Clay Johnson

School of Journalism and Mass Communications (SJMC) alumnus and documentary producer, Clay Johnson, has bagged a DuPont Award for two of his documentaries at WRAL Television in North Carolina. The two winning stories, “Standards of Living” and “Paper-Thin Promise” were from a series of documentaries that focus on problems in the North Carolina area. “Standards of Living’’ showed us of the poverty-stricken living conditions of migrant farm workers and “Paper-Thin Promise” exposes the dark side of a law that is suppose to protect abused women from their attackers.

Johnson received his bachelor’s degree in broadcasting and media arts from the SJMC in 1982. “Combining the two is the way to go if you want a career in television,” said Johnson. Today he works for WRAL News in North Carolina, managing a three person documentary unit which covers the whole process from beginning to end.

According to Johnson, radio news and introduction to journalism were two of the most helpful courses that he took for his career while at USC. “Radio news with Jay Latham was a great class because it helps prepare news interns on how to put a story together for broadcasting and writing. Journalism 101 really lays out the foundation of how to do things and teaches the major responsibilities of a being a journalist,” said Johnson.

His next project is a documentary in the next series of ‘Focal Point’ about the obesity problem in North Carolina. “This series is a kick off to the station’s campaign about raising public awareness,” said Johnson. The program will air on March 7, and will be available on WRAL.com for viewers out of the area.

The DuPont Award is known as the television broadcasting Pulitzer Prize. It is a national and international competition with over 500 entries.

If you have an alumni story you would like to share, please contact Elaine Taylor at etaylor@sc.edu.

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