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What is Sunshine Week?

What is Sunshine Week?

 |  Mar 10, 2023

Next week marks Sunshine Week, which aims to promote open government and shine light into government secrecy. Scott Hanson shares more on the fight for governmental accountability and how SPJ's Sunshine Awards plays a part in this blog post.

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Press Freedom Must Ring

Press Freedom Must Ring

 |  Feb 16, 2021

Transparency in government is more important now than ever.  And it’s not just at the national level.  It’s not a new topic for us, as demonstrated here, and here. HMA Public Relations has worked as a government contractor for city, county, state and tribal governments for decades.  Our team knows from the onset that everything […]

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#MediaMonday – Rebecca Baker

#MediaMonday – Rebecca Baker

 |  Apr 23, 2018

Today’s #MediaMonday comes to us from the Empire State, where Rebecca Baker, national president for the Society of Professional Journalists, has recently been named managing editor at Bloomberg BNA.

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#MediaMonday Special – SPJ Publicity Summit

#MediaMonday Special – SPJ Publicity Summit

 |  Sep 18, 2017

In addition to gaining valuable pitching insight at SPJ's 14th annual Valley Publicity Summit, Bre Krager was able to ask the media some fun questions! [Click below for more]

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#FakeNews: Why We Click It, How to Stop

#FakeNews: Why We Click It, How to Stop

 |  Aug 18, 2017

You can’t go a day without someone bringing up fake news. So earlier this week, Abbie attended the SPJ Phoenix event on the subject in order to understand it better. [Click below for more]

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#MediaMonday – Mary Jo Pitzl

#MediaMonday – Mary Jo Pitzl

 |  Aug 7, 2017

Scott first met Arizona Republic journalist, Mary Jo Pitzl, in the '80s! And while she's still at the Republic, she has recently made a small career transition. Read all about it in today's #MediaMonday blog post. [Click below for more]

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#MediaMonday – Michael Kiefer

#MediaMonday – Michael Kiefer

 |  Feb 22, 2016

Michael Kiefer, courts and legal writer for The Arizona Republic, novelist and travel writer.  I spent some time with him a recent Society of Professional Journalists mixer and he’s got some interesting stories.  And more than his interesting stories – he’s an interesting guy! The most recent of his half-dozen novels is Another Monk’s Tale, […]

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#MediaMonday – Joe Ferguson

#MediaMonday – Joe Ferguson

 |  Jan 11, 2016

Today’s #MediaMonday comes to us from Tucson.  Joe Ferguson is the current president of the Arizona Press Club and a reporter for the Arizona Daily Star, where he’s been for the last three years, covering Pima County, transportation and politics before moving to the investigative team.  [inlinetweet prefix=”” tweeter=”” suffix=”@joeferguson @Hanner66 @azds”]Like me, he got his […]

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Is it better to be first or right?

Is it better to be first or right?

 |  June 10, 2015

The relative ease of posting something to a social media channel has turned all of us into “journalists.”  I intentionally put the word in quotes because journalist is a profession, with a code of ethics.  But thanks to smart phones and open-source blog services, anyone can become a “journalist” by simply hitting the submit button. […]

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#MediaMonday – Mark Casey

#MediaMonday – Mark Casey

 |  Sep 23, 2013

Mark Casey is vice president and news director for 12 News (KPNX-TV) and 12news.azcentral.com, a position he’s held since 2007. After graduating from West Virginia University and earning his master’s at the University of North Carolina, his career has taken him from Iowa to Minnesota to Upstate New York, back to North Carolina and eventually […]

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#MediaMonday – Bret McKeand

#MediaMonday – Bret McKeand

 |  June 3, 2013

Bret McKeand, president of the Arizona operations of Independent Newsmedia, Inc. USA, recently received The Order of the Silver Key Society from the Society of Professional Journalists’ Valley of the Sun Chapter. The award pays tribute to journalists from any medium with at least 25 years of experience in the state of Arizona (consecutive or cumulative) […]

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