ABC News Veteran Helps Launch Video Journalism Program
At Long Island University’s Brooklyn Campus

Melvin McCray is Award-Winning Editor for World News Tonight

Brooklyn, N.Y. – Long Island University’s Brooklyn Campus, in an exciting collaboration between its Journalism and Media Arts departments, is offering a new video journalism concentration this fall with courses taught by ABC News veteran Melvin McCray.

The new 15-credit concentration in video journalism will instruct students in writing, shooting and editing their own broadcast news stories, using state-of-the-art video equipment and editing technology.

"We are adjusting our curriculum to the realities of how broadcast news works today," says Professor Ralph Engelman of the Journalism Department, anticipating a trend driven by technological and economic factors in which TV journalists are being called upon to both report and produce their segments.

"We are fortunate to have Melvin McCray of World News Tonight with Peter Jennings to teach the capstone course," Engelman adds.

In the news business for nearly 30 years, McCray has won Peabody and DuPont awards and was the recipient of the Association of Black Princeton Alumni’s Distinguished Alumni Award. He caught the teaching bug after he designed and taught a course at his alma mater, Princeton University, on the politics of images in television news, and later at Columbia University. "It intrigued me, watching the light bulbs going on in the students’ heads," he says.

"At LIU, I will endeavor to give students a look at the rapidly changing world of broadcast journalism – the state of the industry as it stands today and what’s in store for the future," says McCray, "We’ll use technology as much as possible so students can see first hand how a news story is put together. I find that they learn much quicker and more thoroughly with a hands-on approach."

The Brooklyn Campus Journalism Department, which administers the prestigious George Polk Awards in Journalism and the Kruglak Fellowship in International News Reporting, prepares students in print and sports journalism, public relations, advertising, desktop publishing and on-line journalism. The Media Arts Department offers instruction in photography, radio production, computer graphics, web design, and film and video production in high-tech facilities.

For more information on the Video Journalism program of study, call Professor Ralph Engelman at (718) 488-1009.

Located at the corner of Flatbush Avenue Extension and DeKalb Avenue in Downtown Brooklyn, LIU’s Brooklyn Campus is accessible to all major bus and subway routes and the Long Island Rail Road.