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House correspondent, Congressional
correspondent, and political editor. In
addition to CNBC, he will continue to
appear on MSNBC, NBC’s “Meet the
Press,” and PBS’s “Washington Week in
Review,” among other programs.
Paolo Valentino, after what he
describes as “a long and freezing road
via Moscow and Berlin,” finally moved
in September to Washington D.C.,
where he is the U.S. bureau chief for
Corriere della Sera. His wife, Albina,
and their three boys, Ivan (13), Giorgio
(11) and Tancredi (5), are with him.
He adds that they “have a large guest
room,” too, for any friends who might
be passing through.
—1991—
Tim Giago has been inducted into
the South Dakota Newspaper Hall of
Fame. Giago, founding publisher and
editor of Indian Country Today, is the
first Native American to receive this
honor. Giago and three other longtime
journalists from South Dakota
were inducted into the hall of fame
at a luncheon at the Performing Arts
Center at South Dakota State University
in November. Newspaper editors and
publishers choose the nominees.
Giago, a member of the Oglala Lakota
Tribe, founded the Lakota Times in
1981 on the Pine Ridge Reservation. In
an announcement by David Bordewyk
of the South Dakota Newspaper Association,
he notes that “Giago and his
newspaper withstood firebombs, office
windows shot out, and multiple death
threats.” In 1992, the newspaper was
renamed Indian Country Today. Giago,
who was editor and publisher of the
paper for 18 years, built it into the
largest independent Indian newspaper
before selling it in 1998. In 2000, he
founded the Lakota Journal, where he
worked as editor and publisher until he
retired in 2004. He still writes a weekly
column, “Notes from Indian Country,
which appears in newspapers and Web
sites across the country.
—1992—
##
Narrative Journalism in a Multimedia World
Raymundo Riva-Palacio is now
executive editor at El Universal, the
largest newspaper in Mexico. He had
been writing a column for the paper
and editing the tabloid El Grafico,
published by the same company.
The 2008 Nieman Conference
on Narrative Journalism continues
its tradition of exploring
the dimensions of literary work:
how great journalists forage for
rich material, structure fluent
accounts, and flesh out stories
with real-life characters. But this
year we will also focus on how
literary techniques can be best
applied to sounds and images
as well as words—and on how
storytelling can be reinterpreted
for multimedia.
Our goal remains to nurture
the best of narrative journalism
even as the forms it takes change
before our eyes and ears. So this
year, major figures in print journalism,
film, broadcasting and
books will be joined by bloggers,
podcasters and producers of extraordinary
multimedia. The best
narrative journalists will offer
trade secrets, and skills-building
workshops will focus not just on
the craft of writing and the art of
editing but also on multimedia
storyboarding and how to create
podcasts worthy of the best
audiences.
This conference takes the
successful legacy of previous
conferences and builds on it to
provide a way for narrative journalists
to embrace the challenges
and promises of new media. No
matter how technology takes us
in new directions, the desire for
human stories told humanely will
never disappear. Ultimately, of
course, the conference celebrates
the urge to tell stories. —Constance
Hale, Program Director,
Nieman Program on Narrative
Journalism
The 2008 Nieman Conference on
Narrative Journalism will be held
on March 14-16 in Boston, Massachusetts.
For information, visit
the conference Web site at www.
nieman.harvard.edu/events/conferences/narrative2008/index.
html.
—1994—
Lorie Conway brings us up to date
on “Forgotten Ellis Island,” the nineyear-in-the-making
film/book project
produced by her company, Boston Film
and Video Productions:
• The “Forgotten Ellis Island” companion
book was published October
9th by Smithsonian Books Harper
Collins.
• The “Forgotten Ellis Island” documentary
film, narrated by Elliott
Gould, premiered at Ellis Island’s
Great Hall on October 22nd.
• An abbreviated version of the film
will be shown daily at the Ellis Island
Museum.
• Screenings and book signings have
also taken place at the Tenement
Museum and the MFA/Boston. More
are being scheduled at the Boston
Public Library, the Museum of the
City of New York, the New York
Public Library, and others.
• Distribution for the film is underway
with either PBS, HBO, or another
major cable network, in addition to
film festivals and a nationwide the-
100 Nieman Reports / Winter 2007