Alternative Broadcasting press release

Alternative Student Television News

CEDAR FALLS, Iowa Sixteen electronic media students at the University of Northern Iowa are producing four, five-minute news shows per week as part of an experimental production class offered for the first time this semester. Split up into teams of four, the students manage everything from scriptwriting, video production, distribution, and marketing of their shows.
The class format offers a change from the traditional UNI-TV newscast that has been offered in past semesters. "Each group has total responsibility for the production of their show," says Nathan Epley, the instructor for the course. What theyre doing differently this semester is to try and bring UNI-TV out to the audience that is on the Internet, one of the challenges many commercial news broadcasters havent met.
The students chose the four shows as part of a proposal process that began early in the semester. "I think our shows are a fresh look at where news is going," says Brandon Neil, a student in the UNI-TV class. "This format is something we could expect as creative professionals in the future."
The students broadcast the shows in the Waterloo-Cedar Falls area on Mediacom channel 18 and CFU channel 99 as part of a newscast each Thursday. The newscast is available on Mondays at 6:00 PM, Tuesdays at 8:00 PM, Wednesdays at 9:00 PM, Thursdays at 8:00 PM and Fridays at 6:00 PM.