Huck Boyd National Center | Lecture Series

The Huck Boyd National Center for Community Media

The Huck Boyd National Center for Community Media, located in the A.Q. Miller School of Media and Communication, affirms the fact that community and communication are inseparable; you cannot have community without communications.

The mission of the Huck Boyd National Center for Community Media is to serve and strengthen the local newspapers, broadcast stations and other media that play a key role in the survival and revitalization of America’s small towns and rural communities. Founded in 1990, it was named to honor McDill “Huck” Boyd, publisher of the Phillips County Review. Boyd was an active member of his community and he was a great believer in preserving small towns and small-town media.

Sam Chege Mwangi, Kansas State University professor of journalism and mass communications, is the director of the center. He took over in 2023 after the retirement of Gloria Freeland, Kansas State University assistant professor of journalism and mass communications, who had served as the director of the center since 1998.

The center has over the years organized public lectures on community media, conducted training programs for community media, carried out research on community media, and partnered with journalism students to work on journalism stories spotlighting issues that are important to rural communities.

The center sponsors the annual Huck Boyd Lecture in Community Media, which emphasizes the combination of communication and community. In recent years, the center has co-sponsored the annual K-State Social Media week where the director has served on the panel or provided panelists to discuss issues of communication and community.

The center also works with the International Society of Weekly Newspaper Editors on a paper competition, “Conversations in Community Journalism.” The winning paper is presented at the annual International Society of Weekly Newspaper Editors’ summer convention.

Research related to community journalism is also conducted under the auspices of the center. The most-recent examples are a series of articles published over the last 10 years studying the development of a Community Media Center in Greensburg, Kansas, after a tornado destroyed a large part of the town:

Mwangi, S. C., Bressers, B., & Smethers, J. S. (2024). Open-source media project: Community attitudes after 5-year organizational evolution. Newspaper Research Journal, 07395329241263149.
Mwangi, S. C., Bressers, B., & Smethers, S. (2018). Applying the Leadership Traits Approach to Volunteer-based Community Media. Online Journal of Communication and Media Technologies, 8(1).
Bressers, B., Smethers, J. S., & Mwangi, S. C. (2015). Community journalism and civic engagement in mediated sports: A case study of the open-source media project in Greensburg, KS. Journalism Practice, 9(3), 433-451.
Mwangi, S. C., Smethers, J. S., & Bressers, B. (2014). If you build it, will they come? An exploratory study of community reactions to an open source media project in Greensburg, Kansas. Community Journalism, 3(1), 72-86.

Faculty affiliated with the center have also researched news deserts and what happens to communities that lose their community media:

Smethers, J. S., Mwangi, S. C., & Bressers, B. (2021). Signal interruption in Baldwin City: Filling a communication vacuum in a small town “news desert”. Newspaper Research Journal, 42(3), 379-396.
Smethers, J. S., Bressers, B., & Mwangi, S. C. (2017). Friendships sustain volunteer newspaper for 21 years. Newspaper Research Journal, 38(3), 379-391.
Mwangi, Sam., Bressers, B & Smethers, J.(2021)“Community Media Lessons from Baldwin City,” Grassroots Editor, (62) (2), 14-24.

Faculty have also conducted and published research on ways media can promote civic engagement:

Mwangi, Sam Chege & Lind, Colene.(2023)“An Exploration of the News Consumption Habits of College Students: Implications for Journalism Education ,” Teaching Journalism & Mass Communication, (13) (2), 22-30.
Hallaq, T., & Mwangi, S. C. (2020). Science, Technology and the Nightly News: A Service Learning-Based Approach in Teaching Science Communication to Journalism Students. Partnerships: A Journal of Service-Learning and Civic Engagement, 11(1), 244-256.

Another recent example is “A case study of a rural Hispanic newspaper in the Midwest,” conducted with an undergraduate researcher in the A.Q. Miller school.

Freeland also worked on a project related to the sister-city relationship between Morganville, Kansas and Feves, France. Students in her spring 2013 News and Feature Writing class “re-discovered” the connection between the two villages that began in 1948. That year, Morganville citizens sponsored a pageant, complete with a historical play about their town, to help raise money for Feves, which had been heavily damaged during World War II. The towns maintained contact for several years, but the connection eventually faded because of distance and the language barrier. It was revived briefly in 1994, but then dwindled again until the students’ 2013 story was published in The Clay Center Dispatch. Other local and regional newspapers picked up on the story, and the resulting publicity helped revive the relationship. Since 2014, Freeland and her husband have traveled to France six times, one time accompanying the Morganville mayor and his wife. In fall 2015, a group of 20 people from Feves traveled to the U.S. and included visits to Manhattan and their sister-city Morganville.

