Mid-semester. What, already?
In writing these monthly observations, I seem often to be commenting
on the passage of time. But that is part of our purpose — keeping
you abreast of our process and progress, as time goes by.
The academic semester is one measure. In January, there's a fulsome
15 weeks to indulge in getting to know a new group of students,
laying out course objectives, contemplating learning outcomes and
an end product. I'm teaching our Publication Writing & Design
course this semester. It's the course in which students produce
the college's alumni magazine, InterCom, and some of our online
content. See Chris Brown's story below on advertising student Trevor
Gilchrist.
Chris Horn, a journalism alumnus who produces the university alumni
magazine, Carolinian, joined us one day to describe the Carolinian's new look and the process of publishing a magazine. Chris described
a timeline for each issue that includes a certain amount of fiddling
around until his staff reaches the demarcation that he labels as "panic."
We are not at "panic" or anything like it. But we are,
in many respects within the college, moving at a measured and accelerating
pace. For example, note the SLIS Fast Track guarantee for obtaining
an MLIS degree described below. And wait until you see what our
literacy initiative is doing next. (That's a tease for something
we'll be talking about soon.)
Similarly, progress toward the construction stage for the journalism
school's building is quietly accelerating. We're addressing some
of the interior detail in preparation for putting the construction
work out for bid later this year. We're meeting with technology
providers with the challenge of divining in 2013 what will be cutting
edge when it gets switched on in 2015. You can stay up to date
on the building's progress at http://uofscjournalismbuilding.com/
USC's baseball season is in its third week. Spring break is a
week away. Deadlines for my class will begin to loom right after
that. Students will start to worry that their InterCom stories
are not coming together or, worse, are falling apart. The high
school class of 2013 is coming to crunch time when those prospective
students will have to decide if they are going to put on garnet
and black or, unimaginably, any of the pallid spectrum of orange
that some of our rival universities favor.
It's all par for the course. It's mid-semester, on the cusp of
spring. What, already!
Charles Bierbauer
College News
Fast Track to a master's in library and information science
 The
School of Library and Information Science has announced its Fast
Track MLIS program, which will make it possible for students to
earn a master's in library and information science degree in just
18 months. The 12 required three-hour courses will be taught online
by tenure-track professors, with field mentors available around
the country to provide guidance and serve as "course buddies."
The program is being launched with the choice of three areas of
focus: cultural heritage instructions, information services and
library services for children and youth. "You can complete
your program in 18 months from any location. We expect that you
will use your MLIS degree to change the world by providing access
to information for everyone," said Dr. Samantha Hastings,
director of the school.
Read
more about the Fast Track MLIS program
Teenagers assist professors in spreading the word on HIV/AIDS
 Drs.
Kendra Albright and Karen Gavigan worked alongside incarcerated
teenagers in the S.C. Department of Juvenile Justice system to
create a graphic novel, "AIDS in the End Zone." The novel
is designed to educate other teens about HIV and AIDS and prevent
the spread of the disease. Gavigan and Albright, along with illustrator
Sarah Petrulis, received a USC University-Community Initiative
Research Award that allowed them to spend eight weeks meeting with
the teens at DJJ to develop "AIDS in the End Zone."
The next step is working with the Richland Library system to determine
whether the book is successful in increasing teens' understanding
of HIV. The book includes information about HIV prevention, testing
and treatment. Gavigan and Albright plan to survey teens before
and after reading the book to see if their knowledge and understanding
of the disease changes.
Read
more about "AIDS in the End Zone" and watch video interviews
Media & Civil Rights History Symposium to take place this
month
 The School of Journalism and Mass Communications will host the
second biennial Media & Civil Rights History Symposium on March
21-23. This event brings together civil rights and media historians
to share scholarly knowledge on the vital relationships between
civil rights movements and issues and various types of public communication
in the modern world. Katherine Mellen Charron, author and associate
professor of history at North Carolina State University, will be
the keynote speaker for the conference.
Charron will give a public talk on her book, "Freedom's Teacher:
The Life of Septima Clark," at the main branch of Richland
Library on Friday, March 22 at 7 p.m. The talk will be free and
open to the public.
Carol A. Stabile, a professor at the University of Oregon, will
be presented with the Ronald T. and Gayla D. Farrar Media and Civil
Rights History Award for her article "The Typhoid Marys of
the Left: Gender, Race and the Broadcast Blacklist." Named
for distinguished journalism professor emeritus Ron Farrar and
his late wife Gayla, the Farrar Media and Civil Rights History
Award recognizes the best journal article or chapter in an edited
book on the historical relationship between media and civil rights
published during the previous two years
More information about
the Media & Civil Rights History Symposium
Tu-Keefner receives national, international research recognition
 Dr. Feili Tu-Keefner, associate professor in the School of Library
and Information Science, has won an award for her research on health
information accessed through Twitter. Her paper, "Twitter,
Scholarly Communication, and Evidence-based Health Information
Access: How Major Medical Journals Have Been Using Social Media
for Information Dissemination," was presented at the Connections
Medical Library Association Quad Chapter Meeting in Baltimore,
MD in October and was awarded first place for research papers in
both the national and southern chapters.
Tu-Keefner will also present a secondary paper focusing on health
information and Twitter at the 2013 International Symposium on
Business and Social Sciences in Tokyo this month. She will make
an oral presentation of her paper, "Twitter and Evidence-based
Health Information Access on Women's Health: How Major Medical
Journals Have Been Using Social Media for Information Dissemination," which
will be published in the conference proceedings.
