“Professor Henderson is one of the best professors I’ve had at Newhouse. She was able to teach me everything – top to bottom – while making me feel like I was still succeeding, improving, and a valuable addition to the newsroom. She also didn’t just teach us the ins and outs of running a newsroom, she also taught us everything she could about the business: salaries, companies, advertising, etc.”
“She’s up to date in technology and how the industry runs, she cares about the students and she loves what she does.”
“She is very knowledgeable on everything, pushes you to be better, makes you better”
“She’s the greatest. The GOAT as the kids would say.”
My students appreciate that I am a newsroom sociologist with newsroom experience. To them, the former means that I am keeping a scientific eye on our rapidly changing field, sharing that information with my students, and holding those students to a high standard of research and accuracy. The latter means that I have strong ties to current practitioners whom I often invite to drop in on my classes and share recent examples of their work. This gives our students a chance to see theory put to practice while networking with potential employers. Blending my industry and scholarly experience has earned me the moniker among my students of “Doctor Professor.”
Another aspect of my teaching that my students appreciate is my commitment to helping them explore and innovate with digital technology so they can reach audiences across platforms. Even though I only left the newsroom in 2010, so much has changed in broadcast journalism in terms of multiplatform storytelling and I incorporate my passion for that topic not only into my research but into my teaching as well. In my student newsrooms, I have made space for exploring new technologies by opening the floor to related discussions during our morning news meetings and by expanding our traditional television positions to includes podcasting, social and digital media producing. While it can be intimidating to adopt new technologies, both because they each come with their own set of legal and ethical concerns and because this requires that I learn to use them myself, I charge forward in this area because our students must know how to pivot with each industrial shift.
My students know that my classroom is a safe place to discuss difficult topics including the journalistic coverage of traumatic events and matters of diversity, equity and inclusion in newsrooms. While there is a risk with exposing students to the challenges of an industry they have yet to enter, I believe that students in a top-tier broadcast journalism program such as ours must have these difficult conversations before they head on a track toward large markets, network and cable newsrooms, and newsroom management.