have been able to go without their help," she said.

"We were thrilled and grateful that our long-time sponsor, Southwest Airlines, secured air travel for these students," said Janine Zúñiga, President of CCNMA-San Diego. "Our student development program is a cornerstone of our mission."

CCNMA promotes diversity in the news media by providing encouragement, scholarships and educational programs to Latinos pursuing careers as professional journalists. CCNMA strives to foster an accurate and fair portrayal of Latinos in the news media. The San Diego Chapter funds and manages four core programs: Multi-Cultural Journalism Workshop for High School Students; Journalism Scholarship Program; Professional Development Program; Student Development Program. CCNMA is a 501 (C) (3) nonprofit organization.


High School Students Learn the Ropes
CCNMA--Latino Journalists of California organized another successful summer workshop for high school students in San Diego. Twenty young people from high schools throughout Southern California participated in the 26th Multicultural Journalism Workshop this summer at Point Loma Nazarene University. The 2008 workshop, which took place June 15 to June 26, was organized by CCNMA's San Diego and Inland chapters and sponsored by The San Diego Union-Tribune, The Press-Enterprise, NBC7/39, KPBS, Dow Jones Newspaper Fund, Radio and Television News Directors Foundation, Society of Professional Journalists' San Diego chapter. Workshop instructors and organizers included San Diego chapter leaders Janine Zuniga, Hiram Soto, Jose Luis Jimenez, Leslie Berestein, Angelica Martinez, Eva Melendez, Leo Laurence and Leonel Sanchez and Inland chapter leaders Jose Arballo, Claudia Bustamante, Karin Marriott. For two weeks, the 20 students selected for the free, two-week residential program worked alongside professional journalists. Twelve worked out of a library that was converted into a newsroom at Point Loma, six were based at NBC7/39 in San Diego and two at KPBS Radio News at San Diego State University. In all they produced a 16-page newspaper, the Lighthouse, a 30-minute television newscast, Currents, and a 10-minute radio news program, Vox Pop: the Voice of the People. "The object of the workshop is simple. Getting there is not so easy," print student Ethan Bailey wrote in the summary story about the workshop that appeared in the Lighthouse. "The students have to write at least two stories, conduct interviews and learn about the crazy business called journalism." The stories produced reflected the news cycle of the day, the summer or just simply our times. The Lighthouse for example covered the historic first day of same-sex matrimonies in California, rising gas prices, the new cell phone ban for driving, the opening of the new museum for immigrants in San Diego. Multimedia training was also incorporated into their training this year and blogging became routine. Their work was showcased at a final reception attended by instructors, the students and their families at the San Diego Union-Tribune in Mission Valley. Scholarships were awarded to three print students and one broadcast student for their outstanding work.

CCNMA changes name for changing times
At its 35th Anniversary Gala & 27th Scholarship Banquet in Los Angeles on June 1, 2007, the California Chicano News Media Association announced that it is changing its name to CCNMA: Latino Journalists of California. The organization was created in 1972 by a handful of Latino male journalists who originally called the group the California Chicano Newsmen’s Association, identifying as Chicanos as a reflection of the Chicano civil rights movement occurring at the time. But after realizing that there were Latino women working in journalism, the name of the organization was changed to the California Chicano Newsmedia Association. In later years “Newsmedia” was separated into two words to create the acronym CCNMA. In the early years, most Latinos working in journalism in Los Angeles were of Mexican heritage and identified as Chicanos. But over the past 35 years, as the organization spread south to San Diego and north to Sacramento, Latinos from other regions, particularly from Central America, began practicing journalism, in English and Spanish, throughout California. “Non-Chicanos have always been part of the membership and the leadership of CCNMA, but we recognized that some Latinos were not comfortable associating with an organization that so prominently identified with the term Chicano,” said Julio Moran, executive director of CCNMA. Moran said the acronym was kept as part of the name out of respect for history and the original members who founded the organization, with the new tag line reflecting the current identification preference by Latino journalists working in California.

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