LUTV Blog Post 6: My Last Week
I’m done with TV News Production
My last week in TV News Production class was the best week ever! It was my last week producing and I really wanted to do my best. I consider Tuesday to be my best work because my creative juices were flowing. I don’t know what happened but my ability to write teases wasn’t as stressful. I think it had something to with my plan of just writing something to have something. Before, I used to stress about having amazing teases. I was probably aiming too high. When I finally didn’t stress about it, the ability to be a creative writer came easier. What’s funny is it came after I made the decision not to pursue a career in news.
How I was able to write teases without stress
So it all started when my classmate Caitlin introduced me to a news producer she knew at KSDK Channel 5. Sheila, the producer, invited me to shadow her and I accepted the invitation. I shadowed her on a Saturday and I saw how she produced the 10pm news. It didn’t surprise me that the KSDK news crew worked a lot like LUTV News students. Everything was pretty much the same. The were a few differences, such as the producer wrote all of the stories that the anchors read. In class, the anchors write the news stories. I was curious about how similar the class would be to a real newsroom. So my experience watching Sheila made me realize that being a producer is a lot more work than I thought. I mean, I knew it was a lot of work but I learned that it was more work than what I am comfortable with.
Sheila is amazing by the way. Not only was she super nice and funny, but she was also really good at what she did. I learned from class that producers are great writers and Sheila was definitely a great writer. I watched her write stories and she made it look easy. I felt so inferior to her as a writer. The experience made me realize that I shouldn’t pursue producing if I lack confidence in writing. I also shouldn’t pursue news in general if I’m not sure I would want to work nights, overnights, weekends, and holidays again. (I used to work at a television station and it wasn’t a great experience. I’m not sure if it was the station that made it a bad experience or if it was the broadcast company. Either way, I left that job to go back to school so that I could find something better. By better I mean I want to have a job where my coworkers and department heads don’t bully and intimidate me until I quit after 9 years. That’s just one among many reasons though.)
My last week in class
Back to my point about how I was able to write teases, I made the decision not to pursue news for the time being. I don’t think I have what it takes to be a news producer. I’m not an amazing writer, I’m not a confident writer, and I’m not passionate about news. I also made a lot of mistakes in class. It was all unintentional and I’m sure there were mistakes I’m not even aware of. After all of these things, I realized that maybe news isn’t for me. I enjoyed taking the class and learning about news. Plus, everyone was super nice and helpful. I wish I could’ve been in class more but I’m happy to have met everyone. During times when I could relax in class, it was a lot of fun and a great experience.
It’s all of these things that made me not stress about my last week as a producer. With that stress gone, producing became easier. I got lucky on Tuesday when I wrote a tease for #GivingTuesday. I wrote, “If you enjoyed Thanksgiving meals and Black Friday deals, there’s another day to celebrate. That day is Giving Tuesday.” I don’t know how I did it but I came up with it and it made my day when my professor Jill said I did a great job. I wish I could’ve had more classes with Jill because she’s one of the best professors at Lindenwood. I have a feeling our paths will cross again in the future as I produce more at my current job and freelance around St. Louis.
What’s next?
For now, I won’t be pursuing a career as a news producer. I will continue producing documentaries and commercial videos. If there’s anything I am confident with it’s video production. I love shooting and editing videos. It’s how I make my money after all. Out of all of the news and video production internships I applied for, the video production houses were the only ones that contacted me instantly. This tells me I should stick with being a video editor for commercial and promotional content, not news. Although, if I ever work in news, I could see myself be a multimedia journalist. I read an article called Journalism need the right skills to survive on Poynter.com. It discussed what kind skills journalists need to survive. One among many skills is in multimedia. I am confident to say I have technical and multimedia skills. So I’m open to a future in news but I predict I’ll end up working in a production house, or maybe even my own video production business.
A link to the last newscast I produced:
