Jim Prince, president of the Mississippi Press Association, led a morning session at the association’s Mid-Winter Conference in Jackson, Miss. Prince, a UM journalism graduate, is president of Prince Newspaper Holdings, Inc., which publishes the Madison County Journal, the Kemper County Messenger, and The Neshoba Democrat.
Dr. Samir Husni, Meek school professor and director of the Magazine Innovation Center, gave a presentation on “Why We Need Print in the Digital Age.”
Husni and Prince
Recent graduate Maggie Day has completed preparatory work in London and will soon be in Bahrain for the startup of a Bloomberg Television project that will result in an Arabic language business news network.
Day, from Fayetteville, Ark., received her bachelor’s degree in May. She was a member of the Sally McConnell Barksdale Honors College and served in many student leadership roles, including a year as a cheerleader. She was also elected as Ole Miss homecoming queen her senior year. In addition, she was a reporter, anchor and news manager of NewWatch, the campus TV news program.
Day’s initial assignment with Bloomberg, which is based in New York, was in London to familiarize her with international broadcast bureau operations.
Journalist and civil rights activist Myrlie Evers-Williams will take part in “Remembering Medgar Evers,” the opening program for the SPJ Regional Conference on Friday, April 5 at 5 p.m.
June marks the 50th anniversary of the murder of Medgar Evers, a civil rights leader who sought to overturn segregation at the University of Mississippi. Byron De La Beckwith, a member of the White Citizen’s Council, killed Evers in 1963 but was only convicted decades later.
Evers-Williams, who delivered the invocation at the second inauguration of President Barack Obama, is also a former head of the NAACP.
She will be joined on the panel by Leslie McLemore, a political science professor from Jackson State University, and Jerry Mitchell, an investigative reporter for The Clarion-Ledger, whose cold case reporting has led to the arrests of several Klansmen and prompted authorities to reopen multiple civil rights murders.
The program is sponsored by the Overby Center for Southern Journalism & Politics and it is open to the public.
Photo by Bruce McAdam
Paige Williams, a journalism graduate of the University of Mississippi and a former member of the journalism faculty, has a cover story in the Jan. 28 edition of The New Yorker. “Bones of Contention” is about the black market trade in fossils.
Williams is a National Magazine Award-winning writer and editor who teaches at the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard. Her stories have been anthologized in five volumes of the Best American series, and twice been named National Magazine Award finalists. She has taught narrative/literary journalism, and other disciplines including investigative and feature writing, at NYU, the University of Pittsburgh, Ole Miss, and Emory, among others, and has served as the editor-in-chief or executive editor at monthly general-interest magazines in Portland, Atlanta, and Boston. Before moving into magazines and online, she spent a decade as a newspaper reporter, first in Mississippi and at the Washington Post, then at the Charlotte Observer. Since becoming a freelancer she has written for the New York Times, the Financial Times magazine, and GQ, among others, and is the author of the Byliner Original The Ghost. She was a 1996-97 Nieman Fellow at Harvard and holds an MFA from Columbia.
Eight students are finalists in the individual categories for the Best of the South contest. (Still awaiting the results of the judging for Best of the South best newspaper/best newscast/best website/journalist of the year categories.) The individual student winners are listed below, in alphabetical order. Congratulations to all!
Nicholas Andrews. Category: Best Radio Journalist.
Josh Clark. Category: Best News-Editorial Artist/Illustrator.
Bracey Harris. Category: Best Magazine Writer.
Benjamin Hurston. Category: Best Magazine Page Layout Designer.
Austin Miller. Category: Best Sports Writer.
Margaret Ann Morgan. Category: Best Multimedia Journalist.
Kristen Saltzman. Category: Best Advertising Staff Member.
Mary B. Sellers. Category: Best Arts & Entertainment Writer.
The Best of the South contest is open to Southeast Journalism Conference member universities in seven states. We find out details about what each student won at a banquet at the annual SEJC conference on Feb. 22, at Union University in Jackson, Tenn.
