Is theory important? I don’t doubt that it is. Essentially it is the foundation of what we study. But does that mean that it’s more or less important than hands on experience. I don’t think so.

    As a student, I personally learn better and find myself more engaged when learning in a hands on manner. I also feel more comfortable starting an internship knowing I can complete the task assigned because I had the hands-on experience.

     However, aside from the importance of hands-on and theory teaching I think public speaking should rocket to the top of the list.

    Mastering public speaking skills helps you build relationships, network and shows your confidence. I personally think more weight should be put on public speaking and I don’t feel all professors emphasize it enough.

~Summer Gemmati

**This is in response to Dr. Schedel’s and Kara Kane’s posts on theory.**

I never once said in my column that theory isn’t important, I just emphasized my belief, and what I’ve experienced in the work place, that hands on is more valuable.

I think the reason people took it the wrong way might have been more of the headline, which I didn’t write and didn’t realize until today what it said.

The reason that I, and from what I am getting in response from other students, might not find theory to be as ‘useful’ in the work place could be the fact that I didn’t get anything out of my theory class.

For students to understand theory it needs to be broken down in simple terms. Yes, we are college students and therefore our learning capabilities are higher, but theory is hard to grasp. I left each class more confused then when I entered and I know I’m not the only one. The fact is students taught our class and its not easy to learn something from someone who doesn’t understand the reading themselves.

And I do believe that internships can be a good basis for judging the real world on. I know that some internships are just making copies and doing the ‘b.s.’ no one else wants to touch, I’ve been there, done that, but more recently at my internship with Buffalo Spree Publishing I have been doing real world work. It is the same tasks I would be asked to do if I was paid.

I know I am putting theory to work each day of my internship, but I just don’t know what theory it is.

~Courtney Pellet

After my grandmother was recently diagnosed with breast cancer, my mom encouraged me to check out www.thebreastcancersite.com, which allows visitors to the site the opportunity to “click to give free mammograms.” I started to visit the site daily, and soon discovered that the site offered a number of other causes to “click” for. Soon, I was clicking to give food, child health care, books, and more.

Curious as to how this could be possible, I looked into the way this worked. What I found was that several websites are using the money generated by advertisements to help out different causes. How cool is that? I find it to be a breath of fresh air, and it helps me to have faith that not every agency out there is looking for a profit. Thanks to these “click-to-donate” sites, even the busy, broke, college student is capable of contributing to foundations that benefit issues like the rain forest, animal rescue, global warming, and violence, in addition to the causes I mentioned earlier.

If you have a few extra minutes to click around, why not make them count? In addition to www.thebreastcancersite.com, you can try www.care2.com, www.ripple.org, and www.freerice.com, which is a vocabulary game site that rewards your correct answers with free rice for the hungry. It’s an easy way to give, and it’s also considerably more rewarding than Facebook.

Megan Fitzgerald

I recently took Media Criticism here at Medaille with Buffalo News critic, Alan Pergament. I enjoyed it very much as I learned a lot. One of the things that I got out of the course was about reality television and what goes into making it.

I am not a big reality television person but I really enjoy watching Donald Trump’s Celebrity Apprentice. I used to watch the old Apprentice but I got bored with it. So when they added athletes, actors, super models and playboy models I decided to give the show another chance.

What I learned in Pergament’s class is that reality television is not 100 percent real. The producers like to set up situations that are controversial and create chaos. But with the Celebrity Apprentice, the producers don’t really have to create turmoil on the show when they have Omarosa Manigault-Stallworth.

First of all, I have a problem with Omarosa being on the show as a celebrity in the first place. She is considered a reality television star. Just because you were a disgrace on The Apprentice once before doesn’t make you a celebrity. But anyway, she does bring controversy and goes looking for trouble so I know the producers love her.

The second problem I have with her is that she is a horrible business person and she is still on the show. She has not raised a dime for her charity and is just being kept on to keep the feud between Piers Morgan alive and the ratings up. Recently the feud between Omarosa and Piers has gotten out of hand as Donald Trump has put them on the same team. Again great for ratings which is what television is all about, But Omarosa has stepped over the line as she started to bring Piers’ family in the conversation which is totally classless, like she is. She is one of those people that thinks she is God’s greatest gift to life. I can’t stand people like that. She is classless and does not deserve to be in this game for charity anymore.

