The Review - Issue 6 - Fall 2018

THE REVIEW

■ FIRST AMENDMENT NEWS

■ ACT 8 CONFERENCE

■ LENS COLLECTIVE

UM SCHOOL OF JOURNALISM AND NEW MEDIA MAGAZINE

FALL 2018

NEWSMAKER

Assistant Dean Patricia Thompson talks about her journey from the newsroom to the classroom.

THE REVIEW

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FALL 2018

THE REVIEW: UM School of Journalism and New Media Magazine records news of the students, faculty, and alumni, providing them with a continued sense of belonging to the University of Mississippi explores the achievements, issues, and events of the school strives for excellence in editorial content and design advances the best interests of the University, the School of Journalism and New Media and its affiliates informs and inspires its diverse and ever-evolving readership, moving its readers to remain engaged with the School of Journalism and New Media

to inform and inspire

THE CONTENTS

FEATURES

Citizen Scholar PAGE 12 This year’s Harry S. Truman Scholarship winner takes time to answer our questions about who and what inspires her and lays out her plans for her future.

BY ELLEN KELLUM

Order in the Court PAGE 15 The Supreme Court and its rulings on First Amendment cases this year.

BY GENE POLICINSKI

The Write Stuff COVER STORY

PAGE 24 Assistant Dean Patricia Thompson oversees the Student Media Center, which produces the yearbook, the award-winning campus newspaper, TV and radio programs. She’s also achieved a high honor for herself.

BY RONNIE AGNEW

ACT 8: The Magazine Innovation Center PAGE 48

TIMOTHY IVY

The Magazine Innovation Center hosts another successful gathering of the industry’s top professionals to share their knowledge with our students.

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BY ANGELA ROGALSKI

FALL 2018

DEPARTMENTS

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CURRENT EVENTS

Q&A

Assistant Professor Cynthia Joyce shares her thoughts on a career in journalism, being an author and how she brings her experience to the classroom.

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THE LENS COLLECTIVE

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The School hosts a multimedia workshop with several other national journalism departments, traveling to the Mississippi Delta to teach technical skills and storytelling, and also connect students with the local community.

WILEY’S DREAM A memorial to an alumnus who personified perseverance and an indomitable spirit in spite of overwhelming odds.

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ELLEN MEACHAM

CHRIS CANTY SPARKS

A visit by Robert F. Kennedy to the Mississippi Delta in 1967 inspired this journalism instructor to delve deeper into finding the people he met there and telling their stories.

UM COMMUNICATIONS

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ALYSIA BURTON STEELE

News and updates on the accomplishments of the Journalism School students and faculty.

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JESSE J. HOLLAND Read all about the latest published work by a wellknown alumnus, Jesse J. Holland, who recently brought a popular comic book superhero to the big screen.

Integrated marketing communications students from the School of Journalism and New Media’s Class of 2018 enjoy their commencement ceremonies.

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PHOTOGRAPHIC HISTORY Alumnus Berkley Hudson explores the collected works of a small-town Delta photographer who worked from 1920 to 1960.

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The School of Journalism and New Media offers several different opportunities for its students to travel and see how things work at the professional level.

TROY CATCHINGS

EN ROUTE

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Donors

We gratefully acknowledge these generous donors who provide support - Fiscal Year 2018

PATRON ($25,000+)

MPA-The Association of Magazine Media Leslie M. Westbrook and Paolo Frigerio BENEFACTOR ($10,000 TO $24,999) Glenn Family Foundation Donna H. and T. M. Glenn Hearst Service Center James G. Elliott Co., Inc.

Meredith Corporation Random Kindness Coalition Scholarship Fund Myna D. and John M. Sowell Jan and Mike Sturdivant III

EXECUTIVE ($5,000 TO $9,999) Advantage Computing Systems Inc. Rebecca V. and Richard G. Cowart Democrat Printing & Lithographing Company William R. Hearst III Mary L. and Nick Kotz Mediaradar, Inc. Becky W. and Edwin E. Meek Morris Communications Company, LLC Virginia W. Mounger Andrea G. and Charles L. Overby TNG LLC T. Newell Turner III Dorothy and Jack C. Wilson

ADVOCATE ($2,500 TO $4,999) Nancy H. and Richard B. Akin Greg Brock Cynthia and J. Scott Coopwood James G. Elliott FedEx Corporation David Fry Hoffman Media, LLC James A. Lumpp Mississippi Press Association

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Celia X. Pan James E. Prince III SAPPI Diane A. and Frederick W. Smith William Randolph Hearst Foundation ASSOCIATE ($1,000 TO $2,499) Harold Burson Ronda M. Gooden Ronald Graham Lucius M. Lamar and Kerry W. Hamilton Thomas H. Hamilton IV Laurie A. Heavey Virginia T. and William J. Hickey III Deanna W. and Scott Jones Beth E. Josephic and Robert J. Casey Marcia Logan and C. D. Goodgame Elizabeth B. and Stanley E. Mileski Nancy A. and Charles D. Mitchell Kathryn W. Ross Stephanie M. and Sellers Shy Clinton R. Smith John Thames Tracy and Larry D. Weeden, Sr. Mary B. and Thomas G. Weller Curtis C. Wilkie, Jr.

STEWARD ($500 TO $999) Maralyn H. Bullion Robert L. Chesnut Michael J. Fagans Janice M. and Chellis O. Gregory Jesse J. Holland, Jr. Geoffrey Kohl Marshall C. McKinney Monique Reidy C. Lee Sanders Mary Lou and Norman H. Seawright, Jr. Sentry Insurance Foundation Jolie R. Spiers Hubert A. Staley

August L. and Scott A. Sweeden Jane A. and J. M. Tonos, Jr. Edward J. Webb, Jr. SENIOR PARTNER ($250 TO $499) Jane A. and T. Brent Alexander Marian F. and Fred M. Anklam, Jr. Tina B. Barry Tom Bearden Josh Fagans Mary A. and W. Patrick Harkins IBM Employee Services Center David M. Owen,Jr. Sally Pederson and James A. Autry Mark A. Ray Carlton M. Rhodes, Jr. Ryan K. Rigney Tory L. Robertson-Susac Elizabeth Y. and Jerry C. Whittington PARTNER ($100 TO $249) Melinda L. and Thomas S. Alford Andrew D. Anglin Jill E. Arce Jason B. Barnes Joseph Berger James H. Best Grathan B. Christian Katherine K. Crook Ouida C. and W. W. Drinkwater, Jr. Kyle M. Fetters Jerry D. Gibbs Thomas A. Grier Deborah K. and Kenneth B. Hallman Robert L. Harter Jontarius C. Haywood Kathleen M. and Thomas Holzhauser Kelley Hunsberger Leone D. King Michael Kusek Jack C. Lawton

THE REVIEW

UM SCHOOL OF JOURNALISM AND NEW MEDIA MAGAZINE

FALL 2018 — ISSUE 6 Barbara L. and Jeffrey T. Lawyer Kenneth C. Lenoir Josephine Martin Bowdre McDowell Monique McLaurin A. Joe McLellan Lynn A. and J. Scott Middleton, Jr. William E. Miller III Mitchell, McNutt & Sams, P.A.MS Bankruptcy Conference Inc. Melany C. Neilson and Frederick Slabach Lindsey R. Neyman Lindsay F. Penticuff Mary R. and Edward A. Phillips Susan K. Puckett Joseph L. Rogers Mary Beth and W. R. Sharman III Christine and Gwin Smith Alexa R. and L. Kenton Watt, Jr. Kenneth M. Weightman Elaine S. Williams Joyce Wiuff Lauren H. Zimmerman FRIEND ($1 TO $99) Adrian H. Adams Margaret D. and Robert J. Allen Calhoun County Journal Jean M. Clinton Dale B. Curry Bianca Davis Jo A. Denley Devoe Carr, PLLC Katherine W. and Michael D. Ferris Mary Ann H. and Don L. Frugé Jill C. and Aaron M. Fulmer Ashley C. and Justin S. Gardner Mary K. Goehring Ann L. Granger Melissa Hamilton Will Kane L. Hammons

Robin R. Hendrickson Lila S. Herren W. David Hitt Marilyn B. Hoffman Deborah L. and David W. Houston III Mary H. and Beckett Howorth III John W. Hutson Judy and Augustus R. Jones Judy B. and Tony E. Jones Christopher T. Lawyer Janice Lee Kathryn B. and Richard H. Leigh Marcus E. Manning Elizabeth B. and Floyd M. Melton, Jr. Carey S. Miller Jarijion Minnett Elizabeth M. Minor Sidna B. Mitchell Rima C. Mycenek Joanne Sergi and Jeff S. Parish Anne Peck-Davis M. Helen Phillips R. Matthew Porchivina III Alexandra C. Shockey Gerald A. Smith, Jr. Vicki L. and Harry A. Sneed Jennifer W. Stanford Jennifer Stecco Susan L. Sutton Becky B. and H. G. Taylor Joanne P. Tidwell Katy P. Wallace Sherry Walsh James D. Ward Debora R. and Mitchell R. Wenger Brian D. Wiuff

PUBLISHER Will Norton, Jr. EDITOR Ellen Kellum COPY EDITOR Gregory Stepanich ART DIRECTION AND DESIGN Ellen Kellum DESIGN CONSULTANT Stefanie Goodwiller CONTRIBUTING WRITERS

Ronnie Agnew, Berkley Hudson, Timothy Ivy, Ellen Kellum, Ellen Meacham, Michael Newsom, Gene Policinski, La Reeca Rucker, Angela Rogalski, Chris Canty Sparks, Christina Steube

COVER ILLUSTRATION BY: Ellen Kellum PHOTOGRAPHY/ILLUSTRATION

Troy Catchings, Timothy Ivy, Robert Jordan, Ellen Kellum, Stan O’Dell, Chris Canty Sparks, Alysia Burton Steele, Patricia Thompson, UM Communications

Articles and opinions expressed in The Review are those of the authors and do not represent the views of The University of Mississippi or the School of Journalism and New Media. All rights reserved. No part of this magazine may be reprinted in any manner without the written permission of the publisher.

THE REVIEW Magazine is published annually by The University of Mississippi School of Journalism and New Media 114 Farley Hall, University, MS 38677

THE REVIEW

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CURRENT EVENTS

New Classes EXCITING OPPORTUNITIES TO GIVE OUR STUDENTS THE MOST CURRENT INDUSTRY SKILLS IMC 362 - ELEMENTS OF EVENT PLANNING This class provides an overview of event planning. Students will develop an understanding of various types of events and meetings. They will turn their lessons into action by planning events for the school during the semester.

IMC 361 - FASHION PROMOTION Students will learn the essential elements of the fashion industry, with an emphasis on merchandising and buying.

Students will also learn about industry-related trends as well as marketing and branding strategies.

ALYSIA STEELE

IMC 353 - PHOTOGRAPHY Focus is on the storytelling elements of photojournalism to create images that connect with a specific audience. The course covers photographic concepts and execution of successful marketing and advertising campaigns as well as how to use photo-editing software.

Award for Service SIPA DISTINGUISHED SERVICE AWARD R.J. MORGAN, director of the Mississippi Scholastic Press Association at the University of Mississippi, is the recipient of the Southern Interscholastic Press Association’s Elizabeth B. Dickey Distinguished Service Award, given by the University of South Carolina’s School of Journalism and Mass Communications.

The award was presented during the advisers’ Saturday luncheon at the annual SIPA convention March 2-4.

“He is an encourager of others, loves students and works well with both students and adults,” Beth Fitts, former MSPA director, said. “At the same time, he is a self-starter who gets things done – all with great flair and an engaging sense of humor.”

Morgan is recognized for going above and beyond to get students the education and opportunities they need to grow as journalists and people. But what really sets him apart is his availability and his dedication to the students. Whether it be answering a text message or an email about a small question or renting buses to ensure students have the opportunity to make it to the SIPA conventions, he is always around to help.

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JOUR 361 | SEC. 1 - DATA STORYTELLING Students will learn how to find data to tell stories as well as how to find stories in data, using Excel, SPSS, GIS mapping, Tableau and other tools to produce engaging visualizations for multimedia stories.

JOUR 361 | SEC. 2 - RADIO PRODUCTION Students will be taught to produce and present strong audio content as they learn characteristics of broadcast news, such as conciseness, accuracy and active voice.

IMC - NEW DEGREE OFFERED Just as integrated marketing communications is one of the fastest-growing industries in the nation, it is also one of the fastest-growing programs at the University of Mississippi. A new master of science in integrated marketing communications will be offered at UM starting this fall to help keep up with the demand.

Previously, IMC was an emphasis through the master of arts in journalism program. Now, the subject will be offered as its own degree program.

“The M.S. in IMC will be substantially similar to the current M.A. degree,” said Robert Magee, UM assistant professor of IMC and director of the new degree program.

“However, it will now be a separate degree instead of being an option in the M.A. in journalism degree.”

ACCOLADES - PUBLIC RELATIONS STAN O’DELL

PRAM contest participants were: (front row, kneeling) Kat Balmes, Addie Guida and Kendrick Pittman. Second row: Bianca Abney, Alexa Hart, Robin Street, Parker Maloney, Alex Hicks and Kaitlin Childress.

Back row: Zack McEwen, Clifton Carroll, Kayla Beatty and Kelly Zeidner.

PUBLIC RELATIONS STUDENTS SWEEP AWARDS AT PRAM COMPETITION University of Mississippi public relations students and recent graduates swept the awards in the Public Relations Association of Mississippi (PRAM) student competition, with one student winning overall Best in Show.

