PROFESSIONAL PROJECT

BY ERIKA AGBI

 

INTRODUCTION

On November 8, 2016, it became clear as the night progressed, that the political leadership in the U.S. soon can turn in a significantly different direction, as Donald Trump was elected the country’s next president. A group of people, including myself, were on the same night covering the election live from Washington, D.C., as part of Boston University’s “The Vote 2016” broadcast. My main task, as producer, was to coordinate the coverage from Washington, D.C., and the communication between Boston University College of Communication (COM) and our team in the capital. The election coverage from Washington, D.C., is the main part of my professional project, and makes up PART 1 of this presentation.

 

The presentation’s PART 2 depicts my job of submitting stories to Boston University News Service (BUNS). The stories were created by students who during the fall of 2016 were in the Beat Reporting class in the Boston University Washington, D.C. (BUDC) Internship Program.

 

Both PART 1 and PART 2 of the professional project have served as opportunities to expand my knowledge and professional skills within the media field. This multimedia piece is a presentation of the work that has been done, and the outcome. “The Vote 2016” was a professional endeavor of high quality. It therefore gave me real-life experience producing a broadcast. News stories published through BUNS also require professional quality, equal to a commercial outlet. The same goes for the work I did, attempting to submit the stories. In other words, the objective for this project has been to deliver work of professional quality. The work would then be published, not through a commercial outlet, but through the student-run outlets BUTV10 and BUNS.



PART 1 – ELECTION COVERAGE FOR BOSTON UNIVERSITY

Background

The third semester of my graduate degree in Journalism, Fall 2016, I spent in the Boston University Washington, D.C. (BUDC) Internship Program. Since I was required to create a professional project the same semester, I was looking to do something that was related to what I plan to work with after graduation, which is TV broadcast production management and production coordination. Around the middle of September, the program manager of the BUDC Programs, Lisa Rocco, suggested that for my professional project, I could be the producer of Boston University’s coverage from Washington, D.C. during the election special. The program would be broadcast live through BUTV10, the university’s content distribution network. Boston University College of Communication (COM), in Boston, were planning to do a coverage where there were anchors in the Boston studio, and live reporters several places on the East Coast, including Washington, D.C. The idea of producing the university’s coverage from Washington, D.C. was exactly the type of work I had been wanting to focus my project on.

 

 

Not only was the election a historic moment in and of itself, but in the BUDC Program, through several years, there have been attempts to carry out a live coverage, outside on location. All the previous attempts have been unsuccessful. This time, however, in the fall of 2016, Boston University was for the very first time able to broadcast live from Washington, D.C.

 

The Team

In Washington, D.C., Professor Elliott Francis suggested for the Beat Reporting class in the BUDC program to get involved with the election coverage. Working with the coverage was not mandatory for the Beat Reporting students, but could be a good learning experience, and an opportunity to get involved with a historic moment in U.S. history. There were three students in the Beat Reporting class, and all of them wanted to participate in the coverage, but one was not able to, due to obligations at his internship. The two others, Torrance Latham and Kaylie Piecuch, both functioned as live reporters during the election special. Since we did not have the third student with us, who otherwise would have had the role of line producer, the two reporters were responsible for their own content, which Professor Francis was available to advise them about. The Washington, D.C. election coverage team consisted of Torrance, Kaylie and myself, with Professor Francis as faculty advisor.

 

The executive producer of the full Boston University election special, was Journalism graduate student Natalie Robson, based at COM, in Boston. Students were involved in the coverage through roles as producers, anchors, reporters and in other positions behind the cameras. Several professors functioned as faculty advisors, and technical personnel were also present at COM, to help carry out the broadcast.

 

My Role

My role in the Washington, D.C. team, as a producer, was to organize the coverage from the capital, and function as an overseer. It was my job to make sure everything was running smoothly, by assuring that all components, both technically, information-wise and the people, were in the right place at the right time, for the coverage to be carried out as it should. I coordinated communication between Boston and Washington, D.C., both in the time leading up to the election night and also during the live coverage itself. In other words, I functioned as a “middle person” between the two places, and a coordinator of the Washington, D.C. team.