Dear Mr. Trump,

Please fire Omarosa. She is a disgrace to the show. It will be much better off without her.
Matty K

Media Communications, Senior

In past weeks I have talked about the different job positions in newspaper offices.Positions included design, editing, writing, and photography. Today, I will mention another, advertising.

Many newspapers, especially those that are free, run primarily on advertising revenue. There for, daily and weekly newspapers hire a lot of advertising representatives.

Working as an advertising representative for a newspaper is a good opportunity, it has the ability to strengthen ones communication, networking, and sales skills. If you excel at selling advertisements, it is very rewarding, as most newspaper pay advertising reps a salary and commission on what they sell.

The neat part of advertising is that you are exposed to a variety of personalities, and learn a great deal about the different types of business that are world is made up of.

Also, selling advertisements allows you to be creative like most other newspaper positions. For example, if an advertising representative is accustomed to using Adobe software they can not only sell the advertisements but design them too. Designingthem allows you to be creative, and once you build relationships with your clients you get a feel for what message they are trying to convey with their advertisement and you can design it for them.

Advertising is a great opportunity because it allows you to strengthen so many areas, not to mention that it can be very enjoyable if you like meeting new people. And what can be better then getting paid for how hard you work? The more sale calls you make the more customers your are likely to have and the more commission you have to make.

Summer Gemmati

On Friday, November 9^th I had the honor to attend Medaille College’s first annual “Media Day” which consisted of panel sessions on journalism, radio, broadcasting and public relations. Professionals within the field, some who were Medaille graduates, hosted the sessions.

            I attended the journalism session, hosted by Brian Meyer(s) a city government reporter from the Buffalo News along with Roger Puchalski, Editor and Publisher of Am-pol Eagle. This session started with a brief introduction of each panelist but was primarily focused on answering student’s questions and giving advice in the related field.

            This session was particularly interesting for me because I was able to ask experts in the field I hope to work in questions. Also, it was beneficial because I was able to ask questions that pertain to the work we do within the Perspective.

            The most inspirational comment was made from Brian, who said, “Our typical salaries are not rich. Being able to go to work everyday and love what I do makes me rich.” It’s refreshing to know that someone other than myself realizes enjoying what you do for a living is more important than your salary.

            Also, good advice was given from both. Brian encouraged us future reporters to be curious. When you are a reporter, “you have a license to be nosey.” Be curious, be hard hitting, and have fun,” advised Brian. 

            Puchalski encouraged those who wanted to be journalists to constantly write. “The more you write the better you will be,” he said.

            In addition to the journalism sessions, I also attended the public relations and broadcasting sessions. In both sessions, panelists talked about the journey they took to get to where they were in the career today. The public relations left more time for questions than the broadcasting session. I think that was the downfall of the broadcasting session. The panelists mainly talked about them, rather then allot time for students to ask questions.

            I feel I benefited the most from the journalism session and found the “Top 10 Do’s and Don’t’” at an interview that Andy Brocato, community relations director at Tops Market’s addressed to the students during the luncheon helpful

            I think all in all “Media Day” was a terrific opportunity for Medaille communication students and a complete success. In the future I would like to see more sessions and even longer sessions. I think the selected professionals of certain concentrations with in the field have lots of good advice to give, and I think more time would have allowed for students to ask more questions.

 ~Summer Gemmati

        As everyone scuffled in the Main Lobby, conversing about the upcoming day and receiving their Medaille folders and wristbands, silence struck the room as Mayor Byron Brown entered.  The day kicked off with Richard Jurassic, the President of Medaille, giving a brief introduction and welcome to the Mayor.  After the Mayor gave his testimonial about Medaille, he declared November 9th, 2007, the first Medaille Media Day.  The day was filled with panelists that came to tell us about their media experiences and also tell us what important things we need to know when pursuing our careers.

