Alumni Magazine: Issue 3 | 2015-2016

MEEK SCHOOL A MAGAZINE ON JOURNALISM AND NEW MEDIA

ISSUE 3 • 2015-2016

ROSE JACKSON FLENORL

Book Review “RIOT: Witness to Anger and Change” From Drones to Wearables: What’s Next for New Media?

Q&A with Forbes’ Lewis DVorkin First Amendment Meaning at Issue

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MEEK SCHOOL A MAGAZINE ON JOURNALISM AND NEW MEDIA

ISSUE 3 • 2015-2016

Publisher WILL NORTON, JR. Editor EVANGELINE W. ROBINSON Copy Editor RANDALL HALEY Art Director DARREN SANEFSKI Contributors LINDSEY ANDREWS • FRED ANKLAM • JARED BOYD MOLLY BROSIER • SABRINA CLINTON • ANN MARIE EDLIN LEAH GIBSON • CYNTHIA JOYCE • MIKKI HARRIS SAMANTHA MITCHELL • WAVERLY MCCARTHY JOSH MCCOY • R. J. MORGAN • DEBBIE NELSON MEREDITH PARKER • GENE POLICINSKI BRIAN POWERS • HAYLEY RAMAGOS • JANA ROSENBERG SHA’ SIMPSON • DEB WENGER

Cover photo by: TIMOTHY IVY Meek School is published by The University of Mississippi Meek School of Journalism and New Media, 114 Farley Hall, University, MS 38677.

Articles and opinions expressed in Meek School are those of the authors and do not represent the views of The University of Mississippi or the Meek 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.

On the cover: Rose Jackson Flenorl

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TABLE OF

GRADUATE

CONTENTS Profiles

LETTER FROM THE DEAN................................................. 3 ROSE JACKSON FLENORL....................................................4 FIRST AMENDMENT MEANING AT ISSUE...........................7 A Q&A WITH FORBES’ LEWIS DVORKIN............................... 10

4

ON WINNING THE PULITZER PRIZE.................................13 BOOK REVIEW: “RIOT: WITNESS TO ANGER AND CHANGE”..................................15 DINNER AT FAULKNER’S.......................................... 17 DELTA JEWELS................................................... 20

26

24

PHOTOS BY HARRIS....................................................... 22 PHOTOS BY JOSH McCOY.....................................24 FROM DRONES TO WEARABLES: WHAT’S NEXT FOR NEW MEDIA?..........26 GRADUATE PROFILES.................................................28 STUDENT PHOTOGRAPHY............................... 50

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THE LUCKY SEVEN........................................................52 FACULTY HIGHLIGHTS.........................................54

LETTER FROM WILL NORTON, JR.

E

ach year the Freedom Forum recognizes fallen journalists during a ceremony at the Newseum in Washington, D.C. In spring 2015, 14 of the more than 80 journalists who lost their lives last year were memorialized.

Among these was James Foley, an American journalist who covered the conflict in Syria for GlobalPost and Agency France-Presse, reporting on the suffering of the Syrian people. On November 22, 2012, he filed photos from an Internet cafe in Syria and hailed a taxi to take him to Turkey. However, he was forced from the cab at gunpoint and tortured during nearly two years in captivity. On August 19, 2014, he was beheaded by ISIS militants.

Anja Niedringhaus also was remembered. She was among a team of photographers whose coverage of the war for The Associated Press was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in breaking news photography. Niedringhaus died when a police commander opened fire on the car in which she and Kathy Gannon, an AP reporter, were riding.

Gannon spoke at the Newseum ceremony and said her left hand was nearly separated from her wrist. She said one minute she heard Anja laugh and the next minute both were wounded. It was a 45-minute ride to the hospital, and their driver said the only way he knew if Gannon was alive was that she would say ouch when the car hit a bump. Gannon said she did not know if she was going to live because of the bleeding.

Another journalist was Steven Sotloff, a freelance journalist. He wrote for Time, Foreign Policy, the Christian Science Monitor and World Affairs Journal.

He was stopped by ISIS militants on August 4, 2013, in Aleppo, Syria, and held captive. More than a year later he was executed in a grisly manner.

During the months of his captivity he smuggled two letters to his family.

“Everyone has two lives,” he wrote.

“The second one begins when you realize you only have one.”

Sotloff’s mother and Foley’s father were among the family members who spoke at the memorial.

Then Gannon spoke, clearly stating the role of journalists in informing a society and giving people hope for justice. She reminded those in attendance that the journalists who were being remembered had made it their calling to bring news and hope.

It was a deeply moving ceremony,

another reminder of the importance of journalism and those who choose to cover the stories that make a difference The Committee to Protect Journalists reports 221 journalists were imprisoned in 2014.

In recent years, many questions have been asked about the future of journalism and about the future of journalism education.

Faculty members in the Meek School are bullish on journalism in all media. They know how journalism enables a society to deal with its problems and challenges.

They also know that history shows that no medium disappears. Thus, those who thought that print would disappear and those who thought that radio was a thing of the past, need only look at the history of media.

In light of this, the Meek School continues to focus on reporting and writing. Faculty regularly lead weekend reporting trips to Mississippi television stations and newspapers, and faculty regularly teach documentary and reporting classes.

Indeed, faculty are preparing graduates for a multiple-platform world in which quality writing and reporting is as important as ever.

The curriculum is enriched by a quality degree program in Integrated Marketing Communications. Together, the programs are moving against national enrollment declines.

On graduation day this year, the Meek School had 1,209 undergraduates, which is significantly more than the number enrolled when the school was created in 2009. There also are nearly 60 students in the master’s programs, more than triple the total from a few years ago. The number of faculty positions has risen to 28. Moreover, the school’s endowment is at $13 million.

As a result of this growth the Meek School is raising funds for an additional building that we hope will be situated in the parking lot between the Overby Center and Lamar Hall.

We trust that each year the Meek School will produce students committed to covering the news and bringing hope.

The author is dean of the Meek School.

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Photo by UM Communications

Rose Jackson Flenorl 4 MEEK SCHOOL

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By Leah Gibson

ose Jackson Flenorl (’79) left her mark on the University of Mississippi by breaking racial barriers, and she continues to influence in multiple ways.

She chose to attend the University of Mississippi during a time when few minority students were enrolled. In 1975 she recalls that minority students were about six percent of the student body. Thus, the university created a program to attract potential minority scholars from throughout the state.

“We had an opportunity to attend classes,” Flenorl said. “There were panel discussions with student leaders, and there were social events. I think the goal was to at least get students who might not otherwise consider Ole Miss to take a look for themselves.”

The program worked. Some African American students came with a preconceived image of the university, but after visiting the campus and talking with professors and students, they left with a different view, new memories and new friends.

“I remember Otis Sanford, a journalism major, was then president of the Black Student Union,” Flenorl said. “I still remember the students being very honest about the pros and cons of attending Ole Miss. We had a great dialogue. I appreciated the honesty. I had planned to major in journalism. Learning about the journalism program also impacted my decision to attend Ole Miss.”

One former administrator, Ronald Farrar, remembers recruiting students like Flenorl for the journalism department.

“When I was chairman of the Department of Journalism back in the 1970s, we were acutely aware of the lack of diversity among our student body,” Farrar said. “I was able to get a modest grant from the Newspaper Fund to travel in Mississippi to talk to high school seniors about opportunities for minority students.”

Farrar recalls the task taking a great deal of convincing.

“The prevailing attitude among African American kids, especially the college bound, was that journalism simply wasn’t a career path open to non-whites. With this grant, Otis Sanford (one of our few minority students) and I visited various high schools on recruiting missions.”

During her time at Ole Miss, Flenorl took advantage of every opportunity to get involved with student life.

“I was a member of an organization called the Association for Women Students,” Flenorl said. “There were few women in leadership positions, so the organization promoted leadership and development of women students. I was elected president my senior year. I often spoke at university, alumni and community events along with the then president of the ASB Rick Outzen. Serving as AWS president, I had the opportunity to represent Ole Miss as a student leader — great training for my future role as Alumni president.”

Flenorl said she witnessed many firsts during her time at the university. She explains it as “the opening of doors and a more inclusive university.” Throughout her involvement she witnessed women being admitted to Omicron Delta Kappa, Ben Williams becoming the first African American elected Colonel Reb, and much more.

Her influence on campus was seen by the student body, and she was voted onto the homecoming court her sophomore year. She was the first African-American elected campus favorite.

She was the first African American female to be

inducted into the Student Hall of Fame. (Years later, her daughter, Lillie, also would be elected into the Hall of Fame.)

In the midst of her involvement, Fenorl said she went through some times in her undergraduate career where she had to learn a few lessons the hard way. Mainly she had to learn the art of balance.

“I wanted first to be a good student academically, but I was involved in so many other activities,” Flenorl said. “I had to learn to prioritize. I had to remind myself that I was a student first.

I also had to focus on making sure I had the skills required for being a good journalist. That meant I needed to write. This meant turning my attention to internships and writing opportunities.”

After she mastered the skills needed to balance academics and extracurricular, interned at the Delta Democrat Times and The Memphis Commercial Appeal. She then joined Women in Communications and the National Society for Professional Journalists (SPJ). She later was elected to the SPJ’s National Board of Directors beating out a now famous journalist, Deborah Norville.

Even after being inducted into the Hall of Fame, Flenorl still remembers a goal she was not able to meet during her time as an undergrad. She had decided to run for Miss Ole Miss her senior year.

“I had a great campaign slogan, ‘Pick a Rose for Miss Ole Miss’,” she said. “I had a great campaign team. We ran a good race, but I lost. Running for Miss Ole Miss was the first time I experienced overt racial comments.”

She remembers many of the African-American students telling her not to run and many of her white friends counseling her with the same mindset.

“They were concerned that the student body, alumni and the state of Mississippi were not ready for an African-American Miss Ole Miss,” she said. “I ran anyway, and I would do it again.”

“In life you don’t always get what you want. Sometimes you lose.

The key to success is to not let failure defeat you. I also reminded myself that the number of people who supported and cheered me on outweighed the people who criticized my run for Miss Ole Miss.”

Flenorl said her run really increased her faith.

“I had to learn that a closed door does not mean that God does not answer prayers,” she said. “Sometimes he closes a door, but opens a window. Months after that loss, I was named by Glamour Magazine as one of the Ten Top College Women in the United States. I was blessed with the opportunity to represent Ole Miss to the nation.”

Flenorl said she received an outstanding education from the university and was ready to compete academically against anyone.

Ole Miss Homecoming Court

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“I was pushed to grow my skills through writing for The Daily Mississippian, internships both in-state and out-of-state, and serving as a newspaper stringer,” she said.

Flenorl said that her experience at the university really sharpened her skills and through her mentors she was exposed to what she called a “new world.”

“After graduation Rose went to work for The Commercial-Appeal,” said Will Norton, Jr., dean of the Meek School. “However, that fall Chancellor Porter Fortune asked her to return to Ole Miss to help with challenges facing African-American students.

“I know James Meredith legally integrated Ole Miss,” Norton said, “but I watched Rose integrate it de facto. She is an amazing human being.”

Today, Flenorl still is being recognized on campus. She was inducted into the Alumni Hall of Fame in 1998, and in 2008 served as president of the Ole Miss Alumni Association. She was elected chair of the University of Mississippi Foundation Board of Directors in 2014.

Her love for alumni came from her time as president of the Association for Women Students when she was given many opportunities to meet with graduates and update them on student life. She loved their dedication to the university and could not wait to do the same.

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Photo by Timothy Ivy

Flenorl lectures to students taking the Nonprofit Communications and Cause Marketing course in the Meek School.

Photo by Timothy Ivy

Flenorl visits with 2015 Meek School graduates Kimberly Herring and Phalisha Jackson before giving the commencement address.

“When I left Ole Miss, I moved to Memphis, Tennessee, to work for IBM,” Flenorl said. “I joined the Memphis Rebel Club. I was asked to serve on the Memphis Rebel Club Board of Directors. Later, I was asked to serve on the University Alumni Board of Directors. I chaired several committees and was asked to serve on the executive committee.

I also served as chair of the Black Alumni Council. I have been an active member of the alumni association since I graduated college.”

Flenorl says that serving as the alumni association president is one of the highest honors of her entire life.

Each year she speaks with the Chancellor’s Leadership Class and gives each group “Rose’s Top Ten Rules for Exceeding Excellence:” 1. Set goals for yourself. Short-term goals and long-term goals. Set goals that demand your best.

2. Be prepared. Prepare so you will be ready when opportunity knocks.

3. Take action. Don’t just dream. Go after your dreams.

4. Believe in yourself.

5. Keep a positive attitude. Attitudes are more important than aptitudes.

6. Be different. It’s ok.

7. Have the ability to overcome obstacles. Don’t be afraid to fail.

8. No excuses. If you never try, you’ll never know.

9. Be of service to others. Give back.

10. Keep the faith.

As she looks back on her legacy at Ole Miss, she wants to see other students dream big and believe in the power of their dreams.

“I have been hurt many times in my life, but I have never been defeated,” she said. “My faith sustains me. I love students.

I want to inspire and motivate them. I hope my legacy is opening doors for others and inspiring them to reach their goals.”

Flenorl now is manager of global citizenship at the FedEx Corporation. She said her journalism background played a large role in her consideration for the position. Global Citizenship is in the Corporate Communications Department of FedEx. Within the department, there are Ole Miss journalism graduates who support media relations, social media and citizenship and reputation management.

“I am very thankful to so many members of my Ole Miss family who have encouraged and supported me over the years,” said Flenorl. “I am also grateful to James Meredith and other African-Americans on whose shoulders I stand. If they did not have the courage to break barriers, I would have never had the opportunity to be an Ole Miss Rebel.”

The author is a junior, broadcast journalism major from Starkville, Mississippi.

FIRST Amendment Report on the status of the

meaning at issue — at home and in the world

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By Gene Policinski

here are two major venues in the past year in which the First Amendment and its values are being argued, tested and challenged. One, that we might expect, is in the U.S. Supreme Court. The other, quite literally, is the world.

The high court considered cases ranging from offensive speech to religious freedom to use of the Confederate battle flag on state license plates.

But larger disputes took place outside the Court’s chambers, as differing world views collided on the meaning of religious liberty, the scope of protection for speech and press, and on limits — if any — on the ability to organize and seek political and social change.

In the Middle East, a new and violent gang of thugs known as ISIS paraded under the banner of Islam, proclaiming a new Muslim state and committing barbaric acts of butchery. Two U.S. freelance journalists — James Foley and Steven Sotloff — were beheaded as were several other hostages.

ISIS demonstrated a chilling ability to seize attention by using YouTube to post video of the murders and accompanying diatribe against the West. When Web entities such as Twitter reacted by taking down ISIS posts, the terrorists issued a threat against the founder and employees of that company.

In Ferguson, Mo., Baltimore, Charleston, S.C., and other locations were African-American men had fatal encounters with police that led to protests, new questions were raised about the power of local authorities to limit activities ranging from public demonstrations to press coverage to citizen photographs of police activity.

In Paris, as the New Year began, a killing spree at the offices of the Charlie Hebdo magazine raised new questions about how free speech is — and will be — defined worldwide, particularly in the context of religious liberty. What limits may societies place on offensive speech? Do governments have an obligation to protect religious faiths, especially those minority faiths in their nations, from criticism? Or does free speech mean people of faith, and of other groups such as the LGBT community, may be targeted with speech that fails the test of being “true threats?”

For the issues being waged in the world court of public opinion, no verdict is expected soon.

But at the U.S. Supreme Court, decisions were made in a number of cases involving First Amendment freedoms: Free speech and “true threats:” (Elonis v. United States) At issue: Differences among various federal circuits on what constitutes a “true threat,” words that will not be protected as free speech. The Supreme Court ruled that juries must take into account the intent of the person speaking, as well as consider how the speech was perceived by others.

In arguments on Dec. 1, lawyers for Anthony Elonis argued that his conviction and 44-month prison term for transmitting a threat across state line should be overturned because he did not intend to

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instill fear by multiple postings on Facebook he has said were akin to “rap lyrics.”

Government lawyers argued that Elonis properly was convicted under laws that apply the concept that the determining factor is the so-called “objective standard,” whether a “reasonable person” would perceive the speech as a true threat. Elonis said the legal standard should be proof of a “subjective intent to threaten.”

Elonis claims that the threatening words and violent images he used in the posts were simply “therapeutic” writing that helped him deal with the breakup of his marriage — and as such, protected self-expression. At trial, the court disagreed with that argument and Elonis was convicted of making threats against his ex-wife and others.

Justice Samuel Alito said during the oral arguments that “this sounds like a road map for threatening a spouse and getting away with it. So you put it in a rhyme … then you are free from prosecution.”

But writing for the majority in reversing Elonis’ conviction, Chief Justice Roberts said a criminal conviction requires more than review of how the words would be understood by a “reasonable person.”

Prosecutors must show that the speaker intended to threaten a specific individual.

Free speech and the Confederate flag: (Walker v. Sons of Confederate Veterans) The Court held that Texas officials could ban use of the Confederate battle flag on state license plates, which had been requested by the private Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV) group. SCV had said that state officials violated its First Amendment right of free speech by banning the flag.

The justices agreed with the state’s argument that a license plate, even when carrying the slogan or image sponsored by a private group, is “government speech.” SCV argued that the specialty license plate is more private speech than government speech, and when people see a vehicle with a specialty license plate affixed to the car, people associate the words or image with the driver or owner of the vehicle.

Following the decision, opponents of the court ruling warned it may encourage other governmental entities, such as universities, to attempt to ban speech they find offensive or counter to school policies.

The impact of the “outside world” on the “inside the courtroom” was striking, with regard to the flag issue. In its annual State of the First Amendment survey, taken before the Court ruled, a majority of Americans rejected a ban on use of the flag.

But following the court’s ruling, and the mass killing of nine people in a South Carolina Church – with the alleged killer having been photographed with a flag – a new sampling showed that public opinion had reversed: A majority of respondents now supported such a ban on using the flag on auto tags.

Religious freedom and same-sex marriage: (Obergefell v.

Hodges) Strictly speaking, the issue before the court was not a “First Amendment” issue, but rather the 14th Amendment and Fifth Amendment’s provision for equal protection and due process under the law. But the battle over same-sex marriage bans and recognition of gay marriages by various states clearly involved religious beliefs and at times the right of association Four cases from different states — Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee — were consolidated, but the court’s decision declared same-sex marriage legal in all states. Federal circuit courts had been

split on the issue. The Sixth Circuit had upheld state bans in the four states at issue, but such marriages already were legal in 36 states.

