FACULTY HIGHLIGHTS

“By Samantha Rippon Jeanni Atkins, Meek School of Journalism and New Media associate professor and executive director of the Mississippi Center for Freedom of Information, has taught at the University of Mississippi since 1986. She served as director of the graduate program for 18 years and has taught undergraduate and graduate courses James Prince, publisher and editor of the Neshoba Democrat and the Madison County Journal and a former student, recalls his time in Dr. Atkins’ ethics class. “She encouraged us to think for ourselves,” he said. “Dr. Atkins’ strength is the personal interest she takes in students and, for me in particular, her concern for my success.” The biggest difference in journalism classes today and when I was at Missouri is the impact of the digital age. in media law, history, theory, public opinion, ethics, Prince also had Atkins as his graduate advisor. research methods and advertising. “She was rigorous, yet understanding. She steered me “My interest and passion for journalism stems from toward excellence,” he said. my years at the Missouri School of Journalism as an “The biggest difference in journalism classes today,” M.A. and Ph.D. candidate,” Atkins said. Atkins said, “and when I was at Missouri is the impact “The best journalists consider their profession a callof the digital age.” ing and more than just a job,” she said. “In countries This change, she believes, is a positive one. Optiaround the world they literally risk their lives to report mistic that change will not diminish the role of the on matters governments want to keep secret and even press to provide and deliver information about the in this country during times of turmoil such as the world we live in, she is focused on keeping up with the civil rights movement.” changes the digital age and other factors have brought Working at the Missouri Freedom of Information to media and the law. Center furthered her belief that journalism is not only As executive director of the Mississippi Center for essential to inform the public, but also to hold governFreedom of Information, Atkins handles administrament accountable. tive matters, conducts research on access issues and “The study of media law and teaching it here at the edits and writes articles for the FOI Spotlight newsletUniversity of Mississippi increased my understanding ter. She also participates in the secrecy series published of the vital importance of the First Amendment as in newspapers around the state each year and answers the foundation of all other rights we enjoy in a free questions about access issues raised by reporters, society,” she said. editors and citizens.

Leonard Van Slyke, FOI hotline attorney, has been involved from the beginning of the Mississippi Center for Freedom of Information in 1999.

“The Mississippi Press Association caused MCFOI to be formed,” Van Slyke said. “Not only that, but they have also supported the center and helped push legislation to improve access to government information.”

“Over the years,” Atkins said, “MCFOI and MPA have worked together on legislation to strengthen the Open Meetings Act and Public Records Act. The MPA made it possible to establish the MCFOI, and their support has kept us going now for 15 years.”

Today, the Center’s goal is to continue to educate people about the public’s right to know and work to improve transparency in government and make meetings and public records laws more effective for the citizens of Mississippi.

“With little fanfare there have been major advances in access legislation year by year while Dr. Atkins has headed MCFOI,” said Charlie Mitchell, assistant dean of the Meek School. “The greatest has been creation of an administrative process through the Mississippi Ethics Commission.

“Using a one-page, online form, people may now receive rulings on meeting and records questions and avoid the time and expense of filing lawsuits. There are also now individual fines for egregious violators, too.” MCFOI is part of a nationwide freedom of information movement that today has expanded on a global scale Dr. Atkins has been researching and writing about. “Transparency in government has been an ongoing struggle against government secrecy for decades,” Atkins said. “Little has been written about how this movement to combat secrecy began, so this book fills in that gap.”

She was awarded a sabbatical to draft a manuscript on why the public’s right to know about government should have constitutional protection and how it fits into the founders’ rationale for First Amendment protection of free speech and a free press and the philosophical framework of the theories of the First Amendment. The book provides a historical perspective on the evolution of the freedom of information movement and development and interpretation of access laws.

“I hope the book can contribute to an understanding of the important role of the press in making government more open and accountable,” Atkins said. “And how the law has been used to combat secrecy and further the public’s right to know.”

Atkins has a contract for the book with Peter Lang International Academic Publishers.

“I don’t think much about what comes next,” she said, “but am focused on getting the book completed, being involved in MCFOI and helping students as best I can.”

The author is a senior, print journalism major from Oxford, Mississippi.

