I’ve held three leadership roles in journalism that I can remember. In high school, I was the newspaper’s sports page editor for a year and editor-in-chief along with three other people for another year. Then, freshman year at USC I was photo editor for the Daily Trojan.
During and outside of those three years, I’ve been a lone reporter. I’ve never had to work with more people than a couple editors, producers or a teacher. When I go out on a day-of-air story, I am in charge of myself and have to report to three or four people. But as a producer, everything changes.
Producers have to convince everyone with different skills, different ideas and different positions that they want to accomplish the same goal as you—getting the show on the air at 5:30 p.m. and off at 5:59 p.m. This requires more teamwork than I’ve ever done in such a short amount of time.
From the moment I come into the newsroom, I’m immediately talking with Colin Taylor (my executive producer) and Joliana Frausto (my co-producer) about the stories that broke over the weekend (this week’s was the two student deaths and President Carol Folt’s letter to the community) we want to cover that day. From there, the number of people on my team expands as the day goes on.
The morning meetings are one of the most important time for teamwork, because in those meetings we decide what we’re going to cover and how—our entire show. If we can’t compromise, negotiate and come up with stories as a team, then we fall behind for the rest of the day. In these meetings, we have to talk to our grad teams, our reporters and our multimedia journalists (MJs) to figure if any of them have any interest in stories and how we can best utilize their skills.
Another big part of teamwork throughout the day is delegation and responsibilities. This past Monday, I was in charge of our reporters Cecil and Brandon, and Colin handled Shuqi and Kelly. This allows each of us to get our own work done throughout the day and means when I’m asked “What’s Kelly’s status?” I don’t have to text her and worry, because I can ask Colin. Although it’s passing the baton in a way, it also allows for more efficiency so I’m not bogged down with those requests all the time, because I have to build a show.
Although I was not the video producer this week, they have—I would argue—more teamwork duties than the lead. Being in charge of the MJs means that you have to check on them, encourage them, give them feedback, and sometimes push them to go further. Again, convincing people that your goals are their goals.
Then, when 2 p.m. rolls around, it is time for serious teamwork on the part of everyone. Our day has at least 4 to 5 MJs come in at that time so the video producer has to assign them, reporters and grad teams are coming back from their assignments, so the lead producer and Colin have to talk to them with the video producer to figure out what they have, then Joliana and I have to check in with each other multiple times until the show.
This week, we went back and forth many times on the cold open, which was Vice President for Student Affairs Winston Crisp speaking. However, there were two earlier iterations of it with just students, which, when deciding, I consulted her on and agreed those weren’t good. After continued conversation though, we finally found the Crisp sound.
This also must happen when writing teases and graphic captions as well. Joliana and I have gotten very good at communicating on these. This week she told me we didn’t have video for the student deaths, so I made sure to write a tease that went with our shots of Bovard.
Joliana will also give me feedback on graphics. I put down “USC Student Deaths” in the caption, and she said that she requested shots of USC for the graphic, so we don’t need to say USC in the caption. We’ve also become good with respecting the decisions and motivations of the lead producer each day and making sure that whoever is teammate supports that person in the best way possible.
Finally, 5:30 p.m. rolls around. I’ve been an editor and reporter running up on deadline before, but nothing has ever raised my blood pressure more than when the director presses that first spacebar. There are six anchors and five studio crew that must do their job (assuming the MJs throughout the day have done theirs) for a clean show. This gets to the final part of being a team player—you have to accept that you cannot do all jobs. If a mistake is made during the live show that is out of your control, getting caught up in it does no good.
That’s probably the toughest part for me—giving up that control. If I could do every job, I would. But when it comes down to it, I have to place my trust in my team and hope that by the end of the day, their goals are the same as mine.