 

Much of the communication was between executive producer Natalie and myself, and between Professor Francis and myself, or with all three of us, about how the coverage would be carried out from the capital, the equipment, and who would participate. Other parts of the communication was between the rest of the Washington, D.C. team and myself. I would contact the team members about rehearsals, times to meet up, rundown, the specifics of what was expected from each live update, making sure everyone had each other’s contact information, etc.

 

Towards the end of September, the Beat Reporting class with Professor Francis and myself had a Skype video conversation with executive producer Natalie. This was the first opportunity for the entire Washington, D.C. team to connect with main campus about the coverage, and to hear what the plans were, and what we could expect to be doing from the nation’s capital.

 

Sometimes my role also required solving certain specific challenges, like for Monday November 7, the day before the election. COM had scheduled a rehearsal that the Washington, D.C. team was expected to be a part of that night. The challenge was that all three students in the Washington, D.C. team had class that night at the same time as the rehearsal was set to take place. I spoke on the telephone with the professor for our Monday night class, who allowed us to spend no more than 15 minutes of the class on the rehearsal. The executive producer of the election special wanted the Washington, D.C. team to rehearse on the actual location, in front of the Capitol. The team then faced the dilemma that we would only be allowed to be away from class up to 15 minutes, which could not be combined with also being in front of the Capitol. We would also then need help from an additional person with a car, which none of the three students of the team had, to let us use the car as a power source for the equipment, when in front of the Capitol. Since I had tried to make an arrangement that would work for all parties, but still was not approved, the whole situation had to be dealt with on a higher level. I therefore contacted our faculty advisor, Professor Francis, who got in touch with the professor of the Monday night class directly. They managed to work out an arrangement so that the Washington, D.C. team rehearsed in the BUDC office, while being excused from a portion of the Monday night class.

 

Equipment

During our live coverage on the election night, we had one web camera, on a tripod, attached to a laptop. On each side of the camera, was an LED light. Both of them were also placed on tripods. A handheld microphone and a headset was attached to the laptop. The microphone was for the reporters’ updates. I also used the microphone to communicate back to the Boston control room, before each time we went live. The headset was for me, as the Washington, D.C. producer, to hear the Boston producer and the studio anchors, so that I could cue our reporters. From the laptop, we were connected to Skype, which was the application used to broadcast live from Washington, D.C. For Internet access, there was a portable WiFi router. To keep the equipment functioning, especially the laptop, it had to be connected to a power source, which in this case was a car.

 

 

Initially, the plan was to have the White House in the background during our Washington, D.C. coverage. However, since we were dependent on having a car with us, and with restrictions for how close people can drive to the White House, we had to come up with a different solution. Our location therefore became 3rd Street SW, between Madison Drive NW and Jefferson Drive SW, where we had the U.S. Capitol in the background.

 

 

Topics

Torrance reported on the congressional election, primarily for the Senate, as a shift in power could become a reality there, if the Democrats were able to win the majority. Torrance gave updates from North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Indiana, Nevada and Wisconsin. Kaylie was reporting on the presidential election results in Washington, D.C.’s neighbor state Virginia. The race was close, and during Kaylie’s first live report, Donald Trump was leading, while in her second report, Hillary Clinton had taken over the lead. Kaylie also gave updates from Virginia’s congressional race, with a particular emphasis on opponents Republican Barbara Comstock and Democrat LuAnn Bennett.

 

The Night of the Election

The Washington, D.C. team was accompanied to the determined location, in front of the Capitol, by Walter Montaño, who is the program director of the BUDC Programs, and by Lisa, the program manager. Professor Francis had work obligations at his job as an evening news anchor in Westwood One News during the night of the election. He was therefore unable to join the rest of the election coverage team to 3rd Street.

 

The team traveled to our spot in front of the Capitol, and got the equipment set up and connected to Skype. COM then called us up via phone and Skype, to make sure the equipment was ready for the first live report.

