KTXS is the ABC affiliate in Abilene, TX.

It’s also my future place of employment.

Thanks to the help of a Mizzou Mafia member, I was offered (and accepted) a job as the 6:00 and 10:00 producer at KTXS. I’m starting in late May so now my time is consumed with packing up my room and finding odds and ends for my future apartment (dishes, pots, pans, etc.). It’s all happening really fast but I couldn’t be more excited to be heading back to the Lone Star State!

Abilene, here I come!

But I came back from four full weeks with my parents with a completely different perspective on my job. I spend four weeks from December to January with “normal people” in New Hampshire. This means I spent my time with people not in the journalism industry in an area dominated by snow.

After all of this time, I concluded that my mother is one of those people…

My mother is one of those people who watch the news only for weather and turns off the newscast (or changes the channel) once she gets the full weather forecast.

At first, I was appalled. I was ashamed to be related to someone who only watched for the weather. Did she not know her daughter was a journalism major who tries to combat people like her every day?

Then the station that we watch, WMUR, (the only station in New Hampshire) did a “special edition” of a newscast and made it all about snow. Of course, my mother watched that.

Then it hit me. When your life is consumed by weather elements, that’s your news. On a snow day where Mother Nature dumps more than a foot of snow on your front porch, you don’t care about what’s happening in state politics that day. You want to know what to expect in the next few days to figure out how to get to work. You want to know what the state road crews are doing to make your daily commutes safer. Those are the things that matter. Even when it’s not snowing like cats and dogs, you still want to know what the weather looks like for your upcoming work week. Do you need to plan ahead to get to work next Thursday?

I didn’t know how much this would prepare me for covering #MOsnow, or more commonly known as Missouri’s Blizzard of 2011.

I love it.

I love my text-book, my teacher, my TAs (the producers that are around to teach us the specific, nit-picky things within the newscasts), my reporters, my anchors, etc. I love it all.

I currently produce the 10:00 on Mondays, the 5:00 on Wednesdays, and the morning show marathon show on Fridays.

I’m slowly taking over more responsibilities within my shows and learning more of the details. I’m loving it. I’m sleep deprived, but I’m loving it. My name is finally being placed in the credits as the producer (before it was the TA’s name). I captured my very first credit as depicted below.

I’m very much looking forward to the rest of the semester learning all that I can!

I was right. I’ve reported for four weeks now (twice a week) and reporting is slowly starting to become second nature. I report from 8am to 7pm on Wednesday and from 1pm to 10:30pm on Thursdays. For some reason, my Thursday shifts always seem to go faster. I usually get done hours before my deadline. It’s a nice feeling to know I can do a package that quickly.

I also volunteered to live report on Friday mornings and I am currently at the station preparing for my second shift. I’m not a reporter by any means but the experience is what I was looking for. So far, things have been smooth. Let’s hope they stay that way.

The second half of the summer (the summer is split into semesters) I plan to volunteer as a student producer. I really want to get my hands dirty in producing before I start News Producing next semester. But I also plan to travel a little more later this summer so we’ll see if that works out. I’ve recently found out that I will be the maid of honor at one of my best friend’s weddings next year so I’ll be traveling to see her (3 hours away) more to help out with planning.

This summer has made me realize that I’ve never been more sure that I picked the best school for me. I had my doubts along the way before I entered the broadcast track, but now that I’m finally at the station almost all the time, I’ve seen that this is the best experience I could have asked for. What other school gets the chance to produce a newscast that gets sent to thousands of people, not just at the University? KOMU reaches all of Mid-Missouri. That’s multiple counties. It’s impressive and I couldn’t be more thrilled to see where the next year takes me within KOMU.

Feel free to let me know what you think! Reporting isn’t my thing but it’s a fun experience!

B2 is finally over. It is no more. Yesterday was my last lecture and lab. Of course, we just watched things people had done at the station and had a party. It’s bittersweet.

I walked into B2 scared for my life. My professor, Greeley Kyle, wasn’t exactly the sweetest looking person. It took weeks for us to get him to crack a smile. When that happened, I swear the Earth shook a little. I mean look at him. “Bare Knuckles Journalism”. Who wouldn’t be scared of that? He looks like he wants to eat you. But at the end of the semester, he turns into a great big teddy bear. He’s the best teacher I’ve ever had other than the teachers that taught me how to read and write. But he’s the one teacher I feel like I can still go to in order to get his opinion on things. I feel like I can ask him to look at my work at the station and he won’t give me the “oh it’s not that bad”. He’ll flat out tell me it stinks. But he’ll work with me on how to make myself better rather than just fixing it for me to make it work in the newscast. That’s what I love about Greeley.

