In the Field

An incompletion—but one 'Slash' was able to fix

Anonymous — Tue, 27 Aug 2024 18:50:23 +0000

An incompletion—but one 'Slash' was able to fix Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 08/27/2024 - 12:50

By Joe Arney
Photos by Kimberly Coffin (CritMedia, StratComm’18) Jack Moody and the CU Athletics Department

In his playing days, you couldn’t help but notice Kordell Stewart (Comm’16) when he was on the field.

A harbinger of the mobile quarterbacks who were as eager to run the ball as they were to throw it, Stewart—“Slash” to the fans who adored the way he carved up defenses as a quarterback, wide receiver and rusher for the Pittsburgh Steelers—was impossible to miss.

That was also the case when he returned to the classroom in the spring as part of the Prime Time: Public Performance and Leadership course created by the College of Media, Communication and Information. Stewart showed CMCI students how his communication degree helped him in both the huddle and the media scrum, as well as in a varied post-playing career that has included charity service and being an ESPN analyst.

“Dealing with the media can sometimes be a challenge because how you see it is not how they’ll see it,” he said. “You need to understand it’s about you—it’s not about them.”

But you need a different set of tactics when you’re leading your teammates on the field.

“Being a quarterback, you have to talk to everybody—you have to learn people’s personalities, their threshold for pain, their emotions,” he said. “How do you deal with all these different personalities? It’s not easy, but being a quarterback, that’s your charge.”

Doing so effectively is about more than just what you say, said Timothy Kuhn, a professor of communication, who attended the lecture.

“One thing he talked about was that as a leader, he recognized that he needed to read the body language of people and get to a place where he could communicate without words,” Kuhn said. “That’s something we teach all the time—that words are a part, but not the end, of communication.”

A costly miscommunication

Ironically, it was a miscommunication that kept Stewart from completing his degree during his playing days. He shared how a misunderstanding with his professor—who failed Stewart for missing class while he was meeting big-league recruiters—meant he entered the NFL draft one course shy of graduating.

Returning to school in 2016 to retake that course was a challenge, but he hit his stride around the time his classmates realized the guy in the back of the room was, in fact, Slash.

“That was the most fun I had in college,” he said—more fun, he insisted, than the 64-yard pass to Michael Westbrook that silenced The Big House in 1994, capping off the Miracle at Michigan and creating one of college football’s most enduring moments.

“This was something where I had removed myself completely from this space, and found a way to come back to finish,” he said. “It made my time in Colorado feel complete—play good ball, do well for yourself, now get your degree.”

Crossing the finish line meant getting comfortable with the technology today’s students take for granted, but Stewart learned that connecting with classmates and communicating with faculty not only resulted in better academic outcomes, but also made the class experience more enjoyable.

From NIL to NFL

Another major change since Stewart left ��«��Ƶ, of course, is the NCAA’s adoption of a “right to publicity” that gave athletes control over their name, image and likeness, or NIL. He had plenty to tell the class about NIL, which was the genesis of the Prime Time course that has also featured guest lectures from Deion “Professor Prime” Sanders and others.

“NIL has become a guide to move forward throughout sports, because it happens when you go to the NFL,” Stewart said. “Being able to start that process in college gives you the opportunity to create an image of yourself to your audience, to captivate that audience—and that’s the intrigue.”

However, it hasn’t changed what it takes to be successful in a sports media career. For Stewart, it comes down to what he learned in his communication classes: People working in the industry “need to speak straight up. No one is being held accountable for foolishness.

“You want to do this kind of work, you can’t be lazy with your facts. It’s like your classes; you do your homework,” he said. “If you start pulling stuff or making stuff up, you get discredited. Know your facts and know your audience. It’s not about being perfect, it’s about having a conversation.”

Kordell Stewart entered the NFL Draft one class shy of finishing his communication degree from CU ��«��Ƶ. Of all the incompletions in his career, that one perhaps stung most.

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Digging up the big story

Anonymous — Sat, 28 Oct 2023 00:22:25 +0000

Digging up the big story Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 10/27/2023 - 18:22

By Joe Arney

An important part of being a good enterprise reporter is a willingness to keep digging, even when the soil seems shallow.

Sometimes literally.

A news feature on agrivoltaics—the practice of growing crops beneath solar panels—that Gabe Allen and Tyler Hickman published in The Colorado Sunnot only helped validate both students’ interest in environmental journalism, it won them Best Scalable Innovation in Planet Forward’s 2023 Storyfest competition.

“Our instructor, Erica Hunzinger, talked about the importance of following your curiosity,” Allen said. “She encouraged us to go down this rabbit hole, even though it was weeks of digging before we knew we had a hook.”

