Tag Archives: Journalism

Producing Prowess – Jobs in Television Production

Beyond the Classroom, BU Comgrad, Inside COM Classrooms, , , , , ,

By Keiko Talley
MS Journalism ’16
BU College of Communication

NFL—if you don’t watch the games, you know what the letters mean: National Football League.  This year at COM, we were graced with the presence of two amazing producers who work with the NFL at an event called Producing Prowess. The two were guest speakers invited by Professor Andrea Kremer who teaches a class on the Art of the Interview.

Hilary Guy from the NFL Network, also a COM alumni, and Jordan Kronick from HBO Real Sports flew in from Los Angeles and New York respectively to give us an inside look as on their jobs as producers on various projects. When Guy started out at COM, she thought she wanted to be an on-camera reporter, but it wasn’t until her internship at the assignment desk at NBC that Guy started to fall in love with the jobs behind the camera. It was then that she decided to become a producer. Guy told students that the best thing a newcomer could do is to ask to learn a new job, or to observe a job they aren’t familiar with. Guy and Kronick both agreed that they remember those who offer to help out in other areas more than their designated jobs. She told students that was how she got to become a producer, showing her interests and making it her job to learn everyone else’s job.

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Kronick discussed his newer project Death on Everest where he spent two ski seasons in Nepal to uncover the dangers of climbing Mt. Everest. He explained the process of finding the right characters for his story and discussed how as a documentarian, he has the freedom to take his time on some of his projects.

Guy works at a much faster pace, with quick turn-around on stories and covering breaking news. She later showed some of the interviews she produced with Andrea Kremer and the New England Patriots. She discussed with students the creative production that went into turning boring locker rooms into a magically lit set, and how she used metal cylinders and different lighting to change the scene to add more depth to interviews.

Producing Prowess introduced students to various other job opportunities that are available besides the on-camera talent. As a producer, it is important to keep your crew ready at all times. You almost act as a parent to the camera crew, talent, audio crew, and anyone else contributing to the project. It is important for students to know that there are various jobs available, and even though they won’t be in front of camera, the process could eventually lead them to that placement if their interest still holds. Andrea Kremer insists that learning how to produce and work behind the camera will be of tremendous help for when you’re in front of the camera because it gives you a better idea as to what the crew wants; learning behind the camera jobs will allow you to be one step ahead of the game as on-camera talent.

 

Picture Credit: Susan Walker

Accepted Students Open House Day

Beyond the Classroom, BU Comgrad, Graduate Events, Graduate Life, , , ,

By Gina Kim
MS Journalism '16
BU College of Communication

The last weekend of March was quite a busy one for COM—what with the three-day long Narrative Conference going on at Boston University with so many amazing keynote speakers, journalists and storytellers from all over to sharing their experiences from the industry.

Over at the COM building on Saturday, March 28, the graduate program also had a panel of five keynote speakers, journalists and storytellers of their own at the Accepted Prospective Students Day, except the only difference was, it featured COM’s own current graduate students.

The panel of chosen students answered questions from the audience and talked about their current experiences at COM, why they chose the program, what the competition is like and how to manage the workload.

Alex Hirsch, (Sports Broadcast ’16) was one of the students whom the professors recommended be chosen to participate in the Q and A session panel. Just a year ago, Alex had been one of the many prospective students still trying to decide his future and whether or not his destiny lied with COM.

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“It felt pretty cool being on the other side of the podium for once,” Alex said. “You’re always wondering whether you’re actually succeeding or doing your best work here at COM, but knowing that the professors recommend you to be on that panel is further confirmation that you’re on the right path in life, and that you’re doing what you’re supposed to do. It’s validation that I’m working towards the right goal and I’m right here where I belong.”

He also mentioned that although the Q and A session was for him to inform interested students, it was a learning lesson for him as well.

“I didn’t do journalism before COM and I realized that while I was answering questions, I was representing all those people who are coming to school without any journalism background either. I was there to explain that just because I didn’t have undergraduate experience in it, doesn’t mean that it can’t be done,” he said.

Hanae Armitage, (Science Journalism ’15) was also chosen to be on the distinguished panel of students to represent her field and help prospective students consider COM to be their future home.

