The Importance of Communication: My Weeks as Lead Producer

Thursday night officially marked my second week as lead producer, and the amount that I have learned since my JOUR 403 class began, bewilders me.  I have not only learned how to produce a newscast, write a rundown, and lead a team, but I have also learned the importance of communication. There are so many things that turned out great in both run through week and this week that I am very proud of. Yet, I can’t help but think how much better both newscasts could have turned out, if only I had communicated a little more with both of my main teammates about what needed to be done, or what I envisioned for the newscast.

Of course, before my shifts as lead producer at ATVN even began, everyone I talked to would tell me that a key factor for a good show depended on how well you communicated with everyone in the newsroom, and especially your graphics and video producing teammates. However, you don’t realize the importance of this, until about thirty minutes before you go live when you begin to panic because you realize that so many little things still need to be done, or that some videos are still “offline” and that it’s too late, so you have to float a great story. All of these little things can be avoided, if you communicate with your teammates in time about what still needs to be done. 

This week, the main problem my team and I faced was not being able to get videos in on time because I didn’t communicate early on what videos I wanted downloaded, or edited. It was only after I looked at my run-down that I realized how many things I was still missing, and that we only had a few hours left to fix all our problems. However, the most stressful thing for me was not telling my MJs, or my assignment desk teammates to notify me when their shifts were over, because when I was looking through my rundown, I found myself scrambling to figure out who had done what (written what story, edited, or interviewed), and what was still missing. I had to work double because I had to go around asking my team if they knew anything about a specific video, story, or script. If I had notified my MJs or AD people to inform me what still needed to be done before they left, it would have been easier to keep track of things.    

However, every week you learn something new, and I know that the more I get to know my team, the better newscasts we’ll start producing. I’m glad that I’ve been able to note the mistakes I’ve made and the things that I still need to improve on, so that things can run a lot smoother next week.