New Song

My baby lies over the ocean, my baby lies over the sea, my baby lies over the ocean, so bring back my baby to me. Her name is Hoda. Tell her if you see her.

Viva Las Vegas Baby, February 26-29

Going to the world's largest Nightclub and Beverage mega-conference in Las Vegas. I will be attending as an employee of the sponsors of this event; Oxford Publishing. My job is to capture the excitement and new products being introduced this year by thousands of vendors with my video camera. I will also be interviewing the top executives of the companies and then turning around and producing a MySpace marketing site for the company. Sounds like a lot of work. Too bad I hate Las Vegas.

Courtesty photo from Picassa "Palaavi" Thanks!

Welcome to Ole Miss SEJC Students and Advisers

Ole Miss is hosting this year's Southeast Journalism Conference from February 22-24. We expect upward of 300 students and advisers from some 40 colleges and universities across the South. Assistant Director of Student Media, Traci Mitchell, and me, the director of student media at Ole Miss are co-presidents. We have put together a world class group of instructors and speakers. This will give us a great opportunity to showcase the Ole Miss Student Media Center and the newly renovated Department of Journalism. The logistics have been a nightmare, but we hope the work will prove worthwhile.

Nashville here we come, March 6-8

The Center for Innovation in College Media is holding its second annual national new media conference in Nashville at Vanderbilt University from March 6-8. The plan is to bring 20 Ole Miss students, faculty and media advisers. The three co-founders of CICM are Chris Carroll, director of student media at Vandy, Brian Murley, journalism professor and tech-guru at Eastern Illinois University and yours truly, Sucko the clown from Ole Miss. Finally, CICM is starting to gain some momentum. We have secured funding from College Publisher, U-Wire, the National Press Photographers Assocation and the Ed and Becky Meek Trust for the Future of Journalism. We hope to have 150 participants and break even. Is that too much to ask?

Florida here I come, February 10-14

I was notified a few days ago about my acceptance into the Poynter Institute's multimedia program for educators. Feel lucky to have been selected. Looking forward to this hands-on program. I will bring back to Ole Miss what I learned and hope to continue to improve the Student Media Center and to best fulfill its mission by providing students with a professionally supported hands-on learning experiences that will prepare them for the best professional opportunities.

Check out the Poynter Progam here. It's pretty impressive.

The faculty is awesome. Mindy McAdams from the U of Florida is in my opinion the most impressive and influential online journalism educator in the country. She alone will be worth the price of admission.

Student Media Center Recognized for Innovation

Title: IHL Recognizes UM Innovation with Two Best Practices Awards

Author: Lee Eric Smith

Full Story:
OXFORD, Miss. - The Board of Trustees of State Institutions
of Higher Learning has recognized two programs at the
University of Mississippi with Best Practices Awards for
2007.

UM received a first-place award in technology for its
Online Policy Directory and Administration System and a
second-place award in the student affairs category for the
Student Media Center for media convergence.

The technology award recognizes a system that makes
university policies easy to find online. It also
streamlines the policy approval process using electronic
workflow and makes it easy to research the history of UM
policies.

"We're pleased about the award," said Chief Information
Officer Kathy Gates. "We think it's a good project that
brings a lot of value to the university. Doing this online
brings a lot of structure to a process that really needs
it."

About the student affairs category award, SMC Director
Ralph Braseth said, "It's great to have the IHL to
recognize our work as innovative. We're viewed nationally
as leaders and I'm proud of that for Ole Miss."

The SMC has literally erased the lines between print,
broadcast and Internet journalism by blending The Daily
Mississippian newspaper, Rebel Radio, NewsWatch TV and the
Ole Miss yearbook into one seamless student-run media
outlet. In doing so, the center has set new standards, not
just for academic media outlets, but for professional ones
as well, said Braseth, who is also an assistant professor
of journalism.

"The Gannett Co., which owns USA Today and dozens of other
newspapers, is now revamping their newsroom to an
all-platform media source," he said. "In other words, what
Gannett is now trying to do, we've already had in place two
years."

Gates said the idea to automate the policy manual
originated in the Dean of Students Office and the Office of
the University Attorney, two areas where easy access to UM
policy is critical. From there, lead developer Jie Tang
worked to bring the new system online.

"Before, it was difficult to look up certain policies, and
so it was harder to determine if people were complying with
them," Gates said. "But now, for instance, the Dean of
Students Office can view a policy online and go over it
together with a student or parent as necessary.

"Whenever we've automated something, the rules are more
clear and the application is more fair. By having all
policies available online, we can operate much more
efficiently, and we always know who 'owns' the policy, who
approved it, when it was approved and so on."

UM policies can be viewed at



http://www.olemiss.edu/policies.

Braseth said that dozens of professional and academic media
organizations have toured SMC looking for ideas, and
although there have been bumps along the way, he's proud of
his staff and the university.

"This isn't a flash in the pan," he said. "This is how
media will continue to move in the future. It's been a ride
filled with failure and learning, but if you can't
experiment with new ideas at a university, where can you?"

Visit the UM Student Media Center online at


http://www.olemiss.edu/depts/stu_media.

Western Kentucky University

 

 

 

Technology in everyday life