2016 Photography Reel

2016 Demo Reel from Adam R Davis on Vimeo.

Investigative Journalism: Communication department sees a decline in student volunteers

                Aidan Kalimon is a practicum student in the communication department at Clarion University. When not in class, he can often be found working behind the scenes in WCUC’s production room. There, he has tasks like recording and editing liners and listening to new music for consideration in the collection.

                Often, he is found doing this alone. Perhaps another practicum student shows up to work, but much of his time is spent working solo.

                Kalimon has his work cut out for him. He must go through stacks of CDs with new content. With more volunteers, this task would be divvied up among other students.

                 “We get three or four discs in a day. It all stacks up over time,” said Kalimon, who concedes that it’s just more work for those who do volunteer.

                It’s not just the radio station feeling the strain. Across the communication department, hard working students put in extra effort to make up for the shortage of help.

                Students and faculty in the communication department are scratching their heads. The radio station isn’t the only place seemingly devoid of extra hands. The TV studio and student newspaper, The Clarion Call, are similarly wanting for extra hands. Volunteers for student organizations across the communication department are far lower than in previous years.

                Eagle Media television productions have been reduced to skeleton crews. When one of the three shows in this semester’s lineup go to the studio to shoot, half a dozen at best turn out to work as crew. Often people on camera are pulling double duty off camera too. The other two shows see even less crew.

                Freddie Saladin has been with The Clarion Call since his junior year. First as a writer, and now the Features editor. He too has noticed a decline in people stepping up to write for the newspaper. His section only has one journalist to cover the four or five stories each week. There is currently only one photographer for the whole paper.

                Dr. Naomi O’Neil has been the adviser for the Clarion Advertising Club for the past nine years. She has also noticed a substantial drop in participating students.  In normal years, Ad Club can have an average of ten to fifteen students. This year, they have five core volunteers.

                Four years ago, Ad Club ticket sales for the Pittsburgh Pirates totaled around 268. This year and last year were both 87. However, while output has dropped, those who have stayed committed have worked very hard.

                She believes that many of these students are simply over-committing themselves. They come in for their freshman year and see all these organizations they can be a part of. The result is that they end up spreading themselves too thin. Many students also have two or three jobs that they may be working that keeps them from committing fully.

                "It has always been a challenge to get students to commit to one club," Dr. O’Neil said, noting that students would show up to Ad Club meetings at the beginning of the semester, but then start falling off as the year progressed.

                “It just seems like students are taking on so many other responsibilities that it appears they are spread very thin as far as their time and ability to commit to something."

                Despite the decrease in activity in student organizations, overall enrollment in the communication department is on the rise. The 2017-2018 academic year saw a 175% increase in enrollment from just four years ago. The problem is not correlated with the number of incoming students.

                The lack of student volunteers in organizations has affected the work of those that are committed on a regular basis. Lyndsey Kujawa is a junior in the digital media program. For the spring semester, she created a show called ‘Filling the Space.’ It’s a show about art and the creative process.

                “When I was here as a freshman, we had over 20 people all the time coming down to help with news broadcasts, with sports remotes.” Kujawa said. When she started her show however, she noticed a decrease in student involvement. Most shoots had a total of six people working as crew in the studio.

                “It was a little disappointing to me. I thought since this was a new project, something brand new coming to the department, that students would be more enthusiastic about doing it.”

                Kujawa wasn’t the only person producing shows for Eagle Media in the spring. Spike Leonhart, also known as Spike the Comedian, has been working on two shows. He also noticed a lack of enthusiasm for production.

                “People just want to see the finished product, they're not interested in the work that goes into it.” Spike said. He observed that students mostly worked on productions if there was a class that required them to do it. Otherwise, there would be maybe two or three students committed to a project.
 

                “The rest are background noise.”

                Kalimon noticed a similar attitude with the radio station. "A lot of people want to be on air, but they don't want to do the busy-work,” he said. He thinks that morale would go up if more work were divided up among more people.

                Martin Mateer was originally a computer science major before switching to communication. He has been active in both television and radio production. He was surprised at the shortage of people stepping up to work on both. He says it’s a bigger problem in the television studio, where there are more technical positions to be filled compared to radio.

