Author Archive for Ridley Morgan

I am Ridley Victoria Morgan, I am 17 years old, and I attend Cathedral High School in eastern central Indianapolis, class of 2011. I enjoy journalism, creative writing, songwriting, and also music production and engineering. At Berklee College of Music in Boston, I will be double majoring in music production and engineering and vocal performance, and minoring in journalism. Someday I hope to be an intern at a record company and or an intern at a pop culture magazine.

Inside Extra

By Ridley Morgan

Reporter, 5 Rights News

Has Gaga gone too Gaga? Lady Gaga has always held prominence for her wild antics, but she reached another level of crazy when she recently was  hit in the head with a pole during a performance by a backup dancer. The “Born This Way” crooner was cursed with said fate on a Sunday earlier this month during a concert in New Zealand. According to Yahoo! News, Gaga’s makeup artist tweeted: “Gaga has a concussion but she is going to be okay…can’t believe she finished the show.” Be careful Gaga, before the edge of glory becomes of the edge of brain damage.

Drake’s new meaning to “YOLO”? Rihanna asks, “Where have you been?” and Drake and Chris Brown answer, “Right here!” The two hunky heartbreakers reportedly engaged in a brawl in the W.i.P. Club in New York City over sultry singer Rihanna, who is known to be both Chris and Drake’s boo of the past. According to ABC News, Drake was not involved in any  disorderly conduct and the fight was actually initiated by the entourages of the celebs. Boys, you have officially proven to us the lengths to which you’ll go to be Rihanna’s rude boy.

Crazy guidettes reek new havoc on the Shore. Will we ever tire of the Snooks? Although viewers are unfortunately being forced to take a little break from the Shore, never fear, because Snooki and JWoww are here! MTV is airing a Jersey Shore spinoff show featuring the two bronzed bombshells sharing living space and getting on with their guidette lives, except this time around, Snooks has a little tan bun in the oven! “I am moving in with a pregnant, engaged Snooki!” exclaims JWoww according to Fox News, obviously disturbed. Will these orange party animals keep us fist pumping, or will MTV’s “Snooki and JWoww” be a flop?

This is Inside Extra.

Jun 15, 2012 | 0 comments | View Post

Community Affairs at WTHR Sparks Revolution

By Ridley Morgan

Reporter, 5 Rights News

The world of broadcast journalism includes numerous fields and departments of business, incorporating every area of expertise in the industry. I was privileged to experience this first hand at the studios of WTHR Channel 13 in the community affairs department. For six hours I shadowed Angela Cain and her two producers, Jennifer Donovan and Young-Hee Yedinak, as they showed me the ropes.

Community affairs is WTHR’s hidden gem, a portion of the newscast to which more people should pay attention. Cain’s main purpose  is to bring different  topics to the community’s attention, such as fundraisers and awareness events.  Cain  and her producers are actively participants in Coats for Kids, Shattering the Silence, and the Drumstick Dash.

I decided that it would be beneficial to interview all three of the department’s dedicated workers and ask them some questions about what they do, why they do it, and what initially got them to where they are now in their careers. Jennifer Donovan has been working with WTHR for 11.5 years and has been in her current position for 6.5 years, originally starting off as a news producer.

“It’s rewarding to me that I can help these organizations that don’t get a lot of publicity and don’t have a lot of marketing dollars get their message out there by being on our segments,” she says. “I think it is very beneficial for our community.”

Jennifer does most of the writing for what is called WTHR Cares, the portion of the newscast that the ladies in community affairs produce.

Young-Hee Yedinak proudly told me that she was inspired by her father to join the world of  broadcast journalism. Her passion was clear.

“Production is fun. You’re in the thick of everything, you edit, you shoot…and all of those things are fun, but what makes my job here in community affairs rewarding in a way is the fact that what we’re doing here touches people.”

Yedinak does most of the producing and effects for the news segments.

I asked Cain what advice she would give to students at the IABJ workshop. She advises us to “have passion for what you do” and stresses that “writing is so important to being a good journalist.” She finds it beneficial to know what is your passion and to always be curious about everything around you.

I found my experience in the community affairs department to be informative  and rewarding, and I was fortunate to be introduced to an area of journalism that I never knew existed.

 

Jun 15, 2012 | 0 comments | View Post

Spotlight on: Borshoff Public Relations

By Ridley Morgan

5 Rights | staff writer

Borshoff is a public relations and marketing company in Indianapolis founded by Myra Borshoff Cook in 1984 with a focus of keeping the clients’ best interests at heart. The company supports a team of 56 people, led by the four principals of the corporation: Myra Borshoff Cook, Erik Johnson, Jennifer Young Dzwonar, and Susan Matthews. Whitney Ping, a new hire at Borshoff, explained the company as a group of people that is capable of a lot of different things when it comes to communication. “There are many faces to Borshoff,” she said.

Ping started as an intern in January and was given various accounts to work on. Her work schedule started as three full days per week, and she was offered a full time position in March, which she accepted in May after graduating from IUPUI. Ping described Borshoff as “a unique and welcoming environment” where she was “able to really learn a lot in a short period of time.”

Inside Borshoff is a brand new office space called the “build out.” It started as a desolate office space for four employees. “The way we had set it up, it was very isolating,” said Jennifer Young Dzwonar, principal of Borshoff. So it was turned into an employee meeting spot called the Atari bar, referring to the universal video game network, and after that, it was once again determined that more office space was needed. The new build out space has five offices with “shower doors” as numerous employees like to call them due to the similarity in style to shower sliding doors. “I was a little jealous that I didn’t get one of the new offices, because they are very cool,” said Ping.

The transformation took approximately six months to complete. The company had a vision of two offices facing another two offices with an aisle between, but the decision was made to have all of the offices along one wall facing outside windows to bring in light. Dzwonar described the build out as “a nice combination of quiet and work.” “[The employees] have told us they love it!” she said about employees’ response to the new area.

Borshoff’s future plans for the build out consist of replicating the same layout on the lower floor. After having seen the effect of the atmosphere and the color scheme’s changes, Dzwonar said that “it sets the tone for the future.” Dzwonar and her three principal colleagues plan on continuing forward with the plans for the build out and also for the company as a whole.

Jun 24, 2011 | 0 comments | View Post