How to ‘Get at the Truth’ is Panel’s Topic

The journalism experience of four University of Arkansas professors will inform their exploration of “Investigative Reporting and Oral History: Two Techniques for Getting at the Truth.” The panel discussion will take place from 3:30-5 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 18 in the Arkansas Union Theatre. The panel will share the methods they use in probing for the truth and capturing peoples’ lives in words, twin goals that inform the writing of Rebecca Skloot's The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.

The panel members include three members of the journalism department: Hoyt Purvis, professor of journalism, who began his newspaper career with the Houston Chronicle and later served as press secretary to Sen. J. William Fulbright and foreign affairs advisor to Sen. Robert C. Byrd; Gerald Jordan, professor of journalism, who has had a distinguished reporting career with the Philadelphia Inquirer; and Bret Schulte, assistant professor of journalism, who worked as a freelance writer for the Washington Post before moving to a position at U.S. News and World Report.

David Jolliffe, who holds the Brown Chair in English Literacy in the English department, will serve as moderator. He has directed the Arkansas Delta Oral History Project at the University of Arkansas for the past five years, but he started his professional career as a reporter for the Wheeling News-Register. He is co-chair of the One Book, One Community committee.