This class covered multimedia storytelling where students were taught the basics of print and broadcast news writing such as AP style, nut graphs and storytelling structure. I wrote three stories for this class, an event coverage, a profile piece and a reaction story. Below is my event coverage for the University Girl dating show, a dating show put on by a magazine on campus.
University Girl dating competition opens conversations about college relationships
Five rows of chairs faced 12 empty barstools in the dimly lit basement bar. Only about a quarter of the audience were able to sit down. The rest stood shoulder to shoulder in any space they could find where the stools were still visible to them.
University Girl Magazine and The Playground, a student-run comedy club, brought their very own dating competition show to Harry’s Bar. Tickets for the competition sold for $7.18 each which Ella Maniloff, the print copywriter for U-Girl, said will be used for fundraising for both organizations.
“I'm just here to support U-Girl as a whole, and I'm really excited,” said Maniloff. “We need money to do events, to keep printing this magazine. It’s really awesome.”
The show featured twelve single Syracuse students who were hand-picked based on applications submitted prior to the show. University Girl hosted a similar show last semester but Maniloff said to keep an eye out for some fun twists.
“Honestly, get ready because no one knows,” Maniloff said when asked what to expect from this semester’s show. “It's gonna be awesome. Everyone's just here to get to know each other, see if they can find a connection, and go from there.”
The competition was hosted by Liz Crandall, a senior at Syracuse University and one of the managers for The Playground. Before the show began, she paired the singles up based on the compatibility of the answers on their applications.
Crandall then began the competition. The pairings were asked about their biggest red flags and what they hoped to get out of the show. Then, their compatibility was tested through a 1-minute speed dating round.
One couple, Rohan Iyer and Kiera Pick, instantly won over the crowd with their 1-minute speed date. Iyer began by asking Pick what her ideal date was, which Pick said was probably a coffee shop date.
“Pick you up tomorrow then?” Iyer said without hesitation. The crowd erupted with cheers. The other contestants looked at each other, then the crowd, mouths agape. Crandall then asked Iyer about his appearance on the Tea App, an app where women rated their experiences with men.
“There’s a reason that app was banned,” Iyer said. “Don’t always believe the rumors.” Crandall then asked every girl Iyer had flirted with in the past month. Almost half the girls in attendance raised their hands. This was met with a mix of cheers and boos from the crowd as Pick looked wide-eyed at her partner.
After all the couples had answered, Crandall asked the crowd to cheer for which one they liked the most when she pointed at them. Despite Iyer’s interrogation, he and Pick were the clear favorites.
Crandall then revealed two new contestants who she called the bombshells. These two singles could split up a current couple or couple up themselves. The bombshells only decided to split up one couple, causing one contestant to re-couple with one bombshell.
The rowdy audience, which never fully quieted down during the show, was then able to ask any questions they wanted to the now seven couples. Some questions were specifically for certain contestants, others were for the whole group, and most were of a sexual nature. These questions were something contestant Liz Grimm was looking forward to.
“I'm just looking forward to the guys answering some of these probably sexual questions,” Grimm said, although she said she was not necessarily looking for anything sexual. “I'm honestly just hoping to meet fun people, whether it's romantic or not.”
Grimm chose to apply for the event to support her two best friends, who are both involved with U-Girl. She was paired with a contestant who admitted he was gay but wanted to do the competition for fun.
At the end of the show, each couple was given 1-minute to convince the audience they should win. Couples interpreted this in a variety of ways. Grimm and her partner claimed they should win because they knew each other’s last names. Another couple listed their similarities which included that they were both Met’s fans and Jewish. Two couples, one being Iyer and Pick, just started kissing each other.
Crandall asked the audience to cheer one last time for their favorite couple. When she pointed to Iyer and Pick, it was clear their kiss paid off. When they were announced the winners, they embraced each other before their friends rushed their stools.
Unless they considered getting the loudest cheer from the audience as a prize, the competition does not feature an award for the winning couple. Only the knowledge that they were seen as the pair with the strongest spark.
