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UM students sweep awards from Public Relations Association of Mississippi

Posted on: April 17th, 2019 by ldrucker

One student named Outstanding PR Student in the state

University of Mississippi public relations students swept the awards in the Public Relations Association of Mississippi student competition recently, including one student being named Outstanding PR Student in the state.

Students and recent graduates from the School of Journalism and New Media won 16 of the 19 student awards presented for public relations projects at the PRAM state conference in Vicksburg on April 12.

In addition, IMC major Davis Roberts from Grenada was named Outstanding PR Student in Mississippi. He was selected from 13 nominees from statewide colleges for the award that came with a $500 scholarship. Journalism major Hailey McKee and IMC major Hayden Benge were also recognized as nominees for the award.

For the competition for PR projects, the students entered public relations campaigns they produced in Senior Lecturer Robin Street’s advanced PR class during 2018. Each student created a campaign to increase awareness or change opinion on a topic of their choice. Topics included prescription drug abuse, the detrimental effects of loneliness, the importance of registering to vote, equal pay for women, eating disorders in men, sex trafficking, suicide prevention, the physical and emotional health benefits of having a pet, the dangers of e-cigarette use, autism, and the dangers of bullying among teenagers.

School of Journalism and New Media Students and their instructor at the Public Relations Association of Mississippi Student Prism Awards Luncheon April 11 awaiting the results. Pictured are: counter-clockwise from far left are Kendall Patterson, Davis Roberts, Hayden Benge, Ally Langston, Anna Bess Pavlakovich, Barrett Climer, Senior Lecturer Robin Street, Melanie Wierzbicki, Hailey McKee, Holly Lasker, Madison Stewart and Chloe Parrish.

Each campaign required multiple aspects including writing news articles, shooting video and photos, planning creative events, conducting research and creating online and social media posts.

“Today’s communication specialists require skills in research and planning, as well as in all forms of communication including writing, designing, photography, video, social media and website creation,” Street said. “These students demonstrated that they excel in this diverse skill set. Their awards are a tribute to the preparation they received from all the faculty members at the School of Journalism and New Media.”

University of Mississippi public relations students and recent graduates swept the Public Relations Association of Mississippi student competition recently, winning 16 of the total 19 awards presented for PR projects. In addition, IMC major Davis Roberts was named Mississippi Outstanding PR Student. Pictured, left to right, are some of those winners: Front row: Hayden Benge, Chloe Parrish, Maggie Crouch, Senior Lecturer Robin Street, Anna Bess Pavlakovich and Aleka Battista. Second row: Samantha Metz, Calyn Hoerner, Kendall Patterson, Hailey McKee, Holly Lasker and Ally Langston. Third row: Davis Roberts and Melanie Wierzbicki. Not pictured are Barrett Climer, Caroline Hewitt and Madison Stewart. Photo credit: Stan O’Dell

Comments from the judges, who remain anonymous, on the students’ entries included “solid research and planning,” “very thorough and impressive,” “exceptional,” “very creative,” “comprehensive and well done,” “thoughtful campaign to bring awareness and assistance to a difficult topic” and “creative and thought provoking.”

Davis Roberts, an IMC major from Grenada, was selected as Outstanding PR Student by the Public Relations Association of Mississippi from nominees representing colleges around the state. Here, he is congratulated by his nominating professor, School of Journalism and New Media Senior Lecturer Robin Street. Davis was previously named a winner of the Marcus Elvis Taylor Memorial Medal, the university’s highest academic honor. Photo credit: Stan O’Dell

Matt Martin, PRAM vice president for awards, commended the students’ entries.

“The award-winning work submitted by the students of the University of Mississippi is notable for its creativity and solid understanding and use of the public relations process,” Martin said. “While their awards will add stars to their resume, it’s their mastery of these fundamentals that will lead to successful careers as PR practitioners.”

Multiple students can win in the same category if they earn the required number of points as scored by the judges. No awards were given in the highest category called the Prism. The Excellence Award is the next highest award, followed by the Merit Award.

Winning Excellence Awards were Benge from Tulsa, Oklahoma; Calyn Hoerner, an IMC graduate from Houston; Holly Lasker, an IMC major from Seattle; and McKee, from Dyersburg, Tennessee. Street also won an Award of Excellence in the professional media writing category.

