Job Shadows: What You Saw, Part 1

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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Up until my job shadow experience I had a completely false idea of what broadcast journalism was. I was enlightened of what it truly meant when I left the ABC 12 news station in Flint. When I arrived to the station, Patrick Wilson, the assignment editor, took me on a tour of the entire building. We were making up time until Dawn Jones, the anchor I was shadowing, came into work. He started by showing me the newsroom where the anchors, reporters, and producers work. Everyone had their own desk and when we walked through there was only about six people in the room; Wilson later told me that this was due to people taking vacations and getting sick. Connected to the newsroom were editing rooms that were numbered. Wilson told me this is where reporters and anchors edited film and recordings. We then proceeded to the control room where two people were setting up for the day. The room was illuminated by the plethora of buttons and controls. After, he took me into the set room where the news is filmed. It was different seeing it in real life versus on television. The desk where the anchors sit is in the center, to the right are a couch and a chair for interviews, and to the left is the meteorology corner. On our way out, Wilson showed me the photography and film room.

            Once we finished what Wilson called the “nickel tour” we went into a meeting room where I was fortunate to sit at the table where the reporters and producers sat and talked. One man handed out a paper that was labeled as the daily planner which had a table with several cells with information in it. The cells contained story slugs, segment, assignment info, shot time, location, show, assigned reporter, and contacts. During the meeting producers talked about what stories to run that day, who was assigned where, follow-ups, and possible leads. I was told that some businesses in Flint have cut their business hours so now it is difficult for them to contact people. There was a pile on the end of the table that consisted of press releases and flyers. Wilson told me this is partly how they get leads on stories.

            After the meeting, I sat at a desk across from Rebecca Jensen, a producer. She told me that their station has a low budget so instead of having writers and producers, the producers just write for the anchors. I thought that this was really interesting because Jensen said that when she first started studying journalism she did not expect to work as a producer. She only became interested in producing after she interned with a station.

When Jensen begins her day she starts from scratch. The stories that are featured on the news come from what was discussed in the meeting, from a program called CNN News Source, and from Facebook. She said she also gets her stories from a tool called A.P. Wire. The stories are written in a program called A.P. ENPS. In order to follow-up on stories she has to call people and interview them on the spot. In order to finish before her time slot of the show she gives herself a deadline and prints the outline a half hour early. Sometimes, Jensen said, she is writing updates during the show. “As a producer you have to be very willing to change,” Jensen said.

When I asked her if she has ever made any mistakes, she said she had but only a few and she tries to be clear and concise. At the end of our conversation she had a lot of advice for me. She told me that internships will help me grow immensely and become connected into the field. I was also told to be very open and friendly to people because it is important to build a big network of resources who trust you.

When Dawn Jones arrived to the station she was more than happy to take me under her wing and show me the ropes. Jones is an anchor for the noon and four p.m. broadcast. She works alongside her co-anchor Larry Elliot and they rotate tasks every day. One day she will do interviews and another day she will do radio and a brief. When I asked her what made her want to do broadcast, she said she fell in love with radio in college and then switched to live broadcast later.

Jones begins her day by looking over her stories the producers write for her. If she is doing the radio brief she will read over the lines and re-write the stories. She did this on Friday morning and once she printed out the re-written stories, we headed into an editing room. In the room were three computer monitors, a phone, and a microphone. Jones sat down and behind closed doors she began to record herself reading the stories. After editing, cropping, and listening, the story was then sent out to the station’s radio.

The news brief is what she works on next; the news brief is a tease of the stories that will be on the show that day. Jones said she gets to choose which stories to brief on and she has to edit the video that will appear as well as write a script she reads from. Jones had to edit her own video and read the script over the video in the studio. She taught me that reading the script over the video is called V.O.-S.A.T. Jones said she had to learn how to edit video and that the first video she edited took her about eight hours to finish.

Once finished with her tasks, Jones does a run through of the stories she has to read and then puts on her makeup. Jones said that sometimes there are updates or changes on the stories while she’s reading them off. The updates are transmitted through an earpiece she wears while broadcasting. She said it is difficult not to nod or confirm the updates.

When putting on her makeup, Jones told me she puts makeup on in order to give people one less thing to talk about. She said that some of her colleagues have been verbally attacked through online comments. She said that she has to have thick skin in order not to take things personally. Once finished with her makeup, Jones took me into the studio and I got to watch the show live. It was exciting watching the director and camera operator count the anchors down and change up the format. After the hour was up Dawn stayed later than her co-anchor and meteorologist. She spoke to someone from ABC headquarters and then recorded a tease for the four p.m. show.

I am glad a job shadow was required for this class because if it wasn’t I probably would’ve never gone. I was told by Patrick Wilson to come back for an internship and get experience. Without this opportunity I still would have had the skewed notion that broadcasting is just like how it is portrayed on Anchorman.

*****

I job-shadowed Sean Carroll on Monday, March 3^rd at The University of Notre Dame where he holds the position of Assistant Athletics Media Relations Director.

A press conference was held after the first spring football practice for the Irish Monday morning. Brian Kelly, coach of the Irish football team, was the first to speak. He addressed his expectations for the upcoming season and talked about the strengths and weaknesses he sees the team facing this year. Everett Golson also spoke at the conference, his first time appearing in front of the media since returning to the team after a season-long suspension from the University last year. The press was interested to hear about how Golson was feeling to be back at ND and what he learned while he was away.

Other players were also present at the press conference, seated in various parts of the room where reporters were able to go and speak to them individually rather than speaking at the podium.

Sheldon Day, one of the Irish’s defensive lineman, was asked to talk about his plans to help fill the loss of two key players at the same position, Stephon Tuitt and Louis Nix. The press wanted to hear about how he feels to have increased responsibility on his shoulders both as a player and leader of the defense.

Matthias Farley, last season’s starter at safety who is now moving to cornerback, was also present. The media was interested in hearing how Farley plans to adjust to the new role and what he hopes to accomplish during the team’s spring practices.

Cam McDaniel, one of the team’s many running backs, also spoke to the media about his visions for the upcoming season and how he feels he can provide leadership to younger running backs.

Kyle Brindza and Joe Schmidt were also at the press conference.

When I asked Sean about what he wishes he would have known during his college years at Indiana University, he responded by saying, “I wish that I would have taken more advantage of the opportunities that exist on campus. Even though I ended up in athletic media relations, I never worked in the office at Indiana– most departments have student workers. If I had worked in their office it could have given me valuable experience before I even graduated. Since I didn't do that, I had to volunteer at a couple schools after graduation in order to make up for my lack of experience.”

Sean said he also wishes he would have explored doing work with the student radio station. He believes that it would have been an easy opportunity for him to get experience in a field that he might have wanted to explore, and that there were a lot of journalism-related opportunities at IU that he didn't take full advantage of.

Sean said, “I got caught up in the trap of thinking just because my schoolwork was done that I didn't need to do anything else that could potentially help me down the road. I think most schools provide great opportunities for students that can help them boost their resume in a practical, hands-on way.”

Aside from receiving valuable advice from Sean, it was very interesting to be able to see the action behind journalism. In class, we learn about how to write the stories with the information we have and what to do if we go to a press conference or meeting, but we aren’t able to actually see it. In doing this assignment I was able to really be thrown into the middle of the real-world excitement of journalism and observe what was going on and how reporters do their jobs up-close.

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