Final Exam

My first semester of News Media Practicum has made me feel 100% confident that Broadcast Journalism is what I want to study for the next four years here at Florida Southern College. When I walked into the classroom the first day, I remember Dr. Bradford saying that the key to this class is communication and showing up. She could not have said it better. In the beginning of this class, I had very little experience working with interviewing, filming and editing. I felt like everyone already knew what was going on, how to run the shows, use the equipment and had their groups of friends.
Practicum started to feel like a fun job for me. It was something, besides my classes that I was putting a lot of time and effort into. Scheduling my plans around the meetings for Wellness TV, Southern News and Interlachen, my life became crazy. I joined a sorority and fell a little out of touch with my Communication Department family and I immediately knew I had to jump back in.
Over this semester, I learned the importance of scheduling interviews with people, especially experts, because they are usually very busy. Forming relationships with your classmates is very crucial in group shows like these. Through the mentorship of Cynthia, I was taught how to shoot a standup, interview properly, work equipment (such as the beautiful HD camera with the projector) and edit. Wellness TV was the show I worked the most on, mainly because I felt a true passion for it. Having upperclassmen such as Dakota and Shannah taught me such little things about media that had a large importance in the final project.
Southern News Network was a good time for me as well. I learned how to write short, to the point, 3 sentence story blurbs for Anna’s production. It taught me how to be concise and still bring across a good message to the public audience. Watching Justin work the teleprompter, Anna call cut, and admiring Lauren and John made me feel apart of something special. I can not wait to get into the upperlevel classes and learn so much more. I worked on the Interlachen a little bit this semester and hope to get into it more next semester because of my crazy schedule.
Beyond all the experience I was blessed to have received this semester, I found my true home. The Communication department. I learned a lot more about myself and how determined I can really be. My favorite time slot of the week was Fridays at 10:40, where I saw people I truly connected with. Not only were these people my classmates, but they were real. Articles have to be the most unique thing about Practicum. I did not think this class would make me knowledgable about the current Broadcast industry. I knew from the day I was on crutches, when Dalton pushed me on the handtruck to go shoot his Broadcast package, that this was the major for me. You never know what to expect when it comes to Communication kids, and that’s what I love the best.