Newscast three is finished, and I think it was our best yet, for many reasons. The reporters have made a huge improvement all the way around. Their stories, stand-ups, voiceovers and editing skills are all so much better than they were at the start of the year. Usually, we struggle to find enough good packages to make show. Once, we didn’t even have any stories to use for BOR.

Now, we were struggling to decide who would make show because there were so may good packages. I’m so happy and proud to witness this change. It makes my job harder, but I wouldn’t have it any other way. The work and dedication they put into their stories and this class is inspiring. 

Monday…

We had our first newscast on Wednesday, and I honestly thought it went really well. Not perfect, of course, but it was better than I had expected. We did four takes. You could tell everyone was really nervous the first time around, but by the second take, everyone was much more comfortable and relaxed. It made me proud of our team, and excited to see what’s to come. 

Last Monday, the reporters gave their pitches. They all had good ideas and I was impressed with how well they were working with their beats. I was running around like crazy after class to post their selected story ideas and conference times in the edit lab. Afterwards, I had a break until Wednesday.

 For this, my sixth and final blog for WVU News, I’m obliged to think back on the progress I’ve seen over the past few months, both in my news team and in myself. The truth of the matter is I had no idea what I was getting into when I signed up. Among the few things I knew prior to the start of the semester was simply that this class would fulfill a requirement for me. I heard that the executive producer role was ideal for someone on my particular path, and that a good review from Professor Dahlia could give me an edge. Beyond that, I assumed I would have a natural talent for it as I do most things.

      For Newscast 5 I think the greatest challenge, or maybe the greatest lesson, across the board was patience. There was adequate time, packages were either well shot or well salvaged, and compared to Newscast 4 we had more people stepping up and showing me better packages than they’ve had all semester. But somehow, I feel less satisfied by this Newscast than I recall feeling about some others. A feeling which I have yet to decide is merited or not.

      Several people already had stories in motion, if not entirely filmed, in time for the meeting where pitches were given. We also had a special visitor, Emily Callandrelli, who discussed what putting stories together was like from her perspective. A unique background to be sure. I and many of my peers were surprised to learn that her education involved little or no media training. I think that many of us knew the lines were somewhat blurred in the job market according to experience and skill but this seemed a dramatic jump between science and media. To me the implications for the range of possibilities on the job market, the maneuverability, was pretty exciting.

In Greek mythology, a common favorite is the story of Icarus. A son of the great inventor Daedalus, Icarus was given to throws of passion when it came to his work. For those of you who may not know the story I will first take a moment to lament our ever-deteriorating public education system; and give you a brief synopsis. Icarus invented wings sealed with wax and, although warned by his father to not fly too close to the sun, became intoxicated with the freedom of flight. Before long he lost track of where he was and, sure enough, his wings were undone by the heat of the sun which sent him plummeting back to earth to meet his tragic fate.

With this metaphor clearly in mind, I want to take a moment to say that this Newscast was, in my opinion, still an improvement on the one before. We seemed to make the best of the packages and ultimately we did not fall to earth in a ball of fire and molten wax – so to speak.

Another two weeks have come and gone and the newscast, I’m pleased to say, has come out still better than the one before. While I typically have some remark or comparison to deliver I have to say my diction falls short in this case. Many of those who struggled early on seemed to find their footing this time and others who were on the cusp of making show, finally found their way to the light. Even those who didn’t came a close second, making my role difficult in a new and less expected way.

The pitches at the news meeting have become a thing of pure instinct, it would seem. Like a well-oiled machine, everyone knows precisely what the expectations are and how to put across their ideas in an effective way. I would stop short of calling the process perfect but it is just one of the many ways we have collectively moved forward. Writing conferences went over, by all reports, with similar ease compared to the first two. This time the appointments were spread across 2 days which put a little more on Kassy Taylor’s plate but it was a task she was more than prepared to handle 

          It’s hard to believe that 14 days have passed and our second newscast is in the books. A fortnight felt like a matter of a few days. I’m told a distortion of the sense of time is symptomatic of either very stimulating or very difficult events. I would submit that, in this case, it was some combination of the two.

          While I don’t need to recap the entire process, there were many parts of it that felt very different than before. I would say the most poignant feeling I took away from Newscast 2 was a sense of evolving – of turning the page as a team. Maybe this is just my former dedication to the study of history welling up, but I can’t help recalling the words of Winston Churchill: “This is not the end, this is not even the beginning of the end. But, perhaps it is the end of the beginning.”