Journalism educator to help lead newspaper project

     Campbell’s journalism professor will be one of two managing editors of Urbana Today, a daily newspaper of the Urbana 06. Urbana 06 is a mission’s conference sponsored by InterVarsity Dec. 27-31.
     Michael Ray Smith of the Department of Mass Communication will work with Manny Garcia, metro editor at the Miami Herald, and will lead nearly 30 students from across the nation in publishing a daily newspaper.
     Smith and Garcia will work with World Journalism Institute (WJI), Manhattan, N.Y., to help students write about this conference that promotes missions work around the globe.
     WJI promotes journalism through its national workshops across the nation.
     “This project is a first,” said Smith, who worked at newspapers for a decade before entering academia. “We will practice a kind of guerilla journalism. We’ll arrive, set up a news operation, produce a daily newspaper for five days, pack up and go home . . . exhausted!”
     In addition to this experience, Smith was interviewed online about ideas to help students get published. This web interview with author Mary Ann Diorio will appear Dec. 9 at: http://www.maryanndiorio.com/blog/

     Smith is also featured in an interview in the November/December issue of The Christian Communicator.
     A reporter for 10 years, Smith continues to write free-lance articles. He’s written 3,000 articles and four books. His most recent book is “FeatureWriting.Net” and his web site is: www.featurewriting.net.