Podcasting in Journalism

By Senior Communications Interns Cassidy Darcey and Alena Bitonti

Mrs. Cindy Bannon, an English department faculty member, recently made some technology upgrades to her Journalism classroom. She has been working tirelessly to create an atmosphere where she can incorporate instructional media into her students' everyday lessons.

“The digital landscape has been changing how we consume media,” said Mrs. Bannon. “I wanted to create a more modernized way to get out the news.” Very few of her Journalism students get their information through newspapers or the radio. Instead, they get their digital information from podcasts. So she decided to let her students create their own!

She credits her former Journalism students, Francesco Morabito ‘22, Kerith Watson ‘24, and Sonny Durkin ‘24 who originally pitched the idea for starting podcasts. Last year as a final project they decided to make their own podcast on Zoom because of limited recording equipment in the classroom.

They produced a fantastic project with six podcasts. Each student acted as executive producer for two episodes, responsible for choosing the topic, outlining the talking points and facilitating the discussion. Their efforts last year kickstarted the idea of creating a podcast studio in Mrs. Bannon’s classroom.

To do this, she put together a ‘wish list’ of equipment and software they needed; when the purchase was approved, they were off and running. Ms. Dana Sudsziarski, Director of Instructional Media and Technology, helped to install the software and connect the hardware.

Mrs. Bannon plans on using the podcast system in her Journalism classroom on a regular basis and has been working on expanding her knowledge of it.  It has been added as a final project option for Journalism I students. She welcomes other faculty members or students who are interested in reporting and podcasting to try out the new podcast system. 

Mrs. Bannon’s goal for the future is to incorporate video reporting into her classroom, as well as upgrade her podcast equipment. She would like to thank everyone that helped make this podcast system possible!