Posted by Mary Wimberley on 2007-01-24

About 300 college journalists from throughout the southeast will arrive at Samford University Thursday (JAN. 25) for the Southeast Journalism Conference (SEJC).

Students and faculty from 27 colleges and universities in five states will meet for three days of lectures and hand-on workshops on various aspects of print and broadcast journalism.

The event is co-sponsored by Samford's Department of Journalism and Mass Communication and the University of Alabama at Birmingham's Office of Student Media.

Keynote speakers are sports writer and talk show host Paul Finebaum and New Orleans Times-Picayune city editor David Meeks, whose newspaper won a 2006 Pulitzer Prize for its coverage of Hurricane Katrina. Meeks, a Huntsville native, is a former reporter for The Birmingham News. 

Finebaum will speak at a noon awards ceremony on Friday. Meeks will speak at a noon awards ceremony on Saturday.

Participants will receive advanced, hands-on classes in today's cutting-edge computer software. Other topics include web design, blogging, podcasting, writing and publication design, and graphics.

Students will engage in on-site competitions in categories ranging from copy editing to media law to television anchoring.

Samford journalism professor Dr. Dennis Jones and Amy Kilpatrick of UAB's Office of Student Media are faculty co-presidents of SEJC. Student co-presidents are Lauren Welty and Megan Voelkel of Samford and Molly Folse of UAB.

 
Samford is a leading Christian university offering undergraduate programs grounded in the liberal arts with an array of nationally recognized graduate and professional schools. Founded in 1841, Samford is the 87th-oldest institution of higher learning in the United States. Samford enrolls 5,791 students from 49 states, Puerto Rico and 16 countries in its 10 academic schools: arts, arts and sciences, business, divinity, education, health professions, law, nursing, pharmacy and public health. Samford fields 17 athletic teams that compete in the tradition-rich Southern Conference and ranks 6th nationally for its Graduation Success Rate among all NCAA Division I schools.