Ohio State’s director of National Broadcast Media, Joe Camoriano, has a hefty job trying to pump up enthusiasm for all aspects of a university known primarily for its football.

“The main focus of my job is to elevate the national exposure of The Ohio State University,” Camoriano said. “The goal is, as one university, to position our experts so that Ohio State is known on a national level.”

Camoriano asks OSU faculty to give their opinions on topics in the news.

In the past, experts from OSU have appeared on CNN, BBC and Al-Jazeera English to speak about issues such as the war in Afghanistan, health reform and the H1N1 virus.

With a staff numbering in the thousands, not everyone working at OSU can be an expert. Camoriano met with representatives from every department and chose 42 faculty members who have done extensive research in their respective fields and have a message that might interest the national audience.

One of the experts Camoriano picked is Peter Mansoor. Mansoor was the executive director to Gen. David Petraeus, commander of forces in Iraq, and now teaches classes in military history and the war in Iraq.

Because of his experience, Mansoor has appeared numerous times on Al-Jazeera-English.

Camoriano coached the experts on how to speak on camera, then filmed each one and produced two- to three-minute clips to promote their messages. This video is on OSU’s YouTube channel, where representatives of news networks can view the experts before deciding to put them on their program.

While 42 professors are a very small percent of the university, Camoriano says he is confident of their appropriate representation of the University’s expertise.

“Most of the departments on campus I’ve utilized,” Camoriano said. “So everything from health care to health reform to gun control to domestic violence … you pick a topic, we probably have an expert to talk about it.”

So what does it take to get OSU on the news? Camoriano said the first step is to watch a lot of television. He keeps a TV on his desk and constantly monitors the news on a variety of different networks. From there, he analyzes the main topics to determine if there is a story or topic that OSU can contribute to. Then, he calls the network and sends them a link to the expert’s YouTube clip.

If the network or news program decides to use one of OSU’s experts, media relations brings that expert to Bricker Hall, where OSU has its own broadcast studio. The studio, which was finished in the fall of 2008, was built to promote national coverage of OSU. It is equipped with a fiber-optic connection, which makes broadcasting through a live feed possible, so the experts do not need to travel to do an interview or newscast.

In the past two decades, Camoriano has worked for a variety of news programs, doing everything from reporting and anchoring stories to producing programs and directing broadcasts. For his hard work, he has been the recipient of a number of awards, most notably an Emmy for documenting the story of a high school dropout and an Oscar in agricultural programming.

Shelly Hoffman, assistant vice president of Media Relations, hired Camoriano. She approves of the job he is doing so far.

“He has that rare combination of being a great storyteller and [having] technical expertise in broadcast,” Hoffman said.

Camoriano said the hardest part of his job is staying ahead of the news and predicting what the news programs will cover next. The news changes daily, and it is up to him to figure out what the next big topics will be and how OSU can contribute.

Because OSU is a top research university, Camoriano believes that adds to the appeal and credibility of the school.

“That’s what makes Ohio State so exciting to the national networks, because we have such a large depth and breadth of experts,” Camoriano said. “It’s not just one expert. We have a plethora of talent.”

Even though OSU has appeared on many news programs and broadcasts, Camoriano wants to do more. He would like to contact the news networks less and instead have them contact him when they need an expert opinion. He hopes news programs will immediately look to Ohio State experts for commentary on popular topics, further cementing its position as an institution of reliable expertise.