E-ALERT - NOVEMBER 2004

J-SCHOOL HONORS ALUMNI
Robin Roberts, President of National Media Inc., gave us insight to the Bush campaign’s advertising strategy—Republicans like college football; Democrats prefer the pros. Bill Douglas, White House correspondent for Knight Ridder, explained how he got Bill Clinton to come to his house for dinner—invite him; serve soul food. Jason Wagenheim, advertising director for Conde Nast Traveler, told us how he took what he learned in the classroom, applied it at The Gamecock and Garnet and Black, and launched his advertising career.

The three were honored November 18th by the School of Journalism and Mass Communications as distinguished alumni and, in Jason’s case, outstanding young alumnus. They also visited several classes while on campus.

NBC EXEC CRITIQUES “CAROLINA NEWS”
“Ambitious and impressive” was NBC Nightly News executive producer Steve Capus’ assessment of the November 15th broadcast of Carolina News. The student produced newscast airs daily as the capstone course for broadcast majors’ senior semester. Few journalism schools in the country match that challenge. The results are an outstanding placement record for broadcast graduates. Capus, who is preparing for NBC’s anchor handover from Tom Brokaw to Brian Williams, spent the day at USC meeting with broadcast students. more>>

CHILDREN’S AUTHOR HOLDS BOOK SIGNING
Award-winning South Carolina author Joyce Hansen signed copies of her new book “African Princess - The Amazing Lives of Africa’s Royal Women” at a November 16 reception hosted by the School of Library and Information Science.

Hansen is a member of the library school’s National Advisory Council. The reception was held at the school’s BEST Center at the South Carolina State Library.

ELECTION CONNECTION FINISHES 2004 CYCLE
USC students and faculty joined journalism students from other universities on election day for a national wrap-up of the Wireless Election Connection “moblog” project. The resulting mosaic of election day activities can be seen at http://wec.textamerica.com/ completing the cycle of coverage that began with the South Carolina Democratic primary and continued through the summer’s Democratic and Republican conventions.

The Wireless Election Connection was a project of Cingular and our college’s Newsplex. Our WEC gained national and international attention during the year of the “blog.”

KIM BOWMAN IS NEW DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR
Kim Bowman joined the College of Mass Communications and Information Studies this month as Director of Development. She will primarily be responsible for leading the college’s capital campaign to fund the move from the Carolina Coliseum to a refurbished and expanded LeConte building in the central part of the USC campus.

Kim came to the college after helping launch Columbia’s EdVenture children’s museum where she was vice president of marketing. Kim can be reached at 803-777-6898 or kbowman@sc.edu. She joins Ellen Shuler on our development team. more>>

HAPPY THANKSGIVING
FROM ALL OF US IN THE COLLEGE,
THE LIBRARY SCHOOL AND THE JOURNALISM SCHOOL