 

 

To begin with, during the test, we had some challenges with receiving audio from the studio. With instructions from a technician at COM, speaker settings were changed, and we could then hear the studio through the computer.

 

After the test call with COM, Torrance and Kaylie rehearsed for their live reports in front of the camera. I cued them, like I would also do when they went live, as the reporters could not personally hear the studio, while I could hear it via a headset. Walter helped timing and signaling how much time they had left in their reports, both during the rehearsals and the live updates. We had to stick to the exact time of 01:30 minutes for each live report. At the 01:25 minutes mark, both Walter and I gave the reporters a wrapping signal, to prepare them for their tag-out.

 

 

BUTV10 started broadcasting the election special live at 08:00 p.m. COM’s plan was that there would be a report from Washington, D.C. about every 20th minute, with Torrance reporting every other time, and the same with Kaylie. The first report from Washington, D.C. was around 10 minutes after the show started. The entire broadcast was planned to continue for as long as it was necessary throughout the night.

 

 

 

Between the live updates, the next reporter coming up, would often rehearse in front of the camera. And again, Walter and I helped with cuing, timing and wrapping signal. After one of our Washington, D.C. reporters had given his or her update and while we were waiting for the next, I constantly paid attention to the computer, to be available for the studio’s next call, and also made sure the lights were adjusted, as our two reporters needed different lighting. Since the numbers were constantly changing, as votes were counted, both reporters updated their stories accordingly.

 

 

When the studio called us up via Skype to get ready for Kaylie’s second update, we waited, and after a while, the producer explained that they had gone beyond the time, and had to cut a few segments from that block. One of the segments they cut, was the Washington, D.C. report. Therefore, COM came back to us for Kaylie’s update in a later block, which happened around 50 minutes later.

 

 

As the night progressed, it was getting more quiet, and around half an hour to midnight, COM signaled that the Washington, D.C. team was done for the night. At that point, Torrance had done three live updates, and Kaylie had done two.

 

Result

All in all, the election night coverage from Washington, D.C. turned out successful. We had no difficulties with the technical equipment during the live reports. The reporters did a good job updating their information, during a night where numbers were constantly changing, and the candidate who by several polls were predicted to win, did not. Walter and Lisa were of great help, and were willing to contribute with suggestions when reporters rehearsed their stories, and helped with timing during updates. They also assisted us in some of the technical aspects, like getting the equipment set up and changing speaker settings in the beginning, to be able to hear the studio. In addition to advising us in the weeks leading up to the election coverage, Professor Francis was also available via phone on the night of the election itself, in case our team needed to get in touch with him.

 

At COM in Boston and in other remote locations on the East Coast, there were many people, including students, faculty and technical personnel, who worked hard to make the entire broadcast a reality.

 

 

There were a few minor challenges we faced on the election night. One was that we had been told in advance that Channing was the studio anchor who at all times would throw over to Washington, D.C., but in actuality that did not always happen. At one point, the other anchor, Elisha, also threw over to us. Our reporters were prepared to start their updates by referring to Channing, with a line such as “Thanks Channing,” after I cued them. After I contacted the producer at COM, she advised that if the anchors were off script, to not say the person’s name, and only start with, “Thank you.”

 

Another minor issue, was that, when looking at the election special, one could see that reporters elsewhere in the country had a mic flag with the BUTV10 logo on their microphone. We did not know that such a mic flag could be available to us in Washington, D.C., but I could have made sure we received one, if we knew about it.

 

 

Part of the challenges with live coverage, is that things can go wrong. For us in Washington, D.C., it did not go terribly wrong on the night of the election, but we had a small challenge with the beginning of our fifth live update. The moment is captured in the video “2016 Election Special – Clip 5.” COM had at that point called us up via Skype, to get ready for the update. As the studio anchor threw over to Washington, D.C., I gave the reporter physical cues, with my hand. The cues were always supposed to be given non-verbally, so that my voice would not be picked up by the microphone. In this specific situation, however, the reporter did not see the physical cues I gave. I therefore, gave him some verbal cues, to make him aware. My voice did then get picked up by the microphone, which seemed like the only option at that point.