Leaving B2 is happy yet scary. As the Managing Editor of KOMU mentioned, I’m leaving the station after B2 as a reporter for whom the station has no expectations but I’m returning as a B3 student who is the backbone of the station. Yikes. No pressure or anything.

Although I’m going back to the station as a B3 student on May 18th for my first B3 summer reporting shift, it’s nice to have a break from the station, even if it’s only for a few weeks. I had a HUGE reporting marathon month in April. I was usually at the station 3 times a week every week in April, except for the first one back from spring break. From cut-ins to VO Patrol to Reporting. I did it all in 3 weeks. I don’t recommend that. I had my reasons though. I wanted it all done by the time classes were ending and I turned 21 (on May 1st). There were two shifts that I had back to back with only 8 hours of a break in between them. Bottom line is… I survived.

I’m really hoping to get my stuff up on this website and on YouTube of a few of my cut-ins and reporting shifts soon before I start reporting this summer. Stay tuned.

B2 Lab - Minus two students

As a side note, this contest is hosted and judged at the University of Missouri. Mizzou-Rah!

He was 20 years old when he won this contest. His girlfriend, Melissa, was 19. It was news to them when they found out Melissa was pregnant. Soon thereafter, they were married and they both moved to  Portland, OR for Matt’s summer internship.

With help from their friends, Matt and Melissa created a documentary available on MediaStorm called Love in the First Person. In it, they describe the changes in their lives and how they coped. The video in the documentary is mainly them talking in a room with an unmade bed or pictures of them going about their daily lives. Wedding photos also made it into the documentary as it was one of the major occasions of their lives in the past few years. It is a very casual movie. They don’t dress up or make sure their hair is perfect. It’s real life. It’s their life.

This got me thinking. Not only did it tie in with a previous post on young marriages, but it also got me thinking that this was the way to tell stories, even in TV news. When interviewing someone, it’s essential to dig deeper than what you’re trying to cover. Understand their lives. Understand their background. Relate to them. Figure out what makes them the way they are. If you can show someone in their natural “habitat”, it makes them that much more real to the viewers. 53-year-old Mabel is more able to relate to 65-year-old Henry in another part of Missouri because the reporter tells the viewers that Henry is a farmer and he lost his right pinky toe when he was 14 because of a tractor accident. But the reporter wasn’t there to cover the loss of his pinky. He was there to talk about the economy and how the current economic crisis has hurt his farm. By bringing in the short anecdote about his missing toe, a reporter can make him real. He is a real person. Seeing this documentary made everything my Broadcast 2 teacher has been talking about set in. I finally get it. You could call it an “ah-ha” moment.

Everyone has a story. It’s my job as a journalist to tell it.

Mother nature and I have never gotten along. She makes it snow when I want the sun. She makes it rain when I want to go outside (which is rare, but it still happens). When it was pouring on the day of my first reporting shift, I still had hope she would let up on the downpour in time for me to report. But she didn’t.

It was a slow news day. Reporters were scrambling for stories and somehow, little ol’ me who isn’t from Missouri, got sent to the Capitol to cover anything I could find on the budget committee. The clouds were starting to roll in when I was finally prepared enough with data and background research to head to Jefferson City.

Senator Rob Mayer

While I didn’t understand much of what was said in the budget committee meeting, I was able to talk with Senator Rob Mayer who explained some of the major cut backs that were made that day. One of the trending topics was the University of Missouri health centers, i.e. the hospital and various clinics. It was recommended to cut back on the budget of the system by 20%. However, the committee decided to only cut it back by 10%. The historical society didn’t even see any cuts this year. The committee gave them their full budget because of the efforts that the society had performed in order to raise funds. Hard work gets you money. Interesting concept. I was able to interview Representative Allen Icet. This would eventually pose a problem when I returned to the station.

I headed back to Columbia to shoot my stand up. When I finally got my equipment back in the car and was on the road, it started to pour. No problem. It takes 30  minutes to get from Jefferson City to Columbia. I figured the rain would rain itself out. Nope. It kept raining. Have you ever tried to do a stand up in the rain? I don’t recommend it. Sacrificing myself to protect the camera, I was soaked with a faulty umbrella and my stand up ended up being out of focus. What luck. It was my first reporting shift and I was cold and knew I would be getting points off for my inability to focus.

