It is a known fact that in any form of teamwork, team members need to communicate in order to get the job done – the same is true for producing. There are a number of people who work to produce a show by the end of the day, and I have come to realize that clear and concise communication is one of the most useful tools in putting together a great newscast.
At the beginning of the semester, the Monday production team was primarily communicating on Slack (the communication forum used by the media center). However, this got to be rather difficult, because all forms of communication were happening over Slack – conversations with media journalists, anchors and our faculty advisor, Stacy Scholder. Not only that, but because everything is also virtual this semester, the computer screen can be really overwhelming with the number of tabs and applications open. Sometimes there is only so much that you can have open on your screen at once.
It only seemed to get messier each week. Eventually, my co-producer Savannah Welch and I began texting separately from Slack, and communication automatically improved.
In efforts to improve communication across the board, this week I created a group chat with all of the Monday producers, with the intention to ensure that communication is simple and clear next week. It will also be beneficial in communicating information to each other before next week’s newscast, so that we are all on the same page Monday morning.
Two weeks ago, I was discussing ideas for a new segment with my faculty advisor, Stacy, and I thought it would be a cool idea to feature creative arts students who are creating and producing work amid the pandemic.
I spoke with Savannah, my co-producer, and we ultimately came to the decision to feature students who have gained a significant following, or have gone viral, as content creators on social media during the pandemic. We thought this would make it possible to feature a range of stories, from students just sharing their thoughts to students sharing their incredible talents.
It certainly was not easy to create a new segment. Fortunately, there are plenty of students at USC who have gone viral on the social media platform TikTok. One of our anchors, Lauren Hebroni, reached out to Victoria Hammett, a USC student who went viral on TikTok during the pandemic for her videos discussing politics and social issues.
During the day, Colin Taylor (one of the video editors for ATVN) coordinated with Savannah and me about graphics for the show. He created amazing graphics, complete with animations and the perfect colors to match with green screens behind our anchors. We went with the title ‘Gone Viral’ for the segment – fairly short and to the point. We decided to stick to TikTok colors for our theme, because most of the sources we found (and are still finding) use the application as their platform.
Ultimately, I was very pleased with how the segment turned out! It was nice to have a different kind of story on the newscast, and I am so glad that we are highlighting creative students and giving them a platform on ATVN to share their amazing work.
‘Gone Viral’ makes me wish I were a comedian, singer or dancer, but I think I will stick to browsing TikTok in my free time and will continue to take in all the talent that is out there!