NATCHITOCHES – Students in Northwestern State University’s Department of New Media, Journalism and Communication Arts are taking their broadcasting experience to the next level by incorporating bilingual segments to student reporting. Naydu Daza Maya of Cartagena, Colombia, combined her writing and reporting skills with Boyce native Jordan Johnson’s videography and editing expertise to bring a new level of production values to the NSU-TV News Service by producing a story about Leadership NSU in both Spanish and English. The English version was picked up and aired on KTBS-TV3, Shreveport’s ABC affiliate.

“The NSU-TV News Service (NTNS) works hard to tell stories relevant to all members of the NSU campus and surrounding community,” said Dr. Nick Taylor, assistant professor. “Both the campus and region have a significant Hispanic population. We want to produce stories that share in our community’s multilingual cultures, values and languages.”

“The entire department gave positive feedback,” Johnson said. “We even received praise from the Dean’s office in an email from Dr. Francine Lemoine. She wrote saying we did good work and encouraged us to keep producing multilingual stories.”

“It has been a great experience,” Daza said. “I can say we are growing a lot by doing this, learning how to produce content on a more professional level in two languages, learning from feedback and experience as well. It is the first time NSU has done news in Spanish, and we feel honored to start this project.”

Johnson has been with the NSU-TV News since last fall, starting with KTBS’s Friday Football News Crew and moving up to work on several stories that aired on KTBS. Daza joined the news team this spring and has helped with multimedia collaborations with The Current Sauce.

The Department of New Media, Journalism and Communication Arts has a partnership with KTBS that gives students practical field experience in broadcast journalism and station operations.

“Working with the NSU-TV News Service has given me a lot of experience and really put my name out there,” Johnson said. “Working with KTBS is a great opportunity because it gives us a platform to show our work and possibly get a job after graduation.”

“I’m expecting to keep working with NSU-TV, producing more content while I get my degree and get as much learning and experience as I can,” Daza said.

Taylor said the partnership with KTBS has been invaluable for the training and education of students in the New Media, Journalism and Communication Arts Department. In addition to the Friday Football Crew that shoots and edits high school game highlights for KTBS’s Friday Football Fever show, the NTNS crew has developed, shot and edited several stories that aired on KTBS that focused on NSU and the local community.

“Students have been able to tour KTBS’s studios, have one-on-one meetings with their staff and produce stories airing on KTBS newscasts,” Taylor said. “Beyond learning how to produce at professional levels, the students are networking within the industry, The KTBS producers know our NTNS crew’s names. And that recognition carries beyond KTBS. We have had producers from across Louisiana and in some cases across the U.S. reach out to the students, offering internships and full-time employment.”

Going forward, the students hope to report on bilingual stories every month in their coverage of NSU and the Natchitoches community and they will continue to collaborate with The Current Sauce, telling multimedia stories through The Purple Media Network.

“We know there is a need for multi-lingual journalism in our community and will continue producing stories in English and Spanish,” Taylor said.

Some of the students’ recent work can be viewed on their Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/nsutvnews.

NSU’s Department of New Media, Journalism and Communication Arts offers concentrations in strategic communication, broadcast and digital media production and multimedia journalism.  More information is available at nsula.edu/newmedia.