IU students get 'real world' experience at Fox News

Last weekend, two IU students had their 15 minutes of fame in a live Fox News broadcast from New York City.\nSenior Lisa Berenholz and junior Jonathan Gibson were part of a pilot contest for producing a "fair and balanced" news story, organized by IU alumnus John Malkin, vice president of affiliate sales and marketing for Fox News. Malkin contacted the Department of Telecommunications last summer to find a professor who would be willing to participate in the partnership. Professor Ron Osgood agreed to participate in the competition with his T351 course, "Video Field Production." \n"I thought it was a great opportunity for students to apply what they were using in class to real-world activity," Osgood said.\nThe two students and two instructors received a tour of the Fox News studio and were interviewed during a live broadcast Saturday about their opinions on fair and balanced news reporting.\nOsgood incorporated the contest into the class syllabus, as the project made up 25 percent of the students' final grades. His two classes each divided into 13 teams of two or three students.\nJanis Bolling, associate instructor for the course, said the projects ranged from options after graduation to national smoking bans.\nBerenholz and Gibson did their assignment on file sharing, specifically focusing on small bands versus large record companies.\n"We talked to a local band out of Indianapolis and the executive vice president of a major record label," Berenholz said.\nBerenholz said although they experienced technical problems along the way, such as poor lighting and bad audio quality, they still managed to bring it together at the end.\nAfter nearly a month of shooting, interviewing, editing and producing the video, the students turned their projects over to a Fox News judging panel in New York. Osgood was contacted with the results in early December, and Berenholz and Gibson -- along with Osgood and Bolling -- were given the opportunity to travel on an all-expenses paid trip to New York to speak about fair and balanced news reporting during a live newscast.\n"We didn't expect to win," Berenholz said. "Our classmates' tapes were also very well done, but when we found out that we won, we called up everyone we knew."\nAlthough the trip was only a little over a day, Bolling said the journey was well worth it, as they all stayed in a hotel right across from Times Square, were given a tour of the newsroom and had the chance of a lifetime to be on national television.\n"Before the interview at Fox, we where pampered with foods and drinks and treated like stars," Gibson said.\nBolling watched in the background as Osgood, Berenholz and Gibson were introduced by an anchor and answered general questions about fair news reporting and specific questions about their project.\n"It was very interesting for me to watch the entire segment and see their hard work come to a conclusion," Bolling said.\nOsgood said he is already looking forward to participating in the competition next year.\n"I was really impressed with the results of my students' videos," Osgood said. "Overall, it was a great, positive experience we had working with Fox."\nBerenholz said the experience opened up her eyes to life in the news world.\n"I learned that there are always deadlines to be met," Berenholz said. "And that anything can go wrong at anytime. But I also realized that this is my calling in life."\nGibson said his time at Fox News influenced his future goals.\n"By going out there, I have made so many contacts and was able to talk to people in the profession doing what I want to do."\n-- Contact general assignments editor Lori Geller at lfgeller@indiana.edu.