Margaret Ann Morgan, Emily Roland and Kimbrely Dandridge
This year more than 150 Ole Miss students were added to Who’s Who Among Students in American Universities and Colleges, including 14 from the Meek School of Journalism and New Media. They are Tara Brando, Emily Cegielski, Kevin Cozart, Kimbrely Dandridge, Ashleigh Davis, Jontarius Haywood, Kim Hobgood, Gerard Manogin, Austin Miller, Margaret Ann Morgan, Emily Roland, Sealy Smith, Miriam Taylor and Katherine Williamson. From that talented group, three were selected by the university to be among the 10 students inducted into the 2012-2013 University of Mississippi Hall of Fame.
Margaret Ann Morgan is a broadcast journalism major who is this year’s Miss Ole Miss. She has anchored NewsWatch and been actively involved in student government. Morgan is from McComb, Miss. Emily Roland is the editor of the Daily Mississippian and is from Bakersfield, Calif. Kimbrely Dandridge is the current student body president and has also anchored NewsWatch. She is from Como, Miss.
Selection of a total of 153 students for the Who’s Who honor, one percent of the student body on the Oxford campus, was announced in a ceremony at the Gertrude S. Ford Center for the Performing Arts.
When the legendary John Seigenthaler, Sr. visited the Ole Miss campus a couple years ago, a student asked him what was the one thing he wished he had learned more about while in school. Without hesitation, Seigenthaler said, “Marketing.”
In a world where branding is a buzz word, Meek School graduate Joe Doolittle has put his journalism degree to use as a promotions producer for WJTV-TV in Jackson.
“It’s nice to have a steady job with steady pay, but most importantly, it’s nice to have a job I genuinely enjoy and one that challenges me, keeps me on my toes and is fulfilling. I’ve learned a lot since beginning in October and I don’t expect that to slow down anytime soon,” said Doolittle.
Doolittle knew he didn’t want a traditional TV news job when he left school in May 2011, but he also knew he loved working with video. News promotions, which combines creativity, writing, shooting and editing, seemed ideally suited for Doolittle’s interests and talents.
Doolittle says his job involves promoting the station’s brand and its newscasts, 10-to-30 seconds at a time.
Doolittle is also getting a chance to promote individual news stories, enjoying the opportunity to work with WJTV’s corporate graphics team to create animation, too.
“I came up with the idea, wrote out something of a script for them to follow, they did so, returned the animation to me, I put some music with it and then we threw it on the air. It was fun.”
This year’s International Regional Magazine Association (IRMA) Awards will be administered by the Magazine Innovation Center at the Meek School of Journalism and New Media.
Dan Patrell, president of IRMA and publisher of Maryland Life, said the role of the University of Mississippi center, under the leadership of Dr. Samir “Mr. Magazine” Husni, will amplify the annual awards program.
“Everyone involved with IRMA is very excited to take our awards program to the next level through Dr. Husni’s Magazine Innovation Center,” Patrell said. “Working with ‘Mr. Magazine,’ we’re looking forward to a robust partnership that will celebrate editorial excellence and strengthen the organization as a whole.”
The Magazine Innovation Center’s mission is to channel creativity and intellect to provide blueprints for productive change within the magazine industry. Ole Miss started a service journalism emphasis almost 30 years ago, and the Meek School holds annual international magazine conferences each fall.
Will Norton Jr., dean of the Meek School, said IRMA’s decision, “Is an indication of how much the magazine program and the Magazine Innovation Center have become an integral part of the magazine industry both in the United States and abroad.”
Dr. Husni, MIC director since the program’s inception, added, “It’s a great honor for the Magazine Innovation Center to host and administer these eminent awards which honor excellence and creativity in writing, photography, design and publishing.”RMA is a gathering place and information source for regional magazines. Free and open communication among members is the heart and soul of the organization, which holds an annual conference every fall. The IRMA awards began in 1981 and recognize excellence in all areas of regional magazine publishing. The call for entries for this year’s awards will go out in March. More information is available at regionalmagazines.org.
For more information on the International Regional Magazine Awards or to become a member of the International Regional Magazine Association, visit regionalmagazines.org.
For more information on the Magazine Innovation Center at the Meek School of Journalism and New Media, visit www.meek.olemiss.edu.
