Documenting a Documentarian: Smith Profiled in TV Segment

Published: February 14, 2014 | Read Time: 2 minutes

SUU professor and documentary producer, Dr. Jon Smith, will be featured in an upcoming episode of Latter-day Profiles Sunday, February 16, at 11:35 a.m. on BYUTV.

In 2009 Smith produced an hour-long feature on world champion saddle bronc rider Cody Wright that won the "Cowboy Oscar" from the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum. In 2012 he collaborated with KSL-TV in shooting and producing the hour-long documentary "Saints in Swaziland" that aired between LDS Conference sessions both in April and October 2012. He is currently working on documentaries and educational pieces involving the national parks.

Latter-day Profiles features in-depth interviews with noteworthy members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, produced by Brigham Young University-Idaho.

Smith is a professor in the communication department at SUU, teaching graduate theory courses as well as advanced television news production, photography, journalism and other mass media courses. He is also a video documentary producer, writer and photographer.

While teaching and advising students he has broadened his work beyond news to include promotional, educational and documentary work. He has videotaped and produced pieces originating in East Germany, Mexico, Swaziland and around the U.S. In 2004 he was a Fulbright Scholar in Portugal teaching video production courses at the Catholic University of Portugal-Porto. In 2011-12 he was a Fulbright Scholar in Swaziland in southern Africa. He has produced multiple video projects relating to public lands in the southwestern United States. Smith produces award-winning documentaries as part of his scholarly and creative activities at SUU. At SUU he advises SUTV Cable 9, the SUU cable station where his students have earned regional and national broadcasting awards.

He holds B.A. and M.A. degrees from Brigham Young University and a Ph.D. in mass communication from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. He began full-time teaching at SUU in 1989 after working as a television news photographer and editor for KSL Television in Salt Lake City and Bonneville International Corporation in Washington, D.C. While in Washington he covered Capitol Hill and the White House and special events such as space shuttle launches and other east coast news. In Utah he was a general assignment photographer and editor covering breaking and feature news.

Latter-day Profiles airs Sunday nights at 11:35 Mountain Time on BYU Television.

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