About Me
The Professional
Jocelyn Murphy is the Managing Editor at Celebrate Arkansas magazine, the premier media and marketing source in Arkansas, celebrating extraordinary individuals and organizations who lift up the community and make Arkansas such a vibrant place to live. Jocelyn's talents for finding the human story behind the headline, and building meaningful connections between subject and reader have flourished at Celebrate and helped further the brand's reputation for engaging and polished storytelling.
Before joining Celebrate Arkansas, Jocelyn was the Entertainment Editor at the Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, the leading source of government, current events, sports, and entertainment coverage in the state. Because of the region's relationship with businesses such as Walmart Corporation, Tyson Foods, and J.B. Hunt, she has experience covering top entertainment talent and has interviewed and profiled acclaimed musicians, artists, business leaders, comedians, writers, curators, chefs, and innovators.
One of Jocelyn's strengths is her ability to quickly establish sincere relationships with her subjects -- for example, Oscar-winner and activist Geena Davis, comedian Jay Leno, radio personality Bobby Bones, Tony Award-winning producer Jeffrey Seller, and former William Morris Endeavor CMO (and former Netflix CMO) Bozoma Saint John. Following her interviews, several people have expressed appreciation or written about their conversation with Jocelyn. Grammy-nominated singer and songwriter Gretchen Peters tweeted, "Sometimes you do an interview and everything about it is predictable, and the person asking the questions doesn't seem to care. And then sometimes you get into a great conversation, like the one I had with Jocelyn." Music legend Art Garfunkel told her they had "rapport."
Part of her charge in being hired at the NWADG was to help establish a consistent brand for the entertainment section that appealed to both the intellectual community surrounding the region's anchor -- the University of Arkansas -- and the young professional demographic. Jocelyn brought a new vitality to the section through alternative storytelling formats, and instituted fresh concepts for yearly stories. Her source-building strategies also bolstered the paper's ties with community organizations and led to new opportunities and insights.
The Practice
Jocelyn's experiences in storytelling and content creation span media and are a direct reflection of her adept leadership and enterprising spirit. While at the University of Arkansas, she modernized, produced, and hosted a half-hour movie review show. As editor of the student magazine, she overhauled the publication to create the department's first award-winning magazine. She was also honored for her outstanding record of student leadership by receiving the Henry Woods Leadership Award (2015), which recognizes only two graduating seniors each year.
Jocelyn successfully defended her undergraduate honors thesis in 2015, which explored how culture influences gender representations in modern film. It has since become the most-downloaded paper in the university's online collection of internal research and works, by a margin of more than 120,000 downloads.
Jocelyn has been known to take on unconventional projects or jobs for the sole reason that she believed her work or her character could benefit. As far back as when she was 10 years old, Jocelyn was interviewing teachers, staff, and fellow students at her elementary school and sharing their stories in her class newsletter. She began her university studies in broadcast journalism, but switched to print/editorial to diversify her skills and satisfy her inquisitiveness, graduating with a dual concentration in both.
The Personal
Jocelyn has lived in several mid-size cities but enjoys exploring other areas of the country and travel abroad whenever she can, including a semester spent in Paris. Because of her work experience and conversations with eminent leaders and creators, Jocelyn aims to establish herself in an area where there exists a more global mindset. Looking to the future, she seeks to extend her tenacious spirit to new realms of storytelling, content creation, and any other exciting avenues we might use to forge meaningful connections.
Jocelyn is from Memphis, Tenn. and currently resides in Bentonville, Ark. She is a sister to two younger brothers, a cat-owner, and a french fry enthusiast. She enjoys finding just the right bottle of wine to pair with a meal, loves board games, and can always chat about all those personality tests we're obsessing over these days. (She's an ENFP, Enneagram Type 7, and a Scorpio.)