by Lumination Staff | Aug 1, 2021 | News, News Slider
Nashville journalist and former longtime WSMV anchor Demetria Kalodimos will be joining Lipscomb’s School of Communication during the incoming school year. Through her role, Kalodimos is expected to share her experiences and expertise alongside developing “digital media ethics” workshops and programming. In addition, Kalodimos will co-teach a class with Chair Alan Griggs. “She [Kaladimos] is one of the best journalists I have had the honor and privilege to know,” said Griggs in a press release issued by the university. Griggs and Kalodimos worked together at WSMV for 20 years. “With her experience and knowledge, our students will benefit significantly, and so will I.” Kalodimos has been a trusted and recognized figure in Middle Tennessee media for nearly 40 years, receiving 16 Emmys, three Investigative Reporters and Editors (IRE) National awards, three Edward R. Murrow Awards for investigative reporting and the Gracie from American Women in Radio and Television. As well as being inducted into the Tennessee Journalism Hall of Fame and the NATAS Silver Circle. Recently, Kalodimos has produced award-winning documentaries, music videos and other visual content through her company Genuine Human Productions. Her songwriter series, Barnegie Hall, aired nationally on PBS stations across the country. “Educating future journalists about the state of the industry and how to navigate that well while training them to be good storytellers, utilizing the many tools they have available to them, is critical,” said Kalodimos. “While content delivery methods continually change, the fundamentals of good storytelling will never cease to be important. So, I am excited to be able to share my knowledge and experiences with students and to have an impact on the next...
by Quinn Gorte | Apr 19, 2019 | News Slider, Student Spotlight
After applying for the Fulbright Scholars Program with the support of numerous friends, professors and others, Lipscomb graduate Lauren Borders, along with four out of seven semi-finalist Lipscomb students, was accepted by the program. “The application process and being given this has been one of the most humbling experiences of my life, because the people that I asked to help me do this delivered beyond what I could’ve ever expected,” Borders said. “So many people helped me out… I’m just very grateful for all the people in my corner and what they did for me.” The Fulbright Scholar Program is sponsored by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs and offers scholarships for students to live abroad while teaching English or conducting research. For Borders, who recently graduated with a strategic communication major and international studies and Spanish minors, this means living in Uruguay for nine months and researching the country’s political climate. “My project is a journalism-based research project about political broadcast journalism and its effect on political division within the state and the culture,” Borders said. Borders plans to focus her research on “what kind of measures Uruguayan press takes to present a diverse opinion… [The basis of my research is] the relationship between political journalism and how divided the people are politically.” “Basically, [it’s] how you talk about politics at your dinner table with your friends, and how your sources of journalism enforce those ideals,” Borders said. Borders’s background in news and politics inspired her research project idea. “I obviously love journalism, but I also work in politics,” Borders said. “In college, I also did...
by Colleen Casner | Jun 12, 2014 | News Slider
Every summer since 2000, high school students from middle and west Tennessee have ventured to Lipscomb’s campus for a three-day journalism camp. From Sunday evening to Wednesday morning, eleven campers took part in journalism classes taught by Lipscomb faculty and students, enjoyed mixers and wrote and photographed their own news stories, the best of which was published on Lumination Network. The camp is co-hosted by Lipscomb’s Department of Communication and Journalism and the Tennessee High School Press Association and is directed by Jimmy McCollum, an associate professor in the department and the head of the THSPA. Unique to this year’s camp, the campers gained their hands-on experience at writing and photographing a news story by covering Lipscomb’s BisonBot Robotics Camp for students in fourth through sixth grades. McCollum came up with the idea to take the camp beyond simply having the campers interview and write stories about each other and instead giving campers a real story to work on that could potentially be published on Lumination. “Now, they can show the fruits of their labor to their friends and family back home and say, ‘Hey, I was a reporter. Here’s my article. Here’s my news story. Here’s my newscast for all the world to see,’” McCollum said. In addition to covering the robotics camp, campers attended the different classes that were geared to the aspects of journalism that interest campers the most. Jai Cosey, a rising junior, especially enjoyed McCollum’s newswriting class. “Mr. Jimmy’s fun,” she said. Cosey originally discovered through poetry that she enjoyed writing and is now interested in newswriting, as well as possibly working on her...
by Janice Ng | May 23, 2014 | Opinion
The life of a one-day NBC/Lipscomb student runner does not actually involve a lot of running. In my short time helping out the NBC Nightly News crew, I got tasked with all manner of things to help the on-the-road broadcast happen. The clock read 10:25 a.m. There was no thermometer in the room, but I could gauge the temperature. It was roughly 80 degrees, and beads of perspiration could be seen on people’s foreheads. It was discussed that a fan should be procured, and I should be the one to fetch it, and so I did. I placed the fan in the very office where anchor Brian Williams would soon be stationed. At precisely 11 a.m., I pointed out the nearest restroom to an NBC employee. “Do you know where the closest restroom is,” the employee asked. “It’ll be right over there,” I said while pointing expertly in the general direction of the restroom. The employee was grateful. At 12:30 p.m., an NBC photographer needed to get footage of Lipscomb’s campus, and I was the chosen one to drive him around in a golf cart. “You,” an NBC employee pointed to me and said, “You’re a student, yes? So you would know all the pretty places around campus?” “Yes, I am and I do,” I said. “Great. You can take our photographer around campus to get some shots.” The next hour was spent chit-chatting with the photographer as he got his shots, telling my beginnings and background as a student journalist at Lipscomb, and hearing about his career. At precisely 4:06 p.m., I spotted Williams walk into the Bennett Campus Center accompanied by Lipscomb...
by Janice Ng | Mar 11, 2014 | News Slider
Al Jazeera America Nashville’s national correspondent Jonathan Martin likes the competition, creativity and spontaneity of his craft. “These three things really drive me to get up every morning and to work in news,” Martin said to a group of student communicators at Lipscomb University’s Media Masters event in Ezell. “Something is always going, always changing,” Martin said. “You’re competing against yourself. You’re competing against other stations and companies. I love that competition. “Second of all, I love the fact that there is creativity involved in this business,” he said. “You can make it your own. Finally, I think the spontaneity of things is really what drives me.” Growing up in Atlanta, Ga., Martin always knew he wanted to pursue a career in news. His passion started when he was only six or seven years old. “I always wanted to watch the news,” Martin said. “I was obsessed with the production, the anchors, the current events.” Martin began his career in the city of Augusta, Ga. Two years later, he got a call to be the morning anchor at WSMV Channel 4 in Nashville. From there, he was able to work his way up to a weekend anchor position. When he got the call to join Al Jazeera America’s Nashville bureau eight months ago, he said he was “all about it,” and has been working there for six months. Martin took some time to discuss the type of stories he gets to cover and showed a clip of one of his latest stories about undocumented immigrants qualifying for in-state tuition. “Today, I was covering another story at Vanderbilt Hospital and...
