ANGELINA DOHRE
Photo Editor
Jim Ranney, Fredonia alumnus and Director of Communications for New York State Senator Patrick Gallivan made a recent appearance at his alma mater. Ranney is a 25-year veteran of broadcast journalism and former station manager and news director of WBFO/WNED-TV in Buffalo.
This past week he visited with students in various classes and public lectures to give them insight on news writing and communication for the media.
Along with visiting the COMM 251: Audio Production and COMM 230: News Gathering classes, Ranney hosted a talk titled “Making News for the Right Reasons,” a student-only workshop titled “Writing for an Audience of One and an Audience of Thousands” and was a guest on “High Noon Friday,” a public affairs program produced by Fredonia Radio Systems.
In “Making News for the Right Reasons,” Ranney aimed to talk about the relationship between journalism and political communication and how to better serve the public.
“Reporters and elected leaders and their staffs deal with each other all the time and sometimes the relationship can be adversarial,” he said. “It doesn’t have to be.”
Joining Ranney was his son Joshua, a current Fredonia junior majoring in journalism and political science who serves as the Student Association president. Both were asked questions by associate professor Elmer Ploetz, who helped put the event together.
One of the questions centered around what Ranney’s son has learned from watching him work.
“My dad has been on the political side for three years, but for most of my life he’s been in journalism,” Joshua said. “I was in the radio station the first year I was born, so I’ve seen what the reporters do on a daily basis and how a newsroom functions.”
In the student-only workshop, “Writing for an Audience of One and an Audience of Thousands,” students were shown strategies of writing for different audiences.
“I will discuss the importance of writing in all forms of communication, no matter what area you might be working in,” Ranney said. “I also want to talk about how to identify your audience and make your message more meaningful.”
According to Ranney, he hopes students will find his events impactful on their writing. “I hope I can offer a perspective that [students] don’t get in the classroom,” he said. “I want them to know that writing is at the heart of all communication.”
Ranney is a 1988 graduate from Fredonia majoring in communications/media. He then went on to receive his Master’s Degree in education from D’Youville College in Buffalo. He is also an adjunct professor in the communication department at SUNY Buffalo State, where he teaches a media writing class and public speaking.
“Prior to joining the NY State Senate in 2014, I spent 25 years in broadcast journalism . . . most of it at WNED/WBFO in Buffalo, where I worked as a reporter, news director and station manager,” he said. “In addition to covering news, I conducted interviews and moderated debates for both radio and television.”
Combining journalism with politics, Ranney claims he has always had a thirst for news.
“I fell in love with radio and always wanted to work at a radio station, not as a DJ or music host but as a news reporter,” he said.
“Since government and politics are such a big part of what makes news, I also studied politics. My career has allowed me to work in both fields.”
Apart from work, Ranney enjoys spending time with his family, camping, reading and gardening.
Ranney has returned to Fredonia several times in the past to discuss journalism, storytelling and radio production with various classes. He was also part of an alumni panel discussion for homecoming a couple of years ago.
Ranney said he would love to come back to do more events like these. “Everything I have done in my career can be traced back to my time at Fredonia and I am grateful for the opportunity to come back.”