Carolina Communicator — Winter 2017

A PUBLICATION OF THE SCHOOL OF MEDIA AND JOURNALISM AT THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA AT CHAPEL HILL

photo by aly moser

mj.unc.edu/carolinacommunicator

Through the Media Hub course at the UNC School of Media and Journalism, students from various concentrations work together to find, produce and market stories with state, regional, and at times, national appeal. In Fall 2016, Media Hub students traveled to Cerro Pachón, Chile, to tell the story of the University’s mountaintop SOAR telescope.

WINTER 2017

TO OUR ALUMNI, DONORS AND FRIENDS:

SUSAN KING @susking ADDRESS CORRECTIONS: Robin Jackson Director of Alumni Affairs and Donor Relations (919) 843-2026 rhjackson@unc.edu UNC School of Media and Journalism Office of Development and Alumni Affairs 311 Carroll Hall, CB 3365 Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3365

The question put to me recently by a group of civic leaders: “In these days of social media, posttruth and instantaneous opinion, how does a school of media and journalism develop strategy for preparing the next generation of professional journalists?”

Now more than ever, we need citizenship, innovation and creativity.

In our digital world with so much information moving in all directions, we must work even harder to understand how news is gathered, shared and verified. It is critical for democracy.

Trust is such a fragile thread between communicator and citizen. As a school, we continually stress the importance of trust in this equation. We fight the narratives that seek to undermine institutional norms and beliefs about impartial journalism.

Our scholars are focused on understanding how information flows, how corporate social responsibility is shaped and how economic uncertainties are changing local media. In March, the Center for Innovation and Sustainability in Local Media — a $4 million Knight Foundationsupported powerhouse within the school — will host a Washington, D.C., symposium focused on the threat of emerging news deserts in American communities caused by of the hollowing out of local newspapers’ economic models.

We are raising important questions during this time of global political change. We are preparing students to thrive in the digital workplace, to write with clarity, to think critically and to understand and respect their audiences.

We start 2017 with a strategic plan for our school that complements UNC Chancellor Carol Folt’s strategic framework that shapes the University’s direction for the next five years. As the Chancellor launches a new direction and a multi-billion-dollar fundraising campaign, I believe we are poised to be a leader on campus and to prepare our school for an unpredictable future of continuing change.

Amid all the change, there is a bedrock constant at our school. It’s a deep commitment to student experiences and success. This runs through the school’s administration, faculty, staff and alumni network. And as the world of media is challenged by new digital realities, we’ve re-enforced our values of diversity and ethics through an updated curriculum that prepares students for meaningful careers.

It’s an exciting and challenging time to be a dean, and I’m truly honored to be yours. I enter this my sixth year in Chapel Hill with great pride and enthusiasm for our school.

G COMIN N O O S

G AM I NG AND HEALTH

Tar Heel Talks is a series produced by the UNC School of Media and Journalism to showcase faculty research and creative activity.

MJ.UN C .E D U/TA R H EELTAL KS

Associate Professor Nori Comello studies strategic communication with a focus on the effects of media messages on identity and health. After a close friend was diagnosed with a chronic illness, Comello began exploring an area that’s new for the field: the positive effects of recreational computer games on mental health outcomes.

THE I R I NA P R OJECT Associate Professor Barbara Friedman and Professor Anne Johnston lead a project to improve the quality of media coverage of sex trafficking.

LONDON

IMMERSIVE STUDENT EXPERIENCES

MARCH 10-18

Associate Professor Rhonda Gibson will lead the MEJO 447: International Media Markets class to London over spring break. Gibson and her class will visit companies such as Google, Bloomberg, BuzzFeed and The New York Times to learn about how the U.K. media market differs from the U.S. market and how these companies are preparing for Brexit.

SPRING BREAK GE HITACHI (GEH)

SAN FRANCISCO MARCH 12-16

LEARN MORE AT The MJ-school’s Visual Language Lab partnered with the GE Hitachi nuclear energy plant to work on an eightweek communications assessment of the millennial demographic in order to help market GEH’s PRISM advanced reactor and increase nuclear energy awareness.

Students traveled to Wilmington to tour the GEH nuclear power plant. They then followed a loose creative process that allowed their ideas to evolve and solidify into final recommendations that the GEH executives embraced.

MJ.UNC.EDU/ GEHITACHI

MJ-school students will attend a spring break networking trip in San Francisco from March 12-16. During the 2016 networking trip, students met with professionals from Google, Facebook, FleishmanHillard, Vessel and Airbnb. Led by Director of Career Services Jay Eubank, students on this year’s trip will spend one day in San Francisco and one day in Silicon Valley. The school will also host an MJ Day — San Francisco alumni reception on Monday, March 13, at 6 p.m.

RALEIGH MARCH 15-19

In partnership with Capitol Broadcasting Company (CBC) in Raleigh, the MJschool will host an intensive hands-on workshop led by WRAL-TV professionals and UNC media and journalism faculty.

