Changing Media, New Opportunities Highlight Summit

Broadcast journalist Kevin Torres ’06 travels with a camera, tripod, earpiece, mobile phone and two laptops ⎯ one for video editing and another for writing and social media.

From just about anywhere in his Colorado coverage area, he can write, shoot, upload and tweet about a story. He’s fast, efficient and a model of the modern TV reporter on the go and on the Web.

He is always “live.”

Torres was also one of four communications experts who analyzed the changing face of media at the eighth annual Dr. Lewis B. O’Donnell Media Summit Wednesday, Oct. 24.

Media maven Edward Wyckoff Williams, longtime Syracuse television reporter/anchor Jackie Robinson and documentary filmmaker Denis Mueller rounded out the panel moderated by ABC News veteran Garrick Utley, senior fellow and professor of broadcasting and journalism at Oswego.

“You’re building your own brand and identity,” Williams told a Waterman Theatre filled with more than 500 attendees, mostly students. “You are basically creating your own career in a way.”

The modern journalist creates content constantly and across all formats, said Williams, a regular national TV and radio guest, columnist for the Washington Post and Huffington Post, contributor to Al Jazeera and former investment banker.

“I don’t think you can graduate and expect to do just one thing in this business,” said Robinson, a 30-plus year veteran of television news. “You have to be multi-talented and be willing to multi-task.”

Torres, the backpack journalist from KUSA-TV in Denver, noted the prominent role social media plays in his day-to-day.

“I put just as much effort into my social media as I do into my stories,” he said.

Likewise, filmmakers have discovered the value of crowdsourcing, a relatively new opportunity to build capital and a loyal following for a film via social networking, Mueller said.

The panel was followed by in-person networking at the Career Connector event where students got a chance to sit down with accomplished Oswego alumni, including Rick Yacobush '77, Amy Kishpaugh '05, Phil Rankin '06, Jeffery Knauss '07 and Ben Amey '10.

The Media Summit was founded in 2005 by Louis A. Borrelli Jr. ’77, a longtime TV executive. In 2007, popular “Today” show personality Al Roker ’76, provided additional funding for the summit and the two friends renamed it in honor of revered professor Dr. Lewis B. O’Donnell.

⎯ Shane M. Liebler




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