Sundial, the student-run publication at California State University, Northridge (CSUN)
I had a great opportunity being the news editor for the 2017-2018 school year. I wanted to challenge myself to switch back and forth from print to broadcast/ radio. I repurposed some of my Valley View stories. Most of the time I did day of stories to fill space in our weekly publication (and I now realize how terrible that was) but I never wanted the paper to be on the racks with blank pages.
Even though I worked 24/7 making sure stories were there for reporters to pick up. Then edited them so they could be up on our online publication and/or ready for our weekly publication. I quickly learned that not everyone can meet deadlines or take presentable pictures so I pulled through for my team. Here is my Sundial portfolio of stories I wrote.
Valley View News, student-run broadcast newsroom at CSUN
Right next to CSUN’s On Point, Valley View News was one of my favorite experiences of my whole CSUN career. Every Monday 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. or sometimes 7 p.m. we worked on our weekly newscast. So much happens every day leading up to Mondays in Valley View but the show always came together.
My classmates and I did everything from: organizing the rundown, editing packages until 3 a.m., traveling to different cities, crying, getting B-roll/ interviews from our CNN server, sneaking food in the newsroom, shooting campus and local stories, writing and reading over scripts, to make-up and hair and being camera ready to go live at 5 p.m. Here are some of my packages:
CSUN Student Quinten Thomas found dead in jail
Homeless Misconceptions by the LA River
CSUN Student Justin Clark runs for State Assembly
CSUN Assistive Tech Conference
KCSN, the student-run radio station at CSUN
My time at KCSN was amazing, I really learned how to write for broadcast. I worked on my anchoring and delivery. News judgement and rundown order is extremely important, as producer I never wanted my listeners to be happy then sad. Consistency is key. Here are some links to my anchoring:
Matador News, beginner student-run broadcast newsroom at CSUN
Matador News is where I learned how to be a multimedia journalist (MMJ). From finding stories, editing videos and writing voiceovers, to anchoring, producing, and managing the newsroom this experience makes me excited for my future as a journalist.
Producing the best show of Matador News with guest sports reporter, Jahmai Webster
Thanks for checking out my work!
Lauren Turner Dunn — Portfolio 