Professor to host webinar on disability journalism

Arizona State University journalism professor Tim McGuire will share lessons from his new memoir on living with a physical disability and raising a child with Down syndrome during a webinar hosted by the National Center on Disability and Journalism (NCDJ).

McGuire, the Frank Russell Chair for the Business of Journalism at ASU’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication, will lead a talk with students and professional journalists from across the country during a free webinar at 3 p.m. PST, March 3. McGuire is an advisory board member of the NCDJ, a national organization providing resources for journalists covering people with disabilities.

Registration for the webinar is open at http://ncdj.org/2015/02/3012/.

McGuire’s first book, Some People Even Take Them Home: A Disabled Dad, a Down Syndrome Son and Our Journey to Acceptance, tells his personal story as a father and his love for his son, 35-year-old Jason, who lives and thrives with Down syndrome.

“The reason I wrote this book is to affect lives,” McGuire said. “The book has a universality that affects anyone who has dealt with various kinds of challenges in life. The way you do it is by putting one step in front of the other. You don’t go down for the count.”

McGuire, who has a rare congenital joint disability, is the former longtime editor and senior vice president of the Minneapolis Star Tribune and a past president of the American Society of Newspaper Editors. He joined the Cronkite School in 2006 and teaches several journalism courses on business, ethics and entrepreneurship.

McGuire said he developed “Some People Even Take Them Home” over the course of nearly 20 years with the support of his late wife Jean McGuire, who plays an important role in the book as a beloved wife and mother.

“Tim’s story provides valuable lessons about life and journalism,” said Kristin Gilger, NCDJ director and Cronkite School associate dean. “We hope that journalists, students and those with an interest in disabilities join us for what promises to be a fascinating conversation.”

The NCDJ has been located at the Cronkite School on ASU’s Downtown Phoenix campus since 2009. It is led by an advisory board consisting of media professionals and disability experts that includes McGuire as well as Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Leon Dash, formerly of The Washington Post; Jennifer LaFleur, senior editor for data journalism at the nonprofit Center for Investigative Reporting in San Francisco; and Jerry Ceppos, former Knight Ridder vice president and current dean of the Manship School of Mass Communication at Louisiana State University. For a full list of board members, go to http://ncdj.org/about/ncdj-advisory-board/.