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Who Is Melissa Click? University of Missouri communications professor has landed at the center of a media firestorm after a widely-circulated video showed her trying to blockade a student reporter from the site of an on-campus protest on Monday — at one point calling for “muscle” to forcibly remove him.
Students and faculty gathered in support of the activist group Concerned Student 1950 which had called for Wolfe’s resignation following a series of racially-tinged events that have occurred on campus in recent weeks. One graduate student had embarked on a hunger strike in protest. The Missouri football team had also threatened to boycott future games.
In an inexplicable turn, protesters set up blockades to prevent reporters from covering the event.
Schierbecker recorded the most intense exchange, which unfolded between a reporter named Tim Tai and protesters who opposed Wolfe. At one point during the confrontation, students are heard chanting “hey, hey, ho, ho, reporters have got to go.”
Other students are seen confronting Tai, blocking him access to the protests, and pushing him out of the way.
The scene turned particularly ugly when Schierbecker asked Click if he could interview her.
“I’m media, can I talk to you?” Schierbecker asked her.
“No, you need to get out,” she responded.
“No, I don’t,” Schierbecker said, prompting Click to grab his camera and shake it.
“Hey, who wants to help me get this reporter out of here?” Click shouted to the crowd. “I need some muscle over here.”
A phone call and email to Click was not immediately returned. The University of Missouri website shows that Click teaches classes in mass communication and television analysis.
“Current research projects involve 50 Shades of Grey readers, the impact of social media in fans’ relationship with Lady Gaga, masculinity and male fans, messages about class and food in reality television programming, and messages about work in children’s television programs,” her bio reads.
Agencies/Canadajournal
