By DANIELLE HESTER
The UNITY News

Beth Daley has worked at The Boston Globe for 14 years.

But just recently, her workload has doubled, maybe even tripled.

The 41-year-old environmental reporter says newsroom buyouts have shrunk her staff. She has weathered the cuts over the years, but that doesn’t mean that she and others still at the Globe haven’t been affected by staffing changes.

“High layoffs and turnover rates are definitely making us work harder,” said Daley.

The impact of turnover and layoffs has hit many working journalists hard. Some feel overwhelmed by increased workloads and having to juggle multiple things at once.

Daley is one of two reporters for the Globe’s science section. Although her section is holding steady, the heavy layoffs of metro staff have resulted in extra coverage for Daley.
On top of covering her sections, she now has to post daily blogs and produce multimedia projects.

“You don’t have the time to spend six to eight weeks on a story anymore. It is really hard to do in-depth stories now,” Daley said.

There is a sense of anxiety when talking to working journalists. They know the industry is changing, sections need to be filled and little revenue is coming in.

In addition to being concerned about the job changes and increased workload, journalists also work under uncertainties: they may have friends being laid off or know people who are taking buyouts. Some worry that they could be next.

The worry, fear and desperation can lead to increased stress. But change and limited jobs are not what keeps some in journalism.

Many say it’s the craft. They love to write, they love to tell stories, and they love to be the voice of the people.

“What I do is important,” said Kathy Pellegrino, recruitment editor of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. “If I can have a helping hand in keeping the industry vivid and relative to today’s changes then I am happy with that.”

Mark Miller, assistant managing editor for Newsweek, said that although journalists are anxious, they should have an open mind to change.

Miller said he tries not to overload his reporters. He talked about how editors are being affected too. In some cases, assistant editors may be writing, editing and creating copy for the Web.

“We would like to pay people more, but it’s the business.”

At UNITY: ’08 veterans and aspiring journalists lined up looking for employment, knowing how the conditions of the industry and the impact of turnover for those already employed.

Many remain optimistic.

Cristina Azocar, president of the Native American Journalists Association, says that just because the industry is changing, doesn’t mean that journalists can’t do their jobs effectively.

“We don’t have to stay in the system,” she said. “We need to create our own system; think of it as an opportunity.”

By EUNICE LEE and APRIL YEE
The UNITY News

A man protesting Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade’s speech to the UNITY convention was punched by a supporter. He was then removed from a McCormick Center ballroom as journalists looked on.

Soon after Wade began speaking, the man, Souleymane Jules Diop, a Senegalese journalist currently living in asylum in Canada, stood and shouted that “You’re not speaking for my people.” Suddenly, another man wearing a “WADE IN 2012” cap approached Diop and swung his fist into Diop’s right shoulder.

UNITY members stood and stared. They took notes and shot photos as Wade’s supporters blew whistles and waved banners. Some chanted “We love you” as they marched down the ballroom’s central aisle toward the stage.

Chicago police officers arrested Diop for trespassing and took him to the police station. Meanwhile, Wade calmly stood at the lectern throughout the scuffle as NABJ President Barbara Ciara asked supporters to quiet themselves and sit down.

The speech came two days after Wade’s arrival sparked protests from Senegalese residents and patriots on two continents. He was coming to speak about climate issues and increasing food production. But he was questioned everywhere about the treatment of journalists in his country.

Dozens of Senegalese came to Chicago and attended the speech wearing T-shirts and signs that The UNITY News learned were paid for by Wade’s political party, the Senegalese Democratic Party (PDS), according to Wade’s niece, Thialal Sabara. Wade’s party also paid for plane fares, a chartered bus and hotel rooms.

Wade has been called a leading advocate for democracy in African nations and has been embraced by the international community. He attended the G8 summit, an international gathering of world leaders, in Japan earlier this month.

And, NABJ members, who had visited Senegal last year, invited him to UNITY. NABJ defended their invitation vigorously.

“Why did we invite President Bush? “ NABJ President Barbara Ciara. “Why did we invite (former Secretary of State) Colin Powell? Why did we invite (former National Security Adviser) Condoleezza Rice? Why do we invite any world leader?

“We asked him to come to us because of free and open dialogue,” she said.

Wade arrived Wednesday and immediately was hit with questions about his treatment of the press.

Two journalists covering a soccer match in June were beaten by Senegalese police after they went onto the field to question players. Wade said that the journalists were attacking the players, a charge the protesters denied.

The beatings also led to the formation of the Committee to Protect and Defend Journalists. And on Monday, most newspapers, radio stations and TV stations staged a press blackout to protest the beatings and Wade’s failure to publicly condemn them.

Friday, hours before Wade’s speech, more than 70 protestors and supporters clashed outside the convention center. Supporters waved flags as a man in a suit chanted into a megaphone: “Abdoulaye Wade is the best president in the world.” They held signs with messages such as “YOUTH FOR WADE” and “WE WANT MORE YEARS WITH WADE”

Wade’s niece, Thialal Sabara, who has lived in the U.S. for 17 years, was among those in the crowd. Wearing the flowing sky blue and yellow colors of Wade’s party, Sabara came out in anticipation of her uncle’s critics.

