Published on April 4, 2014 by Sean Flynt  
Kyle Whitmire portrait

Samford University’s Journalism and Mass Communication (JMC) department will host journalist Kyle Whitmire for the department’s 2014 Timothy Sumner Robinson Forum April 15 at 7 p.m. in Brooks Auditorium, Brooks Hall. The local government and politics reporter for The Birmingham News will speak about ethics in journalism in the digital era.

Whitmire, an Alabama native, graduated from Birmingham-Southern College in 2001 and has had a 13-year journalism career, including work as production manager for The Western Star, staff writer and new media editor for Birmingham Weekly, stringer for The New York Times and new media editor/senior writer at Weld for Birmingham.

In 2008 and 2009, Whitmire’s “War on Dumb” column was awarded first place for the best political column in the 55,000 and under circulation division by the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies and the Medill School of Journalism.

“The online reporting era has brought new challenges to modern journalists, and we look forward to hearing Kyle’s perspective as a member of a profession that has seen profound changes in the past several years. Kyle has witnessed the entire shift from online to interactive journalism, so he brings a voice of someone in the middle of the foundational shift in reporting,” said JMC department chair Dr. Bernie Ankney.

Every other year, the Timothy Sumner Robinson Forum brings a leading voice in American journalism to Samford University’s campus. Robinson was a 1965 graduate of Samford’s journalism program who had an accomplished career working at The Washington Post and National Law Journal. The forum was named in Robinson’s honor posthumously.

The Robinson Forum is free and open to the public. For more information about attending the event, contact the JMC department at (205) 726-2948.

by JMC student Sarah Brook Williams

 

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Samford is a leading Christian university offering undergraduate programs grounded in the liberal arts with an array of nationally recognized graduate and professional schools. Founded in 1841, Samford is the 87th-oldest institution of higher learning in the United States. Samford enrolls 6,101 students from 45 states, Puerto Rico and 16 countries in its 10 academic schools: arts, arts and sciences, business, divinity, education, health professions, law, nursing, pharmacy and public health. Samford fields 17 athletic teams that compete in the tradition-rich Southern Conference and ranks 6th nationally for its Graduation Success Rate among all NCAA Division I schools.