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Lecture series

Holding Power Accountable Lecture Series

The Holding Power Accountable lecture series features journalists who are leading the examination of the people and organizations that hold power in society.

For more information, contact Lecturer Adam Hochberg.
 

LIST OF SPEAKERS

Jane Stancill '89 (M.A.), higher education reporter for The News & Observer | March 4, 2019 | View event details

Helene Cooper, Pentagon correspondent for The New York Times | Feb. 25, 2019 | View event details

Caitlin Owens '14, health care and policy reporter for Axios | Jan. 28, 2019 | View event details

Reporting on Sexual Misconduct: Barbara Friedman, associate professor for the UNC School of Media and Journalism, David Folkenflik, media correspondent for NPR, Kim Masters, editor-at-large of the Hollywood Reporter and host of KCRW's The Business, Emily Steel '06, business reporter for The New York Times | Feb. 27, 2018 | View event details

 

Jane Brown Health Communication Lecture

Started in 2016, the Jane Brown Health Communication Lecture honors the legacy of retired James. L. Knight professor Jane Brown. Brown is a founding member of the Interdisciplinary Health Communication program (IHC) and spent over three decades conducting research on the media’s influence on adolescents’ health, health communication and the use of media for health promotion. This annual lecture brings a nationally recognized researcher to the MJ-school to present their work and have a dialogue about health communication with an interdisciplinary mix of students and faculty.

For more information, contact Professor Seth Noar.
 

 

LIST OF SPEAKERS

Robin Nabi, University of California, Santa Barbara | Sept. 27, 2018 | View event details

Jeff Niederdeppe, Cornell University | Sept. 29, 2017 | View event details

Marco Yzer, University of Minnesota | Sept. 30, 2016 | View event details

 

Mary Junck Research Colloquium

The Mary Junck Research Colloquium series was formally established in 2007 to nurture an intellectually vibrant climate with both interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary shades, by scheduling scholarly presentations on diverse topics.

The speakers represent various disciplines and units on campus as well as other universities and organizations in the Triangle. The series has been particularly successful in attracting scholars and researchers of national and international renown from within the United States and abroad. The series attracts a diverse audience comprising faculty, graduate students and researchers from around the Triangle.

For more information, contact Assistant Professor Adam Saffer.

 

LIST OF SPEAKERS

Erica Scharrer, University of Massachusetts Amherst | April 2019 | View event details

Sarah J. Jackson, Northeastern University | February 2019 | View event details

Berkley Hudson, University of Missouri | November 2018 | View event details

Russell Clayton, Florida State University | September 2018 | View event details

Natalie Stroud, University of Texas at Austin | April 2018 | View event details

Matthew Weber, Rutgers University | November 2017 | View event details

Andy Pilny, University of Kentucky | September 2017 | View event details

Emily Thorson, Boston College | March 2017 | View event details

Mary Beth Oliver, Pennsylvania State University | February 2017 | View event details

Meryl Alper, Northeastern University | January 2017 | View event details

Philip Napoli, Duke University | November 2016 | View event details

Grace Ahn, University of Georgia | November 2016 | View event details

Brooke Fisher Liu, University of Maryland | October 2016 | View event details

Deen Freelon, American University | March 2016 | View event details

Brooke Erin Duffy, Temple University | March 2016 | View event details

Jane Rhodes, University of Chicago | March 2016 | View event details

Jesse Baldwin-Philippi, Fordham University, Chris Well, University of Wisconsin Madison | October 2015 | View event details

Maureen Taylor, University of Tennessee Knoxville | September 2015 | View event details

Jesse Fox, Oregon State University| August 2015 | View event details

Geoffrey Baym, University of North Carolina Greensboro | April 2015 | View event details

Heather LaMarrie, Temple University | April 2015

Edward Walker, University of California Los Angeles | March 2015 | View event details

Max Boykoff, University of Colorado Boulder | March 2015 | View event details

Janas Sinclair, Florida International University | February 2015 | View event details

Melissa Michelson, Menlo College | February 2015 | View event details

Carolina Lee, Lafayette College | February 2015

Zeynep Tufecki, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill | January 2015

Dulcie Murdock Straughan, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill | December 2014

Christina Dunbar-Hester, Rutgers University | November 2014

Nikki Usher, George Washington University | November 2014

Cathrine Gyldensted, DiS, Copenhagen | October 2014

Bartosz Wojdynski, University of Georgia | October 2014

Andrew Perrin, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill | September 2014

Jessa Lingel, Microsoft Research New England Social Media Collective | September 2014

Mary Beth Oliver, Pennsylvania State University | January 2012

 

Nelson Benton Lecture Series

Family and friends of Nelson Benton established this series of lectures by distinguished journalists after Benton, who worked more than 20 years at CBS News, died Feb. 13, 1988. He was 63.

