(Heather Allard (NIE Education Coordinator) Debra Joiner (NIE Manager), Belinda Gaudet (Vice President, General Manger, Austin American-Statesman), and Matt Smelser (NIE Specialist)

Mass Communication student wins big

Texas State University senior, Mathew Smelser, won the “Best of the Best” Award for Newspapers in Education from the Southern Newspapers Publishers Association (SNPA), this month. Smelser works part-time at the Austin American Statesman and was recognized for the development of his idea for their 2007 fundraising campaign. His campaign “Share It,” was an interactive strategy to increase donations from subscribers. The Ad’s went in the paper and on-line, and the campaign saw an overall increase of 60% in donations.
 
To view some of the campaigns ad’s visit:
http://www.statesman.com/community/content/circulation/index.html
 
For more information on Mathew Smelser visit the link to the SNPA Awards page: http://www.snpa.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=CircuitContestAwards.nieliteracy

Students enjoy the lunch sponsored by Pluck, an Austin-based social media company

Mass Comm Students Attend UT International Symposium in Online Journalism

Texas State students in Dr. Cindy Royal's Web Design and New Media courses engaged with professionals and scholars at the UT International Symposium in Online Journalism.  Speakers included Jim Moroney, Publisher and CEO of Dallas Morning News, Jim Brady, Executive Editor of Washington Post.com, Bob Rivard, Editor of the San Antonio Express-News, Rich Meislin, Associate Managing Editor/Internet Publishing, New York Times, and Dave Panos, CEO of Pluck. "This event  is a great opportunity for students to interact with the top professionals in the field.  They hear directly from the people leading these organizations regarding the ongoing challenges of transforming their media companies to accommodate digial and social media," said Dr. Royal.

Dr. Royal presents her paper "What Do People Do Online: Implications for the Future of Media," on April 5th.  Other presenters on Saturday include faculty from Arizona State University, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Southern Methodist University, and UT.

Texas State University professor wins 2008 Bronze Telly Award

Judy Oskam Associate Professor and Associate Director for the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Texas State University’s Round Rock campus won a 2008 Bronze Telly Award for her program Barry Lopez: Working Writer.

Oskam produced and directed the program with her former colleague Melinda Goodspeed, Photojournalist for the Broadcast Bureau- Office of Communications and Marketing at Texas Tech University. The program is a documentary that examines the life of Barry Lopez as a writer, teacher and humanitarian, and provides insight into his writing process and style. The program is available online at http://www.depts.ttu.edu/communications/barrylopez/

The 29th Telly Awards competition received more than 14,000 entries from the finest advertising agencies, production companies, television stations, cable companies and corporations in the world. Of those 14,000 applicants, 7-10% receive a Silver Telly Award and 18-25% receive a Bronze Telly Award.

For more information and details please visit http://www.tellyawards.com/

From left: Janet DeVries, Ashley Kegley, Ryan King, Erin Erickson, and Lauren Tuttle

Bobcat PRomotions at TPRA

Bobcat Promotions, a student-run public relations agency, attended the Texas Public Relations Association Conference, February 29 - March 2, 2008, to write the Conference Newsletter for the third year in a row.

The TPRA Conference is an annual symposium that draws anywhere between 140 – 250 public relations professionals from across the state. This year, the conference was held in San Antonio and Bobcat PRomotions sent a team of five Mass Communication majors to represent Texas State University. 

Bobcat PRomotions produced three publications over the weekend that covered several sessions and highlighted key note speakers at the conference.

"Creating the newsletter for the TPRA Conference was a great learning experience for me," said Janet DeVries, executive director of Bobcat PRomotions.  "It was also a great opportunity to show the professionals in our industry how hard-working Texas State students can be."

The convention offered unique networking opportunities with several top executives in the public relations industry, and gave Bobcat PRomotions a chance to gain recognition and future clientele.

Graduate Students Blog at South By Southwest Interactive

Bruce Smith authored a chapter on Native American radio in a 2008 book titled Radio Cultures: