Welcome to the online home of Ashland University's Journalism & Digital Media department; A BLOG CONVERGED!! Here you can keep up on the latest happenings inside AU's student-powered Print, Radio and TV media outlets, read The Collegian, watch videos, connect with fellow Eagles and much more! Keep it tuned right here for updates!
Professional Instructor Tim McCarty of the Department of Journalism and Digital Media is one of four faculty members in the College of Arts and Sciences who was recently named an AU Mentor.
The program honors faculty whose work and leadership with students extends beyond the classroom. Students nominate faculty and staff members and must write a one-page essay about their mentor.
McCarty will be recognized at a Board of Trustees luncheon on Feb. 1. At that time, he will learn who nominated him.
Congratulations Tim!
More than 40 Ashland University Journalism and Digital Media students worked for the department's three media outlets Tuesday night, reporting up-to-the-minute election returns and putting out a newspaper full of election-themed material.
The evening was highlighted by the fact that AUTV-20 produced its first live programming since being launched last year. It was also the first live programming produced on campus since 2008. TV election coverage consisted of live hits at the top and bottom of the hour, starting at 9 p.m. and running through 11 p.m.
Junior Elizabeth Bucheit anchored the 9 and 10 p.m. hits, and co-anchored the 11 p.m. hit with senior Hilary Neal. Each hit included updated election totals for Ashland County school tax levy issues, including the passage of Ashland City Schools'bond issue to build a new middle school, and updated, statewide vote totals in state congressional races, the Ohio senate race and the Presidential race.
"I thought the election night coverage was a great opportunity for our department," Bucheit said. "Not every university has the opportunity to produce live television, and the fact that as a student I can say that I was part of the live media coverage for such a big election night is incredible."
Bucheit said she was excited to see so many other students get excited about the programming.
"Freshmen were able to put together small packages and increase their skills, while upperclassmen were able to direct, T.D. and get a good feeling of what we're going to be doing after graduation," she said. "Everyone pulled together to create a great show, which made me even more proud of our department than I already was."
The studio crew for the night consisted of Dr. Gretchen Dworznik's studio production class.
"Our election night coverage was the first time we had done live programming since 2008," Dworznik said. "We had stayed away from it as we concentrated on rebuilding the program, but this time we felt confident in our students and our equipment, so we went for it."
Dworznik said the students performed better than anyone could have hoped.
"The content was interesting, up-to-date, and we really felt like we offered the Ashland community something different and valuable," she said. "We are really excited to continue to do more live programming in the future. The experience was invaluable. The students had a great time and they learned, not only from us, but from each other as well."
In the WRDL 88.9 FM studio, several students were also working, broadcasting updated election totals from many of the same races. Many of those students were freshmen.
And in The Collegian office, the newspaper staff was busy finishing up its election issue. Sophomore reporter Teresa Williams and freshman photographer Halee Heironimus canvassed the AU campus looking for election results watch parties. They found the biggest in the Ashbrook Center. The two completed a package, on deadline, that resulted in campus-focused election news.
Senior design editor Tyler Remmel in the meantime worked his magic with the front page of the the newspaper. Remmel changed The Collegian's masthead to a red, white and blue, star-spangled design while also creating his own electoral map of the United States.
"Even though the premise was the same in that we were putting together an issue, it seemed much different than just a normal issue," Remmel said. "When a story is changing as potentially quickly as an election story is, I was making sure to always keep my eyes open to make sure that the visuals I'd planned for were the most effective way of telling the story."
Tullis, the Collegian adviser, he couldn't be happier with the election issue, or with any of the issues this semester.
"The staff is really doing an amazing job," he said. "There's not a college newspaper in Ohio that looks as good as ours, and our content is top notch too."
Channel 5 operations manager and Ashland University alum Gary Weiss contacted JDM and a K12 program in Stark County over the summer. After being stored in Stark County for several months, JDM TV instructor Tim McCarty rented a truck, filled it up and delivered it to the TV studio. About 15 JDM students helped unload the truck and store the set pieces in one corner of the TV studio.
