LETTER FROM THE DEAN

LETTER FROM WILL NORTON, JR.

Each 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.