Scholarship honors late veteran and alumnus Fred L. Peterson ’72, G’73

A new scholarship at the Newhouse School, established in memory of alumnus Fred L. Peterson ’72, G’73, will support students with financial need, particularly students from underrepresented groups.

The scholarship is funded by a gift from Peterson’s partner, Carol O’Brien, with support from his children, Patric Peterson, Vical Peterson, Katie O’Brien Cancila and Megan O’Brien Cancila.

The fund will support undergraduate students at the Newhouse School, with preference given to Black and Latinx students.

A native of Chicago, Peterson served as a military journalist in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War. He attended Syracuse University on the G.I. Bill, earning bachelor’s and master’s degrees in public relations. “He was tremendously proud to be a graduate of the Newhouse School,” O’Brien says.

After graduating with honors, Peterson had a successful career in public relations. He worked for International Harvester, becoming the first African American to serve as spokesperson for the company. He later held PR positions at Bethany Hospital in Chicago and the American Dental Association.

A staunch fan of the Orange, Peterson had hoped to visit campus again during basketball season. But he became ill with the coronavirus in November and passed away Dec. 22, before he could return.

“It is the hope of his family and loved ones that the scholarship for Newhouse students in Fred’s name will continue to honor his memory by helping other Newhouse students achieve their dreams,” O’Brien says.   

Gifts to support the scholarship fund may be made online. For more information, contact Ed Gorham at 315.443.4926 or ejgorham@syr.edu.

Newhouse Insider: The Reality of Burnout and Tips to Avoid it

As we enter the third month of 2021, it is full steam ahead for most. My roommates and I balance classes, part-time jobs and one (or in one case, two) internships. For many of us in grad school, “the grind” is not unfamiliar; after all, we didn’t get into Newhouse by slacking off. However, pushing yourself to your breaking point is not healthy. Burnout is very real. I remember how I felt at the end of my undergraduate degree and would like to avoid that if at all possible.

Due to the changes in semester dates, many of us will start our Maymester only a few days after this semester. This is not enough time for the mental reset that many of us need after a semester of going 110%. On top of that, there will be no spring break, which means many of us will go from January to June at a breakneck pace. With this in mind, it’s more important than ever to practice self-care during the semester— not just after. 

Go Outside

This may seem like a no-brainer, but it’s easy to stay inside and push yourself to do “ one more hour” of work, especially with COVID and so many school restrictions. But, the physical break from sitting in the same place is essential. Get outside, go for a walk, go skiing. Although it’s cold, Central New York can be charming in the winter.

Step Away From The Screen

I spend 8-10 hours a day staring at my screens for school and work. To counteract this, I’ve challenged myself to read 100 books in the year. That may not be a feasible number for everyone, but reading for even half an hour will give your eyes and brain a break. On that note, if anyone has good book recommendations, definitely send them my way!

Make Your Own Wellness Days

The idea of wellness days was well-meaning by the chancellor, but the reality of taking a random Tuesday and Wednesday off just isn’t feasible for many of us. We have jobs and internships that won’t be giving us the day off, so we’ll keep working through it. The idea is a good one, though. If you have the flexibility, try to set aside a weekend that is just for your wellness. Go to the zoo, stay in bed all day, learn a new sport. Whatever you do, set your email to out of the office and take the whole day off. You deserve it.

Commit To Your Breaks

One of the most important things you can do is commit to taking your break when you schedule one. The sanctity of my Wegmans and Target trips is never disturbed. If I go with my roommates, we keep the convos on our personal lives or movies we want to watch, and if I go by myself, I make sure it’s music or a podcast in my ears and not anything school-related.

The next six months of our lives aren’t going to be easy, but we have the power to keep ourselves healthy and avoid burning out.

Follow Mackenzie on Instagram @mackenziegracesnell.

Newhouse alumna places third in Hearst sports writing competition

Newhouse alumna Allison Ingrum ’20 placed third in the 20-21 Hearst Sports Writing intercollegiate competition, which came with a cash prize of $1,500.

Ingrum’s winning article was written for The NewsHouse, the Newhouse School’s multimedia news site. “One part dedication. One part obsession. All parts satisfaction,” is about Bandier Program assistant professor Ulf Oesterle‘s quest to qualify for the Paralympics. Ingrum received the assignment from NewsHouse executive producer Jon Glass. Ingrum’s specialty is features and profiles, not sports, but Glass felt she’d do a good job with the assignment.

