A few years ago, I turned my life upside down to pursue journalism. Since then I have been pushing through long study nights while working as a waitress. I saw my income dropping slowly like a white feather when I went from a part-time to a full-time student. I sacrificed everything I had in order to do something new - to start my journey as a journalist.
So, I can say with certainty that I have been courageous enough to try new things. But trying a new thing while producing a newscast is a whole different ball game.
It was a Thursday morning when my co-producer and I decided to include a live guest in our next newscast. I had five days until production day. My courage to try new things immediately led me to someone. So, I went for it.
I was really happy and began looking forward to production day on Tuesday. I started preparing and tried to learn what I needed to do as a producer. I mobilized a few people in the newsroom who would help with the technical details of the newscast. For example, I didn’t know how or where a live guest would be in the newscast that would satisfy COVID-19 safety protocols. I didn’t know if the live guest would need to arrive early for extra preparation. So, emails and messages were blazing back and forth a day before our newscast. I wanted the new segment to go well!
Finally, the day arrived. We got into our morning meeting at 8:30 a.m. where we decide which stories we pursue for the day. About an hour later, my plan to bring in a live guest fell apart. That’s because my guest was the focus of a story the day before, and it would not work to have her on the following day’s newscast as well.
I took a deep breath – well to be honest, I took a bunch of deep breaths – and moved onward with my day. In my mind, I had failed to do the new thing my co-producer and I had decided. More importantly, I had to make up for the time that I had calculated for the live guest section of the show. On a live newscast every second counts.
So, I did what I do best: I dealt with it and looked for solutions, such as adding other stories.
By 5:30 p.m. it was time to start the live newscast. I silently sat in front of the computer in the control room. You’ve probably seen this room in movies or TV shows about broadcasting. It’s the room with a bunch of TV monitors on a wall in front of computers and consoles, where the director, producers, and technical crew work to put shows on the air.
I could feel my heart pounding ready to break out of my chest as one story streamed after the other. I cannot express the amount of appreciation that poured out from my soul for my team that day. They did an amazing job!
At the end of the day, I felt as calm as the white feather when landing on the spot where it was meant to be. The slightly left and right bouncing in the air was over. The big lesson as a producer was to expect the unexpected and push through any obstacles.
I wondered...will I be ready for the next unexpected thing during a live newscast? Probably not because it will be unexpected.
But will I be ready to overcome it? Definitely yes.
This story was written as an assignment in JOUR403: Television News Production with Professor Stacy Scholder. Annenberg Media student editors also reviewed the story and published it per newsroom guidelines.