Broadcasting students airing show in honour of Black History Month

This month, Niagara College’s Broadcasting – Radio, Television and Film program is kicking off another season of Inside Niagara, a 30-minute live news style show written, shot, produced and hosted by second year Television Production and Presentation students in the program.

The show is a learning tool for students taking BRTF 1443, a class co-taught by School of Media Professors Susan Pedler and Peter ‘Dutch’ VandenBerg.

Pedler guides Presentation students through the editorial content, including the show’s focus, scripts, interview line up, reporter stories and on-air performance, while VandenBerg works with Production students on set design, control room and studio positions, graphics, and the shooting and editing of reporter stories.

Pedler noted that three episodes will air this Winter term, with each episode focusing on a different theme. The first broadcast, to be livestreamed from the TV Studio at the Welland Campus on February 22 at 3 p.m., will feature stories about inspiring members of the local Black community in honour of Black History Month. Inside Niagara: Black History Special will include interviews with historian Rochelle Bush, blues and country legend Big John “T-Bone Little,” jazz musician Juliet Dunn and Brock University Professor Dolana Mogadime, who was a consultant for the Nelson Mandela Exhibit at the Human Rights Museum in Ottawa.

“The episode celebrates Black people in Niagara who are doing things to uplift and support Black communities in the area,” said Pedler, who noted that students provide input into the show’s content.

Second year Presentation student Julie Sharp

Among the students working on the show, is Presentation student and episode one host Julie Sharp, who suggested the Black History Month theme to her professors and classmates.

“Given the timing of the first show, I thought it was important for us to highlight Black history and Black people in Niagara,” said Sharp. “Some of the featured stories were inspired by a lack of representation and focus on where you can go to get your hair done, where you can eat, where you can see music that people within the Black community can identify with.”

Sharp, who runs her own 12-employee cleaning business on the side and works part-time for the DSBN, is proud to be contributing to Inside Niagara’s first episode dedicated to Black History Month.

“Julie wanted to do a show for Black History Month that was celebratory and positive,” said Pedler. “She helped shape all the content, wrote her own scripts and did a lot of the interviews.”

Sharp, 30, enrolled in NC’s BRTF program as a mature student after moving to Niagara from Toronto in 2021. She has dreams of becoming a sports broadcaster one day, citing Canadian sportscaster Kayla Grey and American sports journalist and reporter Malika Andrews as role models.

Tune in to Inside Niagara: Black History Special on Feb. 22 at 3 p.m.

The show will zoom in on women in sport for its second episode in March. Stay tuned via the Inside Niagara Facebook page.