Recent thoughts on broadcast

Yesterday at my ABC/CNN TV station internship a woman called me on the phone crying. Her son had died in a car accident and my station had played it many times on the news. She had just seen it and was yelling at me for not showing it sooner. I thought this was a little strange, but I told her we had shown it earlier and that this was an update.
Anyway, what it really comes down to is ethics. Each of the broadcasts I've watched there has been at least one mistake. In the newspaper world we correct them in the next issue, in broadcast they just seem to be too proud to admit on air, or at all, that they mess up occasionally. By occasionally I mean on a regular basis. I find this disgusting, too many people rely on our broadcasts to be issuing incorrect statements.
I'm thoroughly disappointed.

Amazing

The town zoning board meeting went something like this:
7pm boring
8pm nothing
8:30-9:15 what I need to write about
10pm: deadline... it is a 30 minute drive home
I wrote the article in 13 minutes and was only 1 minute late for deadline. They gave me 20 minutes to revise it thankfully.

Now I need to finish my feature... this is really exciting and draining.

Deadline Stress

I was informed today that I have to finish a feature story and cover a zoning board meeting tonight by 10 p.m. I've never had these kinds of deadlines before. This is probably how 'real' print journalism works. I've come to the realization that my editor is not a jerk, he is an editor.
I made the A section in today's paper for the selectmen's meeting I covered last night. I know that the editor I interviewed with, head honcho, told me that he would love t hire me after graduating from UMaine but now I believe it... I don't think they would push me this hard if they weren't planning on it.

Real World Journalism

Today my editor informed me that I will write about a town's selectmen's meeting and I will have it in by 10pm no matter what it takes.
He also informed me that I will finish a feature story on one of two towns by Thursday.
It just is so different from the Maine Campus (MEC). At the MEC you are given choices and write what you want- not told what you will do... or else. This is probably the next 10 years of my life *sigh*. It is going to be tough to manage a job an internship and a demanding editor.

Background

Hi. I'm Heather.
I am going into my third year at the University of Maine as a journalism major with a double concentration in both broadcast and print.
Last summer I worked at one of my local papers, a small circulation of 22,000. I wasn't sure at the time what I wanted to do so I worked in the advertising department- and by that I mean I answered phones and typed in classified ads from 9-5 Monday through Friday. I quickly discovered advertising is not for me.
Since then I have become a staff reporter for my school paper The Maine Campus, which I love and have recently been promoted to assistant news editor. This summer I am working as a news intern at my local ABC/CNN affiliate news station. This internship is a test for me. I have been unsure of if I want to persue broadcast any further and if this goes well or if it goes poorly may help me make my decision.
This summer is also the first time I have freelanced for a larger area paper. Today I was published in the Sunday edition which claims to have a circulation of over 250,000. I am loving it.
My journalism aspirations include being a notable staff reorter for a well-known paper.