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Newscast #1 - Jensen Mills - Fall 2019

Wow… I produced my first newscast this week! I still feel like it’s a dream. I’ve worked so hard the last three years to get exactly where I am today, I just can’t believe it’s actually happening. The first newscast went exceptionally well! Even Professor Dahlia was impressed with our anchors and packages. I’m so lucky to be a part of a class with such a passion and drive for news.


It’s only been 15 days since I earned the position and I’ve already learned so much about what it means and takes to be an executive producer. I was thrown headfirst into learning the in’s and out’s of how to write a script, when to give cues, and send out emails almost every day to my team of my reporters, but that’s the best way to learn. I was overwhelmed at first, but now that I’ve got the first newscast down, I understand how it works and what exactly I should be doing every day. 


jensenI made sure to clear my schedule every other Thursday so I can sit in on everyone’s conferences for their packages. My Thursday’s will be long days, (9 a.m. – 4 p.m. for conferences, 5 p.m. – 6:30 p.m. in the edit lab, 7 p.m. – 3 a.m. for critiquing packages and choosing who made show), but I think it’s important that my peers see me as a leader who wants them to succeed and will do my best to help in any way I can. It’s critical they not only see me as a classmate, but  more importantly a leader who will drop what I’m doing to answer their calls or texts about a potential story or problem. 

jensen


The biggest thing I struggled with this week was the script. Don’t get me wrong, I really enjoyed writing it, but after Professor Dahlia went through and made (a lot) of changes, I realized I was just making small mistakes that ended up being big ones. It’s necessary that scripts are flawless, because if one thing is wrong, it could potentially create a snowball effect in the studio. I thought I did well with making sure the stories flowed together, but I can definitely improve on making the writing more conversational and to the point.


jensenI’m definitely looking forward to the next newscast now that I’ve got the hang of things. All of the feedback Professor Dahlia has given me will help tremendously for next week, and I’m ready to tackle perfecting this position! I’m constantly on Twitter, checking different news outlets’ websites and even subscribing to daily emails for the top news stories of the day in hopes to find a story one of the reporters can get a jump on. While I wasn’t addicted to coffee before this semester, I think I’m going to be by the end! 

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