MCAST presents: Dan and Janet Conover’s Presentation on Multi-Media

Quality in a Digital Environment was the title of the presentation given by multi-media gurus Dan and Janet Conover at the Department of Journalism’s SPJ meeting last Monday. Our MCAST, the department’s video outlet, has the presentation for our students, alumni and friends to watch. Click here to watch this informative lecture.
MCAST now carries nine events that took place at the Department of Journalism and the Overby Center for Southern Journalism and Politics for your viewing pleasure.
Stay tuned to MCAST for future broadcasts of important events hosted by your department and the Overby Center. Enjoy

Quality Journalism in the Digital Age

Dan Conover, a leader and expert in anything media, will be the guest speaker at the upcoming Society of Professional Journalists’ UM Chapter meeting on Monday Feb. 25 at noon, in Farley 125. Dan Conover is a reporter, cartoonist, blogger, illustrator and videographer for The Post and Courier newspaper in Charleston, SC. Conover spent five years as the newspaper’s city editor and worked as news director for its website, Charleston.net, in 2006. In 2005, he was South Carolina’s Journalist of the Year. Conover was also selected as a Western Knight Center Fellow at the Graduate School of Journalism at University of California-Berkeley in March 2006. Conover “home-blogs” at the eclectic group blog Xark. His About Me on his website reads,

“Daniel Conover writes stuff and draws stuff and can’t stop thinking about things he should probably just leave well-enough alone. He used to be a small-pond big fish, but now he’s just some guy watching the world fall apart and come together.”

Ole Miss SPJ received a professional development grant to invite Dan Conover, an advisor to NewAssignment.Net and the author of the blog Conover on Media. and the founder of the eclectic group blog, Xark!. You can read his latest entry Foundations of 21st Century Journalism by clicking here.

Advisory Board Member Rudy Abramson Dead at 70

Rudy Abramson, advisory board member and Ole Miss journalism class of 58 graduate, has died. He was 70. According to the Los Angeles Times web site “Abramson sustained massive head injuries in a fall Tuesday at his home in Reston, Va. He died late Wednesday at a hospital in Fairfax, Va., according to a friend, John Bennett.”

Read the LA Times obit here, and the University of Mississippi press release here.

A memorial service for Rudy Abramson will be held February 26 at 11:00 a.m. in the Newseum, 555 Pennsylvania Avenue, in Washington,D.C.

The Mississippi Center for Freedom of Information Secrecy Series

The following is from Jeanni Atkins, Ph.D., Executive Director Mississippi Center for Freedom of Information and associate professor of journalism:

For those of you who might be interested in the MCFOI secrecy series, I’m sending the links to articles I’ve been able to find online today.
This effort began last October beginning with the appointment of a task force, and we’ve had excitement and involvement by some of the state newspapers, particularly with the “fire in the belly” for open government issues by Stan Tiner that seemed to motivate people. We publish a series every year in March during Sunshine Week and expect to do the same this year, but this series was published now to attempt to put some pressure on legislators to pay more attention to the need for reforms to improve access to information in Mississippi

Public information shrouded
By Emily Wagster Pettus, Associated Press, and Dan Davis,
Hattiesburg American Managing Editor

City impedes access to records
By Katherine Crowell, TheClarion-Ledger
February 10, 2008

Analysis: Attitude, laws facilitate keeping records closed
By Chris Joyner, The Clarion-Ledger
February 10, 2008

Fight for openness belongs to you too
By Ronnie Agnew, The Clarion-Ledger
February 10, 2008

Time for a new public push for openness
By David Hampton, The Clarion-Ledger
February 10, 2008

Put the public back in control of public business
Editorial Board, The Sun Herald
February 10, 2008

State sunshine law not so sunny
Hattiesburg American Staff Reports
February 10, 2008

Supervisors should know, do better
Editorial Board, Natchez-Democrat
February 10, 2008

Despite sunshine laws, Mississippi government often
surrounded by secrecy
By Emily Wagster Pettus and Dan Davis
The Associated Press and Hattiesburg American
February 10, 2008

Editorial, Delta Democrat Times
February 10, 2008

To view the complete updates on this series please click here.

Southeastern Journalism Conference to be held in Oxford

The S. Gale Denley Student Media Center at The University of Mississippi and the Department of Journalism will host the annual Southeastern Journalism Conference Feb. 21 - 23, in the city of Oxford and on the campus of the University. The theme for this year’s conference is “Your Journalism Future in the Digital Information Age.” The three-day event will include competitions in various media areas, keynote speakers, learning sessions and interaction between schools located in the Southeastern region. Up to 400 participants from Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi and Tennessee are expected to descend on Oxford and Ole Miss for the conference. For complete information regarding the conference please click here.

Journalism grad. working for Al-Jazeera English network

The following item comes from the Jackson Free Press:

[Gigs] From Ole Miss to Al Jazeera

by Greg Williamson
January 30, 2008

Annie Kate Pons (class of 03) knows the South. The Old Miss grad was born in Hereford, Texas, the beef capital of the world, and her dad was a cattle rancher. A committed Christian, she used to work for Fox News in Washington, D.C. Now she works for Al Jazeera English, a 24-hour television channel, broadcast by satellite to 100 million households worldwide.

