By Emma Behrmann, B.S. Journalism 2024

When the cameras roll, it is Shawn Humphrey’s time to perform. And the morning of the Oct. 8 University of Florida homecoming parade was no different.

He sat behind a table draped in a royal blue tablecloth next to his co-anchor Journalism senior Ophelie Jacobson. The anchors faced the cameras, ready to narrate the parade’s procession down SW 13^th Street in Gainesville behind them.

The UF College of Journalism and Communications (CJC) Journalism senior had not been in front of the camera often prior to the homecoming broadcast, but his time on “Sports in :60,” a CJC immersion experience, and TV 1, a journalism broadcast course, enticed him. He poked around the Innovation News Center (INC), the College’s multimedia newsroom, eager for camera work. He found an opportunity in the basement.

The senior visited Matthew Abramson, CJC’s director of Media Services, who asked if he would be interested in co-anchoring the homecoming broadcast. The answer, a resounding yes.

From there, it was general preparation, Humphrey said. He and Jacobson planned their introduction, but the rest was conversation between friends for over two hours.

A sheet sat on their table. It listed every float and organization that traveled the streets. The whole time, producers were in their ears, providing guidance and talking points. But Humphrey had practiced, and he was himself.

The nerves never arrived.

“Being on camera, being behind a microphone, I feel at home,” Humphrey said.

And the INC felt like home too. He sees the same people every day, and they work together to produce shows like “First at Five,” in which Humphrey presents the weather, sports and the occasional news package. On air at least once a week and consistently in the newsroom, he grew comfortable among his fellow journalists.

So, when it came to the homecoming broadcast, conversation with Jacobson was natural.

“When we got into the meat of the parade, it was just us out there,” Humphrey said. “The overall authenticity of the broadcast came through.”

Humphrey watched as the youth football team he had spent time with over the summer passed by. He chatted with Jacobson about the football game. He interviewed President Kent Fuchs, but that was nothing new to Humphrey. He interviewed the president for another WUFT show Knight Talks.

Humphrey said each time he’s on TV, he’s given an opportunity to perform. Hard news is not his favorite, and sports is his passion, but journalism is the job.

“At the end of the day, your job as a journalist is getting information to people in a way they can understand it, and it feels important to them,” Humphrey said. “Whether it feels important because they enjoyed the way you told the story or because you gave them all the facts.”

Humphrey strives to make information feel important through the way he tells stories, and he’s not shy about it. His advice: “Relax and have fun with it.”

Every word matters, Humphrey said. Word play and inflection are some of his favorite things to include in his time on air.

Experiences like the homecoming broadcast further develop Humphrey as a journalist and performer. He dreams of cartoon voice acting, movies and TV shows, but sports coverage is what he wants to pursue and get creative with after graduation.

Humphrey sees himself returning to his first home of San Antonio, Texas. He said he would cover anything there, even “a man playing ping pong on the highway.”

No matter what he does or where he goes, Humphrey wants to create moments to bring people closer together while behind the camera.

“I want to be able to be so engrossed in the performance and be having so much fun with it that I say something, and I don’t think about it, but it becomes something that somebody’s walking around their house saying,” Humphrey said. “They have their little catchphrase that they heard me say on a broadcast, and now their kids are really enjoying it.”

Posted: January 9, 2023
Category: College News, Profiles, Student News
Tagged as: Shawn Humphrey