Winning Merit awards were Aleka Battista, an IMC graduate from Tupelo; Barrett Climer, an IMC graduate from Jackson; Maggie Crouch, a journalism major from Westmont, Illinois; Caroline Hewitt, a journalism graduate from Covington, Louisiana; Ally Langston, a journalism major from Dallas; Samantha Taylor Metz, a marketing and corporate relations major from Hernando; Chloe Parrish, an IMC graduate student from Germantown, Tennessee; Kendall Patterson, a journalism major from Corinth; Anna Bess Pavlakovich, a journalism major from Denver; Roberts; Madison Stewart, an IMC graduate from Dallas; and Melanie Wierzbicki, a double major in Spanish and marketing and corporate relations from Waxhaw, North Carolina.

For more information, contact Robin Street at rbstreet@olemiss.edu.

Magazine Innovation Center’s ACT 9 Experience all about the students

Posted on: April 17th, 2019 by ldrucker

Annual conference draws all-star list of industry leaders to UM

A who’s who of the international magazine industry will be at the University of Mississippi from April 23 to 25, but it won’t be the movers and shakers of publishing who will be in the spotlight.

The real stars of the show, according to ACT 9 Experience founder and coordinator Samir Husni, Ph.D., are the Ole Miss students.

“There are a whole bunch of magazine conferences, but, to me, what makes this conference unique is the presence of the students,” said Husni, a UM journalism professor, Hederman Lecturer and director of the Magazine Innovation Center. “This conference brings together current industry leaders and the future industry leaders.”

More than 30 speakers from the highest ranks of magazine publishing will be on campus, and Husni places a priority on having students in the university’s magazine publishing and management specialization interact with those professionals.

“I assign students to shadow the speakers; they actually will pick them up from the airport,” Husni said. “I want that interaction. I want the students to have enough time to spend time with these leaders of the magazine industry.”

For junior Sarah Smith, the ACT 9 Experience serves as a chance to further her knowledge of the industry in which she wants to work, but also to meet people who will prove to be invaluable for her future career.

“This is the only opportunity I know of that you’re going to get a taste of worldwide magazine making anywhere near here,” said Smith, a journalism major from Mount Pleasant. “I expect to gain a lot of information about the next few years of magazine making.

“For media students, this is an unparalleled event where we can meet and mingle with industry leaders. This is a great chance to secure a summer internship or even a job after college.”

The ACT Experience, which stands for “amplify, clarify and testify,” is hosted by the Magazine Innovation Center at the School of Journalism and New Media. The event began in 2010 and has more than doubled in size in nine years.

The university has created a name for itself as a higher education hub for magazine publishing, and the ACT 9 Experience is the highlight of that achievement, Husni said.

“We have people from all over the world coming to this conference, coming to Ole Miss,” he said. “That’s why I tell people, when they say, ‘You need to have something like this in New York or you need to do something like this here or there,’ I’m like, ‘No, the ACT Experience is Ole Miss and Ole Miss is the ACT Experience.’”

The theme of this year’s ACT 9 Experience is “print smart, digital proud,” which Husni said emphasizes the ever-changing landscape of print publications.

“I want to focus on the integration between print and digital, that we are no longer an either/or industry,” he said.

Among the speakers for this year’s event are Linda Thomas Brooks, president and CEO of MPA: The Association of Magazine Media; James Hewes, president and CEO of FIPP, the network for global media; Michael Marchesano, managing director of Connectiv, a leading business-to-business magazine media network; and Jerry Lynch, president of the Magazine and Books at Retail Association.

Husni will moderate a discussion featuring these industry leaders.

“We will talk about some of the challenges facing the entire magazine and media industry locally and worldwide,” Husni said. “It should be fun to have those CEOs at the same place on the same campus in front of future industry leaders.”

The diversity and depth of the speakers makes the event unique, Smith said.

“Dr. Husni is a genius when it comes to magazines, and he puts his heart and soul into this event,” she said. “I think that the fact someone as successful and well-known as him puts his heart in it, always creates something genuine and fresh that you can’t get anywhere else.”

All lectures at the Overby Center are open to the public.

