I am not a morning person. I normally jog in the evenings. However, a couple of weekends ago I found myself sprinting around Old Louisville at 4:45 am…. And it wasn’t for fun.
As part of my internship with the St James Court Art Show (I promise this is the last time I will talk about this) I was responsible for making sure that the local news stations (WDRB, WAVE 3, WLKY, WHAS, etc) were accommodated and had artists to interview each morning. The segments ran from 5am-9am and the art show started at 10am.
3 takeaways from this early experience:
- The reporters have no idea what they are talking about
- The camera man is not interested in anything going on
- The awkward smile from the reporter after he/she is done speaking is even MORE hilarious in person
About 10 minutes before each segment I would inform the reporter of the artists’ background, general information about the St James Court Art Show, and expand on any other topics that they could use to fill their time.
They were not familiar with any of this information prior, which I found a little surprising. At first, I did not understand why I needed to be there, but I soon learned that I was the source of information that they were seeking, I was their fact checker.
As I sat back and observed for a little bit I noticed it was strange that the camera men and reporters did not have much interaction until they were about to shoot. There seemed to be no relationship between the two, no talking, joking around, not a lot of communication at all. They were both strictly there for business and wanted to get their jobs done and move on with their days.
And as for takeaway #3… pretty much self explanatory
I’m happy that I was able to see the news from this perspective. It’s interesting that these reporters can portray that they know exactly what is going on, when in fact that is not always the case.
.
I guess my jog was worth it.
Katelyn M Hogan 