"Our plan is to adapt the usable pieces into a secondary set in our TV studio that we can use for our growing stable of local talk shows, for TV interviews and for special coverage events," said McCarty, who is also the AUTV-20 adviser. "JDM is thrilled to have strong existing relationships with the professional media industry that garner these gifts."
Warren was on hand to participate in a panel discussion on internships. Other participants were JDM faculty Dr. Gretchen Dworznik and Matt Tullis, and JDM students Glenn Battishill, Dan Griffin, Tim Hawk, Spencer Stadnik and Megan Wise.
About 20 students attended the event, which was held in the AUTV-20 studio in the Center for the Arts.
Warren discussed the things he looks for when it comes to hiring interns, as well as the characteristics of a good intern. Students discussed how they found their internships and their experiences in completing the internship.
All AU JDM majors are required to complete an internship either in journalism or production.
JDM's Scriptwriting and Directing class hosted a special guest recently in our Center for the Arts Studios. Dan Sevic, the television Director of the Cleveland Cavaliers' broadcasts on Fox Sports Ohio, stopped by to talk about the craft of television directing, staying cool under stress, leadership and the passion required to make it in today's hyper-competitive media industry.
A veteran Video Editor-turned Sports TV Director who also owns his own production company, Sevic enjoys working with aspiring media students.
JDM is now airing the homecoming edition of the Eagle News Update on AUTV-20. Senior Radley
Stahl produced, Senior Hilary Neal directed and Junior Elizabeth Bucheit and Sophomore Chris Beisel anchored.
"I am excited about the premiere of CAS Spotlight on AUTV-20! Produced by students and staff of JDM, this show features upcoming events, programs and topics that will interest our surrounding Ashland community and beyond. We look forward to highlighting the many great programs as well as fascinating areas of research being conducted by our faculty and students!
Look for more great CAS happenings in the Spotlight on AUTV-20.
McCarty was nominated in the #60 Crafts: Director - Live or Live to Tape category and traveled to Indianapolis for the Emmy night gala held on the infield of the Indianapolis 500 racetrack in June. He did not win (he lost to an Ashland alum, Pat Murray '74, who directs the Cleveland Indians!) but as the saying goes, “He's proud to have been nominated!”
Dr. David McCoy, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Journalism and Digital Media, reviewed the book The Digital Divide for the Journal of Media Education. The review appeared this spring in
volume3, issue 2. McCoy’s article Getting Started with Student Blogs: Tips for the Digital Immigrant was published in the March 2012 edition of the
journal Faculty Focus. His article Social Media Convergence: How a Blog Assignment Can Serve as a
Professional ePortfolio is in submission for the Spring 2013 volume of the AURCO Journal.
Dr. Gretchen Dworznik, Assistant Professor of Digital Media was asked to review the book, Chronicling Trauma for the journal Journalism.The review appeared this
summer in volume 13, issue 6. Dworznik also made three separate presentations
at the Broadcast Educators Association conference in April. Her presentations
centered on aspects of teaching media in the new educational reality those
in higher education media organizations are facing.
Fall means football in Ohio and JDM kicked off its sports production season with both high school and college football broadcasts from around Ashland county. Produced by JDM student crews, games will air on a tape delayed rebroadcast schedule on both Armstrong CH20 and SportsTime Ohio and LIVE on WRDL!
AU (on STO!):
8/30, Indy @ AU
9/29, Lake Erie @ AU
11/10, Notre Dame (OH) @ AU
High School Football on AUTV-20:
8/24, Black River @ Western Reserve
8/31, Dover @ Ashland HS
9/7, Manchester @ Black River
9/14, South Central @ Western Reserve
9/21, W. Holmes @ Ashland HS
9/28, Mapleton @ New London
10/5, Western Reserve @ Crestview
10/12, Western Reserve @ New London
10/19, Norwayne @ Hillsdale
10/26, Western Reserve @ Mapleton
Look for games to rebroadcast on AUTV-20 several times a day during the following week after each game date!
A New Jersey journalism instructor has listed Ashland
University’s Department of Journalism and Digital Media as one of 47 journalism
programs throughout the country that have fully-converged its print and
broadcast curriculum. JDM is also the only journalism program in Ohio that
received this distinction.