Pons was hired just six weeks before the Nov. 15, 2006, launch of the station…

To read the entire article click here.

Two Journalism Majors Inducted in Ole Miss’ Hall of Fame

Ten University of Mississippi seniors have earned entry into the school’s Hall of Fame, one of the university’s highest honors. Two out of the ten students are journalism majors. What follows is an edited copy of the UM’s news release regarding this major honor:

Chancellor Robert Khayat bestowed the honor Friday (Jan. 25) in a ceremony at the Gertrude C. Ford Center for the Performing Arts, noting that the selection is based on a student’s academic achievement, community service, extracurricular activities and potential for future success.

“The Ole Miss Hall of Fame has recognized outstanding achievements of students since 1930, and we offer congratulations to the inductees and their families,” Khayat said. “The students have shown a commitment to the community and the university, making a lasting impact on both. Membership in this elite group indicates success in every facet of a student’s life.”

Lillie Clarissa Flenorl, daughter of Richard and Rose Flenorl, is a Journalism/English major. She is a member of the Associated Student Body, Lambda Sigma and the Order of Omega. Listed on the Chancellor’s Honor Roll, she is active in the Student Media Center as a writer for the Daily Mississippian newspaper and the Ole Miss yearbook, as well as an anchor for Newswatch TV. She volunteers for Relay for Life and for the Boys and Girls Club.

Jermaine Terrell Jackson, son of Claudine Moorehead, is a Journalism major. He is a member of the Associated Student Body, Ole Miss Ambassadors and the National Association of Black Journalists. He is a writer for the Daily Mississippian and the Ole Miss yearbook. He volunteers for Habitat for Humanity and the Boys and Girls Club.

Please join me in congratulating our students in achieving this high honor.

Breaking Black News, Building Black Culture…

February is going to be a busy month at the Overby Center for Southern Journalism and Politics at Ole Miss. The Center is hosting a series of programs starting on Feb. 4. The programs include:

Monday, Feb. 4 at 2 p.m. A conversation with Charles Cobb, a founder of the National Association of Black Journalists and author of a new book “On The Road To Freedom.”

Friday, Feb. 8 at 2 p.m. A showing of a PBS film on the black press, “Soldiers Without Swords,” followed by a discussion.

Friday, Feb. 15 at 2 p.m. A discussion of the handling of racial issues at The Daily Mississippian, with this year’s editor Marti Covington and others, including Deidra Jackson and Ellen Meacham of the Ole Miss Journalism Department.

Friday, Feb. 22 at 2 p.m. Two prominent journalists from Memphis, Ole Miss graduate Otis Sanford, editor of opinion and editorials at The Commercial Appeal, and Karanja Ajanaku, editor of the Tri-State Defender, talk about the differences between the mainstream press and the black press. Kirk Johnson, assistant professor of African-American Studies at Ole Miss, will moderate.

Thursday, Feb. 28 at 7 p.m. A public program concludes the month with a panel discussion on the relevance of the black press. Mark Dolan of the Ole Miss Journalism Department will moderate and guests will include Ole Miss graduate Ronnie Agnew, executive editor of The Clarion-Ledger in Jackson; Bernell Tripp of the University of Florida and author of “Origins of the Black Press;” and Kirk Johnson.

All programs will be held in the Overby Center.

Code of Ethics: Minimize Harm…

Code of Ethics: Minimize Harm, Issues of Diversity is the topic of the Society of Professional Journalists meeting Tuesday afternoon, Jan. 29, 2008.

The session will focus on increasing cultural diversity in newsrooms and will focus on solutions.

The 4 p.m. meeting in Room 138 Farley Hall will feature:

Dr. Brad Schultz, assistant professor/journalism; Dr. Ralph Braseth, director of Student Media; and Michael Johansson, director of International Programs. Two other panelists are pending. Dr. Kathleen Wickham, associate professor/journalism, will moderate.

The meeting is open to students, faculty and the public.

The Ole Miss SPJ chapter has been named Region XII Outstanding Campus three out of the last four years. Dr. Wickham is the chapter adviser. For more information contact Dr. Wickham at 915-5501 or at kwickham@olemiss.edu.

Because it’s family…

This item comes from our faculty member Deidra Jackson:

In a discussion yesterday morning on MSNBC-TV’s “Morning Joe,” NBC’s Tom Brokaw in an interview with host Joe Scarborough, mentioned senior journalism major Lillie Flenorl (indirectly) and her mother Rose Jackson Flenorl, UM Alumni Association President-Elect, who serves as manager of social responsibilities for FedEx Services.

The segment was about how the election is about ending polarization, how Obama is transforming politics, and how voters seem to be open to accepting effective leadership from anyone, regardless of party, race or gender.

Brokaw mentioned meeting Rose Jackson Flenorl recently and seemed perplexed as to why she was so loyal to the Deep South school with its turbulent history and was considering sending her daughter Lillie to grad school at UM. “Because it’s family,” Brokaw recalled Flenorl as saying.

Brokaw’s comment elicited a hearty guffaw from Scarborough. DJ