Photo Courtesy of The Commercial Appeal
Students often feel inundated with advice about the hundreds of skills journalists “must have” in order to be successful. But the journalists at WMC Action News 5 in Memphis have narrowed the list to five essential skills.
1. Dedication
Photojournalist Bo Bradley says a real journalist has to be a dedicated one. He says you have to be willing to work the longer shifts and do the grunt work, really roll with the punches, to be successful in this business.
2. Persistence
Reporter Justin Hanson says there are going to be times when you have to be persistent to get the interview that will make your story come to life. Stick with it and you will be surprised what you can do.
3. Creativity
Associate Producer Denisha Thomas says creativity drives the newsroom. You have to really use the right side of your brain and figure out what matters to your public and deliver it in a creative way.
4. Desire
Anchor/ Reporter Lindsey Brown, a graduate of Ole Miss, says you have to have the desire to make a difference through what you write and what you report. You have push through the long hours and realize that your hard work will pay off.
5. News Consumption
Assistant News Director Regina Thomas says keep writing and read a lot! Consume news from different outlets, both local and national, to compare and learn why and how they report the way they do.
It isn’t the most obvious skills and attributes — editing, writing, interviewing — that each of these successful journalists listed as most important. Instead, they say, their list includes the things that matter most when you are pushed for deadline, hunting down the interview or covering breaking news.
Anna Ellingburg is a senior with an emphasis in broadcast journalism. She recently completed an internship at WMC.
Jermaine Jackson, a 2008 Ole Miss journalism graduate, died Friday. He was a native of Charleston, Miss. While working on his bachelor’s and master’s degrees, Jermaine was an honors student, a member of the Associated Student Body and a fixture at the Student Media Center. His death has stunned and saddened many of his fellow alumni and the journalism professors who knew him well.
In his time at Ole Miss, Jackson helped with the creation of the DMonline.com and participated in NewsWatch, The Daily Mississippian, the Ole Miss yearbook, the Associated Student Body, Student Leadership Council, Ole Miss Mock Trial, Honors College and many other university activities.
Amanda Pannel, a former station manager for NewsWatch, says the Jackson family is seeking funds to help cover funeral expenses, and any donations would be greatly appreciated. Friends and family can donate via an account set up by former University of Mississippi professor Ralph Braseth.
Funeral arrangements are as follows:
Friday, Jan. 25
WAKE — 4 p.m. – 7 p.m. — at Robinson Funeral Home, 588 Highway 51 South, Batesville, Miss. 38606.
Flowers can be sent to Robinson Funeral Home after 2 p.m. on Friday.
Saturday, Jan. 26
FUNERAL — – 11 a.m. — at Abundant Harvest Church of God in Christ, 623 Martin Luther King Drive, Charleston, Miss. 38921
Please also feel free to contribute comments on a tribute site, which already features memories from Ole Miss alumni, professors and members of the Oxford community who had the pleasure to work with and befriend Jermaine.
Some of the best journalism training in the country is coming to the Region 12 Conference, Saturday, April 6 at the Meek School of Journalism and New Media on the Ole Miss campus in Oxford, Miss.
IRE Training Director Jaimi Dowdell will focus on story boarding, planning and managing watchdog work, as well as using the Web to find reliable information on deadline and for enterprise stories.
Dowdell was computer-assisted reporting editor at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch for more than three years before joining IRE. In addition to her work at the Post-Dispatch, she taught a CAR course for Washington University in St. Louis.
The conference is set for April 5-7. The IRE training session is free with conference registration.
James P. “Butch” Cothren and Curtis Wilkie
A 60-year friendship between attorney James P. “Butch” Cothren of Jackson and journalist and author Curtis Wilkie of Oxford has impacted both men’s lives in immeasurable ways. Now the legacy of that friendship will expand through the lives of University of Mississippi students who will benefit from a scholarship endowment created in Wilkie’s name.
Cothren and his wife, Peggy T. “Pat” Cothren – major supporters of their alma mater – have presented a new gift of $125,000 to pay tribute to Wilkie through scholarships in UM’s Meek School of Journalism and New Media.