Only 14 total students from around the state won awards, and UM students from the School of Journalism and New Media won 12 of those.

In addition, a 30-member student committee led by Senior Lecturer Robin Street won an award of excellence in the professional category for the anti-stereotyping campaign.

The awards were presented at the PRAM state conference in Starkville on April 13.

The students entered public relations campaigns they produced in Street’s advanced class during 2017. Each campaign required multi-faceted skills, including writing news articles, shooting video and photos, planning creative attention-getting events, conducting research and creating online and social media posts.

“I already knew how outstanding these students are, but I was delighted that the judges recognized that also,” Street said. “Our students demonstrated that they excel in the diverse set of skills needed in today’s public relations profession. That is a tribute to the preparation they received from all the faculty members at the school.”

Awards were given at three levels, based on the number of points judges award each entry. The top award is the Prism, followed by the Excellence and Merit awards.

Multiple students can win in the same category if they earn the required number of points. The entry with the highest number of points is named Best in Show.

Addie Guida, a public policy major and journalism minor from Gulfport, won Student Best in Show and the Prism in her category.

“This campaign is planned extraordinarily well,” one judge wrote on Guida’s entry. “I was incredibly impressed by the level of detail provided. It’s clear a lot of time and effort went into this work, and it’s a shining example of a well-developed integrated communications plan.”

Excellence winners were Amanda Hunt, an IMC December 2017 graduate from Ocean Springs; Mike Haskins, an IMC major from Senatobia; Clifton Carroll, an IMC major from Yazoo City; and Alexa Hart, an IMC December 2017 graduate from Searcy, Ark. Merit winners were Grace Bacon, an IMC May 2017 graduate from Fairhope, Ala; Kat Balmes, a marketing and corporate relations major from Brandon; Kelly Zeidner, an IMC major from Fort Mill, S.C.; Parker Maloney, a marketing and corporate relations major from Clinton; Alexa Arguedas, an IMC May 2017 graduate from Madison; and Kaitlin Childress, an IMC major from Brandon.

STATS: Education and Enrollment

1,683

Number of undergraduate students in the School of Journalism and New Media

52

Graduate students currently enrolled

402 Number of students who graduated in the Class of 2018

4.8%

Amount that enrollment has increased in the School of Journalism and New Media in the last year

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CURRENT EVENTS

KNOX NEWS

PATRICIA THOMPSON

Miss Tennessee

CHRISTINE WILLIAMSON, a 2017 broadcast journalism graduate, was crowned Miss Tennessee on June 23 (the same night Asya Branch was crowned Miss Mississippi). Williamson, a Memphis native, competed in the Miss America pageant Sept. 9 (which was won

by Miss New York).

Williamson was active in NewsWatch Ole Miss when she was a student, working as news anchor and weather anchor.

Abbie McIntosh, current NewsWatch Ole Miss student manager, worked with Williamson last year.

“I know myself and the entire ‘NewsWatch’ family could not be more proud of Christine for being crowned Miss Tennessee 2018,” McIntosh said. “She was such a joy to have in the newsroom. She was so sweet, so passionate about her work, and was always encouraging. I know being crowned Miss Tennessee has been a lifetime dream for Christine. If she chooses to pursue a career in broadcast journalism after her reign, she will be successful.”

Williamson is a student in the MBA program at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. She is an ambassador and advocate for the Alzheimer’s Association, and her platform is “Alzheimer’s awareness: Advocating, fundraising, and providing hope.”

Williamson’s talent in the pageant was singing “Never Enough,” a song from the movie The Greatest Showman.

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Talent Outreach JOURNALISM SCHOOL WELCOMES MOST CONFERENCE VISITORS The School of Journalism and New Media, student media and University of Mississippi Association of Black Journalists representatives spent the evening of July 15, with hundreds of students on campus for the annual MOST Conference.

MOST, which stands for Mississippi Outreach to Scholastic Talent, brings top African-American high school students in the state to the UM campus each summer for workshops, networking opportunities, panel discussions, mentoring and more.

Scholarship Winner A SCHOOL of Journalism and New Media student was awarded the Radio and Television Digital News Foundation’s most prestigious scholarship.

Brittany Brown is the recipient of the Ed Bradley Scholarship, a $10,000 award “presented to an outstanding student of color in memory of the late CBS News’ ‘60 Minutes’ correspondent and groundbreaking journalist,” RTDNF reports.

RTDNF recognizes journalism students who have “demonstrated an outstanding commitment to broadcast and digital news, its ethical principles and the foundations of storytelling.” Honorees are invited to attend the fall Excellence in Journalism conference in Baltimore.

Brown is a senior journalism major and Spanish minor, who has been very involved in Ole Miss student media, serving as assistant news editor for The Daily Mississippian newspaper and digital content producer for NewsWatch Ole Miss, a live, studentrun TV news program.

KAREN JONES

Miss Mississippi Winner IMC STUDENT USES STATE CROWN AS WAY TO ADVOCATE FOR CAUSE CLOSE TO HER HEART

ASYA BRANCH, a rising junior at the University of Mississippi, competed in beauty revues during her teenage years, but wanted to try her luck in the Miss Mississippi scholarship pageant.

“I’m the only one in my family that participates in these competitions and my family was not really connected to the pageant world, so at first I didn’t know how to make that happen,” Branch said.

After winning her local pageant and competing on the Miss Mississippi stage for the first time in 2016, Branch was hooked.

“I knew I wanted to return and continue to get better until I won, but I just never expected it to happen so soon,” Branch said.

On the night of June 23 in Vicksburg, Branch’s name was called and her dream became a reality. She is now Miss Mississippi 2018.

The Booneville native said the feeling of getting to represent her home state on the Miss America stage is indescribable (the Miss America Pageant was held Sept. 9).

“It’s the best feeling I’ve ever had in my life,” Branch said. “I’m still trying to wrap my mind around how my dream is now a reality.”

Branch is majoring in integrated marketing communications at the School of Journalism and New Media and stays involved around campus as a member of the Student Activities Association.

“Asya is an incredible person, and an outstanding representative for not only the University of Mississippi, but

the state of Mississippi,” said Bradley Baker, director of the Ole Miss Student Union. “Whether serving as a member of the Student Activities Association Homecoming Committee or speaking publicly about her platform, ‘Finding your way: Empowering children of incarcerated parents,’ Asya possesses all of the skills needed to succeed not only at 2018 Miss Mississippi, Asya Branch the Miss America Pageant in September but said. “Asya has no problem speaking in life as well.” up for things she believes in, so I Debora Wenger, associate professor could always count on her to give her of journalism and assistant dean for inthoughts and opinions about work we novation and external partnerships at were discussing in class.” the School of Journalism and New MeShe added that through all Branch dia, said Branch is a gifted speaker and has accomplished, she remains humble presenter who lights up the screen when and grounded. she is on camera.

“She has a warm personality that “With all that, one of the things that makes it hard to forget her,” Steele impresses me most about Asya is her said.

“I couldn’t be prouder, because dedication to improving the lives of I think she represents our university children who have parents in jail or and state with integrity and grace. I in prison,” Wenger said. “She cares can’t wait to see what she does next.” deeply about this issue because of her Branch said pageant competition alown personal experience and because lows women to form bonds with other she is the kind of person who sees competitors while simultaneously learnpossibilities rather than obstacles.” ing to be more well-rounded individuals.

Alysia Steele, assistant professor “There was so much I gained from of multiple platform journalism, said competing that I didn’t even know was Branch always rose to take on whatever possible,” she said. “I feel like I can obstacle was before her, so her winning conquer the world.” the crown comes as no surprise.

“I know I pushed her in class, and – CHRISTINA STEUBE she always met the challenge,” Steele

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CURRENT EVENTS

50th Anniversary Students from the School of Journalism’s Student Media Center traveled to Memphis in April to cover events related to the 50th anniversary of the assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. Journalism professors Jennifer Sadler and R.J. Morgan also took a group of students to Memphis on an educational journey.

“I’m at a loss for words of how amazing this day truly was,” Sadler said. “Our students did such an amazing job at the (National) Civil Rights Museum.

They also had a chance meeting with [U.S. Sen.] Bernie Sanders. He passed by, took photos and asked them about voting in Mississippi. (Students) watched legendary speakers and stood as icons passed by us in between their speeches.” Sadler said students got a good quote from Sanders, the Vermont senator who ran for the Democratic presiden-

tial nomination in 2016, who said: “The future of the country rests in your hands, especially in states like Mississippi.”

Meek professor Nancy Dupont said three students from her JOUR 480 class reported from Memphis.

Some of the Meek students who were there include Ariel Cobbert, Terrence Johnson, Brittany Brown, DeAndria Turner, Blake Alsup and Taylor Vance.

The Daily Mississippian featured a special section about the assassination anniversary. And some students met the Rev. Jesse Jackson, the civil rights leader who is only one of two surviving witnesses to the assassination.

Students documented their day via Twitter and the Ole Miss television station, NewsWatch, broadcast content about the events surrounding the anniversary.

INDUSTRY ACCOLADES

ROBERT JORDAN

Idealliance and the Print Industries Alliance have named University of Mississippi journalism Professor Samir Husni a recipient of the 2018 Franklin Luminaire Award.

The award recognizes professionals for exceptional and positive contributions to service in the media and graphic communications industry. Husni, founder and director of the Magazine Innovation Center at the School of Journalism and New Media, is one of four recipients of the award.

Husni said he was humbled and honored when he learned of the award.

“It is always a great honor when the industry that you’ve devoted your entire educational and professional life to serve returns the favor by recognizing the work that you’ve done,” he said.

Husni’s accomplishments include engaging in magazine consulting and research around the world, as well as presenting at seminars and writing books on the future of print in a digital age and supporting professional experience for students by providing them an opportunity to interact with industry leaders.

“It is another shot in the arm confirming that the magazine program at Ole Miss is still as valid today as it was yesterday,” he said. “What we do is not separated from what the industry does; thus, we will continue to prepare (students) to be able to join the workforce and become industry leaders.

“Words of thanks are never enough, but it is one of those rare occasions that I am speechless.”

Because the School teaches job skills for both journalism and integrated marketing communications students, faculty members often remain practitioners in their industries, allowing them to teach students applicable skills for future careers.

“The School is a professional school,” said Will Norton, Jr., dean of the school. “Faculty are hired to know media, and Dr. Husni is a prototype of that ideal.”

Husni was honored on Oct. 17 at the annual Franklin Luminaire Awards event in New York City.

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NABJ Convention

AWARD WINNERS BEST OF MEEK AWARD

Blake Alsup

Aleka Battista

Brittany Brown

Clifton Carroll

Courtney Climer

Grant Gaar

Jessica Huff

Terrence Johnson

Zacchaeus McEwen

Mary Abbie McIntosh

Marisa Morrissette

Feleysa Nguyen

Josie Slaughter

Ingrid Valbuena

Caleb Warren

Sumayia Young TAYLOR MEDALS

Hannah Cohen

Tousley Leake

Olivia Morgan

Natalie Seales KAPPA TAU ALPHA UNDERGRADUATE SCHOLAR

Joseph Roberts

Jacklyn Snyder

EXCELLENCE IN IMC

Olivia Dear

Joseph Roberts

EXCELLENCE IN JOURNALISM Samuel Farris

Lauren Layton

WHO’S WHO

Natalie Allen, Madeleine Beck, Logan Christian,

Olivia Dear, Lana Ferguson, Grant Gaar, Emily Hoffman, Terrence Johnson, Tousley Leake, Kristen Lusby, Zacchaeus McEwen, Makala McNeil, Anna Cate Miller, Marisa Morrissette, Natalie Reid, Thomas Ruffin, Savannah Smith, Dani Thomas, Ingrid Valbuena, Jayla Whitfield THE OVERBY AWARD

Lana Ferguson LAMBDA SIGMA WINNER Marlee Crawford

TIMOTHY IVY

KAPPA TAU ALPHA GRADUATE SCHOLAR

Maria Hamdan

Assistant Dean Patricia Thompson and students Erin Pennington and Ethel Mwedziwendira represented the University of Mississippi Association of Black Journalists at the National Association of Black Journalists convention in Detroit, which took place in August. They attended workshops and panels, met with media job recruiters, and networked with alumni.

Highlights of the convention included a newsmaker plenary called “Journalism Driven by Technology and Innovation”; a panel titled “When Arts Meets Activism” featuring movie actresses, directors and entertainment editors; a town hall on diversity; a “master class” on entrepreneurship and branding with Tyler Perry; workshops on data reporting, social media in the newsroom, covering the migration crisis, visual journalism, sports journalism and digital content; professional training sessions by CNN, CBS and other media; interviews with authors of books just released; screenings of new films and TV shows; and awards ceremonies.

Recruiters from all major media outlets were on hand at the conference. Jemele Hill was awarded NABJ’s Journalist of the Year.

Patricia Thompson and UM journalism students join alumnus Jesse J. Holland following his participation on a luncheon panel titled “The Power of ‘Black Panther’ and Creating Positive Images in the Media.”

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CURRENT EVENTS

Citizen Scholar JAZ BRISACK THE HARRY S. TRUMAN SCHOLARSHIP HAS BEEN AWARDED TO THIS SCHOLAR FOR HER DEMONSTRATED LEADERSHIP POTENTIAL AND A COMMITMENT TO PUBLIC SERVICE

Brisack, a senior from Oxford, juggles political organization while pursuing a degree in journalism, public policy leadership and creative writing. She also competes on the school’s debate team. She struggles to practice intersectional activism, fighting for human rights and justice in many different spheres. We recently had the opportunity to ask her a few questions about her studies and her plans for the future.

