Benedict College Mass Communication Program Hosts Convergence Seminar | Arts & Culture

Benedict College’s Mass Communication program is hosting a Convergence Seminar on Wednesday, November 7, 2012. The event will be held on the main campus in the Center for Teaching and Learning at the LRC building.

This is the first in the series of Convergence Seminars that the Mass Communication program hopes to host every November. The event will include academics, journalists, producers and media managers who are personally involved with issues of media convergence. “Media convergence is a form of cross-media cooperation involving broadcast stations, print outlets and Internet sites. We recognize that today's convergence of media operations requires graduates to be skilled in more than one discipline,” said Ms. Kymm Hunter, Assistant Vice President for Communications and Marketing at Benedict College.

The goal is to expose the College’s seniors to as many opportunities to interact with notable professionals as possible. The panel will include prominent reporters and producers from WIS, WLTX, ETV, a radio personality from The Big DM, as well as academics from Claflin University, Johnson C. Smith University, University of South Carolina, and Benedict College.  The first installment will be discussion between the media professionals, academics, and Benedict students to discuss how students can prepare for success in convergent media with regard production skills, writing, networking, and understanding new business models. Other topics will center on changes in the technological underpinnings of mass media that lead to convergence; change in audience and consumer behavior; how media companies adapt; new critical skill sets and employer expectations; and the idiosyncrasies of preparing competitive media professionals in HBCUs.

In addition to Ms. Hunter and the Benedict Colleges students, the panelists will include Dr. Donna Gough,  Chair, Department of Mass Communications, Claflin University; Ms. Jasmine Styles, Reporter, WLTX;  Ms. Valerie W. Black, Professor, Communication Arts Program, Johnson C. Smith University; Mr. Tim Pulliam, Reporter, WIS;  Ms. Tenessa Jennings, Community Web Producer, WIS; Mr. Lionel Moise, Morning Anchor, WLTX, News 19; Mr. Sherard Duvall, Film/Multimedia Producer, Genesis Studios; Ms. Kiesha Easley, Tiger News Advisor, Online Marketing Consultant and Blogger, Benedict College;  Ms. Yolanda McCutchen, Media Consultant, Journalist, Educator, Claflin University;  Dr. Augie Grant, Chief Content Strategist at 1World Online and Professor of Journalism, University of South Carolina; and Ms. Tyora Moody, Web Manager, ETV.

Dr. Alexander Gorelik, Coordinator, Mass Communication Program at Benedict College is one of the organizers of the seminar. He said, “We will film the discussion as well as the Q&A, live blog it, produce a 15-min. “highlights” video and distribute it on YouTube, on DVD, to NABJ and SCMEA members.”