Departmental News-Fall 2006 (last updated 12/14/2006)

Congratulations to the those EMC and Photography students who will receive their B.S. in Mass Communication at the December 16th commencement!

Alumni Reception Held

The department held its first Alumni Reception on Tuesday, December 12th at 12th and Porter in Nashville. Alumns Nic Dugger and Scott and Matthew Pessoni coordinated the event. Pictures to follow soon

ALUM WINS EMMY!

Bobby Grubic won an EMMY from the Southeastern Regional Chapter of the National Academy of Television arts and sciences meeting. He adds this to his growing list of awards earned since his graduation. See more about Bobby in Alumni.

EMC grads win Tennessee Associated Press Awards: (names in boldface are alumns)

#WTVF-TV, Christie Overstreet, “Newschannel 5 at 10” (Best TV Newscast)

# WSMV-TV, Nancy Amons, Zina Bauman and Cam Cornelius, “TennCare in Crisis”)

#WSMV-TV, Nancy Amons, Zina Bauman and Cam Cornelius,"Dangerous Guardrails" (this entry also won "Best of show)

EMC Students win national video competition.

EMC production majors Jessica Berryman (Junior) and Tony Reyes (Junior) were the winning entry in the national Red Bull Writer's Block Film Competition.  They were given 48 hours to write, shoot and edit a short documentary about graffitti artists. There were 10 submissions.

Six alumni win Mid-State Emmys. For details, see the "Alumni" page.

Nearly 100 students provided simulated media coverage of a disaster simulation in Metro Nashville this past April 7-8. Students, with supervision from faculty and staff, formed the "Video News Network" to and "The Bluewire News" website provided live coverage (via closed circuit) to officials monitoring the scenario. Convergence students also work with School of Journalism students and also students from Belmont University to provide we coverage of the simulation.

Globalization in the Department

n AY 2005-2006, EMC had its first undergraduate exchange student from our partnership with the College of Journalism and Communication at Hunan Normal University in Changsha, China. Kenny Zhou spent his junior year studying and working in the department. Su Ling, a news anchor with China National Radio, began her graduate study in the College this fall. She assists News classes in the department. Jenny Zhong, whose work experience includes being Assistant Producer and Video editor for CCTV in China, began her Masters work in the fall and is Graduation Assist in TV production classses in the department. Rita XU is this year'st Hunan Normal Exchange student. Additionally, the exchange with Glasgow Caledonian University in Scotland has been approved by both schools and is now active. The department seeks candidates for these exchange programs. Contact Dr. Robert Spires, rwspires@mtsu.edu, for information.

Faculty News

Dr.Thomas Berg is now national President-Elect of the Broadcast Education Association. He will assume President duties in April of 2007.

Professor Chris Harris is national President of the Text and Academic Author's Association for AY 2006-2007

Dr. Robert Pondillo's short film "Wallace" has been submited to many film festivals. So far, the film has been entered in 117 film festivals and is an official selection of festivals in California, Michigan and Washginton, and is also a selection for festivals in Wales and India. The film's official website is: http://www.mynameiswallace.com/

Dr. Mary Nichols has received a Faculty Research and Creative Activity grant to produce a documentary entitled "Southern Gospel Convention Singing" in the summer of 2007

Dr. Clare Bratten's documentary about Kurdistan in currently in post production