Photo by Alysia Steele

The ad hoc steering committee on creating a First Amendment Coalition held its initial meetings in the spring of 1998. The committee was appointed by Dan Phillips president of the Mississippi Press Association and assistant publisher of The Oxford Eagle. Serving on the committee with Jeanni Atkins were:

Duane McCallister, chairman, The Clarion-Ledger Dr. Stuart Bullion, University of Mississippi

Wyatt Emmerich, Northside Sun

Lynn Evans, Mississippi Press Association

John Henegan, Butler Snow O’Mara Stevens & Cannada

Dr. Marian Huttenstine, Mississippi State University

Dr. Art Kaul, University of Southern Mississippi

Charlie Mitchell, Vicksburg Post

Phillip Pierce, Stennis Institute at MSU

Dr. Larry Strough, Mississippi University for Women

Dan Way, Delta Democrat Times Roland Weeks, The Sun Herald Dr. Edward Welch, Jackson State University Carolyn Wilson, Mississippi Press Association Marty Wiseman, Stennis Institute at MSU Founding MCFOI Board of Directors: President: Dan Way, Delta Democrat Times Vice-President: Dennis Smith, WLBT Secretary: Patsy Brumfield, Senate Information Office Treasurer: Dan Phillips, The Oxford Eagle Roberta Avila, League of Women Voters Alice Jackson Baughn, Society of Professional Journalists Randy Bell, WMSI Eric Clark, Secretary of State Wyatt Emmerich, Northside Sun Frank Fisher, Associated Press David Hampton, The Clarion-Ledger John Johnson, WTOK Roger Moore, MADD

Barbara Powell, Common Cause

David Vincent, WLOX

Atkins served as director of the FOI Clearinghouse and editor of the quarterly FOI Spotlight and was a non-voting advisory board member, as were representatives of Mississippi Press Association, Jackson State, Mississippi State University, Mississippi University for Women, Mississippi Association of Broadcasters, University of Southern Mississippi, Stennis Institute, Butler Snow & Cannada, Heidelberg & Woodliff, Laird & Goff.

The National Freedom of Information Coalition awarded seed money in the amount of $9,000 to MCFOI in January 1999, and the Mississippi Press Association provided a $10,000 grant.

Articles of incorporation for MCFOI were filed with the Mississippi Secretary of State’s Office Aug. 31, 1998.

Joe Atkins “ He adds a diversity of perspective to our faculty. A lot of what he writes, people in Mississippi do not really agree with. What that does is give Mississippians another point of view from which they can make decisions about public policy and other issues. And he comes to the classroom with years of experience. — Dean Will Norton, Jr.

By Hayley Ramagos

Joe Atkins radiates pure passion for the art of journalism.

A 35-year veteran journalist whose articles have appeared in publications such as USA Today, The Baltimore Sun, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Progressive Populist, Southern Exposure, Quill and Oxford American, Atkins exemplifies the kind of faculty member who brings academic and professional credentials to the classroom.

“He adds a diversity of perspective to our faculty,” says Dean Will Norton Jr. “A lot of what he writes, people in Mississippi do not really agree with. What that does is give Mississippians another point of view from which they can make decisions about public policy and other issues. And he comes to the classroom with years of experience.”

When Atkins became an assistant professor at the Ole Miss 24 years ago, he decided that continuing his active role as a journalist was a necessity.

Since then, Atkins has been a political columnist for The Clarion-Ledger, in Jackson, Mississippi, a free-lance writer for many publications, an avid blogger, and an author and editor. He is co-director of Meek School’s graduate program and has helped create a master’s track with more hands-on courses than the original master’s program.

After earning a master’s degree in journalism from American University in Washington, the North Carolina native moved with his wife to her home state of Mississippi. He became a city hall reporter, and later a state government reporter, for the Jackson Daily News.

Four years later, Atkins was asked to return to Washington as a congressional correspondent with Gannett News Service, writing for Southern newspapers owned by Gannett.

“I sort of carved out a beat for myself at Gannett News Service,” Atkins said. “They didn’t really have a reporter for the South, so I became their lead reporter covering southern issues.”

When Atkins’ wife was diagnosed with cancer, they decided to move back to Mississippi to be closer to home. Atkins considered returning to Jackson. However, after hearing of an opening at Ole Miss and being encouraged to apply by Norton, he was hired.

“I had always hoped, at some point, to teach,” Atkins said. “I didn’t know it was going to be that soon. I really thought I was going to be in journalism for a while, but I was happy with the move. I loved it.”

“Joe and I became fast friends when I moved to Oxford in 2001,” said Ace Atkins, a New York Times best-selling author and former crime reporter for The Tampa Tribune. “We both shared a love of blues, jazz and film noir. We also had a real passion for investigative journalism and seeing reporters not simply conduct interviews but to be skeptical and investigate.

“Joe’s commitment to teaching journalism and planting that seed of skepticism in all of his students is unparalleled,” said Ace Atkins, who is not a relative of Joe Atkins.