“When I was initially looking for a writer for this profile, Allison was the first person to come to mind,” says Glass. “She’s always invested in her stories and I knew she would be enthusiastic to tell Ulf’s story.”

Ingrum is now an operations support associate at PopSugar, and looks forward to doing more work like her winning article in the future.

“I definitely want to stay in the journalism industry,” says Ingrum. “I would love to be a writer and editor for features and profiles, kind of like this one, actually.”

Chew, Egan paper wins first place in BEA competition

Fiona Chew, professor of television, radio and film, and Beth Egan, associate professor of advertising, worked on a paper that won first place in the Open Paper Competition for the Broadcast Education Association (BEA) Research Division this year. The paper was co-authored by Egan and Chew with Chilukuri K. Mohan, Sanup Araballi, Dongqing Xu and Amanda Qi Ni.

The paper, “Developing an ad viewing retention model for TV comedy through machine learning,” will be presented at the virtual annual conference in April. This paper presents a model for audience prediction which can potentially be used to predict audience retention at various levels of ad clutter allowing networks to curate commercial breaks to optimize the viewer experience.

This is Chew and Egan’s second BEA win with a paper they worked on together. In 2019, their paper “TV Program-Ad Genre Congruence and Ad Avoidance: Applying Neural Networks to Assess Effects” took top place in the BEA’s research division.

This research was funded by a CUSE Grant and is an interdisciplinary collaboration between the Newhouse School and the College of Engineering and Computer Science, with data provided by Comscore. 

Photos from The Stand featured in Museum of Modern Art course

The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is hosting an online course that features two pictures from The Stand, Syracuse’s south side newspaper.

“Reimagining Blackness and Architecture” looks at the connection between Black lived experience and architecture, and features insights from Black artists, architects and scholars.

The course, launched March 4, also includes Syracuse University School of Architecture assistant professor Sekou Cooke’s project, “We Outchea: Hip Hop Fabrications and Public Space.” Both Cooke’s project and MoMA’s course are available for free through Coursera.

The Stand is a collaboration between the South Side Community Coalition, Syracuse University and a number of dedicated community residents.

Newhouse Insider: The Buzz about the BuzzFeed Class

A few weeks ago, an incoming Newhouse student messaged me asking about electives that are available for the fall and spring semesters. When she asked me this, I knew I had the perfect chance to sell the BuzzFeed class, otherwise known as COM 630. I had first heard about this class over the summer, when myself and other members of the MND cohort were sent a list of electives that we could choose from. After reading the description of the class, I knew it was something that I wanted to try. I had always enjoyed taking BuzzFeed quizzes to find out everything from what pizza topping I am, to what I should try next at Dunkin’.

However, I would be lying to you if I said it was easy from the beginning. On the first day of class, I was late logging on, which was something I was so embarrassed about. Not to mention, I had decided to sit outside during that class, as I had an in-person class right before, and did not have time to make it back to my apartment within 10 minutes. Also on that first day, I ended up rushing back into Newhouse 3, because it started pouring towards the end of class. As a new student, that was definitely not how I wanted to start the fall semester of grad school.

As time went on, I found myself really enjoying that class. As a member of the BuzzFeed cohort, we received training from employees from BuzzFeed, as well as others who worked in social media, such as Curly Velasquez who actually interviewed Vice President Harris not too long before speaking with us. We also heard from Samir, who runs “Kale Salad,” which is a popular meme page on Instagram. However, one of the biggest parts of the class was making quizzes for BuzzFeed. We received training from Anna Kopsky, who is a community strategist for BuzzFeed, for our quizzes. Since meeting with her, one of the biggest goals among the class was to get promoted.

My first quiz was “We Know What You Should Eat For Dinner Based On The Vacation You Plan.” Shortly after our first quiz was due, other students in the class were talking about how they already got promoted. I was happy for these students, but secretly wished that I would be promoted as well. A few days later, I found myself on the home page of BuzzFeed and found my quiz there. I was so ecstatic and everything went uphill from there. I ended up making four quizzes (three graded, one just because), and they were all promoted. We also had the opportunity to make memes, and conduct a couple of analysis on BuzzFeed itself.

Even though this was an online class, it ultimately felt that it was an in-person class. The vibe was so positive, everyone got a chance to talk and it was almost like we were actually all in a classroom together.

To promote this idea, Professor Grygiel organized a COVID-safe in-person event at Thornden Park one afternoon. Since it was an online class, they wanted us to meet in person. I had made a last minute decision to go, and it was honestly one of the best afternoons I had in awhile. We made friendship bracelets that day, colored and just chatted.

