S.O.S. on the Set!

So this week was quite the surprise on the set of The County Line! For those of you who need to be filled in, TCL is a weekly news program we run from our college campus which is reached by homes all over Lawrence and Mercer counties. The staff, producers, and anchors for the show are made up completely by Westminster students. This is a great opportunity for us as young professionals because we can learn the ropes of a TV station, and learn from our mistakes as well. AND BOY did we have a lot of mistakes this week!
The night started out as it normally would, we had a meeting before the show and began to run thru the show before we actually aired live. The run thru was a little shaky, but nothing more than to be expected for the first try. When we started the show at 7:30, all hell broke loose. On our rundown sheets, many of the cameras/video lines were mixed up and did not correlate with the packages we were running. After the first couple package tosses, we had some major “technical difficulties” and ended up sending it back to the anchor who informed the audience of our problems and we went straight to commercial to get ourselves back on track. That wasn’t even the end of it though, we had a little trouble with some of the audio/video in the packages themselves and we ended up finishing the show two whole minuets early. This left a lot of dead air time with no functioning overhead camera so we just pulled back one of our studio cameras and left it on the anchors until 8:00 finally rolled around.
Unfortunately, we got a lot of bad wrap, but in the end it was no one individual’s fault, we all had made mistakes at some point which just accumulated. While talking to my friends around campus, a lot of them asked me what happened on the show this week. I explained our unfortunate events, and ended up just laughing it off with them. I do not see this as a negative experience however; it was mainly a learning experience. First of all, I had no idea so many people actually watched the show on campus so that gave me hope that we had a good audience. Secondly, we learned that organization and professionalism are a MUST while producing a television news program. You can run a show 50 times and be completely comfortable with it, but when it comes time to go live, you never know what surprises could pop up, you must be quick on your feet and have a tough skin!

Map to Your Life

This week I’m going to reflect on something that may seem like a very basic skill, but in all actuality, can be the difference between complete success and failure in the broadcast world. I’m talking about time management! Time management is something you don’t necessarily think about on a day to day basis but it really determines almost every aspect of your life. Moving to college is a huge wake up call to a young adult because you don’t have your parents constantly riding your back telling you when, where and how to get things done. You are almost forced, in a way; to develop your own guidelines for getting things done and must set your own timelines. I am the first to admit, I have terrible time management skills, but I am working on them and have greatly improved since my first year here at college.
Our capstone professor is asking us to make our own timeline for class with everything we want to accomplish this semester in the department of broadcasting. This is a new concept to me because I can’t say I have honestly ever sat down and mapped things out on a timeline before. To start working on my timeline, I had to think about what goals I wanted to accomplish. I think the key to setting goals in the future and achieving them is setting priorities. You must weigh you’re options and decide which goals will have the biggest, and most positive impact on your life relating to what you are trying to accomplish. In relation to broadcasting, time mangement is key because you must be able to meet deadlines. News is always breaking, technology is constantly changing and you must be on your toes at all times to keep deadlines met. Especially in today's world of VJ work (video journalists) you must be even more aware of time and deadlines because you are shooting, editing and often reporting all at the same time. Being the computer/internet geek that I am, I immediately went and Googled timelines you can create for free online. One which seemed pretty user friendly and fast was from http://www.teach-nology.com/web_tools/materials/timelines. Now if you want to get real fancy and willing to spend a little cash for more luxurious timeline options you can visit http://www.timelinemaker.com/. All in all, I think this assignment is a very good life lesson and one which will make a huge difference in the successes of a young broadcaster climbing the ranks.

The Final Countdown

What a week! This has been a week of many deliberations for me. In capstone we spent a good amount of time going around the classroom and discussing the final senior project and everything that goes along with it. Most of my fellow students are choosing a project which directly correlates with what they want to do as a career after graduation. When it came time for me to give an idea of what I wanted to do as my senior project it forced me to really think about what I want to do after graduation. The scary thing is that I don’t know exactly what I want to do. I absolutely love broadcasting, and in today’s world, it’s getting more and more competitive, you must be on the top of your game and be well trained in every aspect. I think Westminster does prepare us for that world after graduation but I also want to throw some aspects of public relations in the mix. This led me to the realization that my senior project should then reflect my love for BC and PR. Mr. Weaver suggested contacting an alum, Liz Farry, who was also a broadcast student at Westminster but now working in public relations. I’ve been reading over her blog and her post-graduation life seems very exciting and promising, which gives me hope. I will be sure to utilize connections like these, my skills in different fields and determination to put together a blueprint for my senior project over the next few months. This should prove to be an exciting and interesting quest!

The Power of a Résumé

This week for class we had the great opportunity to attend the Westminster College “Experience Outlet.” It was essentially an internship/summer job fair where employees from companies around the Pittsburgh area came to meet students interested in getting job experience. One of the main components to fully utilizing the fair was bringing a personal résumé. I had made résumés in the past, but never really at a professional level which showcased all of my dimentions, education and skills. The first step I took in the process of creating my résumé was to list all the things which promote me as a young professional in the coroporate communications realm. I listed facts about my education, relative courses, leadership activities, work experience, honors/awards, travel experiences and skills in broadcasting, public relations and computers. After compiling a mass of information, I contacted the career center to set up an advising appointment. The career center staff helped me narrow my information and format it into an appealing and polished final product. Finally the process of writing my first résumé was almost complete, and after printing them out and holding them in my hands, I felt very satisfied at the step I had taken into the professional work world. I think the résumé has a great power in selling yourself not only as a professional but as a unique person with many dimensions. This in turn, can attract a company to you and help them realize what you can do for their workplace. The next day I attended the fair and met many interesting representatives, many of which were very eager to know more about my education in broadcasting and public realtions. I handed out several résumés with a smile and hope to hear soon from the companies which I met at the “Experience Outlet.”