BY ELLEN KELLUM

Who most influenced you growing up?

I was homeschooled growing up, so my mom was definitely a big influence. She was an English teacher and instilled a deep love of books and learning in my sister and me from the beginning, as well as keeping us thinking and debating current events and politics. Apart from my family, there were quite a few historical figures with whom I became obsessed. At 5 years old, I had the biggest celebrity crush on Ben Franklin. At 16, when I started working and realized how difficult and underpaid minimum wage work really is, reading Mother Jones and Eugene Debs helped me understand how different the world would be if workers, not capitalists, held the power. I still go back to their words for inspiration today.

Why did you pursue a degree in General Studies?

Being able to take classes across a wide range of disciplines was appealing because I wanted to have the flexibility to take classes that

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truly interested me and to look at the same issues from a variety of different angles. I didn’t want to miss out on the chance to take a class from a wonderful professor because I had to take a required class I was less passionate about.

What organizations are you involved in on campus / off campus and which one(s) would you consider yourself to be most passionate about?

On campus, I’m president of the College Democrats and a member of the university debate team. I think that going into the midterm elections, College Democrats will become an even more exciting and energizing force for change in this state, as we fight to elect people who will fight for us. The debate team is the only organization I’ve truly been part of during my entire time on campus, and it’s been one of the most rewarding.

I’ve learned to see issues from unusual angles that would never have occurred to me without the pressure of limited-preparation pub-

lic speaking, and to articulate stances on all kinds of complicated issues. The camaraderie of the team is also something special, and our coach, JoAnn Edwards, is an exceptional mentor and friend.

Off-campus, I’ve worked as a union organizer with the United Auto Workers and volunteered as a Pink House Defender at Mississippi’s only abortion clinic. Although Nissan intimidated its employees into voting against the union, many workers – folks like Morris Mock and Travis Parks – stayed strong despite the company’s terrorism. They are incredibly committed, smart, caring people and I’m so lucky to have them as friends.

Finally, the organization I’m most passionate about is the Pink House Defenders.

Clinic defense is the front line of the fight for abortion rights, and it means long days of standing in the heat, cold, rain and snow, getting shouted at by crazy Christian fundamentalists. There are very few folks who are willing to do this, but the two women who make every sacrifice to show up every single day –Derenda Hancock and Kim Gibson – are the best people I’ve ever met.

Public service leadership can come in many forms. Which classes at Ole Miss have been the most beneficial to helping you achieve your goals?

I’ve taken six classes with Joe Atkins, and he was my first introduction to the UAW organizers on the ground at Nissan. We share a love of Joe Hill and the Wobblies, and he helped me actually put that passion into practice. Any class of his is worth taking!

I think the single most influential class I’ve taken so far, though, has been Kiese Laymon’s creative nonfiction workshop. Laymon is an amazing writer and activist who addresses the most important issues in society with an incredible sense of empathy and compassion. His class also renewed my love of writing and is probably the number one reason I didn’t quit school to go into full-time organizing after my sophomore year.

Where are you interning this summer?

I just started an internship as a recruiter for a brand-new labor organizing program called the Inside Organizer School. The

Q & A - JOURNALISM IOS is a new and revolutionary program dedicated to organizing labor unions by recruiting, training and placing activists as inside organizers. Also known as “salts,” inside organizers are hired as employees at a non-union business, where they help with every stage of a union campaign.

They are often the difference between winning and losing a close union election, so joining this program is a great way to build worker power and expand the labor movement.

What has surprised you the most about the work you’re doing now?

We’re living in scary and depressing times.

There’s not a lot of encouraging news, and resistance often seems futile. So, I’ve been surprised by how hopeful I feel after talking to people who have worked, or are currently working, as inside organizers. They know exactly what the challenges are, but they have the nerve and the guts to fight back, and they believe that no organizing effort – even an unsuccessful one – is ever wasted.

What are your plans for graduate studies?

I’m not sure yet, as I’m planning to defer going to grad school for a while. I’m very interested in doing an MFA in creative writing, though.

Where do you see yourself in five years?

I hope to be fighting alongside Mississippi workers to bring radical, militant labor organizing back to the state, as well as teaching people about the censored history of unions in the South.

UM COMMUNICATIONS

What books are you reading these days?

I’m currently engrossed in Marge Piercy’s Braided Lives, which is an exceptionally tender and poignant portrayal of the struggles of young women in the days before abortion was legal. I’m also about to start Labor Struggles in the Deep South

by Covington Hall, a Mississippi native who became an organizer with the Industrial Workers of the World in the early 20th century.

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13

or

Curious

SERIOUS

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First Amendment

ILLUSTRATION BY ELLEN KELLUM

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

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FIRST AMENDMENT

Order Court in the

THE U.S. SUPREME COURT’S FIRST AMENDMENT OPINIONS IN THE 2017-18 TERM

BY GENE POLICINSKI

IN A FRACTIOUS, POLITICIZED AND POLARIZED YEAR FOR THE NATION, Supreme Court decisions around the First Amendment took on issues that pitted religious liberty and presidential power against claims of discrimination and bias, posed protections for political speech versus poll place integrity, checked the power of the government to compel speech in the ever-controversial subject of abortion, and examined how rapidly developing technology is affecting our privacy rights.

MASTERPIECE CAKESHOP V. COLORADO CIVIL RIGHTS COMMISSION

The court’s ruling had the effect of permitting a baker to refuse to make a cake for a gay wedding. But the court sidestepped the essential issues, by finding that the commission had shown hostility to religion when considering the matter, violating the First Amendment provision that government be neutral in matters involving religious beliefs and practices.

“So where does that leave us? Almost exactly where we were before,” said Lata Nott, executive director of the Freedom Forum Institute’s First Amendment Center. “Colorado’s Anti-Discrimination Act, and laws like it, is still constitutional. Freedom of religion could still be a possible loophole to avoid compliance with such laws. A custom-made cake may or may not be an act of speech.”

TRUMP V. HAWAII

The court found that the Trump Administration can implement an immigration ban despite evidence of discrimination against Muslims. The ruling rejected the challenge that the White House rationale of national security was but a cover story for “religious animus and ... pretexts for discriminating

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against Muslims.” The majority opinion said “Trump “lawfully exercised the broad discretion granted to him under (law) to suspend the entry of aliens into the United States.”

However, Religious Freedom Center scholar Charles Haynes wrote that “the 5-4 decision ... is nothing less than a proclamation that hostility toward Islam and discrimination against Muslims is now the official policy of the United States of America.” In the Masterpiece Cakeshop decision, Haynes wrote, the court invalidated the commission ruling “because of perceived hostility by two commissioners toward the Christian faith of a Colorado baker.” But, “... just weeks later, the Court tells us that overwhelming evidence of government hostility toward Muslims and Islam should be ignored in the name of protecting ‘national security’ and upholding presidential powers.”

“In other words,” Haynes wrote, “Hostility by the government towards Christians is a violation of the First Amendment, but hostility by the government towards Muslims is not.”

NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF FAMILY LIFE ADVOCATES V. BECERRA

The court ruled that a California law violated the First Amendment by requiring “pro-life” pregnancy centers to provide notices about

the availability of abortion services. Justice Clarence Thomas, writing the majority opinion, said the state law targeted only clinics that opposed abortion, and thus violated the First Amendment protection of free speech. Thomas’ opinion also noted that California could achieve the same goal of informing women of state funded pregnancyrelated services through options such as a public information campaign.

First Amendment Center Fellow David Hudson observed that within the decision the court also rejected the creation of a new First Amendment “professional speech” exception. Thomas wrote that “speech is not unprotected merely because it is uttered by professionals. This Court has been reluctant to mark off new categories of speech for diminished constitutional protection.”

JANUS V. AFSCME

The court found that mandatory union fees for public sector employees violate the First Amendment, even if just for collective bargaining services. The decision overturned a 1977 ruling, Abood v. Detroit Board of Education, allowing the charges. The decision was widely seen as a blow to public-sector unions’ political power and collective bargaining strength.

In a stinging dissent, Justice Elena Kagan wrote: “There is no sugarcoating today’s opinion. The majority overthrows a decision entrenched in this nation’s law— and in its economic life—for over 40 years. As a result, it prevents the American people, acting through their state and local officials, from making important choices about workplace governance. And it does so by weaponizing

the First Amendment, in a way that unleashes judges, now and in the future, to intervene in economic and regulatory policy.”

MINNESOTA VOTERS ALLIANCE V. MANSKY The court struck down a law prohibiting individuals from wearing political apparel at or near polling places. It said that while states make take some measures to ensure “the voter the opportunity to exercise his civic duty in a setting removed from the clamor and din of electioneering,” the Minnesota ban was overly broad and thus unconstitutionally subject to various interpretations of what was “political,” and that it violated voters’ rights to self-expression.

LOZMAN V. CITY OF RIVIERA BEACH, FLORIDA The court recognized that arrests can have a chilling effect on speech and found that an

arrest can be an act of unlawful retaliation by the government, even if it had “probable cause” at the moment for making the arrest.

Hudson wrote that the opinion “has some golden nuggets for free-expression advocates” (including) that police officers could “exploit the arrest power as a means of suppressing speech” and the right of citizens to petition the government.

CARPENTER V. UNITED STATES

One other case implicated the First Amendment right of association, even though its focus was on privacy and government surveillance procedure. In Carpenter v. United States, the court held that a search warrant is required to obtain the cellphone movement records of a person even if those records are owned by someone else (in this case, the cellphone service provider).

Chief Justice John Roberts’ opinion noted as technology has evolved, the track-

ing elements of cellphones have become focused on smaller, identifiable areas and specific locations.

For much of our history, Roberts said, Fourth Amendment search doctrine was linked to protecting physical spaces such as a home or office. But the law is changing to balance technological innovation with privacy.

In an earlier decision, Jones v. United States, the court found that a warrant was needed for police to place a surveillance GPS tracker on a vehicle.

“Much like GPS tracking ... Cell phone location information is detailed, encyclopedic, and effortlessly compiled,” Roberts wrote.

“But, while individuals regularly leave their vehicles, they compulsively carry cell phones with them all the time. A cell phone faithfully follows its owner beyond public thoroughfares and into private residences, doctor’s offices, political headquarters, and other potentially revealing locales.”

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THE REVIEW

17

QUESTION & ANSWER

Head of the Class CYNTHIA JOYCE A SUCCESSFUL CAREER AS A WRITER, EDITOR AND WEB PRODUCER ARE THE FOUNDATION FOR THIS JOURNALISM PROFESSOR’S EXCELLENCE IN THE CLASSROOM

W

BY ELLEN B. MEACHAM

PHOTOGRAPHY BY TIMOTHY IVY

What attracted you to journalism?

When I was in high school, I had a subscrip-

tion to Rolling Stone, and I would read every article written by one particular author, P.J. O’Rourke. He could make me interested in anything. And I do remember thinking, “I would love to do that someday, work for ‘Rolling Stone.’” I think I knew that it was more interesting than anything else I could imagine.

It is such a great excuse to stick your nose into anything that interests you.

Can you tell me a moment you knew journalism was for you?

I actually don’t think that happened until I was pretty far into it. I went to journalism school – Medill – after graduating from Duke. That was definitely a moment of commitment, but then I got lucky. I told them I wanted to be a foreign correspondent. They had a student news service in Washington D.C., and the one newspaper they had that wasn’t a U.S. newspaper was The Mexico City News, an English-language paper. That was 1992 when NAFTA was going through Congress, and suddenly it was very important that the news get to the business community of Mexico City. Within no time, I was 23 years old at the White House every day with the D.C. press pack. It was amazing, but, of course, I was scared to death. I had to learn everything I could about the political process in that short period of time.

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Looking back, I worked really, really hard, but I spent most of that time really terrified.

I also remember feeling very confined. There were a lot of rules, so much to figure out. I remember thinking that I was so lucky — I could have spent a whole career trying to get to that point — I was really very lucky to get that shortcut and figure out that political pack reporting was not for me.

So that’s how you went from the White House to an editorial fellow at Mother Jones magazine in San Francisco?

I think it was probably a total reaction to how confined I felt. I thought, “I think I’d like to go to the other side and wear jeans to work every day.” But that (the Mexico City News experience) helped distinguish me in that environment too. There weren’t a lot of people [at the magazine] who had experience with policy, especially inside the Beltway, so I ended up being a real asset immediately after I got there.

Then you moved to Salon.com in 1995, a time when an internetonly magazine was a radically new idea, and became the site’s founding music editor.

It was so new. At the time, there were fewer than 10 people there, and every one of them was my boss. I think Salon in the 1990s was

a lot like the Village Voice was in the 1970s.

All these new fresh voices, these excellent writers, who had come to a place where they could work with real editors, and where their writing would be respected.

They needed someone for the music section. I was younger than anyone there and knew about the music scene, listened to new music, went to clubs. I volunteered, and they thanked me because they didn’t want to do it.

It was awesome. I had this whole section to myself, and I got to do exactly what I wanted, which was get paid to think about and listen to music and hang out with musicians and write about it.

You have worked in both traditional media and new media. What do you think is the best of each?

