Karen Shamus, AS 2003, is producing UD's last Student Television Network (STN) newscast of the fall semester.

Standing in the studio, she speaks softly into the headset mike, "Camera four, I'd like you to start off with a shot of the newsroom. You should have time."

Someone asks where the rundown for the show is, and Shamus says, "We're going to go without a rundown. Shoot from the hip."

"J.P., I need Anne back in here," she tells floor director J.P. Christiani, AS 2003, referring to a camera operator.

With 30 seconds to airtime, Shamus starts calling out the checklist:

"TelePrompTer."

"Ready to go," co-producer Eric Dann, AS 2003, says.

"Graphics."

"OK."

As Shamus continues, her colleagues, one by one, let her know they're ready.

Speaking to everyone in the control room and the floor crew through her headset, she says, "Ready at 15," then counts down, "3, 2, 1." She cues the music, the floor director cues the anchors, and UD News: Special Edition has begun.

The broadcast is the culmination of a new Department of Communication course called "Broadcast News," which gave students the chance to produce a live, half-hour newscast every week, using the same staffing and production elements the networks do. The program aired on the University's channel 49 at 5:30 p.m. on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays during the fall semester. Its final edition was a special, one-hour show.

The class was created by Ralph Begleiter, Edward F. and Elizabeth Goodman Rosenberg Professor of Communication and Distinguished Journalist, with the encouragement of communication department acting chairperson Elizabeth Perse. Begleiter says the concept came easily to him, since he spent 30 years as a broadcast journalist. For almost 20 of those years, as CNN's world affairs correspondent, he wrote and produced thousands of news reports and programs.

"I'm impressed with the level of professionalism, commitment and enthusiasm of these students, and grateful for the opportunity to use what I've learned in the newsroom to better prepare them for a career in mass media," he says.?

His students say they agree.

"This was the most useful course I've ever taken at UD," Dann says. "There's only so much you can learn in class, but when it's hands-on, you realize what you are capable of and what you're not."

Shamus, who was selected by her classmates to produce the final broadcast, calls the course an "absolutely amazing" experience and worthwhile for anyone interested in broadcast news.

Katherine Holl, AS 2003, says the course helped her realize that she wants to work in television.

"One of my main hopes with this course was to demonstrate to students who usually see only the broadcast news jobs visible on the air that there are exciting and rewarding careers behind the scenes in TV news," Begleiter says. "Television news is a highly collaborative enterprise."

Throughout the semester, students worked in six program teams--anchor, campus news, national-international news, interview, production and technical support, with Begleiter as executive producer. Additional technical support was provided by STN students supervised by Carlos Hervas, the station's video producer.

Production teams were responsible for overall supervision of the newscasts. The interview team did everything from suggesting topics and guests, to researching and booking them, to preparing interview notes and videos and even following up with an appreciation call.

The campus and national- international news teams determined which stories would be included in the newscast, wrote the scripts, prepared support materials and rehearsed anchors. The anchor teams wrote, selected support materials and worked with producers on the overall scope and content of programs, as well as serving as on-air anchors.

The team assignments rotated, so students got experience in all positions during the semester.

Begleiter says it's as close to a real TV network newscast in preparation and execution as possible at the University, adding that he'd like to upgrade equipment for future classes.

By the end of the broadcast, UD News: Special Edition has gone smoothly, with 57 graphics, 10 story packages and two live interviews, giving viewers information on such topics as bombings in Bangladesh, Delaware's statewide indoor smoking ban, UD women's basketball, a hip-hop professor and much more. The final piece is a video package of interviews with graduating seniors reminiscing about their years at the University.

The package ends, the anchors sign off, the credits roll and the newscast is over.

The studio erupts in applause, everyone congratulating one another on their accomplishments in the first-ever semester of "Broadcast News."

--Barbara Garrison