In the decision in June, as it had in 2013, in United States v.

Windsor, the Supreme Court held banning or not recognizing same-sex marriages was “a deprivation of the liberty of the person protected by the Fifth Amendment.”

In the 2015 State of the First Amendment survey, 54% of Americans didn’t see the court’s same-sex marriage decision having “a lasting impact” on religious liberty, but that 31% did see it as “harmful,” long-term.

Religious liberty and personal expression: (Holt v. Hobbs) The issue on which the court ruled Jan. 20 was the extent to which government security claims could override an inmate’s religious beliefs. The Court — in a 9-0 ruling — upheld the right of Arkansas inmate Gregory Holt, a Muslim, to have a half-inch beard. Holt had cited the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA,) a 2000 federal law that protects the religious liberty rights of prison inmates.

Department of Corrections officials said banning such beards was necessary for prison security, safety and identification needs. But the justices said that reasonable accommodations — having a pair of photos, beard and no-beard photos on file, and using safe search practices — could protect prison guards and inmates’ rights. They noted that beards of the length worn by Holt were permitted for other inmates with skin conditions.

Religious freedom and equal employment: (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission v. Abercrombie & Fitch Stores, Inc.) In an 8-1 opinion, the court held that clothing retailer Abercrombie & Fitch was not allowed to reject teenager Samantha Elauf for a potential job based on the fact that she wears a headscarf for religious reasons, even though the scarf was against their company dress code.

The court cited Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which makes it illegal to bar someone from employment based on their religion and their religious practices. The lower court held for the employer in that Elauf did not inform them that she wore a scarf for religious reasons and therefore they could not be held liable. The court reasoned that Elauf only needed to show that her religion was a “motivating factor” of the decision not to hire her, and then Abercrombie had taken away her religious freedom and equal opportunity rights.

Free speech and signs: (Reed v. Town of Gilbert) The court held that the town improperly had placed different kinds of restrictions on political, ideological and religious signs – violating the First Amendment’s requirement that the government approach such laws on a neutral basis, not considering content. In the dispute between the Good News Church and officials of Gilbert, Ariz., the small church had been limited in placing small temporary signs to give directions to its services – held in different locations throughout the year. The Gilbert ordinance gave size-and-duration preference to political signs and even homeowner meeting notices, which were not available to such church signs. The court ruling may impact such laws in towns across the nation.

Judicial free speech in elections: (Williams-Yulee v.

The Florida Bar) The court ruled that states may prohibit judicial candidates who must run in elections from

personally asking their supporters for money.

Lanell Williams-Yulee was a candidate for a judgeship in Hillsborough County Florida when she signed a letter asking for campaign contributions in 2009. The Florida Bar recommended a reprimand and fine because the letter violated a regulation that bars candidates from personally soliciting contributions for a “judicial office that is filled by public election between competing candidates.”

Williams-Yulee denied that she did anything wrong because there was no other candidate. The Florida Supreme Court had upheld the canon as advancing the state’s compelling interest in preserving an “impartial judiciary.” Appellate courts nationwide were deeply divided on the constitutionality of judicial solicitation bans, which are on the books in 30 states.

While these Supreme Court cases involve important principles around the application of our core freedoms, the larger worldwide debate is over basic issues: The essential meaning and limits of freedom of expression and religious liberty is being tested in an increasingly multicultural world and because ideas and expressions once confined to nations or regions are now global via the Web. The presence of technology produces new challenges to old issues of privacy and access to information, and even redefines the nature of protests and defamation.

The Jan. 7 killings at the offices of the Charlie Hebdo were echoes of the ongoing violent reactions by some to a Danish newspaper publication in late 2005 of cartoon parodies of the Prophet Muhammad. The murders — nearly universally condemned — sparked differing views on whether nations may restrict such deliberate insults with the stated intent of safeguarding the rights of religious organizations, particularly those in minority situations in those nations.

Movements supporting so-called “take-down” laws have gained support in nations — particularly in Europe — where the online posting of personal information has long been an “opt-in” option in fee-based Internet operations, rather than as in the advertising-and-marketing approach to a “free internet” where personal search data and some individual information is available unless a person “opts-out.”

Technology, such as cell phone cameras, has allowed us to see protesters in real time — and to experience on-line protests — on streets from Ferguson to New York City to Los Angeles. And images available instantly on the Web from those same cameras are holding police and local authorities accountable in violent, particularly fatal, incidents in ways not possible even a few years ago.

The nation’s founders provided strong protections for public participation in the marketplace of ideas, which even in their era had an international flavor. Clearly, in this last year, the 45 words of the First Amendment have found new vigor, new interpretations and prompted new debate and challenges – here and around the globe.

The author is chief operating officer of the Newseum Institute and senior vice president of the Institute’s First Amendment Center. [First Amendment Center Ombudsman David L. Hudson Jr.; and Newseum Institute legal intern Alexa Zavada of the Columbus School of Law, The Catholic University of America, contributed to this article.]

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digital media

trenches

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Photo by Jamel Toppin

Tales from the

A Q&A WITH FORBES’ LEWIS DVORKIN

By Cynthia Joyce

s Forbes’ chief product officer delivered his keynote address during the 2015 Ole Miss New Media Conference in early April, four words in particular seemed to hang in the air over the eager Overby Center audience: “Journalists don’t own journalism.”

As if the point required underscoring, on the screen behind Lewis DVorkin appeared a close-up photo of an 800-pound gorilla labeled “Facebook.” (The social media behemoth was getting ready to roll out its controversial “instant articles” feature, allowing publishers to publish content directly to the Facebook platform rather than linking back to their own sites.)

A longtime journalism industry veteran and digital media entrepreneur who held top positions at The New York Times, Newsweek, the Wall Street Journal, and AOL before becoming founder and CEO of the content news network True/Slant — whose contributor-enabled publishing platform also provided the foundation for Forbes’ successful BrandVoice, DVorkin is well acquainted with the pain points of industry disruption.

But his candid warning also was meant as a rallying cry — a gauntlet thrown down for the next generation of journalists to pick up.

“I truly believe there’s no better time to be a journalist,” DVorkin said. “You can reach a bigger audience than ever. You don’t need an editor to hire you — you can do what you want. And you have the tools to do it.”

But, he urged, journalists have to use those tools to innovate, not just to replicate what’s been done before. “Better sameness is not going to do the trick.”

DVorkin took some time after the conference to talk about his own career path, the ever-evolving demands of digital media, and why “Broadcast News” was so much better than “The Newsroom.” ***

Your statement that “journalists don’t own journalism” is irrefutable, and yet it still comes as a shock. Do you think it’s a failure of leadership that has kept traditional journalists in the dark for so long about the business side of publishing?

Yes. Journalists were taught that that would make them less pure.

You’ve written disparagingly in the past about the unrealistic portrayals of “priestly” journalists in the HBO series “The Newsroom,” suggesting Forbes is “taking the halo off of journalists” with its native advertising model.

My favorite line ever is in “Broadcast News,” when Holly Hunter tells William Hurt that he crossed the line, and he said, “They keep moving that little sucker, don’t they?” That is the world we live in today.

And that’s the great challenge — moving with the line, but staying on the right side of the line. You can debate the right side, but you’ve got to move with it.

There has been resistance. Less today, but certainly five or 10 years ago, the resistance from the journalists who didn’t move with the line was intense.

You’ve been the punching bag of a lot of those journalists. How does that feel?

I don’t care. It doesn’t bother me. I truly don’t care.

Was that always true, or have you had to thicken your skin over time?

I don’t think that was always true. But I’ll tell you why it is now: I have a healthy respect for the business, and I have a healthy disrespect for the business.

There’s nothing perfect about what we do. This is not science, for God’s sake. This is not brain surgery.

If you’re having brain surgery, you want the best surgeon you can get, right? Well, you know, journalism doesn’t require the best surgeon. It’s just not the same. That’s not belittling it, but we sometimes put ourselves on these pedestals. We own the truth?

Give me a break. And, oh, by the way — who are we to appoint ourselves the guardians of the universe?

You made the point that native advertising isn’t new. Will there ever come a point where we stop talking about “pure journalism” as though it ever truly existed?

No. I think journalism is an evolutionary kind of thing, and I think every generation of it will inform the other.

Although I do have to say, there are a few things I lament about what’s happening right now.

There is not a lot of time for newsroom training or newsroom apprenticeship … there are no longer apprenticeships where you have mentors for three or four years, like I did. I lament that.

But on the flip side of that coin, the new journalist or young person doesn’t have the patience to wait that long to be mentored — it’s always “How do I get on to the next thing, and the next, and

the next?” I went through three or four years of basically ripping pages off a wire machine without anyone ever noticing. They’re not going to stand for that. I think that takes away from the honing of some fundamentals. And there is a lot lost there.

But we live in a different world — it’s tradeoffs.

One of the major frustrations of working on the web has always been that one often winds up working in service of the tools, instead of the other way around. Do you feel like you’ve built the tools you want at Forbes?

It’s a constant process. We’ve built some really great tools, and we’ve built some tools that we thought would be great but really aren’t that great.

I have an expression — and it’s funny you bring it up — I learned this from AOL. My expression is, “The tools will set you free.” If you don’t have the right tools, you will never have the freedom to do your best work. So we are really trying to build great publishing tools, but it’s hard.

The faster people are consuming things, the faster we need to publish. And as the web is becoming more visual, it’s requiring publishers and content creators to be more visual, so the tools that make that easy and fast get even more difficult to build.

What is really a great challenge facing the publishing business today is what I call legacy platforms. Legacy platforms once became “legacy” after 10 years. Then they became “legacy” after only five. I can tell you all of the publishers in the world who have gone downhill because the publishing tools are so intricate that they became too difficult to change. You just go downhill.

We do our best at Forbes to be cognizant of that, not get caught in that, which this is why I pay attention to Medium and all these places, because they’re the new publishing platforms. Content creators — they’re going to go where it’s easiest to do it. And right now [Forbes’ platform] is pretty easy. You can make some money. But I am sure the Tumblers and Mediums are easier yet. So we try to keep pace with that.

Does anybody edit your blog?

I try to live the life of what I ask people to do — I write on my own, I put my photos in, I put my graphics in, and I hit the publish button. I live the life. If I have a complicated thing, I’ll go ask the designers and ask them to help me out. But I try to do what I ask people to do.

Did you ever imagine when you were starting out that you would need to know so much about, and become so entrenched in, digital media?

How could I? I don’t know how I got here, actually. It is miraculous. It’s absolutely miraculous.

I feel lucky, and I don’t know what happened.

I say this carefully, because it’s not going to sound very humble, but there are not many people who have made the transition. You have a lot of young MEEK SCHOOL 11

people — not even that young, people in their 30s and 40s — who grew up in this world, and they get it.

But you don’t have a lot of people who grew up in the world I grew up in who made that transition. And I don’t know how that happened, except I just kept on thinking, I’ll just move from job to job to job to job.

I was listening to Fred Anklam [USA Today’s former senior night editor, who also spoke at the Ole Miss New Media Conference], and I can’t envision 29 years in the same company. There’s nothing wrong with it — I just can’t envision it. In those 29 years, I guess I had 10 jobs. So I think in each one of those jobs, I learned something different.

When I got into this digital space, it was 2000. I left Forbes to go to work for AOL — that was at a time when the digital space was young, they wanted quote “professionals” to bring them a little bit of gravitas. And I was able to use that period of time to learn as much as I may have been able to give.

Today, there is no way that someone could move to digital like I did, because in those ensuing 15 years, there are enough people who gained the gravitas. They don’t need the yesteryear. They just don’t need it.

You don’t seem to be tired of defending a way to the future — you seem genuinely enthusiastic.

I lay it all out there best I can. A lot of my staffers will come to my colleagues who helped start True/ Slant and say, “Why did he give it away [how we do this]?” It’s because I feel compelled to tell the story.

It’s something that comes with age. If you’re in this business for that long, you kind of gain a little bit of been-there-done-that. No one can say about me, “He didn’t actually do this,” or “He didn’t actually do that. He’s just sort of theorizing.” No. It’s all based on direct experience.

I actually used to believe experience didn’t matter that much. Now I see it differently.

It must be a very freeing point to get to.

Oh my God, it’s incredibly freeing. When I first published my first real post — it was four or five months after I got to Forbes — and Tim Forbes, who is a real visionary and invested in the company [True/Slant], said, “Um, I don’t really know about this, Lewis.” Then two or three months later, he said, “You have to keep going. This is the shrewdest thing we’ve ever done. Just tell the story.”

When you tell the story with as many of the warts as you can, the drive-by shootings kind of stop. I’ve always been out there, ahead of it. I kind of get it all out there beforehand, and it takes the steam out of all that stuff.

That’s been the exact opposite approach of, say, NBC News.

Because they’re trying to keep a façade.

People truly see through that. The younger generation sees through façades.

The media industry just lost one of its sharpest analysts in David Carr [the New York Times “Media Equation” columnist.] Do you think there’s anyone else to replace his voice?

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No. I generally don’t think there’s anyone, period.

I keep saying to my colleagues: Who out there could write the definitive New Yorker piece about the media business today? There is no one. There is no one.

Who’s out there who could write the “Liar’s Poker” [Michael Lewis’ best-seller about Wall Street in the 1980s] of the media business? I don’t see anybody.

Maybe you should do it.

I’m definitely not smart enough — nor that good of a writer. There just isn’t anybody, because it is so complex and so intricate. The emotions and the grayness of it all — the compromises that come up every day, the complications of technology interacting with content creation, with revenue struggles and with the transitioning to a social world — it is complicated. I wouldn’t even know where to begin to start that kind of story, yet get to the middle of it.

One of the books Michael Lewis wrote that is so germane to what we’re doing is “Moneyball.” I feel like Billy Beane — that notion of the singles, the guys who get on base, versus the guys who they say, “He really looks good in a uniform!” Brian Williams really looks good on TV. But that world doesn’t matter anymore.

But getting back to David Carr — he could be annoying to me. David Carr could have romance where I pooh-poohed the romance. But he could also have nostalgia, and I kind of liked that nostalgia. So he covered the waterfront, and this was from a person who had tremendous vulnerabilities.

That’s what made it so good. Plus he also had the imprimatur of the New York Times, which doesn’t hurt. He was a guidepost. And he was very eclectic.

Who or what do you consider to be required reading? What do you get excited to check in with, on any platform, on a regular basis?

Monday mornings used to be the David Carr check, that’s for sure. I wouldn’t call it excitement — I’m not excited — but I would say, checking my Twitter feeds, I feel like I can keep up to date with things. But from a journalistic perspective, there’s not a lot out there. Most of the stuff I read these days is what people send me.

The true answer to that question is that it is very hard for me to do what I do without being incredibly, myopically, focused on stuff, and that doesn’t necessarily include being as general of a reader as I should be.

So what you’re saying is that you don’t have time to binge-watch the final season of The Wire [about the demise of newsroom culture]?

No, I have time to binge-watch television.

I binge-watched “House of Cards,” which just jumped the shark, big time. And I love the BBC shows. I guess the whole binge-watching thing for me right now is kind of like my escape.

But I do feel very myopic — I spend more time watching data information than anything else. I get up in the morning, and the first thing I look at is the data. You can get so deep into it, and you say, “Well, why did that happen?” And you get down a little lower, and you ask, “Well, why did that

happen?” and you get down a little lower again.

You get into this time warp until you say, “Oh, I get it.” And then you go and do something about it.

The last great article I read was “Towers of Secrecy” in The New York Times. It was a breathtaking series that was incredibly well done and reported, about the Time Warner Center and the real estate purchases. That is great journalism.

Now, it was a version of what New York Magazine did a little bit earlier, but the depth of it was breathtaking. That’s something to be in awe of.

I thought about that story a lot, and I went back to my magazine editor and said, “We need to think about this.” Not about doing that exact story. But in so many ways, Forbes should have done something like that. It was about really rich people — really rich people. We’ve been so focused on getting the individual business going, getting the audience going, getting the revenue going — and our magazine does well. But, I said, we need to get back to the big story, and I want to put some money toward that. So here’s some cash. Let’s go figure it out.

So in some ways you’ve come full circle — pushing the boundaries on the business side

so you can still afford to do the big stories.

It’s not so much about affording the money. It’s more about affording the time. And we are doing pretty good, so I’m hiring people. I’m hiring a lot of people. We were thinking of making some partnership deals with New York universities — you know, you put in $50,000 and we put in $50,000, and we go do a story. But it has to be something we want to use — don’t go do the story on scams in garbage pickup in New York City. That’s just not going to do the trick.

When you say we’ve come full circle, I feel in some ways I’ve come full circle back to 40 years ago, because I do have great respect for journalism, and I want us to think about that a little more. That New York Times story really did have an impact on me.

It’s been amazing to see the New York Times’ willingness to take so many risks, to do so much front-and-center experimenting.

I think they are struggling. There are no guarantees of a future for the New York Times. I’m not suggesting anything is imminent, but who knows?

I’m telling you, in the next 18 months, there’s going to be a big blowout. Somebody is going down. It has to happen. There’s going to be that shocker — the “Oh my God , that’s over?”

It will happen. Some people are just hanging on. And you can only do that for so long.

The author is an assistant professor of journalism in the Meek School.

Photo by Jud McCrehin

ON WINNING THE

PULITZER PRIZE

T

By Fred Anklam

he light blinked on the phone in front of me on the press row of the Mississippi Senate on the evening of Dec. 20, 1982.

“They did it – 96 to 25,” the voice of The Clarion-Ledger reporter Cliff Treyens said matter-of-factly into my ear. I looked up over my right shoulder, catching the eye of Lt. Gov. Brad Dye. He nodded at me, acknowledging that he was getting the same news on his phone: the Mississippi House had passed Gov. William Winter’s landmark education reform act.

Immediately the word was whispered among senators on the floor in front of me and created a buzz in the gallery as those who’d been watching the House action began to filter in and spread the news. “Vote, vote,” urged a few senators in an undertone. What had seemed impossible two weeks earlier was about to become reality: a Mississippi law establishing state-fi-

nanced kindergartens, financing special reading aides, requiring compulsory school attendance and raising teacher salaries.

More than a year earlier Nancy Weaver (now Teichert) and I had been handed an assignment stunning in its simplicity and powerful in its significance: find out what’s wrong with public education in Mississippi and what needs to be done to fix it.

The Clarion-Ledger under Rea Hederman in the mid-1970s had morphed into a tough, probing newspaper whose reporters roamed the state looking for stories that had never been addressed in the newspaper’s earlier years. To Weaver and me, the charge from our editors was not unusual. All reporters on staff were expected to think big. Yet the scope of our challenge was monumental.

