From Blue Devil mascot tryouts to Provost Peter Lange wheeling around on a Duke Bike, the Office of News and Communications has it all on video.
On YouTube, to be exact. Posting under the user name "DukeUniversityNews," the office has been creating videos since October 2006 about campus news and projects and research done by students and professors inside and outside the classroom.
"[Videos] permeate more and more the way Duke communicates," said James Todd, Trinity '98 and a writer and producer for the Office of News and Communications.
In addition to writing articles for online publication, the office began streaming videos in 2003 on their Web site as a result of the popularity of the online video market, Todd said. The office switched to YouTube-which reports over 100 million videos viewed every day-because of the site's growing popularity.
Though there is "no strict deadline," the Office of News and Communications usually puts out one new video per week, he said.
Todd added that the videos are advertised primarily through word of mouth by students or faculty featured in the videos.
To date, the most popular video, entitled "Invisibility Cloak Findings at Duke University," which is about nationally acclaimed research of Duke scientists into cloaking objects from electromagnetic waves, has had more than 120,000 views, though the median views per video is lower, at 569.
Although many of the videos have relatively large numbers of hits, some Duke students said they are completely unaware of the videos created by the Office of News and Communications.
"I have not seen them," said freshman Jesse Sun. "I didn't even know they existed."
Todd recommended that students check out the newest video, which captures part of the mascot tryouts to be one of Duke's "Blue Devils" for sports games. The video features a few anonymous interviews with those trying out for the position and highlights moments from the tryouts.
The videos created by the Office of News and Communications can be accessed at www.youtube.com/dukeuniversitynews.
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