Storyfest showcases student work that seeks to understand and illuminate innovations for how to best care for the planet. As part of the students’ win, they spent five days aboard a polar vessel in Iceland, learning how the country is addressing conservation alongside a team of naturalists, photo instructors and others.

“When you’re digging and you hit the wall, that just means that you have to go around it or go over it—find a new angle.
—Tyler Hickman

It was a valuable experience for two graduate students who chose to study journalism at CMCI thanks to the focus and opportunities made possible through its Center for Environmental Journalism.

“We’re trying to inform people first and foremost, but through these human interest stories, you’re also showing the impact these stories can create, and how they can bring about change,” Hickman said.

For the Sun feature, Allen and Hickman visited Jack’s Solar Garden, in Longmont, to share the story of founder Byron Kominek’s three-year battle to get a solar installation on his farm. The students’ persistence was rewarded when, deep into their investigation, a bill to expand agrivoltaics was proposed. Gov. Jared Polis signed it into law in May.

“When you’re digging and you hit the wall, that just means that you have to go around it or go over it—find a new angle,” Hickman said. “That’s something all our professors really drilled into us.”

Hunzinger, also public health collaborations editor at The Associated Press, called the pair “driven and ambitious.”

“You could see their growth in their in-class questions and discussions and in their assignments,” she said. “When these two decided to pair up for the final project, I knew we were in for a curious and thoroughly reported treat.”

For Allen, the opportunity to do enterprise-level reporting was a major motivator to attend grad school.

“It was fun to really dig into that piece—to spend a month talking to so many different people, from politicians and scientists to the farmer on the ground,” he said.

As conversations around solar farming entered the Statehouse, two student journalists found themselves on the forefront.

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Finding the Right Fit

Anonymous — Wed, 06 Jul 2022 23:34:26 +0000

Finding the Right Fit Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 07/06/2022 - 17:34

By Tayler Shaw (Jour, Span’21)

When Sophia Bragaglia (StratComm, Econ’21) decided to enroll in the Social Media Listening course the last semester before graduation, she had no idea it would lead her on a path to become a data strategist at a world-renowned advertising agency.

Throwing a cap: Sophia Bragaglia, who graduated in 2021, has already used lessons from CMCI classes on social media, marketing and public speaking in her job at a world-renowned advertising agency.

The unexpected journey began when Bragaglia approached Chris Vargo, the associate professor who taught the course, to follow up on his offer to students: “He was always like, ‘If you ever need help, I’m always a message away,’” Bragaglia said.

After meeting with Bragaglia about her job hunt, Vargo began helping her network with agencies. Their efforts paid off: After five rounds of interviews, Bragaglia was hired by the award-winning advertising agency Grey Global Group.

In her role as a data strategist, Bragaglia often conducts research to understand consumer behavior and how her clients’ brands can have a role in people’s lives, she said. With a dual degree in strategic communication and economics, the position is a perfect blend of her talents, and it allows her to demonstrate the power of communicating in an ethical way.

“The main department that I work in is strategy, so I do a lot of research—a lot of digging into how people are behaving, how the market is functioning and what would be a good message to put out there right now,” she said. “I love it.”

Transitioning into her new role was intimidating at first, but thankfully, she developed transferable skills as an undergraduate student that prepared her for success, such as learning how to conduct independent research and to craft impactful stories.

One of her favorite classes was on public speaking, which she took during her first year in Buckingham Hall as part of CMCI’s Communication and Society Residential Academic Program.

“It really helps you build an argument and sustain it, and I really liked it,” she said, recommending other students take the course as well.

Among the most useful skills she developed in her classes was learning how to use marketing and research databases, such as the database Mintel.

“That really, really helped me because I use that at my job, but nobody [here] taught me how to do it,” she says. “If I hadn’t learned it in college, I wouldn’t know how to do it.”

Learning wasn’t limited to the classroom. During her undergraduate career, Bragaglia completed advertising internships with Ogilvy Brasil, Banco Itaú and Repense, all in her native country of Brazil.

“I knew what I wanted in the second agency because I had had the first experience,” she said. “I also chose my job based on that, as well, because I got to really understand what type of position is meant for me.”

In addition to her internships, Bragaglia gained real-world experience by getting involved in on-campus organizations. One of the highlights was working as the director of outreach for TEDxCU, a student-led organization that independently organizes and hosts TED events.

“That was really exciting because I got to apply everything I learned in classes to the real world, and it was something I really cared about,” she said.

With each experience, Bragaglia paved the way for her current career, and it all started with her decision to attend CU ��«��Ƶ.

