Sports Media Interns Cover the World Athletics Championships Oregon22
STORY BY WHITNEY CONAGHAN, CLASS OF ’23
PHOTOS BY OWEN LOWE-ROGSTAD, CLASS OF ’23
Tens of thousands of people are expected to flock to Eugene this summer to welcome one of the largest sporting events on the planet, the World Athletic Championships Oregon22 (WCH Oregon22). The track-and-field competition, hosted at Hayward Field at the University of Oregon July 15-24, will be broadcast to over 200 countries and is expected to draw a global TV audience of more than 1 billion viewers.
While the top track-and-field athletes across the world are training in advance of the competition, over 75 UO School of Journalism and Communication (SOJC) students are putting in their own kind of preparation to seize a distinctive sports media and communication opportunity by creating content for WCH Oregon22.
“WCH Oregon22 has provided once-in-a-lifetime media experiences to SOJC students,” said Juan-Carlos Molleda, the SOJC’s Edwin L. Artzt Dean and professor. “I hope students and faculty will enhance their skills and knowledge with productions, networking and internships before, during and for many years after the championships.”
Setting the Opening Tone with Animation
Immersive media instructor Nikki Dunsire’s motion graphics course teaches students how to assemble video and animation content. Dunsire partnered with World Athletics Productions, the organization in charge of WCH Oregon22, to devise a competition where each student produced a 30-second animated opening title sequence for the broadcast.
Because it’s an introductory course, most of the 16 students had no prior motion graphics experience. To ensure they had the know-how to produce a title sequence, Dunsire front-loaded the course with skill building.
“It was a delicate balance of getting their skills up to par first, and then focusing on application,” she said.
Students had access to a library of over 150 videos and were granted creative freedom to conceptualize storyboards. The course was designed to be collaborative. Students worked closely with Dunsire, received feedback from classmates and underwent review sessions with World Athletics Productions. At the end of the 10-week term, students posted their final productions for a panel of judges who evaluated the submissions on a point system and selected one video to be the opening title sequence.
Advertising student Madyson Arthur was one of three runners-up, each falling just one point short of the winning piece, which was created by first-year cinema studies student Quinn Connell.
"I wanted to try something I've never done before,” Arthur said. “I like the process of turning ideas into real things, so this course sounded interesting. But I was skeptical because I had zero experience with motion graphics."
She said the opportunity to produce a project featuring world-renowned athletes ignited an empowering feeling of being a “part of something bigger than [her]self” and taught her that nothing is unattainable – a mindset vital for any creative professional.
Jake Savelich, a strategic communication master’s student, was another runner-up. Working on this project led him to change the focus of his future studies and work. Darrel Harrison, an advertising major, was the other runner-up who came within one point of winning. Harrison plans to be a graphic designer, social media producer, or media producer.
“Students came out of the class in a position to step forward, and if they desire to do this work in the future, they have a solid foundation of professional portfolio work,” Dunsire said.
My colleagues and I have been thrilled by the students’ standard of work, quality of shot choice, and graphics integration. Hopefully, this real-world television production experience will inspire talented students into forging careers in the industry.
In the Track Bureau class, SOJC students learn what it takes to be a sports journalism or public relations professional. The 10-week course coincides with Hayward Field events, allowing students to apply the reporting skills they learn in the classroom to covering top-tier events like the NCAA Championships and Olympic Trials.
Professor of Practice Lori Shontz taps her deep experience in sports journalism to push her students out of their comfort zones and ensure they master the skills of interviewing athletes, taking concise notes and reporting on deadline.
“In the real world, there are deadlines you have to meet, so this is really good practice — jumping right from the event into writing the story,” said recent journalism graduate Tristen Shaw.
The course structure mirrors athletic preparation: Students learn tangible skills in the classroom, practice covering meets on the field and build up their repertoire to cover large-scale events like WCH Oregon22.
“I’m excited for them to get the experience of working side by side with professionals,” Shontz said. “Everything we teach in the SOJC is a craft, and you learn your craft by doing it."
As part of their SOJC Track Bureau internships, eight SOJC students will be providing stories and social media posts for World Athletics Productions and helping to run the behind-the-scenes communications, particularly by facilitating video interviews with athletes. They will be paid with funds from the Office of the President and SOJC to work more than 40 hours a week covering Hayward Field track events from the Nike Outdoor Nationals and USATF Outdoor Championships in June through WCH Oregon22 in July.
Track Bureau student Elias Esquivel aspires to be a sports journalist. He is eager to cover a high-profile event and wow future employers with his portfolio.
“There's not one job out of college that I could have gotten where my editor would sit with me until 12 a.m. looking at my story,” he said. “[Shontz] really commits herself to us and … wants to ensure we really are improving and becoming better sports writers.”
Throughout the Track Bureau’s 12-day work period during WCH Oregon22, including two days of preparation, the eight interns represented the SOJC and UO professionally and authentically, both on camera in several interviews with Oregon media and behind the scenes while covering the event. In total, 57 stories produced by Track Bureau interns appeared on four websites: DyeStat, FanHub, Athletics Africa and FloTrack. They conducted live interviews with athletes, took photos and created thumbnails for World Athletics’ YouTube and other social media channels, and produced content encompassing the entirety of the competition for the Track Bureau and SOJC social channels. The interns and Shontz also represented the SOJC and UO in media interviews for the “UO SOJC in Action” video, KGW, KVAL and OPB.
Creating Content Worthy of International Broadcast
SOJC alums Sutton Raphael ’16 and Jordan Bentz ’12 led a weeklong Spring Sports Documentary Bootcamp as a portfolio-building primer for students looking to enhance their skill set ahead of WCH Oregon22. Fourteen student participants learned cinematography, aerial photography, drone flying and video editing.
“The more we can help students lift those bylines and published pieces on their portfolio, the better we can prepare them to get through the door during their first job interviews,” Raphael said.
The students shot with high-tech cinema cameras to create a library of video footage professional broadcast units can use in their WCH Oregon22 coverage. They also produced a two-minute video with interviews of runners and action-packed footage from the Eugene Marathon and local trails, with the hashtag #whywerun as the common thread pulling the profiles together.
“I had never shot with professional cameras before,” said second-year student Maya Merrill, “but this made me realize it was something I want to continue doing in the future.”
SOJC alum Lucas Hamilton ’20 is leading a three-month project with 20 paid students to deliver four interview-driven videos about Eugene’s connection to the track community. The 1- to 5-minute videos focus on the Track Bureau class, Prevention Science Institute’s research with Kidsports, Bowerman Sports Science Center on Hayward Field, and TracktownUSA. They will be accessible to international media looking for fully edited informational videos to insert into their broadcast productions.
This was journalism student Fiona Gibbens’ first videography experience that covered pre-production planning, production practice and post-production editing. The opportunity to be behind the camera allowed her to apply the filming and editing techniques she learned in production classes.
“I thought it was an amazing opportunity to work with these alumni who have been really successful in their craft,” Gibbens said.
I hope to give students the confidence to start producing their dream stories right now … we have so many tools at our disposal through the SOJC that I want them to know that there’s a low barrier for entry, and they don’t need to wait until they are out of school to start.
