TV studio debuts at L.B. Middle School

Savanna Rystrom works the graphics computer in the control room while James Weyhknecht directs the news show.

A new and exciting program offered at the Long Branch Middle School is the broadcast journalism course.

This is an elective that is open to students from in three special academy programs: Visual & Performing Arts Academy; Science & Computer Technology Academy; and Leadership Academy.

The state-of-the-art television studio has three rooms. The first is an editing room, which features digital video-editing equipment. The control room is used by the director and students working the graphics, tape and video/audio switching.

The television studio has two cameras, four wireless microphones and an extensive lighting grid.

The Long Branch Middle School News is a division of the new Long Branch Middle School TV Studio. Since April 19, all morning news and announcements produced by students are broadcast live throughout the school.

Each classroom in the middle school is equipped with an 8-foot screen and projector, which are used to display the morning announcements by the LBMS news crew.

Each student member of the news team is learning to strengthen their writing, research, presentation and production skills.

The students are producing news stories and documentaries. In addition to the news broadcasts, the TV studio will broadcast recordings of school events such as concerts, plays and special events throughout the day.

One of their first projects was to create a "How-to-File" for teachers with detailed information on how they can use the classroom projectors to view the morning newscasts.

Currently the broadcast journalism class has approximately 70 students involved in news production. Students are excited about the course and the many different aspects involved in producing a news broadcast.