I had covered education for two years. Weaver was a veteran investigative reporter who had earned national acclaim for her reporting. We found that we made a good team.

I introduced her to key players in education and took her to see crumbling public school buildings, private schools that sucked support and resources from public ones, the impact in textbooks

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and resources of low state financing levels which local authorities could supplement – or not. Indeed, one school superintendent’s sole job was to make sure the children in his county were taken by bus to the neighboring county to attend public school.

Weaver spearheaded the project, organizing our reporting around key topics as we traveled across the state. She was skilled at bringing a human element to the dry topics the series addressed.

I marveled as she found a 1960s Life magazine article about a public school superintendent who left his job during desegregation to start a private academy. She tracked him down, still teaching at that academy. He was one of our first interviews.

We were not working in a vacuum. Since taking office in 1980, Winter had pushed for education reform, symbolized by his bid for state-financed kindergartens. He understood that without a state mandate and the financing behind it, kindergartens would only be a local option, not available to all.

Winter saw improving education as the key step in bringing home better jobs and a better life for Mississippians.

Winter was pushing hard for reforms, but what was seen as his best chance ended in spring 1982. In a tumultuous House session on a calendar day – when bills had to be voted on and sent to the Senate or they died – House Speaker C.B. “Buddie” Newman gaveled the chamber out of session while kindergarten supporters shouted in vain to be recognized so that a kindergarten bill could be voted on.

At the newspaper, Weaver and I questioned what would come of our investigative work when the Hederman family sold The Clarion-Ledger to the Gannett Co., a chain gearing up to launch a national newspaper, USA Today. On June 1, 1982, Gannett named Charles Overby editor of The Clarion-Ledger.

Overby was an education advocate and excited about our series. He talked regularly with Winter’s staff about the governor’s plans. When Winter decided he’d call a special session on education, Overby told us he was holding our series till just before that session for maximum impact. He assigned City Editor Lee Cearnal to do one last edit of the series.

In early December, the newspaper published our work, several stories each day, in the week before the special session began.

What surprised readers, and reporters as well, was that every day there was an editorial on whatever topic was in the news columns. It was a coordinated effort overseen by Overby, and included op-ed pieces, some opposing the reform effort. In the past, editorials always had lagged behind the reporting by days.

As the session opened, Treyens and I found Overby asking about the smallest details: Who voted which way in the subcommittee? What was the next step for the bill? What were opponents likely to do? He wanted all the answers in our stories.

So as we reported about subcommittees and committees, we named how each member voted, to the astonishment of the legislators. Repeatedly, the paper’s editorial page urged readers to contact their legislators about their votes. When the House passed a bill that first week, the newspaper published a Hall of Shame, listing on the editorial page the names of those who voted no. Names of senators were added when that bill was voted on the next week.

Treyens and I both found legislators buttonholing us to ask why they were being singled out and complaining about the unfairness of the coverage. As a conference committee worked out details of the final bill behind closed doors, one senator gave a floor speech complaining about the newspaper’s coverage and urging members of the press corps to have a “heart-to-heart” talk with The Clarion-Ledger reporters about our coverage.

But now the final bill was before the Senate. As I began marking the vote tally with a pencil, I realized that votes were changing and opponents were now in support. Tears blurred my vision as I realized the governor’s reform effort was becoming law and that our work at the newspaper had helped make that happen.

(Among the journalism awards to The Clarion-Ledger for its coverage of Gov. Winter’s education reform effort were the 1983 Pulitzer Prize for Distinguished Public Service, the 1983 Roy W. Howard Public Service Award and the 1983 Education Writers Association’s Grand Prize for Distinguished Education Reporting.)

FRED ANKLAM 2014 SILVER EM RECIPIENT

By Meggie Carter On April 8, 2015, Fred Anklam Jr. was awarded the 2014 Samuel Talbert Silver Em Award from the University of Mississippi’s Meek School of Journalism and New Media.

The Silver Em award was started in 1958 and is Ole Miss’ highest award in journalism. In order to be eligible, recipients must be Mississippians who are journalists or journalists with careers in Mississippi.

“For my alma mater to say I have done a good job is very meaningful to me,” Anklam said. “To be included in this select group is an honor. I cannot say enough about what it means.”

Anklam, who recently was the senior night editor for USA Today, won the Pulitzer Prize when he worked for The Clarion-Ledger. That newspaper’s reporting on Mississippi

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schools was crucial in the efforts to bring about educational reform in the state.

“The neat thing was to see the newspaper influence for the better and to see it happen with work you are doing. It is moving and validating,” Anklam said.

After 29 years at USA Today, Anklam accepted an early retirement offer in May 2015.

Based on his experience in journalism, Anklam suggests that young journalists: Take responsibility seriously. Be focused and disciplined in doing stories. And be adaptable because journalism is changing dramatically.

The author is a senior, integrated marketing communications major from Old Lyme, Connecticut.

B O O K

R E V I E W

By R.J. Morgan

G

rowing up in a solidly Mississippi State household, the 1962 riot at Ole Miss was not something that came up regularly in conversation.

The fact that I was born in 1983 and raised in a society that had largely moved past the issue of integration probably also had a lot to do with it.

Either way, when the first fragments of knowledge about the riot began to trickle into my path during high school, it seemed a strange thing. Sure, racism in the South was an uncomfortable truth, but a riot?

Over attending school? It seemed farfetched.

I could have imagined a classmate or two rioting over having to attend school themselves, but not over keeping someone else out.

But the events of September 1962 happened all the same.

After months of wrangling between the state of Mississippi (led by segregationist demagogue Ross Barnett) and the federal government (led by the intrepid Kennedy brothers), it was agreed that James Meredith, a young black male from Kosciusko, Mississippi, would be allowed to enroll at the University of Mississippi.

On the Sunday before Meredith was to be enrolled (third attempt) at the university, federal marshals commandeered the Lyceum, the main administration building on campus. Students showed up to protest the intrusion, and eventually a rag-tag army of grown segregationists, who saw this as the next defining battle in a long and bloody race war, joined them from across the South. As day turned to night, the crowd became a violent mob.

And the rest, unfortunately, became history.

Among the students that day was Ed Meek and his camera.

Meek was a graduate student working in the university’s office of public relations. His youth and familiarity with the campus (and the rioters) allowed him unfettered access to a chaotic scene that would claim two lives (one a visiting journalist), injure hundreds and permanently damage the reputation of the school and state.

Ed Meek

MEEK SCHOOL 15

While other journalists were dodging bullets or running from rioters intent on smashing their cameras, his “one of us� student status allowed Meek to shoot images virtually unconstrained.

The results are a captivating collection of photographs, starting with the days leading up to the riot and continuing throughout the long and bloody night.

The images tell a powerful story. The clash between segregationists and the federal government at Ole Miss has become one of the most memorable flashpoints in a bloody war that still weighs on our national conscience. Meek follows the violence into the night as it moves from campus into the surrounding town of Oxford.

He also snapped a special series of images of Meredith attending one of his first classes in a deserted classroom on Monday morning. Those negatives stayed locked in a safety deposit box for over 30 years.

Powerful stuff.

Also compelling are the narrative devices that drive the action. All are pulled from media coverage of the time, or from White House phone transcripts. The effect gives the book an intense pacing as things go from civil to bad to worse.

An introduction by famed author Curtis Wilkie, who also was there that night, and an afterword by former Mississippi governor William Winter bookend the action with some contemplative thoughts.

For those who like observing history from the front lines, this book will not disappoint.

The author is director of the Mississippi Scholastic Press Association and an instructor in the Meek School.

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Dinner at Faulkner’s

By Will Norton, Jr.

PHOTOS BY JI HOON HEO MEEK SCHOOL 17

T

he university community received an email announcement that a planning meeting for commencement would be delayed because Chancellor Dan Jones would be having a press conference at 2 p.m. on April 2, 2015.

We all knew that when only one party is scheduling a press conference, the Chancellor probably was not announcing a renewal of his contract.

So I walked to the Lyceum with a heavy heart and climbed the stairs with many others in the University community.

The Chancellor was introduced, and the room filled with applause as he stood at the lectern. Then we heard his reasoned presentation and careful responses to questions.

In less than an hour, the press conference concluded, and I left the meeting for an appointment with Andy Lack, one of the leading media executives of the last several decades.

On the next Monday, Andy would begin his second tenure as president of NBC News. Tonight Blake Tartt III, a friend of the Meek School, had arranged a dinner for eight in the dining room at Rowan Oak in celebration of Andy’s new position. *** It is a unique experience to have dinner with Andy Lack. He is an amazing conversationalist with many years of media experience. He has served as chairman of the Bloomberg Media Group, was chairman and CEO of Sony Music Entertainment, and previously was president and chief operating officer of NBC, where, from 1993 to 2001, he was president of NBC News.

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At CBS News, he was a prominent producer for “60 Minutes” and senior executive producer of “CBS Reports.” He has won 16 Emmy Awards and four Alfred I. DuPont-Columbia University Journalism Awards. *** The reception began at 6. Guests entered the long, winding walkway to the Faulkner house while a Blues band from the Delta entertained on one side of the lawn and drinks and hors d’oeuvres were served on the other side.

Guests were Dan and Lydia Jones, Andy Lack, Linda Spargo, Linda Brown, Susan Norton, Blake and I. As the sun began to go down and twilight eased into darkness, we entered the Faulkner home for dinner.

Blake recalled that it was 35 years to the day since he first visited Ole Miss as a senior in high school from Houston, Texas, and told us how thankful he was for his father who had encouraged him to visit.

He said after his first hours on campus, he knew that this was where he was going to go to college.

Elizabeth Heiskell and her crew from Woodson Ridge Farms prepared and served an exquisite meal.

The conversation was as special as the menu with the chancellor telling stories of his years of service in South Korea and at the Medical School, and Andy Lack telling of his years as a media executive.

At 10 p.m., we rose from the table and made our way into the cool night air down the slow, winding path to Old Taylor Road. It was a magical evening. The next day would be Good Friday, and a university holiday. It would be a long weekend.

The initial sting of that 2 p.m. press conference would ease, but the warm memories of dinner at Rowan Oak will be with each of us the rest of our lives.

MEEK SCHOOL 19

Delta Jewels

By Sha’ Simpson

A

Alysia Burton Steele

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rriving in the South, Alysia Burton Steele had every stereotypical reservation imaginable. Building a career in photojournalism in Texas, Georgia and Ohio, Steele landed in Oxford, Mississippi, after being hired as a professional-in-residence at the University of Mississippi in 2012.

“Quite frankly, I was afraid to come down here. My vision of the South was “Mississippi Burning.”

After settling in the city of Oxford, Steele and her husband Bobby began to venture out, traveling Mississippi roads. Riding Highway 6 and Interstate 55 for the first time, Steele was surrounded by cotton, one of the economic staples of the Mississippi Delta.

Pulling over on the side of the road, Steele meandered through the cotton fields taking photos. Seeing and feeling the soft, white, fibrous substance and reminiscing about its history left her intrigued.

Overwhelming questions about her ancestors’ pasts began to flood her mind.

“I began to wonder about my grandmother’s life growing up in South Carolina, the struggle, the pain, what she would think of me being in the South.”

More than 20 years after Steele’s grandmother Althenia Burton died of colon cancer, her new found home in the South brought about a swarm of unanswered questions that stung.

“Immediately after graduating, my grandmother moved north to Pennsylvania,” Steele said. “I wondered why, and I realized I couldn’t

pick up the phone and call her, and that hurt me.”

With the painful lack of knowledge and unanswered questions about her grandmother in her heart and mind, Steele embarked on a journey to find peace and comfort.

Far beyond the white thickets of cotton that kept the towns of the Delta alive, lived people who provided the ultimate form of sustenance for the community.

At the beginning of her journey, one of the first places Steele stopped was Mound Bayou, Mississippi. Freed slaves founded the town of roughly 2,000 people in 1887 as an independent African American community. Many significant civil rights leaders and evangelists such as Medgar Evers, Fannie Lou Hamer, Harold Robert Perry and Myrlie Evers-Williams worked within Mound Bayou to create a social refuge amongst a violently segregated Mississippi.

However, once those movers and shakers of social equality migrated elsewhere, a powerful group was left behind to carry on.

In the small churches of rural Delta communities lived church mothers. They could be found in the kitchens of fellowship halls feeding congregations, in the pews adjusting their dainty hats, waving fans to stifle the sticky Delta heat and prodding young children to pay attention during Sunday school.

In search of her grandmother’s wisdom, Steele sought out these church mothers in hopes of finding solace.

One of the first people Steele reached out to was the Rev. Andrew Hawkins of Mount Olive Missionary Baptist Church in Mound Bayou. Hawkins was instrumental in aiding Steele with several contacts and providing invaluable knowledge about the Delta and its jewels, the church mothers.

“I’ve grown up around these church mothers, and they play a very important role, not only in the church, but also in the community,” Hawkins said. “They are well-respected, dignified, virtuous women that provide a wealth of spiritual knowledge and history.”

After conversations with Hawkins, Steele was eager and ready to not only photograph the contemporaries of her grandmother, but also interview and retell their powerful stories.

“I wanted a group of women who had lived through picking that cotton in the sweltering heat, sipped from the colored-only fountain, lived through the Jim Crow era. I wanted them to share insight and history that would never be found in history books,” said Steele.

Venturing down Delta highways 49, 82 and 278, Steele spent countless hours photographing and listening to the stories of her elders over a span of nine months. Though many were excited to be photographed, Steele had to coerce a handful.

“When Mrs. Steele first contacted me, I was not interested at all,” recounted 75-year-old Herma Mims Floyd of Sumner, Mississippi. “I didn’t want to have nothing to do with no book.”

Despite Mrs. Floyd’s stubborn hesitation, Steele was persistent in her pursuit of Floyd’s story and photograph.

“After a little prodding, I finally gave in and I tell you, it was just the best thing,” said Floyd. “I’m so very proud I decided to do it.”

Not only have the stories and photographs thrilled all 54 of the women featured in the book, they also have touched the lives of their families.

“My sons Tracy and Jerome are just so proud of me, and I am just flattered,” said Floyd. “They are just overjoyed with Mrs. Steele’s work and my cooperation with the book. It’s just such an honor.”

On Steele’s quest to find peace she gained over 50 grandmothers and a host of brothers, sisters, nieces and nephews. Along with familial bonds, Steele heard countless stories of pain, heartache, endurance, happiness and growth.

“All I set out to do was find peace within me, clarity within me and this project just took a life of its own,” said Steele.

Throughout the process Steele has created unbreakable bonds with the jewels and their families.

One of the last interviews featured in the book is an intimate story of Juanita Reid Virdure, the granddaughter of Mrs. Albertine Reid.

Mrs. Albertine Reid passed away at the age of 105 before she could

be interviewed by Steele. Paying homage to her grandmother, Mrs. Virdure sat down and had an instant connection with Steele.

“Once she asked the first question, there was never a period,” said Virdure. “I feel like we connected as if we were family, and she felt my grandmother through me.”

The stories of these women have helped to bring families closer and to give Steele closure.

“Alysia was able to feel my grandmother through me, which in turn connected her to hers,” said Virdue. Growing up she missed out on asking questions and those same questions have haunted her for years. I think through the stories of the women, she was able to gain some of that back.”

The 192-page hardback book entitled “Delta Jewels: In search of my Grandmother’s Wisdom” was released April 7, 2015.

Steele’s life will never be the same.

“It wasn’t anything in particular the women said. I was simply making peace that I had never interviewed my grandmother. Making peace that I told other women’s stories and brought them to life,” said Steele.

Because of Steele’s honoring the legacy of her grandmother, the stories of these jewels will live forever.

“And that is the ultimate peace.”

The author is a 2014 Meek School graduate.

Mrs. Lillie Roberts, 84, of Coffeeville, was the first black to register to vote in Water Valley, Miss. She passed the test, and said she braved the fear and intimidation and walked inside the courthouse to vote. After she passed the test, her husband opened the truck door for her.

She said it was the first time she felt like somebody.

Mrs. Mary Young’s husband was the first black police officer for Drew, Miss., in 1967. Her husband was trying to prevent a shooting and another officer accidentally shot him. He was killed on her birthday in 1972. She’s 93 years old and said she remembers him on every birthday.

MEEK SCHOOL 21

PHOTOS BY

HARRIS Early Sunday morning, the sound of a gasoline-powered golf cart gets louder and louder as it approaches an area that is about to be flooded with dozens of carts driven by men ready to participate in what many of them call “the highlight of their week.” It’s not a golf course. Rather, it is an asphalt-covered parking lot that serves as the field for a game of stickball.

Stickball originated in the city streets, with rules similar to baseball, but played without the cost of baseball equipment. A mop handle and a pink rubber Spalding (pronounced spaldeen) ball are used for game play, while manhole covers and car doors are used for bases. The men who arrive to play stickball in The Villages, Florida, bring their mop handles and spaldeens, but instead of creating bases from the city street, they use chalk to create the bases.

Participating in a game of stickball in The Villages can make a 70-year-old retiree feel like a 12-year-old back in The Bronx. The game itself hasn’t changed much. Now the men look out for each other and their families, but the trash talking remains the same.

I’ve been documenting Sunday morning games in The Villages, Florida, to tell the story of the game, the men, and the best day of their week.

— Mikki K. Harris, Meek School Assistant Professor

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MEEK SCHOOL 23

PHOTOS BY JOSH McCOY Athletics Photographer, Marketing/Promotions, Ole Miss Rebels

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I like this pic of CJ Johnson because of how impromptu it was. I came up with this series of ideas about five minutes before the players showed up.

These pics of Jarvis Summers and Snoop White were different. I just wanted to show them in a way others cannot. It took a lot of setting up, which always makes it more important to me.

We had just beaten Alabama. It was a coming together for Coach Hugh Freeze and Bo Wallace. They had been through a lot together, and you could see the joy in their eyes.

I waited at that corner for quite a while for this photo of the Insells. The two of them would come out of their dressing rooms at times, but they kept missing each other. I was so excited when the two of them actually came out at the same time and had a great father-son moment as head coaches.

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MEEK SCHOOL 25

from drones to wearables: what’s next for new media?

Photo by Ann Marie Edlin

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L

By Deb Wenger ook up in the sky; it’s a bird; it’s a plane; no it’s a drone!

We will see a lot more drones in the future, and drones will be a major topic of conversation in 2015 for those interested in the intersection between communication and technology.