            The first panelist was Bryan Meyer, an investigative reporter for the Buffalo News for the past ten years.  I’m sure that all of the teachers and students that met or have known Bryan can confidently say that he is quite the character.  To be an investigative reporter, you must be very curious, questioning everything that comes about, even if it seems that you may have the obvious answer.  Even though I have no interest in being an investigative reporter, being curious is a good trait to have in the media industry because you always have to get the true story, and sometimes you might not discover the truth unless you become a little nosey.  Bryan then mentioned that the thing he likes most about Medaille’s Media/Communications department is that they really stress internships.  He emphasizes that people should learn and experience different sections of media before deciding upon what they want to do.  In his words, “Know a little bit about a lot of things.”  This is great f or a resume since it makes you appear as a very well rounded person, giving you depth in your field.  This would begin to be a reoccurring theme throughout the day.

             Following Bryan was a Medaille graduate, now editor and publisher of a Polish newspaper, Roger Puchalski.  Roger said that internships are great because they show you what the real world is like before you graduate.  To paraphrase Roger, internships are, in a way, greater then classes because you make mistakes and have to deal with it.  After a student asked both Roger and Bryan how far is too far when interviewing someone, especially someone that you are close to.  They both responded by saying that of course you never what to hurt someone and that you have to be fair, but also have to remember that it is your job.

            The next session began with teachers and visitors gathering in the back of the TV studio, as the panelists got ready.  Professor Lou stood behind the podium as he introduced the four panelists, and of course made a few jokes, making the entire studio laugh.  The four panelists were Tim Walsh of AAA, Mary Murray of the Erie County Sheriffs Office, Mike DeGeorge of the Buffalo Police Department, and Bonnie Kane-Lockwood, the senior field representative of Brian Higgins’ Office.  Everyone had their own way of saying the same thing, but they all had their own, individual pieces of advice or experience.  In Medaille’s Communications Department, it is mandatory to have three internships, with the fourth as an elective.  Walsh’s advice is to diversify your internships, and not to stick with the same internship for all four years.  This is because all parts of communications interconnect in some way.  Mary Murray made a great point about internships also, that is that you do not get any money, but you gain much more in knowledge.  Mike DeGeorge isn’t the same as all of the other speakers in the way that they all finished school and then went to their jobs.  DeGeorge chose between school or his internship.  He chose his internship because he knew that this opportunity won’t be there again, and that school will.  The final speaker, Bonnie Kane-Lockwood was a great speaker, and she never lost her audiences attention.  The old saying is “It’s not what you know, it’s who you know.”  Bonnie elaborated on that a little by adding, “it’s also what they know about you.”  Not only in the communications field, but in all fields, its how you treat people and how they remember you.  In this field, you deal with people on a day-to-day basis, and how you approach them, with your voice and manner, can tell a lot about a person. 

            The final session of the morning had to do with a part of Media/Communications that I’m not interested in-at least I think I’m not.  Mary Alice Demler (Channel 2), Mylous Hairston (Channel 4 and 23), and Joanna Pasceri (Channel 7) came to speak about their media experiences.  They come to our living rooms everyday delivering the daily news.  They all spoke about their experiences and how they came to where they are now, but they all had one thing that stuck out to me.  A lot of people give this advice, but sometimes it doesn’t seem as sincere as others.  Joanna said that she never takes he job for granted, and that it is a privilege.  Mylous started out with saying that he always knew he wanted to do something in broadcasting.  With his first job being McDonalds, he said that he had a good time practicing his broadcasting voice over the drive-thru.  Before he got into on air news, he was on the radio, where he could ad lib, and not read off of a script.  That interested me because I have no desire to be on air, and I believe that when you ad lib you present more of a connection with the audience.  The session finished up with Mary Alice Demler speaking about how she never pictured herself on air, in front of the camera.  Now she is the lead anchor of channel 2, and all of her experiences not related to news are what makes her now, very well-rounded.  She said that you must have drive and passion in this field.  That applies to everything you want to do in your life; if you don’t have the drive to succeed, then there is not point in doing what your doing. 

            I thought the entire day was a success, going from one thing to another really gave me a good idea about how there are many different departments in the media world.  I think that this was a great idea and that we should do this in the years to come.  To sum up the entire day in one word: internships.  All of the speakers stressed that there is nothing more important that to experience what you want to do, outside of the class room, in the real world where you can make mistakes.  It’s a competitive world and you must have the drive and passion to get where you want to be.  And once you get there, you cannot take it easy, you must prove yourself.  Do you want it or do you really want it?