“We’ve been great friends all our lives and we think of our friendship as being authentic,” said Butch Cothren, a McComb, Miss., native who earned undergraduate and Juris Doctor degrees from Ole Miss before going on to build a successful law practice. “Pat and I wanted to do something more to support the university, and we decided to make a gift to honor Curtis, who has done so much for Ole Miss from teaching to hosting visitors on the campus and in his home.”
The Cothrens are credited with reconnecting Wilkie to Ole Miss and Oxford, which ultimately brought the acclaimed journalist back to teach and mentor journalism students.
Cothren and Wilkie
“Butch is my oldest, closest friend. We’ve been pals since he was shortstop and I third baseman for the mighty McComb Manufacturing Tigers in Little League. Although we attended different high schools, joined different fraternities at Ole Miss, and have always lived in different cities, Butch and I stayed in touch. It was Butch and Pat who introduced me to the Grove in 1993 after I had been away from Oxford for more than 25 years, and their friendship played a role in my decision to move back to the South.”
Butch Cothren – an American Board of Trial Advocates and American College of Trial Lawyers member who has been listed in the Best Lawyers in America publication every year since 1991 as a testament of his professional achievements – said the impetus behind the scholarship gift was the loss of another close friend and UM alumnus, Franklin Holmes of Raleigh, N.C.
“Pat and I decided one of us in our circle of friends needed to have a legacy at Ole Miss and there is no better way to impact a university than through scholarships. Ole Miss offers a great atmosphere and opportunities to learn, and we have been impressed with the growth of the journalism school,” he said.
Wilkie recalled the evening he learned of the scholarship. “My wife Nancy and I were at dinner at Butch and Pat’s Oxford home when he somberly said he had an announcement. I braced for bad news. When Butch said he wanted to establish a scholarship in my name, I was flabbergasted. ‘Touched’ may be a corny word, but I was very touched.
“I’m delighted to think that this will help our students and the Ole Miss journalism program, where I’ve been teaching for eleven years. It’s a grand gesture by Butch. He was motivated, in part, by the death a year and a half ago of our great friend, Franklin Holmes. We three ran around together a lot at Ole Miss and Butch wanted to do something for our alma mater before the two of us pass on, too.”
Since 2004, Wilkie has held the Kelly G. Cook Chair of Journalism at Ole Miss, where he was also named the first Overby Fellow in the university’s Overby Center for Southern Journalism and Politics. The journalist enjoyed a 25-year career with the Boston Globe as a national and foreign correspondent until the end of the 2000 presidential campaign. He covered eight president campaigns and served as chief of the Globe’s Washington bureau. Among his work covering wars and conflicts overseas, Wilkie established the Globe’s Middle East bureau and lived in Jerusalem in the mid-1980s.
Wilkie is also the author of many national magazine articles and the author or co-author of several books, including the Fall of the House of Zeus and Dixie: A Personal Odyssey through Events that Shaped the Modern South.
UM Chancellor Dan Jones applauded the Cothrens’ thoughtful generosity.
“A hallmark of the Ole Miss experience is the close friendships our students develop and nurture throughout their lives. Pat and Butch Cothren have taken this a step further by recognizing their talented friend, Curtis Wilkie, through the establishment of a scholarship endowment that will help many promising students achieve rewarding journalism careers. We are deeply grateful for the support of the Cothrens, who obviously gave a great deal of thought to identifying a meaningful way to celebrate a friendship and their relationship with Ole Miss. Their generosity and vision are inspiring,” the chancellor said.
Pat Cothren – a native of Dublin, Miss., who earned a degree in education and with her husband is a benefactor of the School of Law and Ole Miss Athletics – has been a part of the Cothren-Wilkie friendship for 45 years.
“There is nothing in life more important than friendship, and Butch and Curtis are blessed to have one of those friendships which time and distance have never affected,” she said.
When asked about favorite memories, Cothren and Wilkie laugh and the stories begin to flow. Cothren described his friend as “kind of a rascal” as a youngster who got into trouble for harassing the Little League umpire in a season when their team only won one game. “Curtis is the only Little Leaguer I have ever known or heard of who almost got ejected from a game for razzing the umpire.”
“We were involved in a lot of mischief when we were younger,” Wilkie said. “Butch may recall the night – we were back from college during Thanksgiving break – that I dropped him off at home after a night of carousing, then drove my parents’ car back and forth through a big pile of leaves, scattering what he had spent all afternoon raking up in his yard. I guess he’s forgiven me by now.”
