Written by Sophie Thibodeaux and Gabriel Huff // Photo by Balazs Balassa
The HU16 news team has begun a new segment hosted by Dr. Jack Shock, distinguished professor of communication, called “Shock Talk,” a 20-minute episode series featuring a variety of guests from the Harding community every Wednesday.
The first episode of the series began Feb. 21 and featured senior theatre major Josie Holman and sophomore theatre education major Timothy Brown discussing “The Crucible.” Dr. James Miller, assistant dean of honors and associate professor of communication, filled in for Shock, who was out of town that day.
Senior Jacob Mooney said the show is run by the Broadcast Producing class taught by Dr. Ginger Blackstone, assistant professor of communication and HU16 news director, and filmed in the HU16 studio.
“Pretty much the whole premise of the show was just having a basic talk show where we invite some interesting people off campus to come and talk to us,” Mooney, who is enrolled in Broadcast Producing, said.
Senior Kendall Moshinksky, also enrolled in the producing course, said the class has produced four episodes of “Shock Talk” so far. Episode two aired Feb. 23, featuring Rivers West, a young local band.
“They came on and talked about their music and then did a performance of one of their songs,” Moshinksky said.
Episode three, featuring Harding’s first Spring King, will air next week.
Blackstone discussed the decision to create the talk show in addition to the newscast the department already produces..
“We decided to do a talk show, and each person in the class has to oversee an episode,” Blackstone said. “They are the ones that voted on who we wanted our host to be, and they said, ‘Jack Shock,’ and he said he could do it. He hosted it, but then each individual student has to come up with a topic for their episode.”
Blackstone said each episode is around 15 to 20 minutes long and starts with a question and answer session with the guest, while the second half is more interactive and involves activities like games or contests.
Moshinksky said she and others have worked with HU16’s live news productions, but producing talk shows has been a different experience, allowing them to use more creativity and broaden their knowledge.
“I think it’s been really helpful for us to get hands-on experience doing something that none of us have any experience with at all,” Moshinksky said.
