00:59
this is alex hey it’s jen
01:03
how’s it going good it’s going okay um
01:06
sorry to hear that you’re stuck in
01:07
traffic i
01:08
am currently on zoom with my peer
01:09
elizabeth scalzo
01:11
um when we wanted you to talk with us
01:14
for this project
01:15
um because basically what’s happening
01:16
right now with our university is
01:18
actually we’re kind of
01:20
our com department is kind of struggling
01:22
so
01:23
to our re they’re trying to revamp the
01:25
program
01:26
get more admission because right now
01:28
it’s declining especially at our campus
01:30
so we figured it would be best to talk
01:32
to you about
01:34
what communications should do
01:37
and can do for students whether it be in
01:40
the comm field or
01:41
all fields and what fdu should do in
01:44
terms because
01:45
obviously we had spoken to you in
01:46
professor kenny’s class and we know
01:48
you’re
01:48
more of a recent like person who’s been
01:51
into the comm field so that’s why uh
01:55
we wanted to get a hold of your opinion
01:59
that’s right give me one second we’re
02:02
good
02:04
uh yeah so um what
02:08
what would you like to chat about yeah
02:11
so
02:12
i mean our uh pier elizabeth salsa was
02:15
gonna
02:15
give a brief like background of what uh
02:19
fdu has been going through but you know
02:21
and then we’ll get right into our
02:23
questions sure okay can you hear me
02:28
i can i’m so sorry i have to do this
02:30
over the phone
02:33
accident it’s okay um i just want to
02:36
make sure you could hear me
02:37
so what happened is
02:40
they’re putting a halt to admission into
02:43
the communications department because of
02:45
a lack of full-time faculty
02:47
so we’re trying to kind of figure out
02:50
what
02:51
different parts of the industry look
02:52
like right now and what kind of faculty
02:55
they need to be hiring
02:56
in order to make students have the best
02:59
possible
03:00
outcome whenever it comes to the job
03:02
market um
03:04
that’s the best explanation of what
03:07
we’re doing
03:08
um this has been a semester-long project
03:10
and our basic
03:11
end goal is to have a five piece story
03:14
that’s going to publish on our college
03:16
newspapers website
03:18
and it’s going to kind of detail this is
03:21
the problem at fdu this is what the
03:23
future of communications look like
03:25
and then this is how fdu can fix this
03:30
got it yeah so that’s a brief background
03:33
so
03:33
to start off with questions i mean
03:34
obviously we had spoken to you in
03:36
professor kenny’s class but obviously
03:37
for people
03:38
who don’t know you what is your
03:40
background in communications
03:43
um i’ve got 10 years
03:46
as a professional journalist
03:49
director of photography producer and
03:51
editor working
03:52
at working in documentary news the
03:56
network level
03:58
awesome and so to follow up
04:01
why did you choose communications and
04:03
what did your process going into the
04:05
field of communications look like
04:12
um
04:15
in a professional sense that started
04:17
with
04:18
me deciding to pursue journalism as my
04:21
as my
04:22
major at arizona state university
04:26
and in addition to attending classes
04:30
and trying to learn as much as i could
04:34
and get as much
04:34
experience in class that i could um i
04:37
think i had something like
04:39
six or seven different internships
04:41
throughout college so i was trying to
04:43
take uh like the basic things that i was
04:46
learning in class
04:47
and then applying those in the real
04:50
world
04:50
uh in the form of internships gotcha
04:54
yeah that’s great i know
04:57
right now we’re like struggling because
04:58
of everything that’s going on for
05:00
internships so
05:01
it’s good that you were able to do
05:02
multiple um
05:04
and then of course like i said before
05:07
you
05:08
obviously have been like a recent person
05:10
who has come into the communications
05:11
field within like
05:12
the past 10 12 years or so so how have
05:15
you
05:16
seen the communications field change
05:18
from when you started and how it is now
05:20
so when i started uh
05:24
you know it’s kind of funny there was
05:25
there was a class about social media
05:27
where youth learned social media in
05:29
general what social media journalism
05:32
and at that point in time it was just
05:34
twitter um
05:37
funny little anecdote is like when i was
05:39
in that class
05:41
it was before ipads even came out and
05:45
during during class one day so we
05:47
brought in an ipad i was like oh my
05:48
goodness
05:49
this is this is possibly the future of
05:52
how people are gonna gonna get their
05:54
news um
05:55
you didn’t really know what what uh
05:57
digital newspapers were gonna look like
05:59
and i feel like it’s so synonymous with
06:02
news consumption today
06:06
like it’s hard to imagine a world
06:08
without
06:10
something like twitter existing uh we’re
06:12
at various other social media platforms
06:15
so i i would say that if
