It’s Official: Dr. Joshua Mims

Some two dozen SC State communication students received their hard earned diplomas during last night’s commencement at Oliver Dawson Stadium.

Meantime, this morning in Virginia Beach, Va. one of our faculty had his own years of hard work and research culminate in the highest level of academic achievement.

Mr. Joshua Mims is now Dr. Joshua Mims after being awarded his doctorate in critical communication and journalism from Regent University.

The Union, S.C. native also holds degrees from North Greenville University (BA in video and radio broadcasting) and Regent University (MFA film and television directing).

Congratulations Dr. Mims, an accomplished scholar. A true gentleman and a scholar. That’s him. That’s Mims!

Behind the Scenes BNN Edition

(Story by senior communications major Chelsi Ham)
When you see the red light on in the hallway of the Crawford Communications second floor, you know that you are not to disturb! 

Bulldog News Now (BNN) is lead by communications instructors to give students a chance to learn how things really work in a TV studio, control room and newsroom.

Students can gain invaluable hands-on experience covering, shooting, editing and reporting the news.  Anchoring experience can be attained also, as well as exposure to the behind the scene jobs during a television newscast such as director, audio board, teleprompter and studio camera operators

Newspaper's Today: Good and Bad News

"Newspapers are dying." This is a common comment among people in and outside the media world, it seems.

But to hear a 40-year newspaper veteran say it is something else.  That is why I asked Orangeburg Times and Democrat editor Lee Harter if I heard him correctly when he uttered those three words.  Then I asked him if I could quote him on that. And he said yes I could.

Lee Harter points out a feature of the large printing press

Harter gave his blunt assessment while showing my SC State Copy Editing students and me his paper's newsroom and huge Goss printing press.

The daily expense of turning out thousands of newspapers is evident when seeing the massive machinery that is required.  Huge round bundles of paper are all around and a big vat of ink sits to one side.

Therein lies the dilemma many newspapers face today.

Freshman Launches Her Own Sports Show

"The Elite Sports Show" is a collaborative endeavor this semester between a communications student interested in sports broadcasting and a faculty member seeking to create more opportunities for SC State students to gain hands-on experience on the air and behind the scenes.

Freshman Kaila Ali McClam-Tamplin hasn't wasted time pursuing her career interests, working closely with instructor/production manager Kelechi Benet to create fresh new online content. "

Three episodes of the "Elite Sports Show" were shot this semester in the program's TV studio.  Each show is three to five minutes in length. The shorter format fits nicely into what people look for in online content, Benet said.

Click on the icons below to see McClam-Tamplin in action.

Benet sees the program as a template for future short form productions that would continue to benefit students who like McClam-Tamplin are willing to put in the time and effort outside of the classroom to develop their skills.

WIS-TV Set Donation Arrives!

Instructor Alicia Pryor, in just a few years at SC State, has helped advance the Communications Program by leaps and bounds.

She introduced Bulldog News Now (BNN), a broadcast that went weekly this school year.  And it is now viewed outside of campus and the program's Facebook site by also airing in the Orangeburg community via cable television. 

Pryor has also successfully aligned with Columbia's WIS-TV to attain large, professional set pieces that the station was no longer using.

This week, the remaining few background pieces were delivered. 

Said Pryor in a Facebook post: "A huge thank you to the WIS News 10 team for the donations to our Communications Program. The students, faculty and staff are extremely appreciative of the gift." Thank you notes, under Pryor's direction, are being sent to WIS and also the university's facilities management workers who brought up and set up the large pieces.

Plans are underway to create appropriate SC State designs to go on the set to replace the Channel 10 ones. 

TV News Director Stresses Writing Skills

South Carolina State University communications students interested in working in television were treated yesterday to the high-energy and straight talk of Michael Raffaele, news director at Columbia's WACH Fox 57. 

Raffaele did not mince words about what skills and potential he seeks in news reporters and producers.

The Sky's the Limit BMW Executive (and SC State Alumna) Tells Award Recipients

SC State has a high-level connection with corporate communications at the huge BMW car plant in South Carolina's Upstate.  Students and graduates are encouraged to try to network with her!  

Anything is possible.  Unlimited potential. Those are some of the definitions of the idiom “the sky’s the limit.” 

The living personification of that common phrase was the keynote speaker at the 2018 Honors and Awards Convocation on April 3 at Smith-Hammond-Middleton Memorial Center.  And it seemed fit that Sky is the nickname for SC State alumna Schylver V. Foster, a longtime executive at the BMW manufacturing plant in Greer, S.C.