With the help of financial support from the Harrington School of Communications and Media the student-run sports media club, Anchor Sports Network, was able to launch at the start of last semester.
The club was started by two members of the University of Rhode Island’s football team. The two students are Sean Anderson, a junior communications studies major and sports media minor and Joe Deleone, a junior journalism major and sports media minor.
“Our genesis of it was to give students a platform for sports media content, something we wish we had freshman and sophomore year,” said Anderson. “We wanted to provide them with the opportunity to get things started in a club here.”
Anderson and Deleone met with Adam Roth, the director of the Harrington School of Communications and Media and the associate dean of the College of Arts and Science, several times towards the end of the 2018 spring semester where they discussed their intentions of starting a club dedicated to sports media. The Harrington School began to financially support them in the beginning of the 2018 fall semester.
“[The Anchor Sports Network] were not recognized by Student Senate and they needed money to get the website off the ground and other materials to launch it, so I provided them funding to do that,” said Roth. “The club [joined] nicely with this new curriculum we are creating with sports media. It also [pairs] nicely with this budding relationship we are developing with URI athletics and with Thorr Bjorn, the director of athletics.”
With the financial backing from the Harrington School, the two juniors worked towards launching the Anchor Sports Network website. The money went towards securing the domain name, paying for a website template.
Anderson and Deleone admit that creating a website was more difficult than either of them anticipated.
“The biggest challenge was getting the website put together because [Anderson] and I aren’t the most technically sound people,” said Deleone. “We are good at what we do, but neither us of really knew much about computer science. So, that took us longer than we had hoped but we got it done. Once we got it up everything was running pretty smoothly.”
Their hard work paid off when both the launch of the website and the first club meeting they held were overwhelmingly successful.
“They had their first meeting and 45 students showed up,” said Roth. “That said to me this was a way to really satisfy a need and demand among students in the Harrington School.”
Students in the club are offered creative freedom in what they chose to contribute. Students can post blog posts, podcasts and videos discussing whatever sports related topic they chose.
“I think the club has a complimentary role in the University,” said Roth. “I think it is a great way for students in the minor or the forthcoming major to participate in the club that really interests them and club can also feed students into the minor and the major.”
The Harrington School recently added a sports media major in addition to the existing sports media minor and is currently seeking approval from the Faculty Senate. If approved, students will be able to enroll in the major in the fall 2019 semester.
Students enrolled in the major will have required core classes and be able to follow recommended sequences for classes. These sequences include “Sports Culture Media in Society,” “Sports Media Production” and “Strategic Sports Media in Communication.”
The Harrington School has also hired Matthew Holder as a sports faculty member in sports media and communication who will start in the fall. Roth predicts to have 200 to 300 students enrolled in the program within the next two to three years.
“I hope that students in the sports media minor and forthcoming major graduate with a familiarity with the important role the communication plays in the sports industry,” said Roth. “URI does a really good job in terms of exposing them to a variety of experiential learning opportunities and professional networking and mentor opportunities. They are also having a lot of opportunities to meet and network with industry leaders.”