Her family is originally from Brazil, but her dad fell in love with ��«��Ƶ when he first visited the area as a young adult. Throughout her childhood, her dad took her and her brother skiing around ��«��Ƶ. She always admired the beauty of the campus. Once it came time to choose a school, CU ��«��Ƶ felt like the right fit, she said.

“It seemed like it would be the place that I was going to be the happiest,” she said, explaining that her creative side drew her toward the strategic communication major. She added economics soon after her first semester began.

“And everything just worked out so perfectly.”

Years of preparation in classes, internships and student clubs helped CMCI alumna Sophia Bragaglia leap into one of the top advertising agencies in the world after graduation. Now, she’s applying the skills learned from majoring in strategic communication and economics in her new job as a data strategist.

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Never-Ending Story

Anonymous — Wed, 10 Nov 2021 06:14:15 +0000

Never-Ending Story Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 11/09/2021 - 23:14

Jad Davenport (MJour'98), a National Geographic represented freelance photographer and writer, delves into the art of storytelling learned from a career in photography, filmmaking and journalism.

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Sharing Stories of the Summer Games

Anonymous — Thu, 22 Jul 2021 22:08:29 +0000

Sharing Stories of the Summer Games Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 07/22/2021 - 16:08

By Tayler Shaw (Jour, Span’21) and Stephanie Cook (MJour’18)

After a year-long delay, the Tokyo Summer Olympic Games captured the world's attention in 2021

As this year’s events unfolded, sports reporters and storytellers––including alumni, students and faculty from CMCI––hit the ground running to capture the victories, struggles and emotions of athletes from around the globe.

The experience has likely been both familiar and thrilling for Olympic veterans such as USA Volleyball Communications Manager B.J. Hoeptner Evans (Jour’90), who marked Tokyo as her sixth Games. Another longtime pro, AP photographer Gregory Bull (Jour’91), captured an iconic photo of Gabby Douglas’ gold medal-winning beam performance during the London Olympics in 2012 and returned to cover gymnastics and swimming in 2021. Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times journalist John Branch (Bus’89; MJour’96) also headed to Tokyo this year with a focus on newer events such as skateboarding, rock climbing and surfing.

For more recent graduates, like NBC Sports Event Management Assistant Lina Takahashi (Jour’19), the 2021 Olympics represented a personal and professional milestone. Attending the Tokyo Games, specifically, has been a longtime dream for Takahashi, whose father works with Japanese Olympic runners.

“I think my love for the Olympics was partly because of my dad,” she told CMCI in 2019, “but I also think that I was just amazed at how the world comes together every two years to compete, watch and celebrate their nation’s players.”

Paralympian, veteran and author Melissa Stockwell (Comm’02)––whose memoir, The Power of Choice: My Journey from Wounded Warrior to World Champion, was published in 2020––is competing as a triathlete after two previous Games. The first woman to lose a limb in the Iraq War, Stockwell has previously won three paratriathlon world championships and a bronze medal at the 2016 Rio Paralympics.

“Even with some of my fastest times, I was not confident that I was going to be named to the team as I needed an international invite slot, the same I had received in 2016 prior to Rio,” Stockwell wrote on Instagram, adding, “I think I am still in shock."

Some Olympic events this year brought current and former CMCI Buffs together. Television producer Peter Lasser (Comm’76)—who has covered 10 previous Games—recently captured the Olympic swimming trials in Omaha, Nebraska, alongside CMCI sophomore Abbie Snyder, who was there as a production runner for NBC.

"What a difference a year could make," Lasser says. "The athletes already compete for an opportunity that occurs in a very small window of time. Training for years, so that on a singular day you will perform at your best and hope to win a gold medal or any medal, or just make finals to compete for a medal. There were probably a dozen U.S. swimmers that would have made the team in the summer of 2020 but were surpassed in trials a year later by others who were reaching their peak. To quote the old ABC Wide World of Sports opening, it is the epitome of 'the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat'.

While journalists and producers have traditionally covered Olympic events in person, much of the reporting on this year's Games was conducted virtually due to the pandemic.

Lasser, who once filled in for Turner Sports to produce a hockey game virtually during the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, believes that remote production will continue for future Olympics, for both technological and financial reasons.

"There are two major factors – first, the quality of the production that the world feed provides. Olympic Broadcasting Services has continued to add to the technology of coverage at each Olympics," he says. "The second factor is cost. It cost NBC roughly $50,000 per person sent to Tokyo––that is for airfare, hotel and per diem. It doesn’t even cover pay. At those numbers, it just doesn’t make sense."

