Radio is one of the oldest running forms of media to date. Despite common misconceptions, radio still makes up a large part of Americans’ daily lives. Radio remains relevant in 2020. For UNO MavRadio advisor Jodeane Brownlee, she has been involved with radio since the age of 16.
“It’s a medium I’ve loved ever since I was a little kid,” Brownlee said.
With today’s circumstances and current pandemic, Brownlee sees this time as more important than ever for learning and improvement. Although there are no sports to cast or games to call, Brownlee encouraged her students in MavRadio to forge on and remain relevant. Her team brainstormed ideas to keep producing content despite the absence of sports, concerts, plays and more.
MavRadio settled on conducting a “Crunch Madness” bracket in light of the March Madness cancellation. The bracket was a field of 64 snacks that were separated into regions such as candy, cookies, chips and cereal. MavRadio took to social media and posted their bracket for the public to vote on to fill the void of bracket-busting and Cinderella upsets we usually witness in March.
The sports announcers in MavRadio even took to a Zoom meeting to analyze each region of the bracket with their “expert” takes on each seed and debate if Lay’s Classic was really going to take the Crunch Madness crown. Nearly 50 people sent in completed brackets themselves and hundreds voted online using Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
In a world full of uncertainty, Brownlee and MavRadio found a way to shine some light during a dark time. Brownlee plans to continue urging her students to create content at home and understands that audio and video quality may not be the same, but it helps students become more creative and innovative. Brownlee believes that through this pandemic, we will come back more tech savvy and stronger as journalists.
Ana's Media Storytelling 