Already CNN is working with the Federal Aviation Administration to begin testing drone systems for newsgathering. The change is significant because the FAA, with some few exceptions, has previously blocked the use of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) for commercial use.

“Our aim is to get beyond hobby-grade equipment and to establish what options are available and workable to produce high-quality video journalism using various types of UAVs and camera setups,” CNN Senior Vice President David Vigilante said in a news release.

Journalists and those involved in integrated marketing communications will be watching the CNN experiment closely to get a sense of what works and what doesn’t in terms of relevant, ethical and legal uses of drone technology. At the Meek School, faculty and students will be experimenting with a drone this year and discussing the impact of its use on privacy, as well as the expanding newsgathering options it provides. For example, imagine relatively easy and safe approaches to capturing aerial views of armed conflicts, massive protests or an inexpensive way to see the extent of flooding or the scope of tornado damage on a community.

Loosening of FAA rules could pave the way, not just for aerial newsgathering, but also for Amazon’s proposed air delivery service.

Along with that, it’s time to imagine how the delivery of branding and marketing messages might change with drones carrying billboards into individual neighborhoods or dropping off on your doorstep sample products that won’t fit in your mailbox.

However, concerns about possible invasions of privacy created by the use of drones are very real, and we already have seen some pushback from consumers on tech developments that they consider too intrusive. For example, Google recently scaled back its Glass program. Jake Swearingen wrote in The Atlantic that Google Glass “wasn’t just a way to keep a screen in front of your face all the time; it was also a way to record everything going on in front of you. And it turns out very few people are willing to be viewed as walking, talking invasions of privacy.”

Certainly there are other reasons why Glass failed to become ubiquitous. Students in our advanced TV reporting and journalism innovation classes wrestled with questions about the fundamental usefulness of Glass. But, it’s too soon to count wearables out.

From a newsgathering standpoint, wearables can be less obtrusive, creating opportunities for more intimate views of news events. Live streaming what the journalist or another witness is seeing may make

for dramatic breaking news coverage, as it did when Tim Pool of Vice used Glass to cover events in Ferguson, Missouri. The handsfree aspect of wearables makes alternative interview styles easier. They facilitate recording audio or video of a newsmaker demonstrating something or giving the audience a different point of view. For example, one of our students put Glass on champion Ole Miss pole-vaulter Sam Kendricks to let the audience experience what it’s like to fly over that bar in real-time.

This year’s launch of the Apple Watch will likely have IMC practitioners thinking, too, about wearables as the next screen for mobile marketing efforts. Any media with health-related content should be all over this trend, as the biometrics angle is clearly an important point of entry. Finally, with individuals 25-34 in age most likely to own wearables today, this tech trend could help pave the way to capturing a traditionally hard to reach demographic.

Last but not least on the list is a prediction that this could also be a pivotal year for the use of media metrics. After years of “clickbait” driving a significant amount of the content produced in a digital environment, audience measurement companies like Chartbeat are making it easier to monitor audience engagement and attention. The new metrics for attention value the amount of time a user spends with news and information versus focusing on the number of people who click through and often leave within seconds. The Financial Times is a test site for the new metrics system, but the big hurdle is the advertisers — they will need to get on board before the new approach can have any real impact.

A focus on audience should be a new media trend every year as we develop better measures of audience desires and better methods of delivering on those needs and wishes. Expect to see the power of visuals continue to expand with smartphones, tablets, computers and gaming consoles all providing outlets for what was once the domain of television. And look for more research from Nielsen and other companies this year to help us gain a better understanding of the relationship between social media messages and audience or customer engagement.

Bottom line? Whether you are in industry or education, your ability to figure out what audiences really want and care about, as well as the formats and platforms they prefer, will mean the difference between relevant and economically sustainable journalism and journalism that fails to have real significance. Clearly, that ability also is important for anyone working in the field of integrated marketing communications.

Training graduates to be adept at connecting with audiences remains a core of the Meek School mission in 2015.

The author, an associate professor, is director of undergraduate journalism at the Meek School.

MEEK SCHOOL 27

GRADUATE Profiles

DARIAN BILLINGTON D

By Samantha Mitchell

arian Billington (’96) was born and raised in the Mississippi Delta as the sixth of seven children. His father was a mechanic and prominent blues musician Johnnie Billington. His mother was caring and loving. She encouraged him to discover the world for himself.

Today, he is a senior producer for HLN and works closely with Robin Meade and other well-known TV personalities. And he will tell you, he couldn’t be more proud to be from Mississippi.

“For me, education changed everything,” Billington said. “I don’t think that can ever be underestimated. It made a huge difference in the outcome of my life and where I managed to get to.”

Growing up, Billington was a lot of firsts in his family, including the first to attend college.

“I had a much smaller vision for myself,” Billington said. “Going to college was sort of a last-minute decision, and it was not something that was sort of talked about or expected.”

To this day, he speaks fondly of his first encounter with the Department of Journalism at Ole Miss, as well as his first meeting with Dean Will Norton, Jr. — experiences he now says changed the course of his life.

“I showed Darian around Farley Hall when he visited before enrolling at the university,” Norton said. “He took advantage of the fine faculty members we had and the student media. By the time he graduated he had significant experience, and his common sense and sensitivity have enabled him to be a leading producer at CNN. He is

an example of excellence and uncommon stewardship.”

Billington started at Ole Miss in the fall of 1988, where he discovered his love for storytelling and traveling. He received hands-on experience working for News Scene 12, now known as NewsWatch, as well as The Daily Mississippian and the radio station.

“It was very hard to be at Ole Miss and not be affected by the ambition of the people around you,” Billington said, “That slowly but surely changed my vision, the dreams that I had for myself.”

His college experiences didn’t end there. He received the distinguished opportunity to intern at “Good Morning America” in New York City in the summer of 1992 and fell in love with Manhattan. He recalled that he did not know where anything was, but he didn’t mind.

Billington walked in his graduation ceremony in spring of 1993; however, his diploma states 1996. He chuckled as he recounted his experiences, noting that he traveled a bit before he officially graduated. He stayed in Paris for several months, as well as other countries such as Italy, Spain and Greece. Billington has traveled to at least 40 different countries since his graduation, but, he said, the university is a place he won’t forget.

“Ole Miss and the School of Journalism have played a huge part in making me the man I am today,” he said. “I could not be more proud to be a product of both.”

Billington’s first job out of Ole Miss was with the Associated Press Broadcast News Center in Washington, D.C. He worked for them for two years then was hired away to work for CNN International originally as a VJ. He quickly was promoted to work as an associate producer at CNN. One of the first major news stories that he covered was the death of John F. Kennedy Jr. in a plane crash.

Ole Miss and the School of Journalism have played a huge part in making me the man I am today. I could not be more proud to be a product of both.”

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Billington’s career has been far from the ordinary all around. He has met a variety of people, from Kenny Chesney to Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, to political figures, presidents and other famous people. More than that, he finds the opportunity to meet with different kinds of people to be rewarding, in addition to being able to tell their stories. In particular, Billington enjoys shining light on the Mississippi Delta and the distinguished people who come from it. Billington felt particularly humbled by Morgan Freeman coming onto his show. “[Morgan Freeman] is an incredibly inspiring person, and I was honored and privileged that he would come on my show,” Billington said. “It was certainly a big highlight of my career, especially to be able to do that and highlight the Delta through him. I was very proud of that.”

When speaking on his experiences during his career, Billington said, “There’s not a day that passes when I see a CNN or HLN sign logo that I’m not thinking, ‘Wow, this is amazing.’”

Billington credits much of his success to taking chances and opening the doors to further opportunities.

When asked about his advice to aspiring journalists in the field, he said, “Say, ‘yes,’ when opportunities present themselves. Don’t be afraid to step outside of your comfort zone.”

The author is an integrated marketing communications graduate student from Tampa, Florida.

Photo by John Nowak

“I was in the newsroom and I was stunned by just how efficient [CNN was] about getting information — correct information at that,” Billington said. “I don’t think a lot of people realize the process and how many layers that information goes through to make sure it is accurate and on-point.”

It was Hurricane Katrina that really hit home for him and altered his career path. Much of Billington’s family lives in Mississippi and on the Gulf Coast of Mississippi. Billington became a producer at CNN after his team showcased the stories of people in the area.

“I like that we get to talk to real people, give them a voice and let them be heard, “ Billington said. “When you hear real emotion, I feel like people really connect with it, particularly during a tragic event.”

Billington has since been working with CNN’s sister network, HLN, and has worked with Robin Meade since the fall of 2007. He credits much of the work he has produced to his collaboration with Robin Meade and the hard-working producers of the morning show, “Morning Express with Robin Meade.”

“What I love is that so many people identify with Darian, the dream of coming from small town, USA and making it big in this field,” Meade said. “It’s that special combination of being tenacious, aggressive, yet humble, relatable and sincere. That’s Darian, that’s what makes him so talented at getting people to talk, to open up and show their real selves. That is the very essence of a journalist.”

MEEK SCHOOL 29

GRADUATE Profiles

SHELLY ROBERTSON BIRDSONG

By Sabrina Clinton

V

isiting Ole Miss and experiencing Oxford’s southern charm and beauty have always been reasons why the University of Mississippi has been the first choice for many prospective students.

In high school, Shelly Robertson Birdsong (’96) visited a childhood friend at the university and was taken by the magic of the Grove. Later, as a freshman at Samford University, the Franklin, Tennessee, native continued to visit friends at the university, and attended parties and games. She transferred her sophomore year.

“After taking tours of the actual university and learning more about the programs, I instantly knew that Ole Miss was the place for me to pursue my degree in journalism and political science because of the outstanding nature of the programs at Ole Miss,” she said.

Robertson Birdsong is owner of Robertson Media Group, LLC. RMG offers marketing, public relations and social media consulting and strategy, graphic design, photography, custom magazine publishing, and event management. She is the publisher of YOUR Williamson A Community Magazine, which showcases communities and residents of Williamson County, Tennessee, and serves as a business, social, lifestyle and community magazine.

RMG also publishes www.yourwilliamson.com a full, online magazine with daily content, a calendar and social media. She started

these endeavors on her own in April 2011.

“I never anticipated or planned on owning my own business but when the opportunity presented itself four years ago, I took it,” Robertson Birdsong said.

Her husband Johnny Birdsong began working with her two years ago as vice president of Sales & Development, and is now president of the company. After they married, Johnny Birdsong decided to leave his corporate sales job and stop traveling. He is in charge of RMG’s sales team, distribution, much of the development of new projects and community relations’ activities.

“He is a master salesman,” Robertson Birdsong said. “It was a perfect opportunity, both for him to do something different and to help me build what is now our business,” As an alumna of the University of Mississippi, Robertson Birdsong started an endowed scholarship fund in honor of her grandmother, Stuart Bryant Robertson.

“I wanted to be able to honor how I got where I am today,” Robertson Birdsong said. “What better way to do it than to name it after the person who has inspired me the most, my grandmother.”

“She encouraged me to read the newspaper and to stay current, and I translated this love for reading into journalism. Becoming an editor of a local magazine and writing for the DM in college helped me to express that. I thank my grandmother for that.”

Being able to own my own business, produce an amazing publication each month and contribute to our community as a whole in every way we can makes our life feel so very blessed.”

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John Festervand, the former development officer for the Meek School worked with Birdsong-Robertson to establish the scholarship fund.

“Shelly’s love for Ole Miss runs deep, and we are grateful for her family’s investment,” Festervand said.

The Stuart B. Robertson and Robertson Media Group Endowed Scholarship Fund will be awarded to its first recipient from the graduating seniors of Williamson County attending the University of Mississippi in the fall of 2015.

“Shelly and her husband run a golf tournament to raise funds for scholarships,” said Will Norton, Jr., dean of the Meek School. “It is amazing to watch their promotional work and see their ability to focus on details as they implement their vision of helping prospective students.”

Robertson Birdsong studied journalism and political science, with an emphasis in public relations.

She was a part of Young Democrats of America Club, an organization that is an official extension of the Democratic Party.

“I was one of few on the Ole Miss campus, but I was very vigilant,” Robertson Birdsong said. “After college, I’ve actually never claimed a party, because of my own personal philosophy.”

She used her interest in political science and public relations to begin working on the campaign trails of Tennessee gubernatorial candidate Steve Hewlett and President Bill Clinton. Subsequently, she worked in the Murfreesboro, Tennessee, offices of Congressman Bart Gordon.

“I loved being part of the campaigns,” Robertson Birdsong said.

“It gave me valuable experience with public relations, but I eventually changed my mind about a career in politics.”

Robertson Birdsong still reflects on her classes and professors from the university. She now gives credit to Dr. Samir Husni’s magazine publishing classes for her success in publishing, even though she did not see this as a career path during her time in the program.

“I still remember my writing and publishing classes at Ole Miss, “Robertson Birdsong said. “I remember Dr. Husni’s magazine publication class. I had no interest in publishing, and now that’s how I make my living. I have since utilized every class I took during undergrad, and I’m grateful for the program.”

“Students like Shelly make being a teacher worthwhile,” Husni said. “We were only the fertilizer to our students. It brings pride to the professor to know that our lectures weren’t being told to deaf ears.”

Robertson Birdsong started her career in public relations as an event planner and fundraising manager for several local non-profits.

“Communication skills and personality are what led me to head into event management,” she said.

Robertson Birdsong has been a notable and active citizen in the Williamson County community. She is a former member of the Franklin Noon Rotary Club and Soroptimist of Williamson County, her family attends Franklin First United Methodist Church and she has volunteered with numerous organizations and chaired many activities for many years.

On top of serving as the current ambassador and member of Williamson, Inc., she has been a member and participated in both the Williamson County-Franklin and Brentwood-Cool Springs

Chambers as well as previously serving on the Board of Directors for the Cool Springs Chamber of Commerce and serving as interim executive director for a year as a consultant.

“I’ve called Williamson County my home for my entire life,” Robertson Birdsong said.

Robertson Birdsong resides in Franklin, Tennessee, with her husband, two-year-old daughter Stuart Keeling, and 13-year-old stepson Bo. Stuart Keeling is already an Ole Miss fan with several cheerleading outfits. Bo loves football and is considering the University of Mississippi, even though his father is a Kentucky man. “[Stuart Keeling] is the absolute joy of our lives, and my stepson is growing into a phenomenal young man before our eyes,” said Robertson Birdsong.

“Being a mom is the greatest joy there is. Being able to own my own business, produce an amazing publication each month and contribute to our community as a whole in every way we can makes our life feel so very blessed.”

The author is a senior, integrated marketing communications major from Canton, Mississippi.

MEEK SCHOOL 31

GRADUATE Profiles

M

By Samantha Mitchell ississippi native, fourth-generation newspaper journalist, and proud small-town entrepreneur: these are three descriptors that could adequately describe University of Mississippi alumnus John Carney (’86).

Carney had a unique childhood experience, namely because of familial connections to the newspaper company founded in Crystal Springs, Mississippi, known as The Meteor. This family-run company has grown to acquire two other newspapers since Carney has been out of college. The company has served Mississippi for more than 132 years.

“I can remember standing in a print shop, stuffing these newspapers at probably five or six years of age,” Carney said. “There just never was any question in my mind about whether I was going to go into journalism and the newspaper business.”

Carney attended the University of Mississippi when journalism was considered part of the business school, and with that he had the unique experience of attaining a Bachelor of Science degree in journalism.

“Ole Miss somehow got in my blood,” Carney said. “I don’t know what threw me there, but that was my life plan. I was going to go to Ole Miss.”

Carney has now worked at the Lawrence County Press in Monticello, Mississippi, for 28 years, where he is both editor and publisher. The newspaper covers local news, including spot news and government.

“Being in a small town has afforded me the opportunity to really get involved with things that go on within the town,” Carney said. “I enjoy knowing what’s going on in the county, and I think it’s a very high responsi-

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JOHN CARNEY

You’ve got to have a community connection.

That’s true whether you’re in Monticello, Mississippi, or New York City. If you’re not relevant, you’re not going to be there long.” bility to try to pass that on to our readers.”

Carney has served as the president of the local Chamber of Commerce, as well as the Lion’s Club.

He also was on the board of directors of the Mississippi Press Association for around 10 years, becoming president of the Mississippi Press Association in 2000.

“John and the Carney family are fixtures within the state press association,” said Layne Bruce, executive director of the MPA. “I got to know John first about 18 years ago when he served at a tender young age as MPA president. Now I have the privilege to work with him at the association level. They own and publish three community newspapers that are vital to the fabric of those towns and counties in south Mississippi. And, in keeping with the trend of diversification, they have launched within the last few years a vibrant, successful magazine that focuses on the unique culinary heritage of Mississippi. It’s a thriving enterprise that underscores the strength of journalism at the grass roots level.”

The Mississippi Press Association was founded in 1866 and serves as a statewide board for newspapers in Mississippi, providing resources such as content and advertising for newspapers throughout the state.

“John Carney is a newspaperman whose dedication to his community, our industry, and Ole Miss is unwavering,” said Joel McNeece, president of the Mississippi Press Association. “The Mississippi Press Association values his friendship, support and leadership as a past president of the organization.”

“When your peers think enough of you to make you active in their associations, that’s the crown jewel of my career,” Carney said. “To be able to serve those organizations the way I was able to.”

During his first three years in Monticello, he

met J. J., his wife, at a local church. John Carney affectionately describes her as a “graphics guru” and a “foodie.” When she is not busy with their son, who is in high school, or checking on their daughter, who is at Ole Miss, or working as the associate editor at the newspaper, she is working on her magazine, appropriately titled Eat. Drink. Mississippi.

“The magazine is the result of my wife’s creativity, and I help her however and whenever I can,” Carney said.

“There’s absolutely a culture of food in Mississippi,” he said. “We have everything from white-table-cloth restaurants to roadside joints that all put out some superb food.”

The magazine also has sparked an interest in Carney’s daughter, a student in the hospitality management program. She has professed an interest in possibly taking some classes at the Meek School of Journalism and New Media. Neither of Carney’s children has expressly shown interest in publishing newspapers, however, and he wishes not to push it on them, but will support them either way.

Community and relevancy are key for many small town newspapers and integral to the Lawrence County Press.

“You’ve got to have a community connection,” Carney said. “That’s true whether you’re in Monticello, Mississippi, or New York City. If you’re not relevant, you’re not going to be there long.”

“I’m a low-key kind of guy,” Carney said. “I just want to do my job effectively and have people say that he was a kind, compassionate person who served us well at our newspaper. After all, it is a community, and it’s their newspaper.”

