Jacks News meeting industry needs

From Twitter to TV, the news fills our daily lives. At South Dakota State University, students are working to keep campus and beyond "in the know" through Jacks News. 

Jacks News is housed within SDSU's School of Communication and Journalism (COJO). As part of the Broadcast News Reporting class, students gain critical skills and experience needed in the industry.

In the course, students learn and practice elements needed in journalism careers, such as writing for specific audiences, gathering accurate information for stories, recording interviews and relating interview content to the story focus, along with the laws and ethics of journalism and long-form/short-form visual storytelling. 

Jacks News posts a newscast weekly on their YouTube channel. For each newscast, one student is assigned to anchor and one to produce, with the rest of the class creating the content. The show is pre-recorded during a Thursday afternoon lab and goes live at midnight on Fridays.

Discussions on story ideas, story structure and other details are shared between students and the professor. Students then use the Yeager Media Center studio to record the newscasts.

After a recent review of the journalism curriculum in COJO, the Broadcast News Reporting class moved from an elective to a graduation requirement. The move was in response to the skills necessary for today’s journalists — something this course and the curriculum in COJO are aiming to meet.

“Many think it is easy to shoot video since our phones can do it show well, but it is not easy to shoot good video,” explained Rocky Dailey, associate professor in COJO. “Making sure the shots are framed well, exposed well and in focus, that the shots are long enough, that they can tell a story, that they can be edited together and that the interviews are also recorded well — that tends to be the main area that multimedia journalists struggle with.”

“Also, there is a demand for broadcast journalists now, especially in the Midwest,” Dailey continued. “We hear almost every week from a news station that they are looking for people, and we have even had current students working professionally due to this demand. This class better prepares students for a variety of journalism roles and also addresses the deficit in television news reporters and producers.”

Follow along for more stories from Jacks News on their YouTube channel or Facebook page.