Thursday

IU / memories / podcast / Thursday / Wednesday — Comments Off on A political campaign ‘listen to this’
24
Sep 20

A political campaign ‘listen to this’

When I was in graduate school I took a class on political communication. The professor was a famous and renowned pollster. And after a day or two the professor would ask the class a question and the class just looked at me.

I was conscientious of that. I didn’t want to be that guy, but they were pretty clear that I should be that guy. The professor would later become my committee chair, did me a few solid favors in the program and later took credit for introducing me to my wife.

He was only slightly wrong about that, but he’d earned the literacy license with me.

So esteemed was Dr. Powell in our eyes that, despite him asking us for years to address him by his first name, “Because we are colleagues,” we all still refer to him as Dr. Powell. He’s a good man.

And I was thinking of him while I was interviewing Dr. Gerald Wright, who is in the political science department at IU. We talked about the upcoming presidential debates. So I was very happy for the opportunity, because this is the part of politic campaigns that I like: the message construction, the real body work.

The debates, probably not as much. They’re important, but they’re not. You know what you know about the candidates. You like who you like. And not much that can happen at a debate, or even a series of them, will move people who have made up their minds.

They’re debates, but they’re not. The formats aren’t really debates anymore. We don’t know all of the details about this debate cycle, yet, but there’s little to suggest the previous sentence will be wrong. It has been written that they’re basically press conferences in their current form, and that’s not exactly wrong.

They’re entertaining and informative, but they’re not. You have to follow and know politics to be entertained by them. If that describes you, you won’t learn much that’s continually informative for you. If you’re apathetic to the process in general — and far, far too many are — then you’re probably not watching, or paying only scant attention anyway.

They’re a part of the process, but they’re mostly just a tradition at this point. It’d be terrific, from the perspective of civics, if they were more than an academic study. I’m sure Dr. Powell will have a great deal to discuss with his classes during and after the debates. And I bet Dr. Wright will, as well. You get the impression, from the interview above, that he’ll have a lot to say to his students’ benefit.

He asked, before I could remind him, if I wanted the soundbite answers or the professorial answers. You’ve no idea how much I wanted to insist on the really in-depth stuff.

television / Thursday / Twitter / video — Comments Off on Making it through the week
17
Sep 20

Making it through the week

Look, this is after work, before dinner and before a mountain stage of the Tour de France. Even on the DVR, skipping the commercials, I still have several hours of watching the best riders in the world move their feet in tiny circles. And it starts at …

The Tour is usually in July. That it’s happening at all this year is pretty incredible. And the race has been entertaining, with potential for a great finish. But right about here, as we’re beginning Stage 18, you feel like you’re in the race, too. They’re doing the riding, but this is an endurance event for everyone. And, when it runs in the summer, I at least have a regular work schedule. But the split days of the fall … it’s an endurance event all its own.

Life, as they say, is tough.

Not really, but I could do for some more sleep. They ride onto the Champs-Élysées this weekend.

So trying to get everything in leaves me feeling a little ragged just now, but, most importantly, it’s worth it to see the TV folks do their thing:

Here’s some of the Tuesday programming:

They’re just a week in, finding their sea legs, and things are already moving efficiently.

It’s going to be a great year in the studio.

More on Twitter, check me out on Instagram and more On Topic with IU podcasts as well.

IU / photo / Thursday — Comments Off on Just a teevee thing
10
Sep 20

Just a teevee thing

Back in the studio this evening. The sports gang had another two shows to shoot. The highlight show is a little thin just now, IU sports aren’t back yet, but any day now it would seem. The talk show is operating at 100 percent, however. This is how it will look when it is released later this week:

Haley is telling the guys how it is at the beginning of the NFL season. She’s taking Kansas City to repeat. She and Jevan are filling the role of football beat reporters this year. They’re going to do a great job if they get the chance. It’s an open question if Big Ten football will start (it will) when it begins (next month sometime) and how the media will get to work (total mystery).

Jevan is the one on the right. Drew is the host of this show. This is his second year running The Toss Up. Last year there were four chairs on that set. The three-chair arrangement is a concession to social distancing, but I think it is going to wind up creating more interesting camera shots. Drew already thinks it might be better in terms of working in his guests.

Drew came to IUSTV three or four years ago. He learned how the audio booth worked and locked down the A1 role. One night he showed up in a coat and tie, monologue in hand. We had some extra time and he delivered his script. Over time, he used those occasional spare minutes to improve his writing and his presentation.