                He thinks part of the problem could be a lack of awareness that these organizations exist.

                “I didn’t even realize that students could get involved until this year,” Mateer said. He believes that if students were had more information on how they could get involved, there would be more volunteers.

                Saladin says there are not enough writers for the mount of stories that need to be covered each week. Often editors are taking up the role of reporter and writer on top of their editing tasks. He says taking on these extra tasks, as well as being an editor and having a full class load is a lot of strain. He has been disappointed with the response from the outreach to journalism students.

                “We would go to these classes and say, ‘how many of you are journalism majors,’ with a bunch of people raising their hands,” said Saladin. He would go on to explain what kind of work would be involved and how it would benefit them. The number of people interested dropped to only a couple after the pitch.

                “They should be coming to us and participating. It will be good and beneficial for them in their future.”

                Spike has been working as a kind of liaison between Eagle Media, theatre and English departments to get collaborations started. To him it seemed like a logical thing to do. The English department has writers to create stories and scripts. The theatre department has actors, set designers and costuming for performance. Eagle Media has the resources to shoot and edit the projects for viewing. He says his efforts have been discouraging. The Theatre and English departments seem to be on board, but there’s a lack of enthusiasm from students at Eagle Media.

                This was also tried previously, according to a professor who talked to Spike about the idea. Failure of the departments to communicate effectively led to it’s demise.

                Dr. O’Neil is taking steps to help Ad Club improve its numbers as well. They’re seeking to start recruitment now, rather than in the fall. This means students will already have it in mind when they return from summer break. The concern is that by the time students hear about the organization in the fall, they already have other commitments. An open house is also planned with food, games and prizes to grab student interest.

                Saladin said that even though student enthusiasm has been less than stellar in the past, they will continue to push for recruits. He feels that there hasn’t been enough exposure to The Call for students. A bulletin board for the newspaper is being planned for the upcoming academic year.

                Communication department chair, Dr. Myrna Kuehn isn’t as concerned about the drop in student participation.

                "When you look at student groups, when you look at volunteer groups, there is an ebb and flow to it," Dr. Kuehn said. A student gets involved with something they love, so they tell their friends. That group of friends also gets excited about the organization and get involved too. When they graduate it leaves a void behind which is not always filled immediately. This is also how non-majors get involved. Often these organizations attract people from different majors because they discover that it’s something they enjoy or have a talent for.

                “I'll look at it and I'll say, aw it's too bad we don't have as many in there this year as we did last year, but it doesn't worry me because there are just trends that happen that way."

                There are classes which involve applied learning through the television studio. the radio station, the newspaper, or through social media. These classes require students to plug in in specific ways, which feeds the participation. Then there are the students who participate on their own initiative, working for the fun of it or for professional development.

                “Internally driven or dedicated students are the ones who volunteer first,” says Dr. Kuehn. “Whether it's a school thing or a community thing or a work thing, most ardent volunteers do it because they find their own personal satisfaction in doing it."

                Mateer says the shortage of volunteers hasn’t had a negative effect on his enjoyment in producing content for television and radio.

                “It’s been a really positive experience,” Mateer said. Not only has he learned a lot but has made a lot of friends and good memories in his time with Eagle Media. He thinks that means as much as the hands-on experience. The interaction with fellow students can be as valuable as the technical skills gained.

                Perhaps with time, a new wave of self-motivated students will get interested in these organizations again. At the same time, maybe these new students will also inspire their friends to get involved too.

                “It's their future. Sooner or later we'll have to be competing for jobs,” Saladin said of journalism majors. “Those who are writing are going to have a lot more experience."

                For now, the dedicated few like Aidan Kalimon will continue to work hard to fill the void left by a dearth of volunteers. However, they can take come solace in knowing that their hard work will eventually pay off.

La Nina returns for another winter.

                La Nina has again emerged for the 2017-2018 winter season. The official forecast is greater than 60% that it will persist through the season and into spring. Much like last year, La Nina appears to be weak once more.

                What exactly is La Nina, and what are the impacts for the Mid-Atlantic region? You’re probably familiar with its counterpart, El Nino. This phenomenon occurs when equatorial ocean temperature is warmer than average.

