Joseph Atkins
professor of Journalism
Phone Number: (662)915-5510
Email: jbatkins@olemiss.edu
http://www.laborsouth.blogspot.com

Key Words: journalism & media, labor, film, social issues, ethics, writing, international issues

Research Description: My primary research areas as a journalist and journalism professor have been more recently in film studies, both documentary and feature films, and social issues, and more long term on labor/working class issues and their relationship to politics and media coverage. My most recent book is "Harry Dean Stanton: Hollywood's Zen Rebel" (University Press of Kentucky, 2020). Labor was the central theme of my book, "Covering for the Bosses: Labor and the Southern Press" (University Press of Mississippi, 2008). As regards film I have been teaching related courses in both the Honors College and the School of Journalism over the past several years. An early interest in international issues (particularly with respect to labor and media) led to my first book, a collection of essays from writers around the world titled "The Mission: Journalism, Ethics and the World" (Iowa State University Press, 2002), which dealt with international media and ethical issues. I was editor as well as a contributor to this book. I also edited and contributed to a book titled "The Strangers Among Us: Tales of a Global Migrant Worker Movement", which was published by London-based LabourStart in December 2016. Here I brought together writers from around the world to address the issue of migrant workers. My interest in writing has included fiction. I published a novel, "Casey's Last Chance", in 2015 (Sartoris Literary Group), and edited and contributed to a collection of short stories, "Mojo Rising, Vol. 2, Contemporary Writers", that was published by Sartoris Literary Group in September 2017.

Honors Theses:

Brisack, Jaz (2019) The Wise Women of Oxford (full text)

Davis, Brandi Nicole (2009) "The Bolivian Press and the Fight for a Revolution"

Freeman, Lauren Elizabeth (2007) "Art and Persuasion: A Communication Study of Contemporary Documentary Film" (full text)

Middleton, Margaret O'Brien (2006) "The Truth Shall Set You Free: Journalists' Addiction to Truth in the Face of Danger" (full text)

Reyenga, Rebecca Ruth (2005) "Six Middle Americans Respond to Thomas Frank's Question, 'What's the Matter With Kansas?' An Analytical Commentary on Populism and American Political Life" (full text)

Sindelar, Melissa Erin (2005) "Freedom of the Press in a Post-September 11 World: A Global Perspective"

Smith, Erin M. (2005) "News Media Consumption and Perceptions of Poverty Within a Sample at the University of Mississippi" (full text)

Thomas, Brandie D. (2005) "Mixing the Old with the New: Magazines in the 21st Century" (full text)