Just For TV Teachers

We concluded the eighth annual “Camp STN” for first-time attendees on July 27. This is the one we refer to as the “big camp” because it’s the original, the one we first hosted in the summer of 2000, and it continues to draw the most participants. This year 33 teachers from 20 states came to Hillcrest High School in Springfield, MO to take part.

For me, there were plenty of “moments” I can apply to my classes this fall. Yes, I’m the camp director, but I’m making plenty of mental notes when those “nuggets” come along that will make me better at what I do in the years ahead.

Things I learned (or realized) at summer camp, 2007:

*There are SO many schools assigning broadcast classes to teachers who have little or no broadcasting or journalism experience. The camp is one way they can get better prepared, but it makes me wonder how many principals would assign chemistry teachers to an English class, or make a band instructor teach Algebra.

*Kids learn TV technology faster than adults. No shock there. Teachers, though, are not as afraid of digital editing as they were back at our early camps. That bodes well for their students.

*Someday someone is going to write a textbook that addresses both journalistic and technical issues for broadcast teachers. It will be about 1,200 pages long, and probably be outdated (especially the technical part) a year after it’s published. Teachers who want to teach broadcast journalism should probably not hang their hopes on a comprehensive textbook. Better to find shorter takes on various aspects of the profession (see ones written by Al Tompkins or Bob Dotson for examples).

*Establishing fast rapport with your students, knowing which ones you can tease, push, cajole, whatever, will help you reach them and motivate them. It’s what coaches do all the time. You coach the team as a whole, but you also coach the individuals on the team.

*High expectations are crucial. If you raise the bar high from day one, you will reach the heights faster. At camp, on day one, teachers face criticism in front of the group of their first project. By day five, they have produced some truly excellent, complete stories that are light years from those first-day projects. If it happens in a week at camp, it can happen in a full year in our classes.

*Adults have the same issues kids have when it comes to group work, and even in working with a partner. Some of the “Type A” folks have a hard time allowing others equal time and input during production assignments. The less aggressive learners need to step it up a bit and take responsibility for what they put into (and get out of) a lesson. We put kids in groups all the time, don’t we? Cooperative learning does require “cooperation.”

*Technical problems in the field are more often related to audio than video. We spend thousands of dollars on cameras, but go cheap when it comes to those audio-gathering devices called microphones, or those audio-monitoring devices known as headphones.

So that’s the short list. It was a great, exhausting week. There was plenty of drama, plenty of laughter, and a lot of journeys taken by many of us who started at one place on Monday morning, and ended up somewhere else on Friday afternoon.

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Okay, time for a midsummer test for all you broadcast journalism teachers who are a few weeks removed from the classroom. None of these are based on anything real, but they are not that far-fetched. Time to dig in. Please use a number two leaded pencil…

1. A student reporter comes to you with a rumor from a friend he trusts. Supposedly, an assistant coach at your school has a second job as a bouncer at a local bar on weekends. He has seen students from your school, using fake IDs, gain entrance into the bar. Is this a story? Is the coach in trouble? Where do you start? Who do your kids interview? Do you tell the principal about this? What video will your crew need to help prove the story? Remember, “Say it, prove it” is the responsiblity of the reporter and photog. How do you cover this, if you do, and minimize harm to the best of your ability?

2. Teens at your school have been heard bragging about research papers they have purchased from members of a local college fraternity. One of the members of your TV staff privately admits to purchasing one to use in her English Literature class last year, says it was a one-time thing, and then volunteers to do the story. Do you let her? What are the issues? Who are the stakeholders, and what is at stake for each of them? How do your kids get the truth on tape? Where could this lead? Is there a student safety issue here? Is this topic worth the effort?

3. A senior athlete, 18 years old, signs a football scholarship with your state university. Then a week later, a reporter on your staff happens to see the athlete’s vehicle being searched. Drugs are found, including what appears to be a syringe. A few minutes later, the athlete is called to the principal’s office. There are two big district playoff games coming up. In the week ahead, nothing happens to the athlete in question. He is at school everyday, practices every afternoon, and plays on Friday night, suffering no apparent consequences for the drug infraction. Your reporter wants to look into this. What is your response? What are the issues involved? How do you green light the story? Are there parameters your reporter must respect? How could this story stir things up on your campus, and is it worth it?

Thanks for playing. We have some lovely parting gifts who choose to stop after number one above.

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Ah, a caffeine-inspired column, thanks to two cups of Kona French Vanilla, supplied by my friend Lynne, from the Aloha state.

*One of my favorite, grammatically-challenged soundbites ever, from a former Springfield Parks Department employee we interviewed ten years ago, was ringing in my ears well past midnight last night. “Fireworks is a magnet.” That was how the employee explained the popularity of “Firefall,” the city’s annual fireworks show we were covering. The fireworks display I am now referring to is the one in our subdivision. This was just our second summer in our new house, and last year we were on vacation over the 4th. Not this year. I don’t know if “fireworks is a magnet,” but they sure is noisy. I’m reminded of what one friend said about purchasing tons of flying explosives for the 4th of July: “It’s like lighting dollar bills on fire.”

*Note to local news affiliates: You better get a better grasp on convergence, and how your websites need to provide much more content of all kinds, or the newspaper folks are going to blow you away. They already are. The “Washington Post” won a news Emmy. Our city’s newspaper, the “Springfield News-Leader,” has video clips that put packages I see on the local news to shame. While newspapers themselves may be in trouble, the Internet may save them, while at the same time leaving local broadcast news operations, the ones with small staffs or a lack of dedication to actually gathering news, in the dust. It’s “embrace the web, or say goodbye.” We will see in five years who was paying attention. Now, a note to school newspaper advisers: If you refuse to take your content online, to have an Internet presence of some sort, then we’ll see how many kids sign up for your class in two or three years.

*Finally, Barry Bonds. He’s about to break the all-time homerun record set by Henry Aaron. I watched Aaron on TV when he hit his 715th homer, surpassing Babe Ruth. Here is what I remember about that historic accomplishment. Aaron overcame racism early in his career, when he could not stay in the same hotel with the rest of the team, or be served food, because of his skin color. He overcame death threats as he stayed focused on his job, and he broke the most hallowed record in sports with dignity, and no hint of scandal. When Bonds hits number 756, to pass “Hammerin’ Hank,” he will have done so thanks in part, it appears, to steroids. Bonds was a great player before he suddenly got bigger and stronger in his 30s, a strange time for a growth spurt, and it’s a shame he could not resist temptation and just let his natural talent speak for itself. The other thing about Bonds few can refute is that he has never been a very nice person. It’s too bad the substances he took to get where he is now did nothing for his personality or humility. I suspect when you’ve survived real battles like the ones Henry Aaron faced, on and off the field, at a very difficult time in our nation’s history, your character, not your muscles, grows stronger everyday.

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