Seniors and graduate students in the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications can now take an advanced level visual storytelling course taught by two award-winning, veteran journalists.

Bob Dotson, a Syracuse University alumnus who spent 40 years as a feature reporter for a segment on NBC’s “Today” show, and Les Rose, who worked as a videographer at CBS News for over 20 years, are teaching a one-credit class for upper-level broadcast and digital journalism students.

The class, “Master Storytelling for TV,” is intended to help students take their skills to the next level, Rose said. He referred to the class as a “summation” of all the concepts and skills students learn throughout their studies in Newhouse.

Students will select one major project, “set the technology aside” and focus on pure, old-fashioned storytelling, Dotson said.

Students will spend the entire semester planning, shooting and polishing a single four- to six-minute visual story, Rose said.

Chris Tuohey, chair of the BDJ program at Newhouse, said the finished products may air on “Mornings on the Hill,” a “Today Show”-style live morning show on the campus community news produced by NCC News.

The opportunity to host the class came out of a lucky coincidence: Dotson and Rose both left their networks at roughly the same time last year. Rose — who had earned two Edward Murrow awards and shared two national Daytime Emmy awards with his colleagues — was hired over the summer as a professor of practice in Newhouse.

Tuohey said Rose’s experience as a TV videographer gave him a skill set that enriched the BDJ program.

Around that same time, Dotson — an SU alumnus who completed his graduate degree at Newhouse in 1969 — had just attended a symposium at Newhouse where he talked about his career at NBC and was wondering what to do in his retirement, he said. He stumbled upon Keren Henderson, an assistant professor in the BDJ program and the daughter of Dotson’s roommate during his time at SU.

Dotson said Henderson wanted him to video-call into one of her classes, and this triggered the thought of coming “full circle” by helping to teach a class on storytelling at SU.

Tuohey said Dotson expressed interest in teaching shortly after his fall 2015 visit to campus for the symposium, and that once Rose was hired during the summer of 2016, “the pieces fit pretty well together.”

Dotson and Rose had collaborated before on seminars, Tuohey said.

Dotson, whose 40-year career as feature reporter garnered six Edward Murrow Awards for Best Network Writing and eight national Emmy awards, emphasized the importance of being able to tell a compelling story, even in the tech-driven climate of modern reporting.

These days, Dotson said, reporters are often “too busy trying to figure out the technology” and have little time or energy to spend on developing narrative and characters. By de-emphasizing the technological aspects of broadcast journalism, he said he hopes this class will help simplify the process and allow students to focus on learning to “build a house,” or create a story that can engage and captivate their audience.

The class will meet every other Friday from 9:30-11:30 a.m. and will be taught by both Rose and Dotson. Tuohey said Rose will be teaching in person, while Dotson will be teaching remotely through a video-conference service. Dotson said he will be on campus for a week near the end of the semester to help students refine their projects in person.

With the class, Dotson said he ultimately wanted to give students the tools to compelling narratives, to “pass along the love of this story.”

“(I hope) in their brain they have this ‘aha’ moment, going, ‘Now I know how to put this all together,’” Rose said.

Published on September 13, 2016 at 10:09 pm

Contact Madeleine: mdavison@syr.edu