06:35
while the industry has expanded out into
06:38
that social sphere
06:40
it’s been interesting to see how kind of
06:41
like
06:43
current newspapers um have become less
06:46
common
06:47
uh and less people are subscribing to
06:51
cable providers so
06:55
i think that a lot of people who are
06:57
outraged are probably not
06:59
really getting their news through
07:02
sitting down
07:02
watching television in a like historical
07:06
sense
07:07
like you used to say yeah i can
07:09
definitely agree with that specifically
07:11
with us at the equinox we had print
07:13
editions prior to
07:14
i believe this semester and you know
07:17
after going into covid we had decided it
07:20
was best to
07:21
keep it fully online and do
07:24
and we actually doing that got like more
07:26
opportunities to write more stories and
07:28
produce them a lot faster rather than
07:30
waiting for our print edition to produce
07:32
so i i can definitely agree with you on
07:34
that
07:36
um yeah so we like have daily updates
07:40
that we post
07:41
literally every single day and we’ve
07:43
done it for the past
07:44
semester so hopefully
07:48
that’s how newsrooms are operating these
07:50
days also
07:53
certainly within cnn back in 2014 when
07:56
when their digital politics team started
07:59
up
08:00
uh the the daily updates
08:03
with being able to pump out print pieces
08:05
and video packages at the same time
08:08
to provide a fuller experience
08:12
change in the industry yeah definitely
08:15
for sure
08:16
so being that you’re in the field of
08:18
communications what skills do you think
08:20
are most crucial and why
08:23
so when i talk to your classes it’s
08:25
definitely like
08:26
being being able to build relationships
08:28
with people
08:30
um i think that being a good listener is
08:32
really important
08:34
having an undying desire to continue to
08:36
learn
08:37
because being inquisitive and wanting to
08:42
gain deeper understanding of the world
08:45
around you
08:46
are really key to what journalists
08:50
do in their profession
08:54
i think those are certainly like some of
08:56
the highlights there
08:58
no i would i definitely agree with that
09:00
as for you
09:01
personally what changes do you see
09:03
coming in the next five years for
09:04
communications
09:05
and of them of course
09:09
that’s a tough question i i haven’t
09:12
worked in any newsrooms
09:14
full time for a few years now so
09:20
my discussions with former colleagues
09:23
one of the things that i see with
09:26
video being my main
09:29
forte in communications is that
09:33
the technology’s just going to expand
09:36
even more rapidly than we’ve seen in the
09:38
last
09:38
10 years i think that we’re about to see
09:44
technology that allows for faster video
09:48
editing
09:50
with higher resolutions
09:53
and i hope that what that does is it
09:57
it continues to
10:01
create people who work in this industry
10:03
kind of like a desire
10:04
to make things look as beautiful as
10:06
possible
10:07
no i i definitely agree with that that i
10:11
can honestly see the same thing with
10:13
technology expanding far more
10:15
than we see it as it is now so i
10:18
i can only imagine what’s to come next
10:20
as far as that goes
10:22
but and i mean like uh zoom interviews
10:25
are
10:26
totally okay now um years ago
10:29
pre-coded if a guest was going onto a tv
10:33
show they would do so
10:34
through a uh studio
10:38
and now people are hopping on air
10:42
and being broadcast around the world
10:44
from the comfort
10:47
yeah we’ve seen it with late night talk
10:49
shows and even
10:50
interviews that are on the news so it’s
10:52
it’s definitely crazy to see how
10:55
with adapting to what the world has
10:57
become what we’ve been able to possibly
10:59
do
11:00
yeah um but as far as going back to your
11:03
background
11:04
what was it like working for corporate
11:06
media
11:09
you have the resources to
11:12
do great storytelling in a way that
11:17
i think sometimes at a local level
11:21
um people don’t always have access to
11:24
and so i was always really grateful for
11:26
the fact that like
11:28
we didn’t need to worry about if we were
11:31
able to get a satellite seat up because
11:33
we would have a satellite operator with
11:34
us
11:35
types of mobile news you’ll
11:39
be running a satellite truck or now they
11:41
have live units
11:42
but i think the biggest thing was just
11:45
that
11:46
at the corporate level you have the
11:49
support
11:50
to really make anything
11:54
possible it was very much like a
11:59
fewer guy mentality where there’s no
12:02
option but getting like getting your
12:05
shots
12:06
up and lives or being able to pursue the
12:09
story
12:10
and uh having the money to do that is
12:13
the biggest
12:14
is the biggest roadblock so at the
12:17
corporate
12:17
like at network level
12:21
you really have to have the cash flow
12:25
yeah i mean it definitely provides a
12:26
perspective
12:28