For 20 years, the center sponsored the “Newspapers and Community-Building Symposium,” in conjunction with the National Newspaper Association’s annual convention.

The center also maintains close ties to the Kansas Press Association and the Kansas Association of Broadcasters, as well as other regional and national journalism organizations.

With the recent merger of the School of Journalism and the Department of Communication Studies, and under new leadership, the center is exploring more ways it can serve and strengthen community media and continue to contribute to research and scholarship on community media.

^{Bonita Gooch, editor and publisher of The Community Voice in Wichita, was speaker for the 2019 Huck Boyd Lecture. Her topic was "The Grind: Using Journalism as a Community Builder." Steve Smethers, former director of the A.Q. Miller School, is pictured with her.}

View recent lectures below.

Spring 2022 Huck Boyd Lecture in Community Media

The Huck Boyd National Center for Community Media will sponsor a lecture — "How you can use network analysis to identify polarization, reduce misinformation, and improve social media" — at 10:30 a.m. Monday, Feb. 14, in the Big 12 Room of the K-State Student Union.

Social media can contribute to hostility and polarization in political discourse. Marc Smith, the director of the Social Media Research Foundation and expert in network analysis, will discuss powerful yet accessible tools that can help make democracy better. The foundation has developed tools, in particular NodeXL, that make it easy and efficient for anyone to identify polarized groups of users, as well as interconnections between groups.

A panel discussion — "Reflecting on debate, influence, and the search for truth in networked publics" — will follow the lecture at 11:30 a.m. Feb. 14, also in the Big 12 Room.

Both events are part of K-State’s Social Media Week.

Smith is a sociologist specializing in the social organization of online communities and computer-mediated interaction. Smith co-founded and directs the Social Media Research Foundation, a nonprofit devoted to tools, data and scholarship related to social media research. He is the co-editor of "Communities in Cyberspace," a collection of essays exploring the ways identity, interaction and social order develop in online groups. Smith is also the co-author and editor of "Analyzing Social Media Networks with NodeXL: Insights from a Connected World," which is a guide to mapping connections created through computer-mediated interactions.

Panelists will include Sara K. Kearns, a Kansas State University Libraries professor who explores how people interact with information; Anan Wan, a K-State advertising assistant professor whose research explores the impacts and effectiveness of social live streaming and influencer marketing in China and in the U.S.; Timothy J. Shaffer, director of the Institute for Civic Discourse and Democracy and associate professor of communication studies at K-State; Heather Suzanne Woods, assistant professor and director of graduate studies in the K-State communication studies department, whose areas of expertise include memes, virtual assistants, online activism and social media, and smart homes; and Nikhil Moro, K-State professor of journalism and mass communications who holds a doctorate in communication law from The Ohio State University. He edits the Journal of Media Law & Ethics, one of the leading peer-reviewed journals in the field.

J. Steven Smethers, director of the A.Q. Miller School of Journalism and Mass Communications, will moderate the panel.

Huck Boyd Lecture: Social Media Panel, Feb. 14, 2022

Indigenous Voices in Media Subject of Huck Boyd Community Media Lecture

Indigenous Voices in Media Subject of Huck Boyd Community Media Lecture

The Huck Boyd National Center for Community Media will sponsor its second annual Diverse Voices in the Media lecture on Tuesday, Nov. 2.

huck boyd

Debra Bolton, Ohkay Owingeh/Diné /Ute and director of intercultural learning and academic success in Kansas State University's Department of Diversity and Multicultural Student Affairs, will deliver "Indigenous Voices in the Media: Telling Our Own Stories" at 1:30 p.m. in the K/S Ballroom of the K-State Student Union. A panel discussion will follow at 2:30 p.m. Panelists will include Audrey Swartz, University Archives and Special Collections librarian, who is a member of the Miami Nation, and Nate Armenta, assistant community coordinator for Housing and Dining Services and member of the Diné. Steven Smethers, director of the A.Q. Miller School of Journalism and Mass Communications, will serve as moderator. Masks are required on the K-State campus.