Activities begin Tuesday (April 23), with an opening gala for registered participants, featuring welcoming remarks by UM Provost Noel Wilkin and keynote speaker Stephen Orr, editor in chief of Better Homes and Gardens.

Speakers will continue all day Wednesday and Thursday, and Thursday’s events for paid participants feature a bus trip and tour of the Mississippi Delta. The Overby Center for the Study of Southern Journalism and Politics will host the majority of speakers, and a full list of speakers can be found online.

Registration for the event includes all meals, sessions and transportation to and from the Delta. The Inn at Ole Miss is also offering special rates to ACT 9 attendees.

This story was written by Justin Whitmore of University Communications. If you are a prospective student who is interested in learning more about our undergraduate or graduate programs in journalism or IMC, email jour-imc@olemiss.edu.

Mississippi Press Association to roast Public Broadcasting executive Thursday, April 25

Posted on: April 11th, 2019 by ldrucker

The executive director of Mississippi Public Broadcasting will be roasted by the state press association April 25 at an event to benefit its journalism education foundation.

Ronnie Agnew, who has been chief executive for MPB since 2011 and is a longtime former newspaper journalist and editor, will be roasted by a panel of his colleagues and peers in a bid to raise funds for the Mississippi Press Association Education Foundation.

Click here to view Roast Registration information.

Click here to view Roast Sponsor Levels.

“The Roast is a major fundraiser for the Foundation, and underwrites much of the cost for our annual internship program,” said Layne Bruce, MPA executive director, in an article on the MPA website. “It annually underwrites the cost of placing about 15 student journalists in working positions at Mississippi newspapers.”

In his work at MPB, Agnew has oversight of radio and television programming and the agency’s legislative, education and digital initiatives. He previously was longtime executive editor of The Clarion Ledger and Hattiesburg American.

“We are grateful to Ronnie for stepping up and agreeing to take on the role of ‘roastee’ this year,” said MPA President Paul Keane, publisher of The Wayne County News, in an article on the MPA website. “He has been a longtime member and friend to MPA, and we’re looking forward to a fun and entertaining event with him in the spotlight.”

The event will be held at the Hilton Jackson with a reception at 6 p.m., followed by dinner at 7 p.m. Tickets are $80 each or a table for eight is $600. Corporate sponsorships are also available. Click here to register or for more information. For more information, contact Bruce, 601-981-3060.

National Week of Conversation featured on MSNBC

Posted on: April 10th, 2019 by ldrucker

When someone has a different opinion than you, do you:

A. Stick your fingers in your ears?

B. Scream at them until they leave your sight?

C. Listen to their perspective?

Today, MSNBC aired a segment about listening as part of this week’s National Week of Conversation, a time when people with diverse perspectives #ListenFirst to understand.

Graham D. Bodie, Ph.D., a professor of integrated marketing communication with the University of Mississippi School of Journalism and New Media, works closely with the Listen First Project, a national non-profit that seeks to promote the healing power of listening, especially across difference.

Graham said the Listen First Project is one of the sponsors of the National Week of Conversation that runs through April 13. Organizers of the week were featured on MSNBC. Click the link to watch the video.

In the clip, Pearce Godwin, of the National Conversation Project, joins “Morning Joe” to discuss the National Week of Conversation. Godwin, along with podcast hosts Beth Silvers and Sarah Holland, discuss.

You can also check out the remaining opportunities this week to engage in conversation. Many of those opportunities can be found here, or you can look on social media and search the hashtag #ListenFirst.

UM journalism students win Broadcast Education Association, Associated Press and SPJ awards

Posted on: April 9th, 2019 by ldrucker

University of Mississippi School of Journalism and New Media students just keep winning awards.

The Broadcast Education Association has an annual Festival of Media Arts that garners thousands of entries from faculty and students nationwide. This year, we have two national winners:

Brittany Brown

Long Form Video or Film Documentary Category

1st Place – “Hate in America” – Justin Parham, Scott Bourque, Brittany Brown and Jasmine Putney, of Arizona State University, the University of Mississippi and the University of Iowa were the winners. The winning entry came from the News21 Fellowship Brown received last year. You can watch the documentary at the link above.

