VCU news

By Tom Gresham

The National Press Club and the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Mass Communications will host a forum on the future of the news media on Oct. 6 during VCU’s annual Mass Comm Week.

The forum is one of the highlights of Mass Comm Week, a series of lectures, presentations and workshops staged from Oct. 6-10 on the VCU campus. Featured speakers during the week include Mark Ethridge, the former managing editor of the Charlotte Observer who has since become a novelist and media executive; veteran White House correspondent Bob Deans, a reporter for Cox Newspapers; Ronnie Greene and Sergio Bustos, a pair of Miami-based journalists and authors, and Geoff Livingston, a social media guru and blogging expert. All events are free and open to the public.

The National Press Club/VCU Mass Communications forum, “The First Amendment, Freedom of the Press and the Future of Journalism,” will be held on Oct. 6 at 7 p.m. at Harris Hall, 1015 Floyd Ave. Participants will be Reid Ashe, who supervises Media General’s three operating divisions – publishing, broadcasting and interactive media; Nancy Kent, news director for WWBT-TV Channel 12; Bob Sullivan, who covers scams and consumer fraud for MSNBC.com and Jeff South, associate professor of journalism at VCU. Gil Klein, longtime national correspondent for Media General News Service, will moderate.

The forum is part of a nationwide conversation the National Press Club is holding during its 100th anniversary designed to explore the direction of the news business and the demands consumers should be making of news operations. The stop at VCU is one of 35 in the country.

Ethridge, the president of Carolina Parenting, Inc., which publishes Charlotte Parent magazine and the parenting magazines in Greensboro/Winston-Salem/High Point and in Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill, will deliver the fifth Bill Turpin Lecture in News Management on Oct. 8 at 7 p.m. in Virginia Rooms A and B in the VCU Student Commons, 907 Floyd Ave.

Ethridge served as managing editor of the Charlotte Observer from 1979 to 1988, directing the paper’s Pulitzer Prize-winning investigations of the textile industry and the PTL scandal that involved Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker. Ethridge’s novel, “Grievances,” takes place in the breakneck world of newspaper reporting and is in development as a feature film.

Deans, a graduate of the VCU School of Mass Communications, has worked in the Cox Washington bureau since 1992, joining the White House beat in 1998. A former president of the White House Correspondents’ Association, Deans will speak about “Transitions in Elections” on Oct. 8 at 2 p.m. in the Forum room of the VCU Students Commons. Deans covered the White House during the transition from the Clinton administration to the second Bush administration.

VCU alumni Greene and Bustos, who both work at the Miami Herald, will discuss their work in investigative journalism and crime reporting, as well as their respective experiences authoring their first books, on Oct. 9 at 11 a.m. in Virginia Rooms C&D of the VCU Student Commons. Greene, who also teaches journalism at the University of Miami, is the author of “Night Fire: Big Oil, Poison Air and Margie Richard’s Fight to Save Her Town,” which tells the story of Richard’s struggle to make Shell Oil take responsibility for the illnesses its chemical plant caused in her Louisiana town. Bustos, the police and courts editor at the Miami Herald, is the author of “Miami’s Criminal Past: Uncovered,” an account of dramatic true crime tales that go beyond the “Scarface” and “Miami Vice” images of popular culture.

Livingston, the CEO of Livingston (Communications))), will speak about “PR and Social Media,” on Oct. 9 in Temple 1165, 901 W. Main St., from 2 p.m. to 3:15 p.m. Livingston has worked as a public relations strategist in the Washington, D.C., region for 15 years. Livingston’s award-winning book on new media, “Now is Gone,” has been cited by the Wall Street Journal as a valuable resource for social media. Some of his public relations experiences include AT&T, the Duke Ellington Jazz Festival, former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Bartleby Books, the Washington Nationals and Verizon Wireless.

Other events during VCU Mass Comm Week include:

• “Transition in the Newspaper Business,” David Fritz, executive director of the Staunton News Leader, on Oct. 6 in Temple 2223, from 9:30-10:45 a.m.

• “What’s Our Future?” Daniel Finnegan, senior editor, Richmond Times-Dispatch; Jean McNair, news editor, Associated Press; Kym Grinnage, general sales manager, WWBT-TV Channel 12; Bernie Niemeier, publisher, Virginia Business, on Oct. 7 in Temple 1169, from 12:30-1:45 p.m.

• “Strategic Positioning of the Virginia Lottery (Perception to Reality),” Paula Otto, executive director, The Virginia Lottery, on Oct. 7 in Temple 1165, from 2-3:15 p.m.

• “The Millennial Generation,” Jeff Nugent, associate director, VCU Center for Teaching Excellence; Daphne Rankin, director of student engagement at VCU; Marcus Messner, assistant professor of mass communications at VCU. Moderator: Ken Campbell, professor of journalism at the University of South Carolina. On Oct. 7, in Richmond Salons III and IV of Student Commons, from 7:30-9 p.m.

• “Digital Media in Advertising,” Mark Avnet, professor of creative technology, VCU Brandcenter, on Oct. 8, in Temple 1137, from 11:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m.

In addition, Mass Comm Week will include Mass Comm Convocation, the annual internship fair and panels on internships, graduate school and getting that coveted first job. For a complete schedule, visit http://www.has.vcu.edu/mac/2008_Mass_Comm_Week/mass_comm_week_2008.html.

The School of Mass Communications is one of the largest programs in VCU's College of Humanities and Sciences with an enrollment of more than 1,000 undergraduate students and 130 graduate students. The school offers study in advertising, journalism and public relations.