April 2013
4 posts
Photo from http://www.wickedlocal.com/swampscott/news/x702309234/Dean-Pedersen-looks-back-on-17-years-at-First-Church-confident-in-its-future-as-he-steps-down#axzz2RsEj617x
The Rev. Dean Wesley Pederson, one of my former college roommates, lives in Wenham, Mass., just north of Boston.
After the bombings at the Boston Marathon, I wrote an email to find out how he and his wife Jane were...
Al Neuharth at the opening gala of the Newseum in April 2008
Al Neuharth hired the best people he could and created a vision of corporate excellence that redefined media around the world. He built an empire that grew from a net worth of $62 million in 1963 to $3.3 billion when he retired.
Al’s drive for excellence was his characteristic trait.
He was relentless.
I watched Al closely for a...
Charles Overby and William Winter
“I owe Charles Overby, The Clarion-Ledger and Gannett more than anybody in Mississippi,” William Winter told an audience at Millsaps University earlier this week.
He was referring to the newspaper’s stories on education reform in Mississippi. The Clarion-Ledger’s Pulitzer Prize 30 Years Later” was a celebration of the 30th anniversary of the...
8 tags
“The Future of Newspapers: The Clarion-Ledger’s...
Before the Gannett Corporation, Inc., purchased The Clarion-Ledger from the Hederman family, education reform seemed to face serious challenges.
However, Gannett hired Charles Overby to be executive editor, and Overby’s team seemed to run daily one or two articles on education, and Editorial Page Editor David Hardin wrote sharply worded editorials on the political battle that was waging in the...
October 2012
2 posts
3 tags
Roger Fransecky
Several years ago, when I was on the faculty of the College of Journalism and Mass Communications University of Nebraska, I became acquainted with Roger Fransecky. He is Founder/CEO of The Apogee Group, a global management consulting and leadership development organization, and he was coming to Lincoln to see the college and talk. Roger had made a major endowment gift to the...
6 tags
Jon Hunter speaks in Sioux Falls, SD, at the 60th anniversary of SoDak Sports
I was in South Dakota in early October as a member of the Al Neuharth Media Center advisory board.
On Wednesday afternoon a group of us celebrated the 60th anniversary of SoDak Sports, Neuharth’s venture into sports journalism. He had just been graduated from the University of South Dakota when he began the...
August 2012
3 posts
5 tags
Finding song and solidarity in South Africa
Meek School students Natalia Burgos, Bracey Harris, Jon Haywood and I were in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, for a journalism class at Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (NMMU) during the first two weeks of August.
Late in the first week, we rode with two development workers to Ikwezi, a village of 11,000 north of Port Elizabeth. I had met with Sizwe Mngwevu, the mayor, the night before in a...
5 tags
MPA Tour
Jace Ponder, reporter for the Sea Coast Echo in Bay St. Louis
The mood was upbeat a few days ago when I visited newspapers in the northern part of the state with Layne Bruce, executive director of the Mississippi Press Association.
We met editors and publishers who were just getting started in their positions, and we met veterans who had distinguished marketing and journalism careers. It was...
July 2012
1 post
5 tags
Home Is Where The Heart Is
A visit to the hometown of Samir Husni in Tripoli, Lebanon, July 2012
Above: A full moon over center of downtown Beirut where St. Georges is in forefront and Mohamed Al-Ameen Mosque, where the former Prime Minister Hariri is buried.
The sunlight shimmered off the blue Mediterranean as our Air France flight made its last approach into the Beirut airport. Moments earlier I had seen the rebuilt...
May 2012
1 post
Book Notes: Ghost of Empire by Kwasi Kwarteng
I cannot remember a book that has helped me understand the reasons for so many of the conflicts that exist in our society. Kwasi Kwarteng’s description and analysis in Ghosts of Empire provided insights on the causes of so many of the developments in the 21st century.
Great Britain controlled much of the globe during the 19th century, and the legacy of that empire is seen in many ethnic...
September 2011
2 posts
Newsroom goal? All screens, all the time
Bill Tallent’s company has an impressive client list. From USA Today to Fox News to Showtime, Mercury has an app for that.
Yet, his view is that news organizations need to have more than a three-screen strategy, they have to have an all-screen strategy.
“We have a handheld and a lap-sized screen now, but we’re going to a tabletop and living room wall screen in the...
Thoughts on the retirement of Charles Overby as...
In June 2000 the Freedom Forum board of trustees met in a dark crowded room at the Berkeley Hotel, and Charles told of a proposal to buy the land at 555 Pennsylvania Ave.
The room was hushed, shocked by the boldness of the offer. Then Senator Howard Baker, board secretary for that meeting, broke the silence: “Well you’ve got courage.”
This was only one of the many special experiences...
August 2011
2 posts
Great Expectations: Hidden Aspects of Promotion...
My presentation is biased and much of what I say is developed from decades of administrative work and is developed from some of the writing of James W. Carey, the late former dean of the College of Communication at the University of Illinois and a distinguished professor and lecturer both at Illinois and at Columbia University.
My perspective also is student-oriented. Quality journalism...
Free Spirits
It is a hot and humid afternoon in August and the campus is almost empty. There is nobody in the Grove and Farley Hall is virtually empty.
I am listening to a CD of the Brandenburg concertos and writing notes to participants of the Freedom Forum’s Free Spirit conference at the Newseum. They are rising seniors who I believe would enhance the student body of the Meek School.
These students...
June 2011
3 posts
Closing Remarks (Daily Mississippian Centennial...
It was heartwarming last weekend to see so many former students at the centennial celebration of the Mississippian.
I was flooded with memories of field trips and of working with students on stories for a newspaper or a magazine or a public relations campaign, and last weekend I was brought up-to-date on what has transpired in their lives since graduation. I thought of how you had contributed...
