Talking up a Storm

Dan O’Donnell, two-time Edward R. Murrow Award winner, brought the airwaves right into an University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee classroom Dec. 9.

O’Donnell is a radio personality for News/Talk 1130 WISN, who came to enlighten Journalism, Advertising and Media Studies LLC students about broadcast journalism.

O’Donnell came into the room and his charismatic personality kept the student audience engaged through a history telling of radio media all the way to the end where they learned about O’Donnell’s own history.

“The JAMS LLC is designed to give UWM freshman students exposure to media careers,” said Jessica McBride, LLC instructor and senior lecturer in JAMS. “As part of that process, we are bringing innovative and interesting speakers to campus to discuss media careers. It’s a misnomer that media professions are dying. In fact, it’s an exciting and innovative time to go into the media.”

And portraying that is just what Milwaukee native and Marquette graduate, O’Donnell did. He is an opinion journalist for 1130 WISN, and runs Common Sense Central, while holding the titles of a news anchor, talk show host, online columnist and program director – just to name a few.

O’Donnell is an opinion writer and said what he does is “…provide the arguments people need… to support their opinions.” He believes if “Opinion journalism is done well, it’s the same as fact journalism but the end leads to a conclusion that supports your opinion.”

Although opinion writing is a part of O’Donnell’s job, he said that he does, “…a lot of explanatory journalism too…” because with explanatory journalism comes an opinion. And with that, another rule of thumb he keeps for himself is that for every hour he is on the radio, he will spend, a minimum, of two hours researching each topic he covers

Some advice O’Donnell gave JAMS students was to always write in active tense when working in broadcast. “Write in active tense. Always right in the now. Make it right now!” He reiterated. Another point O’Donnell made about journalism as a whole is that “There’s a real need to be entirely accurate all the time.

This advice resonated with LLC student Cassie Bretl. She said O’Donnell had “…a lot of good insight…” regarding the media and described him as “Very professional.” O’Donnell’s visit to the classroom gravitated Bretl to his channel, and broadcast journalism as a whole.

Broadcast is O’Donnell’s main focus in journalism, but his work has been very versatile. Another key to success which he points out to students. His work history includes news, talk shows, sports talk, movie reviews and commercials.

One of the perks of O’Donnell’s job is that as long as his work is getting done and out to his audience, he is able to make his own schedule. This helps O’Donnell keep up with family life and allows him to come talk to students like he did with the LLC.

O’Donnell is a conservative talk show host, and opinion writer. He uses commentary and analysis as tools to support his opinions and can be found of Facebook and Twitter as well.