Final Exam

Final Exam- News Media Practicum II

Last semester in my final write-up, I spoke about how the most valuable thing I’ve learned thus far in news media practicum and my education in broadcast journalism was the importance of communication. I spoke about how I had stepped up in Interlachen, and was just getting comfortable with the video camera.  

This semester has been completely different than that. In more ways than one, I have really 100% put myself into everything. This semester has been the most trying out of the two that I have attended FSC. I obviously have been taking harder classes in broadcast, but more importantly, I have really been challenged.

This semester I was able to really step it up specifically in broadcast. Interlachen was a great opportunity to step up definitely, but Interlachen wasn’t challenging for me. It was easy hours, for something that I didn’t feel challenged by. In the beginning of this semester, Anna’s show Southern News Network was just getting started. I knew immediately I had to join the production of it, not just for hours, but for more broadcast experience. That was the experience I couldn’t really get in Interlachen.

Firstly when working for Southern News Network, I began writing stories for the anchors to read during the news segments. I had never written for Broadcast before, so made sure to welcome any suggestions from Anna about how to fix them. After a couple times of submitting stories, I felt really comfortable with broadcast writing. I continued writing stories throughout the semester, but at some point a couple weeks in to the show, I decided I should not only just write stories. I should also try to help out with some other things during the Production of the show itself that was on Monday mornings.

I stepped up one Monday morning and asked if I could take over running the Teleprompter for that Monday’s show. Anna agreed, and we went through the first take, with not one glitch on my end. I was proud of myself for stepping up and taking the initiative to really get involved in production. Within the next following weeks I decided to dig even deeper into getting involved on the show. I eventually offered to help out with cameras during the show. I began running the cameras some of the time, and sometimes directing both cameras when less experienced people were running the cameras.

While helping out with everything on Southern News Network, I do feel like I have done myself a favor by getting real experience while working on production. I feel working on this show has really gotten me acquainted with just about everything in the studio. It has really made me feel well-rounded in a lot of aspects, which I know will only be to my advantage in the long-run.

I plan on getting even more involved next semester with this show, so that the producers feel I can handle a lot of responsibility. By gaining their trust, I hope to begin getting experiences in front of the camera as well.