Asbury University hosted a panel discussion on Feb. 29 regarding the media attention the school received during the Outpouring last year.
Students, faculty and staff were encouraged to attend in order to hear “Asbury’s communicators share their unique vantage points on the Outpouring as they responded to the unprecedented coverage by local, national and global news media.”
The panel was moderated by Program Director for Communications Dr. Jim Shores.
“We’re here to learn what it means to report a faithful account of events from the student’s perspective to a global audience and the careful stewardship of Asbury’s mission and message to stay in sync with the move of God that was taking place in our midst,” said Shores. “That’s the purpose of this panel. To share these stories, to testify how God moved in and through these media interactions, but also for all of us to learn and grow from these experiences as communicators, as future professionals, and Christ followers.”
The discussion opened with the 2023 Executive Editor of The Collegian, Alexandra Presta, sharing her experience covering the event.
“I had already been Executive Editor for a year at that point, so luckily, I knew what I was doing in terms of how to run the newspaper… but that day in chapel, I was just like every other student. I did not know what was going to come out of it,” recalled Presta. “As a senior, I recognized that this has never happened before during my time at Asbury, and this is special… It was very interesting to be a part of it while also writing about it. The best way I can describe it is it really felt like the Holy Spirit just took over and I was just the transcriber for what He wanted to say.”
Journalism Professor and Advisor to The Collegian Rich Manieri explained how Presta and her staff’s articles were reaching an unprecedented audience.
“In a typical news cycle, the stories on our website will get a few thousand views. [Presta’s] stories were getting hundreds and hundreds of thousands of views, to the point where the website crashed at least twice,” said Manieri.
“My brain could not comprehend what God was doing through our newspaper… For me to see and read comments of people encountering Jesus through what me and my staff were writing, that meant the world to me,” said Presta.
Despite the increasing number of views, The Collegian’s approach to covering the event didn’t change.
“We covered the story the way we’ve talked about… and that’s just to report what you see and talk to people and get a sense of what’s going on. And that’s what we did,” said Manieri.
Director of Strategic Communications Abby Laub and Vice President of Intercollegiate Athletics and Strategic Communications Mark Whitworth shared their experiences interacting directly with various media outlets.
“I think it was just amazing how respectful they were and how reverent they were. I think I was pleasantly surprised by that,” said Laub. “Yeah, there were a couple difficult ones that took advantage or tried to take advantage… but it was still just treating them with kindness and respect.”
“Even that first night… one of the things that was really apparent to us was to begin to pray for God’s protection, just as a blanket of protection over the university, over what was going on. And certainly as the news media started getting intrigued by what was happening,” shared Whitworth.
The university’s Strategic Communications team worked to devise a way to allow news outlets access to Hughes Auditorium without disrespecting the privacy of those worshiping and praying.
“We were all in agreement that we did not want camera crews going up and down the aisles, so we took the position that we would accompany videographers and reporters. The precedent was set that if they were going to get B-roll, you would be accompanied by a member of our Strategic Communications team,” said Whitworth.
The speakers also discussed the global reach of the Outpouring and recounted stories of those personally affected by what was happening on Asbury’s campus.
According to the panelists, the media attention the university received was overall a positive experience.
“Surprisingly… everybody, when they dealt with us, was very respectful,” shared Whitworth. “Even those who probably had no context said to us repeatedly, ‘regardless of whether or not we know what’s going on here, it’s so nice to cover a positive story.’ The fact that people were rallying around this hunger for more of Jesus, even a nonbeliever could not deny the beauty of that.”
Featured image by Sam Reed.