Good writing really doesn’t change. If you write well, it’s going to work on page or on a screen. I end up teaching more about writing than I do anything else — that, and teaching news judgment. When it comes down to it, the sensibility has changed. You don’t have a gatekeeper any more. There are not as many people you have to sell on what constitutes a good story, but you also don’t have a safety net. You don’t have that editor sitting there saying, “That’s not a good idea. I wouldn’t do that if I were you.”

You published your book, Please Forward: How Blogging Reconnected New Orleans After Katrina, in 2015 about how blogging served a vital role in reconnecting people in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.

What is the most satisfying part of that project?

Recently a woman who figured prominently in the book — Deb Cotton, a remarkable person — died. As I thought about her, I wanted to go back and reread her stuff, and I realized once again that this was the whole reason I did the book. We have this idea that the internet is permanent, but it isn’t always. Much of it is ephemeral. So much of that writing isn’t available any more. After I finished the book, I worked with the Internet Archive in San Francisco to create a special collection.

That’s the reason I did it, so it will survive.

Associate Professor of Journalism Cynthia Joyce joined the faculty at the School of Journalism and New Media in 2012. A graduate of Duke University and Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, Joyce was a senior editor for NBC News and MSNBC.com and has written for many national publications.

CYNTHIA JOYCE

What did you learn in the process of writing a book that you bring into the classroom?

Every time I do a story and have my own deadline, I’m reminded that I need to have a little more compassion for my students. I remember how scary it can be and how hard it is sometimes, finding sources and dealing with sources. You forget how intimidating it can be, especially for a young person. You have to learn how to harness that adrenaline.

And you have to learn how to care — how to

force yourself to care, even if it’s a topic you wouldn’t intrinsically care about — so that you can work truly in the service of the story.

Talk about your transition from the professional world to academia.

Six years in – I still feel like I’m transitioning.

If I weren’t interested in potentially doing the stories myself, I don’t know how I could authentically guide someone doing that story.

But then there’s always that little bit of frustration, because you can’t do them yourself.

You have to let go of them and let the student work. I feel like I’m an editor with this huge staff of reporters, and their skill levels are all across the board. I am still learning how to manage that.

I think in terms of stories, constantly. I don’t think that will ever go away. I tell my students that all the time: Learn to be interested — in people, in ideas, in stories. Because once you learn how to think about stories, and how to cultivate your own curiosity, you will never be bored again.

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WILEY’S

DREAM WILEY MARTIN EMBRACING LIFE AND OLE MISS ATHLETICS WITH AN INDOMITABLE SPIRIT STORY AND PHOTOGRAPHY BY TIMOTHY IVY

W

iley Martin touched the lives of many fellow students and faculty during his time at the University of Mississippi during the 1980s by showing fierce determination and independence despite living with cerebral palsy.

Student life for Wiley was more challenging than for the average Ole Miss student. Cerebral palsy is a physical condition that causes movement disorders.

For Wiley, this meant weaker muscles, especially in his legs, and walking was a challenge. Despite those challenges, he refused to be aided by any type of braces. Instead, he often lifted weights to strengthen those muscles.

It was this character of defiant independence in both mind and body that made Wiley such a special person to many who knew him. Jamie Holder met Wiley during his days playing for Ole Miss football Coach Billy Brewer when Wiley was an equipment manager for the team. The two remained close friends long after college.

“Wiley never wanted to be treated any different from anyone else,” Holder said. “He knew everything about Ole Miss athletics. If you wanted to know, he usually knew more than anybody else,” Holder said. “His determination to be a part of everything, especially athletics, was amazing.”

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A few years ago, Wiley was diagnosed with prostate cancer that had spread to his bones, and he entered Asbury Hospice in Hattiesburg.

School Dean Will Norton, Jr. had been keeping up with Wiley through the years and wrote a column in last year’s school magazine reflecting on Wiley’s influence on Norton’s life as a faculty member.

Leslie Westbrook, a former Miss Ole Miss and a lecturer in the School, read the article and asked Norton to take her to meet Wiley Martin.

Together they drove to Hattiesburg to see him on Jan. 14, 2018.

Westbrook and Wiley talked intensely and she was amazed to learn the depth of his insights and the level of his drive.

“All my life I’ve been behind the eight-ball, but I’m not unhappy and I’m not angry,” he said near the end of their conversation.

They talked for about an hour and, as they were saying their goodbyes, Wiley told them that he only wished he could see the new Pavilion on the Ole Miss campus.

“We’ll make that happen,” Westbrook said. They called Holder as they got back to the car. He had already been considering ways to get Wiley back to campus one last time.

“The only way I know how to get him up there is to fly him in a medical helicopter or some kind of jet,” Holder said.

Holder contacted a friend who used a jet ambulance service called Angel Flight and was told that the entire cost for getting Wiley to campus from Hattiesburg where he was being treated, would be $11,000, much lower than the $20,000 to $30,000 he had guessed.

Above: Former classmate and longtime friend, Jamie Holder, and Chancellor Jeffrey Vitter look over childhood photos of Wiley Martin.

Left: Leslie M. Westbrook and Dean Will Norton, Jr. share a laugh with Holder and Wiley Martin.

Above right: Coach Billy Brewer and former Ole Miss basketball player James Green reminisce with Wiley Martin.

Opposite: Wiley Martin enjoys his first view of the new Pavilion.

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Vice Chancellor Emeritus Gloria Kellum learned about the possibilities and encouraged Norton to talk with Clay Cavett, director of alumni activities for the M-Club Alumni Chapter. Norton and Brewer went to see Cavett at his office early the next week. The resulting donations were about $17,000.

On the afternoon of Feb. 9, Westbrook and Norton were planeside when Wiley was transferred to an ambulance for his ride to the Pavilion.

Chancellor Jeffrey Vitter and about 200 of Wiley Martin’s closest friends and family, watched from the club area as Wiley’s gurney was wheeled onto the basketball court at the Pavilion.

Wiley looked up at the big scoreboard.

“Welcome Home, Wiley Martin.”

After his time on the court, Wiley was brought to the club area.

One by one they lined up to express their love and tell him how much his spirit had touched their lives.

“It was just a great day. If you were there, you’d understand,” said Holder.

On April 6, 2018, Wiley passed away, having lived to see his dream come true and knowing he left a legacy.

“If I feel anything other than positive thinking,” Westbrook said, “I say, ‘What would Wiley do?’ And I really change my attitude.”

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COVER STORY

WRITE

STUFF PATRICIA THOMPSON THIS HIGHLY REGARDED JOURNALIST AND SCHOOL EDUCATOR HAS BEEN MAKING NEWS HERSELF AS SHE GUIDES THE STUDENT MEDIA CENTER AND NEW GENERATIONS OF JOURNALISTS

BY RONNIE AGNEW

IN 4TH GRADE, AT MONTGOMERY COUNTY R-II ELEMENTARY SCHOOL in Montgomery City, Mo., Patricia Camp’s teachers didn’t believe she aimed high enough in predicting what would eventually be her future career. In one of her classes, she was asked to write a paper on what she wanted to be when she grew up.

“A stenographer,” she wrote. Her teacher, including the principal and superintendent, paused. They had extensively assessed their bright pupil and determined she was destined for something bigger, much bigger. They ultimately told their young scholar, in words she easily recalls, “You can do better than that.”

That was no criticism of stenographers; it was more of their challenge to young Patty Camp that she had the smarts to impact the nation and the world. And it didn’t take a lifetime of missteps and indecision to determine what would be her course. “I’ve known since I was 11 that writing and journalism are what I wanted to do. It has given me a life with such richness.

It’s been exactly what I was meant to do.”

Today, Patricia Camp Thompson has proved two things: Her early instructors were great evaluators of talent. And journalism, both as a journalist in some of the nation’s most respected newsrooms and as an instructor herself, was indeed her true calling.

Thompson, known to friends as “Pat,” is assistant dean at the School of Journalism and New Media, which is a nice title that describes her academic position. It fails, however, to

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capture the role model she has become to her students, including those who have graduated — new-generation journalists who are beneficiaries of the School’s maturing multiplatform culture.

“I would not be where I am today if Pat Thompson had not taken me under her wing,” said Adam Ganucheau, a former editor of The Daily Mississippian and now a reporter at the digital news site Mississippi Today. Ganucheau points to controversial stories during his term as editor, including a story reported by national media when the statue of James Meredith was vandalized, and another national story involving students uttering gay slurs during a play.

“Pat’s steady hand and level-headedness got us through that,” he said. That guidance continues to this day. “Anyone who has worked with her, she makes it a point to stay in touch. Even now I call her at times about stories. She’s always just a phone call away.”

In her current role, Thompson teaches writing and editing classes and runs the Student Media Center, which bears the name of one of the journalism program’s faculty and student heroes, the late S. Gale Denley.

Thompson, a School faculty member since 2009, has put her stamp on the Student Media Center, and as adviser to The Daily Mississippian and dmonline.com, with an easy style that challenges students to work across multimedia platforms, exercise journalistic integrity, and to approach their student experience with the same professionalism as journalists working for news organizations.

Since leaving the newsroom for a faculty position at Ole Miss, Thompson has been on a fast track in her own right, and in making the School of Journalism and New Media one of the top journalism programs in the nation.

That last fact has certainly not gone unrecognized. There was big news recently out of the school, and once again Patricia Thompson’s name was attached to it.

Thompson was chosen as the new executive director of the Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communications (ACEJMC), an organization responsible for evaluating journalism and

TIMOTHY IVY

THE

THE REVIEW 25 PATRICIA THOMPSON

COVER STORY

ist, is editor and vice president of the Detroit Free Press. He said Thompson has a strong understanding of the accrediting process, with her work history in high-level academic environments, including a teaching stint at Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill. Her experience in newsrooms, combined with her academic experience, make her uniquely qualified to assemble and send out teams of evaluators to ensure that colleges and universities are providing the best journalism education to their students.

“I’m thrilled and happy that Pat will join the accrediting council. She’s a fantastic journalist and a great faculty member,” he said.

“Having the experience that she does will come in handy and will help us make the accrediting process better. She’s got all the skills.”

Thompson’s résumé in newsrooms across America is filled with accomplishments. She

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has worked for some of journalism’s biggest names, including Robert Maynard, the late publisher of The Oakland Tribune, who championed diversity and has an institute named in his honor. She worked for the venerable Washington Post as a first job after graduating from the University of Missouri, which had to fight off other university suitors to land Thompson, a Presidential Scholar and an editor of her high school newspaper and yearbook.

It was at the Post that she was exposed to legends in journalism: Ben Bradlee. Len Downey. Bob Woodward. They all represent and are symbolic of journalism’s finest moments, with shelves stuffed with Pulitzer Prizes for stories outside the United States and inside. Watergate might be the most famous of them all.

At left: Thompson (center) led a multimedia journalism project that won the 2013 Robert F. Kennedy Award for college journalism; below: Thompson speaks to a group of middle school students visiting the Student Media Center; below left: Thompson (center, back row) poses along with Ole Miss students and faculty in front of the entrance to Addis Ababa University in Ethiopia in 2015.

TIMOTHY IVY

communications programs. She replaces Susanne Shaw, a University of Kansas professor who held the position for more than 30 years.

Thompson’s ascension means that the School just got another honor that will place it in even higher esteem among its academic colleagues throughout the nation and world.

Thompson will oversee an organization responsible for evaluating 118 accredited programs in the United States and internationally in such places as Chile, Qatar and New Zealand.

ACEJMC will move operations to Ole Miss.

“The naming of Pat Thompson as executive director of ACEJMC demonstrates the respect faculty of the School of Journalism and New Media have earned,” said Will Norton Jr., dean of the school. “Pat is a highly regarded journalist and educator who has raised the profile of our school.”

Peter Bhatia, the council’s president and head of the search committee, said Thompson is more than ready to assume the responsibility. Bhatia, a veteran editor and journal-

Among other places, Thompson has worked for The San Jose Mercury News, where she rose to the level of assistant managing editor during a 15-year stint and was part of a team that won the 1990 Pulitzer Prize for general news reporting. She left there to join Fort Lauderdale’s Sun-Sentinel, where she worked for Sharon Rosenhause, a diversity champion who believed that America’s newsrooms should be a reflection of the nation and proved it with a solid record of promoting women and people of color.

When Rosenhause, who retired as the paper’s managing editor, went in search of a senior editor, she said she thought of Thompson because her reputation in the Bay area was well known. At the time, Fort Lauderdale and the Sun-Sentinel were rapidly growing and she needed a journalist with the ability to meet coverage demands.

She said Thompson struck her as “fair, intelligent and even-handed,” the kind of editor she needed to head some of the newspaper’s top areas of focus.

So, she hired Thompson as deputy managing editor, where she was responsible for foreign coverage, particularly in Havana, Cuba, and Israel, which had large population centers in Florida. She also was in charge of the business and features departments. “She really made a difference,” said Rosenhause, who serves as a board member with a Florida investigative reporting group. “She’s smart.

She’s tough. She had everything you would want in a senior editor with a lot of responsibility in the newsroom. I’m not surprised she’s done well.”

After the newsroom stops, she got a call from an aggressive journalism educator by the name of Will Norton, Jr. The rest, as they say, is the stuff of Ole Miss journalism history.

Norton saw Thompson as a key hire in making that happen. In fact, she became Norton’s first hire after he was promoted to be the school’s dean. She didn’t know much about Mississippi. She didn’t know many people in the state. Norton put all of those concerns aside and persuaded Thompson to make Ole Miss home. And home it has become, save for the occasional visits to Washington, D.C., to see her son, who is an attorney.

