Tiger TV will return for the 2023-2024 academic year at NDB through the journalism program.

Tiger TV was NDB’s broadcast journalism program that ran from the early 2000s through the 2019-2020 school year. Students in the class learned about the mechanisms and production of broadcast journalism, and would produce weekly videos covering news and hot topics around the school community.

The program was offered through NDB’s Video Production elective and went through many changes under different teachers during its time at NDB. Tiger TV was started in the early 2000s by former NDB teacher Frank Ryerson, who had fundamental involvement in NDB’s Journalism Program and the origins of The Catalyst as well.

Ryerson left the school in 2012 and the Tiger TV program was passed through many succeeding teachers in the following seven to eight years. During the program’s final years, the Video Production class was offered as a Tri-School class to Serra HS and Mercy HS students, but the name “Tiger TV” was still maintained.

The class stopped production of Tiger TV in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which moved all NDB classes online for the majority of the 2020-2021 school year. Although classes have been fully in-person for almost two years, the program was never reinstated through the Video Production class.

Journalism Advisor Robert Rojas had a strong interest in bringing Tiger TV back to NDB and incorporating the class into his journalism program under The Catalyst, the student newspaper of NDB. Incorporating the broadcast and television aspects of journalism with the writing aspects would allow students who are interested in pursuing a career in journalism to obtain a well-rounded understanding of the field.

“Tiger TV will bring in broadcast journalism experience to the overall [journalism] program and will broaden the curriculum to give students experience in both print, online and broadcast journalism,” said Rojas. “[It will also] give us an opportunity to tell more breaking news stories or more news-in-brief stories – things that happen on a daily basis and may or may not be relevant within two to three days.”

Tiger TV will be incorporated into the existing Journalism classes at NDB, which can be taken as English electives and are offered from Journalism I through IV. Students who are interested in participating in Tiger TV will need to be enrolled in one of the Journalism classes offered or must be an actively-participating member of the Journalism club.

Mia Muzzi, the Editor in Chief of The Catalyst for the 2023-2024 school year, will be taking on new duties with the incorporation of Tiger TV into the class curriculum. In addition to overseeing the timely production of a monthly newspaper, both print and online, she will also be responsible for overseeing the production of weekly to bi-weekly Tiger TV videos.

“I am really looking forward to bringing Tiger TV back to NDB. I hope that it helps us better engage with the NDB community and encourages students to join the journalism program,” said Muzzi.

While Rojas would be the advisor for Tiger TV as well, History teacher Jonathan Tomczak and Video Production Teacher Mark Thiesen will assist in the program as well, providing equipment and additional instruction for the students.