The Never-Ending Task

Here's a list of four activities, pick the odd one out: brushing teeth, doing laundry, taking out the garbage and editing copy.  

Trick question. They're all related!

What I've learned (the hard way, for sure) is that if you make the grave mistake of leaving any of these vital rituals out of a day at ATVN, your show (and you) will stink. For today, to spare all of your who may not know me or think I've already overstepped my prescribed boundaries for a public blog post, I'll focus on the importance of copy editing.

SIDE NOTE: The irony of any tyepos in this post is asumed. consider them sArcasm,?  

And we're back. Here at ATVN, we're all students. We start as total novices and slowly progress over the semester into somewhat of a professional at our respective jobs. Put simply, it's a learning process. This lack of experience is best showcased through the hardest part of producing an ATVN broadcast: writing the show. To produce factual, concise and conversational copy is not so much a skill as an artform, and it takes time to harness the instincts and diction to write great broadcast copy. As producers, it's our job to work with our staff to not only copy edit the show, but to work with those who are just learning the nuances of broadcast writing and morph them into artisans of the English language.  

So far? Not so good. Copy editing has been a challenge for our two-producer team. In the haze and commotion of an afternoon newsroom rapidly approaching a 6 p.m. deadline, attention do detail can be lost in the name of a finished product.  At times, when I should be taking the extra minute to read a story before moving on, I'm becoming sidetracked with piling responsibilities.  Rewrites or new information isn't getting the attention it deserves and it's starting to make our show stink like an malodorous Occupy protestor who's just been evicted from Zuccati Park.   

As I approach my last show of producing, the challenge is clear: put copyediting first. By telling MJs to tell me when they finish a story, and to not start editing video until I (or any other producer) have read the copy we can make our show significantly better.  

This has got to stop, because just as much as forgetting to brush your teeth, or not do your laundry, or leaving the garbage makes your life hassle-free, it also makes you stink. Through copyediting, i'm confident our last show can restore its needed hygiene.