Here's a sampling of some of the various job shadows done by you all. Take a look and see what you can learn from everyone's visits. There's a lot of good stuff here to help you decide what you want to do with your lives; what you need to be doing to get there; and what to expect when you do get there. Please give each one of these a quick read, will you?
***********************
For my job shadow experience, I chose to shadow a
seasoned professional journalist. Kenneth Palmer is a senior reporter with over
30 years of experience. He’s currently a night reporter for the Lansing State
Journal and mostly covers breaking news. He covers a lot of breaking news
topics such as crimes, fires, accidents, etc. He also covers municipal and
school board meetings as well as protests at the capitol. Something Ken does
not like about his position with the Lansing State Journal is that the work and
schedule can be very chaotic, almost like police work. He has to work a certain
amount of weekends every year and if there’s breaking news or someone cannot
cover a story he will get called in earlier than usual.
His biggest advice for
dealing with this is to enjoy the time when you are away from work because it
may not be as much as I think. He also said that it helps to be versatile and
flexible. I think this would be the hardest part of the job for me. I’m an
introvert so I just generally function better when I have down time to do
things for myself and take care of myself. As a part time employee on campus, I
have a pretty set schedule for my shifts so it may be a big adjustment
transitioning to working full time and giving up weekends and time during which
I hadn’t planned to work. However, I am looking forward to the opportunity to
challenge myself by covering a variety of topics I may be unfamiliar with.
Kenneth said that he’s always had a passion for writing and grew up when people
still read newspapers heavily.
While there are aspects that make his job
difficult, he still loves journalism and seeking the truth to inform the
public. I believe that although I will face challenges with the schedule and
the shrinking newsrooms, it’ll be well worth it.
***********
As the
executive producer for Michigan Out of Doors TV, Jimmy Gretzinger works with a
small team of himself and two others. This means he is not only producing
content for the weekly television show on PBS, but also filming, interviewing,
editing, and completing other tasks for the show.
A lot
of the stories covered are by suggestion of the subject or someone who knows
them. If a story seems promising one of the crew at Michigan Out of Doors will
cover it. The story Jimmy was working on where I shadowed him was about the
Olivet High School Trap Shooting Team which took fifth place out of 22 schools
in Michigan during its first year as a team and has several top-ranking
shooters in the state. This story is going to be a shorter segment on the show,
four to six minutes long, and aims to highlight a unique sport as well as responsible
and safe gun use by kids. Even for a shorter segment, Jimmy shot somewhere
close to 15 total minutes of B-roll so he had every possible option when it
comes to different angles, still shots, and action shots. He focused on the
kids who were shooting and got lots of clay pigeons breaking, but also got
shots of the guns, empty shells, parents watching, coaches talking to kids and
other things.
In
Michigan the major outdoors topics are deer hunting, bird hunting, lake and
river fishing, small game hunting and fishing on the great lakes. Jimmy said
the key to keeping things fresh is to not tell a hunting story or a fishing
story, but to make the person who is doing the action the focus of the story.
He said by letting the person take center stage the story develops more depth
and keeps viewers interested. He also tries to keep each episode diverse and
never cover one topic for too long. The example Jimmy gave was that a person
may not care too much about a steelhead fishing segment, but if they know a story
about a person who trains bird dogs is coming up next, they will pay attention and
the variety brings in and keeps a larger audience.
Another
tip Jimmy had was to be patient and prepared when dealing with younger people.
A lot of kids will likely be a bit camera shy and won’t always give good sound
bites or video clips, so it is important to try but it may not always work out,
meaning a back-up plan is important.
I
definitely enjoy writing and, to some extent, photography more than the video
side of story-telling and reporting, but I do think with the time and the right
topic I could produce some quality segments for a show like this. I may try
some amateur stuff on my own once I get a camera just to see how it goes, but I
don’t see video taking the focus of my career goals. I do know that it is
important to be semi-proficient in and understand so I am more flexible and
diverse in my skills.