Thompson says she loves Oxford and the cultural and literary amenities it offers. She loves to relax to Toni Morrison books and

Founded in 1911, The Daily Mississippian is the award-winning, editorially independent campus newspaper of the University of Mississippi. Patricia Thompson is the DM’s advisor and has led students on various multimedia reporting projects.

. 102 vol. 102, no

, March 7, 2014

friday

The daily

MiSSiSSippian The STudenT

travel abroad. Italy is a favorite, and she also looks forward to returning to Africa after leading a group of students on a multimedia reporting project in Ethiopia. She speaks frequently of a family that gave her every opportunity to exploit her gifts. It is the work/life balance that she would like to improve, but she offers no complaints because she loves the students and watching them grow.

Along with other faculty members, Thompson has created a program for students that competes with the best in the nation. The long-form journalism awards and the frequent recognition from organizations representing student media achievement serve as motivation for students and acknowledgment of the quality of the journalism program.

Her students tell her story best.

Timothy Abram was not a journalism major at Ole Miss, but he came to The Daily Mississippian and the Student Media Center with an intellect that showed Thompson and others that he had the capacity to do anything he wanted. He became a writer and editor for the Opinion section.

“Pat consistently gave me assurance that my voice was a valued one, which continually motivated me to intellectually wrestle with the world around me through writing opinion columns,” he said. Abram graduated from Ole Miss and went on to graduate studies at Harvard University, where he graduated with a degree in education, policy, and management.

His next move is law school.

Bracey Harris, a reporter for The Clarion-Ledger, says Thompson’s influence and guidance continues to impact her career decisions.

“There were many moments after graduation when I felt I had hit an absolute wall,” said Harris. “Pat is one of the reasons I was able to navigate a rocky year with determination and

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A DEPTH REPORT

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grace. She really imparted to me the importance of how I carried myself in the newsroom while preparing for a new chapter. That advice is probably the most important lesson Pat has taught me: The news business is smaller than you think and your work ethic matters.”

Continues Harris: “Pat is supportive, but she’s also a straight shooter. If you want someone to tell you to shrug off a mistake, you call your best friend. If you’re ready to own it and move forward, you call Pat.”

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@thedm_news

MEDIA CENTER STUDENTS GARNER COVETED AWARDS Students win Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) Region 12 Mark of Excellence Awards Nine 1st-Place Awards, 10 Awards Total

1ST-PLACE AWARDS: The Daily Mississippian - Best All-Around Daily Newspaper The DMOnline.Com - Best Affiliated Website Marlee Crawford – Breaking News Photography Lauren Layton - Online/Digital Feature Videography Devna Bose – Feature Writing Jules Marcantonio – Television General News Reporting Ariyl Onstott - Online News Reporting Jake Thrasher - Editorial Cartoons Clara Turnage and Malachi Shinault - Multimedia Online Feature Reporting

Students win Southeast Journalism Conference (SEJC) Awards Five 1st-Place Awards, 20 Awards Total ON-SITE JOURNALISM GRAND CHAMPIONS 1ST-PLACE AWARDS BEST OF SOUTH: Devna Bose – Arts and Entertainment Writing Marlee Crawford - Sports Photography Ethel Mwedziwendira - Current Events Abbie McIntosh - Best TV Hard News Reporter Thomas DeMartini and Austin Hille Best Broadcast Advertising Staff Member Best of the South Contest – entries from 30 universities

from seven Southeast states

Collin Rivera (left) and Matthew Hendley (right) represented NewsWatch Ole Miss at the AP Awards Luncheon.

Students win Louisiana-Mississippi Associated Press Awards 5 1st-Place Awards, 11 Awards Total

1ST-PLACE AWARDS: NewsWatch Ole Miss – Best Newscast Lana Ferguson – Feature Writing Alana Mitius – Best Radio Feature Clara Turnage and Malachi Shinault - Multimedia Feature Reporting Matthew Hendley and Joseph Katool - Radio News Story

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En Route

ILLUSTRATION BY ELLEN KELLUM

LEARNING THAT TAKES PLACE OUTSIDE THE CLASSROOM

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The Land of Saints and Scholars IRELAND IMC FACULTY ACCOMPANY THEIR STUDENTS TO TRINITY COLLEGE ON AN ADVENTUROUS LEARNING OPPORTUNITY

BY CHRIS CANTY SPARKS

W

hat’s next for a vibrant, growing school to do? Go to Ireland for a summer study abroad, of course.

On the first of June, 44 integrated marketing communications students and three Integrated Marketing Communications faculty members from the University of Mississippi boarded a plane for an educational experience of a lifetime in Dublin, the Irish capital.

Summer school was in session, but the venue was dramatically different. Instead of studying brand and relationship strategies, internet and mobile media, and multicultural marketing on the campus in Oxford, this select group of Ole Miss IMC students traveled to Dublin to take these classes on the campus of historic Trinity College.

What started as an idea in the mind of Assistant Professor Jason Cain grew into one of the largest study-abroad programs at Ole Miss and the first of its kind at the School of Journalism and New Media. Cain drew on his experience at the University of Florida to design a travel-abroad program in which students would complete six hours of coursework with instruction from School faculty while experiencing all the life lessons that come from living in another nation during the course of a month.

“No singular thing affected who I am more than traveling, so a major goal of mine has been to create a program like this one,” Cain said. “What I couldn’t have expected was how great our students would be. They were regularly praised by the groups with

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PHOTOS PROVIDED BY CHRIS CANTY SPARKS

EN ROUTE

whom we were working for their maturity, affability, and for just generally being a lot of fun to be around. While it was fantastic to give so many students who wanted to travel abroad the opportunity, it was an unexpected pleasure to also share what I think are the best parts of Ole Miss with Ireland.”

Joined by Assistant Professor Chris Sparks and instructional Assistant Professor Jennifer Sadler, classes in branding, multicultural marketing and internet marketing were offered to the first 44 students who signed up. Despite the ambitious nature of the program, students jumped at the chance to travel to Ireland to study and live at Trinity College.

WHY IRELAND? Ireland is well-known for its beautiful landscapes and hospitable people eager to share its history with visitors. Add in renowned universities and an emerging business and communications environment, and Ireland offers a wealth of resources for students to explore as well as material for faculty to augment their classroom lectures.

International companies such as Guinness and Waterford Crystal have their roots in Ireland and offer students an opportunity to study those brands. Recently, Ireland has become a destination for technological and biomedical companies. Facebook and Salesforce. com are two notable companies with offices in Dublin’s city center.

According to Laura Kennedy, head of data science and digital consulting at Dublin’s Next Generation Recruitment, “Dublin is

the site of numerous global analytics hubs for major multinationals … more and more companies are investing heavily in their data analytics infrastructure and teams globally, and Ireland is seen as a leader and hub in this field.”

Classes experienced this wealth of marketing knowledge firsthand when Efrain Rosario, founder of Pepita Insights and former chief customer and strategy officer for digital advertising and marketing companies Retale and Alkemics, gave a lecture about datadriven marketing.

CLASS TIME Going to Ireland might seem all fun and games, but students on this study abroad spent four hours a day, Monday through Thursday, inside a classroom on the campus of Trinity College. Although taught

by School of Journalism and New Media faculty, the students lived like Trinity students for the month of June. After a brief orientation and campus tour by a Trinity guide dressed like a Hogwarts student from the Harry Potter novels, students settled into Trinity dorm rooms and embraced the school’s academic life.

Faculty members tied lesson plans to local events to integrate the learning experience inside and outside campus. Students attended lectures and learned about brand, digital and multicultural marketing in the classroom. Students completed weekly assignments, wrote blogs, journaled experiences, created brand plans, and developed cultural analysis essays in addition to their out-of-

class activities. They also were asked to observe political events and participate in group outings.

Always on the go, many afternoons after class were spent visiting museums and places of interest in Dublin. Students saw the Book of Kells in the Trinity library; the EPIC (Every Person Is Connected) Irish Emigration Museum; the National Archeological Museum; Dublin Castle; Guinness Brewery; and the Jameson Distillery. They even tried their hand at Irish sports, undergoing a full day of training and competition in Gaelic games.

Day trips included visits to nearby towns where students explored other areas of Ireland. Some student favorites included Trim Castle, Waterford Crystal and the Cliffs of Moher. The favorite of all the students seemed to be a day spent on a working Irish farm – Causey Farm. Students learned to bake Irish soda bread, participate in a traditional Irish courting dance, care for the animals (including catching chickens and milking cows), and even jumped in a bog. It was a great “craic” (Irish for “fun”) for all.

NORTHERN IRELAND One special outing included a weekend trip to Northern Ireland.

Two nights in Belfast provided students with the opportunity to explore the capital of Northern Ireland, see where the Titanic was built, and gain a perspective into a vastly different cultural dynamic.

Students noted differences in currency, transportation, buildings, as well as remnants of political unrest, or “the troubles,” that

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have had such a strong impact on the history of Northern Ireland and Belfast. A tour of the city showed students the story of “the troubles,” depicted through murals painted on buildings and on the peace wall that was built to minimize violence prevalent between Irish Catholics and British Protestants. For many students, the story of Belfast was a first-hand educational view into another side of the island.

Students discovered the beauty of Northern Ireland through excursions to the stunning countryside. They also explored iconic destinations including the rope bridge at Carrick-a-Rede, a tour of Giant’s Causeway, and several stops to explore famed filming sites for HBO’s Game of Thrones.

For many students, this experience was a series of firsts. The first time to travel out of the South. The first time to travel internationally. The first time to experience a culture different from their own. For several students, it was even their first plane trip or first without a family.

What might have started as a series of firsts for students, though, ended with promises that Ireland won’t be the last international experience for them. Even the less seasoned student travelers ended the month with declarations of learning, friendship, independence, confidence and reunion plans.

“I can’t explain how much this class has taught me, especially while being immersed in another culture. If anything, this class has heightened my excitement to enter the real world.”

Carson Rich senior IMC Atlanta, Ga.

“The Study Abroad IMC program in Ireland will forever hold a place in my heart.

The things I learned in and outside of the classroom will help me further my education, with a touch of Irish luck.”

Mary Kelleher junior IMC Fort Smith, Ark.

Looking for a career in

marketing communications?

Get a step ahead through Ole Miss AMA. The American Marketing Association chapter at Ole Miss exists to connect students and prepare them for marketing careers.

We strive to keep our focus on the benefit of our members by providing them with valuable career information, industry resources, and leadership opportunities.

Ole Miss AMA provides the opportunity to get involved, network with peers, and learn from marketing professionals. Our chapter holds a wide range of events and activities. From LinkedIn workshops to national competitions, we provide events that matter.

OleMissAMA@gmail.com

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Ole Miss AMA

.com

A GLIMPSE INSIDE THE REAL WORLD ATLANTA THE STUDY USA PROGRAM PROVIDES IMC STUDENTS A CHANCE TO SEE WHAT HAPPENS BEHIND THE SCENES IN MAJOR INDUSTRY WORKPLACES

BY CHRIS CANTY SPARKS IMC STUDENTS TRAVELED to Atlanta to see integrated marketing communications in action as a part of a Study USA class designed to let students experience in a corporate environment what they were learning in the classroom.

Through school connections, Coca-Cola and Turner Broadcasting welcomed Ole Miss IMC students inside their worldwide headquarters for a exclusive look at how they craft communications and connect their brands to win the hearts and minds of consumers. Students did more than tour the revered offices of the two brand-powerhouse marketing and communications companies; they interacted with high-level marketing personnel and got a close-up, inside look at their workplaces.

The first stop for these industrious students was The Coca-Cola Company. IMC students spent a week meeting with seniorlevel executives and getting the inside scoop on how the brand groups apply integrated marketing communications within their brand-building initiatives. Upon entering the gates of the Coca-Cola Company office buildings, students were provided security badges and greeted with a welcome message on digital screens broadcasting their arrival throughout the building. They quickly got the idea that there is more to marketing the world’s No. 1 soft drink brand and were surprised to learn Coca-Cola markets 20 different brands that have more than $1 billion in sales across multiple beverage categories.

Students acclimated to the world of CocaCola marketing through a tour of the facilities and an orientation to the mission, values and brands of the Coca-Cola Company from our hostess Laura Wagnon, group director of business transformation. After providing the students with a foundational understanding of the Coca-Cola Company and its total portfolio of beverages, Wagnon issued a brand challenge to the group and kicked off a week of marketing interactions with different groups within Coca-Cola.

During the week, students were immersed in marketing sessions from marketing leaders from groups throughout Coca-Cola. Each day was spent in one-on-one marketing presentations while the afternoons were dedicated to working in teams to apply newfound knowledge and put together a campaign from the brand challenge to present back to Coca-Cola management at the end of the week.

The first marketing session featured Ole Miss alum Rod Bates, director of decision science and data strategy. He shared how his team works with the brand teams to use data to make good marketing decisions and showed examples of analytic models his team uses to predict the impact of brand plans. According to Bates, data “hardens the soft side of marketing.” He was a favorite speaker and the first of many to show the class that data and research are an integral part of brand marketing.

The marketing sessions exposed students to all facets of marketing. Presentations by

School students arrived in Atlanta and began a fascinating week learning about the various marketing skills involved at the Coca-Cola Company. Afterwards, they enjoyed an inspiring tour of all aspects of the world of the Turner Broadcasting System.

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the brand marketing teams for Diet Coke, licensing, strategic communications, customer marketing, marketing assets and FIFA World Cup showed students integrated marketing campaign planning, implementation and results in action. The social marketing team was of particular interest to students as they heard how the team interacts with other brand teams to facilitate connections with consumers through online conversations in social media.

