"Fundamentals of Business and Economics Reporting" Seminar Planned

Jack Speer, business correspondent for National Public Radio’s Morning Edition, will be the main speaker at a seminar for Arkansas journalists who report and interpret issues in economics and business.

The seminar, "Fundamentals of Business and Economics Reporting," will be presented March 30-April 1 at the Donald W. Reynolds Center on the University of Arkansas campus in Fayetteville.

Funding for the seminar is being provided by the Arkansas Council on Economic Education. Other sponsors are the Walter J. Lemke Department of Journalism, the Bessie B. Moore Center for Economic Education and the Sam M. Walton College of Business Administration.

Joining Speer are more than 20 other presenters - business journalists from daily newspapers, representatives of local and statewide business and industry, and professors from Walton College.

"We hope to provide participants not only with knowledge of economic concepts and principles but also what they need to examine in-depth current economic problems," said Dr. Patsy G. Watkins, chair of the Lemke Department of Journalism.

Dr. Thomas R. McKinnon, director of the Moore Center, said similar seminars were conducted in the 1980s.

"This year’s seminar covers issues that weren’t necessarily as important in the '80s," McKinnon said, "such as the effects of immigration and the Internet on the marketplace."

The seminar will cover basic concepts such as the market system, government’s role in restricting the market, and the international economy. In addition to panels on immigration and the Internet, participants also will hear discussions of public utility deregulation, visual methods of reporting business news and the common pitfalls of economic reporting.

McKinnon and Dr. Tracy Murray, the Phillips Petroleum Distinguished Professor of International Economics and Business, will be among Walton College speakers who will present basic economics concepts and current problems.

Ray White, design director for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, will give advice on presenting difficult economics concepts in information graphics.

Among the panelists participating are Mac Norton, a Little Rock lawyer who served on the National Information Infrastructure Advisory Council; Ron Goforth, general manager of Beta-Rubicon, LLC, Fayetteville; Sandra Hochstetter, executive director of the Arkansas Public Service Commission; Al Lopez, cultural liaison for the Rogers Public School System.

Roland Goicoechea, senior vice president for cultural relations, First National Bank and Trust, Rogers; Archie Schaffer, senior vice president for external relations, Tyson Foods; Greg House, owner, Houses, Inc., Fayetteville; Lane Kidd - president, Arkansas Trucking Association, Little Rock; Ark Monroe, a Little Rock lawyer with Mitchell, Williams, Selig, Gates & Woodyard.

Steve Strickland, director of regional affairs, Entergy Arkansas, Inc.; Ralph Nesson, director of the Single Parent Scholarship Fund, Springdale; John Cebuhar of Tyson Foods; Frank Trejo, reporter Dallas Morning News; Jim Wooten, chairman, Arkansas Council on Economic Education, and president, Tigermart, Inc., Beebe.

For more information about the seminar, call Katherine Shurlds or Patsy G. Watkins, 575-3601.