With La Nina, the opposite occurs. Ocean surface temperature is cooler than average around the equator. The cooler the temperature, the stronger the La Nina event and the larger the impact.

La Nina’s effect on the Great Lakes area generally leads to warmer than average temperatures, with above average precipitation. This outcome was certainly true for last winter. Temperatures across the area were mild. Precipitation was well above average, though much of it was in the form of rain.

Similar to the previous year was the winter of 2011-2012. Temperatures across the eastern U.S. were well above average. It was a stormier winter season than most as well, with several severe weather events occurring as far north as Indiana in January and February.

Exceptions do occur, though. The 2010-2011 winter season was in a strong La Nina. That season was noteworthy for four blizzard events across the Midwest and northeast. The term ‘Snowpocalypse’ became widespread in the media and popular vernacular.

What can we expect for this winter? It’s still too early to tell for sure. Forecast models for the coming week are pushing a cold airmass into the northeast. Highs could average around 30 degrees beginning midweek and into next week. But these patterns can and do change. Time will tell what the heart of winter brings.

Never let your guard down, though. Prepare for winter to the best of your ability. Have warm, insulated clothing on hand. Keep snow shovels and ice melt ready for sidewalks and driveways. Make sure your car is in shape with good tires. Winter weather has been responsible for over 1800 deaths on the road in the past 10 years.

Finally, take weather forecasts seriously. Winter weather may be more difficult to predict with pinpoint accuracy, but a little knowledge goes a long way.

The importance of pets in our lives

                Have you ever heard someone say, “it’s just a pet?” Did you have to put on a tough exterior when your four-legged friend died? I think we tend to trivialize relationships with our animal companions. Perhaps we feel they should hold less significance than relationships with fellow humans.

              
                Faust was a few years old when I moved to Clarion. The German Shepherd was skittish and wary of newcomers. However, in time he accepted me as part of the family. I could go into the fenced in backyard and play with him, something few could do.

               I took a large part in his care over the following five years. He had to check on me when I came home from work or school as well. He would smell me over to see where I had been, lean on me for a moment, then carry on with his dog-business.

                His death was sudden. He was active the previous night, and my roommate said he was fine when he left for work in the morning. A neighbor had noticed him motionless in the yard and informed me.

                He had no signs of pain or discomfort. It’s as if he had just laid down and never got back up. This didn’t make his sudden passing any easier on all of us around the house. It’s still painful writing this nearly two weeks later.

                Science has provided evidence that pets improve the quality of our lives. Therapy animals have assisted in patient recovery. But it’s not only the human that benefits. The reward center in a dog’s brain lights up in response to praise from their human companion.

                We share a bond with our pets that’s both unique and similar to interpersonal relationships. Having a pet in some ways can be like having a child. Dogs are completely dependent on us not only for food and shelter, but social support. Cats appear to be more independent, but they still like us around. We're just more like another cat to them.

                It should come as no surprise that the death of a pet is devastating. These critters share a substantial part of our lives. Don’t ever let anyone downplay the importance of that four-legged family member.

Doubt, a play for uncertain times?

          The Clarion University Theatre presented “Doubt: A Parable” last weekend at the Marwick-Boyd Little Theatre. The show ran from the 11^th to the 15^th.

          The play by John Patrick Shanley is a drama set at a catholic school in the 1960s. It’s a story about a nun and her suspicion of the priest of her parish. Sister Aloysius accuses Father Flynn of inappropriate conduct with one of the boys in the school. Shanley keeps the truth of the matter ambiguous.

          Rob Bullington directed the play. He had also directed another play of Shanley’s about ten years prior, Danny and the Deep Blue Sea. He says Shanley is one of his favorite contemporary playwrights.

          Part of Bullington’s decision to choose Doubt was practicality. He wanted a play that would work within the limits of available cast and personnel for the semester.

          “Right now, we’re a little short. Our enrollment in our department is down a little bit and we don’t have a lot of skilled labor to build scenery,” Bullington said. “So, we can’t do huge sets.”

