News Newbie: What I’ve learned from my First Year in TV Journalism
Backstory: A year ago, I was looking for a job. I had been working in property management for 3 years after moving to Nevada from Florida, and it was time to move on.
Property management…was not for me. At the time of my move, my uncle offered me a role in his property management business. My plan was originally to move to Nevada as a stop-gap before continuing west to California, get a break in film or television as a writer, so property management wasn’t a big deal for me, just temporary.
Temporary turned into 3 years. 3 years of renter complaints. Everything you can think of: water leaks, appliances break, ACs going out, HOA problems, everything worth complaining about in a living situation. Plus, I’d be on call on certain weekends, so I’d be paranoid and constantly check my phone/emails for potential problems. It became a point of my day to spend most of the time in the office with a pissy look. It was time to start searching for new opportunities.
By luck, one of my applications came through, an associate producer position for a local news station. While I was (and still am) a big fan of fiction writing, I thought this could be a great change of pace, writing news. I dabbled a little in journalism in college, doing a documentary on media reform, but nothing like television news. I felt now my writing could actually influence people and make a difference.
August 29th marks my one year anniversary, and I’m getting a little nostalgic, thinking about what I’ve learned.
Television news is a beast of a medium. It’s visual storytelling, but it’s delicate. You can’t screw up facts, you have many moving parts, both technically and editorially, and for a clean show (no visible mistakes), everyone needs to do their job. It’s not easy. Live TV is so susceptible to problems. But it is gratifying to pull it off once the show is over. There’s a feeling of accomplishment (at worst, a sigh of relief it’s over). Any issues you have, you know you can start over for the next show with a clean slate. Plus, you have to be comfortable with last minute changes. Breaking News will alter a show (even sometimes erasing it entirely), so that hangs over your head, too.
I learned my lessons very well during the last year. Though I was signed on as an AP, I was quickly promoted to full-time producer days later. My writing was good enough to make an impression that I could handle the job. And I found out I could, but it wasn’t easy early on. I started on grave-shift for most of week and weekend, which ruined my sleep schedule and social life for months.
After weeks of shadowing and training with the normal weekend producer, it was time for me to step up. But it was a misstep. My first true show producing on my own was a disaster (also my birthday week!); tons of technical problems — coding errors, formatting issues, no flow — it was rough (to say the least) and worst of all, clearly noticeable. It was so awful, I needed to have a conference call with my executive producer right after, and it nearly brought me to tears, I was so embarrassed. Plus, not only did my training amount to this crap show, but it made our anchor look bad, too. I took notes of everything that went wrong as a reminder of the worst case scenario. I was reminded, however, that even with all the problems, I produced a show. I created it, it happened, and that’s something.
From there, I had to re-group, I went back and worked with my EP on formatting, story stacking, writing, whatever I could to change. And it worked, starting after that, my shows started to look a lot better, and overtime, my writing adapted to a news-style, too. I still have those bad show notes, to not only show what a rough show looks like, but also motivation that I became a stronger producer and I can improve.
As I became more comfortable, my shifts got better. From weekend mornings to weekly mornings to now swing shifts, my schedule changes, to me, show I must be doing something right.
Now, I feel good where I’m at. I just don’t know where that is.
I said I was writing this out of nostalgia, and that’s true. But I’m also writing because I think this could help me decide which direction I want to go in.
What I’ve learned as a news newbie is that even something that should be as objective as news can still be subjective. When I took the job, I thought about “Spotlight” and “All the President’s Men”, classic hard-nosed investigative journalism going after the tough stories, the big stories. In TV news, at least at our station, that isn’t the case. While our reporters will cover hard news, and we will write about the tough stories, I’m finding out it’s not always what the audience is looking for. There’s only so much political drama, natural disasters, and crime/terrorism people can take (even though, unfortunately, that’s what’s become the norm nowadays).
Lighter stories, fun stories, those work just as well, and I totally get that. Sometimes stories get very silly (stories about skunks or male rompers come to mind), but apparently that’s the trend nowadays. There is so much negative news out there, lighter news is refreshing, and I completely agree. But I also think there is still a place for investigative journalism. In the age of “info-tainment”, we can’t forget about important stories.
It can also be frustrating how a newsroom operates. This is the only one I’ve been in, so I have no other source of comparison. That said, with a director, producers, executive producers, anchors, reporters, AND an assignment desk, agreeing on stories and actions can be challenging. The chain of command isn’t always so simple when it comes to certain decisions, which makes work more difficult. Too many cooks in the kitchen doesn’t always mean a well-prepared meal. Moreover, in a time where we have so many ways to talk to people, communication breakdown happens way more than it should.
Don’t get me wrong, to be in the news is something I’m proud of, and I’m grateful. The opportunity has made me a better writer and more knowledgeable, in general. Plus, I enjoy working with just about everyone on staff; we get along well and I respect the professionalism of more experienced workers, especially the older veterans who have been journalists for years.
But in a year, there has been so much turmoil to cover (internationally, nationally, and locally), I’ve felt a little burned out. It’s the nature of the beast. News requires thick-skin. You can go in feeling super positive, but that’s not the world you’re presented with. Not much shocks me anymore, to the point of desensitization. That’s good for staying objective, but it also means reacting less to tragic news than one normally would. Plus, I can’t tell you how many shows I thought were good, and the ratings say otherwise. It’s tough seeing solid results when the results you’re given don’t reflect it.
Maybe long-term, my writing can be put to good use elsewhere. Despite the prominence of visual media, I will choose content over visuals any day, a preference that sometimes conflicts with what we’re trying to accomplish on a daily basis. I hope this cathartic recap can provide some insight on where to go from here. At the very least, it felt good to get it off my chest.