“The opposition was going to be here to say bad things about the president,” she said. “We don’t like that.”

Sokhna Ndaiye, the general secretary of the Mouvement des femmes liberales, a New York satellite of Wade’s party, said: “He is the best president we have ever had since our independence.

“We sacrifice ourselves because we know if he stays for 20 years, we’ll be a big country like U.S.”

Protesters picketed and chanted.

“He’s just like Cato (a 2nd century BC Roman leader),” said Ousmane Diallo, a Senegalese-American from Iowa City, Iowa. “He’s a tyrant.”

When a Wade supporter shoved a protester, police blocked off the street and made the protestors move to the corner of East Cermak Road and Martin Luther King Drive. Police moved supporters away from the convention center across the street.

Despite the controversy, the ballroom when Wade entered to speak was less than half full.

As expected Wade opened his speech about The Great Green Wall, his plan to plant trees across 7,000 kilometers to stop the Sahara from growing south and taking up farmable land.

But even as he spoke about ways to save his country, protesters pounded the ballroom doors, shouting that Wade was a “tyrant” and a “dictator.”

Later on Friday, NABJ hosted a fund-raising dinner for Wade that was paid for by the Senegalese government, Ciara said. Later Friday, Wade was scheduled to fly to Washington, D.C., to meet with White House and State Department officials about his agricultural plan. His 100-person entourage, including journalists exclusively from state-owned media organizations, was to accompany him.

UNITY staff writers Andres Caballero and Wesley Lowery also contributed to this report.

By KYLA SMITH
The UNITY News

Surrounded by recruiters, students and notepads, Sharon Rosenhause began saying goodbye to her colleagues Friday.

At the end of next week, the managing editor at the South Florida Sun-Sentinel will retire after serving more than 20 years in the newspaper business, as a mentor and a long-standing voice for journalists of color.

Rosenhause, who joined the Sun-Sentinel in March 2001, pushed to diversify newsrooms and news coverage with a stern but compassionate demeanor, friends and colleagues said.

She served as the chairwoman of the American Society of Newspaper Editors Diversity Committee, and was a member of the advisory board of the Race and Diversity Workshop at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism, according to the ASNE Web site.

Rosenhause hosted a Diversity Leadership Institute, according to ASNE, and found funding for a Florida Society of Newspaper Editors multimedia scholarship for diverse college students.

In 2006, she was awarded the Robert G. McGruder Diversity Leadership Award.

Friends praised Rosenhause for her hard work and described her as a light-hearted person who loves pink flamingoes, tennis, HBO’s “The Wire” and is determined to master her newly purchased Mac computer.

Rosenhause was too busy saying goodbye to talk about her impending retirement, but friends, colleagues and protégés were eager to share their thoughts on her guidance and influence:

“She is one of the strongest forces in the newsroom. She has a great mind for judgment and knows a good story. Everyone respects her and she is a motivator. She will be missed dearly.”
Bowdeya Tweh
Intern, Sun-Sentinel

“When I first came in five years ago, Sharon seemed intimidating and scary, but deep down she is a teddy bear. When I heard the news, I teared up. I can’t imagine the newsroom without her.”
Belinda Long Ivey
Graphic Artist, South Florida Sun-Sentinel

“When I had rough days working eight hours in the newsroom and eight hours on a reserve base, Sharon told me that I couldn’t work like this anymore. That showed me what type of editor she was, and that she cared about people.”
C. Ron Allen
Staff Writer, South Florida Sun-Sentinel

“She was a woman of very few words but they were intense words that were well chosen. Her retirement represents a real loss in a time of massive layoffs. Not only did she inspire me in the newsroom she inspired me to get back out on the court after not playing tennis for over 30 years.”
Michele A. Salcedo
Race and Demographics Editor, South Florida Sun-Sentinel

By Arelis Hernandez
The UNITY News Online

At a time when the U.S. government reneged on promises of equal rights to Hispanics in the West, one young Californio named Francisco Ramirez advocated for his community with ink and paper.

In 1855, 17-year-old Ramirez founded El Clamor Público, a Spanish-language newspaper in California that sought to incite, instruct and inform his Mexican community.

“He’s a representative of journalism at it’s best,” said Felix Gutierrez, a journalism professor at the University of Southern California. “He’s a great role model for all of us.”

Though he died 100 years ago, Ramirez’s vision for an inclusive news media persists with his induction into the National Association of Hispanic Journalist’s Hall of Fame alongside NAHJ co-founders Juan Gonzalez, a columnist for the New York Daily News, and Maggie Rivas-Rodriguez, an associate professor at the University of Texas at Austin.

“They’ve all contributed in different ways as strong activists for our community,” said Ivan Roman, NAHJ executive director.

Gonzalez has campaigned for equality since he was a student, co-founding the New York chapter of the Young Lords organization, a Puerto Rican nationalist group. The Young Lords broadcasted their message of discontent through the pages of the “Pa’lante,” newspaper — one of his Gonzalez’s first experiences with journalism.

