Photographs are an important part of storytelling and can often tell a story on their own. After a brief workshop hiatus, our first Sacramento Press workshop for 2012 will be on photojournalism. (The Journalism Open workshop wasn't a typical workshop for us.) John Hernandez will teach an introductory photojournalism workshop from 6:30 - 8 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 21 at the Sacramento Press office called "Introduction to Photojournalism." Hernandez is a Sacramento-based photographer. He has professional experience in wedding, portrait and social documentary photography as well as various multimedia platforms, including audio slideshows. He has freelanced for ABS-CBN, a Filipino American news ch

We are currently seeking highly motivated reporter interns to cover local stories in our community. Your Role: As an intern at the Sacramento Press, you will be a huge part of our day-to-day success. Function as a writer and cover local beats. Explore a variety of story types – profiles, sports and event coverage, reviews, press conferences and more. Meet story deadlines and generate story ideas. Be a resource for our other writers, encourage and recruit. Form and cultivate relationships with local businesses, clubs, and resource providers (PIOs, librarians, ombudsmen, historians). You will be armed with the resources (digital cameras, voice recorders, professional photographers) to do on

The Sacramento Press is seeking a dynamic editor-in-chief to oversee the day-to-day operations of the newsroom. This position will play a key role in expanding the presence and reach of The Sacramento Press into the surrounding media market. We’re looking for someone who is ambitious, confident in their ability to learn quickly, and focused on creating compelling content for the local communities. Excellent writing and reporting skills and good editorial judgment are essential. The ideal candidate will bring lots of ideas for new ways to present stories online, through text, photos, or videos. Experience in using a content management system is a plus, as is experience in podcasts, editi

  Access Sacramento is excited to kick off PCS 2012, our thirteenth year, on this Thursday February 2nd at the wonderful Crocker Art Museum. If you would like an opportunity to see all 10 films on the big screen in the museum's theatre, now's your chance. It's a one night only event and rare chance to see all the films from 2011 together again. We hope to see you there!     The Crocker Art is pleased to present an encore screening of the 2011 "Place Called Sacramento" film festival. Friends of Access Sacramento, PCS filmmakers and fans are invited to celebrate, again, the 10 short films first premiered last October at the Crest Theatre.   Crocker Art Museum 216 O Street Thursday Fe

Need a push getting started on your article for The Sacramento Press Journalism Open 2012? We've got a workshop for that. Bring your story ideas and questions about the writing contest to our Journalism Open workshop Tuesday, Jan. 17. We will go over how to enter photos: standalone or accompanying, judging criteria, past winners and how to develop your stories by including sources and doing research. The workshop will be from 6:30 - 7:30 p.m. at The Sacramento Press office. Our office is located at 431 I St., Suite 107, in the Sacramento Valley Station station. We are in the same building complex as Starbucks. We recommend you find parking on the street, bike or take light rail, as th

The Sacramento Press’ “To Catch an Error" contest has ended for the month of December. We are excited to announce our winner, Steven Chea! Chea received a total of 46 points for catching minor spelling and grammar errors in stories by community contributors and editorial interns. Thanks to everyone who entered! If you missed last month’s contest, it’s time to start hunting again. Beginning today, we will wipe the slate clean and start our January contest. January’s winner will receive two tickets to see Paula Deen in the meet and greet section. One runner-up will receive a $15 gift card to Monsoon.  The deadline for entries will be midnight on Jan. 31. See below for complete rules. If

If one of your New Year’s resolutions is to publish your first article, consider the rewards of doing it on The Sacramento Press. Last year we gave out thousands in cash prizes to winners of The Sacramento Press Journalism Open, and we’re ready to do it again. This is the third year that we’ve hosted The Sacramento Press Journalism Open. The contest is pro-am, meaning writers of all skill levels are welcome to enter. If you aren’t familiar with The Sacramento Press, we’re a hyperlocal online newspaper that focuses on community news. We aim to be the best source for local news and we would like you to help us achieve that by sharing your stories. No reporter knows more than you when it c

After seeing that The Guardian newspaper had made its list of stories public to its readership for a two-week trial and invited them to participate by contacting its reporters, we thought it would be a good idea to do the same at The Sacramento Press. Often, our editorial team learns about important facts and sources after our stories have been published. We value the knowledge and contributions that our readers and commenters add to the conversation thread, and we’d love to incorporate that into our stories as we are reporting. We would also like to encourage more people to get involved as community contributors. Casey Kirk, director of community outreach, works closely with a group of

Jonathan Franzen, National Book Award-winning author, acquaintance of Pres. Barack Obama and face of the August 2010 cover of Time magazine next to the caption “Great American Author,” proved to the audience at the UC Davis Mondavi Center Saturday night that he is human. Franzen stepped up to the podium and pulled several sheets of paper out of his briefcase. After rearranging some of these sheets, pausing to find a water bottle, and finally beginning to read from the sheets word for word, it became clear that the critically and commercially successful author was nervous to speak in front of a live audience. “This would be a lot easier if I was doing a reading,” Franzen said. The talk

Q: I have recently taken up writing as a new hobby. I am not really sure if you would call it a hobby — it is more of a passion that I have always had but have never really explored, but now I am really getting into it. Problem is, my boyfriend is not really supportive. I guess it is because I have been spending a lot of time with my head bent over notebooks or pecking away on the computer and not as much time with him. I don't want to hurt his feelings or make him think he isn't important to me, but I really feel I need to nourish this growing need until I am more comfortable with it, and then I can settle into a routine. Is that unfair to him? A: Well, it is going to be hard for me, as