The lecture and panel will include information about how Native Americans are working to replace inaccurate stories and images through discussions of historical exclusions that led to loss of sovereignty/self-determination and how multiple forms of media may have contributed, knowingly or unknowingly, to the many forms of erasure.

November is National Native American Month, and this event is one way to pay tribute to the rich ancestry, traditions and contributions of Indigenous peoples. The lecture and panel are also among activities related to this year's K-State First book, "The Marrow Thieves" by Cherie Dimaline.

Bolton, a human scientist, and geographer, also serves as a faculty member in the geography and geospatial sciences department. Her continued research focuses on health, well-being, environmental/social connectedness, and belonging in underrepresented, historically excluded, and displaced populations in Kansas and in Indigenous populations in the United States. A former commissioner for the Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism, Bolton continues to apply her research and life experiences in her capacity as a trustee for The Nature Conservancy to further her work goals and her interests in environmental stewardship. She has been a National Geographic Explorer since 2017.

Swartz received her Master of Library and Information Science in library studies with a focus on archival management in 2016. She also began her career at Hale Library in 2016. Swartz has processed several university archival collections and presented many issues that make archives inaccessible to Indigenous peoples. She is currently working on finding and documenting the Indigenous students who attended K-State University.Armenta is from Bloomfield, New Mexico. He is a graduate student in counseling and student development and serves as an assistant community coordinator in Jardine for Housing and Dining Services. He received his bachelor's degree in history from Fort Lewis College in spring 2020.

The inaugural Diverse Voices in the Media lecture was "Lessons from reporting on LGBTQ Kansas" in October 2020.

The Huck Boyd Center is named for the late McDill "Huck" Boyd of Phillipsburg, who was publisher of the Phillips County Review and a great believer in preserving small towns and small-town media.

Gloria Freeland, professor emerita of the A.Q. Miller school and former director of the Huck Boyd Center, said the Diverse Voices in the Media lectures and the Huck Boyd Lecture in Community Media series help highlight the importance and contributions of community journalism in Kansas and across the nation.

The Grind: Using Journalism as a Community Builder 2019

lady in black dress smiling

Bonita Gooch Speaker for the 19^th Annual Huck Boyd Lecture in Community Media

Bonita Gooch, editor and publisher of The Community Voice in Wichita, delivered the 19^th annual Huck Boyd Lecture in Community Media on Feb. 14 at Kansas State University.

Her lecture, “The Grind: Using Journalism as a Community Builder,” was at 9:30 a.m. in Forum Hall of the K-State Student Union. “More than reporting the news, community newspapers can play a role in strengthening the communities they serve,” Gooch said.

With its slogan — “A trusted voice from the community’s perspective” — she and her team at the biweekly newspaper have spent the last 24 years gaining and using that trust to help educate, connect and build African-American communities across Kansas.

Gooch also participated in a 10:30 a.m. panel discussion about minority voices in the news. The panel followed the lecture and was also free and open to the public. Panelists included Gooch, Clara Reyes and Diana Reyes Raymer of Reyes Media Group (Dos Mundos; LA X 1250-AM; La Grande 1340-AM; and ESPN Deportes Kansas City 1480-AM) in Kansas City, Bryan Richardson of the Manhattan Mercury, and Mara Rose Williams of the Kansas City Star. Rafael Garcia, senior in journalism and mass communications, will moderate the panel.

Richard Baker, recently-retired associate professor and news director of the K-State Radio Network, and Clara Reyes, editor and publisher of Dos Mundos in Kansas City, were honored as Huck Boyd Community Journalists of the Year at the luncheon following the panel discussion. This award is given by the Huck Boyd National Center for Community Media and the Huck Boyd National Institute for Rural Development.

A Wichita native, Gooch left home after high school and returned 23 years later. Since November 1996, she’s worked to grow The Community Voice newspaper from a fledgling publication to a force within the state of Kansas. When her family purchased the paper, it was a small monthly publication with limited distribution. Under her leadership, the paper’s distribution has grown into one of the state’s largest-circulation non-daily newspapers.

Gooch increased the publication’s frequency from monthly to bi-weekly, but is most proud of the reputation the paper has developed across the state for quality and integrity in journalism.