The author is an integrated marketing communications graduate student from Tampa, Florida.

MEEK SCHOOL 33

GRADUATE Profiles

HANNAH CHALKER

By Hayley Ramagos

S

taying hungry and humble is Hannah Chalker’s (’11) key to success. The 26-year-old sports broadcast journalist has already worked with networks such as ESPN3, ESPNU, Comcast Sports Southeast, SEC Digital Network and Fox News Channel. Currently she works for University of Alabama Athletics as on-air personality and producer with Crimson Tide Productions & SEC Network productions.

Her career has blossomed because she took full advantage of her resources during her time as an Ole Miss undergrad. Chalker served as a news anchor and reporter for NewsWatch and a student reporter for Ole Miss Sports Productions.

“I naturally remember the students who stand out,” said Nancy Dupont, Chalker’s Journalism 102 professor and later both her Media Performance and Advanced Television Reporting professor.

“Hannah stood out. She was very confident that she could learn anything and learn to do it well.”

Growing up in a sports-loving family is what planted the seed that grew into Chalker’s love and talent for sports broadcasting.

When she and her sisters weren’t busy playing for their volleyball and year-round soccer teams, she and her family were attending every professional sporting event in Atlanta. Whether it was the Braves, Falcons or Thrashers, the Chalker family was there.

But she did not find her calling until her senior year, when Chalker landed an on-air position with ESPNU Campus Connection as the SEC recap reporter for an Ole Miss basketball game against Southern Miss.

“It was that moment standing on the court, talking over screaming fans with lights blinding my eyes that I knew I was in love,” Chalker said. “It was a rush and familiarity that’s hard to explain.”

Three months after graduation, Chalker quickly accepted her first professional job in Orlando, Florida, as a reporter and producer for the SEC Digital Network, powered by XOS Digital. She rapidly adjusted to the demanding, odd hours of the world of sports broadcasting and determinedly fought to prove herself in a male-dominated industry.

“In every industry there’s a learning curve between a newbie and a veteran, but being female and green has it’s own set of challenges in the sports world,” Chalker said. “You have to constantly prove that you’ve done your homework and that you know what you’re talking about.

Being a female sports broadcaster takes a lot of guts, and it’s a full time

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job proving that you’re so much more than just a pretty face.”

One thing is certain: Chalker accomplishes everything through hard work. After her position with ESPNU Campus Connection, she was asked to intern with Ole Miss Sports Productions as a reporter for olemisssports.com. It was there that she met J. Stern, the former Assistant Athletics Director for Ole Miss Sports Productions.

“She had an intuitiveness that resonated in what she did,” Stern said. “I would let her work, and she would just do it right.”

Stern, impressed with Chalker’s work ethic, quickly came to play a pivotal role in her learning experience in the sports broadcast world and, later, in her professional career. “[J. Stern] has been my mentor and dear friend since my senior year of college,” Chalker said. “He helped me gain the necessary production and writing skills that I needed for sports broadcasting, as well as put me in contact with the right people to learn from and grow professionally over the years.”

Chalker learned things that she never could have been taught inside the classroom. Stern gave advice when she needed it and showed her techniques that further set her apart from other broadcast students.

“The biggest thing was her learning how to old-school edit,” Stern said. “She was the first student I ever had in the work force who learned how to do that. Taking the time to old-school edit eventually led her to a job.”

Stern credits Chalker’s professional success to her positive attitude.

“I like how she is paying her dues — taking the time for learning writing and editing the right way and not just jumping in front of the camera,” Stern said. “She mastered the conversational writing of broadcast early and she was able to write in her own, different way.”

This was also apparent in her work in Professor Dupont’s classes.

Dupont recognized Chalker’s ability to create a confident presence in front of the camera all while using her amiable people skills to get a great story.

“Her personality is extremely pleasant,” Dupont said. “That makes her a very strong interviewer. When she was on camera, she was more than just a pretty face. There was a power behind her reporting that made her stand out.”

Maybe Chalker’s talent and success in sports broadcasting is simply a product of passion. She says sports and writing are the two things she is most passionate about.

“Besides the ones (sports) I cover, I’m always involved in some

kind of sports league whether it’s golf, volleyball, softball, etc. On the other hand, I’m extremely passionate about writing and expressing myself. Even when I was very young, you could always find me with a pencil in my hand writing some kind of story or poem.”

Chalker finds the opportunities she has to mentor young aspiring journalists as the most rewarding aspect of her job.

She likes to have a shadow on the field with her for every game to show them the ins and outs of being a sideline reporter.

For Chalker, the long nights, early mornings and lack of social life during football season is worth the unrivaled excitement of her job.

“Picture this: it’s Saturday during the primetime game of the week, the fans are so loud you can barely hear yourself think, and the guys in the booth are getting ready to throw it down to you for your opening hit of the game,” Chalker said. “Now that’s what I call fun.”

In addition to her sideline reporting, Chalker is host for the 2016 documentary, “The Wishbone Boys,” chronicling the University of Alabama football program’s most historic periods under head coach Paul “Bear” Bryant. After achieving so many milestones in only three years, Chalker clearly has the potential to go wherever her will power takes her.

“My dream is to one day host a primetime sportscast,” Chalker said. “As much as I love infield reporting, I’ve always seen myself behind a news desk somewhere. That’s what I hope I’m doing in the next few years, living out my dream, so I can come up with a new one.”

The author is a senior, Integrated Marketing Communications major from Winona, Mississippi.

Being a female sports broadcaster takes a lot of guts, and it’s a full time job proving that you’re so much more than just a pretty face.”

MEEK SCHOOL 35

GRADUATE Profiles

ADAM GANUCHEAU

By Jana Rosenberg

O

advisor for The Daily Mississippian, Patricia Thompson worked closely with Ganucheau everyday for more than a year before his graduation. Thompson has been a big part of Ganucheau’s career as a student journalist at Ole Miss. Indeed, the two still talk regularly.

“Without Pat Thompson, I wouldn’t be half the journalist I am today,” Ganucheau said. “She kept me focused on the big picture and level headed whenever I needed to take a step back.”

Thompson describes Ganucheau as an extraordinary young man and leader.

“I watched in admiration as day after day, he pushed himself and his staff to cover the campus with courage and fairness,” Thompson said. “He found time to write many articles and editorials himself without short-changing his role as the main decision maker. He and his key editors had a major impact.”

Thompson believes that any media company would be lucky to land him and that Ganucheau is well on his way to becoming a top national journalist.

Logan Kirkland, editor of The Daily Mississippian for 2015-2016, experienced Ganucheau’s ability to cover even the most intimidating news stories for student journalists.

“Adam is headstrong,” Kirkland said. “He will take any assignment and run with it. I mean for him to be the first one to get the James Meredith incident out there was unbelievable. I think that was some of the best coverage that The Daily Mississippian had seen in a long time.”

Kirkland also commended Ganucheau for the

Whether it’s furthering some kind of positive change, informing people about injustices or just giving people a story to tell at a cocktail party, you’re helping them.

If you’re not helping people, you’re not doing it right.”

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Photo by Frank Couch/AL.com

ne might think that Adam Ganucheau (’14) always had dreamed of becoming a journalist. The 23-year-old Hazlehurst, Mississippi, native was editor-in-chief of The Daily Mississippian, has contributed to The New York Times, and is now a social media strategist and general reporter for AL.com/The Birmingham News. However, it was not until the second semester of his freshman year at The University of Mississippi that he fell in love with the world of journalism, thanks to an open columnist position at The Daily Mississippian.

“I had been a pretty good writer in high school, and I thought it might be a fun opportunity,” Ganucheau said. “After a couple weeks of writing columns, some of which I am embarrassed of today, I was hooked.

There was nothing like walking around campus seeing people read your work.”

That semester, he made the change from the Ole Miss School of Business to the Meek School of Journalism and New Media. He has never looked back or questioned his decision to pursue a career in journalism.

Ganucheau was far from your average college student. He was involved 100 percent inside and outside the classroom. He took on multiple internships, one with The Northside Sun his freshman year and another with The Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal his junior year.

“I’d say a good percentage of what I learned during

my college years came during the few internships I had,” Ganucheau said. “That’s not any knock on the faculty or the courses they taught, but nothing teaches you more than being in an actual newsroom with professional journalists in the fast-paced settings.”

Aside from writing news stories for internships, professors and the Ole Miss student body, he spent time monitoring trends on social media accounts of multiple organizations. He also closely followed page visits and other analytical properties that helped determine how news can be delivered better.

His understanding of the importance of multimedia and his wide range of abilities in all aspects of journalism have fueled his enthusiasm for the field. During his time as editor-in-chief of The Daily Mississippian, he directed a complete redesign of both the printed publication and the newspaper’s website. He also is responsible for launch and management of the newspaper’s first app for Apple and Android products.

That is a lot for a college student to accomplish in such a short time while juggling a semester’s course load and leading the school’s award-winning newspaper. Ganucheau explained that the amount of support he had kept him more motivated and driven than ever.

“The Meek School faculty was wonderful,” he said.

“For me, they struck that perfect balance of pushing hard while guiding me and really teaching me. I had a great group of friends that I knew I could go to and ask for advice. My support group really was key to being able to stay so driven during college”.

As director of the Student Media Center and faculty

energy he brought into the newsroom. Not only was he hardworking as head of the newspaper, but he also encouraged his staff to be the same way.

“A lot of hard workers are very secluded, but his hard work definitely pulsed through the entire staff,” Kirkland said. “Coming into the newsroom while he was here had an exciting and professional factor to it.

He definitely had the right dynamic.”

Ganucheau’s leadership goes far beyond the position he held as editor-in-chief of The Daily Mississippian. Thanks to his oversight of all aspects of the newspaper’s coverage, changes were implemented throughout the entire university. These changes are helping to improve campus diversity today.

During the 2013-2014 Ole Miss school year, two serious incidents of prejudice made national news. Ganucheau jumped at the opportunity to cover both and broke two national stories in the process.

During a UM Theater Department production of “The Laramie Project,” a somber play about an openly gay man who was murdered, multiple students disrupted the play, using gay slurs and interrupting cast members with loud gestures. Ganucheau and his staff broke the story in The Daily Mississippian, and it became the first to make national news.

In February of 2014, Ganucheau broke another national story about two students who hung a rope noose around the statue of James Meredith, the first black student at Ole Miss. He considers this to be his biggest achievement of his journalism career thus far, and the staff’s coverage of that incident contributed to The Daily Mississippian being named one of the top three student newspapers in the nation by the Society of Professional Journalists in May of 2015.

“I devoted my life to the coverage of that story for literally months,” he said. “I read about the indictment in the Washington Post in March, and the lead source in that article was U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder. Seeing the real impact of journalism is something so powerful I can’t put it into words. That’s definitely my proudest moment as a journalist so far”.

Kirkland believes that Ganucheau’s coverage of the James Meredith incident not only set the bar for the present team at the Student Media Center, but for future staff members as well.

“He’s definitely left his mark here in the Student Media Center and on campus through his writing,” he said. “I mean that’s one of the most impressive things to see as a journalist and that’s what you want to hear — that your writing has changed people’s lives and the campus itself.”

In April of his senior year, Ganucheau was dispatched to Louisville, Mississippi, to assist The New York Times’ coverage of the devastating tornadoes that

tore through the southern United States on April 28.

His contribution led to a shared byline with a Times reporter, and the story was published in the April 30 national issue.

The summer after graduation, he landed an internship with USA Today in McLean, Virginia. Dennis Moore, USA Today news editor, who also is an Ole Miss alumnus, had reached out to a couple of faculty members at the Meek School, encouraging Ganucheau to apply, and he interviewed and was hired.

“I was shocked, and I was very proud,” Ganucheau said. “The people at that paper are world-class journalists. I learned so much that summer, and I made some great connections. For most of the summer, I just knew that I’d try to pursue a full-time job in the Washington area, but Mississippi called me home.”

After leaving USA Today, Ganucheau was hired by the newspaper he grew up reading, The Clarion-Ledger in Jackson, Mississippi. It was not long after that when David Magee, another Ole Miss alumnus, asked him to join the Alabama Media Group (AL.com/The Birmingham News).

“It was a great opportunity to take on some more responsibility within a newsroom and continue to grow as a journalist,” Ganucheau said.

Between the two jobs, he covered more hard news than he ever had. His reporting included Mississippi’s gay marriage federal lawsuit, an exposé on an elected official who broke state election laws, the 50th anniversary of the Selma to Montgomery march and a presidential visit to Birmingham.

“I’ve had some great opportunities so far in the South that I wouldn’t have gotten had I stayed in DC or moved to New York or anywhere else,” he said.

“The South is an absolute goldmine for journalists.”

Aside from his love of the South, Ganucheau has learned that his love for journalism goes beyond the enjoyment of newspaper writing. He believes that it is getting to know people and helping them that makes him so passionate about his profession.

“Whether it’s furthering some kind of positive change, informing people about injustices or just giving people a story to tell at a cocktail party, you’re helping them,” he said. “If you’re not helping people, you’re not doing it right.”

Clearly, Ganucheau made his mark within the journalism field on and off campus even before being handed his diploma from Ole Miss. With the talent, knowledge and ability to promote news in nothing short of a professional manner, he experienced a jumpstart for his career when he was just 22, and success has continued.

“If you work hard and make a real effort to learn, you’ll come out completely ready to enter the field and compete with the best of the best,” he said. “Put me side by side with graduates of the top journalism schools in the country, and I’ll be able to compete with them because of what I learned in the Meek School and through my internships that were fostered by the school.”

The author is a junior, broadcast journalism major from Raleigh, North Carolina.

MEEK SCHOOL 37

GRADUATE Profiles

DAN GOODGAME E

By Waverly McCarthy

very morning as Ole Miss students took breaks between their classes, Dan Goodgame (’75) would stand on the balcony of the old Student Union and watch as they would grab copies of The Daily Mississippian and discuss the latest campus news with their friends on the steps below.

As editor of the DM, he would study what articles they read first, what held their attention, and he would eavesdrop on what they would say to each other.

“It was all very helpful to me in shaping and improving the paper’s coverage, its design, story placement and flow. It also made me very proud of the work that our staff did,” Goodgame said. “It was one of my favorite parts of every day.”

Born in Pascagoula, Goodgame chose not to leave his home state for college, heading for Oxford in 1972 and hoping to “get the broadest possible education across the arts and sciences, with the thought of possibly going on to law school.”

When he discovered The Daily Mississippian, he knew that journalism was for him.

“Journalism to me was the perfect excuse to engage my curiosity, meet people, ask lots of questions, tell interesting stories and sometimes shake things up,” Goodgame said.

That is what he did during his time at Ole Miss.

“I thought that reporting and writing was the most fun you could have with your clothes on,” Goodgame said.

As editor of The Daily Mississippian, Goodgame searched for

and reported the big stories. From price-fixing at local dry cleaners to unmarked tow trucks on campus to opposite-sex visitation in the dorms, he was devoted to journalism and to his job as editor.

“Like many of the student journalists at that time, I not only worked there after class; I did most of my studying there, and ate meals there, and even slept there more often than anyone should,” Goodgame said.

Stephanie Saul was on Goodgame’s staff at the DM and is now a staff writer at The New York Times.

“Danny’s old Volkswagen van was pretty much always parked at the DM offices,” Saul said.

Fred Anklam, formerly senior night editor at USA Today, also was one of Goodgame’s DM staffers.

“Dan always pushed us to look for the bigger story,” Anklam said.

“He was constantly looking at everyday things around campus and trying to get to the bottom of them.”

After graduating from Ole Miss, Goodgame went to work at the Tampa Tribune as the night police reporter. He worked the nightshift, 6 p.m. to 3 a.m., for $125 a week driving around to “whatever was the bloodiest crime going on at the moment.” But instead of going home at the end of his shift, he would drive to the loading dock and watch the papers come off the presses, “still warm, like fresh bread.”

With a reporter’s notebook and dimes to dial the copy desk in his back pocket, Dan Goodgame loved his job.

After working at the Tampa Tribune and the Miami Herald for a few years, Dan was named a Rhodes scholar and left for Oxford University. He knew that he wanted to be a foreign

Journalism to me was the perfect excuse to engage my curiosity, meet people, ask lots of questions, tell interesting stories and sometimes shake things up.”

38 MEEK SCHOOL

correspondent and a war correspondent, so he got his master’s in International Relations. While at Oxford, he took full advantage of his opportunity and played on the varsity golf team and rowed competitively. He also traveled around Europe with Marcia, who would later become his wife.

After Goodgame finished his time at Oxford, he went on to become one of the youngest foreign correspondents for Knight Ridder newspapers, one of the youngest Washington correspondents for Time magazine, and its youngest Washington bureau chief.

While covering the first President Bush for Time, he wrote a book,

“Marching in Place: The Status Quo Presidency of George Bush,” along with Michael Duffy.

Goodgame eventually became the editor of Fortune Small Business, a startup magazine aimed at small business owners. He is now vice president for executive communications at Rackspace, a “major cloud computing company based in San Antonio, with 6,000 employees on four continents and 300,000 business customers in 120 countries.”

Aside from being an exceptional reporter, many of Goodgame’s colleagues and friends would say that he is loyal to the core and is the definition of a true friend and family man.

Nancy Harrelson Akin, a longtime friend of Goodgame’s who was at Ole Miss at the same time, is an only child, and she imagines that she “loves Dan Goodgame like people love their brothers.”

Akin describes Goodgame as humble, brilliant and without an arrogant bone in his body.

“He is just wonderful,” Akin said.

“I remember when he sent me a letter from the QEII when he was on his way to England and when he sent me a cake on my 18th birthday. My hope is for everyone to have a friend like Dan Goodgame.”

Former Ole Miss faculty member Jere Hoar, who Goodgame considers to be the professor who challenged him the most during his entire academic career, said, “I have been fortunate to have a lot of friendships that have lasted with my students, and if Dan Goodgame is your friend, he stays your friend.”

Akin says that if Goodgame were to list out his resume, it would read that he is a father and husband first and then a part-time writer.

Goodgame now splits his time between San Antonio and Connecticut, working and spending time with his wife and adult children.

“Dan has many things to be proud of,” said Ron Farrar, chair of the Department of Journalism from 19731977. “And certainly his years at Ole Miss and his editorship of the DM should rank high on the list.”

The author is a senior, broadcast journalism major from Jackson, Mississippi.

MEEK SCHOOL 39

GRADUATE Profiles

WIL HAMPTON

By Samantha Mitchell

I

t was a blend of passions that brought Muncie, Indiana, native Wil Hampton (’84) to the front doors of Farley Hall. Today he is back in his home state as executive director of Athletic Events, Sponsorship and Marketing at Marian University.

