Basically I wrote a four page essay on what its like in an everyday newsroom. I guess it was suppose to be more of a feature essay instead of personal essay.
Shayla Torres 07.18.19 JOUR 481 Professor Kato A Day in a Life of a Newsroom It's stressful, it's timely, but in the end it's all worth it. Just like the saying, "the early bird gets the worm," working for a newsroom is 24 hours a day seven days a week. It takes a lot of preparation and is definitely a team effort. KHON2 News is working for Hawaii. The news producer plays a very important role in producing the daily newscast items. The role of a producer includes, deciding the order in which stories will be told, writes teasers and other content, times news programs, edits video, and posts video to the website all within a deadline. It is very crucial that the producers are on top of their work because if there are no stories to report, then there is no newscast. A day in a newsroom begins with a morning meeting. This meeting consists of reporters pitching story ideas to the producers as well as stories found in the day book which is a schedule of stories the team have planned, follow-up stories, etc. Stories the reporters pitch, can be anywhere from a press release, to a social media post, to even a phone call from someone addressing an issue. It is a very simple question when picking a story to air on a newscast. "Will people care?" explained, Assignment News Manager David Patterson. The story has to be relatable to the audience watching as well as has an effect on people. Not every story pitch will get approved. Sometimes, there isn't enough information on the topic or it could just be not interesting. Once approved, the reporters will than dig deeper into their stories with an angle, conduct interviews and then record. That’s when the fun begins in the newsroom. Producers run the show from the very beginning to the end. Stacking is a term used in the newsroom when putting the stories in the rundown. You always stack with the top story or breaking news at the top because that is the most important story that needs to get out first. For example, a fatal traffic accident that closes a major roadway or even natural disaster that is heading towards the state. Each story in the rundown consist of a VO (voiceover), FVO (full voiceover), VOSOT (voice over & sound on tape), VOSOTVO (voiceover, sound on tape, voiceover), PKG (package). This will also determine how long each story will be. Generally, a VO is about 30 seconds long rather than a PKG which can be around two minutes. Then, it’s the script. This is what the anchors or reporter will read to get the story across to the audience. In any script, you want to write clear, concise, and straight to the point. People will lose interest very fast if the the story is too wordy and drags out. Imagine writing for an elementary student, use basic words instead of big word so that the audience can understand easier. An example of this would be talking about the weather. A lot of people don’t know what high pressure, low pressure, or even what a troft means. In layman’s terms, a proper way to say this would be to describe it as just trade winds increasing, etc. When reading the script, there is usually b-roll which is video that relates to the topic of the story that plays while the anchor is talking. That is another job the producer has to do. Each story has certain b-roll, this to capture the audiences eye because no one wants to look at people talking the whole time. That can be boring. Our job as producers, is to cut and edit each video that will correlate with each story. While the b-roll is playing there is a little bar on the bottom of the screen that describes what the story is about in just a few words. This is called a super. This can be very important because say a person just turns on the television and all they see is b-roll (video) of Donald Trump. It could be anything related to the President, but with a super it will tell the audience what it really going on. There is definitely a system a newsroom tries to follow, but sometimes unexpected things happen. It’s possible to be in the middle of stacking a show and the police scanner goes off saying there’s a shooting. Another responsibility of a producer is just to be aware of what is going on. For example, the kupuna getting arrested on Mauna Kea. Everything can be going smoothly and then something drastic happens. One and probably the biggest thing I have learned, is to always fact check. Working for KHON2 News our motto is, “Rather be right, then first.” This is something we live by as a newsroom. Of course being first is an added bonus, but our producers and reporters always double check what we’re putting out is completely true before releasing it to the public. This is by getting multiple knowledgeable sources. Not everything people see on the news or on tv in general is true. All in all, I love working for the news. I’ve never felt so connected with my community, giving them all the right knowledge and information they need to know in a day to day basis. It is definitely very rewarding to see all your hard work seen by so many. KHON2 is definitely a great company to work for that is a reliable news source.