Former students reflect on Tommy Miller
Professor Tommy Miller and Friends
Last Saturday morning, Tommy Miller left us.
He had suffered from a long illness, and I had kept up with him as he was diagnosed and I went to see him in Beaumont on two occasions. The last time was particularly poignant.
A little before noon on May 17, I rang the doorbell at Professor David McHam’s house on Swift Street in Houston, Texas. He invited me...
Meek School of Journalism finishes strong in the...
As a member of the steering committee of the Hearst Journalism Awards program, I was in San Francisco from June 6 through 10.
The Meek School of Journalism and New Media finished 27th in Broadcasting, 23rd in photojournalism, 18th in writing and 26th overall in the 2010-11 Hearst Journalism Awards competition among 111 programs accredited by the Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and...
May 2011
1 post
A time of celebration
United #158 rose over the Willamette river and turned south toward San Francisco.
During the flight we had a clear view of Crater Lake …
and Mount Shasta…
… and turned southeast past the Golden Gate Bridge as the early evening sun slowly settled into the Pacific.
I was on my way to San Francisco to catch the Red Eye to Chicago in hopes of getting back to Oxford in time...
April 2011
1 post
March 2011
1 post
Do what brings you joy
I recently had lunch with Roger Fransecky, Founder/CEO of The Apogee Group, a global management consulting and leadership development organization. Dr. Fransecky said he noticed three trends among communications companies: 1. They are under siege because they are not moving fast enough in globalization. A company must be part of a nation, part of that group. Globalization means a company must...
February 2011
1 post
January 2011
1 post
Celebrating life, liberty and journalism
Oxford was in a deep freeze at 5:30 this morning when I pulled out of my driveway and headed for Memphis and a flight to Cocoa Beach, Fla., for a meeting of a Freedom Forum Committee. The Freedom Forum is a major funder of the Newseum and a foundation committed to the five freedoms guaranteed by our First Amendment.
Today was a day that typified my life: Long hours of work, but rich...
December 2010
2 posts
My visit to China
I arrived in China on October 24, working with Susanne Shaw, executive director of the Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communications, to explore the possibility of Fudan University in Shanghai and Hong Kong Baptist pursuing ACEJMC accreditation.
Professor Shaw and I were at Fudan University from Oct. 24 – Oct. 28, 2010, to discuss U.S. accreditation with...
October 2010
1 post
Slovakia
As mass media discourse has developed in many parts of the world, it has tended to conform to official positions. Some of this relates to economic, historical and ideological factors that influence media, including state-media relations and routines. Clearly, media in all nations are susceptible to propaganda and other government ploys.
Nonetheless, some researchers say that media are...
September 2010
1 post
European University Trip
We visited the Faculty of Media at Pan European University, formerly the Bratislava School of Law, on Friday, September 17.
The university is private and began offering media studies in May 2007 when the Accreditation Commission of the Government and Ministry of Education granted permission for the university to award bachelors, masters and doctoral programs in mass media studies. Courses are...
August 2010
1 post
The Hands-on Management of Harold Burson
It is difficult to imagine a more accomplished public relations professional than Harold Burson. Indeed, PRWeek named him the “most influential PR figure” of the 20th century.
On Tuesday, March 30 Debbie Vaughn of the University Foundation visited him in his corner office at Burson-Marsteller, the company he and Bill Marsteller formed in 1953.
In so doing, they established the concept of...
April 2010
3 posts
Trip to China
J-week ended for me on Thursday afternoon, April 16, when the Advisory Committee met for two hours to hear reports from faculty, have barbecue and enjoy a concert by Big T’s Blues band in front of the Overby Center.
I was up the next morning about 3 a.m. and left the house at 3:30 for a 6 a.m., Chicago-bound flight out of Memphis. From O’Hare, I was to take a United Airlines flight to Beijing...
Reunion of the 1960 Ole Miss baseball team
I was having dinner in the View restaurant above the Marriott at Times Square when I learned that the 1960 Ole Miss baseball team was having a reunion on the weekend of the series against Louisiana State University.
This was the team that went 22-3 for the season and beat the University of Florida for the SEC championship. However, this also was the team that could not play in the regional...
The Disarming, Informal Style of the Host of...
We were scheduled to see Dr. Jim Pratt’s protege, Shep Smith.
Patrizia Barkley, Shep’s assistant, had greeted us in the lobby of the Fox News building at a few minutes before 3 p.m. on Wednesday, the last day of March, and we had settled on chairs a few feet from the news set when Shepard Smith came sauntering in to Studio B, accompanied by his father.
He sat down behind the news desk and...
March 2010
3 posts
Dubai
Susanne Shaw, executive Director of the Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communications, and I were picked up by the driver at 8:30 a.m. and we were at work before 9 a.m.
We met with Ilhem Allagui, interim head of the Department of Mass Communication. She took us to meet Chancellor Peter Heath and Vice Chancellor Thomas Hochstettler at 10:30 a.m. in the...
Ethiopia
“He is the best teacher I have had at this university,” a student wrote last January in the evaluation of Zenebe Beyene.
Zenebe is the assistant dean at the School of Journalism and Communication at Addis Ababa University and a doctoral candidate at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. He taught JOUR 400 International Communication during January Intersession at Ole Miss.
Thus, it was...
A day with the Desoto Times Tribune
On Thursday and Friday, February 18 and 19, I accompanied five students on a reporting trip to the DeSoto Times Tribune in Hernando, Miss. This was the Meek School’s third field trip to a newspaper this semester. In January we had traveled to Vicksburg, where our students produced multiple platform pieces for the Vicksburg Post. Two weeks later we took another group of students to the Madison...
