Dr. Robert Kerr

Dr. Robert Kerr is a native of Norman, Oklahoma and a professor at OU.

Dr. Kerr
Photo by: Sadie Short

He achieved his undergraduate degree from Southern Arkansas University in communication with a minor in journalism. During his time at SAU, Kerr worked at the newspaper. He has worked for Newspapers for nearly 20 years. The largest Newspaper where Kerr spent time was the Memphis “Commercial Appeal”, however he also worked in other major cities such as Las Vegas, Nevada and Dallas, Texas.

Over his 20 years in the industry he has become well versed in nearly ever aspect. “I did about everything you could do in journalism at that time. I started as a sports writer, moved into news reporting, worked as an editor in sports news, features, photography and layouts.” Towards the end, Kerr specialized in feature writing.

All of his time spent in the different arenas of the newspaper is what inspired and led Kerr to the master’s program at OU. Kerr started his master’s in 1997, and at that time the college was known as the Herbert School of Journalism. Kerr said things were a little different then. “You would not believe how much smaller it was than it is now and even the number of students in journalism was a lot smaller.”

After obtaining his master’s, Kerr went on to get his PhD from the University of North Carolina. In 2002 Kerr came back to OU to teach and do research. Kerr’s research area is First Amendment Law.

Kerr’s advice for current Gaylord students is to not let finding a job get you down. “It’s frustrating for everyone… Just keep trying.”

 Click here to hear all of Kerr's advice for students

Kerr is currently teaching Mass Comm Law and he always does his best to make the class fun and interesting for his students.

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Sean Hibbard: Experience is Key

Sean Hibbard is an Ada, Oklahoma home native and a 2010 graduate of Gaylord College. He is 23 years old and currently resides in Norman, Oklahoma.

Right out of high school, Hibbard knew that he wanted to go to college for journalism and he knew that he wanted to go to a school that had a good program. After carefully selecting from different choices, Hibbard chose OU because he heard and decided that Gaylord College of Journal and Mass Communication would be the very best place for him to obtain an education.

Hibbard enjoyed his time at Gaylord, in particular the Practicum’s. “It is really important for students to have hands on experience, because in our field, there is only so much you can learn from books and lectures.” He indicated that the experience provided while in Gaylord college was what best equipped him to become a journalist and the Practicum’s did just that; they allowed him to exercise his journalistic muscles rather than just reading about them through a text book.

Hibbard got an internship the last semester of his senior year and he strongly recommends the same to current Gaylord students. “My internship helped me out a lot, especially on my resume.” According to Hibbard, in the media industry, having hands on experience is key. “It is hard to go out into the real world without any experience in your field, so having that helps.” He urges students to take advantage of all the tools provided in the college, to use them to their best ability because these are the things that make journalism students stand out; the tools provided at Gaylord will get you hired.

What’s next for Hibbard? His immediate goals are to find out what is out there and what is available job wise, “I want to make sure I find something that fits into what I want to do, even if I just find something that is a small part of what I want to do, I will do it because hopefully that will lead to my dream job.” Hibbard doesn’t intend to settle for anything less than that.