Today's brief lecture on the value of entrepreneurship was very encouraging. I've been considering forming my own production company for a while now. The one thing that's been stopping me is my lack of business knowledge. I have more of a creative mindset and math has never been my strong suit. Judging by my classmates reaction, I am not alone. Most of us are better writers, reporters, producers than business-people.
I bet your definition of news differs from mine. I bet we all have the same basic principles of what news is, but we differ on how that is played out. While something may be new and interesting, if it's not relevant to the community or is purely sensational, I do not consider that news-worthy.
I have an example of this. The story I was asked to write was called the "Beer Run Bandits". The title got me interested and so I attempted to search online for who these bandits were, and what they were doing with beer. I came up empty-handed. After I asked my boss about it, I realized why I couldn't find it. It was this tiny article in a fairly large publication that was so poorly written, it was buried on the website. Here it is, as it was published online:
Here are my completed videos!
and then here is one that I tried to make, unsuccessfully. I learned that I had to keep the camera upright, and not use cheesy music. But, I liked where I was going with it :) Plus, my dogs are adorable.
Here's a list of the Top 15 California Destinations, for all you folks from out of state/country! I disagree with many of the choices and have suggestions of my own, but the Times did pick a few good spots that are close!
http://www.latimes.com/travel/la-tr-1118-top15-pg,0,6571730.photogallery
I applied to USC last fall, when I was working the morning shift for a Bay Area TV station. I was burned out, extremely tired all the time and prone to rash decisions. I saw USC as a lifeboat, rescuing me from years of TV News torture. Annenberg accepted me into the program shortly after I quit my job and was relaxing in
You can be the best journalist out there, but if you aren't making money (attracting viewers), your job won't last long. I feel like this can sometimes get lost in academic discussion and text books. Good quality news is a bonus - but in TV newsrooms, the bosses aren't primarily looking at style or clever writing... they're looking ratings. If your story doesn't draw viewers in, then it was a waste of time. As sad as this may be, ratings are what dictate TV newsrooms these days and to think otherwise will lead to a lay-off.
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