Compacting a quarter’s worth of instruction into a just a few a days, the Week Zero classes held between spring and summer terms are a chance for University students to take courses that are a departure from the normal catalogue.
This year, the Week Zero term, which ran from June 14-18, featured a unique class from the School of Journalism and Communication: J408 Sports Media. In this course, journalism students were given the opportunity to interact and work with student-athletes to foster stronger relationships between media and sports figures.
The course was a collaborative effort between advertising professor Deborah Morrison and assistant athletic director James Harris. Their intention was to both instruct student-athletes in how to present themselves to the media and give student
journalists the opportunity to see life through their perspective.
“The media has a tendency to put a negative spin on athletics,” said stunts and gymnastics senior Jacquie Svadeba, who was one of the student-athletes chosen for the class. “They rarely show the other side of it — how hard we work and how much we sacrifice.”
The Sports Media course split nine journalism students and six student-athletes into teams. The teams were assigned to create a two-to-three-minute multimedia sports story, usually relating to an element of University athletics. For instance, one group decided to investigate the animosity that many athletes experience from other University students.
“This class was a great opportunity to give the student-athletes a chance to tell their side of the story and also to teach journalists to keep in mind the human aspects and how these kids’ choices may be restricted,” senior journalism student Chris Parker said.
The teams were given 36 hours to complete the project, with many groups staying up for 24 hours straight to meet their deadline. At the end of the course, the teams’ projects were evaluated by a faculty panel, and the winning team was granted the first ever Ben Kalb Award, named after a University alumnus who was instrumental in generating funding for the course.
“I have always wanted to get involved with media,” Svadeba said, “but with my schedule it was just never possible before. Having the chance to get that experience through this course was awesome.”
In addition to the competition, the students also saw presentations from former University quarterback Dan Fouts, who is now a sports presenter for CBS, and Neil Everett, a University graduate and current ESPN “SportsCenter” anchor. Both offered students advice on breaking into the sports media business. Fouts in particular had much to say about student-athletes translating their experiences into success off the field.
“The things I told them,” Fouts said to the Register-Guard, “were to speak English, be nice, be respectful — and realize this could help you down the road.”
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