Students covering the Olympics

Students covering the Olympics in Beijing 

Thirty-one UNC Hussman School of Journalism and Media students supported international journalists covering the Beijing Olympics.

Some students served as reporters at basketball, baseball and shooting events gathering quotes from athletes in English and taking them to the international media center where translators made them available in other languages. Others worked directly with print and broadcast journalists at media hubs in the International Broadcast Center, the Main Press Center and the Ling Long Broadcast Tower near the National Stadium and the National Aquatics Center.

“It’s an opportunity not a lot of people get,” said Professor Charlie Tuggle, who has overseen the project for the school and was with the students in Beijing.

Only six U.S. and two Australian universities partnered with the Beijing Organizing Committee of the Olympic Games (BOCOG) to employ students in covering the games. It was the first time volunteers from outside the host country worked in the media department.

The students were in China since early July, training for their roles with BOCOG and NBC, the coverage provider for the Games.

View student-produced video stories from their time in China.

Courtney Woo, a master’s student and Park Fellow in the school, blogged about the experience at The Huffington Post.

Parin Desai, a senior, has written stories for www.china.org.cn (Beijing's Hutong, Go to the Great Wall) and blogged for triangle.com at share.triangle.com/olympics.

Senior Erin Callender also blogged about the experience at erincallender.blogspot.com.

Rachel Kurowski blogged at rachelinbeijing.weebly.com.

Read an International Herald Tribune story about media volunteers at the Olympics.