OXFORD, Miss. – Three well-known Mississippi editors whose newspapers have become vital to the communities they serve will participate in a panel discussion Wednesday (Feb. 29) at the Overby Center for Southern Journalism and Politics at the University of Mississippi.
The editors plan to talk about the big role their publications play in relatively small towns. The 10 a.m. program in the Overby Center Auditorium is free and open to the public.
The guests on the Overby panel will be:
– Bill Jacobs of The Daily Leader in Brookhaven, whose paper has claimed many press prizes over the years and has become a reliable voice for the south Mississippi town.
– Dr. Luke Lampton of The Magnolia Gazette, who has turned the weekly into a lively forum not only for local news, but also for literary reviews and entertaining features.
– Jim Prince of The Neshoba Democrat, which covers the annual Neshoba County Fair with special enterprise. The paper was also an instrumental force in efforts to bring justice in connection with the infamous murders of three civil rights workers in 1964.
Debora Wenger, UM associate professor of journalism, will moderate the discussion.
The program is designed to highlight the accomplishments of journalists who often go about their work with little recognition, Wenger said.
“One of the buzzwords in journalism today is ‘hyper-local,’ but many small-town Mississippi newspapers have been hyper-local for more than a century,” Wenger said. “They’ve been influencing the outcomes of elections, forcing school systems to be better and bringing outlaws to justice, but they’ve rarely been celebrated for the impact they have on our communities, and we want to take a moment to do just that.
“Small town newspapers often get accused of not really seeing the communities they serve, offering readers little more than football scores, obituaries and Friday night’s police blotter. However, the best of Mississippi’s small weeklies and dailies are helping to build community identity. They act as forces for positive change and they offer a way for the journalists who work there to go back to the fundamentals of the profession: giving voice to the voiceless, righting wrongs and holding the powerful accountable.”
Click here for more information on programs at the Overby Center for Southern Journalism and Politics.