"I hope to give students enough structure so that they can be as creative as possible, but still perform under deadline pressure and respect the demands of the medium. The most gratifying note from a former student said that at her job, nothing confronts her that we didnŐt covered in class. I most enjoy working side by side with students in a professional production team environment."
Writer and professor Marcia Rock, is a two-time Emmy award winning independent documentary filmmaker. Her most recent documentary is, "Salt Harvesters of Ghana." It captures the beauty and dignity of women working in moon-like landscape, caught in an unrelenting cycle of work. It won best short at the Newburyport Documentary Film Festival. In 2008 she also produced Writers' Rooms: The Making of a Mural. It gives the background of Elena Climent's mural hanging in the NYU building, 19 University Place.
Before this, Rock worked with the personal documentary form with her own experience framing "Surrender Tango," on how partnering in tango relates to life, 2006. It was highlighted at the New York Tango Festival and the Milan Documentary Festival. In 2002 she produced "Dancing with My Father," a story about how adult love is often shaped by what a child learns at home. It was included in the Schenectady Jewish Film Festival, Dallas Video Festival, The San Francisco Jewish Film Festival, Northampton Film Festival, Big Bear Lake International Film Festival, The Cleveland International Film Festival, and was featured at the American Psychological Association and the Family Therapeutic Networker Conference.
David Dent is author of In Search of Black America, Discovering the African American Dream, a New York Times Book Review Notable Book of 2000. His work has also appeared in The New York Times Magazine, Worth, The Washington Post, Details, Psychology Today, Essence, The Christian Science Monitor and many other publications. A former television reporter, he has twice received the College of Arts and Science Golden Dozen Award for Excellence in teaching. He is also the recipient of a 1992 New York Association of Black Journalists' Award for excellence in magazine journalism and 1990 National Association of Black Journalists' award for a television series on blacks in the military.
Michael Ludlum spent most of his broadcast career in New York City where he worked in radio and television at both the local and network levels. During more than twenty years at CBS he served in many different capacities including news writer, editor, executive producer and news director. He was also heard on the air as moderator of a weekly public affairs program. Perhaps his favorite job was as executive producer of a special enterprise and investigative reporting unit. Ludlum recalls the day when his boss came to him and said, "How would you like to have a dream job? We're creating a new reporting unit. We'd like you to head it up. Pick three of the best writer/reporters in the place to work with you. You choose the stories you want to develop. It's all up to you." Ludlum jumped at the chance and during the next two years he and his team produced many award-winning series. Later he went on to become the station's assistant news director and then news director.
Ludlum also worked at ABC Television as Head Writer of Good Morning America. In that capacity he was in charge of the writing and research staffs and oversaw all scripts and interview material for the two-hour daily broadcast. He also briefed the on-air talent so they were well prepared to question major newsmakers including presidents, prime ministers, cabinet secretaries and well-known people from all walks of life from sports to show business.
During his years at the two networks, he was involved in coverage of such stories as the assassinations of Robert F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr., the end of the Vietnam War, the Watergate scandal, the Iran hostage crisis and many other events from election campaigns to presidential inaugurations.
"About teaching. I'm a real believer in the importance of good journalism. It excites me to watch students develop skills and attitudes about the news which will serve them well when they take their places as professionals. And I especially like hearing from former students who are now practicing the craft at stations and networks from New York to Washington to Los Angeles and overseas."
"About 'Broadcast Writing Workshop'. As the name implies, this course stresses news writing specifically for radio and television. But there's more. During several weeks of the term we also produce a television newscast from start to finish...from story selection to actual presentation on the air. Students get a feel for line-producing. They operate the equipment in the studio and control room. They anchor. And they learn the meaning of deadline because the program is sent out on the NYU cable system on a real-time basis."
Jane Stone has worked over the past 17 years investigating everything from corporate negligence at Fortune 500 companies to bogus retirement homes to the trafficking in endangered species by the country's prestigious zoos.
She has investigated hazardous abortion clinics, explored Pat Robertson's religious and political philosophy, and profiled a dangerously overcrowded public hospital.
her investigations have changed laws, shut down shoddy companies and increased workplace safety standards. They have also helped shed light on important public policy issues.
She has won three national Emmys including one for Outstanding Investigative Journalism, as well as three regional Emmys, an Ohio State Award, a DuPont-Columbia Award, a Peabody, and the Joan Shorenstein Barone Award for Excellence in National Affairs Reporting.
She was a producer for 60 Minutes, West 57th, PBS Frontline, Dateline NBC and the CNN Special Assignment Unit. She also helped start Court-TV, and in the last few years has developed a strong interest in legal journalism. She recently was awarded the American Bar Association Gavel Award for educating the public about important legal issues. Professor Stone continues to produce stories for Dateline NBC.
Adrian Mihai is Broadcast studio coordinator and an adjunct professor in the Journalism Institute. A videographer and multimedia designer, Adrian Mihai brings an inquisitive perspective that combines flexibility and experimentation in exploring the convergence of the two mediums. Born in Romania, he maintained cultural links with his former country and produced four documentaries. The first one, E Pluribus Unum (1994), investigates the spiritual milieu of first generation immigrants from Romania, as they become integrated into the various folds of the American society. The second one, Someone Has Killed The Sphinx (1995), offers an analysis of Romanian social realities following the overthrow of Nicolae Ceausescu's dictatorship, as seen through the staging of "Oedipus", at the Romanian National Opera House, by Andrei Serban. In 1996 he produced and shot a video diary, perpetuum mobile, shot during a driving trip from New York to the shore of the Arctic Ocean at Prudhoe Bay in Alaska. Following this, Adrian Mihai completed his fourth project, Quo Vadis? (1997), an analysis of the new consensus found in the American-Romanian community in support of Romania's accession to NATO. 1998 brought a fifth project, Crossroads (1998), a 78-minute video that takes a look at Columbia University's Graduate Acting Program, created and steered by renowned Romanian director Andrei Serban. In 2001 Mihai completed E Biagoresqo Drom / The Endless Journey, a 109-minute documentary about the Roma/Gypsy communities of Romania.
