Media Studies Students to Debut Sports Preview Show

Students in the University of the Ozarks' Media Studies program will present a news sports preview show, Eagle View Sports, in April and early May.

The five 15-minute episodes will begin this weekend (April 3-5) and will include previews, highlights, and stories about athletics and student-athletes at Ozarks. The shows will be featured on FLO Sports livestreams hosted by the University's sports information program, as well as on the KUOZ Productions YouTube channel.

Russell Jones, instructor of broadcast/video/multimedia storytelling at Ozarks, said the show's inspiration is the ESPN College Game Day productions.

Eagle View Sports will be produced and presented by 18 students and 5 student producers in his Media Production 2/Student Producers class, with assistance from Sports Information Director Josh Peppas. The show will be filmed and recorded on Thursday nights and will air on five weekends in April and May during FLO Sports livestream broadcasts of Ozarks baseball and softball games. Viewers can also watch the show on YouTube (KUOZ Productions) https://www.youtube.com/@kuozproductions3576

"It's exciting to see the rush that students get taking part in a production like this," Jones said. "They want to jump right in, get the cameras set, and tell stories. Getting to connect all of our different programs-the sports information folks, our media students, the athletes-and give them a platform to express themselves and tell stories about their school and their accomplishments is a big win. We hope to grow this into more programming over time."

Ozarks student Estefanía Bautista Lopez said taking part in these types of productions "means getting hands-on experience for building my career in communications. We get lots of time with equipment like the replay equipment which is going to mean a lot for my future. It gives me more than just how to run a camera-it gives me insight into how to make a whole show, to tell stories about sports with an entire crew of people."

Fellow Ozarks student Andres Hernandez Brown called the experience rewarding.

"We get to practice what we're learning, put it to work on a real-life basis," Brown said. "I think that's something every student needs to go through before starting their career. For me, it's a necessary experience, a rewarding one, that's going to give us a more experienced point of view for the media production side of communications."

Jones said that Eagle View Sports is a product of the continuously developing Media Studies curriculum.

"We're positioned to offer desired skills for the media marketplace which Eagle View is the product of, including visual storytelling, modern techniques for shooting and editing video on multiple platforms, and the leadership skills needed to run a team capable of creating this kind of production," he said. "Any live production company would be happy to have students with real experience using those skills apply for work, and any client would be happy to trust their media needs with a professional using those skills."

Susan Edens, a 1992 alumna of Ozarks and an associate professor of communication, said student-led sports productions at Ozarks continue to evolve, especially with the recent completion of the Wilson Athletic Complex.

"The planning for the new Wilson Athletic Complex opened up some conversations with President Richard Dunsworth about a two-fold investment: in the current student-athletes and in the education of our media studies students," Edens said "We brought in Kris Reed from The Field Shop in Little Rock to design and build the integrated and portable systems for not just the Wilson Complex but athletics as a whole. The system includes built-in broadcast equipment at the press boxes and Pan/Tilt/Zoom (PTZ) robotic cameras mounted on poles at each field and in the gym. These cameras feed signal back to the switcher over IP and can be controlled remotely with a joystick and console."

The system started rolling out last semester and continues to come online fully.

"Every time we can put students in a situation where they have the opportunity to do hands-on professional work, we are helping to pave the way to a career in digital storytelling and live production," Edens said.

Topics: Media Production