Senior Teeley Dipple discovered it takes about six hours to produce a one-minute, 30-second television news clip.

That exhausting real-life lesson the budding TV news reporter gained through SkiffTV, a new convergent media enterprise for broadcast journalism students.

“SkiffTV is preparing us, through practical experience, for exactly what TV stations want,” Dipple said.

Students write, tape and produce news packages and then upload them to the Web. It’s a new spin on broadcast education that gives the students an extra edge in the marketplace.

“This is what is happening in journalism,” said Suzanne Huffman, hired last fall to head the broadcast journalism sequence. “Students will be expected to work in the multimedia world.”

Junior Chris Gibson, for one, now knows what to expect. “It’s harder than I thought,” he said. “You have to be a news person first and be able to put it on TV and the Web second.”

Workforce ready. Sophomore Tyson Trice, junior Chris Gibson and senior Tealy Dipple say SkiffTV experience has readied them for the work force.