Editor-in-chief, station manager roles changing next semester
The Board of Student Publications and Communications has selected two students to serve as Student Media leaders for the coming semester.
Thad Moore, a third-year political science student, will serve as the Daily Gamecock’s editor-in-chief for the spring semester and Michael Duggan, a second-year media arts student, will take over as station manager for SGTV.
Moore began contributing to the Daily Gamecock when he was a senior in high school and took classes at the university. Moore climbed the ranks from reporter to assistant news editor, to news editor and finally to managing editor this semester.
“It’s definitely been a shift for me,” Moore said. “Being news editor, it’s a total grind. It’s more focused on one section of the paper and I think the last semester has helped me take a step back and take a look at all the sections and how they fit together.”
Moore will take over for fourth-year broadcast journalism student Sydney Patterson, who filled the editor-in-chief position this semester.
“Thad has been a phenomenal managing editor this semester, and I know that experience is going to make him a fantastic editor-in-chief,” Patterson said. “I’ve known Thad since he first started at the paper, and in that time, I’ve seen him grow so much as a writer, a reporter, an editor and, most importantly, as a leader.”
Following the brand new Daily Gamecock training program from earlier this semester, Moore said he wants to keep up with recruitment and retention of new faces at the paper as a main goal. Additionally, Moore wants to take coverage further off campus, into the Columbia community and surrounding areas.
“I want to continue to improve the training and retention program which we started this semester and which has gone really well so far,” he said. “I also want to have the paper be more active within the Columbia community and to continue to do our best to inform students of what’s happening, not only on campus, but all around them in the city.”
Moore has not selected his managing editor for next semester; instead, he has chosen to begin the search with an application process, similar to what Patterson did last semester.
Duggan will take over as station manager for fourth-year broadcast journalism student Paul Critzman. Duggan currently works as the training coordinator and equipment manager, while working regularly on three SGTV shows, and contributing to a total of five.
“I want SGTV to be more connected, to have more of a presence on campus,” Duggan said. “I want it to be a more interactive experience for students by getting more viewers and having more interactive stuff through live events, so that people can give instant feedback on shows.”
This being only his third semester at SGTV, Duggan hopes to pave a pathway for even younger staffers to climb the ranks.
“I’d also like to set up SGTV with an infrastructure for people to grow into new roles, so when I leave, our younger and newer staff members will be in a position to grow the station a lot more.”
Both Moore and Duggan will begin their tenures as Student Media leaders at the start of next semester.