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“It was definitely a great experience honestly,” she said. “I remember having a ton of questions and being in their position last year, and it was great to share my own experience with them. Especially even more so now because I can confirm that I absolutely love it here, and I made the right choice.”

For Armitage, it wasn’t tough to gush about the program and encourage students to come experience COM for themselves. “Everyone here I’ve met in the science journalism field has been super supportive of incoming journalists which I appreciate. So I felt like I really wanted to relay that attitude to the new students too,” she said.

Feel like you’re at another turning point in life with a fork stuck in the road? Time grabbing you by the wrist directing you where to go? You heard it here first. COM is definitely the path that can’t be beat!

Alumni Spotlight: Megan Turchi and Life after Grad School

Alumni Spotlight, BU Comgrad, COM Spotlight, Living in Boston, , , , , , ,

By Ali Parisi
MS Public Relations '16
BU College of Communication

Alumni Spotlight: Megan Turchi and Life after Grad School

Correct me if I’m wrong, but doesn’t it feel like getting a job is constantly on the mind?  It’s only the second of my three semester program, but all I can think about is finding a good job or internship this summer and then where that will lead for employment after graduation in December.  And yet, just my school work keeps me from finding time to write a decent cover letter.

What if I can’t find a job at all?  Or if I find one but hate it?  I think it’s safe to say that most grad students are feeling this way (and even undergrads for that matter).  If you’re a part of this group, let me tell you that there is light at the end of the tunnel.

Megan Turchi (COM ’14) finished her Masters in Journalism this past December.  Now, this BU alum works as a staff writer for Boston.com covering jobs, cars, and real estate.  And she enjoys it!

What’s a day at your job like?

Every single day is different, which I love! A typical day involves phone interviews for articles I am working on and sometimes getting out to do an in-person story. I did a profile on a dog walker a few weeks ago and tagged along while she walked dogs.  It was great! This job entails constantly learning new things and becoming an expert on a variety of interesting subjects.

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Megan Turchi at the Boston Auto Show. Her Instagram caption: "Sitting in a $620,000 Rolls-Royce that is the only one in the US, one out of 20 in the world, for work, obviously. #bostonautoshow"

What was your major at BU and why?

I got my masters in print journalism, but it was very multimedia focused and I took a variety of audio and video classes as well.  I chose it because I thought it would be an interesting way to use my undergraduate degree in American Studies. I knew I loved to write and I knew I had an interest in telling stories about fascinating people and topics.

Looking back, how did BU prepare you for your job?

BU prepared me a lot! Not only did I have fabulous professors with a lot of journalism experience, but I was thrown in to the real world from day one.  We reported from the ground right from our first class and that made my internship and job now so much easier.

Your advice for current COM grad students looking for jobs?

My advice would be to respect and learn as much from your professors as you can. Not only do they have lots of connections to jobs and internships, also a lot of experiences they can share with you. Be open to all kinds of jobs - you may not do exactly what you want to do at the beginning, but any experience is a learning experience!

MTurchi2Megan Turchi reporting on the “sleepwalker” statue at Wellesley College for a BU News Service report. Here's the link to the report, done by her and one of her classmates from COM.

 

 

Remembering David Carr, COM Professor and NY Times columnist

Beyond the Classroom, BU Comgrad, Graduate Life, , , , ,

By Nikita Sampath
MS Broadcast Journalism '16
BU College of Communication 

As the journalism community grieved the loss of David Carr last evening, students at COM had to put emotions aside and do what they are being trained to do in the face of such a happening; report.

The recent couple weeks have been unfortunate for the world of journalism; the killing of two Japanese journalists by ISIS, Jon Stewart stepping down from the daily show, Bob Simon of CBS's 60 Minutes passing away and last evening, David Carr.To us at COM, he was not just another journalist. He was one of our professors, one of us.

Within minutes of hearing the news about his death though, students at the Boston University News Service (BUNS) and The Daily Free Press sprung in to action.

"Bulletin: There's chatter on Twitter that David Carr has died. We need to confirm or debunk this. If it's true, we need to report. If it's not true we need to report how this happened." posted Prof. Michelle Johnson on the Facebook page for BUNS contributors.

