Olivia DeGennaro
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“Rome wasn’t built in a day.” Now I know the true meaning of this idiom.
When you start something from scratch, there tends to be a lot of trial and error. This proves challenging for someone with as little patience as I have.
I’m not a good cook. It’s not that I can’t follow a recipe, I just don’t have the patience to wait more than the five minutes it takes my microwave to heat a meal for me.
The past three weeks have tried my patience more than anything else I’ve ever experienced. But I must admit, I’m quite proud to have let this project “cook” long enough to turn out pretty palatable.
The end result: daily broadcasts of Mustang News.
“Will there be a show tomorrow?” I think I let out an audible laugh when my fellow Mustang Media Group leaders asked me if I was putting together a show on the first day of school. The task was definitely a daunting one, but it wasn’t impossible. I knew we could probably throw some content together and get a show on the web. I also knew it would be more of a microwave dinner product than a gourmet meal.
One of the biggest mountains to climb in this new, integrated newsroom setting has been understanding how each medium operates. My print, multimedia and PR counterparts didn’t understand how many people and how much time goes into every broadcast we produce — even the short, five-minute ones.
Cal Poly’s journalism department has been segregated in the past. There’s been a sense of rivalry and competition. Instead of sharing sources and information, broadcast and print used to compare coverage, seeing who got content first. Now, we’re pulling out our sledgehammers and breaking down the wall we’ve built.
We’re literally working out of the same newsroom. We’re partnering with our print counterparts to share interviews and sources. We’re even working off of one universal story budget (or daybook — we still haven’t figured out a universal terminology). While doing this, we’re starting to understand the ins and outs of all journalism mediums.
Don’t get me wrong, we haven’t gotten this whole integrated newsroom business down to a science yet — not even close. Print writers are still trying to grasp the many elements that go into putting a broadcast together, just as broadcast journalists are trying to comprehend the idea of copy editing and AP style.
After my audible laugh at the idea of putting our first ever broadcast together on day one of school, I began planning, scheduling, coordinating, assigning … you get the idea. I was a busy lady, figuring out how to take all of the assets I had and mix them together to become a five-minute daily show.
Much incubation and thought went into the first daily broadcast my team and I managed to produce on day one of week two. But we did it.
I keep having to remind myself this is a growing process; we won’t be producing CNN quality content right away. We have to take baby steps, even if that means editing together an entire show in post-production until 3 a.m. so it’s ready to go on the website the next morning.
But if we take the right baby steps, we just might get there someday. And that idea makes me most excited of all.
Olivia DeGennaro is a journalism junior and Mustang News broadcast news director.