Newscast producing:
A-block critique: I led with the mayor of Columbia tweeting about potentially requiring masks in public spaces. This was the newest and most noteworthy story we had, especially because COVID-19 cases have been rising both in the county and the state. We sent a reporter to get man-on-the-street reaction. I wrote her scripts because we decided it was a big enough story to have a reporter fronting it. This then flowed into a breakout describing similar practices in other Missouri cities, and then the latest case numbers. We then shifted themes a little bit but stayed local, going into a story about Columbia Public Schools potentially losing resource officers. I put weather after to put a buffer between our newest and older stories. After weather, the show goes into MU job cut decisions and I put a graphic to help viewers learn about the current layoff numbers. Staying local, we then give an update for a missing woman. We then go a bit broader to breakdown the governor’s latest presser. Afterwards, I put a national package to both give my anchor a break after reading for so long and so viewers could get the full context of the pandemic’s current state nationwide. I ended the A-block on a “Right Now” segment that we had managed to get in just minutes before the show started.
A-block critique: I led with a national news breakout about the SCOTUS LGBTQ+ worker’s rights decision because it was a landmark case and the biggest story of the day. I chose a cold SOT open because it highlighted the emotional tension that came with the decision, and the nonstandard show opening informs viewers about the importance of the story. This then led into a reporter package localizing the ruling. After, I put in a “Right Now” segment to further ease the transition into local news. This easily flowed into a newsroom shot with a reporter again covering a harder local story about a police shooting incident. The international story afterward is about the United Nations investigating racism after the death of George Floyd, which thematically fit after the local police incident. The show then goes back to the United States with a Chicago police reform VOSOT which also fits thematically, and is followed by a VOSOT about the in-custody death of Rayshard Brooks. I felt it was important to place the U.N. story first because it emphasized the importance of an international body focusing on human rights issues in the United States. I put the Chicago story above Rayshard Brooks because it outlined specific changes to policing that viewers would be interested in hearing about, while the Brooks story was more emotional and featured sound from his family.
Reporting:
Digital producing:
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