Benton began his broadcasting career at radio station WSOC in Charlotte, North Carolina, after receiving his degree from UNC in 1949. The next year, he established the first television news department in the Southeast at WBTV in Charlotte. In 1960, he joined CBS News in New York City as an assignment editor and reporter. He worked in Dallas when President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963 and became the New Orleans bureau chief and correspondent for CBS News in 1964. He reported on the civil rights movement in the South and covered the Vietnam War from Saigon, Hue and the Vietnamese countryside. He spent the next decade as a Washington correspondent.

During the early 1970s, he was an anchor on the "CBS Morning News." He covered Watergate and the resignation of President Richard Nixon in 1974. He won an Emmy for a special broadcast about the Watergate tapes. When the country faced an acute shortage of energy resources in the 1970s, he pioneered the energy beat for CBS News.

He was a member of the team of CBS News correspondents who covered the American space program from the days of the Mercury astronauts through the moon landing on July 20, 1969.

Benton was born in Danville, Virginia. He and his wife Milli had one son, Joe Benton, who now lives in Falls Church, Virginia, and is a member of the MJ-school's Board of Advisers. Milli Benton died in 1994.

After Benton's death, Milli Benton donated his papers to the Southern Historical Collection at UNC. More than 2,700 items — including scripts, notes, appointment books and press packs — are in the collection and open to public viewing in Wilson Library.

For more information, contact Director of Communications Kyle York.
 

LIST OF SPEAKERS

Gerard Baker, editor-in-chief, Wall Street Journal (2014) (View event details)

Helene Cooper, White House correspondent, The New York Times (2012)

Hank Klibanoff and Gene Roberts, co-authors of the Pulitzer Prize-winning book “The Race Beat”; Hodding Carter, UNC professor of public policy and former editor of the Delta Democrat Times; Joe Cumming, former Atlanta bureau chief for Newsweek; Moses J. Newson, former executive editor of the Baltimore Afro-American and former reporter at the Tri-State Defender in Memphis, Tennessee (2010 panel discussion)

Bill Schneider, senior policy analyst, CNN (2008)

Fred Shropshire, news reporter, WGN-TV (2006)

Sam Donaldson, ABC News (2004)

Randall Pinkston, CBS News correspondent (2004)

Charles Moose, former Montgomery Co., Maryland, police chief (2003)

Draggan Mihailovich, "60 Minutes II" (2001)

Carol Lin, CNN News (2000

Bob Schieffer, CBS News chief Washington correspondent (1997)

Bill Plante, CBS White House correspondent (1996)

Cokie Roberts, correspondent for ABC News and National Public Radio (1995)

Charles Kuralt, former CBS News correspondent and "Sunday Morning" anchor (1994)

Walter Cronkite, former CBS News anchor (1992)

Dan Rather, CBS News anchor (1991)

 

PhotoNight

Organized by the UNC chapter of the National Press Photographers Association, PhotoNight is a speaker series that brings photographers, documentary filmmakers and visual storytellers from around the country to present their work and inspire our students.

For more information, contact Associate Professor Chad Stevens or Professor Pat Davison.
 

