On Thursday, Sept. 18, the journalism department hosted an open house showcasing its brand new studio set, equipment and control room.
Much like the Clause and Collide, Capture, the student television broadcast news publication, provides a hands-on learning experience for journalism students specific to their emphasis; in this case broadcast and TV journalism.
“It literally brings us to a whole new level,” said Clint Simone, junior journalism major and sports director in regards to the Journalism Department’s newest broadcasting studio: Capture. “It brings forth something that we’ve never had before. Equipment that we never could have dreamed of.”
According to Brooke Van Dam, Ph.D., assistant professor of communication studies and the program coordinator for journalism, the essence of Capture has existed for the last two years. Starting as a smaller student broadcast workshop with its occasional contributions to the Clause and Collide, Capture now functions as its own independent, but still collaborative, entity.
According to Van Dam, Capture aims to serve as an on-campus weekly TV news program highlighting news at APU as well as national and international stories. But much like the Clause, Capture will realistically air about 8-10 times per semester. Negotiations and plans are still in the works, but Van Dam hopes to utilize campus resources in an attempt to create an avenue for which the show could air to the entire student body, as opposed to online-only limitations.
“Our goal here is to highlight national and international stories, and localize them,” Van Dam said. “We’ll pick one or two stories that are particularly visual and be able to show the student body what’s going on.”
Several students and professors within the communication studies and journalism programs filtered in and out of the set and control room, each taking turns sitting at the anchor’s desk and learning about the set, designed by Marc Ameel, M.A. Ed., technical director for the theater arts department.
“The technical director is responsible for building sets,” Ameel said. “My scenic design background comes from theater training and degrees, so this is my first time designing for television, which is really exciting.”
Though students and faculty involved are aware that the positive impact and results may not be immediately visible, they are eager to begin a journey that will benefit the many to come.
“I’m really excited for this year because this is the first year,” said Emily Boden, senior journalism major and student director of Capture. “There’s going to be a very steep learning curve, a lot of figuring out what we’re about and what we want, but I’m even more excited for where this is going to go. In this first year we are not going to see a lot of dramatic change and response and growth. But, in the next five years, ten years? We might see something epic.”
According to Van Dam, Capture hopes to expand the shows view-ability to more on campus offerings as the semester progresses.
Capture airs its first show on Oct. 2 and will be available for viewing on vimeo.com/theclause, theclause.org and kapuradio.com.