By Marnie Coon
The Department of Communications has received national attention over its series, “Reporting the World.”
John Dancy, a retired NBC correspondent, is the interim executive producer and host of “Reporting the World,” a one-hour program produced by the Communications Department.
The program airs on PBS and distributed to other universities.
“‘Reporting the World’ is a public information program that looks at the inter-networking of the media while covering a controversial event,” Dancy said.
Dancy said he wanted to produce “Reporting the World” in order to give wider publicity to the BYU Communications Department.
Dancy served as NBC’s chief diplomatic correspondent in Washington D.C. for thirty years.
While at NBC, Dancy said he covered the Middle East Peace treaty between Isreal and Egypt, witnessed the tearing down of the Berlin Wall, and was the first to uncover the Iran-Contra affair.
“My professional experience centered around politics while I was a correspondent at Washington D.C.,” Dancy said.
Dancy said the highlight of his career was his coverage of the Iran-Contra controversy.
“It was the best story of my career. We (NBC) had the only copy and we were able to mine it for a week as we disclosed more findings,” he said.
The panel of experts that appear on “Reporting the World” are many times his colleagues in the journalism world, he said.
Ten years ago, John Hughes started the “Reporting the World” series to focus the efforts in the International Media Studies program, said Laurie Wilson, chair of the Communications Department.
“He wanted to create a program that would make a difference in the academic and professional world,” Wilson said.
Wilson said the program is important to the Communications Department because it helps build expertise in the International Media Studies program at BYU.
“We have opportunities to bring in keynote speakers and high profile people in the media industry for the program. While they are here, they have an opportunity to mentor our students,” she said.
Bob Doyle, Mike McCurry and Senator Warren Rudman were a few of the prominent figures who have appeared on the program.
Dancy taught broadcast journalism last year while directing the International Media Studies program.
He will return to BYU to complete his last year as a visiting faculty member in the Communications Department this fall.
He will teach Communications 481, “Mass Media Systems” and 475, “Advanced Broadcast Journalism” this year.
“His ethics are impeccable,” said Thomas Griffiths, the journalism coordinator in the Communications Department.
In addition to his professional experience, Dancy has also taught at Duke University and Harvard.