Television Hard News Category

Award of Excellence – Ole Miss Alums and Students Deal with Aftermath of Hurricane Michael – Abbie McIntosh, University of Mississippi – This winning entry was the result of a school-sponsored reporting trip to Panama City, Florida this fall, right after the hurricane hit the Florida Panhandle.

“This is a really good showing in a BEA contest,” said UM professor Nancy Dupont, who has been involved in BEA for many years. “It’s tough to win anything from BEA because we’re competing with the best of the best.”

The winners receive their awards in Las Vegas at the annual BEA conference Festival of Media Arts celebration, an event that will be produced by UM School of Journalism and New Media students, including McIntosh, under the direction of professor Iveta Imre.

Regional Associated Press and Society of Professional Journalists Awards

The regional AP awards banquet was Saturday in Jackson. The regional SPJ awards banquet was March 30 in Nashville.

We’re proud The Daily Mississippian, NewsWatch and Rebel Radio each won first place awards in best all-around newspaper, television and radio categories in at least one of the two contests.

SPJ includes entries from student media in four states, and AP in two states. Competing against the top student media in our region, The Daily Mississippian won first place for best student newspaper in both SPJ and AP, and NewsWatch won first place awards for best newscast in both contests, and a second place award for general excellence in AP.

As more information becomes available, we will update this story.

AP First-place awards

The Daily Mississippian, General Excellence for newspapers

NewsWatch OleMiss, Newscast

Billy Schuerman, two first-place awards, for Spot News Photo and Sports Photo.

Billy Schuerman also won a prestigious Best of Show, which includes a cash award and is given to the most outstanding student for a specific media platform. Only six Best of Show awards were given out. Schuerman won for photos published in The Daily Mississippian in 2018. This academic year, he is studying abroad in Austria.

Rebel Radio, General Excellence for radio stations

Victoria Hosey, two first-place awards, for Radio Reporter and Radio Continuing Coverage. Hosey graduated in December and is studying and working in China this year.

Tyler Hayes, Radio Sports Story

Andranita Williams, Radio Feature Story

DeAndria Turner, Radio News Story

Abbie McIntosh, TV Reporting

Alec Keyzer-Andre, Sam Gray, Gracie Snyder, TV Documentary

AP Second-place awards:

NewsWatch Ole Miss, General Excellence

The Daily Mississippian, Editorials (a series of three)

Abbie McIntosh, TV News Story

Victoria Hosey, two second-place radio awards for Newscast and a shared award with Will Stribling for Radio Continuing Coverage

Will Stribling, two second-place radio awards for Feature Story and News Story, and the shared Radio Continuing Coverage award with Victoria Hosey

And check out our recent story about the School of Journalism and New Media’s Society of Professional Journalists Awards.

Conservative talk show producer speaks at UM School of Journalism and New Media

Posted on: April 9th, 2019 by ldrucker

A conservative radio talk show host and producer spoke at the University of Mississippi School of Journalism and New Media Tuesday sharing storytelling tips and his political beliefs.

Lee Habeeb, vice president of content development for Salem Radio Network, hosts “Our American Stories,” a program that airs on more than 200 radio stations across the country.

He was the co-creator and executive producer of The Laura Ingraham Show, a radio show hosted by conservative commentator Laura Ingraham, who also had a television show on Fox.

Habeeb led a class talk called “Stories Matter: A Talk With Lee Habeeb, Creator and Producer of Top Talk Shows in America” Tuesday, April 9, at 8 a.m. in Farley Hall.

“Storytelling,” Habeeb said. “It’s what I’ve done for a living. And when I told my dad that was what I wanted to do, he thought I was crazy because Lebanese people own businesses. That’s what we do. We buy stuff and we sell it.”

Habeeb said storytelling is the art of listening. You’re not always going to like what you hear, but he said listening is important.

Habeeb has spoken at talk radio industry conventions and written columns for USA Today, Newsweek and National Review.

Habeeb said what he has learned about storytelling – the beginning, middle and end – sounds simple, but it’s not.

“The beginning should be really, really short, like life itself,” he said. “As we look at our life backwards when we’re 80, we don’t really recall the first three years of our life, let alone the first seven or eight. The most formidable part of our time probably starts in our early teens and goes straight up to our 60s. The rest is sort of memory.”

