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Well, this is my final blog as the producer of WVU News. I’m going to officially be a West Virginia University alumni in less than a month. That is crazy to believe these past four years have been some of the best years of my life. I have made life-long friends and learned life-long lessons like those I learned in WVU News.

Four shows down, one to go! I can’t believe how fast the time has gone. As we wrapped up our first

We had a lot more time to produce newscast two than we did for newscast one. I feel like I was finally able to take a breath and acclimate myself into my role as producer for WVU News. 

To say that our first newscast was a whirlwind would be a vast understatement.

Producing newscast three was a blast! It’s getting harder to pick who makes show and Best of the Rest. All of the reporters are learning more every week. I have loved seeing how they grow and improve with every package they make. We split up writing conferences for this newscast, so I had a lot more time to look at packages and work out the rundown for the show. I felt like I actually had time to breathe between story pitches last Monday and filming the show this Wednesday. The whole process is getting smoother, for me and for everyone else. It’s so cool to see how well we all work together as a team and adapt every step of the way.

This semester went by so quickly! I can’t believe we just finished our final newscast. This newscast was really challenging to produce. It had a much different tone than all the other newscasts and it was hard to stack the show and write the script without sounding to repetitive. Just like with the last few newscasts, it was hard to figure out who made show. All the reporters were at the top of their game. Choosing who made show and Best of the Rest mainly came down to tiny details. 

I feel like I say this every time I write a blog post, but this newscast was our best one so far! This was one of the shows we will be submitting for competitions in the next year, so I can’t wait to see how well it does.

Another newscast has come and gone and this week was definitely stranger than normal. This week writing the script went really fast. I think that I finally have a system to how I write. Its hard to just sit down and write it all the way through. You have to write piece by piece and get it down as you go in small sections so you don’t lose you mind completely. I wrote the script in a shorter time this week and had only 22 mistakes. Improvements are being made so I’m starting to feel more confident for sure.

Another newscast as producer has flown by once again. It is crazy how fast times goes. This week I felt kind of defeated. I made the same mistakes I made last time in writing my script and I was disappointed in myself. I need to pay attention, moral of the story. I need to sit down before I write and look at the common mistakes I make. The little unnecessary mistakes have to stop. After talking to Professor Dahlia, I know what needs to be changed and what I did wrong. Now its time to apply those corrections. I need to get better at copy editing and working on what the reporters turn in. I can’t fully trust in everyone because mistakes happen.

My first week of being producer was a whirlwind but in the end it was so worth it. There were some highs and some lows during the week and I definitely learned some news skills that will help in future shows. At times I felt disconnected from the class but it is my job to reach out and to go above and beyond for the reporters. I need to work on staying in contact with the reporters on shooting days and feeding them information on current and future stories.