THE STUDENT MEDIA CENTER SINCE 2009

THE STUDENT MEDIA CENTER SINCE 2009 WHERE THE REAL WORLD OF JOURNALISM MEETS THE CLASSROOM

Lacey Russell, Daily Mississippian editorin-chief for 2014-2015, and DM news editor Logan Kirkland cover the destruction of a tornado in Tupelo, Mississippi, Tuesday, April 29, 2014. Photo by Mikki K. Harris By Ronnie Agnew

The student journalists mobilized quickly when they received word of the tragedy.

An elementary school principal and her young son had been killed in Oxford, and the police manhunt for the killer took them down an unlikely path. News teams from neighboring cities converged on Oxford, cranking out stories as details trickled in on the breaking story. Ultimately, the woman’s older son would be charged with the death of his mother and stepbrother.

As news teams arrived from Memphis, Tupelo and Jackson, they were joined by another media group aggressively covering a violent tragedy more common in bigger towns far removed from bucolic Oxford. They were student journalists from Ole Miss’ Student Media Center, placed in a situation where there was much more emphasis placed on their journalism than their status as students headed to English class.

The story took them into the classroom of life, where the unexpected happens and journalists are compelled to be there to fill in the blanks for a public with around-the-clock expectations for news updates. The students working in the Meek School’s S. Gale Denley Student Media Center were ready: A story was first posted on thedmonline.com. A crew from NewsWatch 99 was dispatched to the scene. Rebel Radio on-air personalities gave constant updates. And The Daily Mississippian staff, with the story breaking off the printing cycle, delivered comprehensive coverage for the next print edition.

It was the kind of story requiring the students to put into place all of the multimedia tools that have

become the standard in newspapers and television stations throughout the nation. And it stands as an example of how an idea first pitched in 1979 is today training young journalists to staff rapidly evolving professional newsrooms, which are in a furious race to keep pace with the public’s indefatigable yet fragmented appetite for news and information.

The Meek School’s Student Media Center has thrust this aggressive group of young journalists into the newsroom of the future, into a digital space that includes all segments of media that now define the wildly volatile expectations of the modern newsroom. When it was dedicated in 2004, the S. Gale Denley Student Media Center was ahead of its time and one of few of its type among the hundreds of journalism programs across the country. And today, where confident freshmen sit alongside seasoned seniors as newscasts are produced, news stories are crafted, and digital delivery of news commands center stage, the SMC is still cutting edge, providing students with an incredible media laboratory to put into practice what is taught in the classroom.

“The kind of opportunity our students have here, I don’t know of any other place offering those opportunities,” said Pat Thompson, the center’s director, whose resumé is replete with big-time journalism jobs, including stints at The Washington Post and San Jose Mercury News, among others. “I love what I’m doing here. I’ve worked in some of the top newsrooms in the country. I’m teaching them all of the things that I’ve learned.”

Thompson presides over a Student Media Center that looks the part of a news café with a purpose, an inviting place that could be confused with a Starbucks, save for one important fact: The determined student journalists place far more emphasis on the work that has to be done than aesthetics. During the busy part of the day, their faces take on the frantic look of journalists fighting the battle with an unforgiving clock as deadlines loom.

Journalism programs are not immune to the disruptive innovation issues that have decimated some of America’s top media institutions, and there are preliminary talks about reducing the frequency of the DM. With the newspaper, TV station and digital operations producing content five days a week, the business side dictates that the programs still have to pay for themselves. And currently, it is still the newspaper’s revenue that helps Thompson fund the other parts of the SMC, which includes the school’s robust, 400-page yearbook. But as jobs in journalism shrink, student majors here are going against the trend. There are almost 500 print and broadcast majors, and more than 500 majoring in the relatively new area of Integrated Marketing Communications, an intense media marketing program that rests under the Meek School of Journalism umbrella. Bringing the various pieces together can be a challenge, particularly because the center relies on students who have to balance demanding hands-on work with equally demanding classes required in the journalism curriculum.

Just like the pros making their living in newsrooms, there are stressful moments when professional differences emerge in the converged operation. In the news business, regardless of whether it’s the learning environment of student media, passionate discourse on the issues of the day is common and almost encouraged to get the best out of an idea or a story. In the Student Media Center, the students are exposed to it all, and not ashamed to talk about it. They see it as part of the education they are receiving at Ole Miss and as preparation for the future. Most have an expectation of working in digital newsrooms that are as much focused on social media and visual journalism as the written and spoken word. They give Thompson and her team credit for getting them ready and providing a guiding hand gleaned through the experience they’ve learned in their own professional careers.

