About Michael Ray Smith

BIOGRAPHY
Michael Ray Smith
writingsmith@yahoo.com
910.658-7900

Washington Post column on "Fake News, Truth-Telling and Charles M. Sheldon's Model for Accuracy."
https://tinyurl.com/ydyln5oc

http://leeuniversity.edu/NewsItem.aspx?id=14692

https://michaelray-smith-author.squarespace.com/

http://www.lib.campbell.edu/harrington-papers

https://www.exxcelmodel.com/single-post/model/michael-ray-smith

Amazon search, see Contemporary Authors: Biography - Smith, Michael Ray (1955-) https://www.encyclopedia.com/arts/educational-magazines/smith-michael-ray-1955

Michael Ray Smith is professor of communication and author; most of his work concerns journalism, Christianity and media. He is part of the graduate faculty at Regent University, Virginia Beach. Most recently he taught Historical and Rhetorical Methods online in the doctoral program.
In late 2015 College Media Advisers presented Smith with Noel Ross Strader Memorial Award for exercising the principle of freedom of the press, as the award says, "at some risk to personal or professional welfare." In addition, he is in the Fulbright Specialist.
In early 2015 Michael Ray Smith was appointed to the office of Honorable Order of Kentucky Colonels for his work.
He taught in Tennessee at Lee University after a season in South Florida, not far from the posh island of Palm Beach. He spent 11 years at Campbell University, 30 miles south of Raleigh, leading their student newspaper and web site to state and national recognition. The Campbell Times student newspaper tied with prestigious Elon University in the "Best of Show" competition in 2014.
In 2012 journalismdegree.org named him one of the best 50 journalism educators in the nation.
Also in 2012, Campbell University selected Smith for the first teaching excellence award for all the six schools of the university, which includes law and pharmacy.
World Journalism Institute named him the John McCandlish Phillips Scholar for 2011. Philips was the internationally-known reporter for The New York Times in the 1960s.
Smith earned a Ph.D. from Regent University, two master's degrees, one from Penn State University, and earned a B.A. from the University of Maryland and an A.A. from Prince Georges Community College. He has taught at state and private universities, at graduate and undergraduate schools and served as a professor of journalism, professor of communication studies and professor of mass communication at various institutions.
An award-winning journalist and photographer, he 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. He has been a guest on radio and TV including French TV 24, a Paris-based television broadcast, and online sites such as Ourblook.com.
He has written eight books, nine peer-reviewed journal articles, seven chapters for books such as "Words and Witnesses" and hundreds of articles for the popular press. His latest book is "Fake News, Truth-Telling and Charles M. Sheldon's Model of Accuracy." "7 Days to a Byline that Pays" and "FeatureWriting.Net," which explores popular writing. "The Jesus Newspaper" explores the idea of the clergyman-turned-journalist. His "A Free Press in Freehand: The Spirit of American Blogging in the Handwritten Newspapers of John McLean Harrington 1858-1869" was released in 2011.
WRAL TV's Scott Mason produced a news story on Harrington: https://tinyurl.com/y6u4rb6d and Bryan Avery produced a dramatic re-enactment of Harrington: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm8211422/
Smith spent a decade working in the newsroom and nearly three decades working in the classroom. He continues to write in Waynesboro, near Gettysburg, Pa., about 80 miles north of Washington, D.C., where he was born.
In 2008 Shippensburg University, his graduate school, honored him as a Distinguished Alumnus of the Year, the highest award presented by the university. That same year Prince George's Community College in suburban Washington, D.C., recognized him as one of its top 50 graduates.
He has presented workshops on writing in the United States and overseas including seminars on magazine writing for Magazine Training International in Manilla, Philippines, and Nairobi, Kenya.
He also conducted focus group research for MTI in Nairobi. He conducted qualitative research for The Daily Record, Dunn, N.C., and Baptist Men and Women Disaster Relief Ministry in Cary, N.C.
He worked with the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication on issues of equity and disability and in 2013 he led the Small Group Interest Group for AEJMC as Head. He works with membership with Religion and Media Interest Group Small Programs Interest Group at AEJMC. As head of SPIG, he and Michael Alexander Longnow co-edited a special issue of Teaching Mass Communication for SPIG in 2013. https://aejmc.us/spig/summer-2013/
Smith speaks at Evangelical Press Association and Christian writer conferences among others such as BCW in 2017: https://www.baptistcommunicators.org/workshop/2017/speakers.cfm
His latest books, "7 Days to a Byline That Pays" and "The ABC List of Feature Ideas," are being used by some universities as textbooks. Published by Lighthouse Publishers of the Carolinas, Smith is working on other projects including explorations of the free press on faith-based campuses.