He got stronger and stronger and those bits became social media extras and then regular features. Two years ago we graduated the last absolute star. (He’s working on the Gulf Coast these days, making me jealous all of the time.) And that meant auditions. Drew got the job and, today, he’s hosting this show, learning about producing and is a co-sports director.

Haley has been an almost-natural from day one, and she’s creating mountains of great clips for her reel. Jevan started out enthusiastic and a little nervous, but each time he’s on camera, you can see him growing more and more comfortable every time the lights come on.

My favorite thing about student media is that it’s so experiential, which is absolutely critical for students studying this stuff. The most important part of it is how easy it is to take advantage of the opportunity. The neatest part is watching students do it.

IU / photo / television / Thursday — Comments Off on Show – show – show, here we go!‬
3
Sep 20

Show – show – show, here we go!‬

‪In the spring, IUSTV’s production run was cut short by the university’s coronavirus shutdown. The last recording was with the sports crew, it was a March Thursday night. The outgoing sports director recorded a little monologue and then held a really touching meeting and he walked into the last weeks of his senior year and the first weeks of professional uncertainty. He, and every other senior, had such a scary, unenvious position just then. Some of them were starting to sign their first TV contracts at that moment. Others were doing job interviews. As far as I know and can tell, all of them, including that outgoing sports director, are working today. Almost all of them seem to be in jobs in their chosen flight path (including that departing sports director, who’s on-air at a hometown station) which is remarkable.

You couldn’t help but feel for those seniors, and all the underclassmen. When would we come back? What would that be like? And for our students in particular, you can’t thrive in Zoom meetings alone, which is what so much of those last weeks of spring became. The curriculum is so experiential, how would we deliver that?

Which brings us to the fall. We didn’t know, in March, what September and October and November would be like. We didn’t even know what April would look like. Maybe it’s still an open question, how the fall turns out, but I hope not. For all of the promise of technology, it brings some unique challenges, and pedagogical habits don’t, in fact, change overnight.

But, tonight — even amidst the unusual nature of these first few weeks, even as we don’t know how the semester will wind up — it’s developing in a familiar way for the TV crowd. The last show they recorded in the spring was sports, and so it’s fitting that the sports gang returned to the studio for the semester’s first production.‬

They don’t even have local sports, right now, but they were ready to be together, eager to be in a group, happy to do something. And, for a first production night, with new leadership (a solid, solid set) and some new members, and after an almost-six-month layoff, they did a fine job.

And it looks like the Big Ten may wind up reversing course to give them some sports content sometime in the next week or so, besides. Twenty, as the kids say, twenty.

When I left the building this evening:

This is the sunset view of choice around here. I’m not sure why. It is west. The fake ancient gates are behind me, but you’re just looking toward the downtown area. It seems like we could do better than this.

But we didn’t have to tonight. We didn’t have to tonight.

photo / Thursday / video — Comments Off on I had no idea
27
Aug 20

I had no idea

Did anyone lose some nice risers and a little canopy and some other stage implements? Because they’re just sitting out here in Dunn Meadow.

The university has set up several of these temporary outdoor venues. In addition to the county’s health restrictions the university has put their own rules in place to cap group sizes. And, whenever possible, they’re trying to get student groups to use the little places like this. They’re not all built the same, or the same size, and I’m sure there’s a strategy for all of that.

No one, I’m convinced, is capable of thinking of everything when it comes to restarting things anew in these curious circumstances. Every answer prompts a new half-dozen questions, who could have all the answers? It is encouraging to see all of the things they have thought of, and to see the way the university is investing in doing this as safely as possible. It won’t be perfect, but it’s a big, big effort.

And, to me, after the institutional-level stuff, it comes down to basic human habits and structures and our personal responsibilities.

My hands, for example, have never been as clean as they’ve been these last few months. In and out of the house, time for a sing-along. Pass a hand sanitizer at the office, rub-it-in, rub-it-in. Have to run an errand around time, take a hit off the travel stash.

Who knows what else I’ve avoided while trying to be diligent about the current public health crisis.

I learned something interesting today. This style of mask is slimming if you wear it upside down.

Imagine my chagrin when I saw that in a mirror. That should teach me to tie my mask as I’m walking from the parking deck to the building.

Fortunately, there aren’t a lot of people in our building in this first week of classes, so no one noticed and I was able to correct the problem. Dodged one there.

Dodge people. That’s good advice when you are committing fashion faux pas.

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