Asbury alumni finishes work for Olympic Channel in Spain

Published 11:24 am Wednesday, August 29, 2018

From staff reports

Asbury University alumna Katie Ellington has been living in Madrid, Spain, where she began work May 16 on a three-month fellowship with the new Olympic Channel Services (OCS) Fellowship Programme.

Ellington is one of seven fellows who make up the program, and the only one who represents the U.S. Other fellows are from Brazil, China, Japan and South Korea.

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According to OCS, the purpose of the channel is to help young professionals develop new skills, expand their network and gain a new understanding of some of the possibilities available to engage global audiences through media. Fellows in the program will provide new perspectives on the different types of content and new approaches to media that are most relevant to young audiences internationally and in the countries they represent.

In development for several years, the idea for the fellowship was created by OCS General Manager Mark Parkman and Academic Dean of the School of Communication Arts Director Jim Owens, who also serves as the academic director of the Olympic broadcast services training program at Asbury University.

For the first few weeks of the fellowship, Ellington’s job involved researching millennial social media use and the sports entertainment industry in the U.S. to gain perspective on how OCS content could become more relevant to American millennials.

Ellington, along with the other fellows, presented research on her assigned topic and was then selected to work in the news department, where she primarily serves as a writer.

“I’ve written some profiles on athletes like Noah Lyles and Brighton Zeuner,” Ellington said. “Profiles are fun because after writing it, I feel like I know the athlete personally. It makes me want to follow their career and cheer them on in the future.”

Ellington said the fellowship has given her the chance to improve her research skills and learn the ins and outs of visual storytelling.

“Working for the Olympic Channel means covering a lot of different sports — including ones that I knew little to nothing about,” Ellington said. “A few weeks ago, my editor asked me to write some articles explaining the basics of rugby. I had never seen a rugby match before. I knew absolutely nothing about it. So, I had to do a lot of research. A journalist’s job is to inform readers, but we can’t be experts on everything. So, research is a critical skill to have.”

The Olympic Channel is a multi-platform destination where fans can discover, engage and share in the power of sport and the excitement of the Olympic Games all year round. Offering original programming, news, live sports events and highlights, the Olympic Channel provides additional exposure for sports and athletes 24 hours a day, 365 days a year in 11 languages.

Ellington’s fellowship will be coming to an end in a few weeks and she said she is looking where to take her career next. As a recent graduate, she is still figuring that out, although knows she wants to continue making her place in the journalism world.

“I’m hoping to keep working as a journalist,” Ellington said. “I love writing, learning and meeting new people and journalism allows me to do all three. I’m really thankful for all the professors who invested in me during my time at Asbury.

“Going after this fellowship required certain professional skills, but it also required the confidence to try something that was far outside of my comfort zone. I wouldn’t have had the confidence to do something like this without the four years of support I got from my professors and mentors at Asbury.”

To learn more about Asbury’s journalism program, visit asbury.edu/Journalism.