Joe Atkins was quick to adapt the academic life and its environment, recalls Samir Husni, director of the Magazine Innovation Center at Ole Miss. Husni served as acting chair of the journalism department the year Atkins was hired as an assistant professor. “Joe received a wake-up call when his first article he submitted for publication in an academic journal was rejected,” Husni said. “The reason for the rejection: ‘it is too journalistic.’

“Without abandoning his journalist credentials and skills Joe adapted quickly to the academic side of the profession and became an expert in balancing academia and the journalism profession.”

In 2003, Atkins organized an International Conference on Labor and the Southern Press, in which Ole Miss hosted speakers from throughout the U.S. and four different nations and offered panels on globalism, immigration, labor and media in the South and other changing societies.

His latest project is a book tentatively titled The Strangers Among Us that includes essays by writers from around the world discussing migrant worker issues. Atkins has recruited David Bacon, an American author and journalist, and writers from places like Israel, China, Japan, England and India.

Atkins believes in what the South has to offer. While often times frustrated by economic, journalistic, and labor conditions in the South, he consistently advocates for change and solution. Though he may not call himself an activist, it seems that Atkins attempts to satisfy a moral duty through his medium of print.

“I have been an activist at times in my life,” Atkins said. “But am I an activist now, well, I’m not much of one. In my journalism I am an advocate of certain things, but I wouldn’t call myself an activist today.”

Ace Atkins said, “Every time I sit down with Joe and share a cocktail, his passion for reporting and muckraking gets me so fired up, I think about getting back into reporting and exposing all the crooks hoodwinking the public.”

Ed Meek, former assistant vice chancellor for public relations and marketing at the university, elaborated on this. “Joe is a remarkably capable journalist who shows passion in every piece he writes,” he said. “We don’t always agree, but never doubt my great respect for his ability and his vision.”

Meek donated funds that created the Meek School of Journalism and New Media. “Atkins has helped shape the skills of so many of the Meek students,” he said, “instilling in them his commitment for excellence and the importance of a free press.”

Atkins teaches courses that reflect his writing specialty such as media ethics and social issues, international journalism, media history, advanced reporting, and the press and the South. His vast knowledge and experience in these subjects allow Atkins to teach beyond the textbook.

Being as opinionated as Atkins is on these topics, he is careful to remain neutral in the classroom setting.

“As a teacher I do not try to indoctrinate my students,” Atkins said. “I want them to think for themselves. But I do try to educate them to see a broader world and expose them to alternatives in media.”

Atkins says that what he particularly likes about the Meek School is everyone’s commitment to continuing good journalism, and he thinks the school is set in a good place.

“The South is uniquely positioned to really tap into a proud tradition of good writing,” Atkins said. “Good writing means good reporting. Mississippi, despite its various problems, values and is proud of good writers. Ole Miss is right in the middle of that tradition.”

Perhaps Ace Atkins said it best: “Joe Atkins is a figure from the golden age of print and would look pretty damn natural in a fedora with his press pass in the hatband.” The author is a junior, IMC major from Winona, Mississippi.

Top row: Robert Magee and Evangeline W. Robinson. Bottom row: Alysia Steele and Chris Canty Sparks

By Charlie Mitchell

The faculty of the Meek School of Journalism and New Media grows by four in Fall 2014 with three professionals in residence transitioning into faculty position and one new professor who will be relocating from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.

Three of the new faculty will teach primarily in the surging Integrated Marketing Communications degree program, and one primarily will teach visual journalism.

The three in IMC are Robert Magee, coming to the Meek School from Virginia Tech, and Evangeline Robinson and Chris Canty Sparks, who had been professionals in residence.

Teaching photojournalism, primarily, will be Alysia Steele, who served her first two years on the faculty as a professional in residence.

All join the faculty after national searches and at the rank of assistant professor.

“The IMC program is striving to be on the cutting edge of the industry,” Magee said after accepting the appointment at the University of Mississippi. “I’m pleased to be joining top-notch faculty.”

Selecting faculty is a two-way process. After new positions are advertised, a search committee reviews all applicants and invites the most qualified for campus visits. It’s on those visits that the prospective faculty member evaluates the school.

“I was particularly impressed by the quality of the IMC students,” Magee said. “They are eager, they are demanding, and they are not afraid of working hard.”

Magee has spent much of his life in the South. His bachelor’s degree is from Belmont University in Tennessee. He has master’s degrees from Vanderbilt University and the University of Miami and earned a Doctor of Philosophy from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He has a vibrant record of research and publications in his interest areas: new media, persuasion, integrated marketing communications, media psychology and media research. He has taught 10 different undergraduate and graduate courses and has been an adviser for more than a dozen theses and dissertations.