The Carolina Agency brings Donate Life trophy to Carolina
The Carolina Agency in the School of Journalism and Mass Communications
brought the Donate Life trophy to Carolina for the first time in
four years. The trophy is given to the South Carolina school that
registers the most organ, eye and tissue donors during its annual
drive.
Stephen Bandstra, Michael Bandstra, Judith Webster and Jawondolyn
Harris, all students in The Carolina Agency last fall, worked with
the USC Trew Friends chapter and the USC chapter of the American
Marketing Association to organize and staff the Donate Life Duel,
which took place during the Clemson-Carolina Blood Drive in November.
More
information about the The Carolina Agency
Faculty News
A paper by Sid Bedingfield, journalism, titled "Partisan
Journalism and the Rise of the Republican Party in South Carolina,
1959-1962," was published in the spring 2013 issue of Journalism
and Mass Communication Quarterly.
Dr. Shannon A. Bowen, public relations, and Abbie Yue Zheng, a
doctoral student, will receive the Brigham Young University Top
Ethics Paper Award for their paper, "Auto Recall Crisis, Framing,
and Ethical Response: A Content Analysis of Toyota's Failures." The
award will be given at the 16th annual International Public Relations
Research Conference on March 9.
Dr. Bowen began a three-year elected term serving as a member
of the Board of Trustees of the Arthur W. Page Society in February.
A paper by visual communications faculty member Tara Buehner, "Visual
Communication and the Public Sphere," has been accepted to
the American Communication Journal.
Dr. Clayton Copeland, a post-doctoral student in the School of
Library and Information Science, received second place at the Association
of Library and Information Science Educators (ALISE) conference
for her poster "Equality of Access to Information."
Dr. Karen Gavigan served as guest editor for the January/February
issue of Knowledge Quest, the journal of the American Association
of School Librarians. Read the issue, including an
article by Dr. Kendra Albright, online.
Dr. Robert McKeever will join the School of Journalism and Mass
Communications as an assistant professor in fall 2013. He previously
taught as an adjunct professor.
Dr. Tom Weir, advertising, has been selected as one of three finalists
for the AEJMC Advertising Division Distinguished Teaching Award.
Feature
Gilchrist named a Most Promising Minority Student
By Chris Brown
Trevor Gilchrist has given his college path an international context
rivaled by few. The senior advertising student has studied abroad
a staggering four times: in Jamaica, Ireland, Denmark and China.
"I have been able to apply all of that learning abroad back at
home," he
said. Gilchrist thrives on connecting with diverse cultures. With
each new continent, he looks at audiences and assesses how he can
communicate with them. He says he is "seeing the world one ad at
a time."
Gilchrist's diverse multicultural experiences have not gone unnoticed.
He was recently named a 2013 Most Promising Minority Student by
the American Advertising Federation (AAF). The award recognizes
the country's top multicultural advertising students by connecting
them with leaders in the advertising industry.
Gilchrist, originally from Manhattan, knows what it is like to
be recognized for his work abroad. He received a photojournalism
scholarship in 2012 from the James Alan Cox Foundation to create
a two-part documentary on his time studying in Ireland. While studying
in Denmark, he had an internship filming interviews on diversity
at his university in Copenhagen. His work embodies cultural diversity,
which is an important component of a career in advertising.
"In order to reflect the diversity of the United States you
really need to have ad agencies that are multicultural," advertising
Professor Bonnie Drewniany says. Drewniany nominates multicultural
USC students to the Most Promising Minority Student Program annually.
Each year since the awards began 12 years ago, AAF has selected
at least one of Drewniany's picks as a national finalist. When
Drewniany met Gilchrist she knew he fit the bill. "I was delighted
to learn about Trevor," she says. Though she never taught Gilchrist
in class, Drewniany had other faculty members flocking to her office
to recommend him for the honor. I was blown away by all of his
accomplishments,"
she says. From his international studies to his portfolio of films,
Drewniany admitted, "The average kid doesn't have that on their
resume."
Gilchrist says his multicultural background also impressed many
of his fellow honorees and many industry executives in attendance
at the three-day conference in New York in February. He already
has a number of calls from top agencies. This is exactly the goal
of this program, according to Drewniany.
"By the end of it, these students not only have a connection
with the industry, but also with each other," she says.
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ATTENTION ALUMNI
Share your story!
We want your news and updates to publish in our spring issue
of InterCom magazine! Fill out our update
form online or
email Annie Lambert at lambert@sc.edu
UPCOMING EVENTS
Movin'
and Groovin' Story Times
March 2, 10 a.m. - noon
Richland Library
Dr. Michelle Martin and graduate student Thomas Jonte of the
School of Library and Information Science will lead a workshop
that engages kids in story time by getting them "movin' and groovin'" by
weaving music into the books they are hearing. Registration fee is
$25.
Media
and Civil Rights History Symposium
March 21-23
This event brings together civil rights and media historians
to share scholarly knowledge on the vital relationships between
civil rights movements and issues and various types of public communication
in the modern world. Registration required.
Information Literacy
Lecture
March 22, 1 p.m.
Davis College room 112
Sharon Weiner, vice president of the National Forum on Information
Literacy, will discuss the evolving field of information literacy
in her lecture, "Information Literacy: Research, Policy and
Practice." This lecture is free and open to the public.
Katherine Mellen
Charron, "Freedom's Teacher: The Life of Septima Clark"
March 22, 7 p.m.
Richland Library
Charron will give a talk on her book, the acclaimed biography
of Septima Clark, a South Carolina public school teacher and important
leader in the 20th-century freedom struggle. The talk is free and
open to the public.
For more information,
contact Annie Lambert at lambert@sc.edu
or
(803) 777-6791.
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