~Matt Dunford

On Friday, November 9th, 2007, Medaille College had a monumental day. This is due to it being the first Media Day in the college’s history.  At 9:00, the Mayor of Buffalo, Byron Brown, gave a speech officially declaring it Medaille Media Day. At 9:15, there were three workshops for the first session. I went to Radio 2007: The New Frontier.

 
Radio 2007: The New Frontier

The moderators for this session were Mike McKay, an underwriting consultant for WBFO and Medaille’s own Lou Pozantides. WBFO’s Eileen Buckley, Heidi Raphael from Greater Media Communications, and Andy Kazarowski from WWWS were a part of this panel. With every one of them a Medaille alumnus, the panel discussed the exciting career opportunities in the radio industry today.

 Mike McKay has been in the business for 20 years and talked about how he was a newsman for 15 of those years. He is now a sales person for WBFO and he said that the communications field is all about connections. “Leave a lasting impression on whomever you meet, because it will help you out a lot” is what he had to say.

 Eileen Buckley, also from WBFO, has spent 22 years in the field, working at 10 different stations, but being at WBFO for 6 of them. Her advice was to “stick with the program you get into, read everything you can about your field, and be very knowledgeable”.

 Heidi Raphael spent 5 years at 97 Rock and has been director of Communications at Greater Media in Chicago. She said that there are many opportunities in the field and that “every day is different so take advantage of it”.

 Andy Kazarowski of WWWS said that the most important skill to have in radio today is writing.

 Session 2: Radio & TV Production (Behind the Scenes)

Session #2, which ran from 10:15 to 11 a.m., was moderated by Robert Mootry, a 2006 Medaille graduate. The panelists for this session were Val Pawlowski, a radio personality from WHTT, as well as a professor at Medaille. The other one was Tom Vetter, a videographer.

 Val had a video for her presentation; it was a presentation on what it was like working at Citadel Communications, who owns WHTT. In the video, it was pointed out that it is a tough job to do, plan on moving around a lot. You need to pay your dues, so work up the ladder as much as you can. The best thing you could do is to get a spot at your college radio station and do a lot of internships, and get all the experience that you can.

 It was mentioned that job are disappearing because most jobs are done by machine and corporations are taking over, so a lot of what you can do these days are regulated.

 Tom Vetter was a cameraman for Channel 4 for 15 years, and he is now a freelance videographer. He kept implying that internships are a must in this business. He has a video on Youtube.com called “Second Chance Children”. He mentioned how he has a chance to shoot videos on Pope John Paul II, famous people, and famous places.

 Session 3 (11:15-12:00): TV Today

This panel was hosted by the head of the Medaille Communications Department, Lisa Van Valkinburgh.  The panel was made up by Mylous Hairston from Channels 4 and 23, Mary Alice Demler of Channel 2, and Joanna Pasceri of Channel 7.

 Joanna started out for the panel. She has been working in TV for 20 years. She said to enjoy your classes, but be prepared for your internships, and reach out more than possible when you are interning somewhere. She was a part of the Washington Senator Program. She started out as a weekend anchor in Elmira, and held a production job.

 Mylous was up next. He mentioned how his first job was at McDonald’s. He practiced his TV anchor voice in the drive-thru area. In college, h was a radio dj. Like Joanna, his first job in TV was in Elmira. He said that behind-the-scenes people are the key to great TV production. His advice was to treat your internship like a job, meaning dress appropriately, and arrive early. He said that the least amount of job security in TV is the on-air department, because you need to be correct and not biased. He also mentioned that personal life will suffer too because you are always doing your job there.

 Mary Alice Demler started out by saying that she wasn’t originally interested in doing TV. She was a Biological Science major at Niagara University. She went to do a study overseas in France and decided she did not want to live there. After working in a hospital for a few years, she met a TV reporter who had gotten her to change her mind and she went to Canisius for communications. She was on the radio first, but then moved on to TV. She said in order to succeed; you must take your skills and your talents and develop them.