**************
I
was fortunate enough to shadow Rina Risper, executive director of The New
Citizen’s Press in Lansing. I would say this job shadow was unique in the sense
that Rina is extremely involved in her community, and not just through the
publication that she started herself 16 years ago. When we sat down and talked
to Rina for a few minutes I got a great understanding of how much the concepts
of both community and hard work mean to her personally. When we shadowed her
she was hosting a community event to raise awareness for victims of different
types of violence. Since she is the creator of her own paper, one of the big
takeaways I got from talking with her was just how much effort she puts in to
make sure her paper fits the standards she sets for it. Print journalism isn’t
necessarily my dream career, but I’ve certainly enjoyed my time in both JRN 200
and 300 more than I thought I would and I’ve really enjoyed producing content
about news that doesn’t just relate to sports, which is my favorite topic to
read and write about. The great thing about shadowing Rina was that I got to
see first hand that the work I’ve done the past two semesters is very similar
to the work that gets done at professional publications. Having had the
opportunity to shadow and sit down with Rina, I have a tremendous amount of
respect for her work ethic and how much time and effort go into producing a
newspaper, especially when you’re basically working on your own the way she is.
Her paper is a bi-weekly publication and one of the stories from her paper
focused on scientists and Michigan State investigating the relationship between
schizophrenia and psychosis. I thought this was cool because through the course
of the article, which was only a few hundred words, she spoke with multiple
neutral experts from MSU who provided great insight and really improved the
nature of the article. I thought this was especially cool to see because
throughout the course of this semester I’ve had a couple articles in particular
where I think my neutral expert or experts really improved the quality of my
piece.
*************************
For my job shadow I shadowed Natasha Blakely, a
reporter at the Battle Creek Enquirer. She is mainly a business reporter, but
also writes some articles for government and other sections if needed. There
are currently five reporters on staff, with a sixth reporter joining at the end
of the month.
Natasha said she enjoys
her job and has always wanted to be a journalist since the age of 11. One of
her dislikes about the job is being a reporter in a climate that is unfriendly
to journalists. She would prefer to be an environmental journalist and that is
still one of her long-time goals.
Some advice that she
offered me is that experience is very important. Having multiple internships as
well as joining an on-campus publication is extremely beneficial to your
career. She also said that developing networks with people who can send you
news tips and PR releases for companies and such is important. Another tip she
had was to subscribe to mailing lists of different sections of the government
and businesses. Her four main keys to success are to build a network, always
work on improving your writing, to plan, but to be adaptable, and to
collaborate with your coworkers.
For the most part, the
job was what I had expected but it was not really my cup of tea. The staff was
small and being a business news reporter just did not appeal to me. I
understand that this was a small paper with a small staff, but I am still not
sure that I could see myself as a reporter for a newspaper. I think that I am
more interested in the broadcast news side of journalism. I think that I would
also prefer writing about lifestyle rather than business or government. I still
have a passion for writing and reporting, but I would love to check out other
aspects of journalism and explore what suits me best. I think this job shadow
has encouraged me to explore other jobs in the journalism field and to take
more classes that are relevant to the side of journalism I am interested in.
******************
On Monday evening, I
shadowed Rina Risper, the president
and publisher of The New Citizens Press,
a local paper in Lansing. Risper was hosting a National Crime Victim's Rights Week
event that she said would be a great opportunity for me to see what she does. As
soon as she arrived at Lansing City Hall, where Jack, Andy, and I were waiting,
we all began unfolding tables and chairs, arranging sodas in ice coolers, and
lighting candles for each table. This wasn't exactly what I had expected from a
woman who has published an independent newspaper for the past 16 years but Risper
didn't seem fazed. Aside from publishing her paper every other week, she
operates a community action network that provides opportunities for Lansing
residents such as the NCVRW event. All of this started with the paper, she
said. On a grassroots level, she began hearing stories that she couldn't ignore
and her work is now heavily integrated with the people she writes about.
The event was packed. People made up
for the shortage of seating by sharing chairs and standing against the walls.
Risper introduced the key speakers and gave a brief speech about her newspaper
and the community work taking place in Lansing. I have no idea how she
physically does it all. She described herself as "buzzing around like a
hummingbird," which seemed fitting. I think she embodies so much of what
is lacking in today's journalism—namely, a real empathy for people. She is one
of those strong, invisible figures operating behind the scenes. Watching her, I
was reminded that the drive behind journalism is people. The opportunity to job
shadow Risper piqued my interest in independent publishing and reminded me of
the value of proximity. Overall, it was interesting to hear about her
experience and see the rewards of community journalism.
************
For my job
shadow I had the opportunity to shadow Fred Heumann, the weekday sports anchor
at WLNS 6 in Lansing. I got to the station at 4:30 and Heumann had just started
putting things together for his spot on the 6 o’clock news. Because nothing was
going on in sports due to the weather, Heumann decided to make his three-and-a-half-minute
spot about the weather and how it’s effected the Detroit Tigers, Lansing
Lugnuts and the Michigan State Baseball and Softball teams. Earlier in the day
him and another sports anchor went to the campus of MSU to film and interview
the baseball and softball team, they also went to film the stuff for the
Lugnuts. I got to watch him edit all the interviews and B-roll together and
write the script for what he was going to say, and one thing he told me that he
never used to have to do until now is writing the script for the closed
captions, so everyone can tune in to his hit.
