The Finale

It seems like just yesterday I was producing my very first show, scared and nervous about everything and anything I was doing. In what seems like the blink of an eye, we are now prepared to have our very last show of the semester.

While I still have so many goals left to achieve and so many more things to learn, I feel that I have reached some of the goals I set for myself as a producer this semester. 

One of my biggest goals as a producer was to have more confidence. I still don’t have the amount of confidence I wish I had, but I feel I have gained so much more throughout the semester. Especially after being the lead producer for over three shows, I have learned how to justify what stories I want and what order I want them in. In my last role as lead producer, I fought more for the stories I wanted in my rundown, like the Sandy car rental story. Of course, my order and ideas will sometimes get shot down, but I’ve learned to build my rundown more confidently. I also feel that I have improved during the morning meetings and am less afraid to speak up.

I have definitely started to pay more attention to detail, especially as video teammate. In the earlier weeks, I would let videos get transferred without the right TRTs (total running time) or runs times without double-checking. I have learned that you can’t always trust everyone and that sometimes people forget the difference between runs and TRTs. It doesn't hurt to keep a second eye out. I have also spent more time looking over the rundown and copy editing, regardless if I am lead producer or web teammate. This has allowed for fewer mistakes to feed into the teleprompter for our anchors to read.

As the web and graphics teammate, I feel that I have worked to get more original content on the web. We were able to do a Skype interview with a realtor for our home price increase story online. This was only featured on the web and wasn't in the broadcast show. We have included more of our own interviews that are separate from the broadcast show, which gives the online stories something special.

There are still many things I need to work on but I have been pleasantly surprised with how much I personally feel I have improved. I have taken the effort to know the news inside and out but feel I can still improve in that area. I find there are still times when I have to ask about a news slug we put up during the morning meeting. There is, and always will be, more for me to learn and get better at. With one show left, I am thankful for all I have learned, as well as all of the mistakes I’ve made, during this crazy semester as producer.