The short beginning should grab people’s attention, he said.

“The middle should be very long, just like life, really long. And the end should be, hopefully and pleasantly, short, as we all hope to go out … dying doing something we like … real sudden.”

Storytelling should have properties like life itself, he said.

“So then the question is: What do we tell stories about? And that’s for you to think about. That’s all journalism is. It’s storytelling. Who? What? Where? and Why? And I’m always really concerned with the why. What motivates people to do what they do?”

As a writer for Newsweek, Habeeb said he is paid per view, or based on the number of views his stories receive, so it is important to be a good storyteller.

“My life is to write something for Newsweek that people will click,” he said. “And if they click it through a few pages, I get paid a lot. And if they don’t click it, I’m fired.

“And I like that because I can’t be a victim in that universe. There are standards, and I have to entertain or amuse people … The joy of life is that if you write something interesting and compelling, it migrates and finds itself into other places, and then you get paid again. The key is finding a good story.”

He encouraged his audience to “have friends who disagree with them, and love them, and have a dialogue with them.”

ESPN’s Wright Thompson first in Willie Morris Writer’s Series

Posted on: April 5th, 2019 by drwenger

Sportswriter Wright Thompson equates the work of a profile writer to that of a lie detector.

“The one thing I find myself talking about over and over again is the idea that you have to cut through myth and cut through brand,” said Thompson, speaking as the first author in the Willie Morris Writer’s Series at the University of Mississippi School of Journalism and New Media. “Brand is just a fancy name for a lie.”

In an era of hot takes and clickbait, Thompson prides himself on reporting the truth about the people he covers.

“If you’re going to write profiles, I find it’s most interesting to live in the space between the stories they tell about themselves and the stories others tell about them. Figure out where that disconnect is to tell something that is true.”

Thompson’s new book, “The Cost of These Dreams,” is a collection of his explorations of sports celebrities at various points in their careers. Thompson says great stories are often “about the beginning or end of something.” He opens the book with a profile of Michael Jordan as Jordan contemplates turning 50.

“Yes, he’s one of the most famous people in the world, but he’s dealing with something everyone will struggle with — the loss of power and the loss of time — the realization that you are the sum of choices you’ve made.”

Though Thompson writes about some of the most high-flying sports figures in the world, he says all profiles are just two sides of the same coin.

“You want to make Michael Jordan as small and normal and human as possible, but for a normal person you want to find the extraordinary in them.”

Getting Thompson to kick off the Willie Morris series was not a tough sell. Both were born in Mississippi with a love of storytelling. In 1967, Morris became the youngest editor of Harper’s Magazine. He wrote both fiction and non-fiction, including his seminal work “North Toward Home.” Thompson says he decided to become a magazine writer after reading that book.

“He was the editor who first started writing stories like the ones I do,” says Thompson. “Everything you read in magazines is here because Morris wanted Harper’s to be different. He was a fierce enemy of saccharine and cliché and a real fan of empathy.”

Thompson himself is a fierce fan of journalism and says there’s never been a more important time to go out into the world and tell the truth.

“This is an unbelievably tribal time. People hate the media because the media tells people things they disagree with and nobody likes to be told they’re wrong,” says Thompson. “If we’re going to have an American tribe, we’re going to have to take the people standing on this small island of truth and just make it bigger and bigger. Journalists are people standing in the breach.”

Story contributed by Assistant Dean of Journalism Deb Wenger.

University of Mississippi journalism student among Hugh M. Hefner Foundation honorees

Posted on: April 4th, 2019 by ldrucker

The Hugh M. Hefner Foundation will honor a University of Mississippi School of Journalism and New Media student at its annual First Amendment Awards event May 15, 2019, at the Newseum in Washington, D.C.

Grace Marion, a journalism student who serves as the Society of Professional Journalists president, will be honored with others recognized for their efforts to help protect and enhance First Amendment rights for all Americans and to raise awareness of modern-day challenges to freedom of speech and expression.

As the former editor-in-chief of her high school newspaper, The Playwickian, Marion fought against school censorship after she saw about a dozen articles censored.

