Bloomington High School South, The Gothic, 2007, Page 41

Description:	Spotlight on Mass Mediaehind the Scenes:^nu^.Story by Paul BaechtoldAfter the vigorous scramble to finish homework beforethird period, students throughout the school brightened up when thegodly voice of the overhead speakers reminded teachers to turn ontheir TVs. The SRT show became a tradition at Bloomington HighSchool South and a trademark production of Mr. Dan Kennedy andhis first period Mass Media class. Walking into Kennedys classroom,the massive number of tapes lining the shelves (some of which dateback to 1999) were an attention grabber. It took talented studentsto properly use the equipment and piece together the popular showto create so many episodes.Because the show was put together by only one class,every student took a role in completing the episode. Possible rolesincluded: cameramen, news anchors, and editors. While there wasonly one freshman enrolled in the class, it was not a senior dominatedclass. Students of all grades got an equal opportunity to participate.Sophomore Katie Bynum said, My role on the showvaries from week to week. Some weeks I edit but sometimes I willwork as a camera man. According to students, editing took the mosttime out of the process and often caused significant stress when it wastime to print the DVD for showing.Chris Dodge, a junior, said it was teachers and staffmembers that came up with new segment ideas for shows. As tohow Mr. Drew Freys popular segment Into The Freying Pan began,Mr. Frey said, I did a show review and it seemed to go over prettywell, so one day, Mr. Kennedy was watching 60Minutesxn& hethought I reminded him of Andy Rooney, so we kind of based thesegment on a mix between Andy Rooney and Lewis Black, who doesthe same type of thing on The Daily ShowSo whether it was the occasional funny segment, or theinformation concerning school activities, or even just seeing a smilingface up on the screen that made students want to watch the weeklySRT show, it should be known that the show did not get put togetherby itself, magically overnight. It took the hard teamwork of an entireclass to put together the show that was consistently entertaining, anda true trademark of Bloomington South.Sophomore Hayley Schillingexplained what mass mediais.[We have a] real variety of roles, notjust actors-everything else, were allcameramen, were all writers.Junior Drake Volz gave hisopinion on mass media.Mass Media is cool because it makes iteasy to warn the school about a zombiethreat.Left: Sophomore Tom Riceadjusts the camera beforefilming. Students had to plansegments weeks ahead oftime.Left: Mr. Dan Kennedy helpsa student prepare for theSRT show. He was the soleadviser for the production.Pj»j Academics
Source:	http://cdm17129.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/hs-bloomsouth/id/7565
Collection:	Bloomington High School South

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