Where Are You Now?

We heard from Connor Watkins, 2012 public relations grad, the other day.

"Before you start reading this email, you should look at my address and begin clapping your hands in applause," he wrote in a note to My Carolina Alumni Association. "While 85 percent of graduates are moving home to live with their parents, I am a part of the blessed 15 percent who are working!"

Applause, indeed, for Connor, who is now the marketing and communications coordinator for the South Carolina Bar Foundation here in Columbia. He also had good things to say about his Carolina experience: "I was able to march with the Mighty Sound of the Southeast, record a CD for the nation's leading classical music label, lead the university's Public Relations Student Society of America chapter as president and perform seven concerts in seven different cities in China!" I look forward to hearing more about his work with the foundation funding community grants.

I've been getting regular tweets from Josh Dawsey, also a May grad, whose journalism career took a giant first step to the Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones newswire. Josh occasionally marvels at the difference from his home town of Aynor: "On A train, couple pulls out lawn chairs and has a picnic in aisle. At 125th St., man is doing pushups on platform as he awaits train. #NYC"

Another new journalism grad, Derek Legette, is studying and blogging from Russia this summer at http://derek-scstudyabroad.tumblr.com/. Derek, working on his language skills, recounts one conversation he had with a Russian: "I asked him if he liked Putin. He said 'no,' and something was 'bad' and 'a lot of work.' But he did like Obama."

Others have messaged they are off to law school, grad school and jobs across a scattered landscape. I hope Connor Watkins' 85/15 percentages are off and many more of our newest alumni have taken a definitive next step on their career paths.

One of our greatest challenges is keeping track of our thousands of alumni, especially those with frequent early career moves. We want to hear from you to know where you are and what you are doing. We want you to be able to hear from us to keep up with what we are doing. We want to grow the "Alumni Notes" section in our twice-a-year issues of InterCom. Share your moves and successes with us. Contact Elaine Taylor taylorem@mailbox.sc.edu or Annie Lambert lambert@sc.edu.

Sure, we'll follow you on Twitter, too.

Charles Bierbauer

Follow @cjbsc

College News

A New Home for our New Home

Keep up with the plans and progress for building a new home for the School of Journalism and Mass Communications by visiting our new home page. The new site includes video, a timeline of events as they evolve, floor plans, architectural renderings and even a blog. Check it out and let us know what you think. Visit the site

USC Helps Develop New Media in Russia

A team from Newsplex, the college's multimedia news laboratory, journeyed to Moscow State University in June to train Russian academics on the concepts and techniques of convergent journalism.  The workshop was part of a grant in coordination with the International Research & Exchanges Board (IREX). Journalism faculty from Moscow State University and others across Russia participated in the workshops. The Russians produced audio stories, created slide shows and shot video using small Kodak flip cameras.

"We've been doing these workshops for almost a decade, and this was one of the most successful we've ever done," said Newsplex Director Randy Covington, who headed a training team that included visual communications instructor Scott Farrand and former Newsplex resource coordinator Jordan Ellis. The team designed the training modules, which were then translated into Russian.

One Russian participant produced a slideshow documenting the week. Watch it here

Gavigan Shares Jesse H. Shera Award for Distinguished Published Research

Dr. Karen Gavigan, SLIS assistant professor, along with Gail Dickinson and Shana Pribesh from Old Dominion University, received the Jesse H. Shera Award for Distinguished Published Research for their article, "The Access Gap: Poverty and Characteristics of School Library Media Centers," published in The Library Quarterly 81(2): 143-160, April 2011.

The Jesse H. Shera Award for Distinguished Published Research is given to the author(s) of the best research article published in English during the previous calendar year and nominated by any member of the Library Research Round Table (LRRT), or by editors of research journals in the field of library and information studies. The award was given by the American Library Association at its annual conference, which was held this June in Anaheim, CA.

Forde wins James W. Carey Award

Journalism professor Dr. Kathy Roberts Forde is a winner of the 2012 James W. Carey Media Research Award along with Dr. Katherine A. Foss of Middle Tennessee State University.

Forde and Foss co-authored the article "'The Facts — the Color! — the Facts': The Idea of a Report in American Print Culture, 1885-1910," which appears in the 2012 edition of Book History. The award is given by the Carl Couch Center for Social and Internet Research, and will be presented at the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC) conference in Chicago this month.

On her blog, Forde says the article "explores what producers and observers of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century American print marketplace understood an appropriate report of the world to be and how social forces and cultural values shaped this understanding." Visit her blog

Fisher's Blog Chosen as one of Top 40

Journalism senior instructor Doug Fisher's blog, Common Sense Journalism, is among the "40 Best Blogs for Journalism Students" named by the Online Education Database.

