Thursday, September 20, 2012

JFresh Application Essay


Tim Carrico


JFreshman Newsroom Application

As we move more into a world based on getting information at the punch of a button, the audience for television news continues to spiral downwards. The new, younger audience wants their news now and does not have the loyalty the older generation once had. To meet the needs of an audience that wants instant news, television news needs to change their methods of delivering the big stories of the day. One way to gain a larger audience is to move a broadcast from the air to the web. The younger generation relies on social media and their mobile devices. Most teens’ lives revolve around Facebook, Twitter, apps and texts. By reaching an audience on a website as well as social media pages, a viewer is not obligated to watch the news at a scheduled time, but watching it whenever they get the urge; by having video on-the-go and on demand. Another form of broadening a viewing demographic is use “push alerts” to notify the audience about breaking news and stories that could affect their everyday way of life. Instead of doing a 30 minute newscast, the show could be condensed down to a 15 minutes. By shortening the show, it would have to be jam packed with a variety of VO’s VO-SOT’s and shorter packages. Packages would be shortened from 1:30 to :45-1:00, because packages still bring in the raw emotion and sights from an event. Shortening a newscast would be vital in appealing to an audience because no one has time to sit down, relax, and enjoy a 30 minute broadcast. Our lives move like a continuous rollercoaster spinning from soccer practice to dance recitals. I’m not saying get rid of good reporting. The quality of the news product will continue to stay the same. All I’m saying is reach an audience with faster, hard-hitting news that appeals to them. We can leave the feature stories and “filler” content to the 24-hour news networks.
I’ve had a career in the journalism field for more than eight years. Working as and intern and expanding my horizons to a part-time employee at my local CBS and FOX affiliate, WVNS-TV. Learning the ropes from some of the best professionals in the business; I see changes in our television ratings, and they’re not for the good. However, our website, social media pages and mobile app continue to see a popularity spike. For example, a historic building caught fire in my hometown. The only problem, it occurred after the news had signed off the air. Instead, people turned to our social media pages as well as our website to get the latest details on the breaking news. Our multi-media journalists posted raw video, interviews, as well as pictures to the web. Within a day, our Facebook page gained nearly 2,500 friends. It goes to show that people are relying on other sorts of media to get their news.
I began working at WVNS-TV as a photojournalist. From there, I moved my way up to producer and weekend director. At the ripe old age of 17, I was asked to become the lead weekend anchor and executive producer for our 6, 10, and 11 p.m. broadcasts on CBS and FOX. I have worked with edit software like Final Cut and Premier. With my experience, I feel that I could really bring something to the table at Ohio University and the JFreshman Newsroom. 

No comments:

Post a Comment