Students were also exposed to the ideas of innovation and customer partnership with a visit to the KO Lab. The lab is a high-tech workspace where customers are invited in to see innovative ideas in beverages, merchandising, and digital communication. The visit to the CocaCola lab provided students with a view of the future and how marketers are thinking about Coca-Cola brands in the years to come.

On Friday, students welcomed an opportunity to show what they had learned and presented their ideas for a campaign for the Fanta brand. Organized in teams, each group of students presented their ideas. It was a good experience for all as they closed out a week inside the walls of The CocaCola Company. Students remarked what an eye-opening experience it was and how much they learned. It is safe to say our Meek students formed a new appreciation for all things marketing and for Coca-Cola.

TURNER BROADCASTING SYSTEM, INC. After presenting their brand challenge projects, the group said a reluctant goodbye to Coca-Cola and traveled over to Turner Broadcasting for a visit inside the world of Turner Studios, CNN, TBS, TNT, Turner Classic Movies, Cartoon Network, Adult Swim, Boomerang and TruTV.

Ole Miss alumnus Spencer Lewis, director of social content for Turner Studios, was the host. He set up a behind-the-scenes tour of Turner Studios and Adult Swim for our media-minded students. Flushed with excitement and feeling like VIPs, the group entered Turner Studios through the employee security gate and walked straight onto the set of the Emmy Award-winning Inside the NBA sports show.

The students could barely contain their excitement. They took turns sitting in the host seats on the sets. They learned about the show hosts as well as the ins and outs of the people it takes to run a show. They discovered there are two types of jobs in the studios: above the line, which includes the director, producer and assistant director; and below the line, which includes the technical executors, audio engineers, and graphic operators.

FAVORITE PRODUCTIONS The next stop was the offices of Adult Swim and Williams Street Productions. The stu-

One of the great joys of teaching IMC at Ole Miss is the opportunity to leverage my career network to provide real-world experiences to aspiring IMC students.

Chris Canty Sparks Assistant Professor IMC

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Chris Canty Sparks (back row, left) joins her IMC students at Coca-Cola headquarters in Atlanta. dents were beyond excited to get an inside look inside the place where some of their favorite shows were created. They looked like kids in a candy store as they spotted beloved characters in the office hallways. Cameras came out as they snapped photos of every piece of Adult Swim memorabilia they saw.

It was such a fun, interactive office environment. They impressed their host with their knowledge and enthusiasm for all things Adult Swim-related. They even asked about the golden owl and went on a quest to find it during the office rotation.

To close out the Turner Studios experience, Lewis held a two-hour career advice question-and-answer session with the students. Students shared their career aspirations and Lewis provided individualized career coaching and direction.

The students’ time inside Turner was inspiring. Students were exposed to ideas and career avenues they had not considered before their visit. They saw the connection between broadcasting, cartoons, marketing, and social media. For some students, the highlight was to be able to see a sneak peek of an episode of Rick and Morty being created and interact with the show designer. For others, it was the opportunity to snap a picture behind the host desk of Turner Studios. Still others were attracted to social media or production. All agreed, the visit to Turner Broadcasting was an experience to remember.

2018 Lens collective 38 Students 15 mentors 8 universities Mississippi Delta A four-day workshop focused on cultural preservation through digital storytelling creates an environment of learning, discovery and community engagement.

☞

BY ELLEN KELLUM PHOTOGRAPHY BY ALYSIA BURTON STEELE AND WORKSHOP PARTICIPANTS

BY ELLEN KELLUM PHOTOGRAPHS PROVIDED BY WORKSHOP PARTICIPANTS

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In

March of this year, students from eight universities participated in a multimedia immersion program: American University, Arkansas State University, Jackson State University, Middle Tennessee State University, Ohio University, Penn State University, the University of Mississippi and West Virginia University.

This collaborative program, known as the Lens Collective Multimedia Workshop, was hosted by the School of Journalism and New Media for the second year in a row. Fifteen mentors, including School professors Michael Fagan, Vanessa Gregory and Bobby D. Steele, Jr., were on hand to create a unique and memorable experience. This year’s focus was on stories about civil rights in the Mississippi Delta.

“The Lens Collective is fun and intense,” said Alysia Burton Steele, UM assistant professor of journalism. “We have incredible mentors helping students and sharing their inspiring work.”

Four distinguished guests who mentored 38 students and presented “This program wasn’t their work were Smiley Pool, a Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist from just another thing to the Dallas Morning News; Eric Seals, a add to one’s résumé. nine-time regional Emmy Award winner It was an opportunity from the Detroit Free Press; Josh Birnto touch the hearts of baum, award-winning photojournalism professor at Ohio University; and native others and take that Mississippian and award-winning photoextra step into making journalist Jerry Holt of the Minneapolis a change.”

Star Tribune.

“This workshop is a unique experience Nadja Jauregui that benefits students by allowing them to Journalism student University of Mississippi apply learning in a nurturing and informationally rich environment, build relationships with students from other schools, and engage with communities under the tutelage of distinguished mentors,” said Ohio University’s Stan Alost. “This program furthers the University of Mississippi’s mission to transform lives, communities, and the world by providing opportunities for the people of Mississippi and beyond through excellence in learning, discovery, and engagement.

Every dollar spent on this program meets that goal three times over.”

University of Mississippi journalism professor and former associate dean Charlie Mitchell agreed.

“Universities that can provide immersive field experiences to their students like the Lens Collective are taking their education seriously,” said Mitchell. “They understand that classroom alone is not sufficient for a media practitioner. They find out how much fun it can be, and their college work is better because seeing what it’s really like being out in the field inspires them.”

Rolando Herts, director of The Delta Center for Culture and Learning, contributed to the workshop by sponsoring overnight hotel rooms for all students in Cleveland, Miss., and hosting a wonderful soul food dinner at The Senator’s Place, a fixture in the community owned by Mississippi state Sen. Willie Simmons. “We are pleased to host for a second year this group of talented students and mentors from across the

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Lens Collective coordinator Alysia Burton Steele takes photos of students on the guided bus tour. Students visited several historical sites associated with the civil rights movement.

The group takes a photo at the Fannie Lou Hamer Memorial Garden in Ruleville, Miss. They also visited Mound Bayou and Cleveland, Miss.

Sarah Holm, a student at Ohio State University, watches the Delta roll by on a guided bus tour sponsored by The Delta Center for Culture and Learning.

The Rev. Juan Self of First Baptist Church in Clarksdale hugs Ole Miss student Madeleine Beck after they completed an interview.

Ole Miss senior journalism student Ariel Cobbert sits at Hamer’s tomb. Cobbert said she wanted some quiet time to pay her respects to the civil rights leader.

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country,” Herts said. “They are documenting and preserving important Mississippi Delta stories.”

The mentors taught the students new ways of editing, how to use different equipment and most importantly, how to work through the story vision and direction with a team of people. They saw different approaches to storytelling, and both mentors and students alike are still talking about what an inspirational experience they had learning about the foot soldiers of the civil rights movement.

“I had never heard of Mrs. Vera Mae Pigee before this week,” said Curt Chandler, a professor at Penn State and first-time participant. “My life is richer for helping Ole Miss students Brittany Brown and Ariel Cobbert produce a story about her. Penn State student Sydni Jean learned about the African origins of Mississippi Delta music and culture. Yooni Kwon learned about civil rights organizer Amzie Moore, who returned from military service after World War II to find himself being treated as a second“It was an honor to be class citizen at home. Our lives are richer for reporting these stories.” entrusted with telling Chandler attended the workshop such meaningful stories with two Penn State students. about the Delta and “We got up at 3 a.m., drove more we got to meet many than a hundred miles to get to the airport to fly to Memphis, and then drove incredible community to Oxford. When we returned, we woke members as a result.” up at 3 a.m. again to drive to Memphis to fly back home and drive back to State Matt Cipollone College. This was sort of a sleep-optiongraduate student American University al experience. I asked the students if it was worth it, and their answer was a resounding yes!”

Feedback from the students participating in this program was outstanding, just as it had been in previous years.

“I had never been surrounded by so many talented people in the same area of interest as mine,” said University of Mississippi student Nadja Jauregui. “The mentors involved in this program taught me months’ worth of knowledge in just a little under 24 hours. Without them donating their vacation time and without the journalism department helping fund this program, none of this would’ve been possible … This program wasn’t just another thing to add to one’s résumé. It was an opportunity to touch the hearts of others and take that extra step into making a change.”

Matt Cipollone, a graduate student from American University, was equally positive. “I can’t remember being a part of a program that had such passionate and helpful speakers and mentors. Everyone took their instructor/mentor roles very seriously and each day was full of opportunities to learn and develop. It was an honor to be entrusted with telling such meaningful stories about the Delta and we got to meet many incredible community members as a result.”

The goals of this collective are clearly being achieved. These mentors are working with students to tell stories in the Delta, build student confidence, honor community engagement, strengthen ties with partners and make sure everyone has a good time in the process.

To see the student documentaries, visit lenscollective.org

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Ole Miss journalism junior Kendall Patterson (right) photographs Zytavious McClenton, assistant manager at the Clarksdale location of the Meraki Roasting Company.

Jackson State University student William Kelly III tries new camera angles while working on his project.

Ole Miss IMC senior Libby Phelan edits photographs for her Lens Collective documentary inside Farley Hall the night before the student projects had their premiere.

American University student Jasmyn J. Shumate and Penn State student Sydni Jean (right) photograph Chandra Williams, director of the Crossroads Cultural Arts Center in Clarksdale, for their mini-documentary. They are on a country road not too far from Clarksdale.

Lens Collective faculty member Eric Seals of the Detroit Free Press helps Middle Tennessee journalism student and mentee Victoria Leuang get her camera gear ready for shooting footage.

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THE MAKING OF MAGAZINES BIRMINGHAM

S

A VISIT TO THE MEREDITH CORPORATION AND THE TIME INC. KITCHEN STUDIO WAS AN EYE-OPENING EXPERIENCE FOR SAMIR HUSNI’S MAGAZINE STUDENTS

BY CHRISTINA STEUBE

Samir Husni, the professor known as “Mr. Magazine,” recently took six magazine students with him to Birmingham, Ala., to visit the Meredith Corp. publisher of Southern Living, Coastal Living, Cooking Light and Food & Wine.

These journalism students spent a day with magazine editors and toured the famous test kitchens.

Sid Evans, editor-in-chief of Southern Living and Coastal Living, and Hunter Lewis, editor-in-chief of Cooking Light and Food & Wine magazines, reviewed and commented on the magazine students’ magazine ideas.

The one-day trip ended with an hour-and-a-half meeting with the director of human resources at Meredith in Birmingham, Carole Cain.

Hannah Willis was one of the students who attended.

“Throughout the day, we toured their incredible food studios, seeing shoots in progress and talking to food studio professionals,” she said. “People from all parts of the four magazines [Southern Living, Coastal Living, Food & Wine, and Cooking Light] came and talked to us about the day-to-day working of their magazines. It was an incredible opportunity to see the industry up close.”

Willis said she learned a great deal.

“Most importantly, I learned that this is a constant job that requires an individual to stay on top of all trends while creating excellent content and navigating the differences between their print and digital platforms,” she said.

Lana Ferguson, editor-in-chief of The Daily Mississippian, the University of Mississippi’s campus newspaper, said students met and interacted with different people in charge of different parts of the magazines and brands.

“We toured the famous Time Inc. Kitchen Studio and saw the behind-the-scenes making of recipes, videos, and even GIFs,” she said.

“And throughout the rest of the day, we met with experts in areas from social media, travel, video, food and more.”

Ferguson, who said she remembers flipping through the pages of Southern Living magazine before she could read, said she was surprised by some of the things she learned during the tour.

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“As someone who has interned with a magazine and held editor roles in a newspaper, I thought I had an idea of how these legacy brands were run, but this experience was eye-opening,” she said. “I now know some of the intricate details and effort that goes into every page of a magazine, the scheduling of production months in advance, and the developing of digital pieces that supplement the already-established print products.

“A lot of the people we spoke with mentioned ‘the reader is your boss,’ and that reminded me of how I got into journalism to serve people, and most of them did too, so I really appreciated that.”

Student Brittany Abbott said she was impressed by many things, including the building.

“We saw the Time Inc. test kitchens that are on the top floor paired with the camera studios for the magazine work,” she said. “We also saw the basic building process from beginning to end for the magazine.”

Abbott said she learned it takes a team to make a successful magazine like Parents or Southern Living.

“Everyone had a very specific job and a time to do that job,” she said. “They worked together so well. It was wonderful.”

Book Report

ILLUSTRATION BY ELLEN KELLUM

Published works by School alumni and current faculty

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BOOK REPORT

JENNY ANDERSON

In Search of The Rest of the Story ELLEN MEACHAM A MEMOIR INSPIRED THIS JOURNALIST TO EXPLORE UNKNOWN DETAILS FROM A WELL-KNOWN VISIT TO THE DELTA

BY CHRISTINA STEUBE

TWO QUESTIONS IMMEDIATELY STRUCK UNIVERSITY OF Mississippi journalism instructor Ellen Meacham when she read the description of Robert F. Kennedy’s visit to the Mississippi Delta in 1967 in fellow UM journalist professor Curtis Wilkie’s 2001 memoir, Dixie: A Personal Odyssey Through the Events that Shaped the Modern South.

