He reported from there for 10 days as he, other journalists and Red Cross volunteers were being shot at. We had to be right there with a camera though, to show everyone else what happened. When Dancy retired from NBC in 1996, he didn't immediately look to begin teaching. Although he had thought of becoming a teacher while an undergraduate at Union University in Jackson, Tenn., he hasn't earned a Ph.D. A friend and colleague, though, convinced him of the importance of passing on his knowledge and experience to future broadcasters. I want to teach broadcast journalism students the beauty and the power and the dynamism of the television news story.
Television has the opportunity to change people's lives by holding up a mirror.
I want to teach journalists how to do that. While Dancy was soul searching, a committee was formed at BYU to search for a broadcast journalism teacher and an interim director of the International Media Studies program. When they began the search, they were looking for someone with strong professional credentials. They began contacting people they knew who had years of experience. They were looking for a leader who would bring and draw speakers and visiting professors to the university, Wilson says.