When I
found out I needed to do a job shadow, I went to my twitter and went through
every sports person I followed that was in the area. I came up with the perfect
candidate, someone who works both online, print, radio, and broadcasting. On
April 10th, I went on my job shadow with Graham Couch. Graham is a
columnist for Lansing State Journal and explained to me that most of his days during
this month consist of staying in his home office writing. So, we chose a day
that he was going to a radio show and then an event at LSJ.
We met at
a Biggby Coffee shop where we sat and talked about the different places he has
worked and he gave some advice about being in the sports journalism industry.
After we
chatted at Biggby, we headed into downtown Lansing to The Team 92.1 FM where
Graham was scheduled to co-host a show. He let me into the room with them and I
sat there through the radio show. Right before the show started, Michigan players
Moe Wagner and D.J. Wilson declared for the NBA Draft. When they get news that
that broke, they tried to get the guy who broke the news, Brendan Quinn on the
show.
It was
cool to see how right when the producer mentioned the draft nominees, everyone
tried reaching Quinn to get him to call in on the show. It shows that things
change so quickly and how they have to adapt what they’re going to talk about.
For a few
segments during the show, I sat in the with producer in the control room and
saw how everything was recorded and put on air. It was interesting because I’ve
only been around TV stations, not radio, so it was a big difference but one
that I enjoyed.
After the
show ended, we rushed to the LSJ office where they were holding a “Meet the
Editor” session where the public could come in to ask questions and voice
concerns. Most mentioned how the newspaper had been reconfigured recently and
most weren’t too happy with it. The editor had to explain that there wasn’t
enough money for pages so they took what digital readers showed interest in the
most (it’s the easiest to track she said) and put that into the paper. They
were not too happy about this explanation, since many were of a certain age and
didn’t use the media aspect of the LSJ.
This
shadow was helpful because it showed me a different side of media than I was
used to and showed that there are many different things that you can do inside
journalism. Overall, I think it was a great experience and was very
informative.
Graham
Couch
Email: gcouch@lsj.com
Phone:
(517) 528 – 2531
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