Talking Journalism with Tom Avila

Thursday September 02, 2010

CCJ Books

The Elements of Journalism: What Newspeople Should Know and the Public Should Expect

Completely updated and revised
"The most important book on the relationship of journalism and democracy published in the last fifty years." – Roy Peter Clark, The Poynter Institute

We Interrupt This Newscast: How to Improve Local News and Win Ratings, Too

Just Released
A landmark study on what people watch and why. The most exhaustive study ever of local TV news -- what helps ratings, what drives viewers away, and what editorial approaches and story-telling techniques most influence viewership.

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Tom Avila is a contributing writer to Metro Weekly news magazine and a staffer for the National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association (NLGJA).

Prior to coming to NLGJA, Avila was the Staff Director of the Committee of Concerned Journalists (CCJ). During his six-year tenure with the CCJ, Avila’s focus was the coordination of the organization’s outreach activities and administrative oversight of The Traveling Curriculum.

From 2004 until 2006, Avila was also researcher/writer on the subject of radio for the Project for Excellence in Journalism’s (PEJ) comprehensive State of the News Media annual report. The inaugural edition of State of the News Media earned PEJ a Sigma Delta Chi award and Penn State University’s Bart Richards’ award.

He holds a BFA degree in Crafts from The University of the Arts (Philadelphia, PA) and an MFA degree in Creative Writing from American University. Avila’s fiction writing has been honored by the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities and his theater criticism earned him a place as a 2008 NEA Arts Journalism Institute Fellow for Theater & Musical Theater.

The opinions expressed in his essays are his own and not those of his employer.