The Spartan Sports Report is a sports news show powered by the ComArtSci School of Journalism and its students. Students involved in the show learn a range of valuable skills, from writing scripts to shooting footage and postproduction.
“The nice thing about the Spartan Sports Report is that it’s all students. There is no class. They come in and they build their own show,” said Troy Hale, a faculty advisor for the show and a professor of practice in the ComArtSci School of Journalism.
The Spartan Sports Report covers many sports on campus. Besides the popular sports like football and basketball, they also cover swimming, volleyball and more.
“Some of the smaller sports don’t get as much coverage, so it’s nice for us to be able to go out and cover them,” said Hale. “The athletic department loves it too, because they get a product out it.”
Technological Advancements
“We are a very new program but we are improving every day and building more credibility as we continue,” said Griffin Stroin, a junior studying broadcast journalism and one of the show’s executive producers.
The latest improvement to the Spartan Sports Report is that they will soon be able to go live from the Spartan Newsroom.
“When there’s a soccer game and they go to halftime, they could send the connection to us in the newsroom, and we can do a live halftime show,” said Hale. “Then we can send the connection back to the soccer stadium when the game starts back up.”
Using lines of connection that span across campus, the Spartan Sports Report will be able to patch their live shows in and out of multiple venues, including the Breslin Center. They will have the ability to do live pregame, postgame and halftime shows.
“We can do almost anything we want technology wise. I think it's not a matter of the technology, it’s a matter of the students’ creativity.”
Join in the Fun
“Students tend to produce nicer work when it’s their product, not a product they have to make as an assignment,” said Hale. “So that’s what excites us as instructors —just seeing them take on this project.“They’re learning a ton, but they really don’t know that they’re learning, because it’s kind of a club.”
If you’re a student interested in getting involved with the Spartan Sports Report, there is no experience necessary. Simply show up to the Spartan Newsroom in ComArtSci at 7 pm on a Tuesday and join in!
“We’ll get you rolling from there,” said Stroin.
By Marlee Talbot