“Marion was able to publish her final jaw-dropping article during her last year at the school, which outed the school for the lack of sexual misconduct records for its teachers,” the foundation news release reads.

SPJ President Grace Marion, center, at the recent Nashville SPJ conference. She is pictured with UM journalism student, Brooke McNabb, SPJ vice president, right.

According to the Freedom Forum, more Americans are concerned about their First Amendment rights than at any time in the past 25 years, the release reports.

“Recent concerns stem from censorship issues on school campuses and social media, attacks on reporters and threats to the press, and the growing threat of new technology, such as tracking devices and facial recognition software,” the release reports. “As threats to the press reach an all-time high, the Newseum, the Freedom Forum Institute and the Student Press Law Center have declared 2019 as the Year of the Student Journalist.”

Christie Hefner, founder and chairman of the Hugh M. Hefner First Amendment Awards said Americans’ First Amendment freedoms are under assault like never before.

“From a reporter being stripped of his White House press pass, to newsrooms being threatened and attacked, members of the press are being viciously targeted while ‘fake news’ has become a common term used by politicians and the public,” Hefner said in the news release. “Millions of students are exposed to a censorship culture within our education system as free speech violations take place at our schools and on college campuses. We cannot allow First Amendment threats to become commonplace in our country.”

Christie Hefner established the Hugh M. Hefner First Amendment Awards in 1979 to honor her father’s lifelong commitment to defending the First Amendment. Since 1979, the Foundation has recognized 150+ free speech advocates at their annual awards events. Previous honorees include high school students, lawyers, librarians, journalists and educators. A complete list of past award winners and judges can be found here.

“Because of the dedication and commitment of Americans who refuse to be censored, threats to the First Amendment do not go unchallenged,” Christie Hefner continued in the news release. “We honor and recognize America’s unsung heroes: the individuals who put themselves and their organizations at risk by bravely defending their constitutional right to freedom of speech and expression. The Foundation is honored to recognize this year’s award winners who were carefully selected from hundreds of nominations. Assaults to the First Amendment cannot go unnoticed. We’ll continue to raise awareness of these violations and recognize America’s brave free speech heroes.”

The 2019 honorees also include:

Law: Theodore J. Boutrous, Jr., a partner at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP, and global co-chair of the firm’s Litigation Group, for his work on behalf of CNN and Jim Acosta in connection with the restoration of Acosta’s White House press credentials.
Government: Dr. George Luber, former chief of the Climate and Health Program in the Division of Environmental Health Science and Practice at the National Center for Environmental Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). After the 2016 election, Dr. Luber was directed to cancel a conference on climate change with Al Gore; he refused on the basis of science education and was outspoken on the issue. The CDC sent Dr. Luber home on administrative leave. After taking a public stand, the CDC withdrew Dr. Luber’s proposed termination.
Book Publishing: Greg Lukianoff, president and CEO, FIRE, & Jonathan Haidt, social psychologist, NYU’s Stern School of Business, for their book, The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting Up a Generation for Failure.
Education: Christian Bales, an openly gay and gender non-conforming student, who was not allowed to deliver his valedictorian commencement speech at his Catholic high school’s graduation ceremony. Bales decided to deliver his speech with a bullhorn following the graduation ceremony surrounded by students and faculty.
Lifetime Achievement: Floyd Abrams, senior counsel, Cahill Gordon & Reindel LLP, for his lifelong devotion to constitutional law. Abrams has argued numerous significant First Amendment cases in the U.S. Supreme Court. Many arguments he has made orally and in his briefs to the Court have been adopted by it as binding precedent protecting freedom of speech and the press from infringement by the government.

After a public call for nominations issued by the Foundation, the awardees were selected by an independent panel of judges: Karen Tumulty, a columnist and former national political correspondent for The Washington Post who writes frequently on free speech and the First Amendment; Neal Katyal, the Paul and Patrician Saunders Professor of Law at Georgetown University, a partner at Hogan Lovells, and former acting solicitor general of the United States; and Michael B. Keegan, president of People for the American Way and People for the American Way Foundation.

The Hugh M. Hefner Foundation was established to work on behalf of individual rights in a democratic society. The primary focus of the foundation is to support organizations that advocate for and defend civil rights and civil liberties with special emphasis on First Amendment rights and rational sex and drug policies.

