Don't Forget About the Web

This week, I was the video teammate which meant that I not only had to help out with the newscast, but the ATVN website as well. Although the lead producer and graphics teammate also contribute to the web, the video teammate is primarily responsible for making sure the website is up-to-date. That means making sure the stories on the ATVN home page are always current and also staying active on Twitter and Facebook. Sounds pretty easy right? Surprisingly enough, it can actually get a little overwhelming to stay on top of the web. 

Last semester, I worked as a web supervisor and the job was much harder than I had originally imagined. Writing for the web is a little different than writing for a TV news show. You don't have a time limit for your story, which is nice in a way. However, you still have to remember that your readers don't want to spend forever reading a web story, so it's important that you are able to select the most important and interesting information for the web. The other big difference is that while we always have to wait until 6 p.m. for our show to air, the web doesn't have any set schedule. Therefore, even though we might not be able to broadcast our material on television until later in the evening, we want to try to have our content on the web as soon as possible. This means that you always have to know when new video has been sent in or when it arrives back in the newsroom so that you can get it on the ATVN website quickly. If we can develop a reputation for being both a reliable and speedy news source, more people will likely watch our show and check out our website to get the latest local news. It's crucial that the producers and other members of the newsroom are always communicating with the web department to make sure that everyone is aware of the latest updates. 

Making sure your news station is active on social media is also key. Like it or not, a lot of people are getting their news from Twitter and Facebook before anywhere else these days. That means it's important that we're constantly tweeting and putting up new Facebook posts and making sure that our reporters and MJs are sending us the latest information while they're out in the field. 

This week, we had three reporters and several MJs who went out in the field for various stories. One of our reporters was covering last week's bus crash that killed several LA residents, which has been a very big local story. Our reporter was tweeting out updates as she spoke with more people and got new information to make sure that we had the latest on the story. This is not only great for our viewers, but really helpful to the producers as well because we have a better idea of who our reporters are speaking to and what video and pictures they have. We even had a bunch of people retweeting what our reporter was posting! Although it's often tough to remember to be tweeting and sending video and pictures back to the newsroom while you're out, it really is a huge part of making sure that we are getting our coverage out there as quickly as possible. 

Although I think we have seen some progress with mobile reporting throughout the semester, we still have a ways to go. During the next two weeks, I'm hoping our reporters and MJs can make even more of an effort to send us content while they're out in the field. Additionally, I'm hoping to see communication continue to improve between all of the producers and the web team so that we can get our stories up even earlier in the day!