For the twelfth year, Access Sacramento is planning the world premiere of “A Place Called Sacramento” (PCS), a scriptwriting and short film production project for local writers and producers. PCS challenges local scriptwriters to write ten-minute scripts about the people, places, and events that make our community such a unique place to live (submission guidelines on-line at www.AccessSacramento.org). Neighbors and friends will gather at the 2011 World Premiere at the CREST Theatre on Sunday October 2, 2011 at 1:00 PM. $10 (general seating) is a fundraiser for community media. Advanced ticket purchase is recommended at Tickets.com, the Crest Box Office, or the offices of Access Sacramento

Thank you to everyone who attended Jeffrey Callison's workshop on "The Art and Craft of Interviewing" last month. If you missed the workshop, you can read the recap and watch the video here. The Sacramento Press has another first-time workshop presenter for September: KXTV News10 Reporter George Warren. Multimedia journalist Andrew Nixon taught a workshop in July titled "Intro to Video Storytelling;" we'll resume the topic of video storytelling with Warren's workshop: "Video Storytelling Tips and Shortcuts." The workshop will be from 6:30 - 8 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 22, at The Sacramento Press office. Warren will discuss how to produce memorable stories with minimum time and effort. Warre

“Telling stories without shame” is the goal of a new digital magazine published by Sacramento writer and editor Janna Marlies Santoro. The premiere issue of Under the Gum Tree was released this month, and Santoro said she asked contributors to write creative nonfiction that showcases important moments in people’s lives, as told by them. One writer, Sarah Heffron, wrote about her own unplanned pregnancy. “It’s a snapshot of the days just before and the moments after finding out I was pregnant,” she said. While the “creative nonfiction” genre leaves some question as to how much is true, Santoro said all of the stories are true, but sometimes dialogue is written from memory and timelines

The Sacramento Press is excited to announce that Jeffrey Callison will be teaching a workshop at our office in August. Interviewing is part of the foundation of journalism. It’s how reporters get a lot of their information, including the personal angles and anecdotes that make stories come alive. But how do you conduct a successful interview? There are some simple rules, but you also must know when and how to break them. Jeffrey Callison has interviewed many thousands of people over the years – both as host of Capital Public Radio’s daily program “Insight” and as a reporter. On Tuesday, Aug. 9, from 6:30 - 8 p.m., he’ll discuss “The Art and Craft of Interviewing” in a workshop at the S

We had a great turnout for our sports writing workshop earlier this month. Thanks to Sam Amick and those who attended. To read the workshop recap, click here. Video is an important part of storytelling that can be difficult to incorporate without the right equipment and editing knowledge. Andrew Nixon will teach a video workshop from 6:30 - 8 p.m. Wednesday, July 27 at the Sacramento Press office called "Introduction to Video Storytelling." Nixon is a Sacramento-based multimedia journalist. He has professional experience in photojournalism, as well as various multimedia platforms, including motion graphics, web platforms, and video journalism. He has freelanced for Patch.com and interned

Each day Access Sacramento's studio and office are filled with activity but this week has been particularly busy. Yes, T.D. Trice and Shane Carpenter continued to schedule television and radio programming 24/7. Yes, volunteers came and went with new programming and were busy with their focused production efforts. The phones continued to ring as Amy Lawrence signed up new members. Whew! Here's a snap-shot of a very busy day in the life of Access Sacramento - let the "name dropping" commence. Studio production was busy with Richard Langley renovating the small room and working with community producer Bob Crimmins on using the "green studio" for a new program in partnership with Senior Magaz

Thanks to those of you who came to our Bias in Journalism workshop earlier this month. If you missed it, you can read the recap here. For July, we are excited to announce a new workshop presenter – Sam Amick. With the Sacramento River Cats season well under way, the Sacramento Capitals tennis team starting in July and the buzz building for the next Sacramento Kings basketball season – there will be plenty of sports stories to be covered on The Sacramento Press and on blogs, etc. Amick will teach a workshop on sports writing at the Sacramento Press office from 6:30 - 8 p.m. July 12. Amick is currently an NBA columnist for Sports Illustrated at SI.com. He received his degree in journali

A group of South Sacramento teens will get the chance this summer to learn the ins and outs of basic news writing and reporting. The goal is to get the youths to become advocates for their community and to give voice to the issues that are particular to South Sacramento. The Neighborhood News Bureau was established by a partnership between Access Sacramento, a nonprofit organization that provides access cable television, and the La Familia Counseling Center to teach approximately 20 teenagers, ages 14 - 18, grassroots, community-based journalism. La Familia is one of five community centers that Access Sacramento has partnered with to develop Neighborhood News Bureau sites. Other sites in

Armed with craft supplies, writing utensils and fond food memories, attendants at Saturday’s “Kitchen Diaries” event, the third in a series of four Food Talks held at Cafe Bernardo, set about creating their own “cookbook journals:” keepsakes meant to preserve and honor the recipes and culinary experiences that shape us. Author and writing coach Janice Kelley, along with illustrator and art instructor Joy Gee, guided the group through the writing and crafting process. Kelley began the workshop by engaging participants in a writing exercise meant to stimulate their creative writing skills as well as their memories. “One of my favorite things to do is help people tell their stories,” Kelle

Celebrating our 25th year of incorporation, the nonprofit community media center Access Sacramento hosts the annual membership meeting Thursday June 16 7-8 PM . You are invited to attend the event in the television studio at the Coloma Community Center or just watch the event on cable TV channel 17 or streamed on the web site www.AccessSacramento.org to any computer in the world. The 15 member Board of Directors will offer highlights of the year past and look forward to another year of Hometown-TV events, Game of Week football and basketball, "Listen Up, Sacramento" local music, and arts and entertainment reporting weekly on "Livewire". Ten new films are in production in the 12th Annual "