Last Friday evening I was the keynote speaker for Phi Theta Kappa’s Middle States Region Convention in Long Beach, NJ. Established in 1918, the Society recognizes and encourages academic achievement of two-year college students and provide opportunities for individual growth and development through honors, leadership, and service. Students must rank in the top 20 percent of their class to join.
The Mississippi headquartered organization puts “honors in action” by examining some intellectual subject of current interest during each convention. This year, the Society concentrated on the “democratization of information: power, peril and promise.” As the eager scholars kicked off their investigation of this subject, I introduced the history of mass media in a program called, “ This Just In: When Radio, Television and Mass Media Came of Age.”
There were about 200 energetic scholars inside the convention hall. They’d traveled from throughout the Mid-Atlantic for the 24th convention and they were eager to exchange ideas, views and opinions as they started their scholalry ivestigation of this important 21st century issue.