A Tour with Hank Klibanoff: Three Classes in Three Days

Pulitzer prize-winning author, reporter and editor Hank Klibanoff, most recently of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, spent three days at the Grady College of Mass Communication this week as a professional-in-residence. Klibanoff spoke in 10 different classes over his stay, three of which this writer was able to attend.

On Monday, February 9, Klibanoff spoke in Dr. Janice Hume's Media History course. For this lecture, Klibanoff focused on the topic of his prize winning book, The Race Beat, the relationship of media and the Civil Rights Movement. To bring the issue home to University of Georgia students, Klibanoof's main topic was on the relationship of the Southern press and the Ku Klux Klan, a topic recently covered in Hume's class. Klibanoff used the opportunity to teach students about his current project, the Justice Media Partnership, which uses journalism research to investigate unsolved, race-related crimes from the Civil Rights era.

Two days later, Klibanoff made his way to Dr. Hugh Martin's Public Affairs Reporting class. For this class, Klibanoff switched gears to his personal history, allowing students to interview him in a press-conference style scenario. Fielding questions on every topic from his upbringing in Alabama to his travels abroad, Klibanoff intentionally left “little nuggets” for students to turn into more questions. Students seemed especially interested in his family history, including an epic tale of transcontinental love involving his parents. The overall message of his lecture was never to let an interesting piece of information go by without a follow up.

Klibanoff finished up his visit on Wednesday afternoon with a visit to Professor Conrad Fink's American Newspaper Management where he discussed the current state of newspapers in America, with a special focus on the Atlanta area. Klibanoff described his ideal newspaper as much more text-oriented, busier front page. His advice to students was to stay in school if at all possible while waiting for the job market to improve.