Dr. Mu Lin, an instructor in the Department of Communication at Georgian Court University in New Jersey, recently compiled a list of more than 500
colleges and universities from across the country that have journalism
programs.
Lin looked at those programs to see how many of them had
converged their print and broadcast curriculums. In other words, do journalism
majors have to learn multimedia skills as part of their major? Lin identified 105 programs as
digital/multimedia programs, of which JDM was included.
"Naturally, the JDM faculty was thrilled when we read Dr. Lin's findings," department co-chair Tim McCarty said. "It confirmed what we already knew to be true from our research when we created our converged JDM curriculum in 2010. We need to help meet the challenges our students will face upon entering an ever-converging media world."
Lin then broke the journalism programs into four groups:
those that are fully integrated, partly integrated, silos and electives only.
Fully integrated programs like at AU require all students to
take dedicated courses in digital/multimedia reporting, production and/or
dissemination, along with reporting and production courses for traditional
print and broadcast platforms. Partly integrated programs require their
students to take a multimedia reporting or production class, but then allow
those students to choose a concentration of print or broadcast. Silo programs require
their majors to choose a concentration that focuses on only one media platform.
Ashland’s JDM was the only program in Ohio listed in the
fully integrated category. Bowling Green State University was listed as partly
integrated, while Ohio University was listed in the silo group.
"Ashland's JDM program is indeed a leader in new media education regionally and nationally," McCarty said. "Our program is a model of rigorous academics reinforced by real-world experiential learning opportunities for 21st century journalists."
WRDL, JDM's student-run radio station got a makeover this summer thanks to the department's newest faculty member Professor Steve Suess. Suess joined the JDM staff from Illinois State University in May and along with Operations Manager John Skrada, spent the summer reformatting WRDL's music playlist, updating equipment and new production elements. In addition to all the work reformatting the station Suess and Skrada
also had to deal with mother nature's wrath as several summer storms knocked out
some equipment in the radio studio.
"I couldn't have anticipated the work that would go into changing the
format. Usually, launching a brand new format is a job for an entire
staff of people working 40 hours/week. John and I were able to work
together and get it done with a staff of just two. That's something I'm
really proud of, and John was a priceless resource throughout the entire
process." Suess said.
Besides Top 40's music, the station is also working hard to rebuild bridges inside and outside the AU community. For a commercial and non-commercial radio veteran like Suess, outreach is this year's top priority.
"One of the first big changes at WRDL is the establishment of a
positive relationship with AU Athletics. WRDL worked out a deal with
athletics allowing the station to acquire four tickets to every Eagle
home football game in exchange for on-air promotion. In the future, we
hope that similar deals will translate into tickets for basketball and
other sports. A solid relationship with campus athletics is a must for
any college media organization." Suess said.
Pop music, sports ticket giveaways, community news and information? For JDM students, our department and radio listeners all over Ashland county, it sounds like there's a new kid in town! Check out WRDL at 88.9FM.
For one weekend in the summer, Freer Field in Ashland transforms into THE place for great music, food and of course, hot air balloons! To help promote Ashland's famous Balloonfest, JDM captured all the sounds and high flying sights in a new documentary. The department's second documentary film produced by the Ashland Film Group features amazing point of view aerials shot during a high flying balloon ride taken by JDM Operations Manager, John Skrada who (naturally!) brought along an HD video camera.
"I thought I was going up on a short, tethered ride." Skrada said. "I was concentrating on working the camera and wasn't paying attention at the beginning, when I looked up, I realized we were really high!"
Skrada's "short hop" turned into a two-hour long flight over fields and farms surrounding Ashland. Skrada says he and pilot Greg Miller soared up to 11,000 feet.
"We were so high I could see Cleveland!" Skrada said of his once-in-a-lifetime flight. Skrada's aerial footage also features an amazing sequence when they were skimming just feet above houses and farm fields.
Your can check out Balloonfest now airing on AU-TV20 and here on the JDM YouTube channel:
The JDM crew is putting the finishing touches on a cool documentary featuring Ashland's famous Ballonfest. This year's festival lifts off June 28th! Bring a chair, sunscreen, sunglasses, an appetite and a pair of binoculars to see the balloons. It high flying fun for the whole family.
