Lights, camera, action. The lights go up and the teleprompter scrolls down, as students begin to read the news.
Lethbridge College Digital Communications and Media students wrapped up their last newscast of the semester last week.
The newscasts have been a little different this year because of COVID-19, with fewer newscasts taking place on-campus and more taking place online.
Sean Kjos, a second-year DCM student, says the experience was a lot of fun and it was interesting to work different areas of the newscast.
“For this newscast, I was the editor and it was really interesting. I got to cut up the intro, commercial break and outro, which I haven’t done before and it was really cool to get a behind-the-scenes look.”
The DCM program is split into two streams, digital journalism and media production and advertising.
For the newscast, digital journalism students wrote and shot the TV stories and anchored the newscast. Media production and advertising students, however, handled the behind-the-scenes work, including camera work, audio, and making sure everything went according to plan in the control booth.
Jaxon McGinn, a second-year digital journalism student, says anchoring the newscast was a little scary, but it was an enjoyable experience.
“During the newscast it is very nerve-wracking, but it’s good experience to get us students out in the field.”
McGinn says it’s nice to have a professional-looking newscast that he can show off to loved ones.
“My favourite part about the whole experience is being on live television and showing all my friends and family what I am doing for school.”
COVID-19 was a challenge, with students needing to distance themselves. This meant only one anchor could be at the desk at one time, changing how it has traditionally been done.
Kjos says it definitely took some getting used to, but the experience was still very important.
“With COVID-19 it’s been a little weird, because we have to quickly swap out microphones for our anchors. Everybody’s distanced in the room, so you have to really hammer that prep in before you get going, so everybody knows what they’re supposed to be doing and everybody can be on the same page.”
The newscast allows both streams of the DCM program to work together, something that doesn’t get to happen often, especially during the pandemic.
It’s the teamwork that Kjos loves the most, allowing students to excel in different areas.
“My favorite thing about doing the newscasts has to be everybody working as a team. It’s really cool getting to see everybody’s talents and strengths come to light and letting everybody shine in their own spotlight.”
This was the final newscast of the semester, but students will be back on-campus in January to continue producing newscasts to give them the experience they need.
Both McGinn and Kjos hope the experience will allow them to have a career in their fields of interest.
McGinn is still unsure about what the future holds but can see himself being a TV anchor.
Kjos has given a lot of thought into the production side of things and these newscasts have already shown him what he is good at.
“I hope to get into some production of sorts. Either video production or maybe social media production would be fun. This program has really given me a lot of insight into what my strengths are and what I enjoy, but I think getting to do broadcast production might be one of my goals in the future.”