News Media Workshop Project
Behind-the-Scenes
“One of the things I love about our station is that we really care about our community,” said by Jane Lee, who is a multimedia journalist for the San Diego CW 6. This is vital because to work in the news industry you have to love what you do. You can’t expect to work a 9 am to 5 pm job. Expect irregular hours, long hours, and tight deadlines. Life behind-the-scenes is very fast-paced, competitive, exciting and stressful.
The most recognizable people for every news network station are the anchors, reporters, and meteorologists. However, there is an abundance of people behind the cameras that make the news possible. Behind-the-scenes of the newsroom is where people gather, compile, and present the news to the general public.
San Diego 6 has a variety of ways on how they gather their information. For the breaking national news, San Diego CW 6 uses information and footage from their affiliate CNN and Associated Press. For local news, San Diego CW 6 utilizes the City News wires. By utilizing these wires, San Diego CW 6 is able to generate stories and news articles needed for their show. Another method San Diego CW 6 does to gather information is through police scanners. By listening in on police reports they are able to discover new stories within people’s neighborhoods. However, it is vital that they verify with the police and involved parties, before they can take action with the story and notify a producer and send in a reporter to the scene. Other general methods of gathering information are through the producer’s searching for stories themselves or through people sending tips. People can reach out to San Diego CW 6 whether it’s through email, social media, or the official website to send out tips they think would be great information to be presented to the public.
One of the most prominent roles within news broadcasting is the Producer. The Producer is in charge of overseeing the entire broadcast from coordinating and making sure the news broadcasts goes smoothly. They do everything from gathering stories, writing and reviewing content, researching topics needed for the broadcast shows, helping the reporters choose what live shot that should be covered, assign stories to writers, and working in the booth to time anchors. These are just a couple of important tasks that a Producer is in charge of that is vital for the success of a broadcast show.
“To measure a show’s success there is the sales side where it is measured by its revenue, but as a producer, for me, it is the way the public perceives us. If the public is informed and it benefitted them then I believe we did our job,” said by News Producer Maria Villanueva.
San Diego CW 6 serves the public by delivering great news and entertainment programs. Maria Villanueva stated, “in order to do what we do you really have to love your job. We have the worst hours, the worst schedule, and the worst work conditions. Everyone within our office is very passionate about what they do. They love the news.”
-Alanna Konno