And the winner is...

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!

2012 Women's Basketball Highlight reel produced by JDM

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.

Roll the highlights!

JDM leader receives Emerging Leader of the Year award

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.

Well done Hilary!

What happens in Vegas...

Ashland University's Journalism and Digital Media department took Las Vegas by storm last week during the annual Broadcast Education Association conference and National Association of Broadcasters trade show.

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. Gretchen Dworznik and Tim McCarty presented portions of JDM’s documentary, “9/11 Remembered” in a presentation titled, “The Local Documentary as Affective Experience.” Dr. David McCoy moderated that panel discussion.

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.”

Dr. McCoy also presented the paper “Weblog World: The Effective Use of Blogs as a Digital Media Course Exercise,” and Dr. Dworznik presented the paper “The Evolution of Student Media as Guided by a Re-Written Curriculum,” during the four-day conference.

Finally, Matt Tullis was a panelist in the event “Tomorrow’s Needs Today: Making the Argument for Upgrade.” In this event, Tullis discussed how and why the JDM department revamped its journalism and broadcast production majors, as well as what the results have been thus far.

JDM Student Intern of the Month for April

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.

Way to go Danielle!

ALUMNI SPOTLIGHT: Jef Hitsman

Name:  Jef Hitsman

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. 

JDM Students receive academic honors

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!

CAS Dean, AU Provost thank Armstrong for CH20!

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."

Catch AU-TV20 on Armstrong CH.20 and on CH 89.10.

JDM major accepted in summer film program in LA

Congratulations to JDM junior and Broadcast Communication major, Dan Griffin, for being accepted into the Elon in LA summer film program this summer.

"Given Dan's talents and passion for filmmaking, he was the natural first choice to represent JDM at Elon's new film program in LA." said Journalism and Digital Media's Interim Chair Tim McCarty.

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."

Dan's film dreams begin this July.