Dr. Michael Smith
Lee University’s Dr. Michael Smith spoke at the Baptist Communicators Association Workshop in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla
The workshop invited Baptist communicators to discuss the importance of cooperating, collaborating, and interacting with colleagues, multiple organizations, and specialized areas of work. It focused on sharing ways a communicator can successfully intersect almost every discipline in the field of communications.
Dr. Smith’s talk highlighted the need for writers and communicators to practice self-disclosure, accuracy, good listening, and telling a gripping story. He drew from the acclaimed mystery drama “Citizen Kane” and works by Ernest Hemingway to show examples. Dr. Smith’s lecture also connected the idea of being an efficient communicator with the Christian faith.
“The best part of a conference of journalists is the mutual goodwill shared,” said Dr. Smith. “Christian communicators have a difficult mission to arrest the attention of audiences, and the conference participants are doing some of the best work in journalism worldwide. They encouraged me and told me that I inspired them. Believers can be a force for change in a needy culture and BCA is part of that innovation.”
Dr. Smith joined Lee’s faculty in fall 2016 as a professor of public relations in the Communication Arts Department. He is a nationally-recognized communicator, an award-winning journalist and photographer, and the author of several books.
Dr. Smith has been quoted in the New York Times, The Boston Globe, the Chicago Tribune, The Philadelphia Inquirer, USA Today, The Arizona Republic, The Christian Science Monitor, The Louisville Courier-Journal, Editor & Publisher, Christianity Today, Writer’s Digest, and many other periodicals. Additionally, he has been a guest on “France TV 24,” which is a Paris-based television broadcast, and websites such as Ourblook.com.
Dr. Smith has written seven books, nine peer-reviewed journal articles, and hundreds of articles for the popular press. Many of his books are used by universities as textbooks, such as “Media Bias, Finding It, Fixing It” and “The Jesus Newspaper,” which explore the idea of the Christian journalist.
Dr. Smith spent a decade working in the newsroom and more than two decades working in the classroom.
BCA is a professional development association for Baptist communicators. Since 1953, the organization has brought benefits to a nationwide membership of approximately 300. Its mission is to assist Baptist personnel in communications in professional growth and fulfillment by providing a reinforcing fellowship for members and recognition for outstanding professional achievement.
For more information about BCA, visit http://www.baptistcommunicators.org.