Welcome Message From Dean Lucy Dalglish

Photo by John Consoli

It’s hard to believe the spring semester has come to a close.

We were thrilled to welcome ABC Senior Justice Correspondent Pierre Thomas to campus as the featured commencement speaker for our graduating students May 20. It was a packed house!

It's hard to believe August 1 will mark my one year anniversary. Since my arrival, I have come to know and appreciate the wonderful faculty, staff and students we have here in the Merrill College. This is a journalism school on the move.

We are proud of our PhD graduates who are gaining tenure all over the country. Our Masters students are presenting their research here and overseas. The Capital News Service continues to make us proud covering news Marylanders need to know. Our students continue winning awards at the regional and national level – a reflection of the work our faculty is doing on a daily basis. Our faculty's research is getting international attention.

We are making use of teachable moments to help our students gain real-world experience - most recently learning about first amendment rights when a CNS reporter was illegally ordered to delete photographs by the White House. The ABC/Justice Department scandal brought numerous opportunities to get our viewpoint out in the media.

We are working to improve and enhance the information we provide by updating our social media and website. We're looking forward to a complete update. We also want to engage our alumni and get them more involved in the work we are doing.

Our programs and centers are doing wonderful work from sports journalism to children and families.

Maryland Day on April 27 was a huge success - more than 100,000 visitors came to campus - a record! It was a day of “fearless exploration and learning."  Here at the Merrill College we held events for alumni, a Povich Center sports panel, and potential students. As it was last year, WUSA9's "Be a Weathercaster" event was line-out-the-door popular. Visitors love meeting the Channel 9 news and weather personalities. They loved taking home a video of their performance on a flash drive.

This summer we will accelerate our plans for the fall and begin orientation sessions for a new group of freshmen and graduate students who will be calling College Park - and Merrill College - their home.

Great things keep happening at Merrill College - be sure to follow our Facebook, Twitter and news site.

Have a great summer!

Faculty in the News

Lecturer Bethany Swain was named a finalist for White House "Video Photographer of the Year" by the White House News Photographers Association. Read more.

Professor and Senior Scholar Sarah Oates publishes a new book - "Revolution Stalled - The Political Limits of the Internet in the Post-Soviet Sphere." Read more on the Oxford University Press website.

AJR Editor and senior vice president Rem Rieder  recently discussed coverage of the Boston Marathon shootings on NPR's Philadelphia affiliate, WHYY, on "Radio Times" with host Marty Moss-Coane, and on  Bob Mann's "Let's Consider the Source" on SiriusXM Radio.  AJR on the web.

Associate Professor Chris Hanson writes in the Atlantic about the "scoop from Hell" that cost AP Paris Bureau Chief Ed Kennedy his job - but qualified him for a Pulitzer. Read the Atlantic article.

Dr. Susan Moeller, Merrill professor and director of the International Center for Media and the Public Agenda (ICMPA), spoke to E-Commerce Times about Bloomberg streaming Twitter feeds to its subscribers The full E-Comerce article can be found here.

Dr. Mark Feldstein, Richard Eaton chair of broadcast journalism at the Philip Merrill College of Journalism, was interviewed on NPR's "To the Point" program about WikiLeaks and Bradley Manning.

Dr. Ronald Yaros, Merrill assistant professor of multimedia and mobile journalism, will share his latest research on communication technologies in journalism courses at upcoming national and regional conferences. Read more.

Latest from American Journalism Review

Breaking News from Capital News Service

The latest Maryland political and policy news from Merrill student reporters in our Annapolis, Washington and College Park news bureaus.

 
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Student Journalism Projects

The Other Redskins: High Schools Debate Dropping a Controversial Mascot

An April, 2013 report from the Capital News Service shows that despite reports from the Washington Redskins organization, there is a growing controversy over the use of "Redskins" at the 62 high schools in the U.S. still using the name as their mascot. The online multimedia report details the controversy going on in many communities across the U.S. about the use of the name "Redskins."

Falling Behind: Maryland's Struggling Families

Reporters in Merrill's Baltimore Urban Affairs and Carnegie reporting seminars published a detailed report on how families just above the poverty line struggle to make ends meet in Maryland. The project was published in partnership with Merrill's Capital News Service and the Baltimore Sun. Funding for this reporting project was provided by the Carnegie Foundation and the Abell Foundation.

News21: How safe is your food?

Student journalists at the University of Maryland and other universities around the country examined the fractured system for keeping food safe in the United States. At Merrill, the project was directed by Deborah Nelson, a Pulitzer-winning investigative reporter, Sandy Banisky, former deputy managing editor at the Baltimore Sun, and Sean Mussenden, director of the college’s Capital News Service advanced multimedia bureau.

Baltimore Urban Affairs Reporting Projects

Students in the college's Urban Affairs Reporting class use Baltimore as a laboratory to cover issues of importance to cities.  The class is taught by Sandy Banisky, Merrill's Abell Professor in Baltimore Journalism, a former deputy managing editor of The (Baltimore) Sun. The most recent project looked at Baltimore's juvenile justice system. 

Mental Health in Maryland

How successful is Maryland's health system at treating the mentally disabled? What are police doing to prepare themselves to respond to those in crisis? And how well do the media cover those with disabilities? Those are some of the questions a team of Merrill students asked while reporting a project on the national push toward deinstitutionalization. The health multimedia reporting project was launched with support from Kaiser Health News and the college's Capital News Service advanced reporting program.