But all of this has taught me a few things:

1. Always have multiple umbrellas in your car. You never know when one might break or when your camera requires its own.
2. Invest in a black umbrella. Pink is my favorite color so naturally everything I own is in the pink family. But I don’t think a pretty pink umbrella makes me out to be a serious journalist on air.
3. Bring  rain boots everywhere. Not only was the rain going sideways, but there were puddles everywhere.
4. Have a change of clothes with you at all times. Luckily, my apartment is on the way to the station from where I shot my stand up so I was able to run up and change. But when I’m out in the field, I won’t always have that luxury.
5. I love producing. Reporting just isn’t my thing. I’d rather know little bits about a lot of thing then delving into only a few topics. But I will be a sympathetic producer someday. This reporting experience gives me an understanding of what reporters go through. I will know how to handle rain situations or understand when a reporter comes in dripping wet. These things happen.

Overall, it was a learning experience. But hey, that’s why I’m a college student right?

I was aware of the epidemic of the increasing numbers of suicides in the military. However, I didn’t know how high the numbers were until I read an article on Time’s website written by Mark Thompson.

The article is well written and explains the efforts of the military to understand suicide within their ranks as well as what they are doing to try to stop it.

My favorite part of the article is the fact that Thompson goes to sources outside the military as well. He talks to Craig Bryan, a psychologist at the University of Texas. This gives the story an outside view. The catcher is that Bryan is a former Airman from the United States Air Force. Not only does he give a civilian perspective, but as a psychologist who was recently in the military, he is also able to analyze the military’s efforts without being biased.

I feel the article is on a topic that has been floating to the surface in numerous news markets, stories, and outlets. However, without articles like Thompson’s, the civilian world wouldn’t know and come to understand the military and how they are trying to change their ways of preventing and grasping why soldiers are committing suicide.

“For too long, General Casey told a Senate panel March 3, “we were shooting behind the target,” trying to prevent suicide when it was already too late”.

For my class, we are required to do two VO patrols and three reporting shifts. I completed my first VO patrol yesterday and while it look longer than the typical four hours, I’ve gotten used to actually being at the station on their computer systems. My shift is scheduled to run from 8 am – noon, but I didn’t leave the station until 4 pm.

When I first arrived at the station, I was excited to share my story ideas because I thought they were interesting. However, the station received a press release from the mayor of Jefferson City so I was off to check that out instead. People at the station were reassuring me that it would be an easy first patrol and the mayor was always really nice and loved talking to people. I left the station feeling confident, although I had no idea where anything was in Jefferson City.

John Landwehr - Mayor

The city government sent out 2,000 surveys (in red envelopes) to randomly selected registered voters yesterday. The survey asks questions regarding the residents’ feelings towards city efforts on waste removal, protection, police and firefighters, and the overall efficiency of the city. The city has a third-party company review the survey results (which are due by April 30, 2010) called Communiqué. The company will process the results then conduct a focus group to review and discuss the questions further. Mayor John Landwehr said the results will help the city plan for its future and is urging residents who received the survey to return it as soon as possible. They need at least 400 responses in order for the $10,000 survey to present any real results.

A few things I learned from this experience:
1. Always bring a handheld mic to a press conference.

Steve Rasmussen - City Administrator

2. Jefferson City officials are (from my experience so far) always eager and willing to talk. I had previously met the city administrator in a shadow shift and he gave both me, the other shadow, and the reporter his cards in case we were ever strapped for a story idea. While I have yet to use his card, it is safely tucked away for a rainy day. Other officials like the communications manager and the President for Communiqué were also interested in talking and not just for the purpose of giving me more information. They were genuinely interested in my personal background.

3. Always bring a business card. The business world revolves around exchanging business cards and when the officials were asking for one of mine yesterday, I am sorry to say I didn’t have one. I have personal cards and cards for MUTV (for which I am an executive) but I didn’t think to bring the personal cards for doing something at the station. Since I am only a student reporter, I don’t have KOMU cards, but you’d better believe I’ll have my personal ones ready to go when I go to the station next time.

4. Learn my way around Jefferson City. I had to pull into parking lots several times to google search where things were in Jeff City and again to use my map on my phone. I need to learn the streets asap.