Iowa Lakes is home to many different programs from wind energy tech to aviation. Iowa Lakes is also home to the growing Digital, Social, and Broadcast productions program. This program is a two-year program designed to help students gain confidence in the field of journalism and the technical side of the industry.
This program has multiple instructors with the lead advisor being Kevin Tlam who works for MORE 104.9. Tlam heads the program with help from multiple other adjunct professors including Matt Heinrichs (Dickinson County News), Dave Petrick (Dickinson County News), and Jason White (Mediacom and MC22). With help from all these professors, students are able to gain real-world experience by working with some of these companies. Students are put through a two-year program the requires doing everything from running a camera, to editing photos, writing for a continuous blog, and even having there own radio show. This program is also able to help students learn what it is like to run a live television production and radio show.
One of the biggest portions of the course is a class called Multimedia projects. This class is mainly for students to learn how to run a camera and do play by play for the Iowa Lakes basketball teams. Students run a camera or do other projects throughout the entire game. This whole project is headed by adjunct professor Jason White. White works at Mediacom and in conjunction with MC22. This program has been a key part of helping students grow and get ready for a real show.
“This class was a way of getting some real-life work experience involved,” said White, “It’s a chance to be apart of a live production of basketball games and sometimes some other projects. It gives everyone a chance to feel the pressure of a live broadcast.”
White discussed how originally it was a 50/50 deal with MC22. This meant that half of the staff would be Mediacom employees and half of the crew would-be students. Recently though, the program has grown so much that it is almost entirely a student-run production that White believes has been very beneficial to the growth of the program.
“The class sizes have just gotten so much bigger,” said White, “We first started out with only two or three students. Then this year I had nine freshman and four sophomores which is a huge difference and is a major adjustment that we have had to make, but honestly, it is a good problem to have.”
White discussed how the program can attract so many different types of students. It can attract students because it is a two-year program that will cover many different aspects of the media.
“Some people just have an excitement for being in the media,” said White, “For some people, it’s writing, for other people it’s video production, for others it being a DJ or a radio host. There is a certain kind of thrill and excitement for it because there are so many entry-level positions. With those jobs, they may not pay well to start, but the potential earnings are unlimited.”
One student who has benefited from the program and will graduate in the spring of 2020 is Adam Gellert. Gellert is a sophomore in the program and has also done an internship with Jason White over the summer of 2019.
“My internship was really great,” said Gellert, “I got a lot of real work experience. It felt like I was getting a real job. I got to experience doing video production professionally and got to be in a corporate environment as well. I made promotional videos for local businesses and got to even make a couple of commercials by myself.”
Gellert also talked about the program and how it can grow. He also discussed why this program will continue to grow in today’s age.
“This program will continue to grow with the YouTube age,” said Gellert, “Everyone wants to be a YouTuber and make it big and this program is perfect for that. Since you are learning how to shoot, edit, and produce videos this will continue to grow.”
This program is continuing to grow and will have a new studio starting in the fall of 2020 (construction pending). The Digital, Social, and Broadcast Productions Program has many openings for the fall 2020 freshman class. For more information go to the Iowa Lakes website and visit the program’s homepage or contact Kevin Tlam at ktlam@iowalakes.edu for more information.
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