March 2017 College News

JOURNALISM AND MASS COMMUNICATION Advertising, Digital Media Innovation, Electronic Media , Mass Communication, Journalism, & Public Relations FACULTY ACCOLADES Dale Blasingame received his FAA Part 107 certification, which means he is now a licensed, commercial drone operator. This certification was needed to fly drones with students and to teach drone journalism classes in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication. [ 1 ] STUDENT ACCOLADES The SJMC’s sports media class [ 2 ] , taught by Larry Carlson , made its annual spring visit to the AT&T Center on March 8 to tour the San Antonio Spurs’ broadcast facilities. As the Spurs prepared for the night’s upcoming game against the Sacramento Kings, students were shown the arena’s TV set-up, including thirteen cameras, by Mike Kickirillo , senior director of broadcasting for Spurs Entertainment and a 1988 Texas State alumnus. [ 3] Kickirillo then took the students on a tour of the TV truck to get a better understanding of the jobs of producers and directors of the game telecasts. They saw the dozens of various “bells and whistles” used by the crew, the statistical “FoxBox” and hundreds of switches and graphics/statistics possibilities. Working in the truck for the Spurs, besides Kickirillo, are six more Bobcat alumni, including Daniel Ashcraft , Carter Snowden , Aerin Carreno , Avery Schneider , Tessa Andrade and Taylor Hair . All six are veterans of Carlson’s sports media class and served as interns with the Spurs before landing their jobs. Two current interns from Texas State, both former students of Carlson’s, Brooke Shoemaker and Claire Kreuz , were also working in the truck on this game day. The students closed out their field trip with a Q&A session with Bill Schoening, the radio voice of the Spurs, and Bill Land, the Spurs’ long-time television play-by-play man. Dale Blasingame teaching drone journalism classes to students The SJMC’s sports media class visiting the San Antonio Spurs’ broadcast facilities Mike Kickirillo, Senior Director of Broadcasting for Spurs Entertainment 8 | March | College News College of Fine Arts and Communication | 11 The SXTXState.com graduate project class, led by Dr. Cindy Royal , celebrated its 10th year covering the event that intersects art, technology and inspiration. Graduate students Jordan Cooper , Breanna Salinas , Dylan Lochridge-Fletcher , Charles Duoto and Rachel Mosley met innovators in the areas of virtual reality, coding, politics and diversity. Dr. Royal spoke at both SXSWEDU and SXSW Interactive. Senior lecturer Dale Blasingame spoke at SXSWEDU, and grad students Sara Shields and Joshua Morrison spoke on SXSW Interactive panels. SJMC alumni were also in strong representation with Anna Tauzin (B.A. 2008) speaking on a SXSW Interactive panel on trends in the food industry and Josh Shepherd (M.A. 2011) screening the film Disgraced , in which he served as producer. #SJMCSTUDENTSATSXSW College of Fine Arts and Communication | 9 1 2 3