Job Shadows: What You Saw, Part 3

Here's a sampling of some of the various job shadows done by you all (this will be updated as job shadow reports are turned in, so please check back frequently). Take a look and see what you can learn from everyone's visits. There's a lot of good stuff here to help you decide what you want to do with your lives; what you need to be doing to get there; and what to expect when you do get there.

Please give each one of these a quick read, will you?

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While job shadowing at WDIV Local 4 News, I was amazed to discover all of the opportunities available to someone pursuing a career in broadcasting!

I began the day shadowing Natalie Newman, who is responsible for producing the noon show, in addition to writing for other shows throughout the day.

I was able to sit in on a meeting and watch the producers and some of the reporters discuss what stories were going to be covered that day, and the different locations or events that certain reporters were assigned to.

It was really fun to watch everyone share their ideas and deliberate on the best way to share the story with the viewers. The producers spent most of the meeting discussing what angle they would take on certain stories in order to ensure that they were relevant and interesting to the audience.

After hearing Omar explain how our stories must be “interesting, relevant, and useful” hundreds of times throughout the semester, I was able to witness this fundamental principle of journalism being implemented in a real world situation and it was a really exciting moment for me!

After the meeting, I followed Natalie into the newsroom where she continued scheduling the noon show, which she refers to as “stacking.”

As the producer, she started off by using a specific program to put all of the stories in order depending on their relevance and content. While she did this, she decided how long each story would be covered. It seemed that most stories only had about 25 to 30 seconds, although sometimes adjustments had to be made because a certain story needed more time to deliver all of the necessary information, while others could be shortened.

During this process, she also decided how the story would be portrayed to the viewers. She decided when and where she wanted a sound bite, a voiceover, or just a straight shot of the anchor speaking. 

She also scheduled all of the visuals used in the newscast, such as images, clips of videos, charts, and written information usually delivered in bullet points to clarify main points of a story.

In addition, Natalie created the headlines for each story, while also incorporating attribution into the newscast by creating the banners at the bottom of the screen that identify who is speaking and how they are relevant to the story (whether they are a neighbor, a friend, a victim, etc.)

As each story was lined up, Natalie divided the work up between herself and some of the other writers and producers by putting their initials next to that section of the newscast. Everyone in the newsroom has access to the constant updates being made on the newscast, so the writers could begin working as soon as they had an assignment.

When any of the writers or producers were finished writing the script for that segment, they would switch their initials to uppercase letters, which would signify to the copy editors that it was done and could be reviewed for any spelling or grammatical errors. 

While Natalie began to write her portion of the newscast, I was able to go across the newsroom and sit with a girl named Chelsea, who was specifically responsible for writing during the weekday shows.

I learned that the writers gather their information from a variety of sources including exclusive websites called CNN Newsource and NBC News Channel, the newsroom assignments desk, and stories on their Click On Detroit page that have been reported and written by the online journalists.

The assignments desk in the newsroom keeps everyone updated on the latest information in any story. They search for news on the Internet, they receive phone calls about newsworthy events and stories, they conduct interviews and follow up questions, and they further investigate anything being covered by the news that day.

The assignments desk has a program that they are constantly updating with the latest information, and writers most commonly refer to this source while writing the scripts for each newscast.

While watching Chelsea, I learned how you must be able to deliver a message in a clear and concise way in order to survive in the newsroom. I watched as she gathered all of the information from several sources and tried to condense all of the facts into the limited 25-second space she was given.

One of the hectic, yet exciting aspects of working in the newsroom is the fact that the news is always changing, and something new can happen at any moment!

While I was at the station, the noon show was about 45 minutes away, when the assignments desk received breaking news which had to be incorporated into the newscast; this caused tension for the investigators to quickly make phone calls and conduct interviews, while Natalie was forced to change the schedule of the show to include this new information.

After the breaking news settled and was implemented into the upcoming newscast, I went back to watching Chelsea and Natalie finish their assigned pieces by fact checking and proofreading their work.

After witnessing all of the preparation, it was time for the fun part! I went into the control room with Natalie and watched her actually produce the newscast. During the show, she had to make sure that everything was running on time.  She would speak to the reporters on location and let them know when to standby, while also counting down for them so they would be prepared to start reporting.

During the newscast, one of the reporters was given a two-minute slot to speak, but he soon started to go over this allotment of time. Natalie had to speak to him through his earpiece and tell him to wrap it up!

Although he finally listened and quickly concluded his segment, this holdup put the entire newscast behind, and the program on which everything is “stacked” notified Natalie that the show was two minutes too long!

Natalie was forced to cut two short segments that were placed near the end of the show in order to accommodate this unpredicted time issue and end the show at the correct time.

After the newscast, I went back to the newsroom where I watched Natalie help the 4:00 p.m. newscast producer write for his show.

Later in the day, I also talked to one of the photojournalists from Local 4, and she showed me how they create and edit videos that are used during some of the newscasts.