CMCI Instructor and Sports Media Minor Director Marina Dmukhovskaya is one of many journalists who reported on the Games virtually for the first time this year, and despite having two previous Olympics under her belt—Sochi in 2014 and Pyeongchang in 2018—the Tokyo games made her feel like a novice again.

“You get used to coming to a place, talking to athletes, talking to coaches and attending press conferences,” she says. “And then suddenly all you have is a computer, your notes, internet and your colleagues.”

This was also Dmukhovskaya’s first time writing for the Olympic Channel, the platform of the International Olympic Committee. Based in Berlin, Germany, she began her coverage at 8 a.m. CEST—3 p.m. in Tokyo, Japan JST—and didn't wrap up until at least 6 p.m. CEST. Though she wasn't reporting on site, Dmukhovskaya met virtually with editors and production teams based in Tokyo and Madrid, as well as fellow journalists scattered around the globe.

“I think this is becoming a new norm,” she says, adding that, while she would have preferred to report from Tokyo, she understands the rationale for limiting exposure to the athletes, as well as the increasing importance of reducing travel for environmental reasons.

For feature stories, Dmukhovskaya focused more on individual athletes than on specific events, she says, noting that for many athletes, the real battle is not with their competitors but with themselves.

When looking for potential leads, Dmukhovskaya says, she examines the relationship dynamics between athletes and seeks details that capture the personal and often emotional stories of their Olympic journeys. Recently, she produced stories on athletes' mental health, on a rock climber who was forced to train alone after the death of his longtime coach, and on two former canoe racing rivals from the same team who realized they work better together.

“The way that they went from competitors to people who are looking forward to getting the same medal—from being these individuals to becoming a team—it’s amazing,” she says.

Part of what makes the Games so special, Dmukhovskaya adds, is the way each event brings together an international and diverse group of individuals.

“[The] Olympics is, I feel like, the greatest event on Earth because it brings the talent and the stories and the representatives of the entire planet,” she says.

Lasser agreed, noting that the international broadcast center is often a hub for broadcasters from around the world.

"I have always thought that the most unique aspect of the Olympic Games was the international broadcast center," he says. "You can walk through the facility and literally see broadcasters from hundreds of countries all bringing the story of the Olympic Games to their homeland. Just sitting in the commissary, you see the faces of the world in one room and hear so many languages. While the variety is great – the purpose and focus is the same."

While the main events take place over the span of about two weeks, producers like Lasser and journalists like Dmukhovskaya spend far longer preparing. Dmukhovskaya's assignments required extra research this year, as she needed to familiarize herself with summer events after spending most of her career focused on the Winter Games.

“It’s kind of an unfamiliar situation to me because I’m not an expert in summer sports. And it’s funny because I’m always telling my students who take up sports writing with me, ‘Hey, it doesn’t matter if you’re an expert, you can always research,’” she says. “So I’m actually following my own advice and I’m like, ‘Oh, now it’s me who has to do that.’”

For her first Games at Sochi in 2014, Dmukhovskaya, who speaks five languages including Korean, worked as a translator for Viktor Ahn, a six-time Olympic short track speed skating champion who represented Russia and was born in South Korea. She eventually began writing stories on the Olympics and fell in love with capturing the experience.

“The atmosphere was just so amazing,” she says. “I just wanted to experience that feeling again—the euphoria of being at this big event. And look at me now. I’m at home covering the Olympics in Tokyo.”

Anonymous — Wed, 21 Mar 2018 20:54:45 +0000

Covering the games Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 03/21/2018 - 14:54

Your voice: Cheryl Preheim (Comm’95)

Cheryl Preheim (Comm’95) is a veteran reporter and news anchor who spent 18 years at 9News Denver before moving to a sister station, WXIA, in Atlanta, Georgia.

PyeongChang was the fourth Olympic Games I’ve covered in my career. I’ve covered London, Sochi, Rio and PyeongChang—each one is unique and memorable.

I’m always inspired by the people we meet and the countries we have the opportunity to explore. I’ve found Team USA athletes have such a pure love of their sport and a sincere desire to be a part of something bigger than themselves. They inspire me.

A few Olympians may become household names and enjoy lucrative sponsorships, but the majority will not become wealthy or famous. That isn’t why they pursue their dream. They simply love competing and being on a team. They put careers on hold or work side jobs to fund their training. They spend time away from family and friends to travel the world competing. They may only get their stories told once every four years when the Olympics come around. Yet, they love nothing more than pushing themselves to a physical limit and representing all of us.