The majority of the funds provided by the Cothrens will be held in a permanent endowment with the annual income providing academic scholarships awarded to full-time students who are journalism majors. The other part of the gift will be used to award the scholarship beginning fall 2013. Selection of scholarship recipients will be directed by a committee of the Meek School faculty.
The Curtis C. Wilkie Scholarship Endowment is open to receive gifts from individuals and organizations. Checks with the scholarship name noted in the memo line can be mailed to the University of Mississippi Foundation, P.O. Box 249, University, Miss. 38677. Gifts can also be made by contacting John Festervand, development officer for the Meek School of Journalism and New Media at 662-915-1757 or jfesterv@olemiss.edu; or visiting online at www.umfoundation.com/makeagift.
–Tina Hahn
The Society of News Design Foundation has added Darren Sanefski to its board, tasking him with the role of education director.
Sanefski is an assistant professor of multiple platform journalism at the Meek School of Journalism and New Media at The University of Mississippi. He has an extensive news design and marketing background.
He received his master of arts (interactive design) from the State University of New York at Oswego and a bachelor of fine arts (visual communication) from Syracuse University. He was on the faculty at the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University from 2005 until 2012. Sanefski worked for The Post-Standard newspaper in Syracuse, NY. Most recently, he was the paper’s sports design editor and designed interactive sports graphics for its sister website, Syracuse.com.
Other officers include: president, Rob Schneider of the Dallas Morning News; vice president, David Kordalski of The Cleveland Plain Dealer; and secretary-treasurer, Lee Steele of Hearst Connecticut Newspapers.
At Ole Miss, Sanefski teaches design and principles of design courses and frequently works with students individually in the Student Media Center.
Brian Storm, founder of the innovative digital storytelling site, MediaStorm, will keynote the Region 12 Conference, Friday, April 5 at 7 p.m. in the Overby Auditorium on the Ole Miss campus in Oxford, Miss.
Storm will explore how some of the top photojournalists have redefined their storytelling capabilities. Their work is capturing acclaim around the world in a time when readers’ attention spans are running short.
Prior to launching MediaStorm in 2005, Storm spent two years as vice president of News, Multimedia & Assignment Services for Corbis, a digital media agency founded and owned by Bill Gates. Storm led Corbis’ global strategy for the news, sports, entertainment and historical collections and he directed the representation of world-class photographers for assignment work with a focus on creating in-depth multimedia products.
From 1995 to 2002, Storm was the first director of multimedia at MSNBC.com, a joint venture of Microsoft and NBC News, where he was responsible for the audio, photography and video elements of the site.
Storm received his master’s degree in photojournalism in 1995 from the University of Missouri School of Journalism where he ran the New Media Lab and taught Electronic Photojournalism.
This event is open to the public and is free with an SPJ Region 12 Conference Registration — or you can register for the Storm keynote only on the conference website.
Ole Miss Engineers Without Borders and faculty advisers test water in a Togo village.
The team of eight consisted of three faculty members and five students, including Dupont and journalism student Norman Seawright, who traveled with the engineering group to document their efforts.
“The documentary was a labor of love requiring more than 35 hours of writing and editing time,” Dupont said. She was the lead producer on the project, but said she could not have done it without considerable assistance from Schultz.
Seawright produced three stories for NewsWatch, the student-run newscast at Ole Miss.
The local Engineers Without Borders is currently in the middle of a fundraising campaign to return to Togo in August 2013 to begin work on building a school there. To help support their efforts, you can make a donation online,.
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Dr. Samir “Mr. Magazine” Husni, professor and director of the Magazine Innovation Center, was a presenter at min‘s “Most Intriguing People + Launches” awards breakfast recently in New York City. Other presenters included: Stephen Gregory Barr, Ebony/Jet group publisher; Todd Krizelman, MagazineRadar president; Ariel Foxman, InStyle managing editor; and Larry Burstein, New York magazine publisher. Hundreds of media professionals gathered to celebrate their colleagues’ 2012 accomplishments. Read the story at minonline.com.
