Communications studies students are producing a television show despite conflicts that caused the program to be discontinued earlier than scheduled last semester.

“Paragon” is produced by students in Media Studies, formerly known as the Radio-TV-Film emphasis of the communication studies program. “Paragon” is a 30-minute program that covers feature stories of interest to NIU, Robert Miller, executive producer of the show and assistant professor of communication studies, said. The program is in its third semester of production, he said.

“I conceived ‘Paragon’ to provide an opportunity for these students to produce their own work,” Miller said. “It’s not a class in reporting, but we are using a magazine format for students to gain experience in visual and audio composition. The course involves single-camera shooting, editing and mixing of soundtracks,” he said.

Problems arose last semester as a result of difficulties graduate students had working with undergraduates who were less experienced in operating the electronic equipment, Miller said.

“We discontinued using Super 8 equipment, which is becoming obsolete, and we won’t be able to switch to portable video equipment for beginning classes until next fall,” Miller said.

“The problem we faced was we stopped teaching single camera shooting and editing. Students went into the advanced field production course having had no previous experience,” he said.

Mary Lazier, a graduate student in communication studies, was one of eight segment producers of last semester’s program.

“The program was canceled about three weeks before the end of last semester because of problems within the system,” she said.

Three-person crews produced one show every other week, Lazier said.

“Producers were expected to make their own (shows),” Lazier said. “It was very difficult working with people who didn’t know what they were doing. Sometimes each shoot was taken six times,” she said.

After last semester’s conflicts, Miller restructured the course. This spring, 21 undergraduate students are producing the program, he said. No graduate students are involved. The students face project deadlines but not production deadlines, he said. So far, the students have produced about 24 segments. However, a broadcast time on TV-8 has not been scheduled, he said.

Jon Morgan, assistant news director for TV-8, said a large amount of time and money is required to produce a program as complicated as “Paragon” is. Personality conflicts and the strain of working evenings and weekends might have caused much of the tension between graduate and undergraduate students, he said.

Some of the five-minute segments produced in the past featured art exhibits, recitals, plays, professors’ travel experiences, NIU’s buildings and faculty grants and awards.

Skills students can learn from producing their own magazine include field shooting, editing, structuring pre-recorded material and post-production techniques and combining footage with other shots, Miller said.