On Wednesday, April. 3 Dr. Kay Colley, department chair of mass communication, along with other like-minded professors set up a “live event” experience for the mass communication majors.
Colley, with the help of professor Wendy Moore, Dr. Jenny Dean and members of the Eunice West Library, put together a simulation for the students to get practice at handling news breaking in real time. Sophomore mass communication major Brian Wofford was given the role of head editor in chief and had fun while learning aspects that will help him in the future.
“[I learned] that technology is not your friend most of the time, stuff fails, you got to always have a backup,” Wofford said. “Just learning those interpersonal-like skills in a higher position was important for me; super useful.”
Certain students were assigned roles that required them to confidently stand in front of an audience to give out information. Junior sports communication major Eli Chambers was assigned as senior public relations (PR) director who had to give a speech in front of aspiring student reporters.
“You have to have confidence up there,” Chambers said. “You don’t know what questions are coming your way [and] that is the scariest part; you try to prepare for everything, but everyone thinks differently.”
Colley runs this simulation annually in the hopes that the students will learn from mistakes made so that they can be better equipped to handle a crisis.
“My first crisis that I experienced as a public relations person… was not a good experience,” Colley said. “It is helpful to have a safe environment where you can practice this and make mistakes rather than have it all thrown at you at the last minute and try to figure out how to do it.”
