Author Archives: Doug Cumming

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About Doug Cumming

Doug Cumming is an associate professor emeritus of journalism at Washington & Lee University with 26 years experience at metro newspapers and magazines. After getting a Ph.D. at UNC-Chapel Hill in mass communications, he taught multimedia reporting and feature writing at Loyola University-New Orleans and at W&L in Virginia. Earlier, he worked at the newspapers in Raleigh, Providence and Atlanta; was editor of the Sunday Magazine in Providence; and helped launch Southpoint monthly magazine in Atlanta. He won a George Polk Award and was a Nieman Fellow at Harvard.

A story too good to check out

Posted on July 18, 2014 by Doug Cumming

I remember reading the appalling story last month in the Roanoke (Va.) Times before leaving for Ireland: Nuns at an Irish orphanage during some three decades of the mid-20th century had discarded about 800 dead babies and children in unmarked … Continue reading →

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Into Ireland

Posted on July 14, 2014 by Doug Cumming

Teaching for the month of July in Northern Ireland city of Amagh. I highly recommend this course for journalism majors. I’ll be teaching it again next year, I’m sure. It’s with ieiMedia. http://ieimedia.com/ Here are the posts I’ve contributed so … Continue reading →

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Jonah Withdraws to Nineveh Suburb; Exclusive Q&A

Posted on June 23, 2014 by Doug Cumming

DAY FIVE – The prophet Jonah, after his remarkable success at converting Nineveh, spent two days outside the city thinking things over under a tree. On the first day he stayed cool in his hut and under the shade of … Continue reading →

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Captured in Art

Posted on June 22, 2014 by Doug Cumming

Time spent with my childhood family draws me back into that cartoon simplicity, the way my younger brother Walter’s caricatures draw people into their absurd (but all too true) versions. Mama takes the measure of my face, standing in the … Continue reading →

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The Bipolar Synthesis: Journalism in the Academy

Posted on June 19, 2014 by Doug Cumming

My latest column in Clio Among the Media, the newsletter of the history division of AEJMC. We have a relatively small journalism program here at Washington & Lee University, without grad students or professors of public relations, advertising or anything … Continue reading →

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Music at Alone Mill

Posted on June 16, 2014 by Doug Cumming

Pass me the can, lad; there’s an end of May. – A.E. Housman William knows traveling, so I let him be my teacher on how to spend the 300 miles of interstate from Knoxville on the last day of May. … Continue reading →

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Gimme Shelter

Posted on June 4, 2014 by Doug Cumming

A tornado can be a surgical scalpel. When a particularly ferocious one of these deadly blades sliced through downtown Tuscaloosa, Ala., on April 27, 2011, University of Alabama freshman Ashton Greer wondered at the injustice of it. Her building was unscathed, … Continue reading →

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In the Ring with ‘Princess Cut’

Posted on June 3, 2014 by Doug Cumming

The theater long ago was laid waste by the gods of big entertainment. Now, when we think of acting, we think Hollywood, celebrities, an HBO series. When we think of the stage, it’s Broadway musicals, or if “serious” theater, it’s … Continue reading →

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Wading into ‘Riptide’

Posted on June 2, 2014 by Doug Cumming

From my column in Clio Among the Media, the newsletter of the History Division of AEJMC, spring 2014. A year ago, some well-seasoned journalists were hanging around the Kennedy School at Harvard as Shorenstein Fellows. Having a few months to … Continue reading →

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JOUR318 W14

Posted on November 1, 2013 by Doug Cumming

Journalism318: Literature of Journalism Tues., Thurs., 1:25-2:50 p.m., Reid 302 Doug Cumming, Ph.D., cummingd@wlu.edu Reid Hall 101 – 458-8208 In this course we will study nonfiction writing from three perspectives: the New Journalism that emerged in the 1960s and continues … Continue reading →

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