LATEST NEWS
THINGS ARE HOPPING AT THE BSC ARMORY
Dusty Anderson added speakers to the outside of the main entrance to the Armory, so if you are passing by or want to take a break on the benches, you can enjoy listening to The MYX .
And that's not all ... thanks to KFYR, who donated a broadcast set, the crew refurbished it for the Mystic Media studio. Come inside and check it out.
MYSTIC MEDIA
CORE FOUR IN NYC
During the month of March, Mystic Media students Robert Mechaley III, Daniel Burbank, Petra Davidson and Roger Marks attended the 2020 Spring College Media Association National Convention in New York City. They participated in several media sessions before things were cancelled because of the coronavirus outbreak.
While at the convention, the media students won a David L. Adams Apple Award. The award was Best Radio Promo created by Daniel Burbank and Cassie Perman.
MYSTIC MEDIA OPEN HOUSE
The Mystic Media/KFYR Studios opened their doors Thursday, Feb. 20, 2020 for an evening of tours, cookies and a basketball livestream from the Control Room in the Bismarck State College Armory.
Dr. Skogen even took time for a quick interview on The MYX with one of the student DJs before the game started.
THE MYSTICIAN EDITOR-IN-CHIEF PARTICIPATES IN NATIONAL NEWSPAPER FELLOWSHIP
Story written by BSC College Relations
Hunter Andes, a native of Makoti, N.D., and a current Bismarck State College student, has been selected by the North Dakota Newspaper Association to attend a reporting fellowship program in Washington, D.C.
The fellowship takes place March 14-15 during the National Newspaper Association’s Community Newspaper Leadership Summit. Andes and students from six other states will spend three days in Washington where they will attend briefings and meet with government leaders and congressional representatives. Based on those meetings and their own reporting, each student will produce a news story that examines political differences and demonstrates how citizens can reach across the political divide for the good of the country. Andes' reporting will available to NDNA members for publication in their newspapers.
Andes credits his experience as the current editor-in-chief of The Mystician, the BSC student newspaper, in helping him find his passion for journalism. “It’s where I found my voice and my skill for writing.”
Andes is also one of the founding members of the North Dakota Student Media Association. He is studying mass communications and secondary English education, and plans to transfer to Minot State University to complete a bachelor's degree after graduating from BSC. He has already earned an associate degree in engineering technology, also from BSC.
In addition to his work at The Mystician, Andes does freelance writing for BHG papers in his home community and has worked as a production assistant at KFYR-TV in Bismarck. His hobbies include attending threshing bees and restoring antique tractors, stationary engines and Studebakers.
This is the fifth year that NDNA, with grant funding from the NDNA Education Foundation, has participated in the national fellowship program.
BSC COMMUNICATIONS STUDENTS RECEIVE TOP NATIONAL HONORS
Bismarck State College Mass Communications students received several awards at the College Media Association/Associated Collegiate Press national fall convention in Dallas, Texas.
In the Best of 2017 Pinnacle Awards for organizations, BSC’s The MYX placed first as Two-Year Radio Station of the Year, beating out entries from across the United States. MystiCast took second place as Two-Year TV Station of the Year. Figments of Imagination, the BSC literary arts magazine, placed third in the Two-Year Literary Magazine of the Year category. The BSC faculty advisors of each are Cole Bernhardt, Dustin Anderson and Dr. Kimberly Crowley respectively.
Pinnacle Awards honor the best college media organizations and individual work. The contest is open to student work produced for any college media organization, including print, broadcast and online outlets during an academic year.
College Media Association serves student media pros, staffs and programs with education, research and resources. The Associated Collegiate Press is the nation’s largest and oldest national membership association for college student media.
The MYX, MystiCast and Figments of Imagination can be accessed online at bscmysticmedia.com.
