Resources for Teaching Multimedia Skills

Robert R. Mercer (panel moderator), Chair, Journalism, Cypress College, Orange County, Calfiornia, is a Missouri B.J. ’73 and Oklahoma M.A. ’96. He is also an East Los Angeles College A.A. ’68. Mercer has been associated with journalism since the age of 12. He spent four years as a Navy journalist, including Vietnam and White House assignments. From 1973 to 1995, he was president and owner of Mercer Visual Communications, Inc., an audiovisual production house in Tulsa, Oklahoma. At the same time, he worked as an independent magazine photojournalist in North, Central and South America. He was represented by Gamma Liaison. Mercer has taught journalism in study abroad programs in Japan (2004) and the Czech Republic (2005), where he taught backpack reporting. This fall, he is a Fulbright Scholar to Lutsk Liberal Arts University in Ukraine teaching convergence newsroom operation.

Clyde Bentley is a veteran community newspaper journalist who is now an associate professor at the Missouri School of Journalism. He was in the newspaper industry for two decades before earning his doctorate at the University of Oregon in 2000. He also holds a master's degree from the University of Texas and undergraduate degrees from Shasta College and Pepperdine University. Bentley founded MyMissourian, the citizen journalism project at the University of Missouri. He teaches online journalism and focuses his research on the developing field of user-generated news and information. Bentley recently taught in London, England, where he had the opportunity to test the generation of cellular telephones that has still to reach the United States.

Larry Dailey holds the Reynolds Chair of Media Technology and is a professor of journalism at the Donald W. Reynolds School of  Journalism, University of Nevada, Reno. There he teaches courses in nonlinear documentary multimedia storytelling, photojournalism and game design for journalists. Previously, he was an assistant professor of journalism and the director of the Digital Media Minor at Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana. He has also been a journalism instructor at Southern Illinois University - Edwardsville. Prior to that, he taught multimedia and advanced photojournalism courses as a visiting assistant professor at the University of Missouri - Columbia. He worked for three years as a multimedia producer for MSNBC Interactive. He has also worked as picture editor for the Associated Press and United Press International in Washington. And he has worked as a newspaper photographer and photography department manager. Larry holds a master’s degree in photography from the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University. He also holds degrees in journalism and education from the University of Missouri.

Shahira Fahmy is an assistant professor of journalism with a focus on Electronic Publishing at the School of Journalism at Southern Illinois University. Before the age of 21 she earned a Presidential press card to cover major conferences in the Middle East. After five years of working in the news and broadcast industries in Egypt and Italy, she moved on to the Missouri School of Journalism for doctoral studies where she earned her Ph.D. in 2003. Having traveled to over 20 countries and being fluent in four different languages allowed Fahmy access to conduct surveys with embedded reporters worldwide and to conduct surveys of audiences of Al-Jazeera in 67 countries. Her research interests primarily focus on visual communication with an international perspective as well as new media, gatekeeping, agenda building and media performance during wartime. Fahmy has published more than a dozen articles in top refereed journals and currently is on the editorial board member of four scholarly journals.

Douglas J. Fisher, Instructor, University of South Carolina School of Journalism and Mass Communication, has more than 30 years as a broadcast, newspaper and wire-service journalist. He is an expert on newsroom operations, was a Kiplinger Fellow in residence at Ohio State University in 1981–82 and served an additional year on faculty there.  He spent 18 years with the Associated Press and is a former AP news editor. He directed coverage of the Susan Smith case, as well as of hurricanes and other major stories. He also directs the Hartsville Today citizen journalism project funded by J-Lab and was principal editor of the Wireless Election Connection campaign and convention coverage project of 2004.  He writes the monthly "Common Sense Journalism" column published by press associations nationwide as well as the accompanying blog. He is co-author of a new book, "Principles of Convergent Journalism," from Oxford University Press (2007).

Cindy Royal is an assistant professor in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Texas State University in San Marcos. She completed Ph.D. studies in Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Texas at Austin in May 2005. At UT, she focused on the effects of the Internet on communication and culture with an emphasis on gender. She has taught Web design since 2000 and has been creating Web sites since 1997. She also teaches course in online journalism, media graphics, and new media issues. Prior to doctoral studies, Royal had a career in Marketing at Compaq Computer (now part of Hewlett Packard) in Houston, Texas, and NCR Corporation in Dayton, Ohio. Additional detail regarding her research, education and experience can be found at cindyroyal.com.

Note: Bio information and materials provided as received from the panelists and/or panel moderator.