Cedars, September 2017

September 2017 6 COVER STORY by Rebekah Erway M ultiple departments of Cedarville University have partnered to build an on-campus newsroom which offers students, and the university as a whole, new opportunities. Located in Library 022, the newsroom has a green screen, two studio cameras, a 14-channel recording mixer, studio lighting and more. The new room offers the ability to do live reports on news programs at lo- cal TV stations with interviews with faculty experts. Previously, interviews set up by the marketing and public relations departments with local news companies were pre-record- ed elsewhere on campus or live at the TV stations. Now, all parts of the video produc- tion process can take place on-campus and live when needed. “For a school our size, I don’t know of another school that has a newsroom, espe- cially one that’s going to be as high end as ours,” said Mark Weinstein, executive di- rector of public relations and overseer of the newsroom. Doing live and recorded interviews enable Cedarville to gain more visibility, Weinstein said. The first use of the newsroom hap- pened on Sept. 12 when Dr. Mark Caleb Smith, chair of the Department of History and Government and director of the Center for Political Studies, was interviewed re- motely by WHIO-TV in Dayton for a story about the Dayton mayoral race. News outlets regularly ask Weinsten for experts to comment on issues such as North Korea, the police shooting in Dayton, and DACA. On an issue such as the police shooting, Weinstein could place Dr. Patrick Oliver, di- rector of the criminal justice program and former police chief, in the newsroom, and connect him with TV outlets from around the world who could then ask him questions directly. Weinstein’s team would record the interview, edit it, and email it to the media. This technique enables Cedarville to deal with and distribute to multiple news sta- tions at a time. “I’m looking forward to the day when I put any faculty member who can comment on a story in the newsroom and they’re talking with CNN in the morning and FOX news in the afternoon and ABC News at night,” Weinstein said. “I think it’s going to happen, and I look forward to that day.” Weinstein also said that the room is an obvious next step to where the university’s PR has been advancing. Over the past few years, Cedarville faculty have often shared their expertise with the media. “We have put our footprint in current events with media in Ohio and throughout the United States,” Weinstein said. “And as a result of that, I think a lot of people have come together with the idea that this was a good idea.” Numerous sources mentioned that the interdepartmental collaborative aspects of New Horizons Cedarville’s new newsroom offers profesional opportunities to students, helps market university Photo by Naomi Harward Shawn Rifner, studio and technology manager for CU’s Department of Communication and supervisor of the newsroom project, experiences what it’s like to be on the other side of the camera.