“When I was just a little kid, you know eight or nine years old, I used to watch the local newscast, and I remember walking into my mom and dad’s kitchen, saying I’m going to be the sportscaster on Channel 8 News,” Hampton said. “I used to pretend to broadcast games as I flipped through my baseball cards.”

In fact, if it were not for his passion for baseball, Hampton’s interest in Ole Miss and the journalism program may never have been ignited. Hampton started off playing on the baseball team at a small college in Salem, West Virginia.

“The goal for me was to transfer to play baseball at Ole Miss,” Hampton said. “I never quite got there, but that’s what originally peaked my interest, and I fell in love with the southern charm.”

It provided just the opportunity Hampton needed to visit the campus and learn about the Department of Journalism. He immediately saw potential and opportunity. Hampton attended Ole Miss from 1980 to 1984, with a focus on broadcast journalism.

“When I started school there in the early 1980s, the Journalism Department was more about the print side and PR, with a little bit of marketing,” Hampton said. “There weren’t very many of us [broadcasters], and we used to sit in a room across from The Daily Mississippian, and we had one camera — but we would create a newscast.”

It is important now more than ever to be a well-rounded journalist.”

40 MEEK SCHOOL

The Student Media Center created a news studio in Farley Hall and eventually started to produce live newscasts, as well as a sports show called “After the Buzzer.” The show aired every Thursday night and students found sponsors. During his time there, Hampton did interviews with the coaches and play-by-play of the football games, and live-to-tape shows that played the prior weekends’ game every Tuesday. Hampton even received the opportunity to interview Archie Manning about his time at Ole Miss.

“Dr. Norton was a huge supporter of the [television] studio and really wanted us to get something out of the program,” Hampton said. “He really wanted to build a first-rate TV production station [for the school]. They said, go play TV, and we did.”

“It was exhilarating to watch the students create a news show and set a standard for NewsWatch that continues to this day,” Norton said. “It never would have happened without Jim Pratt. He worked intensely to help each student optimize his or her potential.”

Hampton received the opportunity to start his first job after college a month before his graduation. Working at WTVA in Tupelo, Mississippi, was the first stepping-stone, and he soon met his future wife of now 27 years, Becky, who is from Tupelo. They have three children.

Hampton spent 24 years on the set of different television stations and assisting in productions in various studios. He can recount many opportunities that he has been handed, as well as the experiences he was able to live out, including but certainly not limited to: 17 or 18 Daytona 500s, 10 to 12 Indy 500s, 10 Final Fours for basketball, and a few World Series. He still remembers, as though it were yesterday, being hired away to a bigger studio for the first time.

“They immediately liked me, because I was on the phone with them accepting the job as I was editing a lead story for my current job,” Hampton said. “I guess it was because I wasn’t going to let a new job keep me from getting a lead story out there.”

The leap of faith in his life was moving into sports marketing and communications. Hampton started doing freelance work for the Indianapolis Colts in his spare time, which eventually allowed him to assume a new role practically overnight.

“The Colts were just a really neat opportunity,” Hampton said. “I had already produced a couple of their shows, like their post game TV show, so I was already a part of the Colts family. It was an opportunity to try something different.”

Hampton assumed the full-time role as the director of pro-

duction for the Colts in September 2009. In his time with the team, he helped to produce the game day show for three and a half years and even received a championship ring in 2010. He loved the opportunity that it presented. It also benefitted his family because it allowed him to work more “normal” hours.

In May 2013, Hampton left the Indianapolis Colts to become executive director of Athletic Events, Sponsorship and Marketing at Marian University in Indianapolis.

“I was blessed with the opportunity to work for Marian University, because it is a Catholic university and my faith and family are paramount in my life,” Hampton said. “It is still a passion

of mine to tell a story, and I get to help the student athletes here, which is a neat thing to do in this stage of my life.”

At Marian, Hampton not only is able to continue in the field of sports marketing and communications, but also to participate in what he loves: TV production. He hosts a Marian University TV show every week and does sideline reporting on the weekends for the university.

“Follow your passion and your dreams, and embrace the technology and ever-changing world,” Hampton advised. “It is important now more than ever to be a well-rounded journalist.”

The author is an integrated marketing communications graduate student from Tampa, Florida.

MEEK SCHOOL 41

GRADUATE Profiles

MARY LYNN KOTZ

A

uthor and journalist Mary Lynn Booth Kotz (’56) had a burning ambition: to become editor of a major national magazine. Carefully, she followed every step plotted by her mentor, Dr. Sam Talbert, chairman of the Department of Journalism at Ole Miss. First, grad school in magazine journalism at the University of Iowa in Iowa City, then after two years gaining experience in Des Moines at Better Homes & Gardens, she would take her upgraded credentials to New York. “‘Dr. Sam’ urged me to collect professional recommendations and personal introductions there before moving,” Kotz recalled.

After her “scouting trip,” she came within a month of leaving for Manhattan — with an apartment to share, new friends waiting and a job offer at Time-Life. Instead, her life and career in journalism have taken twists, turns — and surprises.

A friend from grad school brought a cub reporter to a party in Des Moines in December 1958. A Marine Corps officer fresh from service in Japan, he, too, loved blues, jazz, literature and theater.

“I said I’d never consider a newspaper reporter, exalting the nobility of journalism while griping about his salary — but I may have to support this one because he’ll win a Pulitzer Prize someday,” she told her Iowa roommate. “He did — and every other prize in journalism.”

Mary Lynn Kotz has yet to live in New York. Nevertheless, she has met — or surpassed — Dr. Talbert’s high expectations for her success as a journalist. In a highly productive career, she has written four critically acclaimed books, including two New York Times best-sellers, as well as dozens of feature articles for national magazines. She also has achieved success in a parallel career as a singer and actress. Her many contributions to public service include a long record of helping her alma mater and its Meek School of Journalism and New Media to achieve further distinction.

Mary Lynn Booth came to Ole Miss out of another unexpected turn. After graduating at 15 from Mathiston High School as valedictorian, she received a gift that turned into a life-altering experience.

Her older brother Robert, an English-language magazine and book publisher in Japan, gave her as a graduation present a trip to Tokyo for the summer. At summer’s end, she stayed. She enrolled in the International Division of Sophia University, a venerable Jesuit institution, which offered English-language classes in the evenings. For almost two years, she wrote for the magazines, became fluent in Japanese — and skilled at negotiating the sequence of subway stops and transfers from one end of Tokyo to another. An American girl was a curiosity. “Medi-Booo-su,” as she introduced herself with Japanese

42 MEEK SCHOOL

pronunciation, learned by being curious. It was a magic time for her.

“Nobody knew I was 15,” Kotz recalled. “Our home in Mathiston always was filled with books. I’d already devoured novels and short stories and seen dozens of Hollywood movies. And I’d imagined just how to act sophisticated!”

Mary Lynn Booth “passed” for 22 as she reported for View magazine, sang in Tokyo’s Hibiya Hall, was a foreign “extra” in Japanese movies and made friendships ranging from Japanese students to international diplomats.

At Sophia, she says that her mind “expanded 10 years — stretching farther than I had guessed was possible.”

Her older classmates came from the armed services and from the embassies. She eagerly planned for her next semester, but her student visa had expired. She had to return to the States to have it renewed. Her visa application was approved, but then came a jolting surprise: Her mother, the formidable Myrtle Booth of Mathiston, had other plans for her 17-year-old daughter. She had enrolled and paid an entire year’s tuition for her at Blue Mountain, a Baptist women’s college in north Mississippi. A talented musician herself, Mrs. Booth’s ambition was for her only daughter to be choir director for First Baptist Church in Jackson.

But after her experiences in Japan, Mary Lynn Booth had wider aspirations — she was determined to become a journalist — or perhaps an opera singer — or maybe both. Two weeks before school was to start, a high school friend drove her to Oxford, where she walked unannounced into the admissions office at Ole Miss and came out with a last-minute scholarship to attend the university.

Arriving on campus as a sophomore, she signed up for a journalism class and immediately found a friend and mentor in Dr. Sam Talbert, who encouraged Kotz to focus her wide-ranging interests and skills as a feature writer, to tell the life stories of people who made a difference in society. But first, he recommended her for a summer job in advertising at the McComb Enterprise-Journal. At summer’s end, editor/publisher Oliver Emmerich offered 18-year-old Kotz a full-time job as advertising manager of his newspaper. Instead, she went back for her senior year and continued her whirlwind of academic and extracurricular pursuits.

Driven by restless energy, insatiable curiosity and ambition, she took 23 course hours a semester and earned enough credits to fulfill a double major in journalism and Spanish literature, as well as minors in English and advertising. She served as editorial page editor and later business manager of the weekly Mississippian, studied vocal music and played leading roles in Ole Miss opera and

theater productions. She toured with the University Chorus, in which she was featured in the Ole Miss Sextette. She even found time to write and serve on the Mademoiselle magazine College Board, for which she modeled at Goldsmith’s in Memphis.

Jim Autry, editor of the Mississippian in 1955, was astounded when he discovered how many other roles she was playing on campus besides being his editorial page editor.

“Mary Booth was like a classic polymath,” he said. “That is, someone capable of mastering and excelling at a number of different skills at the same time.”

Named to academic and leadership honoraries, Kotz graduated, and Dr. Talbert steered her straight to a reporting job with the Memphis bureau of United Press (later to become UPI).

The small staff occupied a tiny office in The Commercial Appeal building, and the reporters had to double as Teletype operators.

“We had the only radio-TV wire in the Mid-South at the time — and the ceaseless demands of getting letter-perfect copy ready for the announcers to read every hour on the half hour,” Kotz said.

Again, with Talbert’s guidance, she left the “story-every-minute” UP for an assistantship in the magazine journalism graduate program at the University of Iowa in Iowa City. Then, as hoped, she landed a job with the Meredith Publishing Company in Des Moines as news bureau editor for Better Homes and Gardens and Successful Farming magazines. Two years later, she was publicity manager for the Meredith Corporation and poised to head for New York when she met and married Nick Kotz, a Des Moines Register reporter. In 1964, with three-year old son Jack in tow, they moved to Washington, D.C., where Nick worked in the Washington bureau of the Des Moines Register and later as a reporter on the national staff of The Washington Post.

As a newcomer to Washington, Kotz at first juggled roles as wife and mother, freelance writer, professional actress and singer and a volunteer in the White House. Working in the Curator’s office during the Lyndon Johnson Administration, she researched and created a White House motion picture library, depicting the history of the Presidency on film. A new friendship with J.B. West, chief usher (administrative officer) of the White House led to her first book. Published in 1973, Upstairs at the White House immediately soared to the top of the New York Times best-seller list where it stayed for 57 weeks, sold two million copies and bought her family a farm in Virginia. In 2014, 41 years later, her saga about the lives of six First Families in the White House, re-emerged as an e-book and again made The New York Times best-seller list.

The White House book also headed her in a new direction.

The publisher of ARTnews magazine in New York phoned her at home in Washington. “I loved your book,” he said. “I want you to write for my magazine.” Many cover stories followed, about art and the lives of artists. One about Robert Rauschenberg, the pioneer art-changer of the second half of the 20th century, led to the biography Rauschenberg: Art and Life. She has lectured about Rauschenberg and other artists at museums and universities throughout the United States. Her vivid writing about art was honored in 2013 when the Virginia Museum of Fine Art and the Library of Virginia joined to create “Art in Literature: the Mary Lynn Kotz

Award,” a unique annual international prize for writing about art.

Marvella, published in 1979, became another Mary Lynn Kotz best-seller. It tells the story of how Marvella Bayh, a U.S. senator’s wife, became an important leader in the fights against breast cancer and for women’s rights. Kotz co-authored, with husband Nick Kotz, A Passion for Equality, a history of the civil rights movement in the North, as well as in the South. She also has edited — or rewritten — each of her husband’s other books.

By the time Kotz was inducted into the Ole Miss Alumni Hall of Fame and received the Ole Miss Distinguished Alumni Award and the Silver Em Award, she had earned distinction as an author, as a professional actress and singer and as an effective citizen advocate for causes ranging from mental health to historic preservation to civil rights. A founder and current board member of the National Archives Foundation, she helped lead the transformation of the National Archives building in Washington into a showcase for exhibits and lectures about American history.

As an Ole Miss alumna, she served on the founding advisory board of the university’s Center for Southern Culture. She now serves on the Board of Visitors for the Meek School of Journalism and New Media, where in 1973 she created the Mary Lynn Kotz Scholarship to help minority and low-income journalism students. Many of her scholarship students have achieved national prominence. She conceived and helped organize the university’s sponsorship of the historic 1987 National Conference on the Media and the Civil Rights Movement. And she has been a loyal contributor to the University of Mississippi Foundation.

At present, she is researching and writing a new chapter for the third edition of Rauschenberg: Art and Life. And she also is considering a memoir about her coming of age in Mississippi and Japan.

MEEK SCHOOL 43

GRADUATE Profiles

NEWELL TURNER

N

By Debbie Nelson

ewell Turner (’82) was raised to be a rebel, an Ole Miss Rebel.

“It was exciting to come to Ole Miss,” Turner said. “It was a part of my family and a part of my cultural experience growing up. In fact, there was really never any option other than Ole Miss. It’s a good thing I liked it!”

Completing his double major in Journalism and Southern Studies a semester ahead of his class in December 1982, Turner remained in Mississippi, accepting a public relations position with Hospital Corporation of America, a company newly managing King’s Daughters Hospital in Yazoo City.

Ever the rebel, he decided to quit public relations and head for law school in 1984, but he found it to be very difficult.

“It’s what I felt everyone thought I should do,” Turner said. “I hadn’t started living my life, didn’t know what I wanted.

“I studied, banging my head against the wall, just to do OK,” Turner said. “I don’t regret the experience of the year and a half of legal training. What ended up being not right for me helped me find my right path.”

Dean Will Norton remembered, “He was going to law school, didn’t like it, so he came over here and asked about our magazine program. I introduced him to Samir.”

The Service Journalism emphasis had just been created in the Department of Journalism.

“My first impression of Newell was in Journalism 273, the editing by design class which combined the art of design with the art of journalism,” Husni said. “After assigned to design a spread — two facing pages of the magazine — one just jumped out at me. I was stunned by the quality of the art, the design, the neatness. Even the drawing of the picture was like, ‘Wow!’ Needless to say that assignment was Newell Turner’s.”

What ended up being not right for me helped me find my right path.”

44 MEEK SCHOOL

Turner explained, “I was taking Samir’s magazine design class when I realized I had really found my place, I found the thing that came so naturally to me. I’d grown up loving magazines. It was like I wasn’t even working. ” Turner experienced a defining moment shortly after Dorothy Kalins, founding editor of Metropolitan Home magazine, came to speak to Husni’s class.

“Newell asked very sharp questions that showed his knowledge, talent and passion for this industry,” Husni said. “You know, any smart editor does not let that go by. Ms. Kalins called me and said, ‘Samir, I have an opening for an editorial assistant. I want to offer it to Newell Turner.’”

Like an athlete recruited directly to the NFL, Turner was urged to grab the opportunity. Husni told Turner, “Those knocks don’t come often. A graduate degree is not going to add anything. If I were you, I would take the job. Quit your graduate program. Go!” “You’ll learn everything you’ll need on the job,” Turner recalls Husni saying. “I’m very proud I made an A in Samir’s magazine class.” He felt validated in his choice to focus on magazines.

Clearly proud of Turner’s decision, Husni said, “He was courageous enough to listen to the advice, quit the graduate program and go. The rest, of course, is history.”

Though Turner now wishes he earned his master’s degree, Norton echoed Husni’s wise counsel. Today he is a top executive in the magazine industry.

“He did so well, he immediately got the position,” Norton said.

“He might not have gotten where he is had he waited to graduate.

He knew so much by that time. Clearly, he obtained a graduate education by working for Dorothy Kalin.”

In the summer of 1985, Turner joined the staff of Metropolitan Home magazine. After five years, Turner moved to New Orleans, then to Dallas doing freelance work, but maintaining a connection to Metropolitan Home. A few years later, Turner remembers, “I woke up one morning and said, ‘I love publishing. Why did I leave NY?’” He reached out to the new editor in chief and quickly resumed his position with Metropolitan Home for two more years. He then served four years as style director, helping to revive Conde Nast’s House & Garden, which had been closed for a period of time.

During the first Internet bubble, Turner left print publishing to work for a digital incubator firm on a travel website called Room 12. There he found the company reinvented the business plan every

week, because of competition from newly launched Expedia and Travelocity. After a year the website shut down. His take-away from the experience was discovering the power of collaboration between editorial and business in publishing.

Turner’s pivotal choice was to return to magazines, founding a local, high-quality home and design magazine for a micro-audience — specifically the resort communities of the Hamptons on Long Island. It was a busy four years, launching two more magazines, spinoffs from the first, in three years.

“I’m very proud to say those magazines still exist,” Turner said.

The look and style of the work he was doing caught the attention of House Beautiful. In 2006, Turner was hired as style director to resuscitate the ailing publication.

“It took just two years to turn the business around to a profitable state, and House Beautiful turns 120 next year,” Turner said.

In 2010, he was promoted to editor-in-chief.

Looking at the fluid movement in Turner’s career, Norton observed, “He advanced from one position to the next, and now he’s a major player at the Hearst Corporation. His gift is graphics and visuals. He’s just so astute. He learned the whole business. And yet, when you talk to him, he’s just like he was as a student. You’d never know he was a major player in the magazine business. A humble guy.

Comes from a distinguished Delta family in Belzoni, Mississippi, the Catfish Capital. It’s really neat to see somebody become a leader in his profession by hard work and by being really smart. Didn’t get there just by being somebody’s friend. Here’s a guy who remembers his roots, cares about his roots, and yet has achieved a great deal, but

doesn’t act like he’s a hotshot.”

Husni recalled, “When House Beautiful won the General Excellence Award under Newell’s leadership, I got a text message as he walked toward the stage. ‘Thank you, Dr. Husni. It all started in your class.’ I don’t think there’s a more rewarding moment than that.”

Turner has paid it forward by offering opportunities to Ole Miss students.

“We’ve had some wonderful interns from Ole Miss in the last few years here in my editorial group, some really terrific students,” Turner said. “I will say very proudly they have impressed, if not blown away, my staff with their commitment, diligence and professionalism.”

“He’s mentored a lot of Ole Miss students who have come after him,” Husni said. “In fact, his latest hire was Clint Smith, editor-in-chief of Veranda, who also was one of my students.”