The Poynter Institute’s Kenny Irby is interviewed for NewsWatch segment during visit to the Meek School. Photo by Mark Dolan. November 27, 2012.
At a time when news organizations are focused on matters of sheer economic survival, Poynter’s senior faculty member for visual journalism and diversity says it’s no surprise that newsrooms are experiencing diversity fatigue. However, Kenny Irby says journalists need to change their thinking about the issue.
“Ideas about diversity have been so associated with people and hiring and the cost associated, that when you’re in a hiring freeze, if you’re only thinking of diversity in terms of hiring, you can’t do anything,” said Kenny Irby.
Instead, Irby suggests that journalism organizations broaden their understanding of diversity beyond people and into content.
“Diversity is a catalyst to innovation,” said Irby. “When you have mixed groups and more voices and perspectives it can help you. There are lots of examples of how having a diverse workforce and talent pool leads to more innovative ideas.”
Irby points to the Santa Fe New Mexican as having diversified its coverage of a changing community by focusing on Latino, Hispanic and Native Americans. By covering issues of change as they relate to the audience, Irby says the paper has tapped into potential new readers.
“Publications need to stop and think about their unique audiences – not the national demographics – that’s what helps you build credibility in your local community; that’s what most important, the local trends,” said Irby.
Irby offers the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel as one example of a paper that understands the importance and the opportunity diverse coverage provides.
“This is a paper that has shown continued commitment despite industry tumult and changes,” Irby said. “You’ll find organizations like this that value diversity as a responsibility and as an economic opportunity. As your community diversifies, so does your opportunity to grow audience.”
For individual journalists who may not work for a news organization with a diversity commitment, Irby says they too must change.
“Move out of your comfort zone in the pursuit of truth telling,” Irby said. “There’s a straight line from accuracy and ethical decision making to diversity. As your coverage area changes, so should your sources and subject content and the individual characters in your narratives. Move beyond the usual suspects as a community grows.”
Poynter’s Diversity at Work column is a resource for journalists who want to help keep the focus and conversation about diversity going or who just want to see examples of excellent and diverse news coverage.
Irby says journalists need to focus more on what can be done versus what hasn’t been done.
“Diversity sometimes requires an affirmative action to move forward.”
Irby was on campus November 27 to moderate a panel called “Ole Miss: Perception vs. Reality.” The public forum in the Overby Center examined the role of the media and race in covering the events of November 6 on the Ole Miss campus. Protests following the re-election of President Barack Obama threw the campus into the national spotlight and provided an opportunity for the university to talk about diversity and its importance in news coverage. The panel discussion was sponsored by the Graduate Student Council.
Student Media Director Pat Thompson and five SMC student managers attended the National College Media Convention in Chicago from Oct. 31-Nov. 4. The conference was jammed with an incredible array of workshops for students and advisers on topics including dealing with deadlines, photography, writing, student media law and ethics, advertising sales, design, engaging your community, sports journalism, yearbook leadership, Internet radio, photo illustrations, video production, building readership, coping with limited resources, covering elections, reporting high-profile scandals, radio relevance, and so much more. More than 2,500 people attended this year’s convention. Hour-long workshops began at 9 each day and ended at 5, with a selection of at least a dozen workshops each hour to choose from. The group also accepted the award for the 2011 The Ole Miss annual, a finalist in the national Yearbook Pacemaker contest. The 2011 yearbook was produced by recent graduate Alex McDaniel and her staff.
Pictured are NewsWatch Manager Stewart Pirani, Daily Mississippian Editor in Chief Emily Roland, Thompson, Yearbook Editor in Chief Elizabeth Beaver, Radio Station Manager Lindsey Malley and Advertising Sales Manager LeAnna Young standing in front of the Chicago Tribune/WGN radio building near the convention hotel. They are returning to campus full of ideas and inspiration.
Katherine Barkett Byrd, a 2011 Meek School graduate, is in critical condition at Baptist Hospital in Jackson, MS. A broadcast journalism major and the 2011 Miss University, Katherine has been diagnosed with a very serious blood disorder called HUS/TTP Syndrome and is in need of blood transfusions. Doctors are concerned that her needs will deplete the supply they have on hand.