“I enjoy involving motivated students in the research process so that they can learn first-hand how to generate new knowledge,” Magee said. “Students learn more by doing than by merely reading. They also become excited about discovering something that no one ever knew.

“I plan to offer students the opportunity to become involved in experimental research to discover how people are, or are not, persuaded by the messages they encounter,” he continued.

Robinson, like Steele, has served two years as a professional in residence. Since arriving on campus, she has taught the introduction to integrated marketing communications and introduction to writing for integrated marketing communications courses, prepared and edited monthly alumni newsletters and Meek School, the annual alumni magazine.

Robinson’s background includes working in development and marketing for nonprofit organizations in Missouri, California and Mississippi. She grew up in Rolling Fork, has an undergraduate degree from Jackson State University and master’s degrees from Jackson State and from the University of Mississippi. She’s pursuing a doctoral degree at Ole Miss.

“I am so pleased to continue as a member of the Meek School faculty,” Robinson said. “We have so many talented students who are working very hard to prepare for their careers, and it is rewarding to play a role in their development.”

Steele comes to Ole Miss from Ohio University, where she earned her master’s, and from a background in photojournalism at The Columbus Dispatch; the Dallas Morning News, where she was night photo editor and part of the team receiving a Pulitzer for its photo coverage of Hurricane Katrina; and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, where she was enterprise photo editor. She also has many additional awards for her work and has been teaching Photojournalism and Advanced Photojournalism for the most part.

Subscribers to Southern Living magazine might be familiar with her work though this year’s May edition, which featured some of the photos and stories she has gathered for her book, Jewels of the Delta. It features women in the Mississippi Delta who have served as mothers in their respective church congregations.

“I am very proud to be joining a talented school as an assistant professor,” Steele said. “This is an exciting time, with our students and faculty all doing wonderful work, and it’s an honor to join.

“I believe in the direction of our school,” she continued. “The quality of work everyone is producing is exciting. I love teaching here and feel right at home.”

Sparks also joins the professorial ranks with impressive academic and professional credentials. Her undergraduate degree from the University of Mississippi is a double major in both marketing and management, and she earned an MBA from the Owen School of Management at Vanderbilt University in both marketing and organization management.

Next came 25 years in the marketing and communications industry with the Fortune 100 companies, The Coca-Cola Company and Ogilvy & Mather, among other firms. With a leadership role in 360 marketing campaigns for clients including AMC Theatres, Royal Caribbean, Newell Rubbermaid and Graco Baby Products, she has been on the front lines of new thinking and new approaches to marketing.

As a professional in residence, Sparks taught Creative Development and Design as well as Campaigns and has led students in preparing to conduct the research, develop the ideas and materials, make the presentations and study the outcomes for clients.

“I am honored to join this faculty,” she said. “In today’s rapidly evolving world, it is important to present students with theory supported with real world application to prepare them for success after graduation. The Meek School students are engaged and eager to learn. It is a pleasure to work with the students and faculty at Ole Miss.” The author is assistant dean of the Meek School and an assistant professor.

Dr. Nancy Dupont spent the winter intersession in Togo with journalism freshman Sudu Upadhyay. They were in West Africa documenting the Ole Miss chapter of Engineers Without Borders, which was finishing construction of a school. Dupont and Upadhyay have already produced several print and video stories and are currently working on a documentary. Dupont was on sabbatical during the spring semester completing work on a book and beginning work on another.

Vanessa Gregory’s feature, “Long Division,” about a troubled housing project in the Mississippi Delta, appeared in the June issue of Harper’s magazine. She also writes frequently for Garden & Gun magazine. Her contributions this year included a feature on South Carolina photographer Kathleen Robbins, a travel story about cycling in Louisville, Kentucky, and an essay about her dog. The essay has been chosen for inclusion in a forthcoming anthology. In September she spoke, along with Professor Samir Husni and Assistant Professor Darren Sanefski, at the CPR for Magazine Media workshop at the Publishing Business Conference in New York.

In this, her second year at the Meek School, Mikki K. Harris completed work for The Gordon Commission on the Future of Assessment in Education that she had assumed since the fall of 2011. Her work there included the production and implementation of marketing strategies and multimedia content. Harris also served as the director and editor of marketing photography for the National Urban League’s National Conference in 2013. And her images on therapy for veterans with PTSD were featured on A1 of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Her global work this year included “Beyond Stereotype: Authentic Engagement and Communicating the Lived Experiences and Identities of Black Men and Boys” at the South Africa Communication Association Conference in South Africa. The presentation was a synthesis of many of the stories that she continues to document of high-achieving students in the Mississippi Delta.

