Columbus State University’s Department of Communication will welcome veteran CNN and NBC News Reporter Martin Savidge to campus on Tuesday, March 31 for a talk that will examine his experiences as a career journalist for more than three decades in cable and network television. 

Before returning to CNN in 2011 to serve as an anchor and correspondent, Savidge was a reporter for NBC Nightly News, the Today Show and MSNBC. Savidge covered the War in Iraq in 2003, Hurricane Katrina in 2005, Superstorm Sandy in 2012 and the George Zimmerman trial in 2013. His career began as a local news reporter for WCIA-TV in Champaign, Illinois and WMBD-TV in Peoria, Illinois.  

Savidge’s long list of honors includes two Headliner Awards, two Edward R. Murrow Awards, a Peabody Award, a DuPont Award, a national Emmy, nine local Emmys, six Associated Press awards, two United Press International awards and two Women in Communication awards. In October 2002, the National Journalism Education Association named Savidge its Media Person of the Year for his support of scholastic journalism. 

Part of the Department of Communication’s inaugural Communication Week, Savidge’s talk on Tuesday, “Journalism in the Age of Social and Digital Media,” will begin at 7 p.m. in the Riverside Theatre Complex on CSU’s RiverPark campus in downtown Columbus. 

CSU’s Department of Communication prepares students for careers in media and public relations through civic engagement. Its faculty and students have led the university in annual service-learning hours as an academic unit since 2001 and maintain partnerships with over 40 local organizations focusing on nonprofit, public service and city government services.

For more information about the Department of Communication or Mr. Savidge’s visit, contact the department at 706-507-8601.