During our producing class, my co-producers Samantha Moskow, Mayte Carrillo and I planned to create a new segment that would include our audiences’ views on the show’s weekly topic and hopefully increase viewership. We ultimately decided to post an interactive question on the Annenberg Media Instagram about the weekly topic for our show, See It Live. All three See It Live producers believe it is essential to engage with the USC community and include student responses in the show.
My co-producers Sam and Mayte met with the Annenberg Media social media editor early in the day to brainstorm a question posed to students to get their opinions and facilitate a greater conversation around our topic. This past week’s See it Live topic focused on Los Angeles county’s new COVID-19 restrictions. My fellow producers asked Annenberg Media followers how they felt about bars checking vaccine status. We also included a disclaimer that some of the answers may be shared in our newscast. That afternoon, my co-producers posted our question on Annenberg Media’s Instagram Story and eagerly awaited student responses.
But our new segment required more time to develop. We only received three responses to our question, and my co-producers Sam and Mayte did not feel that sharing the responses contributed to our story. After the show, my co-producers expressed to me that they did not feel as though we received enough responses for a segment. Unfortunately, I could not be a part of this conversation as lead producer because I was working on the show’s rundown. While the lead producer should be a part of the conversation around a new segment, I felt as though I had to prioritize finishing the rundown which was not completed until later in the day because of some last-minute changes and additions.
This week, my co-producers and I feel better equipped to produce our new segment. We will continue to work on better communication and have a set time to discuss the segment. My co-producers and I are eager to put our newly learned skills to the test.
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.