Dennis J. Brothers
About Me
Growing up as a little child, I was always taught to reach for the stars and do your best in life and you will go far. I always wanted to make a difference in the world in a positive way but, I was never sure how I would be accepted or perceived by the world. I've always doubted myself about doing thee impossible but, now I think that I am on the right road to greatness.
My name is Dennis J. Brothers and I am a second semester Master of Mass Communications student at the University of South Carolina, Columbia SC. I believe we all have an purpose in life, but I do believe that everyone needs a push to achieve the next step.  I completed my undergraduate degree at South Carolina State University and that's where I started to be molded into finally becoming an individual with a dream.  After completing my tenure at SCSU I got accepted into USC where the coursework and professors have shaped even more of my foundation when it comes to making a difference in media and also the universe.
Practicum Experience
My practicum experience was one I feel that I will never forget because I was challenged to get out of my comfort zone and do things that I felt shaped me into becoming a better professional. I had the privilege of working with my undergraduate alma mater media relations department. The media relations department for SCSU athletics serves as the voice and visuals for all athletic sports, the media relations department also gives reporters and news station or radio station credentials to air or tape any athletic event. My role in the department, I served as the media relations intern so I got a chance to work with writing scripts for game-day presentations, taking pictures, helping approved credentials, working with celebrities, sometimes managing the instant replay board and making sure that each Saturday home game was a success.
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I really didn't have a typical day because my internship supervisor always wanted me to do something different to enhance my skills. But one of the things I can remember doing frequently is actually helping prepare for Saturday games which was not easy at all. I normally would go in on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and of course Saturdays roughly around 8:00 in the morning and start looking and reviewing emails and asking for press credentials. Then I would meet with the Assistant Athletic Director and we discussed how she wanted things to be done on game-day. In addition, after we had our conversations, I would have to look over scripts and give her ideas that could make the game day experience much more fun and after reviewing scripts and all other work I would end my day and head to my job.
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Saturdays were the big day I normally would arrive three hours prior to kick off to head to our famed meetings, where we would get further directions on how halftime would go or if we had to make sudden changes to the show so that everyone would be on one accord. After these meeting we would get a thirty-minutes break to relax until it was heading close to game time. After our break, we would head to our designated stations and get ready for some great Saturday afternoon college football!
Managment Analysis
When it comes to really analyzing the company that I worked for it is sort of difficult to really theoretical approach.  On the other hand, I will say, that during this internship I really thought about Dr. Augie Grant class Issue in Mass communication management course.  Throughout my practicum the concept that kept coming to my mind was Readiness levels.  In readiness levels you have for different categories R1, R2, R3 and R4. Readiness level one means you have a lot of work to do, readiness level two is implying that you are progressing but, you are still in a learning stage, readiness level three is implying that you are ready but, still needs work and then readiness level four is stating that you are ready and you don't need any more training.  I felt that I went through three of the readiness levels.  I stated three because when I first got my internship, I had no idea what was in store and I had to have a lot of guidance to actually make sure I was doing the job correctly.  As I was progressing through my internship, I then started grasping the concepts of what was expected of me during the week and on the weekends.  After getting a better awareness of how the system went at my practicum, I started feeling more comfortable about my job and what I needed to do. Even though I felt comfortable, I still don't think I'm still at readiness level four.  I say that because I still feel that I'm still learning something new about my internship every day because there is so much knowledge that has to be absorbed.
As far as the management part of the origination and communicating I felt that they did a good job.  I will say that there were sometimes that I felt that everyone was not on one accord and not in sync.  I stated that because there were different occasions throughout the football season that some directions were not always clear, and everyone would look lost at times.  I think one way to help communication would be for everyone to have walkie talkies during game day and I also feel that another thing that could help the organization would be to make sure everyone reads their script prior to game time.  I think those are some very minor things that could be fixed in the communication area.
CV Title
Critical Thinking
Unlike most internships that sometimes require you to do research, my internship focused more so on strategic approaches and ethical approaches. Being that South Carolina State is a historically black college it was sort of easy analyzing what the culture wanted to see at games or what activities they could do before game-day. I also felt in my opinion there could have been more offered to minority students with activities because at times it felt like some students felt out of place like they didn't belong and I feel that you have to include all people no matter what race, sexual preference, gender, weight and etc. In addition, I felt there could have been more reaching out to students about different types of activities they would like to see during football games or before. I felt like it would have been a great recruitment tool as well. As far as the Strategic side of things I felt that the organization did a wonderful job in strategizing certain events; there were times when I would sit in on meetings and they would debrief about what African- American students would like to see and what would keep them engaged in supporting the athletics department. I noticed that they would do free give a way to not only the students but the crowds at games as well. I felt they kept that same strategy because they sort of figured out and knew that it would keep the audience engaged and wanting more. One thing I learned from watching them strategize certain events is that, the more you give the more the consumer will spend. I saw that on many occasions during this internship with the fans, it seemed like the more incentives the media relations department offered the more the tickets sales would be because fan knew that they were in for a treat.
My overall assessment of the media relations department is that it is a vital piece of any college athletic department because in my opinion I felt that my supervisor had to clean up everything. I know it was pretty hard for him at times because he actually does a lot of running around for the media relations for the time being, so I got to see how hard the work truly is and it’s not any walk in the park. I would say my department is a great one but if I could make a suggestion, I feel that he definitely needs to have an assistant because just being an intern myself, I noticed that the workload can get overwhelming at times and can be a bit much to handle. But in all fairness, I really do think that my department was an A one department not just because visual components , but because I saw the work ethic that went behind making everything deal with athletics especially on Saturdays a success.
