Our first newscast is finished! I am so proud of everyone, and I am so excited for the rest of the semester. Obviously, the show wasn’t perfect, but we will keep improving! Although it is stressful, I love being the executive

Last Monday, the reporters pitched story ideas at our news meeting. We decided what stories the reporters should focus on, and I wrote down the positions for our first newscast. Everyone signed up for a writing conference time, and I printed out a bunch of papers and emailed reminders after class.

The Wednesday after, I sat with Professor Dahlia and took notes while she met with students for their story conferences. I learned a lot about how a package should look, and what kind of suggestions she gives to make the story better. I also helped some of the reporters with their audio.

That Thursday was extremely busy. I went in to the edit lab around 5 p.m., and almost immediately started critiquing stories that were coming in on Vimeo. Professor Dahlia and I stayed up until 2:30 a.m. looking at the stories, and finding things that needed to be fixed.

After only 3 hours of sleep, I woke up early that Friday and drove to the Media Innovation Center to film Karlee at Studio B. She was very professional, so it went quickly! Later, I announced who made show, and sent updated newscast positions to Professor Dahlia. Then I started the script.

All day on Saturday, I was writing the script. I was confused about some of the timing and camera directions, but I ended up figuring it out. I honestly had so much fun doing this, even though it was a lengthy process.

On Monday, I met with Professor Dahlia to go over the script. I worked with reporters who made show in the edit lab, and did a table reading and rehearsal for the show. It was good practice for the real thing on Wednesday.

And just like that, it was Wednesday. Filming the show was crazy. It was messy at first, but once everyone started to get the hang of it, I could breathe again. After a little coaching from Professor Dahlia, I put on the headset and talked to the anchors during the show, yelling out directions and critiques. It was nerve-wracking, but I definitely had that moment where I thought, “this is what I want to do with my life.” Producing WVU News is 100% what I’m supposed to be doing.

I’m excited for next week, and I’m already finding story ideas to pitch on Monday!