UI-7 cable channel gives journalism student a chance to produce her own show, "Elbow Grease"
Karis Morrall, a senior in Broadcast Journalism, is making waves as a student intern for UI-7, the College’s cable television service. As one of UI-7’s two paid interns, Morrall is expanding her own camera experience, while writing, editing, and producing her own programs for the channel.
Her latest project is a series called "Elbow Grease" and is broadcast as a monthly ten-minute vignette.
The series takes a closer look at the "dirty jobs" that keep the University of Illinois up and running for the tens of thousands of students and faculty members that work, study, and research here. The latest episode revolved around the re-roofing of Foellinger Auditorium and was broadcast Wednesday, September 2.
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The intrepid senior also hosts the show and goes on the job with the campus employees the show features. For the first piece, she rode around with a campus waste management employee for the day. While covering the Foellinger project, she clambered on top of the 102-year-old auditorium along with the roofers.
In the next episode of Elbow Grease, set to air Wednesday, September 30 at 7:30 p.m., Morrall tackles the overnight cleaning shift at the Vet Med Small Animal Clinic. She works with Dennis Henry, a meticulous building service worker who cleans and sanitizes the clinic's operating rooms. She’ll suit up in sterile gear and scrub up the blood and mess left at the end of the night.
Morrall, other student interns, and broadcast journalism students are provided access to the Richmond Journalism Teaching Studio, with all the tools to create and broadcast a bona fide television program. But for projects in the field, interns for UI-7 are provided portable cameras and editing software and tasked with creating a monthly feature.
The chance to manage all aspects of the production for "Elbow Grease" is invaluable to Morrall who wants to someday go into broadcast journalism. Furthermore, each feature requires about 10-15 hours of editing, which Morrall balances with her school work.
"I pretty much get it all, camera work, on screen time, and editing experience," Morrall said.
The internship program, set up by UI-7 Coordinator Kate Brickman ‘07 JOURN, allows student interns to craft new and creative programming for the community cable network UI-7. The channel aims to reach UI students and Champaign-Urbana residents alike. Brickman, who started in July 2008, has set to work giving young journalists opportunities to tell good stories ¬-- and to get the community to listen.
And while Brickman sets the groundwork for professional productions, it’s completely up to the student interns to put that equipment to good use. Morrall says she took her inspiration from the Discovery Channel show "Dirty Jobs with Mike Rowe," but has added a uniquely University of Illinois touch, featuring the employees who often go unnoticed on the bustling campus.
"It was a good way to spotlight the work of the people here you don’t often pay attention to," Brickman said.
In addition to the "Elbow Grease" program, Morrall hosts a series of multimedia trivia questions that take place around campus. In the spirit of a Jeopardy video question, Morrall quizzes viewers on UI history from notable campus landmarks.
As part of Brickman’s efforts to make readily available all student produced content on social media sites, all of Morrall’s shows are archived on the UI-7 Vimeo site. The channel also has Facebook page and a Twitter account, both of which Brickman updates regularly.
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