Communicate and You Shall Receive
There is one word in the English dictionary that we can never get enough of - the magical word of communication.
While communication is important in all aspects of life, it’s especially essential in the newsroom. Without proper communication, there would basically be no rundown. Without a rundown, there would be no show.
As the video teammate for this week, I play an especially important role in communication. I have to be sure to properly communicate with almost everyone in the newsroom. I need to constantly communicate with my lead producer to talk about what video there is, what elements of the story we have, what multimedia journalists are working on what, and everything else in between. In order to have a final rundown on time, we need to both communicate what is in the rundown, what is being worked on in the back lab, and what every element is for a story. It’s also important to communicate with the web and graphics teammate as well, especially when deciding what elements from the show we can also put on the web. If there’s good and original ATVN content shot from an MJ or reporter, it’s important for me to communicate that to the web teammate so that maybe the footage can put it into the web, adding that extra element of video. I definitely need to start doing that more often and should remember to communicate about any story that may have edited video completed earlier in the day.
Communication is also an essential tool when it comes to assigning and working with multimedia journalists. I need to communicate what elements, sound bites, and footage we want for the story. I also have to communicate what exactly our angle of the story is, and what we want from it. Checking in with multimedia journalists to see where they are during a press conference or off-campus event is very important, especially when trying to create the rundown and continue to edit content in the newsroom. That’s where the power of the cell phone and modern technology comes to play (thank you Twitter!).
My mouth is, and rightfully should be, completely dry and hoarse by the end of the news day. Communication is key in the newsroom (and the studio), and I could not be more thankful for the human ability to talk and talk and talk…
