Thursday, February 26, 2009

Rusty Ray of WBTW talks about broadcast journalism

Often, students hear things in the classroom for which they have no real external context and assume the classroom information has no real-world value. Rusty Ray of WBTW Television (Myrtle Beach and Florence)drove to Hartsville this morning (2/26) to take on the role of professor for the Writing for Media class at Coker College.




Having a journalist discuss the importance of attribution, and present-tense writing for broadcast seems to hit home with students. Rusty, who drove up from Myrtle Beach after his morning anchor duties, also helped students get an idea of the reporting process as he explained they why and how of story details. Rusty is a University of Maryland journalism graduate who appears quite at ease in front of a class. Our media writing class got several important lessons in the quick 50-minute visit. Students got to understand that a reporter is not only reporting stories but is also videoing the stories and is also editing the stories and with today's software he/she can do that without going to the office. This is the world of converged journalism and Rusty's parent company is Media General, one of the leaders in converged journalism. Students got to feel the pressure of putting out information quickly in a form that could be used -- either online, on television or in print. There was high value in that short visit and as an instructor, I really appreciate the willingness of those from outside who will come into the classroom.

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