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Wednesday, May 7, 2008
ABC News opening ‘digital bureau’ at UT
University of Texas journalism students could wind up on ABC’s “Good Morning America,” “World News” and “Nightline” in the fall when ABC News opens a “digital bureau” here as part of an new initiative called ABC News on Campus.
Only five universities around the country have been invited to participate. Besides UT-Austin, the program includes Arizona State University, Syracuse University, the University of Florida and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
The UT bureau will open in September under the supervision of broadcast journalism lecturer Kate Dawson, a 14-year TV news veteran who spent her career at Fox News Channel, WCBS in New York and ABC News Radio. She joined the UT faculty in 2006.
“ABC was really impressed with UT’s credentials and considered this a great journalism school,” Dawson said.
The ABC News-campus partnership will create a multimedia bureau at UT that will include new video and computer equipment, paid internships for student staffers and a paid position for Dawson as the faculty adviser. The first student bureau chief is Sara Loeffelholz, a senior from Aledo. The other bureau staff members have not yet been chosen.
“These college bureaus will extend the newsgathering reach of ABC News throughout the country,” said ABC News president David Westin in a statement. “In addition, they will enable us to nurture bright young journalism students, giving them hands-on training from some of the most seasoned news professionals in the business and the opportunity to see their work appear on ABC News platforms.”
No doubt ABC also sees the campus initiative as a way to lure some of the country’s 33 million 18- to 25-year-old viewers into watching TV news. Younger viewers have abandoned nightly newscasts since the arrival of online and cable news.
The UT bureau will receive training and on-site mentoring for the student bureau chief and faculty liaison at ABC News headquarters in New York twice a year.
Every day, year-round, students will pitch stories to the ABC news producers. If one is accepted, the bureau will engage its multimedia operation. A print journalism student might write the script, a broadcast journalism student might do the standup and several students would be in charge of shooting and editing, with online additions available, too.
“This is an amazing opportunity,” Dawson said. “We’ll learn from each other and have access to resources at the other college campuses… . ABC News is interested in a variety of issues, from campus security to features on college trends. They want the college student’s points of view, which is something you don’t see very often on network news.”
In the fall, the UT group also will help out with ABC affiliate KVUE’s general election coverage.
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‘Sex’ ends on Mother’s Day, Jason (please) off ‘Idol’ tonight
“Talk Sex” ends on Mother’s Day! Is there deeper meaning in the timing? We hope not.
Oxygen’s “Talk Sex” (11 p.m. Sundays), the sometimes shockingly frank call-in show hosted by 77-year-old Sue Johanson, bids farewell on Mother’s Day.
After six seasons on American cable TV (and 32 years altogether on the air), Johanson, a spritely Canadian nurse with a penchant for doling out sex advice, has decided to call it quits.
Oxygen insists it did not cancel the show, which is the network’s most popular late-night series.
“I’m going to miss playing with sex toys,” Johanson told the Associated Press.
Sunday night’s finale, appropriately, will feature the hostess-with-the-mostess counting down the year’s Top 10 Sex Toys.
Slacker Castro out tonight? Please?
Have “American Idol” voters finally come to their senses?
Let’s hope so, because if Jason Castro doesn’t get axed tonight, I’m gonna throw stuff at my TV.
We know the blue-eyed, dreadlocked Texan (and Aggie!!) has a following. No doubt. We just don’t know why.
Some might call his demeanor dreamy; I call it stoned. He drifts around the stage, batting his eyelashes, looking shy and totally out to lunch. A few weeks ago the cameras caught him yawning and practically nodding off as he waited to perform.
Last night, as if the slacker persona weren’t bad enough, Jason forgot the lyrics to his second song, Bob Dylan’s iconic “Mr. Tambourine Man.” If you’re going to mess up a Dylan song, mess up the tune, not the words. Dylan songs are all about the words.
At this point, I don’t really care who wins out of the remaining trio.
David Cook seems the most likely, but Syesha Mercado was brilliant last night. OK, I admit it. I actually cried during her performance of Sam Cooke’s “A Change Is Gonna Come.” Huggable boy-toy David Archuleta, a long-time favorite of the judges and screaming tweens, is a 17-year-old wunderkind with terrific talent — but missing some heat due to his boyish adorableness.
Just PLEASE get rid of Jason Castro. He didn’t belong in the Top 10, and he certainly doesn’t belong in the final.
Results are tonight at 8 on Fox.
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