One of the editors even showed me the recording rooms where the anchors record their own voice, edit it, and put together a whole voiceover piece that can be used in a later newscast.

After hanging out in the newsroom all day and talking to individuals who played a variety of different roles, I learned how broadcasting is really all about collaboration.

There is so much that goes behind a 30 minute newscast, and it only runs smoothly if everyone works together and adapts to their environment as unexpected changes take place throughout the day.

After talking to so many different people, I also learned how important it is to have internships if you are pursuing journalism.

Every single person that I spoke with in the newsroom gained experience in multiple internships before landing a job with Channel 4, and they all strongly encouraged me to start looking for hands on experience in the field as soon as I can.

One of the production managers informed me about possible internships with HOM TV (Haslett, Okemos, and Meridian TV), where you can learn everything you need to know about broadcasting. He said you learn to use cameras, make and edit videos, write news scripts, and even conduct live interviews and reports throughout the cities.

Another manager encouraged me to apply for the internship at Local 4 when I am a junior, and he said he would always take in a fellow Spartan.

Overall, everyone in the newsroom was extremely friendly and willing to give me advice, and it was a very eye-opening experience!

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On Friday, April 4, I went to the WWMT Newschannel 3 station in Kalamazoo, Mich. While at the station I had the opportunity to job shadow one of their reporters, Aaron Dimick who has only been working at Newschannel 3 for a little over one year. Aaron Dimick graduated from Wayne State University, and told me that he never really thought of being an on-air reporter while he was in school. He had his first new job at WDIV NBC Detroit as an associate producer which is where he found that he wanted to get in front of the camera as a reporter. Once he left Detroit, he went to Eau Claire, Wis. where he worked as a reporter for WEAU 13 News for two years.

            When I first arrived at Newschannel 3 I was met by Missy Broderick who is the assignment coordinator at the news station, before she assigned me a reporter to shadow she took me around the station and showed me where all the different operations take place, including showing me the on-air set which she said has some of the best technology in the state. After the tour, it was time for the morning meeting where she introduced me to all of the reporters that were working that day. During the meeting she made sure that everyone knew what story they were going to be covering for the day, and asked if anyone had heard of any possible leads for a new story.

            After the meeting I was told that I would be going out into the field with Dimick, since he had the most interesting story of the day. The story that Dimick was covering was one of a man who went missing in Asylum Lake in Kalamazoo. The man was said to have been scouting out an area to go cross country skiing, and when he went to check the lake, he fell in. When we first arrived on scene, Dimick and his cameraman spoke with the police chief on scene to get permission to walk down to the lake to see what was going on. Once we found our way down there, there was nothing currently happening since the police were waiting for an underwater sonar device to arrive so that they could search the bottom of the lake.

            While we were waiting for the sonar equipment to arrive the cameraman showed me what was called a Live U, which is a bag that allows for direct transfer of live feeds, and other footage from the camera to the news studio for edits to be made, the cameraman said that it is much more convenient than having to take the news truck to a crowded scene, the Live U which is essentially a backpack, sends the news video feed live, using cell towers, finding the best tower in the area for use, much like a cell phone. He said that while it is very convenient, they sometimes run into troubles because of spotty service that prevents the feed from going to the station clearly making it choppy and hard if not impossible to use.

            During our time on scene we did a lot of waiting around because nobody knew exactly when the sonar equipment was supposed to arrive. This gave me the chance to talk to Dimick and see what he would do to prepare while we waited for the state police to arrive. During our time waiting he spent a lot of time in the car where it was dry, writing down details of what he had talked to the police officers on scene about, and also coming up with questions that he would ask the state police officers about when they arrived, both about their search and what the sonar equipment was going to do specifically. In addition to coming up with question while waiting Dimick also did a live segment during the noon edition of the news where he reported about what he had discovered in the three hours that we had been on scene.

            Immediately once the state police arrived Dimick sprang into action asking around trying to find out which state police officer was in charge, so that he could interview him on camera. Before Dimick got the interview, he, the cameraman and I attempted to walk back down to the lake to see what they were going to do, only to find that the state police had shut the area off to media, so Dimick had to settle for an interview with the state officer who was in charge that day.

            Once we returned back to the station Dimick began scanning through his interview so that he could find quotes to use in his story, he used the video editing station and carefully went through everything that was said during the interview, and picked out the main points that he thought he could use in his story. Once he was prepared to write, I left, I felt that if I were in his position I wouldn’t want someone to be hovering over my shoulder while I wrote the story, so I gave him his space. I thanked everyone at the station for allowing me to spend the day with them and took my leave. I have been continuously checking, but as far as I know, the man has not been found.

            I think that this job shadow was very beneficial to me because one day I would like to be an on-air reporter, so it was a good experience to see what a daily routine looks like for an average reporter. It was great to be able to see all the challenges that a reporter can face while trying to get just a three minute interview with someone at a news scene, or trying to see what the police are doing during a search. 

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