LIST OF SPEAKERS

Alysia Burton Steele, multimedia journalist and author | February 2019

Jon Kasbe, film editor | November 2018

Deb Pastner, Star Tribune | November 2018

A Discussion on Documenting Protests | October 2018

Margaret Cheatham Williams, The New York Times | March 2018

Carolyn Van Houten, The Washington Post | February 2018

Louie Palu, freelance photojournalist | October 2017

Hannah Ayers and Lance Warren, Field Studio | September 2017

Andrea Wise and Jesse Neider, freelance photojournalists | March 2017

Erin Brethauer, San Francisco Chronicle | November 2016

Maggie Steber, freelance photojournalist | October 2016

Tim Matsui, freelance photojournalist | April 2016

Cath Spangler, New Yorker | April 2016

Alan Maynard, Trailblazer Studios | April 2016

Kevin Martin, freelance photojournalist | February 2016

Alexandra Bomback, Red Reel | November 2015

Endia Beal, freelance photographer | October 2015

Uwe Martin, freelance photojournalist | February 2015

Josh Davis | October 2014

Spencer Platt, freelance photojournalist | April 2012

Alex Harris, Duke Center for Documentary Studies | February 2012

Jenn Ackerman and Tim Gruber, freelance editorial photographers | March 2010

Brian Storm, Media Storm | February 2010

Travis Dove, freelance editorial photographer | January 2010

Dave LaBelle, Kent State University photojournalism program director | November 2009

Chris Rainier, National Geographic | October 2009

Greg Kelly, August 2009

Ben de la Cruz, NPR Science Desk multimedia editor | February 2008

Chris Hondros, former freelance photojournalist and war photographer | April 2007

Vicki Cronis-Nohe, Virginian-Pilot | March 2007

 

Reed Sarratt Distinguished Lecture Series

The Reed Sarratt Distinguished Lecture Series brings some of the best and brightest minds in the field to the University each year to discuss matters of importance and concern, of philosophy and principle.

Reed Sarratt was a great friend of excellence in journalism and mass communication and in education for the field. For many years, he worked in Atlanta as executive director of the Southern Newspaper Publishers Association (SNPA) Foundation and then of SNPA itself. Before that, he had been a newspaperman in North Carolina.

A native of Charlotte and a 1937 graduate of UNC, he served as the inaugural president of the school's Journalism Alumni and Friends Association. He was inducted into the N.C. Journalism Hall of Fame in 1985.

Sarratt died on March 15, 1986, at age 68. He devoted much of his life to improving journalism in the South. He loved the University and the school; numerous members of the Sarratt family have graduated from the University.

For more information, contact Director of Communications Kyle York.

 

LIST OF SPEAKERS

Ken Auletta, staff writer, The New Yorker | Fall 2018 | View event details

Andy Polansky, CEO, Weber Shandwick | Fall 2016 | View event details

Andrew Robertson, CEO, BBDO Worldwide | Spring 2015 | View event details

Matthew Winkler, CEO, Bloomberg News | Fall 2012 | View event recording

Paul Steiger, editor-in-chief, CEO and president, ProPublica | Spring 2012 | View event recording

Daniel J. Edelman, founder and chairman, Daniel J. Edelman Inc. | Spring 2006

M. Dockery Clark, former senior vice president of sponsorship and marketing, Bank of America | Spring 2005

John Walsh, senior vice president, ESPN | Fall 2003

Carl Kasell, National Public Radio | Spring 2003

Robert Giles, curator, The Nieman Foundation for Journalism | Fall 2002

Christine Brennan, sports columnist, USA Today | Spring 2002

Jay T. Harris, former publisher and chairman, The San Jose Mercury News | Fall 2001

R.W. Apple Jr., chief correspondent, The New York Times | Spring 2001

Dr. Charles Sherman, executive vice president, Television National Association of Broadcasters | Spring 2000

Harry Jacobs, retired chairman, the Martin Agency in Richmond, Virginia | Fall 1999

Penny Muse Abernathy, group publisher and general manager of the publishing division at Harvard Business School, former president of The New York Times News Services | Spring 1999

Ken Bode, moderator of PBS television program Washington Week in Review and dean of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University | Fall 1998

Gene Roberts, professor in the University of Maryland at College Park College of Journalism, former managing editor of The New York Times, and former editor of The Philadelphia Inquirer | Spring 1998

Felix Guiterrez, senior vice president and executive director of the Freedom Forum Pacific Coast Center in San Francisco | Fall 1997

Creed Black, president of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and chairman and publisher of the Lexington Herald-Leader Company | Spring 1997

Geneva Overholser, ombudsman for the Washington Post and former editor of the Des Moines Register | Fall 1996 

Sharon Lawrence, Broadway performer and television actress | Spring 1996

Karen Elliott House, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and president of International Group, Dow Jones & Co. Inc. | Fall 1995

Tom Wicker, author and former New York Times columnist | Spring 1995

Ruth Wooden, president of the Advertising Council | Fall 1994

Frank Deford, writer for Sports Illustrated | Spring 1994

Kurt Luedtke, screenwriter (Absence of Malice) and former editor of the Detroit Free Press | Fall 1993