Wilkie, who was a young reporter in Clarksdale, Miss., in 1967, described Kennedy in a dark shack trying to coax a response from a toddler, but Delta Epiphany: the child was more interested in Robert F. Kennedy in Mississippi crumbs on the floor than talking Ellen Meacham to the U.S. senator.

The encounter impacted Kennedy emotionally and changed the course of his life, Meacham said.

He wanted to see first-hand the poverty in America, and he was met with many hungry children in the Delta. Meacham chronicles this in her new book, Delta Epiphany: Robert F. Kennedy in Mississippi.

Her book, published by the University Press of Mississippi in April, examines the history, economics and politics of the Delta and how those factors influenced the lives of people Kennedy met there during that visit.

“I wondered about the impact it had on Kennedy, because it’s mentioned as an important moment in all of his biographies,” Meacham said. “The next question I had was, ‘What happened to the baby?’”

This story is different from so many others that describe the visit, because Meacham sought to tell the stories of those Kennedy impacted during his trip. After seven years of searching, she found that toddler who was on the floor of the shack, as well as children from four other families that Kennedy encountered.

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ELLEN MEACHAM “As I got into the research, I realized pretty quickly that there was a big part of the story that had not been told,” she said. “Most of the contemporary news accounts and later historians had only looked at RFK on the stage. The people who were living the lives that moved him so were more of a ‘poverty stage set.’”

Meacham wanted to tell the stories of those people.

“It became very important to me to bring those families into the light and find out how they came to be in that place at that time, what struggles they faced and their accomplishments since,” she said. “I think it brings more balance.

“It’s not just a story of a hero or a saint; it’s about a real person meeting real people.”

The book also features about a dozen photos, including the cover, that are being published for the first time.

“The photographs were essential to telling this story,” Meacham said. “They brought such a vivid realism that showed the impact of the visit on Kennedy in a powerful way.”

A working journalist for more than two decades, Meacham used her experience as a newspaper reporter in Mississippi. With her access to contacts within both politics and journalism in the state, she

TROY CATCHINGS

DAN GURAVICH

Clockwise from above: Kennedy meeting with the public in downtown Clarksdale; RFK emerges from his visit inside a shack; the poverty he witnessed impacted him deeply; children gathered outside a shack in Clarksdale.

DAN GURAVICH DAN GURAVICH

was in a unique position to tell this story. She earned her bachelor’s degree in journalism and a master’s degree in Southern studies from the University of Mississippi and has been teaching journalism at Ole Miss since 2002.

“Ellen Meacham is a talented and perceptive journalist who recognized, nearly a half-century after the fact, the great impact of Robert Kennedy’s brief trip to the Mississippi Delta in 1967,” said Wilkie, a UM associate professor of journalism and fellow of the Overby Center for Southern Journalism and Politics.

“It was a mission that changed his life, the tortured history of that region and the nation’s attitude toward hungry people in America,” Wilkie said. “Though Ellen was not old enough to have been there, her investigation of the story has brought it back to life, and it is an example of her valuable work.”

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BOOK REPORT

Bringing Flair to Form JESSE J. HOLLAND

J

AN AVID FAN OF COMIC BOOKS SINCE CHILDHOOD, THIS ‘BLACK PANTHER’ NOVELIST USES HIS JOURNALISTIC SKILLS AND SCI-FI KNOWLEDGE TO BRING HIS CHARACTERS TO LIFE

BLACK PANTHER

BY MICHAEL NEWSOM

PHOTOGRAPHY BY TIMOTHY IVY

“Who is the Black Panther?"

Jesse J. Holland crafted his most recent novel, Black Panther: Who in Mount Pleasant and encouraged him to come to Ole Miss.

“I would have never been at Ole Miss if it wasn’t for Dean Norton,” Is the Black Panther?, using skills he honed during his undergraduate years at Ole Miss. Holland, who graduated from the university in Holland said. “He has been to a great mentor to me all of these years.”

University of Mississippi Norton described Holland as “exceptional” and credited his suc1994 with a degree in journalism, was tasked in 2016 with retelling the journalism & English graduate story through a 90,000-word origin-story novel based on material in cess to his work ethic.

“I wish I had his character. He is so honest and hardworking, and six comics. The goal was to create a new world for the main character, Author of blockbuster movie's he never complains. If he talks about something being bad, he does so T’Challa, set in modern times. book with a smile on his face,” Norton said. “When Jesse Holland tells you The Holly Springs native started working for the towncompanion newspaper, The South Reporter, covering his high school. When he first attended something, you can trust that it’s the truth.”

Since graduation, Holland has moved to Washington, D.C. He Ole Miss in 1989, he immediately went to work for The Oxford Eagle.

There, he covered the town of Water Valley, high school sports, and teaches creative nonfiction writing as part of the master of fine arts program at Goucher College in Townson, Md. He is also a race and “whatever had to be done.”

Later, Holland worked for the campus newspaper, The Daily Mis- ethnicity writer for the Associated Press.

He’s also penned award-winning nonfiction. His sissippian, as a news editor before becoming managbook The Invisibles: The Untold Story of African ing editor and eventually editor-in-chief. He helped American Slavery in the White House (Lyons Press, craft a comic strip along with two other students 2016) won the 2017 silver medal in U.S. history in the called “Hippie and the Black Guy” that made light Independent Publisher Book Awards. of stereotypes for the school paper. He did all of this Because his books focus mainly on Africanwhile pursuing a double major in journalism and EnAmerican history, he was approached by an editor at glish. He also worked for Rebel Radio as a DJ for his Lucasfilm in 2016 about writing the backstory for a rap show and talk show, and was a cameraman for the character named Finn in the new Star Wars trilogy. school’s TV newscast.

“All of the professors at Ole Miss insisted that we “(Star Wars) was one of the first films I saw in a theall learn different forms of journalism. I went from ater,” he said. “I jumped at the chance, and ‘The Force room to room in Farley Hall,” Holland said. “I tried Awakens: Finn’s Story’ came out.” to stick my finger in every form of journalism I could, After reading the story, an editor at Marvel conand Ole Miss encouraged it.” tacted Holland about writing a story for the latest film School of Journalism and New Media Dean Will about the Black Panther. A comic book fan, Holland Norton, Jr. found Holland when he was in high school readily agreed.

JESSE J. HOLLAND

SPEAKING AT THE OVERBY AUDITORIUM

TUESDAY, MARCH 27 @ 2 PM

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JESSE J. HOLLAND

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BOOK REPORT

“Marvel wanted a novel retelling the origin of the Black Panther in time for the 2018 movie release so people wouldn’t have to read all of the comic books to figure out his history,” he said. “I’ve been reading them since I was 5 or 6 years old. It was a great experience – it gave me an excuse to read comic books.”

“I told Marvel I’d love to take it on and they offered to send me some Black Panther comic books for research, and I said, ‘Don’t bother. I already have them all in my basement right now.’ Back at Ole Miss, I used to drive to Memphis to be there when the comic books came out on Wednesdays.

It was a weekly pilgrimage for me and my friends,” he said.

Dex McCain, Holland’s fraternity brother with whom he pledged the Eta Zeta chapter of Omega Phi Psi Fraternity, Inc., the first black Greek-lettered charter at Ole Miss, remembered Holland’s love of comic books in college.

“We knew he was destined for this. The things he’s done have prepared him for this, and he has always had a passion for comic books,” McCain said. “To me, he tells every story like it is, and that’s what you see in his books, including ‘Black Panther.’”

Holland drew inspiration for his novel about the Black Panther from his own life, something he’s learned to do with his fiction writing over the years.

“A lot of people in my life are represented from the book. You write what you see and you write what you know. I pull from every source that I can,” he said. “The speech patterns come from people I see on a daily basis.”

Marvel gave Holland free rein to work on the book, so he based it in Washington, and other city locations he’s familiar with, such as the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture.

“If you’re the king of Wakanda, where else would you go?” he said.

University of Mississippi professor of political science and

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African-American history, Marvin P. King, Jr., met Holland as an alumnus and said he believes his background in history research has made his fiction writing stronger.

“He brings a lot of knowledge about the subject,” he said. “He’s done so much prior research about historical matters of race in America. He’s worked in a lot of different places, so he’s been exposed to a lot of different stories as a reporter, and I think that’s all coming together in his latest project.”

Holland said he incorporated as much of the real world as possible, but shied away from including too much about politics.

“I did do a little flavor of what the world would be like if these characters were real. How would the politics of a hidden country in Africa play with America?” he said. “But this is a superhero story – I had to make sure there were enough punches being thrown. I don’t delve too much into ‘meat grinder’ politics. I tried to look at it from the point of view from someone from Wakanda.”

On the film’s significance, Holland stressed the importance of having an African-American superhero protagonist.

“Growing up, I didn’t have those types of heroes on the big screen.

There were very few African or African-American superheroes on television or movies when I grew up. Today, kids will have these characters – they will be able to say, ‘I want to be that,’” he said. “I got the chance to take my kids to see the film, and Jesse J. Holland, they were transfixed because out of all the suauthor of Who Is the perhero stories they’ve seen, never have they Black Panther? and been to a superhero movie where everybody a UM alum, speaks looks like them. That’s so important for the to Meek students kids, and I’m just happy that I got to play a and faculty at the small part in crafting this character for the Overby Center. new century.”

MEEK SCHOOL UM SCHOOL OF

JOURNALISM AND NEW MEDIA

Join Us in the

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All alumni, students, faculty and friends are welcome.

The fun starts three hours prior to kickoff Farley Hall front lawn

Ole Miss 2018 Football Schedule Sept. 1 - vs. Texas Tech Sept. 8 - vs. Southern Illinois Sept. 15 - vs. Alabama Sept. 22 - vs. Kent State

Sept. 29 - vs. LSU Oct. 6 - vs. Louisiana-Monroe Oct. 20 - vs. Auburn

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Nov. 3 - vs. South Carolina Nov. 10 - vs. Texas A&M Nov. 17 - vs. Vanderbilt Nov. 22 - vs. Mississippi State THE REVIEW

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CLASS

ACT PRINT PROUD - DIGITAL SMART WITH A LINEUP OF PROFESSIONALS FROM ALL OVER THE WORLD, THE MAGAZINE INNOVATION CENTER HOSTS A UNIQUE ANNUAL CONFERENCE THAT BRINGS REAL-WORLD EXPERIENCE TO SCHOOL STUDENTS

ILLUSTRATION BY ELLEN KELLUM

BY ANGELA ROGALSKI

“ACT” stands for “Amplify, Clarify and Testify” – on and about the future of print in a digital age and the many ways print and digital should interact in today’s marketplace. The Magazine Innovation Center at the School of Journalism and New Media hosted the eighth annual ACT Experience April 17-20. The event first took place in 2010, created by the MIC’s founder and director, Samir Husni, and has grown bigger and better each year.

For the last eight years, the Magazine Innovation Center has brought industry leaders together for a three-day think-and-do experience, and this year saw more than 30 of those notables gather at the Overby Center, where most of the event is held, to share thoughts and ideas with not only each other, but also students who came in record numbers to see and hear their presentations.

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MAGAZINE MEDIA

Liz Vaccariello: Editor-in-chief, Parents magazine, and content director, Meredith Parents Network

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Bonnie Kintzer: President and CEO of Trusted Media Brands

Daren Mazzucca: Vice president and publisher, Martha Stewart Living

Samir Husni

“ACT 8 exceeded my expectations,” said Beaman. “The atmosphere was more relaxed than I had imagined, so we got to connect with people on a personal level as well as a professional level.

I think I made connections that will be helpful for years to come. I definitely plan to stay in touch with a lot of the people I met. I am already connected with most of them on social media.”

Husni’s magazine service journalism program and his overall, genuine concern for students really rose to the forefront for Beaman.

“I have learned a lot more than just about the magazine industry in Dr. H’s class. He truly cares about each of his students, and not just about their academic success. I was so proud to be his student at the ACT Experience, because he is so well-respected by so many.”

This valuable and unique event, which brings industry leaders together with students, is already gearing up for the 2019 event next spring from April 23 to 25.

The ACT Experience, and Husni himself, give students tangible things they need to know about the magazine industry and the platform to set them up for mentorship - an opportunity they would never have had otherwise.

Linda Thomas Brooks: President and CEO of MPA: The Association of Magazine Media

TIMOTHY IVY

Magazine media leaders such as Liz Vaccariello, editor-in-chief of Parents magazine and Meredith Parents Network; Jim Elliott, president of James G. Elliott Co., the nation’s largest national outsourced ad sales firm for print and digital publishers; Daren Mazzucca, vice president and group publisher of Real Simple, Martha Stewart Living and Martha Stewart Weddings; and Bonnie Kintzer, president and CEO of Trusted Media Brands, just to name a few, were on hand to speak to and with students. It was an amazing experience for these future industry leaders to mix it up with many of the leaders of today.

If you ask Husni why he has these ACT Experiences, he’ll tell you emphatically, “They’re held for the students. Where else could a freshman, sophomore, junior, or senior college student swap conversation with a CEO, editor-in-chief, or publisher of a major magazine media company without a legacy of experience under their belt?”

But what did this gathering of professionals in the industry mean to some of the students who were actually present this goround? Were important contacts, possibly even potential employment, a part of what students realized?

“ACT 8 was one of the best experiences of my college career.

Every expectation I had was met, and every personal goal I had planned for myself was easily attainable because everyone involved was so kind and willing to help the students,” said Daniel A. Dubuisson.

“They all offered their personal contact information and even took our résumés so that we could get their feedback.”