Within an hour of her posting, there were over a 100 responses in the comments section. Students had reached out to current professors, the Dean, students taking his class this semester and others who had taken it previously. The obituary that came out from this teamwork can be found on the BUNS website.

Jamie Bologna, a recent COM grad, who had taken Carr's class last semester,tweeted about the loss.

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Jamie Bologna's tweets from the night of 12th Feb, '15

Prim Chuwiruch who took his course, Press Play, in the fall of 2014 said, "David Carr went beyond being just a professor. He was a mentor and a friend in times when he didn't need to be, but he did anyways."This is what the syllabus for his course Press Play looked like. I'm a second semester grad student at BU and I've not seen a syllabus from any other course look anything like this.

The Daily Free Press put together a page overnight dedicated to the late professor.  COM alumni Megan Turchi and Justine Hofherr who both took his class wrote this piece for Boston.com. More coverage on the life of Carr and his demise will be up on BU News Service over the next couple days.

Despite being sad for the loss COM has suffered, I’m honestly grateful for the experience of working in a newsroom with such great teams. These are essential lessons that we learn for our lives as journalists. And I’m glad I’m learning it here at COM.

 

(Featured image courtesy: BUNS)

COM’s first data storytelling course was nothing short of a success

BU Comgrad, Inside COM Classrooms, , , , , , ,

By Iris Moore
MS Broadcast Journalism '15
BU College of Communication

In a recent post, blogger Michelle Marino filled us in on the most recent, innovative medium of journalism—data storytelling (if you did not get a chance to read it, check it out here). In her post, Michelle introduced us to Maggie Mulvihill, a BU College of Communication (COM) professor who is at the forefront of incorporating data storytelling into COM’s Journalism curriculum.

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I, along with a few other COM faculty and staff members, had the pleasure of sitting in on Prof. Mulvihill’s final data storytelling class of the semester. In fact, this was the very first data storytelling course offered at COM—I watched history happen!

During this particular class, Mulvihill’s students presented their final projects, which they had been working on all semester. However, before presentations started, Mulvihill provided us with a clear objective as to why she worked so hard to convince COM to let her build and teach this course—a journalist’s story becomes more powerful when data is used because it enables one to more effectively persuade, pitch, propose, advocate, engage and convince their audiences.

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Throughout the semester, Mulvihill worked to equip students with a number of skill sets for analyzing and obtaining data. After teaching students how to identify what data is attainable and appropriate for an intended story, she made sure they understood how to do the following:

  • Obtain data
  • Clean data
  • Analyze data
  • Extract data
  • Scrape data
  • Visualize and present data (students learned how to use a number of multimedia and software tools, such as Open Refine, Tableau, Time Toast and Google Fusion)

Mulvihill designed the course’s final projects to provide students with a practical understanding for telling stories with data. Students were expected to identify a data-set for their project, request it from a government agency, negotiate for it and obtain it.

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For each presentation, students first told us how they came up with their data story idea. Then, they explained why the data they had spent all semester trying to collect was actually newsworthy. From there, they described what tactics they used in obtaining the data. Each student explained the numerous challenges they faced while trying to obtain data (costs, contact issues, legal issues, etc.). In fact, some were even unable to collect the necessary data for their story. However, this did not make their project any less complete, as one thing was made clear by both the students and Mulvihill: data storytelling takes time!

The majority of these projects are not even complete. They will require months, maybe even years of work. One example is a project done by graduate student John Hilliard. He took on a project Mulvihill started back in 2013 and took it all the way to the front page of The Boston Globe (the day I sat in on their class was the same day the article was published—again, more history I was able to witness). If you want to hear more about Hilliard’s exciting accomplishment, be sure to check out blogger Gina Kim’s interview with him here.

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Other projects covered topics, such as domestic violence, housing issues, crime on university and college campuses in Boston and lightning related injuries in the state.  (Since many of these stories are being offered for publication and broadcast to larger news outlets, we are unable to provide you with the actual project).

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To me, these projects are a clear reflection of Mulvihill and her students’ hard work throughout the semester. On behalf of her students, Mulvhill spoke with so much pride and confidence in their ability to become successful journalists, given the tools they so successfully acquired over the last 15 weeks. Her passion and dedication for her students reminds me, yet again, as to why I am here at Boston University’s College of Communication.