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HATTIESBURG -- The University of Southern Mississippi School of Mass Communication and Journalism will host the first Mass Communication and Journalism Symposium, “Social Justice and the News,” on the Hattiesburg campus Nov. 9.
The school also will induct three legendary Mississippi journalists and seven Southern Miss journalism alumni into its Hall of Fame. The symposium will be held from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the Thad Cochran Center. It will include a morning panel, featuring three longtime Mississippi journalism standouts, Charles Dunagin, Bill Minor and W.C. “Dub” Shoemaker, who will discuss their experiences covering civil rights stories during the 1960s. The three will then be inducted into the School of Mass Communication and Journalism Hall of Fame at a luncheon ceremony. After lunch, a panel of Southern Miss journalism alumni, including Natalie Allen (NBC News correspondent), Cathy Straight (USA Today national editor) and Goodloe Sutton (editor and publisher of The Democrat-Reporter in Linden, Ala.), will discuss current media issues related to social justice. The event will conclude that evening with a Hall of Fame induction dinner honoring Allen, Straight, Sutton and four other journalism graduates, including Lisa Hitt, copy editor at USA Today; Charles Kershner, president and executive editor of The Clinton (N.Y.) Courier; Carol Bagley McPhail, who was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize when she was an editorial writer for The Mobile Register, and Jean Sutton, the late wife of Goodloe Sutton, who was a reporter at The Democrat-Reporter when the newspaper gained national attention for its coverage exposing widespread corruption in the Marengo County (Ala.) sheriff’s office. “Southern Miss has produced a significant number of journalists who have made important contributions to the world and to social justice, so this will be an ideal opportunity to recognize that,” said Chris Campbell, director of the School of Mass Communication and Journalism. “We’re very proud of these graduates and what they’ve accomplished. “In honoring Charlie Dunagin, Bill Minor and Dub Shoemaker, our goal is to recognize three of the many Mississippi journalists who did remarkable work during the civil rights era,” he said. “We have several faculty members and doctoral graduates who have done significant research on social justice issues in journalism, so the symposium will fit right in with the academic process of identifying and studying these trends, which are as important now as they were in the past.” The symposium’s panel discussions, which will be held in Cochran Center Ballroom I, are free and open to the public. The luncheon honoring Dunagin, Minor and Shoemaker will begin at 11:30 a.m. in the Thad Cochran Center, Room 218. Ronnie Agnew, executive editor of The Clarion-Ledger, will deliver the keynote address. Tickets are $30. The induction dinner for the Southern Miss alumni will begin at 6 p.m. at Southern Oaks House and Gardens. Southern Miss President Dr. Martha Dunagin Saunders will be the featured speaker. Tickets are $50. All proceeds from the day-long events will benefit the Gene Wiggins Scholarship Endowment, which supports scholarships for students in the School of Mass Communication and Journalism. For tickets and additional information, contact the School of Mass Communication and Journalism at 601.266.4196. Sponsors for the event include the Hattiesburg American, the Mississippi Press Association and the Southern Miss College of Arts and Letters. For more information, contact Ms. Amanda Tilley Nace, assistant to the director in the School of Mass Communication and Journalism, at 601.266.4196 or
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For more information, visit the Web at http://www.usm.edu/arts or contact Angela Kilcrease at 601.266.4988.
Charles Dunagin
Bill Minor
W.C. Shoemaker
About The University of Southern Mississippi
The University of Southern Mississippi, founded in 1910, is a comprehensive doctoral and research-extensive university fulfilling its mission of being a leading university in engaging and empowering individuals to transform lives and communities. In a tradition of leadership for student development, Southern Miss is educating a 21st century work force providing intellectual capital, cultural enrichment and innovation to Mississippi and the world. Southern Miss is located in Hattiesburg, Miss., with an additional campus and teaching and research sites on the Mississippi Gulf Coast; further information is found at www.usm.edu.
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