As a graduate student, days like this really meant a lot, and I’m very happy to be in another class with Professor Grygiel this semester. The BuzzFeed class is open to both undergraduates and graduate students of Newhouse and is offered in the fall. I highly recommend it if you want to brush up on your social media skills, learn more about BuzzFeed entirely, meet new people, or just break out of your comfort zone.

Check out Kaitlyn’s personal blog.

Horn abstract to be published in book on post-COVID sports

Brad Horn, professor of practice in public relations, wrote the abstract, “Protecting Athlete Welfare in MLB’s Restart in Real-World Conditions,” which has been accepted as a chapter in the Common Ground Research publication, “Restart—Sport After the COVID-19 Lockdown.” The book has a projected publish date of late 2021.

Magazine, news and digital journalism student selected to receive paid editorial internship at Forbes

Forbes Magazine has selected magazine, news and digital journalism junior Haniyah Philogene to be its first intern through a new partnership with the Newhouse School.

The partnership, announced in January, provides a paid editorial summer internship. Philogene will spend 10-12 weeks this summer as a remote intern with the Forbes newsroom.

“Haniyah is a campus leader with impressive internship experience and work on award-winning campus magazines,” says magazine, news and digital journalism chair Melissa Chessher. “We’re lucky to have her here at Newhouse, and Forbes is lucky to have her on their team this summer.”

Newhouse Insider: Why I’m Taking A Broadcast Class Even Though I’m Not In BDJ

My alarm is blaring. It’s 5:30 AM. Why? Why? Why?

Every Wednesday, I crack open my eyes before the sun is up. I have a 7:00 AM broadcast and digital journalism (BDJ) course. I’m not even a broadcast student. I’m in the Magazine, News and Digital Journalism (MND) program, but I decided to take this course as an elective. You may be wondering: why subject yourself to a 7:00 AM-11:00 AM course that you’re not required to take? I ask myself this every Wednesday. And while sometimes I struggle to find the motivation to jump out of bed, I try to remind myself of all this class is doing for my career and future. So to all my fellow print journalists, here’s why I recommend you take a broadcast journalism class:

1. Make yourself more marketable

The journalism industry is cutthroat, so anything you can do to beef up your resumé will help you find a job in the long run. Being “just a print journalist” is common, but if you develop multimedia, broadcasting, and live reporting skills you’ll be a unicorn. You’re a more valuable asset to many media companies who have had to expand beyond print into digital operations. Yes, you can write news articles. But you can also produce video, host livestreams, and write scripts with some broadcast television experience. If a company can get an employee that can cover many bases, they will.

2. Expand your writing skills

Writing for broadcast television is different than writing for a newspaper or magazine. You have shorter time on the air to convey all the necessary information and it needs to be cohesive with whatever visuals you are using. There’s also a need for more conversational writing between the anchors and the reporters. The writing needs to be concise and allow breathing space for the anchors reading the script; there’s a specific rhythm that’s required in script writing. If you’re a newspaper journalist, you likely have never had to write in this style. Taking a broadcast course will teach you to transform your writing from one medium to another.

3. Try your hand at video

Taking a broadcast television course will allow you to develop your editing skills in a new way. Newscasts are edited differently and have a particular format you need to follow. If you’ve produced multimedia journalism pieces already, why not add newscast packages to your portfolio?

4. Network to get work

You’ll meet new people, new professors, and learn about a different industry in a different Newhouse department. That all sounds terrifying, but it’s also challenging and

has its benefits. This could be helpful in the long run when you’re job hunting. Always work to expand your network. The folks you work with in your broadcast journalism course might end up being valuable connections.

5. Think on your feet

When you are writing an article, even if you’re on a tight deadline, you can always go back and edit. You can reorganize an article’s structure and while you’re researching and reporting, you’re already planning in your mind how you’ll craft the final product. While some parts of a newscast allow that, there’s also a little something called live reporting. You’re thrown into the action, no script, on the scene, and have to improvise what you’ll say based on your reporting. It’s nerve-wracking. But it teaches you to think on your feet and that’s a skill worth having inside and outside your career.

Follow Adriana on Twitter @AdrianaRozas.

Newhouse graduate student wins photography scholarship

Zoe Davis, a graduate student in the multimedia, photography and design program, was one of 12 college students selected by the National Press Photographers Foundation to receive the Brown/Falwell Storytelling Scholarship, given to students whose portfolios emphasize storytelling in multimedia. Zoe won the scholarship based on a selection of stories she produced during her Newhouse classes.

Congratulations, Zoe!