Pat Carbine, co-founder, Ms. magazine | Spring 1993

Tom Burrell, founder and president, Burrell Advertising, Chicago | Fall 1992

Karen Jurgensen, editorial page editor, USA Today | Spring 1992

Doug Marlette, Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist | Fall 1991

Tom Wicker, New York Times columnist and author | Fall 1990

Everette E. Dennis, author, researcher, educator and executive director of the Freedom Forum Media Studies Center, Columbia University | Spring 1990

Jeff MacNelly, Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist | Spring 1989

Gordon Parks, Life magazine photographer, film director, author and composer | Fall 1988

David Brinkley, famed television journalist and commentator, ABC News | Spring 1988

David Broder, Pulitzer Prize-winning Washington Post columnist | Fall 1987

Jeffrey Marx and Michael York, Pulitzer Prize-winning sports writers from the Lexington, Kentucky, Herald-Leader | Spring 1987

 

Roy H. Park Distinguished Lecture Series

The Roy H. Park Distinguished Lecture Series began in October 1999. Sponsored by the Triad Foundation of Ithaca, New York, the lectures enhance the Roy H. Park Fellowship Program that began in the school in fall 1997. The fellowships go to new doctoral and master's students in the school each year.

The lecture series brings outstanding mass communication professionals to the campus each year with the goal of enriching the educational experience of undergraduate and graduate journalism students, and presenting speakers of interest to the campus and beyond.

The lecture series honors Roy H. Park, the founder, chairman and chief executive officer of Park Communications Inc., which became an expansive multimedia company with broadcast and print properties throughout the United States.

For more information, contact Director of Communications Kyle York.
 

LIST OF SPEAKERS

Tucker CarlsonTucker Carlson, political commentator for Fox News Sunday | April 12, 2018

Chris WallaceChris Wallace, anchor of Fox News Sunday | April 6, 2017

Brit HumeBrit Hume, senior political analyst for Fox News | April 7, 2016

Peggy NoonanPeggy Noonan, columnist for The Wall Street Journal | April 9, 2015

Dana PerinoDana Perino, former press secretary to President George W. Bush and Fox News host | April 10, 2014

Arthur C. BrooksArthur C. Brooks, president of the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) | April 11, 2013

Roger AilesRoger Ailes, chairman and CEO of Fox News | April 12, 2012

David KirkpatrickDavid Kirkpatrick, author of "The Facebook Effect," "Ten Lessons from Facebook" | April 7, 2011

P.J. O'RourkeP.J. O'Rourke, author and political satirist, "The Government vs. The Citizenry: Which Is Worse?" | April 8, 2010

Jason KilarJason Kilar, CEO, Hulu, "Sex, Lies & Online Video: From Howell Hall to Hulu" | Oct. 14, 2009

Alan MurrayAlan Murray, a deputy managing editor and executive editor for online, The Wall Street Journal, "The Future of Newspapers: Some Light at the End of a Very Long Tunnel" | April 2, 2009

Ken LoweKen Lowe, chairman, president and CEO, Scripps Networks Interactive, "An Evolving Paradigm: Media in the Interactive Age" | Sept. 11, 2008

Rich BeckmanRich Beckman, James L. Knight professor of visual communication, UNC School of Journalism and Mass Communication, "The Road Less Traveled: Changing the World One Story at a Time" | April 10, 2008

Deborah Platt MajorasDeborah Platt Majoras, chairman, Federal Trade Commission, "The Role of Truthful Information in the Marketplace" | Oct. 11, 2007

Charles KrauthammerCharles Krauthammer, columnist, The Washington Post Writers Group, "The View from the Swamp: Washington in the Twilight of the Bush Administration" | April 12, 2007

Jonathan AlterJonathan Alter, senior editor, Newsweek, and NBC News contributing correspondent, "Between the Lines: Politics, Media and Society" | Oct. 23, 2006

Dan WiedenDan Wieden, CEO and co-founder of Wieden + Kennedy advertising, "Walk in Stupid Every Morning" | April 18, 2006

Penelope Muse AbernathyPenelope Muse Abernathy, senior vice president of international and development, The Wall Street Journal, "Circling the Globe: No Cakewalk for the Media" | April 6, 2005