If you are in Mississippi and are able to donate blood, please do so in the name of Katherine Barkett Byrd at Mississippi Blood Services. Mention her name and her date of birth: 12/20/87.
She can accept all blood types, but AB+ and O+ are especially needed.
Thousands of miles away in Africa, Ole Miss students are having an impact.
The Ole Miss chapter of Engineers Without Borders traveled to Lomé, Togo on an engineering mission trip August 6-13. The team of eight consisted of three faculty members and five students, including the Meek School’s Dr. Nancy Dupont and student Norman Seawright, who traveled with the engineering group to document their efforts.
“The trip to Togo with the Ole Miss Engineers Without Borders chapter was so much more than Norman Seawright and I thought it would be. We knew Togo had needs, but we were not prepared for the level of poverty we saw,” said Dupont. “At the same time, we were stunned by the beauty and friendliness of the people and the way they welcomed visitors who had come to help. It was the experience of a lifetime. ”
Seawright is producing three stories for NewsWatch, the student-run newscast at Ole Miss. He is also working with Dupont and other Meek School faculty on a documentary.
The local Engineers Without Borders is currently in the middle of a fundraising campaign to return to Togo in August 2013 to begin work on their selected project. To help support their efforts, you can make a donation online, or you can participate in Trot for Togo, a 5K run/walk that takes place on Dec. 1 in Oxford.
The plan to construct a new school will take thousands of dollars, but a new building could have a major impact on the educational capabilities of the area.
For more information, please contact Dr. Cris Surbeck, Department of Civil Engineering, at csurbeck@olemiss.edu.
Freshman Ann-Marie Herod’s interview with junior Tim Abram for PBS NewsHour Extra’s “Listen to Me” series focuses on the most important issues in the election year, whether or not political system is broken. This is her first national story and part of a series of videos being produced in Dr. Mark K. Dolan’s media history class on alternative campus voices.
Watch the interview on YouTube.
Roy Reiman, who started 14 national magazines in his career, looks on as new magazine founder Jeramy Pritchett describes his publication Blindfold at the ACT Experience, Oct. 25, 2012. Photo by Deb Wenger.
“I was making a lot of money, but it wasn’t what I wanted,” said Pritchett, who says he got in on the ground floor of the dot.com boom and then went into mortgage lending before that industry blew up.
About a year ago, he decided to radically change his life and launched a magazine. Blindfold is what Pritchett calls “socially conscious.” Published in Boca Raton, Fla., Blindfold hit the newsstands in March and now issue No. 4 is in the works.
“Barnes and Noble bought the first issue for every store,” said Pritchett. He said the latest publication went to all Whole Foods stores and is nearly sold out.
The magazine and its focus is very much influenced by Pritchett’s years growing up. For example, one reason that Blindfold is visually rich, is that Pritchett was captivated by photos as a child.
“That became my first love: photography- a movie inside a picture,” said Pritchett.
And why the socially conscious theme? Pritchett says he went through a phase where he wanted to be Gandhi, even dressing like the man on Halloween and sometimes giving up food.
“I fasted for all of three hours and I would tell me parents I wouldn’t eat until they bought me a toy,” said Pritchett with a laugh.
Pritchett was speaking at the University of Mississippi’s Meek School of Journalism and New Media as part of the ACT Experience. The conference is sponsored by the Magazine Innovation Center, founded by Dr. Samir Husni.
Pritchett says his magazine fills a niche for those who are interested in changing the world. The Blindfold theme of the magazine fits with that goal of raising the audience’s social consciousness.
“We always make the last picture in our magazine someone with a blindfold still on. It symbolizes that a lot of people are still blind.”
This story was crowd sourced by students in JOUR 102 Introduction to Multimedia Writing. Contributions by Nick Finch, Frances Phillips, Victoria Mekus and Drew Moak.
Just under 150 magazine publishers, writers, faculty and students took part in the opening reception for the ACT III Experience at City Grocery on the Square in Oxford. The reception is part of a three-day conference that focuses on re-inventing print publications in today’s digital world.
You can view the reception on MCast.