Gooch actively participates in a large number of events across the state. When issues impact the community both directly and indirectly, she can be found attending city, county, school and state governmental meetings. The important issues from these meetings often find their way onto the pages of The Community Voice, as news pieces or as the subject of editorials.

Gooch received her B.S. in journalism and a master’s in public administration, with an emphasis in urban management, from the University of Kansas.

Gooch is a single mother of a young independent daughter who resides in New York City. In her spare time, she enjoys playing tennis, running, listening to R&B, jazz and classical music, letting loose on a dance floor, gardening, reading a good book, traveling and enjoying the silence.

Gooch’s lecture, the panel discussion and the luncheon are sponsored by the Huck Boyd center in the A.Q. Miller School of Journalism and Mass Communications.

“McDill ‘Huck’ Boyd was a great believer in preserving small towns and small-town media, and this lecture series in his name helps highlight the importance of community journalism in Kansas and across the nation,” said Gloria Freeland, director of the center and assistant professor in journalism and mass communications.

To become a patron of the Huck Boyd Lecture in Community Media series or for information about luncheon tickets, please contact Freeland: gfreela@ksu.edu.

2018 Huck Boyd Lecture Series - Penny Muse Abernathy

Panel Discussion: "Silent 'Signal': Baldwin City adjusts to life without a newspaper”

Past speakers in the series

2018: Penny Muse Abernathy, Knight Chair in Journalism and Digital Media Economics, University of North Carolina, and author of "Saving Community Journalism: The Path to Profitability."

2017: Lisa Silvestri, assist. prof. of communication studies at Gonzaga Univ., author of the book "Friended at the Front: Social Media in the American War Zone.

2015: Rosalyn Durant, senior vice president, College Networks, Programming for ESPN

2014: Jim McLean, executive editor of the Kansas Health Institute News Service

2013: Jane Marshall, communications coordinator for K-State’s College of Human Ecology

2012: David Dary, author, broadcast journalist, historian and educator

2011: Wilma Moore-Black, assistant director/curriculum coordinator for the TRIO Communication Upward Bound program in Wichita, Kan. and 1973 JMC graduate

2010: Gail Pennybacker, WJLA-TV broadcast journalist in Washington, D.C. and 1981 JMC graduate

2009: Scott Kraft, editor and roving correspondent for The Los Angeles Times and 1977 JMC graduate

2008: Marlin Fitzwater, press secretary under presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush and 1965 JMC graduate

2007: Bill Buzenberg, investigative journalist for the Center for Public Integrity and 1969 JMC graduate

2006: Clara Reyes, publisher and editor of Dos Mundos, a bilingual newspaper in Kansas City

2005: Joe Posnanski, sports columnist for The Kansas City Star

Susan Edgerley, metropolitan editor for The New York Times and 1976 K-State graduate

2003: Jim Richardson, photojournalist for National Geographic

2002: Bill Kurtis, anchor, Arts and Entertainment network series

2001: Paul Simon, U.S. senator from Illinois and director of the Public Policy Institute at Southern Illinois University

1999: Bob Dole, U.S. senator from Kansas and 1996 Republican presidential candidate

_{The Huck Boyd Lecture Series is funded through annual donations from its generous patrons. We would like to take this opportunity to thank our patrons:}

_{Platinum Patrons ($200+)}

_{Kyle and Lisa Bauer, Clay Center, Kansas}
_{Anne Brockhoff, Linwood, Kansas}
_{The Honorable Robert J. Dole, Washington, D.C.}
_{Nancy Landon Kassebaum, Burdick, Kansas}
_{Sarah Kessinger, Marysville Advocate, Marysville, Kansas}
_{Cy and Gladys Moyer, Phillipsburg, Kansas}

_{Gold Patrons ($150-$199)}

_{Emily Bradberry, Kansas Press Association, Topeka, Kansas}
_{Dan Caffrey, Landoll Corporation, Marysville, Kansas}
_{Linda Denning, Ellsworth County Independent-Reporter, Ellsworth, Kansas}

_{Silver Patron ($100-$149)}

_{Anthony Crawford, Manhattan, Kansas}
_{Tom and Andrea Krauss, Russell, Kansas}
_{Donna Logback, The Iola Register, Iola, Kansas}
_{Deb and Bill Miller, Council Grove, Kansas}
_{Ron Wilson, Manhattan, Kansas}