UM journalism students win Society of Professional Journalists awards at Nashville conference

Posted on: April 1st, 2019 by ldrucker

Congratulations to the University of Mississippi students who won 13 awards for their 2018 work in the annual Society of Professional Journalists Mark of Excellence contest.

The Region 12 conference and awards luncheon was Saturday, March 30, at Lipscomb University in Nashville. Region 12 includes four states – Mississippi, Louisiana, Tennessee and Arkansas.

Six UM student journalists – Grant McLaughlin, Carter Diggs, Grace Marion, Brooke McNabb, Sarah Liese, and Gracie Snyder – attended the conference that included workshops with many high achieving area journalists and networking opportunities.

Regional first-place winners automatically are entered into the national contest, competing against student winners in the other 11 regions.

In the newspaper and art/graphics/photo categories, SPJ separates entries from large schools and small schools, and our students compete in the categories for large universities.

Our Mark of Excellence first-place winners are:

The Daily Mississippian, best all-around daily newspaper

NewsWatch Ole Miss, best television newscast

Ariel Cobbert, breaking news photography (Honoring King’s legacy, Martin Luther King assassination 50th anniversary march)

Madison Scarpino, television breaking news (Ole Miss community reacts to controversial Facebook post)

Lasherica Thornton, breaking news reporting (article from her internship in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania)

Victoria Hosey, radio news reporting (Meek social media post forum)

Hurricane Harvey reporting team (Italiana Anderson, Lana Ferguson, Victoria Hosey, Abbie McIntosh, MacKenzie Ross), best use of multimedia

SPJ picks one winner and two finalists in each category. Our finalists are:

Circle & Square staff, student magazine

The Daily Mississippian, breaking news reporting (Chancellor, campus leaders condemn post made by Ole Miss alumnus)

Victoria Hosey, radio feature (Michael Rish, hurricane survivor)

Billy Schuerman, general news photography (James Meredith photo from black alumni weekend)

Gracie Snyder, Sarah Liese, Lauren Conley, online in-depth reporting (African American students, faculty aim to make UM more inclusive)

Victoria Hosey, Abbie McIntosh, Madison Scarpino, online news reporting (Ole Miss student copies with the Hurricane Michael destruction of her hometown)

If you would like to become a member of the Society of Professional Journalists, contact UM SPJ Chapter President Grace Marion at spjumchapter@gmail.com.

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Journalism and engineering professors hope to shape energy policy

Posted on: April 1st, 2019 by ldrucker

Journalism and engineering researchers at the University of Mississippi are teaming to identify gaps in media coverage, public understanding and policymaking about carbon capture, utilization and storage.

Journalism associate professor Kristen Swain and chemical engineering professor Wei-Yin Chen won one of the first Disaster Resilience Flagship Constellation research grants titled Communicating about Carbon Capture, Utilization and Storage Innovations to Policymakers and the Public.

The project will explore how CCUS innovations have been communicated from the scientific community to the public and policymakers over the last 20 years. With the help of journalism graduate students this summer, the team will conduct systematic content analyses of CCUS research, news stories and policy documents.

“I imagine that most CCUS innovations and tradeoffs have been invisible to the public and policymakers,” Swain said. “Ultimately, we hope to learn more about how scientific discoveries can be communicated to the public more effectively, to inform critical policy decisions.”

Chen developed innovative techniques for fixing the carbon in CO2 emissions onto biochar, a type of charcoal, to reuse carbon’s energy content. “We burn biochar with the carbon from CO2, to recover more energy than the raw biochar had,” he said. “Then we convert the treated biochar into synthetic gas.”

Chen leads UM’s Sustainable Energy and Environment Group (SEEG), which has worked with scientists around the world to pioneer several CCUS methods. These include carbon gasification and carbon activation for CO₂ capture and wastewater treatment. His current National Science Foundation EPSCoR grant focuses on CCUS innovations in the sustainable food/energy/water nexus.

Swain said CCUS especially interests her because “it’s a rising-star strategy, a viable way to suck carbon out of the air whereever carbon emissions are released. Independent reports show that the world cannot avoid dangerous climate consequences without using it on a much wider scale.”