NIU’s student-produced television program Paragon resumed broadcasts for its third season last week.

Paragon airs on cable channel eight on Thursdays at 6:30 p.m., with a repeat showing at 7 p.m. and 9:30 p.m.

The feature program is composed of about five segments, three to five minutes each. Types of programs include segments about NIU’s Racquetball Club, art galleries and bargain shopping.

Students in Communication Studies 426 (Field and Post-Production) write, produce and narrate the individual segments, said Robert Miller, assistant professor of communication studies. Miller is executive producer and host of the program.

“Paragon is aimed at both campus and city audiences,” Miller said. “It provides feature stories rather than day-to-day news (and) an opportunity for students to write, shoot, edit and narrate their own work,” Miller said.

NIU student Dave Reidy, one of the program’s field producers and directors, said, “It’s such an advantage to say to an employer, ‘I’ve worked on Paragon,’ or on any type of program broadcast over the air or on cable.”

Reidy said, “We’re given a chance to go out and do our own package. We don’t think about what we like. We think about what the market wants to see,” he said.

Another field producer and director, Ilona Mesia, said the experience working on Paragon was valuable but time consuming.

Programs are videotaped on location and later edited at Northern Television Center.

Shooting at one location takes one to two hours, Reidy said. Editing time takes between five to 10 hours for a three-minute piece, he said.

“I spend 10 hours or more working on a five-minute production,” Mesia said. “The programs take about a week to produce. We need time to set up equipment, shoot footage and edit it,” she said.

Paragon programs will focus on the NIU Honors Program, Emergence Dance Theater, Student Recreation Center and favorite eating establishments of NIU students, faculty and administrators, as well as other features.