This week, I was graphics producer. I spent the beginning of the afternoon reviewing the show’s graphics with lead producer Sam Moskow, Director of ATVN Stacy Scholder, and art director Stephanie Shaw. Sam did a great job of leading the team and emphasized the importance of communication. By the time the Thursday producers returned from class, the team was already in a great place. They had completed several interviews, and the multimedia journalists had already begun editing their videos.
But an hour and a half before the show was set to air, three buildings on the USC campus, including Wallis Annenberg Hall, received a bomb threat. Nothing spells breaking news quite like a bomb threat in one’s newsroom.
The See it Live team quietly exited the newsroom and remained calm. Even though we were unsure if the show would still be aired, I was so proud that our team spent the time during our evacuation reporting and upholding the idea that the show must go on.
Two of our anchors, Ayanna Martinez and Sofia Gonzalez, reported live from the scene on Annenberg Media and Annenberg TV News Instagram accounts. I interviewed Dean Willow Bay about the evacuation but chose not to film it because she had no new information. My co-producer Mayte Carrillo recorded the evacuation on her phone and collected videos from other students who captured the event. Lead producer Sam Moskow continued writing the pre-show and met with See it Live team members to continue working on the show so we could quickly return to production if and when it was safe to do so.
Half an hour later, the USC community was notified that the LAPD and DPS determined there was no threat and that we could return to the newsroom. Almost all team members came back to the media center after the evacuation, eager to put the show on despite the scare. I spent this time rewriting scripts and ensuring all the the times of the videos and last words of the interviews had been typed into the show’s scripts.
Even though we could not have a run-through like we usually do, we still managed to live stream our show just 20 minutes later than usual. I am very grateful to have had the opportunity to produce breaking news during my time as a See it Live producer, as our show usually focuses on a single topic.
The morning after the show, I spoke with Dua Anjum, one of the graduate students who was working for the first time as a reporter for ATVN. She said she had never realized how essential teamwork was in journalism until she began reporting with See it Live. It made me proud to produce a show that genuinely epitomizes the importance of teamwork in the newsroom. This was, by far, my favorite day of production.
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.