Saint Mary’s communications studies students recently revived the production of an online news program called SMC-TV.
SMC-TV is produced by the students in the practicum/production SMC-TV lab course. The course’s professor, Tim Richardson, said the program provides time to make two YouTube broadcast episodes each semester.
“The challenge to it is that, over a month, students are putting together story ideas and researching, getting those interviews and getting the stories, and by the time we record it and put it on air, trying to make sure those stories are still somewhat fresh,” Richardson said.
The class meets once a week, and in this time, Richardson said he and the students prepare to make the latest SMC-TV production.
“We talk about topic ideas — what’s going on, what’s coming up — and we assign stories to each student,” he said. “There’s only six students in the class right now. It’s a class that can hold up to 10. One of the challenges has been having a small number of people putting together a show. Each one was responsible for making a minute-and-a-half news package, whether that was a feature story or it should be about sports. We basically wanted to look at news, sports and entertainment. We can include features and interviews highlighting students or other things of interest. Then we had the news anchors do the show to pull it all together.”
It is this emphasis on student involvement that senior Kendall Wood loves about SMC-TV, she said in an email. Wood said the production is based on student interests in order to give the show reliability.
“SMC-TV portrays the news by what will appeal to students, deciphered by students,” Wood said. “We do not necessarily talk about weather, or crime like a regular news channel, but we are timely with our topics — only including what is most recent. We include news of current events happening around the tri-campus area, religious traditions in our community, important sports status and even helpful segments like studying tips.”
Wood said she wants SMC-TV to be a trustworthy source of information for students that will bring the community closer together.
“I hope the program impacts the viewers to be knowledgeable of what’s happening around them that they may not be aware of,” Wood said. “I also hope the program brings people together by talking about news or just to simply watch it or be a regular program my peers enjoy watching.”
Sophomore Libbey Tierney said she wishes for students to watch the program and gain knowledge on local events.
“I think students should watch SMC-TV so maybe we can possibly grow popular, and we could do it more regularly instead of just for midterms or finals,” Tierney said. “I hope that it gives them a new outlook on things that they have already seen.”
Richardson said he hopes students from the community learn from the program, as well as those involved in its creation.
“Hopefully they are able to use their communications skills to cross over from communication to communications with an S, which involves more of media and video production,” Richardson said. “I always believe the best way to learn something is by doing it, so we try to dive in and hopefully they’re learning a lot by doing.”
Saint Mary's revives SMC-TV news program
Ann Curtis
Students in the Saint Mary's SMC-TV production course record two news programs throughout the semester. Professor Tim Richardson brought back this program in his first time teaching the course this semester.
