The Dole Institute of Politics is hosting a panel on February 1, 2024, at 5:30 p.m., where two political reporters will give insights on covering the White House. Francesca Chambers is a White House Correspondent for USA Today and a graduate of the William Allen White School of Journalism and Mass Communications. Chambers has covered campaigns, elections and the White House for McClatchy and DailyMail.com. Eugene Daniels is a White House correspondent for POLITICO and Playbook co-author.

The program will feature free breakfast for dinner exclusive to students at the Dole Institute. The Dole Institute promotes political and civic participation, as well as civil discourse, in a bipartisan, philosophically balanced manner.

Trish Berrong (left) stopped by the School to speak to a JMC 340 class last week. 

Trish Berrong stops by JMC 340: Berrong spoke with the class about her creative wisdom from her experience as a creative strategist at Hallmark and led the creative concepting class in an interactive and creative exercise. She is a freelance brand, content and creative strategist and also previously served as a creative strategist with Hallmark Cards. View more photos from her visit. 

JMC School monthly podcast workshop starts Feb. 2: The workshops will be hosted by digital media specialist Natalie Lindsey. Although the first workshop is full, future workshops are scheduled on the first Friday of each month from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. in Dole 2051A. This is a great opportunity for students to learn the basics of producing and editing a podcast.

Eudora Times Poynter-Koch fellow Sara Maloney is planning a virtual conference for early career journalists on April 5. The conversation will focus on working in local journalism, communicating with editors and ways to increase community engagement. If you are in the industry or want to know how young people are changing the local news landscape, please join us for the event.

RSVP for the April 5 conference here. Email Sara at eudoratimes@gmail.com if you have questions. 

The University Women's Club Scholarship opened for applications on Jan. 22, and it’s open until Feb. 9! Please share this information with your students and encourage them to apply if they qualify via UKASH. 

Senior award application now open: Each spring semester, the School of Journalism and Mass Communications distributes several student awards. For this application, students must be graduating in the 2024 calendar year with a bachelor’s degree in Journalism and Mass Communications. If this applies to you: 

NASA Astronaut, KU Engineering alumna to host Live Q&A from International Space Station: NASA astronaut and KU School of Engineering graduate Loral O’Hara will host a live Q&A with KU students and faculty from her post on the International Space Station. O’Hara is scheduled to connect via live satellite link at 2 p.m. on Feb. 2. The public is invited to watch the event live. O’Hara traveled to the space station in September 2023 and is due to return in mid-March.

JMC School alum Michael Holtz will present “Winds of Change: Rural Kansas and the Clean-Energy Transition on Tuesday, Feb. 6, at 7 p.m. in the Hall Center Conference Hall. The presentation is also available to watch online. 

Holtz will share his stories from his reporting on how America’s clean-energy transition is playing out at the most local levels.

Assistant Professor Vaibhav Diwanji is helping organize the 10th annual South Asian Media and Cultural Studies international conference, which is being held on Friday, Feb. 2, in a hybrid format. The theme of this year's conference is "Digital for Good." The keynote speaker is Dr. Adil Najam, President of the WWF, the Worldwide Fund for Nature (formerly World Wildlife Fund).

The conference and the keynote will be streamed live on YouTube. Doctoral students Nazra Izhar and Macy Burkett will be virtually presenting their paper "Influencing Mental Health: A Cross-Cultural Analysis of Instagram Influencers in India and the USA" at the conference. 

Assistant Professor Steve Bien-Aimé co-authored the study “Azeem Rafiq, an Object or a Subject? ‘Can the Subaltern Speak?’” which published in Communication & Sport last week.

A manuscript by Doctoral Candidate Nhung Nguyen,  Assistant Professor Pamela Peters from Western Illinois University, a KU alum, Doctoral Student Frank (Hechen) Ding, and  Associate Professor Hong Vu has recently been accepted for publication in "Media War & Conflict." The study, "When the media goes to war: How Russian news media defend the country's image during the conflict with Ukraine," is a thematic analysis that uses the Country Image Repair Theory to examine how Russian state-owned news media attempted to restore Russia’s image in the first three months of the conflict with Ukraine (Feb-May 2022).

The Career Fair will take place Feb. 29 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. in Stauffer Flint Hall. Don’t miss your chance to hunt for a summer internship or job. More than 15 companies have already committed to being at the fair, including KCTV5, Kansas City Beacon, Kansas Reflector and KC Ad Club. View the current list of participants. 

Internship and student jobs

Job opportunities

Cheers to Careers podcast: J-School alum Tracy Perlman, executive producer at WCCO in Minneapolis, was a recent guest on Cheers to Careers. Watch the full episode. 

Alumni job updates

Melody (Lynn) Spurney died Jan. 18 at age 45. Read her obituary.

Calendar

William Allen White School of Journalism & Mass Communications
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