Journalism & Digital Media is proud to announce the recipients for outstanding student achievement for 2011-2012! Students in the department worked extremely hard this academic year producing 19 different AU and area high school sports and entertainment remotes, creating a 9/11 documentary, 17 news and sports updates, several films in 48 hours and won a slew of Journalism awards.
Collegian Award Winners
Outstanding Senior…… Justine Ackerman
Outstanding Contributor…… Tyler Remmel
Outstanding Newcomer…… Teresa Williams
AU-TV20 Award Winners
Outstanding Senior…… Dan Shade
Outstanding Contributor…… Tim Hawk
Outstanding Newcomer…… Elizabeth Bucheit
WRDL Award Winners
Outstanding Senior…… Marcus Walsh
Outstanding Contributor….. Tim Hawk
Outstanding Newcomer…… Kevin Stoicovy
JDM, in association with the Ashland Film Group held it's first annual 48-Hour Film Contest in April for majors and non-majors alike. 48-Hour film contests have grown in popularity with independent and student filmmakers because they offer high intensity environments to show off film-making skills.
In a 48-hr film contest, filmmakers receive a set of instructions that
include various aesthetic "ingrediants" they must include in their
films; things like specific lines of dialogue, props, locations even
specific characters. Filmmakers then have 48-hours to develop an idea,
write a script, shoot, edit and deliver a film in the correct
digital format.This year's contest began March 30th at 7pm and ended April 1st at 7pm.
For JDM Assistant Professor Dr. David McCoy, a 48-hour film contest is the ultimate learning tool for our digital media department, "The 48-hour film contest requires our students to synthesize all that they've learned about story, aesthetics in lighting, framing and composition in class and in labs, and then apply that by producing something in a mediated environment under a deadline." McCoy said.
This year's joint JDM/AFG project drew four teams of three students. The winning film entitled, 5-2-12 was produced by JDM juniors Dan Griffin, Tim Hawk and Sophomore Hilary Neal. Winning team members each received a $25 gift card from the AU Bookstore.
Check out the contest winner and runner-up below. (Note the creative way the two teams connected their two films!)
Films were judged by a committee of JDM faculty that included Dr. Gretchen Dworznik, Dr. David McCoy, Interim Chair Tim McCarty, Operations Manager John Skrada and JDM major freshman Chris Beisel. Judges viewed and scored the films using a rubric that included use of contest ingredients, aesthetics and technical merit.
JDM/AFG plans to conduct another 48-Hour Film Contest in the fall!
It is with special pride and thanks to Head AU Women's Basketball Coach, Sue Ramsey and her 2012 D2 National Runner-up women's basketball team that JDM proudly shares these video highlights from this year's historic season. A season for the ages that began with a loss to Minnesota State Mankato in their very first game, a string of 33 straight victories including a GLIAC tournament win, a Regional tournament win and a National Championship run.
During this history making season, JDM produced a regular season game for Sports Time Ohio in January and the Regional Final game hosted in Kates Gymnasium that aired on our newly launched Armstrong TV channel, AU-TV20. In addition to producing those multi-camera games, JDM student Dan Shade shot highlights at all of the regular season and playoff home games and made the trip to San Antonio to shoot highlights at the Elite Eight, Final Four and National Championship games.
For our newly launched media department, these were unexpected, unique and extremely valuable learning environments for our media students and for that we're especially grateful to Coach Ramsey and her team. It was indeed a run for the history books and we're proud to have been a small part of it.
JDM congratulates sophomore Broadcast Communication major, Hilary Neal for receiving the Emerging Leader of the Year for 2011-2012 at the AU Leadership and Service Award Ceremony recently.
The NAB Show was expected to draw upward of
100,000 visitors during the week.
Four department faculty members participated in panel discussions at the conference, The BEA is the professional association for professors, industry professionals and graduate students who are interested in teaching and research related to electronic media and multimedia enterprises. The NAB show consisted of more than 1,600 exhibitors taking up more than 755,000 square feet of show space at the Las Vegas Convention Center. They were showing off the newest, cutting-edge audio and video technology and software.
Dr. Dworznik and Dr. McCoy both presented papers on using
rubrics to assess creative work. Dr McCoy’s paper was titled “Assessing the
Creative Content of a Social Media Blog Assignment,” while Dr. Dworznik’s paper
was titled “Getting the Story: Using Rubrics to Assess Student Television News
Packages.”
Congratulations to JDM senior and Broadcast Communication major Danielle Slone for being recognized as the Intern of the Month in April. Danielle interned at Wilks Broadcasting's Wink 107.1FM.
Degree Received upon graduation: B.A. Radio/Television Programming/Production/Performance
Graduation Year: 1999
Current Job: Director, The Ohio News Network (ONN)
Brief description of your duties: I (primarily) direct morning newscast, but also am responsible for operating Master Control. Additionally, I shoot, write, and edit for several of our various long form programs as well as produce our weekly High School game of the week.
How did AU and the broadcast/journalism department help you receive this job?The diversity of the program and the many opportunities it offered in not only classes, but especially having our own radio and TV stations, gave me a chance to learn the many skill sets I need for my job. Leaving AU, that broadness of range made me more marketable. Twelve years later those skills have led to job security. What is your favorite aspect of the job? My official title is Director, but with all of my responsibilities I am not just confined to our control room for the entire day. My other duties have me spending my days after our morning newscast editing, traveling the entire state shooting video and interviews or working from production trucks. It makes for a lot of long but busy days and keeps the days from getting boring.
The Journalism and Digital Media Department would like to congratulate this year’s recipients of Ashland University’s Academic Honors Award! Three students within every department on campus are recognized as being the most outstanding student based on academic achievement. JDM's 2012 Academic Honors Recipients are:
Sophomore, Kristen Yenny
Junior, Megan Wise
Senior, Meghan Ellsworth
We are extremely proud of this year’s recipients from JDM and we honor them for their consistent hard work and dedication to the department and all we do! If you see these students on campus, please congratulate them on their superior academic achievement!
Ashland University Provost, Dr. Frank Pettigrew recently joined College of Arts & Sciences Dean, Dr. Dawn Weber in JDM's Center for the Arts studios to thank Armstrong's Vice President of Marketing and Programming, Jud Stewart and General Manager, Mike Sammon for their support and contributions in creating JDM's new TV outlet, AU-TV20.
For Dr. Weber the growing partnership is exciting, “In 2010 we created the Department of Journalism & Digital Media with a goal of creating a converged media department to prepare students to succeed in today's media industry. Partnering with Armstrong Cable to create and launch AU-TV20 is a critical part of achieving our goal,” she said. “I'm very excited to see our students, faculty and staff creating a variety of programming that focuses on community and campus events. As our enrollment increases, AU-TV20 will increasingly become a key source in delivering news and entertainment to the Ashland community."
For an aspiring filmmaker like Dan, Elon in LA should prove to be quite an adventure.
"The Elon in LA program is such an amazing opportunity for me. I've spent a lot of time at AU collaborating with other students who also love film-making. With this program, I'll work on my internship, take a film class, live with other film students and eventually make a short film with them. I'm so excited. I get to spend my summer living with other passionate filmmakers my age...in Los Angeles. It's like a dream." Griffin said.
"This all came about as a result of my faculty seminar with the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences last November." McCarty said. "The Professor, Jay McMerty, starting the Elon in LA program was also a faculty fellow and tipped me off to this year's launch; I immediately thought of Dan."
Light...block...shoot! JDM students in the Ashland Film Group will take a 48-hour film contest challenge at the end of the month. Filmmaking teams are handed a set of requirements that must be incorporated into their films and a film length. The AFG contest starts Friday, March 30th at 7pm and teams must deliver finished 3-5 minute films by Sunday, April 1st at 7pm.
Matt Tullis, Gretchen Dworznik and Dave McCoy will judge finished films along with student judge Freshman Chris Beisel.
With a little time to kill in between Ashland Women's Basketball victories, Collegian Sports Editor Chris Bils, Managing Editor Justine Ackerman and Photographer Dan Shade hit the hot spots.
