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NEWS about the journalism program

Meet the 2008 student award winners

This year we added the Natalie Salatich Jacobson Journalism Scholarship to our roster of student awards. Thanks to Natalie (UNH '65) and WCVB-TV in Boston, from which she retired last year, we presented the first "Nat" award to John Ferguson '09 at a ceremony in May.

For more on John and the other '08 award winners -- Abbie Crocker '08, Mike Farrell '09, Amanda Flitter '10 -- see the student awards page.

Jane Harrigan says goodbye

Holy exclamation point! It's a journalist writing in first person! Spring 2008 was my last semester teaching at UNH after, somehow, 23 years. The UNH journalism program has changed my life in a thousand ways I never could have imagined when I crept terrified into Ham Smith in 1985. Journalism is infinitely challenging, of course, but the real reason I've loved this place is the people.

Colleagues, professionals who've worked with our interns, and, most of all, my zillion former students -- it's you who've made this a job worth caring about, worth losing sleep over. I will forever be proud of what all of you have accomplished and will keep accomplishing. From now on I'll be freelancing (writing, editing, coaching, whatever) and, once Dave retires in January, aiming to have more FUN. But you know I'm the E-Mail Queen, so please keep in touch. You can find me in Atkinson, N.H., or at jane.harrigan@yahoo.com. Please contribute your memories to my virtual scrapbook: janeharrigan.ning.com

UNH journalists in the news

The week of March 24, the A&E television network aired a documentary on heroin addiction that centered on stories done by Steve Damish ’83 at The Enterprise in Brockton, Mass. The show included an interview with Steve, recently named New England Daily Journalist of the Year for his series on addiction, Wasted Youth, which has also won numerous other regional and national awards.

Todd Balf '83, author of a new book on black cycling champion Marshall "Major" Taylor, wrote an op-ed piece questioning public attitudes toward track star Marion Jones after she confessed to taking banned substances. The column ran in the Los Angeles Times and numerous other newspapers in late February.

Helen Hocknell ’08, this year’s editor in chief of The New Hampshire, was interviewed on National Public Radio in January for a segment on college students’ responses to the presidential campaign.

And in the strangest news item of the year (so far), freelance writer Paul Tolme '89 discovered that part of a 2005 magazine article he wrote about black-footed ferrets had been lifted and used as dialogue in . . . get ready . . . a steamy romance novel. Paul examined this "hot plagiarism scandal" for newsweek.com, was interviewed on NPR’s "Talk of the Nation," and even made an appearance on NPR’s "Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me,” during which the contestant (understandably) did not choose the ferret-plagiarism item as the actual news story amid the fakes.

Our 2008 visiting journalist: Natalie Jacobson

One of UNH's most visible alums, Natalie Jacobson '65, spent the week of March 24 on campus as the Donald Murray Visiting Journalist . Natalie retired last year from WCVB-TV, Channel 5 in Boston, where she had worked since the station went on the air in 1972. As the first female evening news anchor in Boston, she covered nearly every major event in recent New England history.

During a week in which the journalism faculty and 175 majors did their best to deplete her impressive energy, Natalie repeatedly reminded students of journalism's crucial role in democracy and urged them to uphold high standards even when others do not. "I would suggest," she told the students, "that you begin by choosing one thing that needs fixing, and fix it."

More on Natalie Jacobson's career.
Her farewell speech.
UNH students to benefit from Jacobson scholarship.

Journalism alumni win awards ...

Annmarie Timmins '90 is the first recipient of the Donald M. Murray Outstanding Journalism Award presented by the New Hampshire Writers Project. (More on Don, founder of the UNH journalism program.) Annmarie has worked at her hometown paper, the Concord Monitor, since 1992. She covers crime and courts and led the paper's reporting on the Catholic Church clergy abuse cases. She has taught several journalism courses at UNH and previously was named New England Community Reporter of the Year and New Hampshire Writer of the Year.

... and more awards

Pulitzer winner Barbara Walsh ’81 has added to her many honors with the prestigious Yankee Quill Award for contributions to New England journalism. Barbara, winner of the Pulitzer Prize, left the Portland Press Herald in 2006 to freelance. Last spring she returned to campus as the Donald Murray Visiting Journalist for 2007. Last summer the U.S. government sent her to Brazil to speak in four cities about covering violence, crime and public security issues. Story posted by the U.S. consulate.

Three other alums took first-place awards in the New England Associated Press News Executive Association contest. Meanwhile, the New Hampshire Press Association named Melanie Asmar '04 of the Concord Monitor as Writer of the Year, and Chris Outcalt '06 of the Portsmouth Herald as Rookie of the Year.