I told my
mom I had to do a job shadow and, luckily, her friend a friend of the wife of
Ed Fernandez. Ed Fernandez is the VP and divisional manager for Scripps and
oversees the Detroit, Lansing, Cleveland, Denver, Green Bay, and Milwaukee
markets. He put in contact with Karen Podrasky, the news operations coordinator
for WXYZ Channel 7 Action News in Detroit. I had been emailing for a couple
weeks discussing what I’d be doing when I went to shadow. She emailed me my
itinerary for the day that consisted of many different things and places I’d
get to observe.
I arrived
at 8am at their studio in Detroit. From there, I went and sat in the studio and
watched the anchors perform in the newsroom. It was very cool because I had
never had the opportunity to sit so close to the anchors during a live show.
Especially since anchoring is what I’d like to do, it was really cool to see
them in role.
After
that, I went and sat in the control room for a little as they rapped the show
up. I had sat in a control room before in NYC; this one was smaller. It was
very fast paced yet calm at the same time. Even though I couldn’t understand
half the things they said or did, it was very cool to watch the people who put
the show together live.
At 9:05am
I sat in on the morning plan meeting. This was where they discussed topics for
the next show. I sat in one in NYC as well, but this was simpler and smaller.
They wrote ideas down on a white board, mostly ones they had already mentioned
in the show and were doing updates for or making longer packages for each
piece.
At 9:30am
I observed a women who worked in the assignment desk. The assignment desk was
where they got all their story ideas. People would send ideas in, they were
forwarded emails, they made phone calls, listened to police radio; many things
at once. She told me multi-tasking is a must in this business. She basically
found out story ideas and then called around and tried to find more information
about it to see if it is developed enough to be a story.
After
that, I had a short meeting with someone about staying ahead of the
competition. If I’m being honest I don’t remember his title because there were
at least 20 different people in 20 different jobs during my time at WXYZ. We
talked about what to expect from this business and the different things that he
does to make the show work. He gave me a lot of valuable information and tips I
will use to help myself in the future.
At 10am, I
sat down with someone in the social media part of the studio and he showed me
some different ways they communicate online. He showed me their website,
Facebook, Twitter, etc. He also showed me the viewers they receive. It was a
website that showed how many people went onto the website that day, where they
clicked, the most clicked pieces, how many views, etc. For Facebook, it showed how
many people it reached, how many interactions, shares, likes, etc. It was cool
because I’ve always wondered how shows track that information.
At 10:30am
I met in the “special projects” area. These were the reporters who go out and
sh0ot, write, and interview. I met Ann Marie LaFlamme, who I recognized from
the show. It was a smaller area where they were all sitting at their desks
working. I also got some advice from them on the industry and what I should do
during college.
10:45am
was where I went to weather. This was probably the most interesting to me, not
because of the content because weather isn’t where I want to go. It’s because I
was able to meet and talk to Dave Rexroth, who I am very used to seeing on TV so
it was really cool to actually meet him. He gave great advice about being an
intern and always asking to do more so they remember your name. He gave great
advice about how to stand above all and showed me some things about the green
screen, which was cool to learn about.
I then
went to creative services. I met with the director, a MSU alumni. He was very
friendly and loved doing what he does. This part of the studio focused on the
short advertisements you see during commercials. They ranged from promoting the
show to a little sneak peak about a story coming up during the next newscast.
He showed me many of the videos they put together that were broadcasted and it
was really cool to meet the people who put those together because I never
really thought about that part of the show.
At 11:45am
I went in sat in the control room during the noon news. This was only a
half-an-hour show but it was very quick. I sat next to someone, once again
don’t exactly remember whom, but he was switching segments, making sure times
were on, editing things really fast to be shown a minute later. He was a little
behind schedule so he had a lot going on at once but somehow managed to make it
all fit and work.
This was a
cool thing to see because they had to make a major adjustment during
commercial. The anchor was doing a piece with someone about dogs. Before they
were supposed to go on air, the dog threw up on the interviewee so they had to
figure out what to switch and when to switch. It was very interesting to watch
it all work itself out and be able to get everything in they needed to.
After I
sat down with a reporter for the show to get his story and how he got to where
he is. It was interesting to hear because he was offered the job before he even
graduated high school because of his internship. He talked about all the
different areas in the studio he switched around to, from producing to
reporting and so on.
Finally,
to end my day I sat down with the news director of the station, Rhonda LaVelle.
I told her what interested me, what I liked, why I wanted to work in this type
of industry, etc. She was very nice and told me some different things I should
do before it’s job time, like a lot of internships and standing above all.
Overall,
it was interesting to go behind the scenes of WXYZ Channel 7 Action News
Detroit. I was happy I was able to see all the different aspects of this field
and meet with so many different people in different job types, surprising may
MSU alumni. I learned a lot about this field and what I should do to make it. I
learned it’s a lot of multitasking and staying on your feet, which I love. This
experience was great and I’m very happy I was able to do it.
*****************************
*****************************
For this assignment, I shadowed
Alexander Alusheff, a business reporter with the Lansing State Journal.
I’ve shadowed Alusheff on an
assignment once before with a coworker, and I’ve ran into him several times at
events I’m covering. Alusheff has taught me a lot about city reporting and the
industry, and it was a pleasure getting to work with him again.
This time, I followed Alusheff to
the 2017 Green Light Michigan Business Model Competition, which was held at
Wharton Center on March 29. We watched as a number of small start-ups pitched
their ideas to a panel of judges seated at the front of an auditorium.
This was not an assignment for
Alusheff, he said. Rather, this is something he often does in his spare time:
patrolling for story ideas at his own volition. Alusheff said events like these
typically don’t provide good coverage and are hit and miss, but can allow him
to meet sources and see what kind of businesses are on the rise for future
stories.
“LSJ… or any paper nowadays, is
focused on you being a self starter,” Alusheff said. “You have to come up with
your own story ideas, the days of you getting assigned stories are, you know,
pretty much gone. Sometimes, breaking news will happen or you’ll get a press
release… but most times, they want you to do all the work yourself because
editors have a bunch of other stuff that they need to do, they can’t be worried
about sending out story ideas too. So, once you’re out in the field, it’s your
job to kinda get to know your community, get to know what people are talking
about and see what would be worth… writing a story about on your own.”
MySwimPro, an Apple Watch app
designed to help swimmers improve their performance and health, ended up taking
the $40,000 first prize. Alusheff did reach out to them, but ended up not
writing a story on them because he did not think his audience would be
interested in an app, a team from Ann Arbor would not be relevant to his beat,
and the app’s target audience is a small niche.
The endeavor was not a waste of
time though, because Alusheff ran into a REO Town businessman he said he had
been speaking with before and needed to talk to again to write a follow-up to a
previous story.
This shadow helped me understand a
bit better the weight of expectations on reporters’ shoulders in this day and
age. Reporters are truly expected to be able to do anything, and typically to
do it all. From coming up with story ideas, to being able to produce content
for all mediums to being my own copy editor, learning to be self-sufficient
will greatly prepare me for the industry.
Email: aalusheff@lsj.com
Phone: (517) 388-5973
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