Media Week Reflection

The meeting I attended was for Eagle Vision on April 5th, 2011 on Tuesday. The meeting started at 5 P.M. and ended at 5:53 P.M.

The meeting went over the techniques used in the weekly show on Eagle Vision. Stew Olsen introduced himself to the students and gave everybody sheets on how to make a TV package and how to make proper voice over techniques for videos. The key to this, he explained, is to make sure you talk in an audible area, not be in a confined space, and then talk clearly and sound conversational. Afterwards, he started the Eagle Vision broadcast and went over various things during its run.

The first segment he showed was packages on certain crises hitting people across various countries like the outbreak in Libya and the radiation in Japan. Then what was shown was an interview with a professor here at Biola that was shown to make use of various shots and angles. Housing and a story on voting for the Biola president was then up next. There were more uses of different shots and interviews with students on the housing issue. Some of the students messed up in their voice over and made it sound muffled and their voice echoed. After that, there was a weather update and sports update. The weather update was a still image, but Mr. Olsen stressed the importance of using a green screen. In the sports update, one of the students went down to Pomona to see NASCAR races. Finally, the last story was on how Savers, a thrift store just down the street, is a great place for students to buy cheap clothes if they are low on income.

In terms of deadline work, all of the students needed to report with one of the head students and tell her what package they were to do for the week and how to go about doing it. Each student in the class does their own individual package and they are responsible for doing some sort of topic for the class. They need to set up shots correctly and make sure they engage in conversations with people they interview. Then there was banter between various students on how they could approach their stories and what else they could do to touch it up, including graphics and transitions.

I observed many different types of techniques and film cues that I had never seen before. The term of a package was a very new thing for me. But it is basically the same thing as a story in a newspaper story, just condensed for television audiences. Mr. Olsen said they are getting condensed because of our ADHD society.

This field of journalism has a lot in common with what I have learned in this class. Using clear, descriptive and tight information is crucial not only in broadcast journalism but introduction to journalism as well. Many of the same techniques are used in both fields. Getting good information and good quotes was vital to the taping of Eagle Vision and made up the bulk of every package. The exact format of it is very similar to the some of the stories in the newspaper and the news on television. I feel I could be a decent camera man, because mainly I don’t have the skills required to be in camera for broadcast journalism. Overall, this was a good peak into broadcast journalism and I know more details about this area of journalism that I didn’t know before.

Why Journalists should write about controversial topics

Journalists are very valuable to people of the world. In a time where evil and hypocrisy are very common atrocities, honest, true people need to be able to bring unedited, unbiased information to the masses.

9/11 is something that will be remembered as one of the worst tragedies in American history. It was that morning that terrorists hijacked an American airliner and smashed it, killing thousands and burned down both twin towers. The whole world was shaken up and New York City became the center of attention. Its stories like these that matter most to the American people.

People have a right to know events like these. Newspapers need sources that are upfront and do not hide information. These are topics that affect everybody, negatively or positively. Journalists should not be so concerned if the story they are covering is too controversial because real news is potent. Audiences have a right to know the truth of every situation.

I believe that Christian journalists can indefinitely find their voice in this too. Having a Christian perspective on issues like this is very important so that Christians do not lose their focus on God. God is bigger than anything one could ever face and stressing that is valuable in a time where chaos and terror reign supreme.