How many students can say they had the opportunity to work with some of the best and well-known reporters in the Rio Grande Valley? I can say I did!
May 20th was the day I walked into the KGBT Action 4 Newsroom as a wide-eyed intern, not completely knowing what to expect. I had met Kimberly Wyatt earlier this year in April 2013 and did my best to keep in contact for this internship. It was a great opportunity! I made contacts with city officials and many police departments across the RGV.
The reporters arrive at 9:30 a.m. ready to tackle on the news. They are each assigned at least five different stories a day that they have to get for the 5, 6, and 10 p.m. newscasts. These stories are across the RGV and each reporter drives to the location themselves, interview sources, film b-roll all in a four hour period. That is very different from what I am used to at The Pan American. At tPA I usually have one to two stories a week to produce. What a difference in the workload!
Did I forget to mention each reporter is a one man band? I wasn't surprised by this because at tPA we live by the rule of being a one person band! At KGBT, the reporters begin to collect everything for their stories around 10:30 a.m. I went along with the reporters and helped every opportunity I could. I was there to learn and grow my own expertise.
I would arrive back at the station usually around 3 to 4 p.m. with the reporter. Next on their daily schedule was to write scripts for all their VOSOT's (which is a voice over and one interview) and their package (a complete story), including to edit their voice track with the b-roll for the finished project. All their work would air for the 5 and 6 p.m. newscast. That's right! They had about an hour or hour and a half to finish their work!
The drive to be a broadcast journalist is what I have and helped me get through the days of driving city to city, the pressure to write and produce a package in a limited time. I felt all this and I was only an intern for the station. What can I say though? If you love what you do, you never work a day in your life!
No comments:
Post a Comment