UNITY —Journalism 20 at Unity Composite High School gives students the opportunity plan, organize and present events as well as learning skills useful in post-secondary classes and other walks of life.
In its inaugural year, the class covered the IIHF pre-tournament hockey game being held in Unity in 2010. These students set the bar high not only for future classes and projects of the J20 program.
Teamwork is one of the most important concepts learned. Their projects have evolved from one camera, one laptop and one iPad to multi camera, director and state-of-the-art presentations that are the envy of many. Their coverage of provincial boys’ volleyball in Medstead in 2012 was even covered on CTV news.
The J20 class has had students go on to post-secondary education and careers in broadcasting. At their live coverage of the Canada vs Russia hockey game held in Unity Dec. 12, alumnus Wynona Hansen, now working in broadcasting, joined them briefly in the press box as she was there on the job herself.
“I learned a lot from Ms. (Ruth) Cey and this class as I feel it prepared me well for the broadcast field,” she said.
“The journalism class certainly helped with my comfort level as I now work in broadcasting. It’s fun to see these students in action doing what I once did.”
The class this year consists of 19 Grade 11 students, taught by Ruth Cey and with support from Living Sky School Division, particularly with the leadership of Ryan Kobelsky, assistant ICS manager for the division.
Cey and Koblesky have been involved with several such projects over the past five years, including provincial volleyball tournaments as well as a pre-competition game, Austria vs. Latvia in December 2010. Aside from live-streaming the game, the class hosted a companion blog containing “value-added” content — polls, count downs, interviews and local interest stories. You can see their work at http://unityjragame.wordpress.com; as well as looking at their many Twitter posts that were posted that night @J20class.
The class started preparing as soon as they were advised they were on board with December’s pre-tournament game. Their preliminary work including making a timeline of what needed to be done to achieve the outcome they wanted for the project. It included such things as creating a blog with countdowns, polls and rosters; as well as launching a twitter feed. The class hoped to establish contact with at least two members of each team or coaches to gather content and create interest and this would include using mediums such as Skype interviews, audio interviews and email interviews. The students also hoped to have photos of the players and profiles posted on the blog. They also gathered local interviews, investigated the tournament’s history and prepared relevant articles for the local paper.
Game day was hectic but include an experience like no other. The class performed pre-game interviews and the pre-game show included interviews amongst those in attendance. During the game they hosted live streaming via three cameras. Play by play and colour commentary added flavour to the boardcast.
J20 included public service announcements for the host community and programs to benefit from this game as well as “coach’s corner” coverage between periods.
Their work wasn’t over once the game was done. They upgraded all of their media sites with game stats, live interviews of players, coaches and committee members as well as several highlight reels.
Students are not only learning, but studying as they go, adjusting to quick changes that come up as they work a live multi-media event. Given press passes to access all areas of the event, the J20 media team roved the arena gathering interviews, material and close up shots all to feed to their “streamers” who are continually plugging the information into the laptops to run as a live program for anyone following their live stream to see.
Before the event students told me they were feeling somewhat overwhelmed, but only 11 days into their project they were feeling more confident, excited and focused.
The press box, high above the arena surface, that normally houses two or three people, was home base for anywhere from six to eight people accompanied by a large supply of equipment.
In the “director’s” chair, although he would vehemently deny the title, sat Kobelsky. For him this was a day full of excitement and emotion. He says he enjoys the adrenalin rush of a live broadcast and the excitement this project can bring, but he was also awaiting the birth of his first child, due the very next day.
Kobelsky said this game was the biggest pull this J20 class had ever seen, as they experienced 499 hits mostly from Ontario. This means family and fans of players on Team Canada East had an excellent opportunity to watch their favourite players in action.
Many VIP visitors were brought up to the broadcast booth just to showcase the command centre that easily mimicked professional sports broadcast booths.
All students, working in their various roles, grew more and more comfortable as the night progressed. Not one of them appeared nervous, or worried about the duties they were undertaking. Jumping into interviews as if they had been doing this all their lives and handling cameras as if they were paid professionals was fascinating to watch; Toby Prescott, handling play by play and post-game wrap up with local hockey “experts,” made it appear as if he does this for his day job.
It was apparent by dozens of comments heard back via Twitter, texting or in person that most folks were thrilled with the opportunity to have this group cover yet another big event in fine style. Whether the J20 team realized it or not, they capped off a successful evening with their talents, their dedication to professionalism and responsible journalism.
