KNOXVILLE — Students in the School of Journalism and Electronic Media at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, are again producing a unique television news magazine program broadcast on Knoxville’s WBIR-TV each spring. This is the 17th year that UT Knoxville and WBIR have worked together to provide viewers with an inside view of the University of Tennessee.
“UT Today” airs at 1 p.m. on selected Saturdays until June 5. Students in journalism and electronic media professor Sam Swan’s Advanced Television News class produce the program. The students serve as writers, reporters, producers and anchors for the program.
Swan says the class prepares students to work in the real world of television news. “All of our reporters are what we call ‘backpack journalists,’ writing, reporting, shooting and editing their own stories,” Swan said. There are three student producers and 18 student reporters working on the show this semester, he said.
“UT Today” is presented in three segments. In the first segment, students cover news of national and international importance with a UT angle. The second segment has feature stories about faculty, students and other interesting activities at UT. The third segment is sports, with students reporting on a selection of sports stories.
“Many students in the class have gone on to work as reporters and anchors at TV stations here in Knoxville and across the country,” Swan said. Among the local alumni of the program are Beth Haynes, WBIR-TV anchor for “Live at Five at Four,” Heather Haley, news and weather anchor for WVLT-TV, Wes Boling, sports reporter/anchor at WVLT-TV, and Ben Prijatel, a producer at WATE-TV.
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C O N T A C T :
Sam Swan (865-974-5123, samswan@utk.edu)
Charles Primm (865-974-5180, charles.primm@tennessee.edu)