UNews, a new student production on campus, offers students more freedom in its broadcasts than the older, more established “Jackson 24-7” news show.
UNews started as the brainchild of Grant Atkinson, junior media communications major.
Atkinson approached Jacob Melder, senior broadcast journalism major, with the idea of reading “E-nnouncements,” the email announcements that students receive weekly, on camera and to discuss the possibility of a broadcast to do so.
In fall semester 2012, UNews began filming a variety of topics around campus.
“We do news stories, like what’s happening around campus, and we also do sports stories,” said Kathryn Feathers, junior media communications major.
Kacee Enzor, junior media communications major, explained that because UNews is still so new, no specific rubric exists regarding what kinds of stories are covered.
She said the team is still determining the direction they want to take with the production. As a result, they cover stories that are proposed to the crew, and they attempt to cover as many aspects of campus as they can.
For example, “We are doing the speeches for the people who are going to be running for the officers of the classes,” said Gabe Farmer, junior digital media studies major.
Once a week, the UNews leadership team, made up of Enzor, Feathers, Farmer, Melder and Kelsey Graeter, junior broadcast journalism major, meets to plan out the week’s show.
To get the stories, Enzor, who is in charge of the sports section, said she looks at the school’s athletic website. They hear possibilities for human interest stories around campus.
When it comes to news stories, Feathers, who is in charge of that beat, receives emails sent to the production’s email address, unionunews@gmail.com. Generally these are announcements from officers of clubs and organizations on campus.
“We get some random stories, too, like, we had to interview some Christian rappers that just found us on YouTube,” Feathers said.
UNews appears on televisions around campus from Saturday until Tuesday, and on its YouTube channel, UnionUNews.
Broadcasts also are posted on Facebook and Twitter. To get the broadcasts on the campus televisions, students are assisted by their faculty adviser Cam Tracy, web development agent.
Enzor said the rest of the production is completely dictated by the students involved.
“UNews is student-run, so it is more of a responsibility than ‘Jackson 24-7,’ but since we have so much creative freedom, the stress balances out with the fun half,” Enzor said. “It’s a chance to show our personalities.”
UNews films at 3 p.m. Fridays in the television studio on the second floor of Jennings Hall. The filming takes between an hour to an hour and a half, Feathers said.
Students use the cameras in the studio for the main footage and shoot B-roll footage, or alternate footage used to supplement the stories presented, on their own personal cameras.
The editing process, conducted on Final Cut Pro X, takes about 30 minutes.
“Some people didn’t like the way it went at first,” Farmer said. “But it worked out either way.”