Journal 38

Job Shadowing. So last Thursday I went job shadowing at News Channel 20 in Springfield with Sabrina, and it was quite the interesting experience. We had two sessions--one from 10:00 to 12:00 and the next from 3:30 to 5:30. During the first session, we showed up and went in the entrance area and the receptionist told us that the reporter Rebecca Clark that we were supposed to shadow wasn't actually there that day and wouldn't be at all because she was in Champaign. That was a pretty major set back. Another man came in and told us he would take us back with the other Plain's students shadowing--Daniel Plunket and Michael Campbell. So we were ushered through a long hallway to a workroom with some cubicles where we were introduced to several people in the office. When we first came in, a woman took us and introduced us to some different people. We were introduced to a man named Steve, and he told us about his job. He organized stories and kept up with police scanner and what-not, and also took calls from people who wanted to tip News Channel 20 off for good stories. He was kind, and we talked to him for a while and asked him some questions. Because our job shadow reporter wasn't there, we just kind of passed around to different people who had time to talk to us. After talking with Steve, a pho-tog (photojournalist) took us around the station and intoruduced us to some new people. He showed us his equipment and explained his day, then he took us to the main control room where we met two new guys, one was named Ed Janik. Anyway, we spent a lot of time with them, and they were extremely helpful. They were actually my favorite because they gave some great insight on the different jobs in journalism. After that we got to watch the miday show done live. That, i will admit, was pretty cool. We got to see the studio and see all the cameras and talk to the reporters. Next we talked to another pho-tog who showed us the editing process of the video clips and interviws we see on our own TV's.  After that, our first session was over. So we got a break and then we returned at 3:30. The second session had some plusses and minuses. We got to see Jeremy, the sports reporter, and meet Chantel, another reporter. Chantel let us follow her around the office a bit and explained to us how journalism is a constant press for time. She told us all the things she had to accomplish and the small amount of time she actually had to do them. She was pretty stressed out about this,  but she was nice enough to talk us through it. We got to meet another reporter named Vince. I didn't like him. He kind of 'rubbed me wrong.' There really wasn't a lot to say about him. He didn't impress me and he was kind of overbearing on telling us all the hardships of journalism. He was less than encouraging. Anyway, we ended our visit on a good note. We got to talk to a producer named Michael and he loved his job and was really open and encouraging!