The program, which funds 12 top college seniors or graduate students from across the country, is designed to prepare participants for future broadcast media careers and help increase diversity in the industry.

FO L LOW

#MJSB17 CUBA MARCH 9-18

Professor Pat Davison and adjunct instructor Tamara Rice will take 23 photo, video, reporting and advertising students to Cuba over spring break to create a multimedia documentary website that will explore how the opening up of the country is changing the lives of young Cubans.

FEB

20

Gerrard Hall

NORTH CAROLINA’S PRESS AND THE PULITZER PRIZE: C E L E B R AT I N G A L EG ACY OF MERITORIOUS PUBLIC SERVICE

APR

06

111 Carroll Hall R OY H . PA R K DISTINGUISHED LECTURE

APR

07

The William and Ida Friday Center

MAY

13

Carmichael Arena

N.C . M E D I A A N D JOURNALISM H A L L O F FA M E

SPRING COMMENCEMENT CEREMONY

Chris Wallace, host of “Fox News Sunday,” will deliver the Roy H. Park Distinguished Lecture on Thursday, The MJ-school commemorates April 6, in the Carroll Hall the 100th anniversary of the auditorium. Wallace’s more Pulitzer Prizes on Monday, Feb. than 50 years in broadcasting 20, with an event highlighting have included stints as the the six North Carolina senior correspondent for newspapers that have won the ABC’s “Primetime Thursday” prestigious Pulitzer Prize for and Chief White House Meritorious Public Service. correspondent for NBC. He Alumnus Horace Carter’s Tabor moderated a presidential City Tribune, along with The debate during the 2016 Whiteville-News Reporter, began campaign. The Park Lecture the state’s storied tradition series brings leading with the Pulitzer Prize in 1953 professionals to the school to when they were recognized for a enrich the student experience courageous and successful battle and perspective. against the Ku Klux Klan. mj.unc.edu/ParkLecture2017 mj.unc.edu/Pulitzer2017

The former N.C. Halls of Fame in Journalism, Advertising and Public Relations have been reconstituted as the N.C. Media and Journalism Hall of Fame. In its inaugural gala, new inductees include Lisa Church, president of eMarketer; Peter Grauer, chairman of Bloomberg LP; David Oakley, president of BooneOakley; Orage Quarles, retired publisher of The News & Observer; and Arthur Sulzberger Jr., publisher of The New York Times.

The MJ-school will hold its Spring Commencement ceremony in Carmichael Arena at 3:30 p.m. on Saturday, May 13. Investigative reporter and former Park Fellow Nikole Hannah-Jones ’03 (M.A.) will deliver the commencement address. Hannah-Jones — who has covered civil rights and racial injustice for The New York Times since 2015 — won a 2016 Peabody Award for her collection of “This American Life” episodes on school segregation called “The Case for School Desegregation Today.”

INCOMING FACULTY

FEATURED RESEARCH

DEEN FREELON

SOCIAL CAPITAL AND THE IMPACT OF ADVOCACY NETWORKS

Deen Freelon, a leading scholar on datasets and digital politics, will join the school’s faculty in July 2017. Freelon’s two major areas of expertise are political expression through digital media and the use of computer programming and computational methods to extract, preprocess, analyze and visualize very large digital datasets.

He has authored or co-authored more than 30 journal articles, book chapters and public reports in addition to coediting a scholarly book.

Freelon created ReCal, an online intercoder reliability application used by researchers around the world. He also created TSM, a network analysis module for the Python programming language.

mj.unc.edu/NCHoF2017

mj.unc.edu/ Commencement2017

When most people talk about social networks these days, they’re referring to Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, Instagram — the apps and websites that form the backbone of social media. But when Adam Saffer, an assistant professor of public relations at the UNC School of Media and Journalism, talks about social networks, online connections form only a piece of the puzzle.

“Social networking sites have helped us visualize and think about how we’re all part of different and expansive social networks,” said Saffer.

Network analysis moves away from studying the correlations among individuals’ attributes — such as age, race, gender, political affiliation, etc.

— to examining the relationships among individuals and the ways those relationships impact us. Learn more at mj.unc.edu/SafferSocialCapital.

DEVELOPMENT DONOR SPOTLIGHTS

The Bloomberg-UNC Business Reporting Diversity Fellowship Program The Bloomberg-UNC Business Reporting Diversity Fellowship Program will give up to a dozen students from across the country the chance to be trained by some of the world’s top financial reporters in both Chapel Hill and New York City.

Bloomberg News Co-founder and Editorin-Chief Emeritus Matthew Winkler and MJ-school Walter E. Hussman Visiting Lecturer in Business Journalism Carol Wolf will take the lead on teaching the week-long immersive program. The Bloomberg Fellowship aims to promote diversity in business journalism, similar to the school’s CBC-UNC Diversity Fellowship Program’s focus on diversity in broadcast and electronic journalism.

