Collegian wins SPJ award!

JDM is proud to announce The Collegian was honored as the Best Non-Daily College Newspaper in Ohio for 2011! Congratulations to our newspaper staff and Collegian adviser, Matt Tullis.

And baby makes four!

JDM is full of "uncles" today and we're proud to announce the arrival of our newest crew member! Madeline Dworznik was born today around 3pm to our very own Dr. Gretchen Dworznik!

Baby Madeline weighed in at 8.5lbs and was 20" long.

Dr. D and Maddie are both doing fine. Woo-hoo!!

9/11 Remembered - Full Documentary

JDM's new documentary, 9/11 Remembered, in its entirety.

Guest Speakers to visit JDM classes this month!

This month, Professor Randolph's Media Management class will be joined by Natalie Walston the Founder, CEO and Owner of The Walston Group, LLC. The Walston Group provides Public Relations, Social Media Management, Crisis Communications and Media Training. Natalie worked for more than 15 years in Central Ohio as a media reporter and producer as well as a public relations director for the Ohio Corn & Wheat Growers Association.

Also this month, Karen Kasler, the Statehouse Bureau Chief for Ohio Public Radio & Television, will visit JDM Professor AJ Randolph's Intro to Journalism this month. The Statehouse News Bureau covers state government and statewide issues for Ohio’s 33 public radio and 12 public television stations. Kasler, an award-winning reporter and editor has also worked for WTAM in Cleveland and WBNS-TV in Columbus.

INTERNSHIP SPOTLIGHT: Dan Shade

Senior Dan Shade, a Broadcast Communication major and Journalism minor, was awarded the Bill Wiedenmann Scholarship to be an Operations Intern at WEWS Channel 5 in Cleveland this summer. WEWS gave Shade the opportunity to work and experience many different angles of a news station, as he got work in the operations, production, and promotions departments. The unique experience Shade had will be something he will carry with him into future jobs.

Name: Dan Shade
Internship: WEWS Channel 5 ABC
Location of Internship: Cleveland
 “Job Title”: Operations Intern

Favorite Part of Internship: 
I really got to expand past the operations department and I was able to experience things in many different departments. I really enjoyed being able to test the waters in operations, production, and promotions. I got to do something different every week and I learned so much about the entire production department.


Least favorite part of internship: 
My least favorite part is that I felt like I wasn’t there enough. I was only there twice a week, so it seemed like I was never there on the most exciting day when a big story would break.

What will you take away from this internship for future jobs?
I have learned so much about production and organizational processes. When you are around professionals, you get to learn what works and what doesn’t work. You learn how to be efficient, whether it’s editing a story, shooting a story, or writing a script. I will be able to take these things I have learned in and out of the news studio and really apply them to all parts of life.

How did AU and the JDM department help you succeed in the internship:

The most important thing that AU and the JDM department helped me with, is that I had a lot of experience. I had spent a lot of time shooing, editing, writing, and building graphics for the JDM department, so when I got to Channel 5, I picked up things quickly. The systems were a little different, but the concepts were the same. Without having the experience I already had, I feel like I would have been lost at my internship.

JDM Professor's article published!

How are reporters and photographers psychologically affected by the tragic stories they cover? That’s the topic of an article published by Dr. Gretchen Dworznik in July of 2011. “Factors Contributing to PTSD and Compassion Fatigue in Local Television News Workers” was published in the International Journal of Humanities, Business and Technology. The article was based on a study of 280 local television news workers that was completed as part of Dworznik’s dissertation.

JDM Collaborative Online Reporting course cutting edge!

In the fall of 2010, JDM Professors Matt Tullis and Dr. Gretchen Dworznik created an innovative reporting course never before taught at AU. The Collaborative Online Reporting course brought together print and broadcast students and taught them how to converge their skills to create multimedia pieces for the web. The faculty detailed their experience in an article published in the July 2011 edition of the Journal of Media Education.

9/11 Remembered Documentary to Premiere Sept. 8th

JDM is proud and honored to premiere a documentary entitled, 9/11 Remembered, Thursday Sept.8th at 7p.m. in the Hugo Young Theatre on the Ashland University campus.

The 30-minute documentary produced by students and staff of Ashland University's Journalism & Digital Media department, features reflections of faculty members and the story of Jess Baker an '02 AU R/TV graduate who drove to Shanksville, PA and NYC to cover the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center.

See the extended trailer:



The 9/11 Remembered premiere is free and open to the public.