Members of the Arkansas Tech University Society of Professional Journalists chapter visited Little Rock for an industry tour on Monday, April 14.
The ATU students met with the marketing and broadcast teams from the Arkansas Travelers minor league baseball team, toured and watched a live show at KARK Channel 4 and met with the Little Rock Society of Professional Journalists chapter for lunch and a networking session.
“I plan these every couple of years because I love to see the students’ eyes light up or a light bulb go off that makes a connection between something they’ve learned in the classroom and what it looks like in the real world,” said Megan Toland, ATU associate professor of journalism.
According to its website, the Society of Professional Journalists was founded in 1909 at DePauw University in Greencastle, Ind., as a journalistic fraternity known as Sigma Delta Chi. In 1988, the organization officially changed its name to the Society of Professional Journalists.
Student journalists at ATU have the opportunity to gain classroom knowledge and hands-on experience in television and radio broadcasting, print journalism and public relations.
“My favorite part of the Little Rock trip was gaining insight from people who are in the field every day,” said Dalton Turner, an ATU senior broadcast journalism student and Society of Professional Journalists member. “Seeing these reporters do their thing and watching these anchors work in the news studios…it gives you a feel for what we could potentially be doing in the real world in even a couple of years.”
Learn more about the ATU Department of Communication and Media Studies at www.atu.edu/humanities/cj.
