My journalism professor, mentor, and guiding light, Dr. Charlie Marler, died May 27, 2022, and I plan to write a series of blog posts about the impact he had on my and his other former students’ journalism and media careers.Second Post: Searching for Healing, June 4, 2022
Furthermore, this week, I visited ACU’s Journalism and Mass Communication Department to search for healing of my grief through conversations with members of the JMC community and to celebrate my days as a former KACU announcer/JMC student. Meeting some of the current students and staff, as well as touring classrooms, offices, ACUTV, and the Morris+Mitchell student agency contributed to my healing journey. As the first Black person and the first woman to receive ACU's Gutenberg Award, which Marler created, touching familiar ground was a smart step.Additionally, I advanced my graduate history studies by meeting with two ACU librarians, Melinda Isbell and Laura Baker. They steered me to a wealth of resources and academic research strategies. Their invaluable guidance advanced my goal to fulfill Marler’s wish that I become a historian, specializing in African American history in Texas.Moreover, due to a series of unplanned events, I met an ACU staffer, Evan Steele, who went out of his way to support my goals to honor Marler’s legacy, and also, become a Texas historian. Steele offered support and great foreign-language study tips, which will help me prepare for forthcoming Spanish exams for graduate school.
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Update: "Entrepreneurial Journalism: Making Yourself the Brand" at Abilene Christian Univ. I joined some other Gutenberg award winners and Abilene Christian University alums at the "Entrepreneurial Journalism: Making Yourself the Brand" panel discussion Oct. 19, 2012 in Abilene, Texas. The event was part of ACU's 20th anniversary Gutenberg Awards celebration. In an earlier post, I referenced this event. This year's Gutenberg Award honorees are: Tracey Ferguson, Victoria Ahlén and Lovey Chin. Students received insights from the following presenters: 9 a.m: "Entrepreneurial Journalism: Making Yourself the Brand" Moderator- Kenneth Pybus, J.D. Panel members- Regina L. Burns,Grant Rampy, Wendell Edwards and Tracey Ferguson 10 a.m: "Internships: Launching Your Career" Moderator- Doug Mendenhall Panel members- Victoria Ahlén, Brent Magers, Marcia Prior-Miller, Ron Hadfield, Lovey Chin and Byron Harrell Here is the handout (.pdf), Four Stages of Your Career Diagram, that I shared during my presentation. Recently while looking at old photos, I was transported back to the days of my first TV news job. Furthermore, I was reminded that both photography and videography have been in my world for years because I started shooting stills as a teenager. ![]() Whether taking still photos or shooting video, I have always LOVED capturing images to tell stories, professionally or personally. I don’t know how I got interested in photography. No one in my immediate family had a camera nor did I take formal photography classes in college. Somehow I got my hands on a still camera (remember 35mm film that had to be developed?) while growing up in Memphis, Tenn., and started snapping away. ![]() Pulitzer Prize-winner David Leeson took this photo of me during my Reporter/Videographer stint at KRBC-TV in Abilene, Texas. Leeson worked for the Abilene Reporter-News at the time. This photo is my personal favorite. I was covering breaking news and remember asking the man in the photo would he please hold my recorder? Holding the heavy camera, wearing the battery pack around my waist and struggling with the recorder slowed me down, especially on breaking news. So I learned to be creative and innovative, constantly. My dad I took lots of pictures of my late father. Daddy never met a stranger and loved to tell stories about growing up in Mississippi. We visited his parents’ graves one year and he enthralled me with tales about chopping cotton and growing up on a farm. I took a picture of Daddy that day and every time I look at it, I am reminded of the enormous strength and courage he and my paternal grandparents had. My mom Another picture in the family album shows my mother with my late aunt. They were thick as thieves, as the saying goes. I have a photo of Ma Dear in her 20s, taken before I was born. She totally had it going on and knew it. I wish someone had taken pictures of her with my maternal grandparents on the plantation in Arkansas. I respect and admire the fortitude they possessed in order to survive and, I am proud to be their descendant. No videotape One of the toughest TV stories I ever covered was that of a child who had been run over and killed while riding his bicycle. Listening to the police scanner in order to get to breaking news as quickly as possible was part of the job. I arrived on the scene before any other media and even beat the police – that’s how I got the nickname “spot news queen.” I looked under the truck and saw this small boy, not moving, his bicycle close by. When a colleague arrived on the scene, she told me I had turned green. I never took any footage under the truck. The camera attracts all kinds I had an assignment in Anson, Texas and someone in the audience got upset because I was shooting video. Or maybe it was because she hadn’t seen that many African-American journalists. All I know is that she walked up to me and said, “Turn that camera off. You’re shining that light in my eyes.” I looked at her, turned away and kept shooting. All shooters know that keeping the camera rolling in such situations is always the smart move. I kept doing the job I was sent there for and the lady eventually went back to her seat. My supervisors in the newsroom told me that if anyone ever laid on hand on me, the company would press assault charges against them. ![]() May we take a photo please? I must confess I got starstruck on some stories, like when Roots author Alex Haley (above) spoke to students at a Memphis school or when then-ABC World News Tonight anchor Peter Jennings showed up at WFAA-TV’s newsroom one November morning. Those times I got my picture taken with them, realizing this miracle wouldn’t happen again. ![]() Glory and internal fortitude In this photo, also taken by Leeson, I was on assignment on the road to “journalism glory,” at least that’s what every young journalist hopes for, right? It’s only later that you learn about the long hours and the necessary internal fortitude required to report breaking news that often includes tragedies. I did experience “journalism glory” in the form of national awards from NABJ, the former AWRT and regional recognition from the Tenn. Associated Press Broadcasters Association, among others. While reporting at KRBC-TV, I sold a story to CNN! Now that was glory and good money! I am very proud of the numerous college and high school students trained in a broadcast internship program I created and oversaw at WGKX-KIX 106 FM in Memphis. Several years ago, I teamed up with fellow Associated Press colleagues in Mississippi and New Orleans. Together we sent several Associated Press Stylebooks to Dallas, Texas for an Urban Journalism Workshop, in what I called “Stylebooks for Students.” How to shoot your own stand up
One trick I learned was to set a light stand in the exact spot where I wanted to shoot my stand up because in a small market, I was a “one-woman band.” That means doing the following: covering the story (reporting), shooting video, then writing the script and voicing the audio track during the editing process. It’s a great way to learn unforgettable skills. Here’s how I did it: First, I set the camera on a tripod. Then I stood next to the light stand and raised it to my height. Third, I got back behind the camera and recorded the light stand to ensure the shot would work. Fourth, I checked the tape. Next, I removed the light stand and recorded a couple of stands up, which I edited into the story back at the station. The trick to being a great “one-woman band” was to shoot just enough video, so the editing process wouldn’t take long. Notice I used the word “shoot” or a variation several times because that’s what we called it when we took pictures with the camera; we were "shooting." Good times Today I use a digital camera that shoots stills and of course video, and it’s light as a feather. I wouldn’t take “nothing for my journey” with photography/videography in the exciting and always chaotic world of news. |
About the Author:Regina L. Burns, M.A., M.A., is a Dallas, Texas-based rising historian and award-winning multimedia journalist at Harvest Reapers Communications. She specializes in 20th century Texas African American Business History, specifically Tyler Barber College Chain, the nation’s first African American barber college chain founded by Texas African American millionaire, H. M. Morgan (Henry Miller Morgan). Archives
December 2024
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