My Addiction

Yes I got better...luckly it wasn't swine flu;) A producer at work did tease me about it later on. But I feel I am lucky for more reasons than just my recovery. Being an intern during the prime time news, I have more responsibilities than interns who work during the day with five other students on one show. I not only observe a national broadcast being produced everyday, but I feel like I am part of what they call the "Greta team", it consists of all the producers, APs, editors and camera crew for Greta's show. Networks aren't as glamarous as I had imagined them to be, in fact, its not glamarous at all. However, I find a different satisfaction and value working with a network news station that I never expected. During the day, I spend my time finding and cutting video through a system called Ardome. I watch other news programs like the View, that air in the morning, to see if our station's competition had any news we weren't getting, or if we wanted to use any of it for the kicker at the end of the show.
But out of all of my jobs at Fox, I would have to say, my favorite part is the last few hours of the day when I go into the control room. You see hundreds of flat screen T.V.'s flashing CNN, NBC, ABC, and any other station that airs during the same time as On the Record. Then on the rest of the screens you see Fox cameras at every angle and shot getting ready for the show. I sit down to a desk with my headset and begin cueing in guests at other fox affiliate stations. Suddenly the show comes to life in a way that I've never expierenced network news before, not because I am watching it from the Fox station, but because a producer sitting next to me sighs when Greta finishes an incredible interview. I ask her if she was the one that put it together and she says, "yeah, I had to edit that so fast." I am shocked when a booker tells me how much Fox paid the guest on the show to get interviewed on national television, and how many phone calls it took to reach her. I talk to the people who just realized thier brother in law is a murdurer, as I cue them into the show. I suddenly feel like I am a part of something greater than myself. I become a piece to a large puzzle that news directors, editors, producers, reporters, and photographers piece together everyday in order to keep millions of people informed. I find myslef looking up news just for fun and researching breaking news from other stations. This is precisley when I know I am just like everyone else...who is addicted to finding the next breaking news story.