Final Practicum Report

This semester in practicum has been great. I feel that I have really expanded my skills in many areas.

Starting at the beginning of the year I was mostly writing readers, similar to last semester. I slowly started to expand what I wrote about and how I got the information. Instead of googling events I would try to reach out and contact someone for the information. It was a little out of my comfort zone at some points but the information I got was better and it opened me up to contacting people. I think being in the News Reporting class helped me a lot with this.

In the studio I have learned a lot more about getting a good camera shot. Lighting has always been confusing to me but I learned where it is important to have lighting and where it is completely unflattering. Even though I already had a clear understanding of focusing and adjusting things on the camera as far as that, it became a lot more natural for me this year. Rachel definitely has an eye for good video quality and that is something I would love to have too.

 Something I am very proud of this semester is the social media accounts I created. I made a Facebook page and a Twitter for FSC Today. I post every single day what is going on in Lakeland and on campus. I also post the weekly shows that Rachel puts on the practicum page. With these pages I would love to expand our viewers of the show. I feel like many people at Florida Southern don’t even know we exist. And why after all the hard work and dedication put into making a quality show, would we want no viewers?

Of course, I still did a few of my hours with Interlachen. This semester however we were focused on completing our book and video versus just scheduling photo times with on campus groups. I did a lot of organizing and uploading files, naming people and helping edit and come up with ideas for our video. It was great seeing how much we accomplished and making all of our photos and video clips come to life.

Next semester I am looking forward to stepping up even more in the news show. I hope to continue the social media accounts, but hopefully pass over some duties to new students. I would like to have specific people focus on sports, campus events and news show features. I believe the social media pages will be very respected if we keep it up.

I am also very excited to produce the show and come up with new and fresh ideas. I really do like the news show feel and how we cover what is going on in our area and on campus. I think it would be very interesting to have more packages played versus the standard news show desk and anchor look. I believe fun, creative videos will be more relatable for our audience.