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Annenberg School of Communication and Journalism University of Southern California
Producers

Attention to Detail

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This week the newscast was probably one of the worst ones I've seen, and I really wish I was joking. Sitting in the control room you want to run and somehow fix everything at once, but you can’t and instead have to try to best to not let the whole thing unravel. As least the screen didn't go black?

This week I was back in the graphics chair, and quality control is definitely a necessity here. I’m not sure if it was because it was the first day back from spring break and my brain wasn't fully functioning yet, or if its just because I hadn't sat in the graphics chair in a month, but something was definitely a little off.

Fortunately for me, I have absolutely wonderful writers on Monday to help me. However it was taking a long time for me to churn out stories and I kept having to go back and fix small details which is something that I should not be doing this far along in semester.  

The checklist of elements in a web story is essential to go over before posting a story. I found that at first I was forgetting the simple details. However, it's these simple details that drive traffic to our site. In the first story I published, I forgot to add the related content, which however small is extremely important because it drives traffic to past stories and keeps people on our site. Making sure each item is checked off before the publish button is pushed will definitely help not as many errors slip through the cracks next time.

Something else that is essential is to always ask the MJs in the field to send you a picture of where they are going. This provides way better quality pictures than anything we can find online as well as drawing interest. For the sports donation story, I struggled because I approved a logo, which does not invite any attention to the story. Making sure we always have a good depicting picture of the story is crucial.

Also making sure to go over AP style with each writer will not only help them improve as a journalist but will also make our lives as producer easier. Simple things even like explaining when and where to put a comma and why will help the over newscast. I also need to make sure as graphics producer that we don’t regurgitate a wire story. We need to make sure we have a why today, and have an element of our own to add to the story. This makes there a reason to click on our story over the AP wire because we have a new element, whether it be a fact or an interview.

It is also very important to make sure we have all the up to date information about a previous story we have written on our website. Making sure we keep calling sources and when we find out new information to tweet in at add it in immediately will help guide more people to our website. I can take the initiative and make calls about stories as well. For example, I wrote a story about how the same mathematical model that Google uses to rank its web pages on its search engine, now may help map out how lung cancer spreads in the human body. The main researcher, Paul Newman, is a Viterbi Professor, so we tried to see if we could get a direct quote from him as well. Later in the day, we were able to get an interview with Professor Newman and could add in his person quotes that weren't just in the press release. This was something that we were able to get ourselves and give ATVN the edge on the story.

This Monday, to my surprise, I finished the graphics early, which has never before happened. I thought our newscast was going to be excellent and even asked other people if there were others things I could help with. Little did I know the whole thing was about to fall apart.

The graphics weren't all saved right so after vigorously checking and re-checking to make sure they were there, the whole second half of the A block had no graphics. I literally thought I was going to lose it.

When you overlook one element of the show, or don’t triple check each element of the story then you are leaving something up to chance, which is definitely not quality control. 

Next time having a checklist, knowing what each person is doing, where we can add in more facts into what stories when they come in, which stories to do first and alas keeping everything updated on the web, Twitter and Facebook will be what solid quality control looks like. Then we will achieve the perfect show. 

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