There was a
lot going on as I was watching him, a lot of buttons he was pressing to put
everything together, Heumann said it took a little bit to get the hang of
things as he would put notes down to remind him what buttons to use. His hit
was at 6:20pm so around that time we went to the studio and I got to see him
read of the teleprompter word for word, everything I saw him write. Also, the
video they filmed prior to him editing appeared on the screen and it was just
him doing a voice over. After he was finished we went back to his office to
talk for a little bit and one thing I took away the most would have to be
there’s a lot more work behind the scenes then just talking to a camera. He
said to me that the sports department is the only place at the news station
that must editing everything together which I found to be interesting.
**************
On April 1, 2018. I was at the
Justin Rose’s Show---7SportsCave.
At that show,
there were two guests on his show. These guests are all his friends. Although
the show is only 30 minutes, their division of labor is very clear. I
remember that they were divided into four parts. Each part raises questions by
Justin, then guests and hosts discuss with others. They talked about college
sports and Detroit sports.
The March
Madness discussion made me impressed.
It is the first part in the show. As an international student, I don’t know
local sports too much. But about college sports, I know March Madness. And they
talked about the Detroit Lions. I didn't listen to it at all. I don't know the
players and the games at all.
It is my first time to watch a show live. I was nervous.
And at the same time, I am the only spectator. I didn’t know what I should do.
After the show was recorded, I talked with Justin. He told me, “Don’t be
nervous, just think the camera is closed.”
About this show, I learned a lot. Like the weekly story,
we should get ready for work. We need to make an appointment with the guest in
advance. It's like story. We need to make an appointment in advance. When we
face the camera, try not to be nervous. About work, Justin said a lot. He
thought we should choose job which we like. Like him, he loves his job very
much. Every day, he has great enthusiasm to fulfill his work.
We should choose jobs that we are familiar and what we
like. I don’t know too much about Detroit Lions, I should avoid reporting it.
But about college sports, I could focus on them. I know MSU, UM, UCLA and so
on. If I have to report some sports, like Detroit Lions, I should do more
preparatory work.
***************
For my
job shadow, I reached out and spent time with a reporter named Anthony Odoardi.
Odoardi is an MSU Alumni who has worked with the State News covering women’s
basketball and football, worked an internship with MLB.com and got to cover the
Detroit Tigers in the world series, and has also worked for Michigan.com in
Port Huron and now in Howell. He covers high school sports and gave me great
insight into what the differences are between covering the pros and high school
athletes. Odoardi spends most of his time outside of the newsroom, so we
traveled around as he showed me how to be an on the go reporter rather than a
stationary one. He described several different situations of high school
sporting events and how to go about them in the most efficient way. This
interaction with Odoardi helped me realize what the sports reporting world
actually is like, and how I can transition between each level of play, from
high school to the pros. It also taught me a guideline on how to be a reporter
outside of the newsroom.
**********
This semester I got the privilege of doing a
job shadow with Rina Risper, she is the executive director of The New Citizen’s
Press, which is a small community paper in East Lansing. Although she is not in
the direct field that I see myself going into which is broadcast of some type
such as radio or television. She puts on this event yearly that we got to
attend where there was great food and a great atmosphere that encourage sharing
of stories and past. This was apart of the National Crime Victims’ Rights Week
and was put on by Risper. We got to see the amount of community involvement
that is available in a small newspaper that has an audience of people that are
fully apart of the community. I think that it is important that we have people
like Rina who work with local people and there community and know a lot of
people in the community by name along with knowing so many of there stories. We
got to help set up for the event in a type of free labor and got to find out
that there are 60+ unsolved murders in the city of Lansing and there are two in
East Lansing. The people that are attached to these unsolved murders still want
the people to be caught and brought to justice which i believe was a majority
of the showing at the event. I think that the saddest thing about the event was
when the Mayor of Lansing showed up a camera man showed up shot about 30
seconds of B-role then filmed what the Mayor had to say even though I believe
that his speech was one of the worst that we heard it sounded unplanned and
completely improvised, but then again it was the importance of who was saying
it not what he was saying.
