In a world of increasing technology, one group at the University of Mississippi remains focused on advancing the significance of print media in a digital age of journalism.
From April 25-27, the Magazine Innovation Center at the Meek School of Journalism and New Media hopes to promote the importance of putting the audience first in all platforms of media by hosting the seventh annual ‘Amplify, Clarify, Testify’ (ACT) Experience.
“We have to be masters of storytelling in different media,” said Dr. Samir Husni, University of Mississippi journalism professor and director of the Magazine Innovation Center. “If you don’t know the art of storytelling [and] if you don’t know the necessity of journalism, you don’t belong in our industry.”
Husni, along with members of the Magazine Innovation Center, created this event in 2010 to connect current industry leaders with future industry leaders and provide students with insight into real-world journalism experiences outside of the classroom.
“I always felt when I was a student that I would learn much more from a practitioner of the industry than from my professors,” Husni said. “While the professors gave me the theory of doing things, the practitioners gave me the reality of doing things.”
Featuring publishers and editors from a variety of magazine and digital publications, including Home & Garden Television [HGTV] Magazine, the ACT 7 Experience will open on Tuesday night at The Inn at Ole Miss with a Keynote Address from Phyllis Hoffman DePiano, CEO of Hoffman Media.
“We have the big companies, and we have the individual entrepreneurs,” Husni said. “Our theme this year is ‘Magazines Matter, Print Matters,’ and we are looking forward to a great experience.”
Angela Rogalski, an administrative assistant to Husni, has seen firsthand the networking prospects this event offers students and the impact it has on their future career paths.
“I’m just always excited about the possibilities – to see students intermingling with CEOs and editors-in-chief and publishers and directors of big marketing companies,” Rogalski said. “it’s very exciting to think that students might actually get their resume into the hands of somebody they would have not ultimately met or even been able to converse with otherwise.”
All of the lectures will be open to the public, and Husni hopes students will take advantage of the opportunity to meet and connect with some of journalism’s top industry leaders.
“What differentiates this experience [from] any other experience is the students,” Husni said. “I tell the students all the time [that] a famous man once said, ‘It’s not who do you know, it’s who knows you.’”
For more information on the ACT 7 Experience and a full schedule of events, visit https://www.maginnovation.org/act/agenda/.
By Grace Snyder, an intern at HottyToddy.com. She can be reached at jgsnyder@go.olemiss.edu.
For questions or comments, email hottytoddynews@gmail.com.
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