to compare the two um as for you
12:31
something to be really grateful for like
12:33
it’s never something to be taken
12:35
for granted no absolutely it’s like i’m
12:38
sure if we had like
12:39
of course we know like our university is
12:41
struggling but i’m we would be
12:43
absolutely grateful if we were able to
12:45
have like our like
12:47
we have a newsroom and we have like a
12:49
makeshift studio
12:50
but definitely if we could you know gain
12:53
more
12:54
it would be more beneficial to us and
12:56
i’m sure communication
12:57
students coming in as well
13:00
and then as for you what advice do you
13:02
have for students who are coming into
13:04
the job market to differentiate
13:05
themselves
13:06
in this highly competitive field
13:10
i think that staying hungry being
13:13
willing to always say like i i wanted
13:17
i want to do that uh
13:20
asking asking to do things because
13:24
i think the worst thing anybody can ever
13:25
say to you is no
13:28
like taking initiatives
13:32
is really important and i think that it
13:34
sets people apart
13:35
um and being i i saw today
13:40
i think it was the new york times had an
13:41
article about warren buffett
13:43
he mentioned one of the number one
13:46
personality traits that
13:48
uh that hiring managers should look for
13:52
and it was trustworthy as the highlights
13:54
and i totally agree with that
13:56
because you have to be able to trust the
13:58
people who you’re working with
14:00
so as a young person if um
14:03
if you can show up on time and do the
14:06
work be a trustworthy
14:08
employee it really opens up a world of
14:11
possibilities for you because
14:15
within journalism there is little room
14:17
for error
14:19
and if you can be reliable and
14:21
frustrated i think that those are
14:23
definitely two of the biggest
14:24
personality traits to
14:26
help you kind of like have that edge
14:30
yes that’s i would definitely say that’s
14:32
good advice like
14:33
i’ve heard most of what you said before
14:36
but
14:36
i think trust the the trustworthiness
14:39
plays a part especially now with
14:41
news outlets being accused of like with
14:43
fake news and
14:44
that they’re no longer like accurate to
14:46
what they report anymore so i
14:48
i definitely think that is great advice
14:50
and then lastly
14:51
who else do you think we should talk to
14:53
regarding this research
14:55
if you have anybody
14:59
that’s a good question let me give that
15:01
a little bit of thought and i can
15:02
is it okay for me to reply to you guys
15:04
in an email like that
15:05
yeah absolutely okay other than that
15:09
that’s it i sincerely appreciate you uh
15:13
answering questions for us and thank you
15:15
for giving us your time i know you’re
15:17
stuck in traffic so hopefully that does
15:18
uh
15:19
minimize itself pretty soon but thank
15:22
you so much
15:23
of course i’m happy to chat um just for
15:25
my reference when i’m giving some
15:27
thought to
15:29
anybody else i could put you guys in
15:30
touch with us
15:33
who else have you spoken with um
15:36
well we’ve spoken with our provost of
15:40
our university
15:41
we’ve also spoken with somebody from the
15:43
pointer institute her name is barbara
15:45
allen
15:46
and then we’re scheduled or my peer
15:48
elizabeth is scheduled to
15:50
speak with somebody named anika
15:54
ahmad i believe it is l
15:57
and then i believe we are also scheduled
16:00
to speak to somebody
16:01
this week um from inside higher ed
16:06
yeah his name’s ray schroeder okay
16:09
so and then obviously you as well but
16:12
we’ve
16:13
just spoken to you have you given any
16:15
thought to talking with
16:17
um individuals who are running
16:20
other communications programs around the
16:22
country
16:24
um so that’s actually kind of what ray
16:26
schroeder is going to
16:28
talk to us about he worked for um
16:32
it’s sunni right that’s how you say it
16:34
john
16:35
he worked for suny for about 45 years in
16:38
the communications program
16:40
so wow
16:43
yeah so and then anybody else that we’re
16:46
able to get um we’re gonna try and get
16:49
it’s more of the fact that we send out a
16:50
lot of emails and a lot of people don’t
16:52
get back to us
16:53
so so you are one of the uh
16:56
lucky few that are able to uh be a part
16:59
of this
17:00
oh so happy to just and again thank you
17:03
so much we sincerely appreciate it
17:05
yes and thank you thank you both for
17:07
your flexibility
17:08
i can i apologize for the delay getting
17:12
back home
17:13
it’s completely okay and then if you
17:16
think of anybody
17:17
we can contact or we should contact just
17:20
shoot
17:20
me or you can just shoot me an email
17:23
okay
17:23
great all right thank you thank you both
17:26
and uh
17:27
this sounds like a very cool project
17:28
please send it along
17:30
when you have absolutely i will send you
17:33
the link as soon as it’s finished
17:35
awesome thanks guys no problem
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