Learn more at mj.unc.edu/ BloombergDiversityFellowship.

The John Sweeney Experience Award Riley Reid never imagined he would screen his own film at the Cannes Film Festival.

Reid, an advertising senior in the MJ-school, spent two weeks in Cannes, France, last summer, with his friend and co-producer Stuart Schrader. The festival

ALUMNI AFFAIRS

is the largest film event in the world that raises the profile of the film industry internationally.

“It was surreal,” Reid says. “Being in Cannes opened my eyes in so many ways – it gave me a new sense of ambition.”

Reid’s trip was supplemented by the John Sweeney Experience Award, an annual award that provides funding to two inventive MJ-school students. The recipients are chosen by John Sweeney himself, and alumnus Jason Kilar ‘93, who established the fund in Sweeney’s name.

Learn more at mj.unc.edu/ SweeneyExperience2016.

MEDIA AND JOURNALISM ALUMNI ASSOCIATION (MJAA) Leaders of the former Journalism Alumni and Friends Association have established a new alumni association to expand its role in programming, networking and mentoring. And if you’re a grad, you’re a member!

Learn more at mj.unc.edu/MJAA.

ANNUAL FUND Join the growing family of supporters who make annually occurring, unrestricted gifts to the MJ-school.

Your investment will help make sure our students and faculty have the resources they need to ignite, fuel and lead public conversations around the globe. Your gift — at any level — is crucial. Make a gift at mj.unc.edu/gift or mail your check to: UNC Office of University Development P.O. Box 309, Chapel Hill, NC 27514

Prefer to make a gift of stock, cash, wire transfer or credit by mail? Contact Jill Ullman at (919) 843-8296 or jullman@unc.edu.

PLANNED GIVING When considering giving to the MJschool, alumni and friends often think of writing a check or volunteering time to serve in leadership roles. And it’s true that these gifts are essential to providing the immediate benefits needed to help maintain our reputation and ranking.

Yet, it is equally as important to take a long-term view of giving. Planned gifts — bequests, gifts of real estate, charitable remainder trusts, charitable gift annuities, personal property and other assets — provide an opportunity for donors to make more impactful gifts than they would have believed possible. These gifts can provide tax savings and potential lifetime income.

Our colleagues in Carolina’s Office of Gift Planning assists our donors in developing strategies for both current and future giving. The office’s integrated approach to charitable planning focuses on you and your family’s personal and financial situation, as well as your values and passions. Their goal is to assist you in making the smartest gift possible.

Learn more about planned giving by contacting: MJ-school Associate Dean for Development and Alumni Affairs Wendy Borman at (919) 962-9467 or wendy_borman@unc.edu Associate Director of Gift Planning Brandon Wright at (919) 843-3321 or wrightb@email.unc.edu

Nonprofit Org US Postage PA I D Chapel Hill, NC Permit No. 177

the university of north carolina at chapel hill campus box 3365, carroll hall chapel hill, nc 27599-3365

07. conceptual design mj.unc.edu/events

Feb. 20 Feb. 23 Feb. 24-25 March 8 March 13 March 28 April 6 April 7 May 3 May 13

North Carolina’s Press and the Pulitzer Prize: Celebrating a Legacy of Meritorious Public Service Junck Research Colloquium with Mary Beth Oliver PRSSA Southeast Regional Conference 2017 Junck Research Colloquium with Emily Thorson MJ Day — San Francisco alumni reception Washington, D.C., seminar: Thwarting the Emerging Threat of News Deserts Roy H. Park Distinguished Lecture with Chris Wallace N.C. Media and Journalism Hall of Fame Inaugural Gala Spring Research Colloquium Spring Commencement with Nikole Hannah-Jones Community Commons looking toward original Carroll Hall east

The interior renderings presented here represent the character envisioned for both Option 2 and Option 4. A central organizing space will bring natural daylight into the center of the building and connect all of the various activities. The central space would be visible from the main entry of the renovated 1950s building.

In 2016, the UNC School of Media and Journalism conducted a feasibility study of Carroll Hall — made possible by a generous $300,000 62 UNIVERSIT Y OF NOR TH C AROLINA MEDIA & JOURNALISM SCHOOL FEASIBILIT Y STUDY gift by the Triad Foundation — that reimagined the building in ways that would redefine the experience for students, faculty, staff and visitors. The original portion of Carroll Hall facing the main quad was constructed in 1953, with an addition to the building being completed in 1970. The study highlighted the opportunity to align the school’s facilities with the changing nature of the industry and academia by building physical spaces that create synergy, promote flexibility and support emerging technology and collaborative learning. Fundraising for the rebuilding of Carroll Hall will form a cornerstone of the MJ-school’s upcoming capital campaign. photo rendering by smithgroupjjr