Today I was again disappointed that the coffee machine was down. A man came into the break room and I asked him how to fix it. He introduced himself as the Art Director and gave me some insight to careers in broadcast. He told me that there was (almost) no creativity permitted in broadcast news writing, something which I've come to realize this summer. He and his workers often laugh about how the news dept. does the same story every year, he them demonstrated "A devastating car crash killed a (insert town name) man last night..."
He isn't wrong.
He also told me how the consolidation of the media... aka only using the AP, has led to more and more standardized news.
He is still not wrong.
It is a little depressing. Whenever I'm asked to write a reader I'm told to use the wires. There is only one wire, it is the AP. As he said: there really aren't broadcast writers, you re more like an editor.
I wrote another package for Andy today and logged his tapes for him. I'm getting better, he corrects me a lot less. I think next summer I'm going to work in radio.
O, and I finally met an intern who I can hang out with.
9hrs
Wednesday, June 27, 2007
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
Powerless Crazies
Never in my life have I heard so many complaints against the goverment.
I have been a little torn in what I think about this. As a lowly intern having to listen to 20minute rants about how 9/11 was a plot and tax dollars stolen, children taken and unresponsive government officials and media outlets I feel like "o my gosh, they are all crazy.". As a journalist though it makes me a little proud that local citizens are willing... and believe me they are willing to challenge big government and big media.
I have been yelled at from the beginning of the shift by people saying that we should expose expose expose and that instead we use "fluff" for news and are blind to whats really going on. Although the people who have called me do not speak with elequouence, which makes me think theyre just New Hampshire crazies this makes me so sad that I know as an insider that no matter what they say my assignment editors and producers wont care. They can talk and write and yell at me all they want but when it comes down to it gatekeeping is not only real but overwhelming. What my station says people listen to. Last week they were listening to how a cow got caught in a pool, today how there was a racoon with rabies.
Maybe the crazies are right. It is the same 4 stories over and over again.
Did I tell you about the guy who called about playing basketball with Osama Bin Laden in highschool?
Also, I had to explain how broadcasts were not covered by the 1st amendment to one man who called... and believe me he made me use everything I learned in my CMJ classes
9hrs
I have been a little torn in what I think about this. As a lowly intern having to listen to 20minute rants about how 9/11 was a plot and tax dollars stolen, children taken and unresponsive government officials and media outlets I feel like "o my gosh, they are all crazy.". As a journalist though it makes me a little proud that local citizens are willing... and believe me they are willing to challenge big government and big media.
I have been yelled at from the beginning of the shift by people saying that we should expose expose expose and that instead we use "fluff" for news and are blind to whats really going on. Although the people who have called me do not speak with elequouence, which makes me think theyre just New Hampshire crazies this makes me so sad that I know as an insider that no matter what they say my assignment editors and producers wont care. They can talk and write and yell at me all they want but when it comes down to it gatekeeping is not only real but overwhelming. What my station says people listen to. Last week they were listening to how a cow got caught in a pool, today how there was a racoon with rabies.
Maybe the crazies are right. It is the same 4 stories over and over again.
Did I tell you about the guy who called about playing basketball with Osama Bin Laden in highschool?
Also, I had to explain how broadcasts were not covered by the 1st amendment to one man who called... and believe me he made me use everything I learned in my CMJ classes
9hrs
Wednesday, June 13, 2007
Boring
Today I won 12 consecutive games of spider solitaire.
That was my biggest accomplishment.
Other than that, Andy had asked me to write a VO. Once I wrote it he corrected a few things, I asked to rewrite it and he loved it. I am beginning to realize how tough it is to switch from writing print to writing broadcast. They are two entirely separate sets of skills and I should probably practice that rather than set solitaire records on every PC in the station.
9hrs
That was my biggest accomplishment.
Other than that, Andy had asked me to write a VO. Once I wrote it he corrected a few things, I asked to rewrite it and he loved it. I am beginning to realize how tough it is to switch from writing print to writing broadcast. They are two entirely separate sets of skills and I should probably practice that rather than set solitaire records on every PC in the station.
9hrs
Friday, June 8, 2007
Today Andy, the crime reporter, asked me to log his tapes. I thought he was being nice like Kria had the other day by giving me something to do. When I finished he actually read through them, asked me to cut some things and add others. I was surprised that he used the camera cuts I chose.