“It’s natural for print and broadcast people to butt heads, but we know that if we don’t work together, it’s going to hurt what we’re trying to accomplish here and ultimately our careers,” said Adam Ganucheau, a senior from Hazlehurst, Mississippi, and editor of The Daily Mississippian for 2013-2014. “At the SMC, we know that. We’re learning a broad range of skills that I don’t think people were learning 10 years ago. Without a doubt, we’re ready for whatever digital newsroom we might see in the future.”

Ganucheau, who has served in a number of newsroom capacities, said he’s worked to bring more of a digital urgency to the newspaper’s operations, and he has plans to aggressively push and improve the media center’s iPhone app, which is available, but has not been marketed. He’s gratified to see that thedmonline. com is reaching an audience outside the university community, as evidenced by a spike in unique visitors to the website. One popular Web story, which in October propelled thedmonline.com to 422,445 page views, involved the controversial decision by the university to change the name of Colonel Rebel to Mr. Ole Miss. That month, more than 186,000 unique visitors came to the site, which was significantly higher than a typical month. Digital traffic also spiked when thedmonline.com reported on insensitive outbursts at a campus theater performance of “The Laramie Project,” a play chronicling the 1998 torturing and killing of gay Wyoming resident Matthew Shephard. The story, which led the university’s chancellor to order sensitivity training, garnered national interest and reporting originating from journalists in the Student Media Center was picked up by major news organizations outside of Mississippi.

Will Norton, dean of the Meek School, looks at the Student Media Center with pride. He remembers the 34-year-old conversation at his home with the late S. Gale Denley, then an associate professor in the journalism school, about leading the SMC. Norton noticed back then that broadcast majors were outnumbering print students and knew he had to do something. The broadcast program had no money and no equipment. It didn’t have basic infrastructure to get a signal out of Farley Hall to broadcast TV programming. After Norton approached several people, Denley was the only person who would take the job – and he was only able to do so after Norton persuaded top university administrators that he would hire from within and that accreditation was at risk if no action was taken. The larger point, according to Norton, was that there was student demand.

Long removed from those days, Norton still sees potential for growth of the SMC. But he is pleased with the center’s direction and director.

“Pat has been able to break down a lot of barriers,” he said. “And I think more barriers will come down as Pat develops her team. I wish we had more TV news programming. I wish we had more news on radio. I wish we had an Oxford news program. Eventually, someone is going to start a news program in Oxford.”

Norton is a scrappy dean, known to fight for his students and for the program. In the Student Media Center, he wants to create a place that prepares students for whatever they choose to do once they leave the Ole Miss campus. With major downsizing at America’s newspapers, fewer media jobs in general, and tough competition from other multiple platform journalism programs, he firmly believes that skills students learn are transferable to a number of professions. He is convinced Ole Miss has one of the top journalism programs in the South, if not the country. The combination of print, broadcast, digital and visual journalism gives him the confidence the graduates the SMC is producing can walk into any newsroom, dot. com, or broadcast entity ready to immediately contribute. For those students seeking other opportunities, he believes the SMC has more than prepared them for a successful future.

“No matter whether or not you go to work in media, being able to write or speak well is a marketable skill,” he said. “I view journalism education as not being a trade school. No matter what, this is great preparation for people. We’re teaching people skills that can be used in any industry.”

Lisa McNeece, S. Gale Denley’s daughter and advertising director of the Calhoun County Journal, the paper once owned by her father, agrees that Thompson has built something special. She says her late father would be proud.

“He would be so pleased with the continuity of the center and its focus to educate student journalists in a real-world setting,” she said. “He was always a teacher who believed students learned best by doing.

“His association with the media center and students kept our newspaper (The Journal) on the cutting edge. If The Daily Mississippian got Quark, we got Quark. As a matter of fact, five or six years ago when we started our newspaper on Twitter, we asked an Ole Miss journalism student to help us get it started. (The Student Media Center) has embraced the change and evolution of new media. How lucky the students are to be in a working environment like this.”

The author, a 1984 English and Radio/TV graduate, is executive director of Mississippi Public Broadcasting and former executive editor of The Clarion-Ledger.