Cynthia Joyce wrote about media and technology for The Writer magazine (“Not for Robots,” July 2013) and the growing influence of massive open online courses (MOOCs) for The Clarion Ledger (“Latest tech craze puts higher ed and online learning back in the spotlight,” October 29, 2013). She also co-produced remote live broadcasts of Thacker Mountain Radio at the Lauren Rogers Museum of Art in Laurel, Mississippi, (June 2013) and at the Mary C O’Keefe Cultural Center of Arts & Education in Ocean Springs, Mississippi, (August 2013). Recently, as part of the UM STUDY USA program, she led a group of eight journalism students on a week-long excursion in New Orleans, where they studied “Media Ethics in a Changing Landscape.”

Darren Sanefski has had many design projects this year. He designed the magazine “Reflections on Freedom” for the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University in South Africa. He updated the brand, created the social media and marketing strategy and designed the print and online presence for Neilson’s Department Store in Oxford, Mississippi. In May 2013 he spoke at the City and Regional Magazine Associations annual convention in Atlanta, Georgia, about the future of design. In September he spoke, along with Professor Samir Husni and Assistant Professor Vanessa Gregory, at the CPR for Magazine Media workshop at the Publishing Business Conference in New York. In November he organized SNDU, a day of presentations aimed at student attendees at Society for News Design’s annual workshop in Louisville, Kentucky. In February he was named “Lead Facilitator” for the most coveted category, “World’s Best,” during SND’s 35th Annual Creative Competition in Syracuse, New York.

Professor Brad Schultz produced a half-hour television program on the 30th anniversary of the 1983 Egg Bowl game. “The Immaculate Deflection” aired on statewide public television the week of Thanksgiving and again in December. The fourth edition of his book, Media Relations in Sport, was published, as was a book chapter “Local Television Sports and the Internet” in the Routledge Handbook of Sport and New Media.

Robin Street, lecturer, was named PR Professional of the Year by the Public Relations Association of Mississippi at their annual conference and represented the state in the Southern Public Relations Federation competition in September. Street also presented at the PRAM conference on earning the accreditation in public relations. She has published two articles in Boomer magazine on health topics, and one in Mud and Magnolias magazine on the Thacker Mount Radio show. She also took her students to Memphis, Tennessee, where they met with five Ole Miss graduates who work in PR at FedEx, and with PR professionals at St. Jude Children¹s Research Hospital.

Dr. Kristen Alley Swain is principal investigator on a $114,366 U.S. Department of Transportation grant that analyzes branding metrics for thousands of transportation companies and news coverage of nearly 6,000 major transportation-related toxic spills. She presented her research and teaching ideas at the AEJMC and National Public Health Information Coalition conventions. Swain serves on the advisory board for the international Planet Forward University Consortium. In collaboration with Washington, D.C.-based television producers, her students will produce prominent national video features, blog, and participate in a policy salon series, production training, and annual summit. Over the last five years, Planet Forward has featured hundreds of her students’ videos, including front-page highlights and webisodes. Through a student engagement teaching fellowship from the UM Center for Writing and Rhetoric, Swain is developing an explanatory writing module for several journalism courses. As part of this project, her reporting class covered a real-time, counter-terrorism national tabletop exercise.

Deb Wenger completed the third edition of her textbook, Advancing the Story: Journalism in a Multimedia World. The updated book adds content on mobile and social media, as well as personal branding. In addition, Wenger, along with veteran TV news manager Hank Price and colleague Samir Husni are under contract with Sage Publications to write a book about managing media in a digital age. Wenger’s research with colleague Pat Thompson will be featured in a special issue of Electronic News in July 2014, one focused on the impact of mobile on the news business.

Dr. Kathleen Wickham started off the year with a research grant awarded by the Film & Media Archive at Washington University, enabling her to spend a week in St. Louis conducting research relating to the documentary “Eyes on the Prize.” The result was a paper presented at the American Journalism Historians conference in New Orleans, where she also participated in a panel discussion on civil rights coverage. Wickham was also invited to participate in an online discussion about teaching hosted by Steve Buttry, digital transformation editor for Digital First Media. Other highlights were invitations to judge the National Headliner Journalism Awards and the Society of American Business Editors and Writers awards.

This fall, University Press of Mississippi will publish Assassins, Eccentrics, Politicians and Other Persons of Interest: Fifty Pieces from the Road, a collection of newspaper and magazine stories by Curtis Wilkie, drawn from his four decades as a journalist and selected with an emphasis on those set in the South.