LIVE-STREAMING—BEHIND THE SCENES OF BEHIND THE SCENES ACTION
Story written by BSC College Relations
BSC mass communications instructor Cole Bernhardt sits in a small, dark control room in the basement of the NECE. A Tricaster flickers, and three screens show the action several hundred yards away in the BSC Armory where the Mystics women’s basketball team races the Miles Community College (MCC) Pioneers up and down the court.
The chatter in the control room sounds a lot different than the cheering from the stands. Bernhardt continuously directs the student running the cameras in the gym:
Follow the action follow the action. Very nice follow. Perrrrfect. There’s a replay stand by replay. Oh nice. Back out to camera one.
Normal game play. I’ll be on two, replay is camera three shot.
Now really tight on the shooter… tight, tight, tight, tiiiight! Oh! A little too tight.
Snap in – not herky jerky just snap and concise – that’s perfect!
Stand by three. Three’s up.
Good follow. Good follow.
At the other end of that chatter is BSC student Levi Holzer, a 21-year-old Bowman native, running the cameras for the first time. Camera one is mounted on the wall above him, and cameras two and three are on a tripod that he uses to follow the action. In constant contact via headsets, Bernhardt gives him direction and encouragement.
“It’s not hard to do. I like sports, and this is fun,” Holzer says.
After trying education at DSU, then business at BSC, Holzer discovered videography during an internship with the Bismarck Bucks arena football team. He played football and ran track in high school, and coaches both of those sports in Mandan. He says being connected to athletics through the camera is rewarding. He appreciates the hands-on learning he’s getting with the BSC Mass Comm program.
“I’m learning how to do play-by-play, set up cameras. I’m ready for a lot of different job scenarios, and getting credit for it, too.”
On this particular night, no students were providing color commentary for the livestream, but Mason Thorensen, a fellow mass comm student, and Holzer will serve in that role for upcoming games.
“When we got the idea to do this, it was a goal of ours to have the students involved as much as possible.” says Dusty Anderson, another mass comm instructor. “It’s great to see the excitement from them covering the games.”
While BSC has had broadcast equipment for some time, recent technology has eliminated the need to for the control room to be housed in the same building as the action. That improvement motivated the mass communication instructors (who also serve as BSC’s video production crew) to cover BSC’s basketball and volleyball home games this year as part of their curriculum.
“I believe we are the only ones in the state using this new technology, at least at any of the campuses,” says Anderson.
On this particular night, the women lost, but the men won. For the production crew, winning or losing isn’t what drives their effort. The goal is to get good shots – regardless of which team makes the shots.
At one point, Bernhardt encourages Holzer to zoom in on the MCC coach who was becoming visibly irate over a call. He was animated and his antics helped keep things interesting for the livestream audience.
Channeling the excitement of a game onto a screen at home is a craft Bernhardt honed covering Bismarck Wizards basketball games at the Civic Center. He’s focused on directing the storytelling, not on the game itself. “If you asked me who was winning at the half, I wouldn’t be able to tell you.”
What Bernhardt does know, is that this kind of hands-on training is unique to BSC. “I don’t know of any other [two-year] college doing this.”
To see the Mystic Athletics live, go to: bismarckstate.edu/community/live/mystics/. To learn more about BSC Mass Communications, visit: bismarckstate.edu/academics.
Pictured above: Kim Crowley, Ashley Thorpe and karen Bauer share a moment at Mystic Media Mayhem 2016.
MYSTICIAN ADVISER RECOGNIZED BY COLLEGE MEDIA ASSOCIATION
Bismarck State College Assistant Professor of Journalism karen Bauer was recognized as the recipient of the 2016 Distinguished Magazine Adviser Award at a two-year college or university by the College Media Association (CMA). Bauer is the adviser of the BSC student newspaper, The Mystician.
CMA annually recognizes the achievements of individuals through various awards programs, including Honor Roll Adviser Awards for professionals who have advised for five or fewer years; Distinguished Adviser Awards for professionals who have advised for greater than five years; and a variety of special honors recognizing service and outstanding achievements.