Students' Work Airs On UNC-TV

The documentary, which will be shown on UNC-TV during the television newsmagazine "North Carolina Now," is the last segment in a three-part series examining air pollution throughout North Carolina.

The students wrote, filmed and produced the segments for their documentary television class in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication.

"I'm very excited," said graduate student Tania Zeigler, who produced tonight's segment. "We're having a viewing party for all the students."

The first part of the series, which aired Monday night, focused on the air pollution associated with hog farming in the eastern part of the state.

"It's a controversial issue," said Dan Childs, a graduate student who produced the first segment. "Every hog farmer refused to talk to us."

Childs said he worked around the dilemma by using a written statement from the N.C. Pork Council.

He said solving problems such as these required that all the students involved be very industrious.

"I think that everyone involved put in time above and beyond classtime -- even more than we thought would be involved," Childs said.

Although the three segments cover the same topic, they don't need to be watched together, said Tom Linden, Glaxo Wellcome distinguished professor of medical journalism and the instructor for the class. "They each stand alone."

The segment that aired Tuesday covered air pollution in urban areas and was produced by Steve Baragona, a graduate student in medical journalism. Senior journalism major Nora El-Khouri wrote the script.

Tonight's segment will focus on the air problems in and around Asheville.

Linden said he chose the topic of air pollution in conjunction with UNC-TV officials because it is important for every person in North Carolina to know what they are breathing.

"For example, Asheville has the highest rate of premature respiratory death in the state and the sixth highest in the United States," he said. "People retire to the mountains, and they just don't know."

Childs said he was thrilled to see his documentary air Monday night.

"I was extremely happy with it," he said. "This represented a huge time commitment for me."

The three segments again will be shown on UNC-TV as a package later in the year. Childs said he knows they will be shown together at least once in June.

"They were designed to run into each other," he said.

Childs said the experience was extremely rewarding. "It was wonderful, and the shoots were fun," he said. "But the best part for me, of course, was (Monday) night, seeing it on the air."

And Linden said he was happy with how the students developed his initial idea. "I was very pleased by it," he said. "I thought it was a very powerful study."

The University Editor can be reached at udesk@unc.edu.