Mass Comm Day 2018
The annual Mass Comm Day was held March 15 in the MLK Jr. Student Center under the theme of “First Amendment: Your Right, but at What Cost.”
For images from the event, click on the below link:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/48216028@N03/sets/72157694547692065/show
The 2018 Mass Comm Day opened with keynote speaker Kimberly Holmes Wiggins, the award-winning morning anchor at WBOC-TV on the Delmarva Peninsula.
Ms. Wiggins shared how her husband Rasheed Wiggins died in a hit-and-run accident, and how she has had to work as a journalist to keep her opinions and personal bias out of her coverage whenever she has reported on such tragedies.
With many network and local news personalities going beyond unbiased news coverage in light of the current Trump Administration, the first panel session focused on “Covering Washington D.C. and Beyond. The panel featured Ms. Wiggins, Bruce Johnson, weekend anchor WUSA-TV9; Tom Byrne, news director of WDDE-FM, Brian Cunningham, press secretary of Sen. Chris Coons of Del.; Rob Petree, news reporter of WDDE-FM. The moderator was Jabari Jefferson, senior mass communication (television production) major.
Another session dealt with the topic “Social Media: How Far is Too Far?” Among the panelists were DSU alumni Leah Selena, a multimedia journalist from Hanover, Md., and Blake Saunders, a freelance video producer and photographer for Front Street Video Productions. They were joined on the panel by Steve Monz, operations manager for the Delmarva Broadcasting Company; Charlisa Edelin, an attorney who teaches Media Law and Ethics at DSU; and Ms. Benita, host of the Ms. Benita Show & Radio Network! on the ACT Boom Network on Bomb Baby Radio.
The final session “Industry Preparation: Are You Ready?” gave students the opportunity to hear from graduates of the DSU Mass Comm Program. These included alumni panelist Ben Bullock, senior marketing and communication specialist for the University of North Texas at Dallas; Robert Tyler, production assistant and on-air personality at 92.9 TOM-FM in Dover; India Sage, production assistant for CBS News Channel 3 in Philadelphia; Marquell Tate, publicist for St. Vincent Social Work Agency. They were joined by Hercules, chief operating officer and production manager of Overcoming the Odds, Inc.
The Department of Mass Communications presented Ben Bullock with the Michael J. Feeney Outstanding Alumnus Award. In addition to his current job at the University of North Texas, since his 2010 DSU graduation, he has work for Del State as assistant athletic media relations director and director of digital athletic media relations, as a video content producer for LSU Sports Network, as a sports and entertainment consultant in Texas and Louisiana, and as a production assistant for ESPN in Bristol, Conn. After earning a BA degree in Mass Communications (Public Relations) and DSU, Mr. Bullock also earned a master’s degree in education with a concentration in Curriculum & Instruction.