Posted November 2, 2016
The University of South Carolina School of Journalism and Mass Communications (SJMC) hosted the first annual BEA Super-Regional Conference October 13-15, 2016. More than 100 professors, professional journalists and graduate students from around the world — from as far away as Pakistan — gathered to discuss cutting-edge issues and research in broadcast and multimedia education.
Dr. Laura K. Smith served as conference co-chair alongside Dr. Vic Costello from Elon University. In addition to conference logistics, Dr. Smith oversaw the scholarly research competitions.
"I was especially pleased at the quality of scholarship submitted to this inaugural conference," she said. "Normally a much smaller pool of scholars would submit to a regional conference. But because this was a first-of-its-kind super regional, we had folks submitting from across the country."
Dr. Augie Grant, current president of the Broadcast Education Association, was instrumental in bringing the conference to campus this year.
The conference began with a full day of training sessions — everything from Adobe Premiere Pro, After Effects, and Audition, to Analytics, Data Visualization, and Advanced Data Analysis — several taught by SJMC faculty members including Senior Instructor Scott Farrand, Dr. Grant and Dr. Robert McKeever.
Dozens of researchers presented scholarly work. Storytellers debuted award-winning creative projects. And panelists discussed topics ranging from Hidden Cameras to Trends in Mobile Content Delivery.
Dr. Kenneth Campbell and Associate Professor Ernest Wiggins, along with Winston-Salem State's Dr. Phillip Jeter, won top honors for Faculty Research in Progress for their article, "A Framing Analysis of Major Networks' First-Day Coverage of the Emanuel Church Shooting, Charleston."
A J-school doctoral student received the Top Student Paper award. Joon K. Kim won for his research, "Pain Lasts Longer than Flavor: Relationship Between E-Cigarette Advertisements and Instagram Users’ Harm Perception of and Intention to Smoke E-Cigarettes."
Other SJMC presenters were: Dr. Augie Grant and graduate student Yicheng Zhu for research on global news; Dr. Jeff Ranta for research on student agencies; graduate student Jane O'Boyle for her analysis on social media and agenda setting; and four graduate students — Khadija Ejaz, Joon K. Kim, Nandini Bhalla, and Jane Weatherred — teamed up to present their work on courtroom show viewership.
CNN’s Meredith Artley, senior vice president and editor in chief for Digital Worldwide, gave the keynote speech. Artley addressed some of the most compelling issues in journalism today and detailed the large-scale, digital expansion currently underway at CNN.