Students give papers

Students at national event

Students Jolene Papa and Mark Harms made College of Journalism history this spring when papers they had written for the History of Mass Media class were chosen for presentation at the 20th annual Midwest Journalism History conference.

Papa, a junior, and Harms, a senior, had written the papers for the history course, taught by Pete Mayeux, last fall. They presented them at the conference held April 23 and 24 at the University of Iowa.

Papa’s paper was titled “Sensationalism in the 90’s; the Media’s Response to the Rodney G. King Case and the Ensuing Riots.” Harms presented a paper titled “Van Anda’s Science: His Coverage and Use of Science and Technology as managing editor of the New York Times.”

The two UNL students were among the 15 presenters at the conference. Only UNL, the University of Minnesota and Indiana University sent more than one presenter to the conference. More than 30 papers were entered in the competition.