He had known mostly what he had wanted to use before asking me to log them, he wrote the stories while I was working.
I also talked to the people in charge of my internship about cutting my hours. Unfortunately this is costing me a lot of money due to both high gas prices and lack of time to devote to paying jobs. I already have all of my required internship hours and the rest would be to gain a reputation and more knowledge.
There was something that upset me a little though, which almost brings me back to my original displeasure with broadcast. In a NH town today there were military tanks and SWAT members hiding around these peoples' house because they were protesting paying taxes and demanded that an authority figure show them the law. Shots were fired while one of the people were walking their dog. When I asked why we werent covering the story (at all) I was told that it was yesterday's news... although shots had not been fired yesterday. Talk about gatekeeping.
8.5hrs
He had known mostly what he had wanted to use before asking me to log them, he wrote the stories while I was working.
I also talked to the people in charge of my internship about cutting my hours. Unfortunately this is costing me a lot of money due to both high gas prices and lack of time to devote to paying jobs. I already have all of my required internship hours and the rest would be to gain a reputation and more knowledge.
There was something that upset me a little though, which almost brings me back to my original displeasure with broadcast. In a NH town today there were military tanks and SWAT members hiding around these peoples' house because they were protesting paying taxes and demanded that an authority figure show them the law. Shots were fired while one of the people were walking their dog. When I asked why we werent covering the story (at all) I was told that it was yesterday's news... although shots had not been fired yesterday. Talk about gatekeeping.
8.5hrs
Wednesday, June 6, 2007
Not Much
Due to family issues I left early today. The only think I really learned was that broadcast can be slow too. I know at the paper there are a lot of slow news days but this is the first I'd seen at ABC.
4hrs
4hrs
Saturday, June 2, 2007
Packages
I fell asleep and forgot to post about Friday (yesterday) I guess.
I was bored without much work to do except label tapes. Kria- one of my favorite reporters at the station asked me to log her tapes for her. That means you watch the tapes and write down the dialogue- this helps time out the package and gives the producers and anchors a better idea for the story. She told me to log her two tapes with what I thought to be the most important.
Thinking I was under deadline and helping a reporter I did my best as fast as I could and took a variety of quotes so she could choose what fit her style best. As I found out she already logged her tapes- she was doing me a favor to give me experience. She had neglected to tell me that. She then asked me to write the story and then compare hers to mine. I wrote it out and handed it to her within no more than 10 minutes. She and an AP (assistant producer) were extremely impressed. Kria asked if she could pass it on to the exec. producer and the rest of the producers, I thanked her and am excited to see what the higher ups say.
I already write at the station but it would be great to give them more confidence in myself- maybe secure a future job in a tough industry. I asked Kria if I could make a real package with it for my own use. She said that she would teach me how to use the VO (voice over) equipment but that I would have to observe and learn from the cameramen how to do the video aspects of packaging because they wouldn't have time to do it for me. I plan to have at least one package by the end of the summer... hopefully by the end of next week.
I think I found my niche.
8.5
I was bored without much work to do except label tapes. Kria- one of my favorite reporters at the station asked me to log her tapes for her. That means you watch the tapes and write down the dialogue- this helps time out the package and gives the producers and anchors a better idea for the story. She told me to log her two tapes with what I thought to be the most important.
Thinking I was under deadline and helping a reporter I did my best as fast as I could and took a variety of quotes so she could choose what fit her style best. As I found out she already logged her tapes- she was doing me a favor to give me experience. She had neglected to tell me that. She then asked me to write the story and then compare hers to mine. I wrote it out and handed it to her within no more than 10 minutes. She and an AP (assistant producer) were extremely impressed. Kria asked if she could pass it on to the exec. producer and the rest of the producers, I thanked her and am excited to see what the higher ups say.
I already write at the station but it would be great to give them more confidence in myself- maybe secure a future job in a tough industry. I asked Kria if I could make a real package with it for my own use. She said that she would teach me how to use the VO (voice over) equipment but that I would have to observe and learn from the cameramen how to do the video aspects of packaging because they wouldn't have time to do it for me. I plan to have at least one package by the end of the summer... hopefully by the end of next week.
I think I found my niche.
8.5
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