          He compared the story to something like a detective drama. Little pieces of information from both sides are revealed throughout. He said it was captivating enough that there were times you could hear a pin drop in the audience.

          He felt the cast was wonderful taking on difficult roles. The students had the challenge of portraying characters older than themselves. Sister Aloysius in particular, was significantly older than Lindsay Victoria Smelcer, who played the role.

          “It was more important to us that I was playing her attributes instead, but it was kind of incredible and cathartic,” Smelcer said regarding Aloysius’ strong convictions. Smelcer also holds strong convictions. The ability to express doubt through the character gave her a chance to show a vulnerability she never had the chance to show in normal life.

          Tree Layton Zuzzio also found a connection to his character, Father Flynn.

          “I have friends in the priesthood who are worried about this too. They’re fearful for their position,” Zuzzio said. He could also see how love for a congregation might be mistaken for a less appropriate emotion.

          “It’s up to the audience to decide if I did it or not,” Zuzzio said.

          Though Bullington didn’t pick the play to make a statement, he thought there was a certain timeliness to it. In today’s world where he feels belief has become stronger than fact, Doubt still holds some relevance.

Editorial - Where's the Love? In Support of Non-Ball Sports

                Yet again, I am preparing for another long day doing a live telecast of a horse race. The Dan Patch stakes are one of Indiana’s other big racing days. And once more my mind turns not to a particular sport, but how the public responds to sports.

As big a deal as horse racing seems to be in this state, it’s still very understated. Most locals I’ve spoken to about things like Dan Patch and the Indiana Derby, are genuinely surprised to hear about it.

This time around, I’m considering the popularity of sports without a ball. Or rather, the lack of popularity. American football is the most popular sport in the U.S. by a considerable margin. A distant second is basketball. Ironically, America’s Favorite Pastime of baseball, ranks third.

In Europe, the top sports are English rules football (known to Americans as soccer), rugby, and cricket. These are all sports featuring a ball. In Japan, the top sports are soccer, baseball, and basketball. A pattern is emerging here.

The world over, sports that involve transporting a small roundish object from part of a field to another are by far the most loved. It’s so pervasive in fact, that often people need to be reminded that sports exist outside of ball games.

In fact, there are sports that aren’t even competitive. Most skydivers aren’t exactly in a rush to get to the ground. Mountain climbing is considered a sport. Some people do compete to reach the top. It may not be a race in the common definition, more of a time trial situation. However, I don’t believe there is any organized scoring system or league in place to represent it.

These sports, and others like them are referred to as ‘extreme sports’. Also included in this category are snowboarding, base jumping, whitewater rafting, among others. There’s even extreme pogo... yes, as in pogo stick.

So why the disproportionate love of ball games the world over? Why do sports that don’t involve a ball lag so far behind?

There’s one thing that seems to separate ball sports from non-ball sports. One generally requires a cooperative team effort, while the other works on a more individual level.

Once again, there are exceptions. Golf and bowling are generally played solo. Golf and bowling are also substantially less popular. On the other hand, whitewater rafting is mostly a team effort. The rule is definitely the former though.

My hypothesis is that humans are mostly social creatures. Naturally they will flock to sports that involve group participation. In a way, support of their favorite team makes them a part of the team. There’s a sense of inclusion under the banner of that team name. That sense of belonging to a group is more difficult under an individual.

This is all just speculation on my part, but an article I read recently supported my idea. Kids’ Health ran a piece about fitness for kids who don’t like sports. The list was very individualistic, and all but one of the sports listed included a ball.

These sports were meant to provide some form of exercise for those kids who preferred not to compete, or just liked doing things on their own instead of a team. These type of people are a minority though. In general humans prefer group participation and competition.

I could be completely wrong, but I think it’s worth considering. I was surprised to find no information at all on the subject. Are there any psychologists out there willing to research this idea? I would be anxious to have an answer.

COM 442 Scripts

This is a collection of news scripts from a class I took in electronic news writing. All scripts are in PDF format.

Radio Feature Story
Bowlathon Story
Robocams in Tucson
SWAT Standoff
Fire Story

The audio for the radio feature story is available to download below.

Radio Feature Story: Why Shoot Film?