Dubuisson, a 2018 graduating student, was in Husni’s service journalism class and participated in ACT 8. He felt he had more realistic expectations about life after college thanks to the advice and tips the ACT 8 guests were able to provide.

“These connections are invaluable because I could not have made them without ACT 8,” he said.

Rhyan Beaman, another 2018 graduating student from Husni’s magazine service journalism class, participated in the magazine conference, as well.

“Where else could a college student swap conversation with a CEO, editor-in-chief, or publisher of a major magazine media company without a legacy of experience under their belt?”

ROBERT JORDAN

TIMOTHY IVY

TIMOTHY IVY

TIMOTHY IVY

Counter-clockwise from left: School students sharing the stage at the Ground Zero Blues Club in Clarksdale with Samir Husni at the conclusion of the ACT 8 Experience; Journalism student Grant Gaar helps with registration for the event; participants look over the various magazines on offer; Publisher Scott Coopwood speaks during the conference.

UM journalism professor Samir Husni launched the Magazine Innovation Center in 2009. In honor of his years of work, former student Amy Lyles Wilson has started an endowment to rename the center for her mentor and friend.

Send a check with the fund noted in the memo line to: University of Mississippi Foundation, 406 University Ave., Oxford, Miss. 38655 or by visiting umfoundation.com/makeagift For more information, contact Jason McCormick at jason@olemiss.edu or 662-915-5944

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MAGAZINE MEDIA

TIMOTHY IVY

Innovation and Inspiration NEWELL TURNER FROM A PROMISING START AS A MAGAZINE STUDENT, THIS AWARD-WINNING EDITORIAL DIRECTOR HAS BECOME A LEADER IN THE PUBLISHING WORLD

BY MICHAEL NEWSOM

N

ewell Turner, a former University of Mississippi magazine student who rose to become the Hearst Design Group editorial director, was presented the Silver Em, the University of Mississippi’s highest award in journalism, at a campus event April 18.

Turner is responsible for the collective editorial direction of Elle Decor, House Beautiful and Veranda magazines. He served five years as the 22nd editor-in-chief of House Beautiful, and in 2012 under Turner’s leadership, the magazine won its first National Magazine Award for general excellence – the industry’s equivalent of an Oscar – and was a finalist in the category in 2013.

“The Silver Em is usually given to a native or resident of Mississippi who has excelled in the field of journalism and media.” said Samir Husni, professor and director of the Magazine Innovation Center. Turner was one of his early magazine students.

When Dorothy Kalins, then-editor-inchief of Metropolitan Home magazine, visited Ole Miss in the mid-1980s, she was impressed by Turner’s passion for the magazine industry.

“Newell, who was in my class, asked her a few questions that left an impact on her,” Husni said. “When she went back, she called and said, ‘Samir, I have an assistant position. I would like to offer it to Newell.’”

Husni said he encouraged Turner to take the job, saying, “If you are going to be in this profession, those opportunities don’t knock twice.”

Turner took the job and eventually became editorial director of the Hearst Design Group, a leader in the publishing world with the development of innovative editorial production models and business strategies across print and digital platforms.

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NEWELL TURNER The 2018 Silver Em was awarded to Newell Turner, an Ole Miss graduate whose innovation in the magazine industry has impacted many different publications.

Turner has reported on interior design, architecture, product design and the lifestyles of upscale consumers throughout his 30-plus year career, which has included positions at House & Garden and Metropolitan Home magazines.

He was also the founding editor of Hamptons Cottages & Gardens and its sister publications: Palm Beach Cottages & Gardens and Connecticut Cottages & Gardens.

“The roster of Silver Em honorees ranges from difference-makers at the national level to those who made their home state and communities better places to live and work,” said Charles Mitchell, former associate dean of the UM School of Journalism and New Media.

“Newell Turner has certainly earned a place in this distinct group.”

g n i H r u istory t p a C THIS MISSISSIPPI PHOTOGRAPHER PRODUCED NOT JUST PORTRAITS OF FRIENDS AND NEIGHBORS BUT A VAST AND POIGNANT ARCHIVE OF SMALL-TOWN LIFE

BY BERKLEY HUDSON

O.N. PRUITT

O

nce, Otis Neal Pruitt was the picture man for my town, Columbus, Miss., in Lowndes County, which as you may know, is located along the Tombigbee River north of where it cuts from Mississippi into Alabama and heads to the Gulf of Mexico.

Many of my ancestors moved to Columbus and environs from the 1830s to the 1850s in that era defined by cotton and slavery. In the early 20th century, Pruitt, a white man working in a highly racialized environment of whites and blacks, began photographing my Anglo family.

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From 1920 to 1960, O.N. Pruitt was a commercial and studio photographer who documented the life of Columbus, Miss.

Left: Tupelo in the aftermath of the 1936 tornado.

Below: World heavyweight champion, Jack Dempsey, prepares to perform a buried-alive carnival act in Columbus, Miss., in 1930.

Pruitt had come there after World War I, arriving from south Mississippi’s Jasper County, where he had grown up.

He had worked for his uncle in a Wiggins general store and discovered photography by capturing images of his own children. Pruitt also made photographs of the still-primeval Mississippi landscape that was being advertised to Yankees who had money to buy cheap land.

This story I tell you is how I’ve wound into a ball my golden string of Mississippi, a white boy and then a white man in a place where race matters still. Although I don’t have the space to tell about all of the places where I have wound up that string, including archives in Berlin, Germany, and at the Grand Hyatt in Seoul, South Korea, I can say my origins led to me become a journalist writing about, among other things: racial and ethnic conflict and diverse cultures on the East and West coasts.

I worked as a newspaper and magazine journalist. For the Providence Journal-Bulletin in Rhode Island, I wrote about the Ku Klux Klan, anti-nuclear protests, bears, wooden boats, Amy Carter, and immigration waves of Hmong refugees and others fleeing from Cambodia, Cuba, and El Salvador. I edited the Providence Sunday Journal magazine, where I published stories about the New England Mafia, Cajun music, pit bulls, and AIDS research. For the Los Angeles Times I wrote about rattlesnakes, freeways, and tensions surrounding Asian immigration into Southern California.

That professional career led me to become a media history scholar at the University of Missouri focusing on literary journalism and visual representation of race, ethnicity, and culture. In a recent time of tumult at that university,

I give you the end Of a golden string Only wind it into a ball It will lead you in at Heaven’s gate Built in Jerusalem’s wall.

—William Blake Above: The collection includes images of everyday places such as the Main Street Service Station in Columbus, Miss., and events such as carnivals, baptisms, picnics and the aftermath of natural disasters that affected the area. Opposite page: O.N. Pruitt’s glass-plate negatives included these three images of people in various poses.

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PHOTOGRAPHS COURTESY OF PRUITT-SHANKS COLLECTION, UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA AT CHAPEL HILL

I became the founding chair in 2015 of the campus-wide Race Relations Committee.

Throughout this, the University of Mississippi, Ole Miss, has played an integral role in my discoveries, including those embedded in the photographs of Mr. Pruitt. I have applied what I learned from my Ole Miss study of journalism and history with, among others: Sam Talbert, Gale Denley, Jere Hoar, David Sansing, Harry Owens, Dale Abadie, and Bob Haws.

Woven through this is the story of how five white boyhood friends who grew up in Columbus preserved a “photo-biography” of our town. Jim Carnes, Birney Imes, brothers David and Mark Gooch and I banded together to buy the collection in 1987. Pruitt had photographed us and our families. He photographed the Sanitary Laundry and Dry Cleaning, run by my maternal grandparents: “When clothes are dirty, dial Six-Thirty.” He photographed my father’s Main Street Service Station: “Don’t Cuss. Call Russ” with “Clean Restrooms Inside” — “gentlemen,” “ladies,” “colored.”

However, we had little idea what precisely we would discover jammed into dozens of cardboard and wooden boxes. We did sense that the thousands of glass-plate and film negatives needed to be preserved, researched, published, archived, and exhibited. That project continues, thanks in part to support from the likes of Dean Will Norton, Jr. of the School and from a 2013 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Sublime and tragic, the Pruitt photographs depict everything from church baptisms in the Tombigbee River — remarkably, both white and black congregants from different churches posed together in the 1930s — to fires, carnivals, floods, picnics, studio portraits, two of the last executions on the Lowndes County Courthouse grounds, and the illegal lynching of two African-American farmers in 1935.

And Pruitt photographed the aftermath of the 1936 Tupelo tornado that didn’t kill baby Elvis Presley, but that likely killed some 250 people. He photographed a visit to Columbus by native son and Pulitzer playwright Tennessee Williams in 1952. At an earlier time, author Truman Capote’s parents showed up to be photographed with world heavyweight champion Jack Dempsey, and the buried-alive carnival act Madame Flozella and the Great Pasha.

Pruitt recorded the contours of the Jim Crow American South where he was a de facto documentarian of his postage stamp of soil where race, class and gender mattered greatly.

Over the years, as we researched the Pruitt images and coped with difficulty of preservation, we realized the negatives needed a long-term home.

Part of that process involved Ole Miss connections, including scholars wise about photography and the American South; Bill Ferris, Tom Rankin, and Charles Wilson, in their distinct ways, continue to assist me. Rankin helped to lead me to another crucial mentor, MacArthur Genius grantee Deborah Willis of New York University.

In 2005, in a bargain-sale transfer, we moved 142,000 negatives of the Pruitt-Shanks Collection to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. (Calvin Shanks was Pruitt’s assistant.) At that time, an appraisal determined “the research potential for this archive for civil rights historians, art historians and scholars of Southern history is immense.”

To paraphrase poet Williams Carlos Williams’ description of photographs by Walker Evans, Pruitt’s photographic eye was straightforward and Puritanical. And we have discovered photographs such as these represent an intangible value not only to the community they depict, but also to all people, anywhere, who love photography, history, and culture.

Berkley Hudson is an associate professor at the Missouri School of Journalism. He was selected in 2015 as one of the five best professors at Mizzou that year. For his work on race relations, last year he received the University of Missouri System’s Presidential Award for Service, given to a single professor. He graduated from the University of Mississippi with majors in history and journalism.

A winner of a Dow Jones Editing Internship, he was editor of Mississippi Magazine and managing editor of The Daily Mississippian. He received a master’s degree from Columbia University. Long after that, he earned a doctorate in mass communication and a certificate in folklore from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

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THE LAST WORD

What’s in a Name?

Adjacent to the journalism department facility of Farley Hall stands the Overby Center for Southern Journalism and Politics.

Charles L. Overby is the former chairman and CEO of the Freedom Forum, Newseum and Diversity Institute. He currently serves as chairman of the Overby Center and is also an adjunct instructor in journalism at Ole Miss.

Our mission is to create a better understanding of the media, politicians and the role of the First Amendment in our democracy.

As a reporter and editor for 17 years, he covered Congress, the U.S. Supreme Court, the White House and presidential campaigns for Gannett Co., the nation’s largest newspaper company.

Overby was the top editor at Florida Today in Melbourne, Fla., and the executive editor of The Clarion-Ledger and Jackson Daily News in Jackson, Miss. He also supervised the news and editorial coverage that led to the Clarion-Ledger winning the Pulitzer Prize Gold Medal for Distinguished Public Service in 1983.

For 22 years he was chief executive officer of the Freedom Forum, a nonpartisan foundation that educates people about the press and the First Amendment. He also spent 13 years as the CEO of the Newseum in Washington, D.C. The Newseum is an interactive museum that also promotes the freedom of the press while educating people about the evolution of communication.

OVERBY CENTER

Overby has served on several boards relating to education. He was a regent for Baylor FOR SOUTHERN JOURNALISM AND POLITICS University, a member of the board of visitors of Duke Divinity School, a member of the NCAA Foundation Board and a member of the foundation board of the University of Mississippi, his alma mater. He was a member of the board of the Horatio Alger AT$2 THE UNIVERSITY Association of Distinguished Americans, which gives more than million annually OF MISSISSIPPI in college scholarships to underprivileged students. He is a member of the board of directors of the Andrew Jackson Foundation and serves on the Board of Visitors for the University of Mississippi School of Journalism and New Media.

OVERBYCENTER.ORG All programs will be held in the Overby Center Auditorium.

These events are free and open to the public.

The Overby Center features programs, multimedia displays and writings that examine the complex relationships between the media and politicians—past, present and future.

The Overby Center pays special attention to Southern perspectives.

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The center is funded through a $5 million grant from the Freedom Forum, a foundation dedicated to educating people about the importance of a free press and the First Amendment.

School of Journalism and New Media Create Your Own Path

JOURNALISM

Writing Across Media Platforms

Communications Law

Magazine Media

WRITING Public Relations

Ethics

Branding

Sales

Sports Reporting

INTEGRATED MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS

Promotional Writing Interviewing

Market Research Business Communications

RESEARCH

REPORTING News Judgment

Newsgathering

Advertising Analysis Marketing Principles

VISUAL NEWSGATHERING

Photography

DESIGN

Video Social Media

VISUAL STORYTELLING

ILLUSTRATION BY ELLEN KELLUM

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THE REVIEW

Non-Profit: Org. U.S. Postage PAID Permit No. 66 Oxford, MS 38655

UM SCHOOL OF JOURNALISM AND NEW MEDIA MAGAZINE

THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSISSIPPI

P.O. BOX 1848, UNIVERSITY, MS 38677

FALL 2018

PHOTOS BY TIMOTHY IVY

PHOTO BY UM COMMUNICATIONS

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