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Friday,
February 06, 2004
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Journalism
department to add new broadcasting class
Broadcast
journalism students will now get experience performing
all the roles involved in an newscast environment.
By
Amy Bowman
Broadcast
journalism students will anchor, report, produce and edit
a weekly 30-minute newscast that will air on TCU cable
under a new class planned for next semester.
John Miller, a broadcast journalism professor, says he
wants the station to “push the envelope and report
solid hard news to reach the TCU community.” The
importance of having a newscast is to broadcast important
information to the university community, he said.
The students in the class will get experience performing
all roles in the newsroom, which is the best way for them
to learn, said Tommy Thomason, journalism department chairman.
“Operating nurses learn by being in the operating
room, teachers learn by student teaching and broadcast
journalism students learn by being in a newsroom,”
he said.
As a former news director for WFAA Channel 8 and CBS 11,
Miller says nothing compares to having on-camera tapes.
News directors want to see students reporting on camera
in a news-like setting, he said.
Thomason said Miller is considered one of the best news
directors in the country.
“Now, students will be able to work around a consummated
professional,” he said.
Robyn Kriel, a junior broadcast journalism major, said
she is excited to take the class with Miller because of
his past experience and to gain some real-world experience.
Senior broadcast journalism major Jill Meninger said the
content of the class sounds great but updating the equipment
is also a must.
“I think the broadcast sequence lacks certain technological
resources in camera and editing equipment that would be
beneficial to students,” she said.
The university is spending a little more than $51,000
for additional camera and editing equipment for the class,
including cameras and accessories, lighting kits, microphones,
editing software and equipment, tripods and a recording
system used to upload tapes into the editing systems when
cameras are not available.
Kriel is happy with the broadcast journalism sequence
but says she would feel more prepared to do a broadcast
internship with the experience she will get from the new
class.
“With new experiences and equipment, the newscast
class will offer me practical, hands-on experience that
I could more comfortably utilize in an internship,”
she said.
University of Texas at Austin’s TV station, KVR-TV,
is the only student-operated and student produced, FCC
licensed broadcast station in the U.S.
According to their Web site, the station works with student
volunteers of all majors. Editorial and managerial decisions
are made by student directors headed by a station manager
and students are given guidance by a station faculty advisor.
There are a lot of ideas about the newscast but a lot
of the details have not been worked out yet, such as prerequisites,
the time the students will spend with the class and other
curriculum decisions, Miller said.
Miller has been contacting local news stations to try
to find a news set, including a desk and backdrop that
can be donated to the class, he said. Miller hopes that
students can then come up with a theme and modify the
set to their needs, he said.
The journalism department has been planning the class
for more than a year, Thomason said.
A prototype newscast is in the works for later in the
semester with the help of students in the broadcast reporting
class, Miller said. |
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