Other blogs on the list are National Press Photographers Association, Society of Professional Journalists, and CNN's iReport. See the full list here

Read the Common Sense Journalism blog

Pillars for Carolina Freshmen Get Involved with Cocky's Reading Express

Student Feature

The Summer I Fell In Love . . . With New York City

Spending time in New York City is something many young college-almost-professionals set their sights on. It's the mecca of the business, design, and fashion world, and in one NYC block there's more culture and vibrancy than a mile in any other city in the world. Visiting New York City while you're in college and not yet jaded by the harsh winters, callous personalities, and precipitous cost of living will give you the perfect taste of the best city on earth. Well, at least it did for me.

I was awarded the Jon P. Wardrip scholarship, named after USC's late advertising professor. Professor Wardrip initiated the New York City Advertising Maymester about 15 years ago, giving eager advertising students the chance to see firsthand what it is like to work in the fast-paced advertising, media and marketing industries. Professor Karen Mallia, who has worked in New York City as an advertising professional, gave us honest (sometimes brutally honest) advice on everything from where to eat and how to hold your bag to discourage a pickpocket to what types of questions we should be asking during our meetings. Our itinerary included the offices of major advertising powerhouses such as Saatchi & Saatchi, mcgarrybowen, RGA, Ogilvy, Ion Television, Mcann New York, Conde Nast and others.

Our small group of 16 southern college seniors got a true New York experience, including dirty subway rides, ending up at Columbus Circle when you're supposed to be in East Village, getting lost in Chinatown at midnight, and discovering one of your roommates being "held hostage" at a street vendor's gyro stand because she didn't have enough money to pay him . . . at 4 in the morning. But all rookie mistakes aside, I walked away from New York more in love and inspired than I have ever been in my life. As I walked from meeting to meeting in fabulous shoes that I once considered being a gift from the gods, my feet were soon telling me otherwise. We chatted with advertising executives, took notes, asked questions, and even wined and dined with NYC professionals. We learned that this career path is a difficult one with a lot of stress, a lot of risk, yet still exciting.

As I rubbed elbows with advertising and marketing executives in New York, I learned that these new connections will be more than obliging in less than 12 short months. For instance, USC alumnus Jason Wagenheim, the VP/Publisher of Teen Vogue and also a former protégé of Professor Wardrip, opened the door to my dream job. Visiting the Conde Nast headquarters in Times Square was the best part of the Maymester for me, an aspiring young writer.

The exceedingly fast paced movements of the city impeccably intertwine themselves into a giant blur of lights, sounds and people. It's almost as if New York is one continuous period of time that rivals the concept of a 24-hour day. I find inspiration in the bright lights and the people's stories. And how the sounds of the hustle and bustle of everyone's daily routine can turn an idea, a dream, into reality.

LINKS

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Dateline Carolina

Newsplex at the University of South Carolina

South Carolina Center for Children's Books and Literacy

Convergence Newsletter

Convergence Newsletter Blog

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UPCOMING EVENTS

Camp Read-a-Rama
August 6-10
South Carolina Center for Children's Books and Literacy

Camp Read-a-Rama, for ages 4-11, uses children's literature as a springboard for hands-on and outdoor education. Campers will swim, participate in other outdoor activities, and take several field trips.
More information and registration

The Storytelling Experience Featuring John McCutcheon
Thursday, September 6,
4:30 - 8 p.m.
Rutledge Chapel

Children's book author, storyteller, and musical artist John McCutcheon will present a storytelling workshop for librarians and educators and a storytelling program for all ages.

For additional information on this workshop, please contact Karen Gavigan or click here

Annual Literacy Leaders Awards
Tuesday, September 11
5 – 7 p.m.
Hollings Library

Alumni/Student Mentor Match Night
Tuesday, September 25
5:30 – 7:30 p.m.
Russell House Ballroom

I-Comm Week
October 8 - 12

Gamecocks on the Green
Friday, November 9
Gibbes Green

For more information on these events, contact Annie Lambert at lambert@sc.edu, or
(803) 777-6791

PHOTO GALLERIES

Gamecocks on the Green

Scholarship Luncheon

Fall Mentor Match Night

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LOST

A Time Capsule. Last seen in the Carolina Coliseum a few decades ago. If you have any information leading to the recovery of our time capsule, please contact Elaine Taylor (taylorem@mailbox.sc.edu)