J. ALex Tarquinio, incoming Society of Professional Journalists president. Photo by Kyle R. Cotton
With a career in journalism that has covered Politics, business and foreign affairs, J. Alex Tarquinio, incoming Society of Professional Journalists president, is looking to make the organization the voice of press freedom through organizational partnerships.
Tarquinio views SPJ as the “Big tent” for the journalism profession. Through partnership with organizations such as the National Association of Hispanic Journalists and the Radio, Television and Digital News Association, she hopes to accomplish positioning the organization to align with this view, along with bringing in more diversity to SPJ.
“I want it to be the go to press freedom organization,” Tarquinio said.
In addition to more organization partnerships, Tarquinio is hoping to improve public education about journalism, building off successes of Sigma Delta Chi Foundation’s Journalist-on-Call program and the recent Press4Education program.
She particularly wants to increase public awareness through promotion of the legal briefs in which SPJ participates, as promotion could show not only what the organization does, but bring awareness to what journalists do.
“If we want to influence the public dialogue and we want to make real strides in press freedom, we have to do a better job communicating what we already do,” Tarquinio said.
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