By Molly Hudson
BUIES CREEK — While most students do not enjoy the pressure of having the spotlight shine on them, or in their faces, the pressure is what drives the cast of Campbell Now! News.
After two semesters of producing the taped newscast Campbell Now! TV, students now get to experience being live on camera every Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 8:30 a.m. during their newscast, Campbell Now! News, which airs on Channel 15.
“I love that butterfly feeling I get in my stomach,” said Emily Tadlock, a senior theatre arts and communication studies double major, “so being live versus being taped is a lot more exciting for me.”
Serving as the anchor for each airing, Tadlock said broadcasting is the perfect way to combine her two majors.
“It’s the best of both worlds as far as theater and communications goes,” she said. “I love to be in front of the camera, but I love journalism as well, so this gives me a chance to do both.”
Campbell Now! News is produced by a class of 12 students who meet every Tuesday evening to learn the technicalities of broadcasting under the guidance of professor Pete Kenny. Each student is then required to attend either two airings of the show each week or attend one airing and conduct one hour of research for the show.
“It’s a lot of getting your feet wet, trying different roles out, seeing if you like it,” said Kenny. “And it’s a great way for the students to give back to Campbell.”
Although it is only in its first semester, Kenny and the show’s director Hannah Joyce have big goals for Campbell Now! News, which currently covers campus news as well as local and national news, sports, entertainment, technology and weather.
By the end of the semester, Joyce, a senior communication studies major, would like to increase the length of the show from approximately four minutes to a full five minutes, begin introducing guest speakers and grow the viewership.
Once worked out, those details feed into Kenny’s vision for the show’s future.
“Eventually, what we are hoping to do is have a student-run newscast that airs every night of the week and covers news, sports, weather, everything,” he said.
No matter how many days a week the show airs, the students enjoy learning new skills and getting the feel for being live on the air, Kenny added.
“It’s cool getting to have practice for what it might be like if this turns into a job one day,” said senior George Yiznitsky, Tadlock’s co-anchor on Wednesdays. “I don’t know where else you would get this opportunity.”
For Tadlock, who completed a summer internship at News 14 Carolina and is researching universities with strong broadcasting graduate programs, the course is instrumental to her success.
“I can come in every Monday, Wednesday and Friday morning and get in my anchor groove so I don’t forget all the skills I learned over the summer,” she said.
Although the majority of the cast is communication studies students, the course is open to all students on campus.
Courtney Fannin, a senior kinesiology major, signed up for the course as an elective. She runs the lights and cameras on Mondays and serves as floor manager on Wednesdays, but sees how this can carry over to her future career in physical therapy.
“It’s helped me learn about using communication, because you have to be able to talk to your co-workers or bosses,” said Fannin. “And I’ve learned about getting people to work together through communication.”
To watch Campbell Now! News, turn any television on campus to channel 15 at 8:30 a.m. on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.