Job Shadowing at Channel 10

I shadowed at Channel 10 last Sunday, following around one of the Sports Producers in the preparation and production of the sports segment, Wall to Wall. This process was incredibly surprising the way broadcast functions in comparison to everything that I have been taught with print. The news process is very hectic, the news room itself is crowded, and noisy with people arguing and police dispatchers calling in crimes.

With about a half hour left the Wall to Wall was almost all cued up except for they needed a clip of Canada celebrating their gold medal win in hockey. This was difficult to get and reminds me that while I am faced with hurdles as a student journalists professional journalists are faced with problems as well. NBC had bought the rights to the Olympics; however channel 10 is a CBS affiliate and was given restrictions in terms of Olympic coverage. Channel 10 could try and go ahead and use this clip before the Olympics went off air, but then they could potentially be sued by NBC if they were to find out about it. The producer explained to me that this is just another part of the news, NBC pays a lot to cover the Olympics and deserves to set boundaries just like Channel 10 and CBS will when it comes time for March Madness. I wasn’t surprised that they handled the situation ethically but was more surprised at how many restrictions are placed in the broadcast world.

Also the anchor job is not nearly as glamorous as people make it out to be. I think in my head, I believed that they didn’t have as much responsibility as they actually do. While those in the news room receive the news initially the anchors have to help build their own scripts and then time it very accurately to hand off to producers.

Something that we had mentioned in class with regards to social networking was also addressed. People in the news room often times use Facebook as a helpful tool, in finding sources, information and in broadcast news especially, pictures. Especially in a bind as long as they can attribute the picture to Facebook, it is fair game and this is a particularly helpful tool with breaking news as photos may not be as accessible.

I received a great amount of insight on this profession that I so badly strive to. While many employees joked and told me to think about changing my mind I was intrigued by the fast pace environment of the news room. It was great to see what to work towards, and it was also great in helping me feel more comfortable in a broadcast newsroom, especially for when the day comes that I am expected to function in one.