2019 McGill Lecture and Symposium

The 41st McGill Lecture titled: “Fake Fake News: The Press, The President, and the Future of the First Amendment” will be given by David McCraw, Deputy General Counsel for the New York Times. 

David McCraw

The lecture is at 4 p.m. in Miller Learning Center room 150

Prior to the lecture, the McGill Symposium will take place from 9 a.m. – 3 p.m. in the Peyton Anderson Forum.

Join us for the 41st McGill Lecture which brings significant figures in journalism to the University of Georgia to honor Ralph McGill’s courage as an editor. Also included is the McGill Symposium, celebrating its 12th year of bringing together students, faculty and leading journalists to consider what journalistic courage means and how reporters and editors exemplify it.

More information about the McGill program is available at www.grady.uga.edu/mcgill

Award-winning journalist, Marina Walker Guevara, headlines 40th McGill lecture

A Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who has managed the two largest collaborations in the history of journalism will give the 40th McGill lecture. Marina Walker Guevara, deputy director of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, will deliver “Trust, technology and teamwork can reveal a global truth” on Thursday, Nov. 8 at 4 p.m. in Studio 100.

Walker Guevara has managed the Panama Papers and the Paradise Papers, which involved hundreds of journalists and media partners using technology to unravel stories of public interest from terabytes of leaked financial data.  A John S. Knight fellow at Stanford University, her stories have been published in BBC, The Washington Post, Le Monde and other media worldwide. Her work has won and shared more than 40 national and internal awards including the Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting.

Established in 1978, this UGA annual lecture has brought significant figures in journalism to address major issues impacting American journalism to honor Ralph McGill’s courage as an editor, with the goal of advancing journalistic courage.

The McGill lecture follows the annual McGill Symposium, which will be held earlier in the day. Now in its twelfth year, the McGill Symposium brings together students, faculty and leading journalists to consider what journalistic courage means and how it is exemplified by reporters and editors. Thirteen Grady College students were selected as McGill Fellows to participate in the event and will help select the eleventh recipient of the McGill Medal, honoring a U.S. journalist whose career has exemplified journalistic courage.

While the McGill lecture is open to the public, the McGill Symposium is not a public event. Limited seating is available to Grady students, faculty and members of the media.

The McGill Lecture is funded by the McGill Endowment Fund and is part of the University of Georgia’s 2018-19 Signature Lecture Series.

McGill lecturer to recount experiences covering the Taliban and ISIS

Five guest journalists to lead conversations about courage in journalism

A journalist and author who has written about her experiences covering terrorism in some of the world’s most dangerous countries, will headline the 39th annual McGill Lecture Nov. 15, 2017.

The McGill Lecture will be given by Souad Mekhennet, national security desk correspondent at The Washington Post and author of “I Was Told to Come Alone.” The lecture, “Being a Female Reporter Behind the Lines of Jihad,” will start at 4 p.m. in Studio 100. It is part of the University of Georgia Signature Lecture Series.

The McGill Lecture is the capstone event of the 11th annual McGill Symposium, which will be held earlier that day in Grady College’s Peyton Anderson Forum, according to Diane Murray, who directs the McGill program for journalistic courage. Twelve Grady College students were selected as McGill Fellows to participate in the event.

Mekhennet is a German journalist and author whose reports on terrorism have been appeared in The New York Times, the International Herald Tribune and NPR. She is currently a correspondent on the national security desk at The Washington Post. Since 9/11, Mekhennet has covered conflicts and terrorist attacks in Europe, North Africa and the Middle East. She has gained rare access to the inner circles of the Taliban, Al-Qaeda and ISIS, and her latest book, “I Was Told to Come Alone: My Journey Behind the Lines of Jihad,” describes some of her most dangerous assignments.

The McGill Symposium brings together students, faculty and leading journalists to consider what journalistic courage means and how it is exemplified by reporters and editors. Journalists scheduled to participate in the symposium include:

  • Peter Sterne, senior reporter at the Freedom of the Press Foundation, will lead a discussion about press freedom under attack in the United States. Grady College Dean Charles Davis, a first amendment scholar, will facilitate the discussion.
  • Beth Reinhard, a reporter at The Washington Post, will discuss reporting in the era of leaks and fake news. Janice Hume, journalism department head and the Carolyn McKenzie and Don E. Carter Chair for Excellence in Journalism, will moderate the discussion.
  • D. Orlando Ledbetter, a beat writer for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and Steve Wyche, a reporter for NFL.com, will discuss covering race in sports. Vicki Michaelis, director of Grady Sports Media and the John Huland Carmical Chair in Sports Journalism & Society, will moderate.
  • Billy Howard, an award-winning photojournalist who is known for his photography of people with HIV/AIDS, will discuss “The Eyes are Listening: Using Photography as a Messenger of Hope, Empathy, and Change.” Mark Johnson, a senior lecturer in photojournalism, will moderate.

While the McGill lecture is open to the public, the McGill Symposium is not a public event. Limited seating is available to Grady students and faculty.

For more than three decades, the McGill Lecture has brought significant figures in journalism to the University of Georgia to help honor Ralph McGill’s courage as an editor.

McGill, while editor and publisher of The Atlanta Constitution, was regarded as the “conscience of the south,” using the newspaper’s editorial pages to challenge segregation in the 1950s and 1960s. McGill was awarded a Pulitizer Prize in 1958 for long, courageous and effective leadership.”

Established in 1978, this UGA annual lecture series addresses major issues impacting American journalism.

The McGill Lecture is funded by the McGill Endowment Fund.

Journalism students named 2017 McGill Fellows

Twelve undergraduate and graduate students have been named McGill Fellows by the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication.

They were selected by a faculty committee “for their strength in academics, practical experience and leadership,” said Diane Murray, public service faculty and director of the McGill Program in Journalistic Courage, who chaired the committee.

The McGill Fellows are:

Sara Katherine Bowen (Tifton, Georgia) senior, journalism and finance

Kristin Bradshaw (Buford, Georgia) senior, journalism and international affairs

Mary Carol Butterfield (Greer, South Carolina) senior, journalism and political science

Lindsey Conway (Alpharetta, Georgia) senior, journalism

Emily Giambalvo (Easley, South Carolina) senior, management information systems, Grady Sports Media certificate

Zach Hansen (Cataula, Georgia) senior, journalism

Noelle Lashley (Cartersville, Georgia) senior, journalism

Saleen Martin (Norfolk, Virginia) graduate student, health and medical journalism

Nicolle Sartain (Lawrenceville, Georgia) senior, journalism

Maureen Sheeran (Atlanta) senior, journalism

Mollie Simon (North Druid Hills, Georgia) senior, journalism

Sammy Smith (West Point, Georgia) senior, journalism

The McGill Fellows will:

  • Participate in the McGill Symposium, which brings together students, faculty and leading journalists to consider what journalistic courage means and how it is exemplified by reporters and editors. The McGill Symposium will be held from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. November 15, 2017, in the Peyton Anderson Forum at Grady College.
  • Later Wednesday, the McGill Fellows will attend and be introduced at the McGill Lecture, which will be presented by Souad Mekhennet, correspondent for The Washington Post’s national security desk and author of “I Was Told to Come Alone.” The lecture is part of the University’s Signature Lecture Series and will be held at 4 p.m. in Studio 100 at Grady College.
  • The McGill Fellows also will help select the ninth recipient of the McGill Medal, awarded annually to a U.S. journalist whose career has exemplified journalistic courage.
  • Finally, the McGill Fellows have first priority to enroll in a one-hour independent study on journalistic courage, to be taught by Murray in the spring.

This is the eleventh class of McGill Fellows. The first class was selected in 2007.

Joining Murray on the selection committee were Grady faculty Keith Herndon, Barry Hollander, Janice Hume, Mark Johnson and Vicki Michaelis.

For nearly 40 years, the McGill Lecture has brought significant figures in journalism to the University of Georgia to help us honor Ralph McGill’s courage as an editor.

McGill, while editor and publisher of The Atlanta Constitution, was regarded as the “conscience of the south,” using the newspaper’s editorial pages to challenge segregation in the 1950s and 1960s. McGill was awarded a Pulitzer Prize in 1958 for “long, courageous and effective leadership.”

Established in 1978, this University of Georgia annual lecture series addresses major issues impacting the American press.

The McGill Symposium is funded by the McGill Lecture Endowment.