Media Participation Project

I became interested in broadcast journalism in 9^th grade, after I started watching the network E! I constantly would watch Guliana Rancic interview public figures from the red carpet and would have my eyes glued to the television. I realized after some time that broadcast journalism was what I wanted to do with my future. One of the reasons I chose the University Of Maryland was because of how amazing their journalism program is. In my High School, we had a program called CITV, which was where students from all grades created a 5-10 minute piece of “school news.” After all of the news was pieced together, selected students would report live from the studio. I was involved with this program and took the classes that related to CITV. When I was introduced to the media participation project I knew immediately I wanted to volunteer at UMTV. I figured that UMTV would be much different than my program in high school, and I was right.

When I arrived at the station the first thing I did was look in the control room. The control room made me feels comfortable, as it was very similar to the control room I had in my high school. The control room in my opinion is the most important part and the people in there always have to communicate with each other in case one thing goes wrong. The people in the control room have very stressful jobs and always have to be on their toes. The people in the control room have jobs such as controlling the sound or music, fading the screen to commercials when necessary and making sure the teleprompter lines up with the story that the reporter is reporting. I knew right when I saw this room that working in the control room was not something I wanted to do because I would be to nervous the whole time the production was going on. I wouldn’t be able to enjoy what I was actually doing.

Then, I went to the studio and immediately looked around the whole entire room. I saw all the people in the studio room dressed professionally. The students actually acted like professionals by the terms they were using. I was able to tell that these students legitimately knew what they were doing.  In the studio there are mac computers and usually each student is sitting at one. At the computers, the students are constantly editing clips to make sure they are perfect.  The environment was so lively. Everyone was friendly and everyone was helping each other. The students that were anchoring were sitting in another room fixing their hair and makeup. They made sure that they were perfect for the episode.  The anchors also were practicing their lines while they were getting ready. I noticed that once the students were done editing their clips the two teachers wanted to look at them and approve them. This made me more comfortable because now I know that there is a little less pressure. After the anchors were done with their hair and makeup they went to go sit in front of the screens and practice their lines while looking at the camera. The first time I volunteered the episode included a live Skype. The connection was horrible and the woman kept going in and out. Everyone became stressed however after delaying the episode for some time they were able to figure out the problem.  The second time I volunteered I again was an observer. Some people had the opportunity to observe from the control room however I have no interest in working in the control room so I did not want to waste my time. Again, I sat and watched everyone get ready for the episode. The second time I was there I was able to focus on more of the little things because I was so familiar with the atmosphere. I was also able to compare the first anchors I saw to the second anchors. I realized that the anchors really could make a difference in how the episode turns out. I also realized the second time I watched the anchors had more of a connection and seemed a little more experienced.

Observing Maryland Newsline was amazing. All my life as mentioned before, I have been set on becoming a broadcast journalist for entertainment. I know that it is hard to find a program that is only set on the entertainment piece, but after volunteering at the studio I realized that news reporting really is not my thing. I am glad that I volunteered at the T.V station because it helped me give a chance to the other side of reporting.