After orchestrating a core reorganization at Hearst, Turner now serves as group editorial director overseeing House Beautiful, Elle Decor, Veranda, Country Living, and this year, re-launching Metropolitan Home magazine, which had been closed for five years.

Turner’s world has come full circle.

“It’s exciting because I really love that creative collaboration between the editorial side and the business side and making what we do — treating it like a business, but also treating it like an art form which is what I believe magazine-making is. There’s a way to do the two things together that can be very successful, and I like to think that’s where we are today.”

The author graduated in May 2015 with a Bachelor of General Studies, minoring in journalism, political science, and legal studies.

MEEK SCHOOL 45

GRADUATE Profiles

SCOTT WARE

By Molly Brosier

W

hen he was 15, Scott Ware (’75) had no idea that a suggestion from a classmate would launch a journalism career that spanned 39 years and the editorships of three newspapers.

“I was pretty lucky,” Ware said. “Things were put in front of me, and I said, ‘Yes, I will do that,’ or, ‘Sure, I will do that.’ It wasn’t like I knew that this would lead to a career in journalism and that this was my life calling, but it happened that way.”

Ware was in the 10th grade at Meridian (Miss.) High School when he was recruited by a friend to work on the school newspaper.

That led to his attending a journalism camp at Ole Miss during the summer of 1969.

“It was the summer that Apollo 11 landed on the moon, and we were on campus at the time … I came away from that summer inspired about journalism and the world around me.

“I came back for my junior year and was very involved in the paper, then became editor my senior year,” he said. “It was a chain of events that I still attribute to that summer at the journalism camp at Ole Miss.”

Because of his editorial position at the school newspaper, the local newspaper, the Meridian Star, offered Ware a job on weekends and during the summer. The job was initially for proofreading, but Ware was then given opportunities to do sports reporting and news reporting, all while he was still in high school.

He wasn’t sure where he wanted to go to college, so he spent his freshman year at Meridian Junior College.

“When I enrolled they saw that I had been editor of the high school

The journalists who develop mastery of the best of both ‘new’ and ‘old’ will define the future of good journalism.”

46 MEEK SCHOOL

paper, and they said, Would you like to be editor of the junior college paper. We don’t have anybody? So I said sure, and then I won the Mississippi Junior College Press Association Scholarship. So I started at Ole Miss in my sophomore year and part of that scholarship requirement was that I be a part of the newspaper staff and work on The Daily Mississippian, which I was eager to do anyway,” Ware said.

Once at the University of Mississippi, Ware dove head first into journalism.

“I had the advantage of having worked at a newspaper when I began working at The Daily Mississippian, so I was able to take leadership roles,” Ware said.

The most memorable story Ware has of working for The Daily Mississippian was when the university fired brothers Bruiser and Billy Kinard from the athletics program. Bruiser was the athletics director and Billy was the head football coach at the time.

“They (Ole Miss) brought back Johnny Vaught, the legendary football coach who had retired three years earlier for health problems. Billy Kinard was hugely unpopular with students and alumni so when they (the university) announced his firing it was a huge story. There was a huge pep rally on campus, everyone was so excited that the Kinards were leaving and that Johnny Vaught was returning,” Ware said.

In the spring semester of Ware’s junior year he decided to run for editor of The Daily Mississippian for his senior year. He ran against two friends, Greg Brock and Dan Goodgame, with Goodgame winning. Ware wasn’t disappointed and continued on to be the frontpage editor his senior year.

Without knowing it, a new opportunity was about to present itself.

Ware explained, “The Journalism Department had made an arrangement with The Commercial Appeal in Memphis to provide an intern on a semester basis, not like a summer intern. It would have been January through May of my senior year, and it was a competition so many of us applied. Two of the finalists went up to Memphis for the final interview, and I think Will Norton (current dean of the Meek School) drove up with the other finalist, and I was selected.

So rather than going back to campus for my (spring semester) senior year, I moved to Memphis, got an apartment, and nine hours semester credit and reporter pay. That was an amazing experience.”

Although Ware attended Ole Miss for only two and a half years, he learned many valuable lessons and had many great experiences while on campus. After graduation, Ware went back to work for the E. W. Scripps Company in Memphis.

Otis Sanford, who holds the journalism chair of excellence at the University of Memphis, was a classmate of Ware’s as well as a fellow Scripps journalist.

“I think I learned more from Scott after we left Ole Miss,” Sanford said. “He was one of my editors and bosses at The Commercial Appeal, and I think I learned a lot from him about interviewing, spotting trends in the news and writing with more flair. It was under Scott’s leadership at The Commercial Appeal that the newspaper started to put more emphasis on minority affairs reporting.”

Ware confessed, “Many of the early years of my career I felt in over my head, and I was given more opportunities and taking on more

Photo by Wil Matthews

responsibility, and I said, ‘I don’t know why they think I can do this.’

But one of the lessons I would give to current students is that when you are given an opportunity, say yes, whether you think you can do it or not.”

Ware went on to become editor of three Scripps newspapers — the English- language newspaper in Puerto Rico called The San Juan Star; The Albuquerque Tribune in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and the Kitsap Sun outside of Seattle, Washington.

During Ware’s tenure at The Albuquerque Tribune, the paper was a Pulitzer Prize finalist, and won other awards for distinguished reporting, including two National Headliner awards.

“Even though we gained a lot of national recognition for our work in Albuquerque, I was really proud of some of the things we did at the Kitsap Sun,” Ware said. “We had done a huge project with the methamphetamine epidemic back in the early 2000s, and we received a lot of recognition for that. That was a project that ran over about eight months and we did more than 40 in-depth stories. It was a huge accomplishment for a staff that had been unhappy in the year or two previous.”

Jeff Brody, one of Ware’s managing editors at the Kitsap Sun, said, “Scott renewed my faith in newsroom leadership after a series of experiences with less-than-inspiring editors and managing editors.

It was great to have Scott as my last editor. I know that under his leadership, we did everything we could to excel as a local newspaper.”

“I’ve had the opportunity as an editor to be associated with some really talented people,” Ware said. “One of my guiding philosophies is to give talented people the opportunity to do good work and get out of the way. That is what you want in a newspaper: talent, motivation and the willingness and ambition to do good work.”

Ware worked in the journalism world for 39 years starting with his time at the Meridian Star. Thirty-four of those years were spent with the E. W. Scripps Company.

“In 2008 those were pretty bleak times for newsrooms,” Ware said.

“Newspapers were cutting back hugely. I was laying people off it seemed like every year. I didn’t want to feel like I was bailing out, but I was 55 years old, and all I had done was newspaper work. This was a good time to think about trying some new things, leveraging some skills I acquired in the newspaper business and using my experience and knowledge to try something. I didn’t have a clear cut plan, but I thought I had a chance for a second act.”

Ware became a media consultant in Washington State for a couple of years.

Then his wife had a job opportunity in San Francisco.

“She had followed me all over creation as an editor’s wife, so I said ‘Let’s do this — you go to San Francisco, and I’ll follow with the kids, and I’ll start to try and make something new happen for myself ’,” he said.

Ware moved to Sonoma, California, just north of San Francisco for six months and became a part of the Sonoma International Film Festival and chairman of the board.

“One of the board members was involved in a new venture here in San Francisco called TrustedPeer, and he encouraged me to become one of the founders and principals,” Ware said. It is essentially a digi-

tal business-to-business consulting platform. Businesses and business professionals can connect for consulting on demand online through our platform. We are providing an alternative to the traditional consulting where you have to go through a lot of process and often get more consulting than you need.”

Ware explained, “Now my part, as vice president of publishing, is developing a business library. We develop a very in-depth content package for each of our experts and that is part of the platform. So publishing is a critical component of the platform, and I have a staff of about 15 contract editors who work for us and work with the experts to develop their content, and these editors are all experienced business journalists.

“I am working with journalists again, and I am delighted about that. It is not traditional journalism, but our values are credibility, professionalism and really high quality. We have a very high standard for the experts we bring into the platform and also for the editors that work with them.”

Ware advises students who are pursing journalism to “know that you bring a huge asset as digital natives to the evolving world of digital journalism.

“Embrace that and run with it. Social media is your world, and it is your generation that will figure out how to get the most good out of it, while minimizing its downsides. At the same time, embrace the traditional values of credibility and context, in-depth and investigative reporting, creative writing and visual storytelling.

“The journalists who develop mastery of the best of both ‘new’ and ‘old’ will define the future of good journalism,” he said.

The author is a senior, integrated marketing communications major from Amarillo, Texas.

MEEK SCHOOL 47

GRADUATE Profiles

REBECCA JONES WEST

By Lindsey Andrews

W

hen people have an opportunity to achieve their dreams, they usually consider themselves lucky or blessed. Becky Jones West (’78) considers herself both.

West was born in Tupelo, Mississippi, and then lived in Gulfport for a few years. The daughter of a father who was a coach and a mother who was a teacher, her family relocated to Fulton, where she grew up on the Itawamba Community College (ICC) campus. Having been raised in Mississippi, attending the University of Mississippi always seemed like the right choice. In the fall of 1974, West began her freshman year at Ole Miss. At the time, journalism and broadcast were in separate departments. Although she majored in radio and television broadcast, West felt she “needed broad exposure” and minored in journalism. She explained that this gave her a sort of “prehistoric integrated marketing communications” background.

Rose Jackson Flenorl, manager of social responsibility for FedEx Global Citizenship and an Ole Miss graduate and friend, said Jones was “laser focused” as a student.

“As undergraduates, I felt there always was a target in her sights,” Flenorl said. “She had a plan, she worked her plan, and she reached her goals.”

After graduation, West was hired at what is now Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare in Memphis, Tennessee. She was responsible for all internal communications and eventually took on the role of marketing director for regional hospitals in three states, all managed or owned by Methodist. She spearheaded an effort to rebrand the City of Memphis Hospital into the Regional Medical Center at Memphis (The MED) and to launch the Elvis Presley Memorial Trauma Center.

“It was one of the most gratifying things I’ve done because we were able to positively affect the way critically injured patients in the

48 MEEK SCHOOL

region were triaged,” West said.

She was responsible for communicating externally to the region the new role of the Trauma Center, and communicating internally the steps required to treat patients in the Trauma Center within the “golden hour” — the one-hour period after an emergency, during which prompt medical treatment provides the best outcomes. After the Trauma Center project, West worked for First Tennessee Bank as the director of public relations and community relations.

West left First Tennessee Bank in 1986 to start WestRogers Strategic Communications, one of the first advertising and public relations agencies owned by women.

Former assistant vice chancellor for public relations and marketing and associate professor of journalism Ed Meek said West “quickly became a power player demonstrating great commitment, creativity, business knowledge and hard work.”

An early WestRogers community campaign featuring MLB and NFL star Bo Jackson presented Jackson with the opportunity to become a spokesperson for Nike. Another community campaign featuring Anfernee “Penny” Hardaway helped position Hardaway for more success. This national exposure helped put WestRogers on the map.

As an agency, “we try to do things many other people can’t, and we like to take advantage of opportunities for our clients,” West said.

She explained how the University of Mississippi set her on the path to success.

“As a student, they made me feel like I could do anything I wanted to do … [The school] has incredible teachers and administrators.”

Will Norton, the dean of the Meek School of Journalism and New Media, and the late Jan Hawks, the last dean of women at Ole Miss, were both mentors to West. They instilled in her the confidence to achieve goals she set for herself, professionally and personally.

“Ole Miss is a place that is rooted in relationships,” West said. “I was fortunate to go to Ole Miss because it allowed me to be prepared in my career. That preparation, along with the relationships from Ole

Photo by Larry Kuzniewski

Miss, has certainly been a significant part of my success.”

Despite the achievements she attributes to encouragement from professors at Ole Miss, West said her greatest success is her family.

“I know everyone says that, but it’s really hard to own your own business, to be under stress with job demands and also be fully present with your children and husband when you’re juggling so many other things,” she said.

Her son Ben and her daughter Taylor also are Ole Miss alumni. Ben has an undergraduate degree and a law degree, and Taylor earned a bachelor’s and master’s in accounting. West’s love for the university definitely has been a family affair. Even her parents, Ben and Bobbye Jones, received their undergraduate and master’s degrees from Ole Miss.

West is a business professional who continues to embrace new and unique challenges. One WestRogers client is developing and launching diagnostic heart care centers in China. West’s job is to create and implement strategies to inform Chinese citizens about these heart centers, which are the first of their kind in China. She explains that “it is a phenomenal ride” because the communications boil down to clearly conveying the purpose of the centers — improving quality of life.

Because the idea of preventive health care is not prevalent in China, the heart centers are “introducing a new concept of caring for people with coronary disease.”

In addition to her career, West is passionate about the advancement of women and tries to help women become self-sufficient. As a founding member of the board of directors, West helped establish the Women’s Foundation for a Greater Memphis to achieve long-lasting social change for women and children. It is an ongoing effort to promote “career advancement for women so they are able to self-sustain,” she explained.

Another cause West is passionate about is helping students attend college. West believes that it is imperative that Ole Miss students have more opportunities for scholarships, and she is working with the Ole Miss Women’s Council to increase the number available.

“There is an ongoing effort with the Ole Miss Women’s Council to offer scholarships and mentorship programs to enhance the lives of our scholars,” she said.

West recently was named one of 25 “Super Women in Business” for 2014 by the Memphis Business Journal. As a woman with substantial expertise in business, West had some advice for students looking to pursue a career in advertising, public relations or marketing: “They can’t really follow their dreams unless their dreams match up with their abilities. They must ask themselves, ‘What are my assets?’”

West pointed out that by doing this, students will be able to plan more carefully and take advantage of more opportunities to achieve success. Even if it’s not their major, West also recommends that all students take integrated marketing communication or journalism courses.

“Having the ability to communicate can be one of your strongest assets,” she said. “Graduates I see doing well are the ones with the ability to communicate.”

The author is a senior, integrated marketing communications major from Collinsville, Illinois.

MEEK SCHOOL 49

STUDENT Photography

PHOTOS BY

BRIAN POWERS

2015 Meek School Graduate

William, 3, demonstrates how Hulk smashes with his new gloves while he rides in a shopping cart around Walmart in Oxford.

William, 3, removes a rock from his shoe before he defends Oxford from the forces of evil with the help of his Captain America shield.

50 MEEK SCHOOL

PHOTOS BY

ANN MARIE EDLIN Meek School Senior

A New Orleans middle school cheerleading squad marches down Canal Street in New Orleans in the largest parade in Mardi Gras, the Krewe of Endymion, on February 14, 2015.

March 25, 2015, University of Mississippi students watch a rally in support of the reinstatement of Chancellor Dan Jones through a second-floor, Lyceum window. More than 2,500 students, faculty, staff and Oxford residents gathered in the Grove to protest the Board of Trustees of State Institutions of Higher Learning’s decision to oust the well-liked chancellor.

MEEK SCHOOL 51

PROGRAM HighLights

The

Lucky

Seven A

By Meredith Parker

fter the introduction of the professional graduate track in journalism last fall, seven students from around the world enrolled in the program. A college tennis player, an Air Force veteran, an aspiring teacher, a native Nigerian, and an ambitious and seasoned journalist with nearly 10 years of experience formed a group of seven — the lucky seven.

One of those lucky seven is Guojuan Li who received her degree in international journalism from United International College in southern China.

“When I was in undergraduate school, I worked for our campus newspaper, and had an internship at a TV station, mainly dealing with copy editing and interviews,” Li said.

She found the new program online.

“I didn’t want to stay at home, so I chose to study and experience something new,” said Li. She said the program gave her some new experiences, such as taking a documentary course last semester with the other six.

“We worked together and contacted and interviewed people; it was interesting,” Li said.

Li’s plans after graduation are a little different from her media-focused classmates.

“My dream job is to be a teacher,” Li said. “I want to volunteer to teach children.”

Li is a graduate assistant for Professor Mikki Harris and enjoys photojournalism, which is one of the classes Harris teaches. She also is taking a multimedia storytelling class this semester.

The group of seven offers Li new and different ideas.

52 MEEK SCHOOL

“I am a little quiet during class,” Li said with a laugh. “But when I do talk, I feel that everyone listens and respects what I say.”

“I like to think of us as the dream team,” said Ji Hoon Heo, another student in the professional track.

Heo was born in South Korea, and moved to the island of Saipan when he was four. He graduated from Morehead State University with a degree in convergent media after playing four years of NCAA Men’s Tennis.

While in college, Heo worked as an assistant producer on a network that streamed all athletic events.

“I have a heavy multimedia background, and I was in charge of all multimedia content while at MSU,” Heo said.

Heo is an intern for Ole Miss Sports Production while serving as a graduate assistant for the journalism school.

“We have big talents in such a small group,” Heo said.

He considers their small diverse group an advantage because they all learn from one another. Their diversity makes the classroom experience that much richer.

“We have people who are unreal at writing and those who are just so meticulous in what they do and also creative,” Heo said. “We have people who are great at talking and people good in post-production.”

Heo said that the professional track program at Ole Miss recognizes the shift in journalism and values innovation with technology.

“I’d like to be able to come out of the program and be able to take on the real world right away,” Heo said, “My goal would be to become a multimedia editor and really help shape the way a story is told in terms of multimedia content.”

Coming to the University of Mississippi was not his original plan, but the faculty is ultimately what made his decision.

this program, which I think is so great for everyone to experience,” Atkins said.

Along with a required thesis project, “There also are 12 hours of electives, which help students augment other specialties,” Atkins said. These electives range from Magazine Service Journalism Publishing to Depth Reporting.

Some people raise the question why come to a small town like Oxford to study journalism when opportunities with internships and experience may be greater in larger cities.

Atkins answers, “I think Oxford offers a rich legacy and history with writers like Faulkner, Willie Morris, and our own Curtis Wilkie. The students can have a significant part in that tradition.”

The program continues to build.

“We are in the discussion of offering some online courses for working journalists,” Atkins said.

Workshops, outstanding visiting journalists, and coalitions with book and writing conferences also are on the horizon.

The author is a junior, broadcast journalism major from Brandon, Mississippi.

From left to right: LaReeca Rucker, Ashley Norwood, Jessica Hotakainen, Ji Hoon Heo, Li Guojuan, Marlen Polito, and Chinonyeranyi Kalu.

Photo by Meredith Parker

“After exchanging emails and speaking to my adviser, Joseph Atkins, I knew I wanted to attend Ole Miss for graduate school.”

The Meek School of Journalism formerly offered two graduate programs, the academic track and the integrated marketing communications track. The professional track graduate program made its debut last year. The chair of the graduate program is Professor Joe Atkins.