Greg Brock, center, received the 2012 Silver Em from the University of Mississippi based on his outstanding career in journalism. Brock, senior editor for standards at The New York Times, came to Ole Miss from Crystal Springs, Miss., and graduated in 1975. During his acceptance, he mentioned that Dr. Jere Hoar, right, professor emeritus, was the first journalism professor he met at Ole Miss and among those who had a lasting influence on his work. From left are Dr. Samir Husni and Dean Will Norton Jr. of the Meek School of Journalism and New Media faculty, Silver Em committee members; Brock; 2011 Silver Em recipient Patsy Brumfield of the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal; and Dr. Hoar.
Journalism students “tweet” the Meek Week presentation on social media as part of a project in the Journalism Innovation class. Oct. 8, 2012. Photo by Vince Davis.
By Jennifer Peterson
Dr. Carrie Brown-Smith, a journalism professor from the University of Memphis, hosted a session called “Social Media Boot Camp” to kick off Meek Week.
“I think it is a really exciting time [to be a journalist] because we have all these tools like Twitter at our disposal,” she said.
Brown-Smith recommends Twitter as a tool for every journalist. She says that it is an easy, interactive instrument that allows people to both take the pulse about what people are talking about and to collectively participate in that discussion as well.
“There are literally over a hundred New York Times [reporters] who are using Twitter every day in their news process,” she said.
Social media has allowed many news companies to reach much larger audiences, something that Brown-Smith says was much more difficult to do in earlier times. It also allows companies to potentially reach more diverse audiences. For example, African Americans use the social media approximately twice as much as whites, according to Brown-Smith.
Brown-Smith said that the first and most obvious use of Twitter for a journalist is breaking news. She emphasized the fact that social media is changing the way news breaks and said that many of the most recent front page stories, such as the death of Whitney Houston, were first broken on Twitter. Because of an effort to distribute breaking news to as many audiences as possible, Brown-Smith said that some news companies are even re-tweeting their competitors.
But, Brown-Smith says, the fact-checking process should follow the same standards as traditional media – especially if you plan on retweeting someone else’s information.
“A tweet is no different than anything else. You gotta check it out,” she said.
Although the Twitter process is hard work, Brown-Smith doesn’t recommend giving up. She says that an online community is not built in a day or even a year, but that it is achievable.
“Keep plugging away,” she advises, “Consistency over time does drive you to have a following.”
Student and professional journalists crowd around civil rights activist Harry Belafonte as he leads a walk of remembrance at Ole Miss. Oct. 1, 1962. Photo by Mikki Harris.
On Oct. 1, administrators, students, faculty and guests honored James Meredith and his historic walk into history as the man who integrated Ole Miss 50 years ago.
The walk was lead by civil rights activist Harry Belafonte, who also spoke to a packed house at the university’s Ford Center.
Media came from across the country and around the world to cover the events, including CBS News, the New York Times and BBC radio.
Multiple events in the series commemorating the 50th anniversary of the desegregation of the University of Mississippi were held in the Overby Center at the Meek School of Journalism and New Media, including a concluding event focused on the years since 1962. Speakers, from left, were Dr. Donald Cole, mathematics professor and assistant to the chancellor; Valeria Ross, who coordinates African-American student organizations; and Dr. Gerald Walton, former professor, provost and acting chancellor. Dr. David Sansing, history professor emeritus, introduced the speakers and at right is Dr. Dan Jones, chancellor of the university.
Read the story here.
Panel discussions, speed interviews, and resume reviews are among the many activities planned for Meek Week Oct. 8-13. View the full schedule here.
A candlelight vigil to celebrate 50 Years of Integration at the University of Mississippi. Sept. 30, 2012. Photo by Stephen Quinn
Hundreds of people gathered at the Ford Center on the 50th anniversary of the riot that changed Ole Miss forever. As the university paused to reflect on the years following the enrollment of James Meredith, broadcast journalism students covered the event for NewsWatch.
Reporter Stephen Quinn explored the pride some members of the university community are feeling and the promise that others are making.
The ceremony included a spiritual component, and reporter Gerard Manogin talked with local clergy about the role of religion in this historical event.
And James Meredith paved the way for thousands of students who came after him. Reporter Margaret Ann Morgan shows us how the event looked through the eyes of an African-American student.
