New student media space has clear advantages
Staff members of The Echo, Mocs News TV and The Perch online radio station will return to a brand new working space in the University Center this fall.
Built with support from Student Development federal stimulus funds, the new area is located in the back of the Game Room. The large, glass-enclosed suite provides offices and work spacing for the three student groups. Work on the suite was completed the last week of July.
“The new space provides a focal point for student media,” Adjunct professor Holly Cowart, adviser to The Echo said. “It gives each group more recognition, support and motivation to do well.”
The glass will allow students who are passing through or who are in the Game Room to see what student reporters, editors, photographers and producers are doing to cover the campus. The Echo’s production room is in the back of the suite. Mocs News and The Perch have offices and production rooms in the front. The three groups will share conference room also in the front of the space.
Adjunct faculty member and Mocs News adviser Scottie Summerlin, a former television reporter and anchor, said she the space provides a real world example for student journalists. “Collaboration is the name of the game in the media these days, so with the new student media center, UTC students will be one step ahead,” Summerlin said.
Dr. Betsy B. Alderman, acting head of the Communication Department, said the space mirrors today’s mass media. “Convergence in the media is happening across the country and now UTC students will have a very realistic setting to do their jobs,” she said.
The Perch, the university’s Web-based radio station, will broadcast programs and music from the new suite. The Perch adviser and adjunct instructor Nicole Brown said, “It will give students the opportunity to display their work in a real world environment.”
Cowart, a former newspaper reporter and editor, said the space would allow students from the various media to interact more. “In my experience, working in one type of media can make you blind to the value of others. By working in close proximity and behind glass walls, students will gain a better appreciation of their counterparts in newspaper, television or audio.”
The student media area features glass office walls. Echo editors and staff members work to produce the weekly newspapers in their production room. |
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Oliva Bradley produces music for The Perch in the online radio |
 The student media space features a suite of offices for The Echo, Mocs
News and The Perch. A hallway connects the rooms. |
Echo reporter and communication major Danny Butler writes a story in
the newspaper's new office suite.