Getting to know the athletes is one of my favorite parts of covering the games. Adam Rippon was such a fun interview. One of the bobsledders, Lauren Gibbs, picked me up off my feet to demonstrate her background as a power lifter. She and Elana Meyers Taylor later sang “Happy Birthday” to one of my four children when she found out I was missing his birthday covering the Olympics.

Preparing for the Olympics is a process that takes months. There are a lot of logistics to work through before the trip. For example, we organized all the gear we need and shipped it months in advance, got Korean currency and got customs documents in order.

We did research on the host country and set up stories in advance in that country so we could hit the ground running when we arrived. We learned the personal stories of the athletes. We travelled to gather interviews and video to share stories of the athletes' personal journeys and training as they prepared for the Games.

I had an external hard drive full of video, interviews and music that was organized so it was easy to access as needed. That was critical as we got into our long days--in South Korea we worked an average of 17 hours-per-day—and fast deadlines. During our month-long trip, we produced, wrote, shot and editted our own stories before doing our live reports. The next deadline was always just a few hours away.

An experience that impacted me greatly was the opportunity to visit the Demilitarized Zone and see the line of demarcation between North and South Korea. Spending time with the soldiers stationed there and learning more about the history of the divide between these countries and the current political climate was fascinating and sobering.

I will never forget standing at the border and looking toward the hills of North Korea. I heard speakers playing music and propaganda. As a journalist, it was a reminder of why we do what we do. I thought about the 25 million people in North Korea who live with no access to information other than what their government shares to strengthen its own narrative. I felt very fortunate to be a journalist in a country where holding the powerful accountable is expected of the press. I was reminded of the importance and power of fair, objective, balanced and accurate journalism and why it must be our goal each day and a cornerstone of democracy.

I cannot say enough about the hospitality and kindness of the people we met in South Korea. I absolutely loved meeting them, along with visitors and athletes from all over the world. Covering the Olympics is a special assignment and an adventure I will never forget.

Q & A: Alex Stone (Jour'03)

"Our PyeongChang offices had an unbeatable view overlooking the Olympic Stadium. This is the spot where we did many of our TV standups for ABC News affiliates across the country."—Alex Stone

Alex Stone (Jour'03) is a national correspondent for ABC News Radio who is based in Los Angeles, California.

What did it mean for you to cover the Olympics? What inspired you?
It’s always exciting to cover the Olympics! To see the best of the best from around the world compete in one space is exhilarating to watch. And we can’t forget, so many of the Winter Games athletes live in Colorado. To see Red Gerard and Lindsey Vonn do their thing was pretty incredible.

This year’s Olympics added the extra geopolitical component that made coverage that much more interesting. We saw the beginning of what appears, for now at least, to be a thawing of relations between North and South Korea—and potentially North Korea and the U.S. Before flying out I got to visit the Demilitarized Zone, which was a moving experience. To look beyond the border into North Korea is something I will never forget. It's always a huge honor to cover the Olympics.

What surprised you about your experience?
We were told before heading to PyeongChang that it gets cold. I thought I knew cold from my time in ��«��Ƶ. But it was so much worse than I expected. The wind chill had the daytime temperature at -15 degrees Fahrenheit—with 50 mile-per-hour winds for a few days.

I wrote a story for abcnews.com about how cold it was and people called me a wimp and said it’s the same as winter in the Dakotas. Trust me, it wasn’t the same. That high mountain cold with 50 mph winds—plus sometimes you’re standing still for a while in it—is something else. But once the winds died down and the temperatures came up, it was amazing how pleasant 30 degrees above zero felt. It felt like summer. Oh, and one more surprise was the amazing dumplings. I am now having dumpling withdrawals.

"When time allowed, our team would head out to catch an event or two. On this day we were able to watch the giant slalom."—Alex Stone

How did you prepare?
For physical comfort I bought cold weather gear and boxes and boxes of hand warmers. But that aside, all of us who head to the Olympics for ABC News do as much research as we can.

Because most of us are not sports reporters, it means studying up on athletes and sports that we don’t cover day in and day out. A great example is curling. The U.S. men’s team, which won gold, has a fascinating story to tell about falling out of grace in Sochi and then fighting back to win gold this year. It’s important to know the stories beyond the big names like Lindsey Vonn and Shaun White when heading over. Of course, their stories are a huge part of our coverage as well. And since ESPN is part of our Walt Disney Company family—their studios are always close by and we can rely on them for help.

From being lifted up by U.S. bobsledder Lauren Gibbs to visiting the Demilitarized Zone to developing a taste for dumplings, reporters Cheryl Preheim (Comm’95) and Alex Stone (Jour'03) recall their most memorable experiences covering the 2018 Winter Olympic Games in PyeongChang, South Korea.

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