Category: In the News

Links to news of Gaylord College in the media.

OU Professor and U.S. State Department Exchange Program participants meet with President Obama

YSEALI OU Group
Professor Elanie Steyn (middle) with the five Burmese delegates at the White House event with YSEALI.

Elanie Steyn, associate professor in the Gaylord College at the University of Oklahoma, and a delegation of five business leaders from Myanmar in the U.S. under a State Department grant administered by the University of Oklahoma, joined 70 other emerging leaders from Southeast Asia to meet today with President Barack Obama during the President’s Young Southeast Asian Leaders Initiative event at the White House.

YSEALI is the President’s signature initiative to strengthen leadership development across the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), deepen engagement with young leaders on key regional and global challenges, and strengthen people-to-people ties between the United States and Southeast Asia, said the White House press release. ASEAN is comprised of Brunei, Singapore, Indonesia, Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam and Myanmar.

“One of the most powerful statements that President Obama made during the event was that the success of a country can be “measured by how it empowers its women and girls,”” said Steyn. “This is why the grant programs we do at Gaylord College are so important. The majority of our participants are women and through our programs we have seen them grow as leaders, which in turn promotes democracy in their countries.”

The White House event corresponded with the end of the delegation’s month-long visit to Oklahoma where they had professional placements with Oklahoma business leaders and entrepreneurs from technology and marketing companies, as well as the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture.

Steyn along with Gaylord College Dean Joe Foote and Jeff Moore, director of OU’s Center for the Creation of Economic Wealth, are co-investigators for an U.S. State Department exchange program between the University of Oklahoma and Bangladesh, Nepal and Myanmar. She serves as the area head for journalism in the Gaylord College and is an experienced international trainer/educator with a specialization in media leadership and management with a particular emphasis on women’s leadership.

OU’s Gaylord College of Journalism and Mass Communication has become a major contributor to the University of Oklahoma’s international emphasis. It has developed an impressive international focus, becoming one of the State Department’s International Press Centers; serving as one of the founding hosts for the Edward R. Murrow Fellows program; providing training and study programs on four continents; administering eight State Department grants in South Asia (Myanmar, Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka).

Judy Gibbs Robinson inducted into Oklahoma Journalism Hall of Fame

Judy Gibbs Robinson (center) with four of her editors (from left to right) Page Jones (summer 15 editor), Blayklee Buchanan (fall/spring 14-15 editor), Paighten Harkins (fall/spring 14-15 managing editor) and Dana Branham (fall/spring 14-15 online editor).
Judy Gibbs Robinson (center) with four of her editors (from left to right) Page Jones (summer 15 editor), Blayklee Buchanan (fall/spring 14-15 editor), Paighten Harkins (fall/spring 14-15 managing editor) and Dana Branham (fall/spring 14-15 online editor).

Judy Gibbs Robinson, assistant director of Student Media and editorial adviser for The Oklahoma Daily, was inducted into the 2015 Oklahoma Journalism Hall of Fame this past April.

In addition to serving as faculty adviser to The Daily, Robinson also teaches JMC 2033 – Writing for the Mass Media, the college’s large, gateway journalism class. Like Louise Beard Moore and Jack Willis before her, she is known as being tough as nails on the rules of AP Style, but is equally known to be a student-centered mentor.

“Judy is part of the reason I was able to be editor of The Daily,” said Blayklee Buchanan, 2014-2015 editor in chief of The Daily. “She helped me see that I could be a leader, that I could be a good journalist, and I know she will continue to do that for other students.”

Robinson graduated from the University of Missouri’s journalism school in 1977 and received her master of art in journalism from OU in 2001. She was a broadcast editor for the Associated Press for 10 years and a senior reporter for The Oklahoman for four years following completion of her graduate work.

Other 2015 honorees were Julie DelCour of the Tulsa World, James O. Goodwin and the late E.L. “Ed” Goodwin of the historic Oklahoma Eagle in Tulsa, Ron Hagler of CBS, the late John and Tinker Hruby of the Marlow Review and Comanche County Chronicle, Rose Lane of OKC Friday, Patrick B. McGuigan of The City Sentinel and CapitolBeatOK.com, Gary Reid of the Kingfisher Times & Free Press, Jenifer Reynolds of Discover Oklahoma and Robby Trammell of The Oklahoman.

 

Gaylord Hall enjoys a prime location on the South Oval on the University of Oklahoma Norman campus.

Gaylord College voted one of the top 10 journalism programs in nation

Top 10 RTDNAThe Gaylord College of Journalism and Mass Communication was named one of the top 10 journalism programs in the nation by TVWeek.com and the Radio Television Digital News Association.

Gaylord College is proud to be included on this prestigious list for the first time and prouder still to enter with a tie at fifth place with Arizona State’s Cronkite School. This is the third year that RTDNA and TV Week have teamed for this survey of members and readers.

Across the board the primary criteria for being included in this list of excellent programs was the quality of hands-on programs available for students.

One respondent who named University of Oklahoma the No. 1 school explained, “The University of Oklahoma is an often-overlooked leader in journalism education. The faculty set is a balanced mix of researchers and practitioners, giving students a healthy mix of cutting-edge research and on-the-job application. The Gaylord College houses an integrated advertising agency within its halls as well as a state-of-the-art broadcasting facility. It’s a playground for future storytellers that should be commended on its rise in recent years.”

Gaylord College provides a variety of opportunities for students including the student-run advertising and public relations agency, Lindsey and Asp; a commercial production unit, Gaylord Hall Productions; TV news magazine and website, Routes; the award-winning daily newscast, OU Nightly; and the live audience sports show, Sooner Sports Pad, which is seen in more than 9 million homes on FOX Sports Southwest.

The survey was distributed on TVWeek.com and to members of the Radio Television Digital News Association, with 673 respondents participating. A total of 607 of those respondents answered the question about their professional status; of those, 260 (42.8%) said they were news professionals. Additionally, 169 (27.8%) answered non-news professionals, 104 (17.1%) identified as students, and 74 (12.2%) said they were educators.

Read more about the survey.