 All three mentioned that in order to succeed in the industry, you need to be a really good reporter. Reading a lot is a must, and you need to create your own unique style

 Media Luncheon

The luncheon went from 12:15 to  1 p.m. Don Tomasulo of Entercom was presented with an award and Andy Brocato of Tops Markets gave the Top 10 in both do’s and don’ts for a job interview.

 Overall, I had a great experience at Media Day. It was nice to hear the stories of all these people and how hard they worked to get in the business. I am more strived now to achieve my goals to make it to the radio industry one day.

~Leon-Ryan Adams 

Integrated and Multi-Media:

This session was very interesting because I really wasn’t sure what it was going to be about.  All of the speakers; Kara Kane, Sarah Whitehead, John Fronchowiak and Brian Milbrand talked about print materials today and how important it is to be known on the internet.  They stressed how important it is to have your own webpage and that most of them are free.  They brought up a good point of how important having your own website is.  They mentioned how the person hiring you for a future job you want, then has something to look at that you created and shows papers you wrote and a short bio of who you are.  They also discussed how print materials are somewhat dying.  Kara Kane added that online distribution is cheaper, faster and easier.  This session made me realize what I could do to get my name out there and be known.

Getting the Word Out- Public Relations

 I am glad that I attended this session.  Dick Shanor opened up by saying; “There is no such thing as a typical day in public relations”.  Dick Shanor and his colleagues discussed and answered any questions we had relating to their business at Travers-Collins.  They kept on repeating how important it is to always be ready for a challenge and how important teamwork is.  They all addressed how prioritization is very important because your time is very precious, and whatever you spend your time on during the day should be very important.  Pleasing the client is another big aspect of this job.  Sometimes the client will want something new and edgy when others want boring.  You have to give the client what they want.  Another main point they made is to be ready to research about anything.  When you get a client and you know nothing about their industry, you have to research as much as you can and be ready as possible.  This session gave me some good tips on how to work in this industry or for any industry. 

 Last Session: Television Today

 This last session was my favorite.  It was my favorite mostly because there was standing in front of me what I want to be in the future.  It was fascinating to hear each of their stories and their journeys they took to get where they are today.  Joanna Pasceri, Mylous Hairston and Mary Alice Demler all told their journeys of becoming who they are today.  They all had great stories and said how it was a pleasure to be in our living rooms at night.  They all said to get involved as much as you can and do anything to get your name known.  They didn’t say it was easy and said that your personal life will suffer with the difficult hours and amount of time it will take up.  They also said that a lot of drive was needed and in order to become a great news anchor or reporter, you need to take the news and boil it down to the very essence of it.  Also, you need to make it simple for people to understand and be calm even when reading breaking news.  In order to be a news anchor your look has to be neat and not distracting because that way, people will be more focused on your look and not what is coming out of your mouth.  One more important piece of information that I took with me was to not share your opinions because it’s not professional.  All of this information that I took with me when I left this session gave me a lot of advice for the future. 

 Overall Media Day was a great experience.  I got advice from many people and it has helped me become more focused to what I want to do in the future.  Media Day was fun and surprising and it was great to hear from all different sides of the spectrum.

 ~Brianna Broad

The first session that I attended during Medaille Media Day was “Putting it in Writing: A Career in Print Journalism.” I chose this session for the simple reason that I love writing, and could more than see myself with a career in print journalism. I was really excited that I was being given the opportunity to talk to professionals who had once been where I am now: trying to figure out where I’m going to end up after I graduate from college.

I have been writing for the Perspective for two years now. This year, I am the Assistant News Editor, and I love it. I have always really enjoyed writing, and I feel like I found a really great niche with the newspaper at Medaille. If it wasn’t for Lisa Murphy I probably would not have declared as a Media/Communications major, but she encouraged me to take an active role in the production in the paper, and told me that she thought I had what it takes. So I took her advice. (And I’m glad.)

We met with two guest speakers in the first session: Brian Meyer, from the Buffalo News, and Roger Puchalski, from Polish-American News. Both men had interesting stories and advice to share with us, and they answered every question with enthusiasm and intelligence. Meyer encouraged to know a little bit about a lot of things, and stressed the importance of being curious. He also made mention of the significance of internships and gaining real world experience throughout college. Puchalski was a student of Medaille College , as well as a former faculty member and department chair. He recalled the first desktop publishing system of the school, and reflected on the tremendous growth that the school has seen since his days here. One of the things that he spoke about was how the strength of a student’s writing skills will really make them more marketable in the communication industry.

