the most thrilling task of all: news producing

My producer shadow shift turned out the be very inspiring for me. This past Tuesday, I had to shadow KOMU producers working their magic on setting up the newscast rundown and all of the other countless big responsibilities for the ten o'clock news. I helped a little by rewriting the national wire stories for the newscast. Being a producer, I learned that it's a lot of pressure. People are counting on you to make the right decisions. You are the one in charge for the whole situation and every single aspect of the production. Even if you might not be held responsible for working on each aspect from scratch, you need to keep track of its progress and make sure it turns out great.

I break down some of the skills that a producer needs in which I hope to master soon in the future of my journalism career.

1.  A producer needs to be good at scriptwriting. Not only this skill comes in handy when rewriting national wire stories, but also to make sure that each reporter is doing his job well when it comes to writing their stories. 
   
2. A producer needs to be a good reporter. She needs to know how a good story unveils and not to leave out every single opportunity that could make a better story. A good judgement is needed when it comes to news value, story outline, and great video footage.
3. A producer needs to be a good editor. Making editorial decisions to make the story presentable to viewers is the next most challenging task after all the reporting is done. Most of the time a reporter is responsible to do this on their own, but it's the producer's job to make sure it turns out good.
4. A producer needs to be a good manager. Teamwork and management skills are quite crucial as a producer needs to communicate with reporters and other producers to make sure they all deliver the best newscast one after another, making sure which story is best to be put where, when, and in what forms should it come in (VO/package). 
5. A producer needs a to be a good multitasker. With all the responsibilities, it's pretty obvious that this quality is nearly a must. 

And the list goes on and on. To deliver the best under great pressure is a challenge and it's something that everyone in the newsroom has to deal with. But really, learning about all this has triggered me nothing but stubbornness and determination. To put it this way, I am thrilled. I am thrilled that I will have the chance to enter this kind of world full of responsibilities and learn from it. I don't know how good of a producer will I be in a certain period of time from now, but I do know that it's the opportunity of learning that thrills me. Thanks KOMU producers! You know who you are!