Best of the Broadcasting Crop: Randy Gyllenhaal prepares for life after Elon

Randy Gyllenhaal

Senior Randy Gyllenhaal dove right into Phoenix14 his freshman year, was anchor his sophomore year and won a Hearst Journalism Award his junior year. As a broadcast journalism major and international studies minor, Gyllenhaal spends a good amount of time in the edit suites of McEwen. But the sacrifice has paid off for him.

Gyllenhaal took first place in the William Randolph Hearst Foundation’s National Television Broadcast News Championship in 2009. He earned third place in hard news, which sent him to the championship round in San Francisco where he competed in a day-of story.

“It was an economics story about the fishing industry in San Francisco, so I wanted to see how the fishermen on the boats were doing and how that impacted restaurants up the chain,” he said. “So, if consumers weren’t eating, that would hurt everybody along the chain. I just talked to everybody in San Francisco I could find – some people on a boat, some people in a restaurant, and I thought it was a pretty compelling story. It had some good images and obviously the judges were impressed, too.”

Gyllenhaal said he has been so focused on journalism during his time at Elon that it has become his main hobby.

“My hobby now is shooting video,” he said. “It wasn’t before. I used to play sports and play guitar. I’ve gotten into just shooting recreational video like documentaries or music videos. That’s kind of fun for me.”

Even though his hobby is in his major, Gyllenhaal said it allows him to escape from pure news reporting for a bit.

Gyllenhaal said he has learned the most from his experiences beyond the classroom. Elon has let him grow by himself through doing hands-on work with Phoenix14 and through internships. He interned at ABC World News with Charlie Gibson the summer after his sophomore year, and FOX 5 in Washington, D.C., the summer after his junior year.

For the next six months, Gyllenhaal plans to focus on himself, hunt for a solid job in broadcast journalism and avoid having to live in the dreaded cardboard box that looms in the back of seniors’ minds. After that, he hopes to give back to Elon both financially and by giving of his time to students who want advice.

Phoenix14 especially has a strong alumni base, Gyllenhaal said, and he keeps in touch with a lot of them through e-mail and facebook.

“It’s a really good networking vineyard for us to be able to just go back and forth with each other and get internships and jobs from each other,” he said.

Gyllenhaal will join that vineyard May 22, 2010.

Read more about Randy Gyllenhaal:

• Elon students are panelists at Internet Governance Forum in Washington, D.C.
• Senior broadcast major interviews live with FOX News
• Intern Insider: Gyllenhaal keeps moving at WTTG
• Student wins prestigious minority scholarship

Student Accomplishments

School of Communications students have been honored and recognized by regional and national organizations this year for their work in and out of the classroom. Several others are participating in interesting research and service projects. Read about all they’re doing below.

Journalism major wins nationwide reporting competition

Rebecca Smith

Rebecca Smith, a sophomore journalism major and features editor of The Pendulum student newspaper, was one of nine students nationwide to be selected for a Scripps Howard Foundation 10-day journalism study trip to Japan in its annual Roy W. Howard National Collegiate Reporting Competition.

Smith, a Communications Fellow, will begin the program June 11 and travel to Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto and Hiroshima. Students will meet with print, broadcast and online journalists in Japan and visit one of the largest newspapers in the world and Asian reporting bureaus for international media. They will also visit landmarks of historical and cultural importance.

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The Pendulum student newspaper wins national Pacemaker award, named finalist in Online Pacemaker competition

The Pendulum won a national Pacemaker award.

The Pendulum, Elon University’s weekly student newspaper, received a 2009 national Pacemaker Award from the Associated Collegiate Press on Oct. 31 at the organization’s joint conference with College Media Advisers in Austin, Texas. The Pacemaker is the highest honor ACP gives to its members.

The ACP Newspaper Pacemakers are judged by the staff of a Newspaper Association of America-member newspaper. They award general excellence in four-year college daily newspapers, four-year college non-daily newspapers and two-year college newspapers. Entries for the competition are judged based on their coverage and content, the quality of writing and reporting, the leadership on the opinion page, evidence of in-depth reporting, layout and design, and photography, art and graphics.

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The Pendulum Online, the Web companion to The Pendulum weekly student newspaper, was named a 2010 finalist in the Associated Collegiate Press Online Pacemaker competition March 31.

The Pendulum was among 20 finalists in the small-school newspaper (less than 10,000 enrollment) category. More than 240 schools of all sizes entered the contest. Winners will be announced at the Associated Collegiate Press/College Media Advisers conference in Louisville, Ky., on Oct. 30.

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Pendulum, Phoenix14News honored at SPJ Region 2 conference

The Pendulum, Elon’s weekly student newspaper, and Phoenix14News, Elon’s weekly student newscast were honored March 27 with Mark of Excellence Awards at the Society of Professional Journalists Region 2 competition in College Park, Md. The awards were highlighted by Phoenix14’s first-place win in the BEST ALL-AROUND TELEVISION NEWS CAST category. The show beat out schools such as the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the University of Maryland.

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Sophomore uses award to advocate for child victims

Meagan Harrison

They come to the center from the streets, broken homes and jails where they served time with adults. Dozens of Filipino boys, victims of sexual abuse, seek refuge each year at the Stairway Foundation south of Manila – a place where sophomore Meagan Harrison last summer spent two months volunteering through Elon University’s Ward Family Learning in Action Award.

Recipient of the 2009 honor, Harrison traveled to the Philippines to produce and develop print materials, a movie trailer, and other multimedia for children’s rights advocacy, community education, and outreach that the Stairway Foundation performs.

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Live Oak wins awards for public relations campaigns

Live Oak Communications

Live Oak Communications, Elon University’s student-run, full-service communications agency, received two awards Jan. 28 from the Tar Heel Chapter of the Public Relations Society of America at the annual Spinks Awards banquet in Greensboro, N.C. The Spinks competition is a professional awards program for agencies in the Triad region of North Carolina.

Live Oak entered two categories for the Spinks Awards and won both. The agency won “Best Web Site” for its redesign of the Alamance Veterinary Hospital web site, including the creation of a social networking site called “Paw2Paw.” The agency also won the award for “Best Event,” for its Campout! Carolina campaign developed for EarthShare North Carolina.

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Lumen Scholar studies media coverage of Indian terror attack

Hannah Williams (left) and Brooke Barnett

In the thick of a breaking news story such as the Mumbai bombings that killed scores of people, it can be tough for reporters to critique their own work, and that’s where Elon University senior Hannah Williams fills a need.

A journalism and English professional writing rhetoric major, the Minnesota native is working with her Lumen Mentor, associate professor of communications Brooke Barnett, to conduct a rhetorical analysis of news coverage from magazines in the United States, the United Kingdom and India following the 2008 attack.

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School of Communications students honored by BEA

Students from the School of Communications were honored by the Broadcast Education Association’s Festival of Media Arts in several awards categories.

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