 

Learning Outcome

The work with the election coverage was for the most part a “learning-by-doing” experience for me. Never before have I been in charge of a live coverage the way that I was for the Washington, D.C. team. I enjoyed working with “the bigger picture,” which was in some ways also a challenge, because I could not focus on only one specific area. My role required that I coordinated the smaller pieces to make them all fit together as a whole, which in part was making sure that other people were doing their jobs, that equipment was in place, and that the Washington, D.C. team had the information it needed from COM, and the other way around. This has definitely been a valuable experience, as I also professionally would like to work with producing, coordinating and managing broadcasts for TV.

 

PART 2 – SUBMITTING STORIES TO BOSTON UNIVERSITY NEWS SERVICE

Background

The three students in Professor Francis’ Beat Reporting class would throughout the semester submit several news stories, and part of the idea was to get them published on Boston University News Service’s (BUNS) website. BUNS is a news organization which provides stories that students of Boston University College of Communication (COM) have reported. There was a need for a person to be in charge of submitting the Beat Reporting stories to BUNS, and to follow up to make sure that the news organization actually did publish them after the work had been sent over. That was my responsibility during the fall of 2016, as the other part of my professional project.

 

 

My Role

The stories students submitted to Professor Francis as their assignments for class, were first reviewed by him. I would then also review the work, and give feedback to student and professor if needed. In other words, my job was to function as a second editor, before submitting the work to BUNS, in order to get it published. BUNS has a document with submission guidelines. However, the process of submitting the Beat Reporting stories was not so straight forward, because they were multimedia stories with several elements in addition to text and photos. Some included audio files, hyperlinks or visualizations from Silk. Therefore, it was necessary to find out how, in what format, the multimedia stories should be submitted BUNS, so that they could get published.

 

The Process

On October 19, 2016, I contacted BUNS faculty advisor Professor Michelle Johnson about two Beat Reporting stories that were ready for publication, and how the multimedia stories should be sent over to the news organization. The day before, I had emailed BUNS links to the two stories, as the work had already been posted on the personal blogs of the students who created it. After the links were sent, Professor Francis suggested that I get in touch with a person in BUNS, to explain my role of submitting the Beat Reporting stories, and to ask if someone could tell me exactly how the stories should be submitted for BUNS to publish them. That was why I contacted Professor Johnson. She explained that any text would have to be sent separately from the blog where it was already posted, and audio and video files should be uploaded to the BUNS account. There were also other elements to the stories, such as hyperlinks and Silk visualizations. In order to get all the information needed about submission of the multimedia stories, Professor Johnson therefore suggested that the BUNS managing editor was the person I should get in contact with.

 

The BUNS managing editor informed me that she would forward the stories to BUNS’ news and political editor. He handled most of the news organization’s election coverage, and both of the Beat Reporting articles that were ready for publication, dealt with the election.

 

BUNS’ news and political editor contacted me the day before the election with instructions saying I could submit the Beat Reporting stories by uploading them as drafts directly to the backend of the BUNS website. That would mean that the student who wrote the story would have to send me a Word document with text and pictures, including captions. If there were any visuals, from Silk for instance, the writer needed to include the embed code. Audio or video files that were part of the story, would have to be sent to me, including title and information for the description box, so I could upload them to BUNS’ SoundCloud or YouTube accounts, and later embed them into the story.

 

Result

At the time where I got offered a solution to how we could get the stories published, it had taken 20 days from I first reached out to BUNS. Unfortunately, at that point, the stories had somewhat expired, they were not that relevant anymore. If there had been a system in order to handle situations like these, where students are trying to get work published through BUNS, that could have been beneficial for all parties. BUNS would have more stories to publish, and especially during the fall of 2016, where the news organization could have gotten stories directly from Washington, D.C. leading up to the election. That, of course, may also have been appreciated by the readers. Not to mention for students, to whom getting work published, can be important, and also something to show their potential future employers.