The NCAA DII Championship game featuring our very own AU Lady Eagles will air tonight on CBS Sports Network (DirectTV) and locally on WMFD (Armstrong CH39).
Thanks to an amazing season by the AU Women's basketball team, JDM was able to contribute in a small way by televising the Women's Regional Final game last Monday from Kates Gym on AU TV20 to the community.
"It was a once-in-decade chance for the department to place our production students in a unique multi-camera production 'lab,' and turn them loose." said Tim McCarty, Interim Chair of Journalism and Digital Media department. "March Madness is so easy to watch this time of year but these types of productions are extremely tough to produce for the TV networks, much less a college media program. We think our students did a terrific job covering the game!" McCarty said.
While JDM produced two AU basketball games and four local high school games this semester, this event was the highest profile and slightly different because the Regional Final game required JDM apply for broadcast rights, which must be granted by the NCAA.
"Because this was an NCAA event and not an AU event, broadcast rights were required to televise the game." said McCarty. Per the NCAA rules, the department had a strict window to rebroadcast the game on AU TV20 before removing it from the schedule.
Look for more local Academic, Arts and Athletic-based local programming on AU TV20 Armstrong!
AU Career Services has a great new tool for searching internships and jobs called CareerShift. Sign up here! Create a FREE account with your AU ID. Once you have an account set up you can create detailed searches, manage contacts and target specific areas of the country. Check it out!
On February 24, Fox8Meteorologist Scott Sabol came to speak with the students from the Multimedia Journalism class. Sabol talked about how the business of television is changing, and added that students need to learn as many skills as they can in order to make themselves more marketable upon graduation. He also talked about how social media has changed the daily routine of reporters, anchors, and even meteorologists.
The Multimedia Journalism class is part of the new curriculum created by the Department of Journalism and Digital Media. The new curriculum took effect in Fall 2011, and focuses on teaching students how to produce content for multiple platforms -- web, print, and broadcast -- instead of allowing them to focus only on one.
JDM is proud to announce Senior Broadcast Communication major Meghan Ellsworth's oral presentation based on her documentary, A Look Inside Ghana's School System was accepted for presentation at Ashland University’s Third Annual College of Arts and Sciences Undergraduate Research and Creativity Symposium March 27th.
In his acceptance letter, Dr. Andrew Greene, Director of the URCA Committee said, "We are pleased to offer this exciting forum for you to present your work to faculty, students, and friends from across the College of Arts and Sciences."
As A Blog Convergedhighlighted back in the fall, Ellsworth interned in Ghana last summer where her documentary was shot. She is currently completing post-production on the project.
Her presentation is scheduled during Oral Session III, which will run from 10:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m during the Symposium.
What's the value of your professional network? For aspiring media professionals and seasoned media pros alike your "rolodex" connects and sustains your career. And with today's technology tools like Linked-In, connecting to fellow media pros is easier than ever.
Which is why JDM is proud to announce a new Linked-In Group called the Ashland University Media Alumni Network. AUMAN is designed to let current AU media students connect with Ashland's vast, varied and talented network of media alumni working all over the world.
For Ashland's newly created and converged media department, using Linked-In was a natural according to JDM's Dr. Gretchen Dworznik, "We wanted to provide an avenue for our current students to connect with our large base of media alums working in the industry. Linked-In was the perfect place because many of our students and alums already use it." Dworznik said. "The idea was actually suggested by one of our current students - Tim Hawk. We thought it was a great idea!"
To join the AUMAN on Linked-in - if you have a Linked-In account - log on and search Ashland University Media Alumni Network. If you don't have a Linked-In account, sign up and then search for our group!
A photo taken by Dan Shade, photo editor for The Collegian and Sports Update producer for AUTV-20, is featured on the Washington Post website today.
The photo, which accompanied an Associated Press story about labyrinths, has also been published on the websites of the Deseret Morning News and the Winnipeg Free Press. Shade's mother, JoAnn Shade, a corps officer for Salvation Army, is quoted in the story regarding the labyrinth at the Kroc Center in Ashland.
