The Future Is Here
Another Monday has come and gone and, with it, another day-of-air producing shift. Now, with just two ATVN broadcasts left in the semester, the countdown to the end has officially begun. This means that my teammates and I need to take advantage of our limited time to assert our improvement by producing the best newscasts yet. In order to do so, we must understand that the success of most newscasts is rooted in their effective and immersive use of multimedia tools. Today, many news stations would not gain the viewership and respect necessary to function without the help of their robust websites and ongoing social media engagement.
This week, my duties as the CNN/graphics producer were clearly defined. My responsibilities included, but were not limited to, ordering appropriate CNN video and creating informative and visually appealing graphics. I also allocated time to writing and editing stories. Furthermore, I confirmed that the intricacies of the rundown were complete with CGs, TRTs, Runs, etc.
In this way, my contributions to the 6 p.m. newscast were undeniable. Yet, my work with ATVN’s website, as well as ATVN’s Twitter and Facebook accounts, was not quite as obvious. Even though I was not the video/web teammate this week, I try to never lose sight of the importance of ATVN’s news coverage across multiple platforms. That being said, from the very start of the day, my story pitches are driven by their capacity to be promoted and shared on social media, as well as on our website. In other words, I make it a point to only select those stories that lend themselves to original footage that can easily be used to enhance ATVN’s online presence.
Despite our continued efforts, Team Monday needs to do a better job of encouraging MJs and reporters to do more mobile reporting while they are out in the field. Yesterday, ATVN only tweeted eight times. In my opinion, this is simply not enough. Moreover, “The Tease,” which is supposed to encourage viewership by providing a sneak-peak at our 6 p.m. broadcast, was not made available on the web until 5:57 p.m. The crux of the problem here lies in the fact that there seems to be a disconnect between the show staff and the web department. As a result, ATVN.org is slow to upload videos simply because the web supervisor/producers are not informed immediately after new footage has arrived in the newsroom.
In the end, the key to solidifying ATVN as a reputable news source is proving that we are always aware of the latest goings-on. Nowadays, this is done by constantly uploading content onto the web/social media. At ATVN, we just need to take the time to ensure that our website and social media accounts reflect the same hard work and professionalism as our 6 p.m. newscasts.