The two also tackled some serious questions, concerning what to do when someone refuses an interview and how to maintain a relationship with a public figure who may have positive and negative publicity. What struck me as surprising was a statement that Meyer said – that a week does not go by when someone isn’t furious at him. It was interesting but also very true to consider that “if you don’t have enemies, you’re doing something wrong.”

The second session that I attended as a part of Medaille Media Day was “Getting the Word Out – Public Relations.” I chose to go to this session strictly out of curiosity. As a freshman, I came to Medaille as an Undeclared major. At the end of last year, I declared as a Media/Communications major. For this reason, I have yet to take a lot of the required media courses. I have not taken any courses that concentrate specifically on Public Relations, so I wanted to find out a little more about the concentration.

In this session, we met with the Senior Vice President of Public Relations at Travers Collins & Company, Dick Shaner. We also met with two of his colleagues, Betsy Murrett, Senior Account Manager, and Jeff Bucki, Assistant Account Manager. The entire session was a learning experience for me, since I have little to no experience whatsoever in Public Relations. It was very interesting though, to learn about what type of jobs this kind of company can be hired to do. Event planning and advertising is something that I could be very interested in. For example, Murrett informed us that one of her clients is University at Buffalo . I didn’t know that UB could hire a company to get their name out… but now I do. She also explained that depending on your position, you could be spending a lot of time in or out of the office working.

What I think must be most difficult for companies like Travers Collins, is dealing with crisis situations. One of the examples that Shaner chose to inform us about was that when the “bike path rapist” was identified, the company that he worked for came to Travers Collins and said, “help… what do we do?” Obviously, they did not want negative press. That’s where Travers Collins comes in. It has to be tough to smooth over those kinds of events with the media. What Bucki stressed (that I agree is very important) is that everyone who is working on the job is on the same page. Everyone needs to be giving people the same information, otherwise the credibility of whatever the real story is will be completely shattered.

            The final session that I attended as a part of Medaille Media Day was “Television Today,” which everyone was required to attend. The guests at this session were Mary Alice Demler, News Anchor at Channel 2, Mylous Hairston, News Anchor at Channel 4, and Joanna Pasceri, News Anchor at Channel 7. I personally do not have very much interest in going into television broadcasting, but I felt that the information they gave the students was applicable in almost any field. I feel like I particularly learned a lot from this session because I do not watch or pay attention to TV that much.

            All of the guests took turns talking a little bit about themselves and what they feel is necessary for students to succeed in the television industry. I was particularly interested in Demler’s discussion of her journey to her career because she initially had no desire whatsoever to become a news anchor. It turns out, she actually got her degrees in Political Science and French. She even taught French for three years before switching to another unrelated to media job. When she finally realized she was not following her passion, she went back to school and got a degree in Communications. I think for the most part, we see faces on TV and assume that they were just always on TV… but that isn’t the case.

            What I also was unaware of was that news anchors do so much more work than I realized. Maybe because of movies like Anchorman, in which characters go to the studio, get their hair and makeup done, and sit down in front of the camera, I have gotten a distorted idea of what anchors do. I never knew that on top of the 9 hour shift news anchors work as just anchors, they also do writing and reporting for additional hours of the day. The three guests really stressed the fact that though being an anchor appears glamorous, it really isn’t. There is a lot of hard work put into the news before it gets broadcasted in your living room.

            During the session, a question was asked about if you have to have a certain look to become a news anchor. The response given was that in order to become an anchor, you don’t have to be drop dead gorgeous, but your look has to be completely non-distracting. You have to look your best. If you do not appear clean and neat, viewers will not listen to what you have to say. Pasceri joked that when she gets her haircut, she tells her hairdresser to cut her bangs, because otherwise, the viewers won’t hear her. With hair in her eyes, she cannot present information without viewers becoming unfocused. Though the information was shocking, it came as no surprise to me that image is such a big deal in the TV industry.

~Megan Fitzgerald