The Collegian, which was represented by managing editor Justine Ackerman, entertainment editor Glenn Battishill, sports editor Chris Bils and photo editor Dan Shade, also picked up three awards in the Ohio Collegiate Newspaper and Web Site Competition. AU's student newspaper earned first place honors for best arts and entertainment coverage and best headline writing. The Collegian won third place for best Web site.
This is the second time in three years that The Collegian has won awards in the competition, but the first time it earned first place honors. Judges said the newspaper's arts and entertainment coverage was, "Both amusing and informative, subjects are handled well." Judges also said The Collegian's headline, "Students diagnose Health Center" was creative and put "the students in the position of diagnosing the Health Center when the reverse should be true! Effective because the content of the story is evident immediately upon reading the headline!"
Photo courtesy of ONA
As for The Collegian's website, judges said stories were well-written.
"The structure of the sight is good," the judges said. "Nice use of white space. Good color choices. Photo galleries work well."
Biden spoke just before lunch, giving what could be construed as a pep talk for America.
"America is coming back and America will be second to no other country in the world," he said.
While Biden brought in a crowd, Hanna brought down the house by bringing out a lynx, a penguin, a flamingo and a cheetah. He also railed against state legislators for watering down an exotic animal bill that would effectively ban Ohioans from keeping exotic animals at their homes.
Photo courtesy of ONA
He also shared sad news that his daughter, Julie Hanna, had just the evening before learned she had a brain tumor. Julie Hanna is a long-term childhood cancer survivor who has battled secondary tumors caused by the radiation she received as a toddler.
As 2012 begins, JDM's TV broadcast operation offers a host of exciting changes and updates to the Ashland community. In collaboration with AU's College of Arts & Sciences and Armstrong, the department is launching a new 24/7 TV channel on Armstrong called, AU-TV20.
JDM Interim Chair, Tim McCarty, said a stronger relationship with Armstrong made the new broadcast venture possible, "Both JDM and the College of Arts & Sciences understand that Armstrong’s commitment to give us real estate in the form of a new TV channel to provide local programming is a win for our students, a win for the institution, a win for Armstrong and for our community.”
Dr. Dawn Weber, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, said she is excited about the new partnership with Armstrong. “In 2010 we created the Department of Journalism & Digital Media with a goal of creating a converged media department to prepare students to succeed in today's media industry. Partnering with Armstrong Cable to create and launch Channel 20 is a critical part of achieving our goal,” she said. “I'm very excited to see our students, faculty and staff creating a variety of programming that focuses on community and campus events. As our enrollment increases, Channel 20 will increasingly become a key source in delivering news and entertainment to the Ashland community."
The JDM is proud to announce that two of our very own, senior Molly Leonard and senior Justine Ackerman, are Ashland University recipients of the Who’s Who Among Students in American Universities and Colleges award. This award exists as one of the most prestigious and long-standing honors programs in the nation. For students across the country, it marks an impressive scholastic achievement. The students who are chosen to receive this award strive to enhance the positive image of students through their efforts and contributions to the community and their school.
Molly is well-known across campus and active in many different clubs and organizations including cheerleading and works as the news update producer for AU-TV20. Tim McCarty, Interim Chair of the Journalism and Digital Media Department says that the JDM staff couldn’t be more proud of Molly, “We think it's great. Molly is a terrific student and she has learned a ton of production skills to which have helped her produce many great news segments for AU-TV20. We are all very happy for Molly!”
Justine is a journalism major and is the managing editor of The Collegian, which this year was named the best non-daily college newspaper in Ohio and is also a finalist for three awards in the Ohio Newspaper Association's annual college newspaper competition. Matt Tullis, assistant professor of journalism and adviser of The Collegian, says the Justine's honor is well deserved. "Nobody works harder, both in and out of the classroom, to make herself a better journalist. She's been instrumental in the redesign of The Collegian and in making sure we remain one of the best college newspapers in the state."
Congrats Molly and Justine for this awesome recognition! We are proud of you!
Professional Instructor Tim McCarty of the Department of Journalism and Digital Media is one of four faculty members in the College of Arts and Sciences who was recently named an AU Mentor.