Through alternative media, Gonzalez worked his way up to becoming an investigative reporter and columnist at the New York Daily News. In 2002, he was elected NAHJ president, where he spearheaded a number of programs to increase diversity in the newsroom.

Longtime friend and colleague Felix Gutierrez said Gonzalez was always on the “leading edge of raising issues.”

When newsrooms failed to acknowledge the importance of diversity, Gonzalez made them listen, Gutierrez said.

NAHJ board member Kevin Olivas recalled his first year at NAHJ under Gonzalez’s leadership.

“He brought all these ideas and energy including the Parity Project,” Olivas said, who now directs the program that increases the number of Latinos in the media. “He is one of the most creative people I’ve ever met. He is always solving problems.”

Gonzalez, along with William Sutton, former president of the National Association of Black Journalists, met together in 1988 hoping to bring together four media organizations of color. That initiative was later known as UNITY, Gutierrez said.

“All of this [UNITY convention] was their brainchild,” Gutierrez said.

In 2007, Gonzalez won a Pulitzer Prize for his work in exposing the health effects arising from Ground Zero’s air hazards. The admiration he has gained over the last 30 years has made him a name to know among elected officials and community leaders.

“It’s hard to think of another person that commands such immediate respect from so many people,” Olivas said.

Advocacy through journalism is not foreign to Rivas-Rodriguez. When she was working as a young reporter in the 1970s, Rivas-Rodriguez said she was often frustrated because she could only write about the change she wanted to see.

The news media were ignoring Latinos, and negative perceptions about her community abounded, but she had no way to correct it, she said.

“When I’d see something wrong, I would write about it,” Rivas-Rodriguez said. “But nothing changed.”

When NAHJ formed in 1982, Rivas-Rodriguez said she found a venue to channel her frustration and become a participant rather than an observer. Her work translated into the formation of a convention newspaper, The Latino Reporter, that was staffed by college students and guided by professionals.

Rivas-Rodriguez’s idea developed and became the model for the student projects that have evolved in each of UNITY’s associations. She said the project has come a long way from cutting and pasting pages and carrying plates to the printer.

“I’m really proud that we helped create something,” she said. “It has been refined every time. It’s amazing.”

As a professor, Rivas-Rodriguez concentrates on adding Latino history to the academic canon. She said history books, documentaries and journals have consistently omitted the stories of Latinos and their contributions. Recently, Rivas-Rodriguez led a campaign challenging the legitimacy of Ken Burn’s World War II documentary that did not feature Latino veterans.

“It’s not that we weren’t there, it’s that we were not read or written about,” she said. “There needs to be more outreach to the Latino community.”

Rivas-Rodriguez now leads a project to document the oral stories of Latino World War II veterans to augment an archive of Latino history that will be available for future generations.

“Maggie is somebody who through education and advocacy really carries the torch for the inclusion of Latinos in news coverage and media,” Roman said. “She advocates for fairness and educates young people in advocacy.”

By SIERRA JIMINEZ
The UNITY News

I have never been the type to get sick.

In fact, taking a sick day off from high school was never easy. But there I was, lying in a hospital bed, hooked up to a heart monitor, about to miss most of the second semester of my junior year.

What I thought was going to be a routine doctor visit turned into a four-night stay in the hospital, a relapse, and 10 weeks in a day treatment unit.

I am one of the 70 million people in the world who suffers from an eating disorder.

I am 19 years old and anorexic. Restriction is my drug of choice. I use starvation as a coping mechanism.

Although I am stable and I no longer starve myself, anorexia will always be a part of me. That’s why I say, “I am anorexic.” For the rest of my life, I will have that little voice in my head telling me that a grape has three calories, or that by jumping up and down 48 times, I can burn 13 calories.

My eating disorder, or Ed as I like to call him, will always be there.

No, I’m not crazy. I realize Ed is not a real person. But to me, Ed is like that little devil you see on cartoons who sits on your shoulder, tempting you to make the wrong decisions.

I can remember the day I began restricting. Family problems, mixed with the stress of college prep courses, left me feeling insecure. I decided I would limit my eating. No sweets, no high-fat products, and above all, I wouldn’t eat more than 900 calories a day. Over time, that calorie limit dwindled to 600. I became obsessed with nutrition labels. After each meal, I would plan what I was going to have the next time I ate. Food consumed my life.

After two years of inpatient and outpatient treatment, I have learned how to tell Ed no.
A common misconception about people with eating disorders is that they choose to starve themselves out of vanity. Not me. My eating disorder is about control.

At times when I feel that everything in my life is going downhill or that I am a disappointment to someone, I struggle to find something I can control, and my eating disorder comes into play.

Don’t get me wrong, there was a part of me that was afraid of getting fat.

But that was not the reason my eating disorder started.

I don’t regret having anorexia, I embrace it. The fact that I have managed to overcome a disease that kills 20 percent of the people it consumes shows me that I am strong.

I can’t change my past, I can’t change my DNA, I can’t change my family and I can’t change how other people look at me. But the only thing that matters is that I can change myself. Maybe not my physical appearance, but I am in control of who I am.

For more information about eating disorders, including symptoms and ways to get help, visit www.nationaleatingdisorders.org.