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Lights! Camera! Knowledge!

Posted on | September 23, 2009 | 500 views |

Faculty have to go only as far as Bricker Hall to find an international pulpit

By Adam King

The room in the nondescript underbelly of Bricker Hall is akin to C.S. Lewis’ wardrobe link to Narnia. Once faculty enter, they — or at least their likenesses — are instantly transported to other places throughout Ohio, across the nation and around the world.

The Bricker basement has been rewired to create a state-of-the-art television broadcast studio and soundproof radio booth in the center of campus. It was part of an effort to give Ohio

State a level of exposure befitting the largest public university in America and make it easier for faculty to share their expertise with national network and cable news outlets.

“Often the barrier most faculty face in doing a TV interview is it takes time,” said Paul Beck, a political science professor who did more than 200 interviews during the 2008presidential election campaign. “They don’t like to give up those blocks of time for what ends up being a minute or two on the air. And if you have to go off campus to do it, which often was the case, it takes more time.”

With the Ohio State Broadcast Studio up and running, faculty can zip in and out for a live interview, either on television or radio. It’s certainly convenient for Beck, whose office is next door. And the new studio has come in handy for him even with the election cycle over; Beck has had 40 interviews this year discussing partisan politics and campaigning, some of them at Bricker.

“Our faculty have a lot of work they’re doing that speaks to people beyond academia, and I think it’s very important to get the word out about it,” Beck said. “Faculty don’t think of themselves as producers of sound bites and may not present it in a way the media can easily handle. But we teach what we know in the classroom and teach it effectively, and there are plenty of people out there interested in what we do and in learning more about the unique insights it gives us.”

Faculty who might be uncomfortable in front of a camera have an invaluable resource that goes hand in hand with the studio: Ohio State National Broadcast Director Joe Camoriano.

A long-time national anchor, video producer (Missouri and Kansas State) and former national broadcast director at the University of California-Irvine, Camoriano understands how to put faculty at ease and prepare them for live interviews. It also is Camoriano’s responsibility to keep an eye on stories in the news — or that might shortly enter the news cycle — where OSU faculty would be a good fit as experts and “pitch” them to the networks.

“We have 40 experts on our OSU YouTube channel who we brought in and interviewed for 15-20 minutes, and those interviews were edited down to 2-3 minutes. I use those clips to promote OSU faculty, linking the networks to them along with each faculty’s bio,” Camoriano said. “That’s been pretty effective. And the networks were surprised we could do everything in our studio, so now they’ve been asking us for a list of our experts.”

Since February when Camoriano arrived, about 25 national and international interviews have taken place in the Bricker studio and appeared on outlets such as CNN, CNN International, FOX News, FOX Business, MSNBC, Al-Jazeera (Middle East) and Al-Hurra (India) as well as NPR and BBC radio.

The studio also is being made available for internal audiences. The Department of Theatre and Buckeye TV will be producing weekly half-hour shows beginning this fall.

Camoriano said he is looking for faculty with something to say about their research. But he also wants faculty who might be unsure if their research is nationally newsworthy to contact him.

“You never know when there is an angle we can tie in,” Camoriano said. “And if they’re unsure about going national, we can promote them regionally so they can get their feet wet and see how easy it is. We’re here to serve the university and our faculty.”

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