 

Suggestions

During the Fall 2016 semester, none of the Beat Reporting stories from Washington, D.C. got published through BUNS, which had something to do with the slow process of getting information regarding submission of the multimedia stories. Another part of the situation, was that after I was given information about how to upload the them, not one more story was forwarded to me from the Beat Reporting class.

 

There will likely be shifts in BUNS’ leadership positions for the next semester, when some students graduate. Hopefully, a system will be put into action, which ensures that the next person in my role, or other students trying to submit their work, will not have to search around for weeks while trying to figure out how to do it and who can help them. The login information that I was provided, is specific to me, so another person in my shoes also needs to get in touch with BUNS, in order to be able to upload material to the backend of BUNS’ website.

 

My main suggestion would be that BUNS from the beginning of the Spring 2017 semester creates a general system which can help the organization communicate to students how they should submit multimedia stories, and which also ensures that stories submitted, quickly get published (or not, if BUNS chooses not to publish). It could be helpful for a person in the same role as I had, who is working to submit stories for a group of people, to have a contact person in BUNS, a specific person to communicate back and forth with. In that case, the contact person can provide the necessary information, and the person who then is in the same role as I had, will not have to approach one individual after another in search of answers. Maybe it also would be an idea for a BUNS faculty advisor to reach out to the professor of the Beat Reporting class in Washington, D.C., after the new system has been implemented, so that the professor is kept in the loop regarding the new system. The name of the contact person in BUNS, and how to reach him or her, is also information that can be given to the Beat Reporting professor at that point.

 

Boston University has students with skills and determination also outside of the main campus, like in Washington, D.C. By creating a system which enables their work to also get published, BUNS will have more and other types of stories, which is also beneficial to readers. And last but not least, more students get their work published. The published work represents accomplishments, which the students can refer to in future job applications.

 

CONCLUSION

As working with the election coverage this time around was very much a “learning-by-doing” experience, I now know a lot more of what to expect in the future when coordinating and producing a broadcast. Every situation is different, of course, but I now have experience using and setting up live coverage equipment, and leading a TV production team from a remote location.

 

Working with the election coverage, has definitely taught me more about team leadership. The experience made it clear how different people can interpret a message differently. An important part of being a team leader, is to make sure that messages given are perceived correctly, so that every team member is aware of of their role and job description. The work with this project taught me a lesson about being very clear in my communication.

 

Another part of the “middle person” responsibility I had, that sometimes also could be a challenge, was the experience of almost being “stuck in the middle” at times, with pressure coming from different sides. An example is the one previously mentioned in this presentation. I was trying to solve a situation where all of the students in the Washington, D.C. coverage team was expected to participate in a rehearsal at the same time as we were supposed to be in class, and were not allowed to miss more than 15 minutes of the class. However, the situation got solved in the end, and was an instructive experience in handling situations where different parties are working for conflicting outcomes.

 

All the different pieces, both the situations that were uncomplicated and those that were not, contributed to the experience as a whole. Even though some parts were challenging, we got through it together as a team, and the end result turned out well. For me personally, everything I learned in the process, are valuable lessons in regards to my professional plans for the future. One part of it is the technical aspect, with setting up and operating the electronic equipment. Another is the coordination of the coverage, with communication back and forth and making sure people, information and equipment are in the right place at the right time. And third, is the people aspect, with leading a team, which also includes problem-solving. All three components of this role has given me a better insight and more experience into the field I would like to continue working with, which is production, coordination and management of TV broadcasts.

 

Hopefully, what I experienced in the fall of 2016 as responsible for submitting Beat Reporting stories to BUNS, can contribute to some changes. If the news organization figures out a general strategy for how multimedia stories should be submitted, and communicates that to students, then that could be helpful. As previously mentioned, the login information I was given to upload material to the BUNS website, was a personal login, so other people may need the same type of information. For the next person in my role, who will be responsible for submitting stories, having a contact person in BUNS, who can give the necessary information, may be important. The intention is that the person who then is in my shoes, will get answers and necessary assistance quickly from the contact in BUNS.