Lecturer Rallies Journalism Professors and Reporters to Share Storytelling Methods

Bradley Weaver, lecturer of broadcast and media production at Westminster College, rallied journalism professors and reporters to review and demonstrate storytelling with smartphone apps as part of a peer-reviewed panel at the 2016 Broadcast Education Association (BEA) Convention at the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) Show in Las Vegas, Nevada.   

Weaver organized, moderated and presented on the panel, "News and Storytelling: There's an App for That!" It featured seven journalists and faculty adapting a variety of smartphone apps in the classroom and the newsroom such including Videolicious and Snapchat.

“Professionals and journalism educators are constantly adapting our smartphones as tools for news gathering and storytelling,” said Weaver. “We shoot, write, edit and share from our mobile devices. This panel served as a peer review platform and a member check system for what’s working for journalists and to explore best practices in a digital world.”

Weaver recruited from peers he has networked with for several years in the BEA including contributors from Arizona State University, Hope College, Ithaca College, Murray State University, the University of the District of Columbia, and the University of Southern California, Long Beach.

The BEA accepted panels for this year’s “Content is King: Storytelling Across Platforms” theme from hundreds of proposals. BEA peer-review committees vetted and narrowed the proposals by considering content value, topicality, expertise, panel diversity, and peer review.

The panel also featured Weavers wife, Amy Marcinkiewicz, a WPXI reporter from Pittsburgh. Marcinkiewicz presented on the Videolicoius app Channel 11 uses to cover news on social media platforms. Westminster College students have field tested Videolicous in some Inquiry courses and broadcasting classes during the past year. Students used the app for editing and sharing videos created on smartphones.

Marcinkiewicz recently received a master’s degree in special education this May from Westminster College.

The NAB Show is the world's largest electronic media show covering the creation, management and delivery of content across all platforms with 103,000 attendees from 166 countries and 1,700+ exhibitors. For more information about NAB, visit www.nabshow.com.

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