Brenda ButtnerBrenda Buttner, Fox News senior business correspondent, "Tuning Into Viewers: What’s Wrong With the Customer Being Right?" | Oct. 5, 2004

Helen ThomasHelen Thomas, syndicated columnist, Hearst News Service, "Covering History from President Kennedy to President Bush II" | Nov. 24, 2003

Joie ChenJoie Chen, CBS News correspondent, "Tuning Out: Will Young Viewers Choose Jon Stewart Over the Evening News?" | Oct. 9, 2003

Jim RobertsJim Roberts, national editor, The New York Times, "How The New York Times Covers the Nation" | Nov. 18, 2002

Marvin KalbMarvin Kalb, senior fellow at Harvard University’s Joan Shorenstein Center for the Press, Politics and Public Policy and faculty chair for the John F. Kennedy School of Government’s Washington Programs, "Journalism Since 9/11: When Are We Going to Get Serious?" | Oct. 14, 2002

William SafireWilliam Safire, columnist, The New York Times, "What’s Going to Happen in Washington" | April 16, 2002

George StephanopoulosGeorge Stephanopoulos, ABC News analyst, "Politics: The Art of the Impossible — A View From Washington" | Feb. 5, 2002

Sandra Mims RoweSandra Mims Rowe, editor, The Oregonian, "Journalism’s Renewed Sense of Mission: Will it Last?" | Nov. 13, 2001

Doug MarletteDoug Marlette, editorial cartoonist, "Political Cartooning and the 2000 Election" | Oct. 26, 2000

Charles LewisCharles Lewis, founder and executive director, Center for Public Integrity, Washington, D.C., "The Buying of the President 2000" | Feb. 17, 2000

Joann BurkholderJoann M. Burkholder, professor of aquatic ecology and marine sciences, Department of Botany, N.C. State University, "The Critical Role of Journalists in Environmental Science, Education and Ethics" | Oct. 19, 1999

 

The Stembler Lecture

Movie industry executive John H. Stembler Jr.'s bequest created a $3.25 million ‘game-changer’ endowment for the MJ-school’s broadcast program. To honor Stembler's career in, and passion for, the motion picture industry, a speaker or panel event will be organized every two years at the School of Media and Journalism. The lecture will bring focus to topics related to the film industry to students, faculty and the Carolina community.

For more information, contact Assistant Professor Joseph Cabosky.
 

LIST OF SPEAKERS

"Literally, Right Before Aaron" director Ryan Eggold, "Literally, Right Before Aaron" producer and owner of Rizk Pictures Alexandra Rizk Keane | October 2017 | View event details

"Ant-Man" director Peyton Reed, Motion Picture Association of America CEO and former U.S. Sen. Chris Dodd; and chairman and CEO of Georgia Theatre Company Bill Stembler | October 2015 | View event details

 

Wade H. Hargrove Communications Law and Policy Colloquium

The Wade H. Hargrove Communications Law and Policy Colloquium is named in honor of Wade Hargrove, former chair of the UNC Board of Trustees and the driving force behind the creation of the UNC Center for Media Law and Policy. The colloquium was established and funded by various media companies and friends of Hargrove as a forum for discussion and debate on contemporary media issues.

For more information, contact UNC Center for Media Law and Policy Co-Director David Ardia.
 

LIST OF SPEAKERS

David L. Cohen, executive vice president of Comcast Corp. | March 2015 | View event details

David Barrett, chairman and CEO of Hearst Television Inc., Ben Sherwood, president of ABC News | November 2013 | View event details

 

Women in Media Leadership Series

Dean Susan King created the Women in Media Leadership Series in 2013 to bring influential women leaders and communicators to campus to share their experiences and mentor students. Former Gov. Bev Perdue, North Carolina’s first woman chief executive, headlined the inaugural talk.
 

LIST OF SPEAKERS

Jacqueline Charles, award-winning Haitian correspondent | Sept. 11, 2014 | View event details

Amanda Bennett, Pulitzer Prize-winning author | March 20, 2014 | View event details

Mary Junck, Lee Enterprises CEO and AP board of directors chair | Oct. 29, 2013 | View event details

Brooke Baldwin, CNN anchor | Sept. 27, 2013 | View event details

Tia McCollors, author | April 23, 2013 | View event details

Kayla Tausche, CNBC correspondent | Feb. 25, 2013 | View event details

Bev Perdue, former N.C. governor | Jan. 17, 2013 | View event details