He is a veteran journalist who graduated from American University’s professional track graduate program.

“I think the professional track gives you a little extra and, if maybe later on you want to teach, you can,” Atkins said.

This program did not happen overnight. Atkins and others worked hard and long to create the program.

“We aren’t the first to do this, so we looked at other universities to learn as we put this program together,” Atkins said.

The seven students this semester are taking Narrative Journalism taught by Atkins. It is one of the four required core classes in the professional graduate program.

“I took a look around the room one day and realized we had a really diverse group of students in

MEEK SCHOOL 53

FACULTY HighLights

NANCY DUPONT N

By Samantha Mitchell

ancy Dupont grew up in Gulfport, Mississippi, as a sixth generation Mississippian. She spent much of her childhood in front of the television after her parents bought their first television six months after she was born in 1952. During that time, television shows covered events such as the United Nations and Congressional hearings in their entirety.

“They didn’t chop things up as much back then,” Dupont said, “and they ran political conventions all day and all night, so you got a sense of what actually was happening.”

Dupont was inspired by what she saw. She received a bachelor’s degree in broadcast journalism from Loyola University New Orleans in 1974. Her career path started in Biloxi, Mississippi, and took her to South Carolina, Tennessee, Florida, Arizona and, eventually, back to New Orleans.

“I went where the opportunities were,” Dupont said. “I do think there’s a bit of a misperception of Mississippi throughout the world, that it is a completely backward place — and I hope I’ve been able to dispel a little of that with the places I’ve gone.”

Towards the end of her 17-year career as a journalist, Dupont decided to pursue a master’s degree at Loyola. She received the opportunity to teach a course while taking classes. She became a faculty member at the university in 1993 and received her master’s in 1994. She then began commuting back and forth to get her Ph.D. at the University of Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg.

Hurricane Katrina would change the course of fate for many in New Orleans. Her childhood home in Gulfport was destroyed in the storm, and Loyola ended its broadcast courses in 2006.

Dupont then received an email from then Student Media Director Ralph Braseth telling her about an opening in broadcast journalism at Ole Miss. At first she thought it was a joke, but she was hired to teach in the fall of that year. She would bring along her parents, who had lost everything during the hurricane, and her husband who had recently retired. Today she is living out her passion, teaching at the university that her father once attended.

“Ole Miss is the best employer I could ever dream about,” Dupont said.

Dupont has taught print and broadcast journalism classes in her nine years at the university. The one that stands out the most for her is JOUR 480, Advanced Television Reporting,

54 MEEK SCHOOL

which starts with an editorial meeting every day and requires students to complete a broadcast-quality story in five hours. “[The students] are thrown into something they think they can’t do — but there are very few ‘can’ts’ in the world,” Dupont said. “Even though you’re working under deadline pressure, you have to be accurate, fair and you can’t hurt others while getting the news. It’s about telling others the story.”

Outside of teaching, Dupont spends much of her time in her second office as the adviser of NewsWatch in the Student Media Center. It keeps her interactive in students’ lives. She assists them with meeting deadlines and putting together broadcast-quality stories and productions.

“To me there is no greater gift than learning from someone who is so passionate about the field,” said Emily Mowers, a former student of Dupont’s who now works for the WTVA/ WLOV station in Tupelo. “Dr. Dupont has been a huge asset to my professional life, and I have full confidence she is grooming the very best in the next generation of broadcasters.”

When she is not teaching at the university or advising at NewsWatch, Dupont enjoys traveling and doing research. She has traveled twice to Togo, Africa, with students in the journalism program, to create a documentary with the Engineers Without Borders program that assists in building schools in the area.

“My most rewarding experience was going to Africa,” Dupont said. “We saw poverty that I couldn’t have even imagined. Those people get into your soul, and you want to do more stories on them, you want people to know there’s a need out there.”

Sudu Upadhyay received the opportunity to go to Africa with Dupont.

“She chose me to go with her because she knew of my interest in videography and long-form story telling,” Upadhyay said. “That was one of the best learning experiences I have had, and Dr. Dupont was behind all of that. Whether it’s her constructive comments for the on-air talent or better ways to produce the show, Dr. Dupont has helped so many students prepare for a job in broadcast journalism.”

Dupont also attributes the success of the Meek School of Journalism program to the leadership of Dean Norton.

“Dean Norton was born in Africa as a child of missionaries, and I think he understands the importance of our students seeing the world and traveling when they’re young,” Dupont said. “Because it absolutely changes your misconceptions of the world. It changes your mind completely.”

Dupont’s research is in 19th century southern newspapers and historical publications. She has co-authored her first book, Journalism of the Fallen Confederacy, recounting experiences of the newspapers of the South after being occupied by the Union Army. The book examines the different experiences a consumer of the news has when under occupation.

Dupont is in the research phase of a co-authored book on the history of New Orleans’ African-American newspapers. She and colleague Dr. Mark Dolan plan to have their book written by December 2015.

Although her research is important, her students are a priority for her besides her family. She still keeps in touch with some of the very first students she taught.

“My students are really the only thing that I think of as my legacy, or my real reward,” Dupont said.

The author is an integrated marketing communications graduate student from Tampa, Florida.

MEEK SCHOOL 55

FACULTY HighLights

BRAD SCHULTZ D

By Jared Boyd

uring a visit from Campus Crusade for Christ, Brad Schultz, a journalism major at the University of Missouri, held on to an index card. The leader from the evangelical outreach organization instructed Brad and his peers to “write down any question you want.”

“I was somewhat young and immature and had never been away from home before,” Schultz said of his disposition and demeanor. “Here I am plopped down 500 miles away. I didn’t know a soul. I didn’t have a car.”

Although he found no trouble adjusting to the competitive atmosphere of Mizzou journalism in the classroom, most of his world outside the program lacked zest and enthusiasm.

“I would say church, more than anything, saved me — no pun intended,” Schultz said.

Holding onto that file card, Schultz decided to write “I really don’t know if I have a personal relationship with God,” and turned it in at the end of the meeting.

“It’s a question that I think had always been there,” he said. “It’s just nobody had ever bothered to ask it before. Nobody had ever cared that I expressed it.”

Looking back, the encounter served as a pivotal moment in the life of a man devoted to using his knack for storytelling to reach others interested in deepening their faith.

Schultz was born in Tyler, Texas, to a stay-at-home mother and a father who traveled as an advertising account executive. Dr. Don E. Schultz, his father, now is a professor emeritus at Northwestern University, where he has lectured for more than 40 years. He is known internationally as the “Father of Integrated Marketing.” He developed the initial concepts for what is now known and taught as IMC. As a child, Brad Schultz took early interests in two areas: sports and journalism. Growing up, baseball and football were his favorite recreational activities — even playing in middle school and high school. However, Schultz truly found his voice off the field, when he asked for a tape recorder one year for his birthday.

“I would just sit and practice,” he said.

At a young age, Schultz visited a local cable station and learned to run master control while other kids in the neighborhood would work at fast food restaurants.

After realizing that a future in sports would not happen, Schultz

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decided to pursue sports broadcasting. He chose the University of Missouri for its reputable journalism program, one that he admittedly says would be even more difficult for him to qualify for if given a chance to apply today. During his four years in the school of journalism’s pressure-cooker of talent, Schultz studied alongside the likes of current industry leaders such as CBS’s Major Garrett, Janet Shamlian of NBC News, and 20/20’s Elizabeth Vargas.

While in college, Schultz’s devotion to his studies left little time for social pleasures. His experience in Columbia, Missouri, is colored by his inability to truly plug himself into campus life. However, during spring break his senior year, he was able to lock down a job, beginning his career two days after graduation as a television sports reporter at KAUZ-TV, Wichita Falls, Texas.

Two years into his stint on-air in his home state, new ownership decided to change directions in the station, and Schultz was fired.

“I purposely didn’t save any material from then because I would look back and wince at it,” he chuckled, remembering his tooth-cutting experience.

Looking for a job became his job. He sent resumés and reels where there were openings. He spent the next decade at stations in Terre Haute, Indiana, Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and Lima, Ohio, while settling down with his wife and two children. Working in Ohio and hardly able to see his young family, Schultz decided to make a change. From what he believes to be God’s providence, he was able to find an opening as an anchor and reporter in Carterville, Illinois, at WSIL-TV. When he was not working, he took classes at Southern Illinois University to earn a graduate degree at night. Similarly, after receiving his M.A. in Radio and Television in 1999, Schultz began teaching while working toward his Ph.D. at Texas Tech University.

Schultz’s transition into the classroom came easily.

“A lot of teaching is performance,” he said, comparing his lecturing style to his former gigs behind an anchor’s desk. “The thing that held me back in TV is the thing that held so many people back: I didn’t have the ‘it factor.’ We (as teachers) can’t coach that. We can’t teach it. You either have it, or you don’t.”

Leaving Texas Tech in 2002, Schultz accepted a job at Ole Miss where he says Oxford simply felt “like the place to be.”

While at the University of Mississippi, Schultz gave birth to the Journal of Sports Media, and has written eight books and produced a handful of documentaries. His most recent projects are films about the gaming industry in Mississippi and the 1983 Egg Bowl.

“God has blessed me with an ability to be very productive,” he said.

The Oklahoma Associated Press and Cleveland Press Club have both honored Schultz for his writing. His most cherished rewards, however, come outside the realm of academia.

Schultz serves the Oxford community as a lay minister at a local Lutheran church, a volunteer hospital chaplain, a regular visitor at the Veterans Affairs home, a Bible study teacher and a mission trip guide. He opens the doors of his home every spring break to house dozens of traveling students.

Pastor John Cantele of Peace Lutheran Church in Oxford hands over the reigns to Schultz, whenever he is unable to attend services.

“As much as he’s a professional, he’s generous,” Cantele said.

Regina Tutor, activities director at the Mississippi State Veterans Home in Oxford, works alongside Schultz when he volunteers his time for events such as bingo and dominoes. The veterans home also invited Schultz to speak at their recent Flag Day ceremony.

“He comes at least once or twice a week and does devotions, leading songs and simple exercises like ‘Reach for your Blessings’ and ‘Kick the Devil Out’ for the residents,” Tutor said. “The residents really enjoy spending time with Mr. Brad.”

Furthermore, he maintains an open-door policy for Ole Miss students who come looking for guidance in their personal walk with God. “And they do come,” he remarked. “That’s a joy. I’ve cried with students in my office.”

“If I can reach one student like that, and help them, that’s worth all of this — all the books, all the (films). It’s more than that,” he said. “I have an incredible desire to help young people as they go through the same walk I went through.”

As of now, he says those heart-to-heart experiences with students do not come very often.

In his future, he is open to following a life of evangelism full-time, if he feels God calls him to explore that option.

Luckily Schultz feels his superior grasp of broadcast communications and leadership can be considered a form of ministry, although it is important to him to be clear that he seeks to meet students who represent all skill levels and all religious perspectives.

“I’m not Bible-thumping here,” he said.

“I think that God has called each of us in our vocations to live a life that is in obedience to His will and that gives Him glory.”

The author is a 2015 Meek School graduate from Memphis, Tennessee.

MEEK SCHOOL 57

FACULTY HighLights

KATHLEEN WICKHAM M

By Samantha Mitchell

any University of Mississippi students know her as a hardworking professor and a diligent mentor.

What many do not realize is some of the hard work she has put forth in her research and teaching, as well as the legacy that will follow her.

Wickham has been teaching at the University of Mississippi since 1999.

Since her arrival, the program has undergone many changes, including the name change to the Meek School of Journalism and New Media, more course offerings and a larger and more diverse faculty. The school has a lot of energy.

Wickham is known for her research on the 1962 integration riots and the memorialization of French journalist Paul Guihard. “[Paul Guihard] was a French reporter who was murdered on campus during the 1962 integration riots — and when I say murdered, he was shot in the back from a foot away,” Wickham said.

She recounted her fascination with the history behind the shooting during the 40th anniversary of the integration riots and how she had been astonished that when it came time to talk about Guihard in any historical reference, he received only a short paragraph.

“Through further research, I discovered that he is the only known reporter to have been killed during the civil rights era,” Wickham said. “That led me on a quest to find out more about Paul and his life.”

Wickham’s research led her to locate Guihard’s brother in France in order to attain family photographs and more information on Guihard’s life. Her research was published in Journalism History.

Based on Wickham’s work, the Society of Professional Journalists has named the campus a historical site in journalism, in honor of the 300-plus reporters who were on campus covering the enroll-

58 MEEK SCHOOL

ment of James Meredith in the fall of 1962. Her work also led to a dedication of the Paul Guihard bench on the Sorority Row side of Farley Hall.

“The memorial of Paul Guihard — that’s what I would like to be remembered for,” Wickham said. “He had been forgotten.”

Wickham has published four books, including Math Tools for Journalists, which was written to help journalists conquer their fear of math and write more accurate stories.

Her book, Miracle in Mississippi: The Role of the Clarion-Ledger in the Adoption of the 1982 Education Reform Act, explored the relationship between the Jackson newspaper and the legislature in the adoption of groundbreaking education reform.

Originally from New Jersey, Wickham moved to Memphis for family reasons and was offered an opportunity to teach at The University of Memphis while working on her master’s degree. She subsequently was hired as an instructor. She also earned her doctorate at the university. After teaching in Memphis for more than 15 years, she joined the faculty at the University of Mississippi.

“I like challenges,” Wickham said. “Keeping up with the technology, it’s part of the job. Being aware of the trends in journalism, that’s not a challenge.

It’s what I love to do. I have a passion for journalism, and I like to share it with my students.”

Wickham was drawn to journalism in college during the Vietnam War protests.

“I was always conflicted between what I was reading in the newspaper about what the government officials were saying, and what my professors were telling us,” Wickham said. “What I wanted to know was the truth, and I discovered that the only way you could do that was to cover the stories yourself.”

After college, Wickham worked for several small newspapers and honed her skills as an investigative reporter. She eventually was hired by The Newark Star-Ledger, a statewide newspaper. Her assignment was to cover Atlantic City as it became the first venue

Photo by Alysia Steele

outside of Las Vegas to allow casino gambling.

She relates the nature of her work as a reporter to her assignments during her college years covering the Vietnam protests.

“Journalism is the keystone on which the country operates,” Wickham said. “This starts with the Founding Fathers calling for a free and independent press to monitor the acts of the government.”

That kind of passion for the art of journalism, as well as investigative reporting, has continued in her teaching of advanced reporting, media ethics and other news writing classes. These classes call for students to add data to their stories, collecting relevant information for sidebars, and creating webpages based on student research.

“I always said to myself, where do I want to be in 10 years,” Wickham recounted. “I wanted to be the news editor. Well, in advanced reporting, I am the news editor. I’m working with the students on their stories. I’m coming up with ideas and sources. It’s just a different venue.”

Brad Schultz, professor in the Meek School

of Journalism and New Media, said, “[Dr. Wickham] is extremely passionate in what she does, and that comes across to her students.

“She demands high quality and cares about her work, and she has done some extremely impressive work — especially the work she’s done with SPJ and bringing recognition to the campus.”

In 2008, Wickham received the Outstanding Campus Advisor Award from the Society of Professional Journalists for her work and dedication.

She says that is her most highly regarded award.

“It was generated by the students, and it was really a recognition of their work,” she said. SPJ on the Ole Miss campus was the Outstanding Student Chapter in 2004, 2006 and 2007.

When asked about Wickham’s work, fellow journalism colleague Joe Atkins said that, “Dr. Wickham has devoted an amazing amount of energy to SPJ activities and student membership over the years to the point she is practically synonymous with SPJ on this campus.”

The author is an integrated marketing communications graduate student from Tampa, Florida.

MEEK SCHOOL 59

FACULTY & STAFF HighLights

Assistant Professor Vanessa Gregory was an invited speaker on the topics of narrative nonfiction and multimedia journalism in June at the conference of the American Horse Publications, a magazine industry group. One of her essays was reprinted this year, alongside the work of such authors as Curtis Wilkie and P.J. O’Rourke, in the collection “Good Dog: True Stories of Love, Loss, and Loyalty,” published by HarperWave. Her latest essay about Horn Island, a federally designated wilderness off the Mississippi coast, appeared in the February/March issue of Garden & Gun.

James Lumpp was a member of an Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communications site visit team to San Diego State University’s School of Journalism and Media Studies February 8-11, 2015.

“Blood In My Eye,” a new production by Mykki Newton, video editor for the Meek School of Jour-

Darren Sanefski created the entire visual brand for two new magazines, Doctors Life (now renamed Physicians Life) and New York Horse, for which he since has been hired as the art director and has completed an award-winning first year of publications. Sanefski redesigned, developed and launched the website efrental.com for Express Furniture Rental headquartered in Southern California. In the fall, he brought the Society for News Design’s “Digital Boot Camp” to the Meek School. He and students in the Meek School’s first Digital Publishing class designed and published an interactive version of Land of Plenty, available for download to the iPad on iTunes. In February 2015, he continued as the “Lead Facilitator” for the most coveted category, “World’s Best,” during SND’s 36th Annual Creative Competition in Syracuse, New York.

Senior Lecturer Robin Street, APR, was presented the Professional Achievement Award, the highest award given, by the Southern Public Relations Federation in September. Street, who had previously been named Mississippi’s winner, competed with winners from other SPRF-member states.

Educators rarely receive the professional award.

However, the judges, who remain anonymous, commented, “Ms. Street’s achievements are stellar.

She is innovative in her field. She is continually engaged in professional development. Her awards and accomplishments are well above what would be outstanding.” In a separate SPRF competition for public relations works, Street also won three awards for communication programs and feature writing.

Dr. Kristen Alley Swain represented Ole Miss at the Planet Forward “Feeding the Planet” summit in Washington, D.C. Using a grant, she developed an explanatory writing module for three core journalism courses, taught a new health communication seminar, and was tenured and promoted to associate professor. Swain published her work in Health Security, Health Communication, Journal of Risk Analysis and Crisis Response, Handbook of Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation, and Online Journal of Communication and Media Technologies. She also presented her work at the Association for Politics and the Life Sciences, Society for Risk Analysis, and University Transportation Center conferences.

60 MEEK SCHOOL

nalism and New Media, and Louis Bourgeois of Vox Press of Oxford, premiered at the Overby Center for Southern Journalism and Politics. The documentary intersperses scenes from the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s with the provocative language of Eldridge Cleaver, the Black Panther leader who wrote “Soul On Ice;” novelist and essayist James Baldwin, the author of “The Fire Next Time;” and other black writers.

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