Practicum III Final Paper

Maggie Sutton

News Media Practicum III

Final Paper

December 2, 2011

Oprah Winfrey is My Home Girl

            As cliché as it might sound, I grew up watching the Oprah Winfrey show. From the time I was very young, my mom and I religiously tuned in to her 4 p.m. broadcast every single day after school. As ridiculous as it seemed, I cried when she closed her last show. For me, the end of the Oprah Winfrey Show symbolized the closing of my childhood and the beginning of working towards the realization of my own dreams. I know it’s a BIG dream, but I think eventually somewhere along the line of my career I would love to be a talk show host like Oprah. I know it’s a long shot, but my mom always tells me that going for the “big dream” is always worth a try. 

            Oprah’s career in broadcast started when she was only a senior in high school. She got a job at a radio station in Tennessee, a local black radio station called WVOL, which hired her part time. Then she began co-anchoring the local evening news at the age of 19. Working in the local media, Oprah was the youngest news anchor and the first black female news anchor at Nashville’s WLAC-TV. She moved to Baltimore’s WJZ-TV in 1976 to co-anchor the six o’clock news. Her first appearance on a talk show was when she was recruited to join Richard Sher as the co-host of WJZ’s local talk show People Are Talking. The show premiered on August 14, 1978. She also hosted the local version of Dialing for Dollars.

            In 1983, Oprah relocated to Chicago to host WLS-TV’s low-rated half-hour morning talk show, AM  Chicago. After the first episode aired on January 2, 1984, the show quickly went from last place in the ratings to the highest rated talk show in Chicago. She was persuaded to sign a syndication deal with King World by Roger Ebert, a movie critic. The show was renamed The Oprah Winfrey Show, and expanded to a full hour. The show was first broadcast nationally on September 8, 1986. The show grew and expanded until she finally retired in 2011.

            When I can take from Oprah’s story is the way she started small and worked her way to the top. Even if I start out with a small job in the new industry, like a local radio or TV station, as long as I keep working hard and looking for larger job openings, I can work my way to the top of the broadcast. And maybe, just maybe, someday I will have my own talk show like my Home Girl Oprah. 

Information courtesy of www.oprah.com  

Wellness TV Show 5: Package Done!

Today I worked on my Wellness TV package from 8:45 a.m. until 10: 45 a.m. I edited my entire package. Kirstyn stopped by with the camera so I could shoot my voice overs, and Trice was there getting grades ready. Needless to say, I had lots of company! Shannah stopped by and I shot my stand up with her, and then sent my little print major to help Shannah shoot her stand up while I continued editing. Then we came back and saw Cynthia in The Southern office. She looked over what I had so far, said it looked great, and then I plunged onward. My package is done! Hooray! Now I'm ready for Turkey Day!


Total hours to this date: 38 hours and 35 minutes

Wellness TV Interviews and Broll

Yesterday I worked with Taylor Sullivan from 3:00 until 4:00 p.m. We shot broll and another student interview for our "Cards vs. Cash" package. To my surprise, the ladies in the book store allowed us to shoot inside! So we got lots of great broll. I was very relieved! We also loaded all the footage into the computer, and I plan on editing today and tomorrow. I really enjoyed working with Taylor. She's a sweet girl and very helpful!


Total hours to this date: 36 hours and 35 minutes


HOORAY!!!

Wellness TV Student Interview

I interviewed a student in Tu Tu's this afternoon from 3 until 3:30 p.m. She said that she thinks that students should use cash rather than debit cards because that way students would spend less money. Dr. Miller had recommended the cards over cash. Hopefully, this will be a very interesting package!


Total hours to this date: 35 hours and 35 minutes

Wellness TV Interview

Today Olivia Q. and I had an interview for the Cards vs. Cash package. We worked from 9:15 until 10:15 a.m. We interviewed Dr. Miller, a new adjunct to the Finance portion of the Business department. She did a great job and was very easy to talk to! Olivia set up the camera all by herself; I only had to help her with a few things, and I directed the interview because my hand writing is kind of hard to read. This afternoon, I plan on shooting as much broll as I can and selecting two victims to be student interviews, and then log and transfer all the footage into the computer so I can edit Thursday and Friday.

Total hours to this date: 35 hours and 5 minutes

SO CLOSE!!! :)

Wellness TV Meeting: Show 5

Today I met with Wellness TV from 4:30 until 5:00 pm. We talked about our ideas for show five, and some improvements that we need to make to our packages. Unfortunately, we can't air show 4 until Thursday because Dalton and Dakota have a lot of conflicting days this week and that was the only day they could both shoot the anchor stand up. For the next show, I will be heading Financial Wellness "Cards vs. Cash," and helping Shannah with the "Consequences of Chewing Tabacco (sp?)" packages. I want to get started right away, because my big 2-0 is this Friday and I don't want to have to do too much work on my birthday weekend!

Total hours to this date: 34 hours and 5 minutes

Wellness TV Show 4 Package Complete!

Today I worked on my Wellness TV Package at two different times. I worked from 1:30 until 2:00 pm after my Spanish class, and then I worked from 2:30 until 4:30 pm. From 1:30 until 2, I cut out all of the interviews and placed them along the timeline in the way I thought they would best fit. Then, when I came back at 2:30, I filled the holes in with broll, wrote my voice overs, placed my voiceover, shot my stand up and put that in the right spot. Then I cleaned up all of the editing. Kristin McIntyre was my savior today because she drove all the way from her house to give me a Wellness TV shirt and help me shoot my stand up. It was really nice of her, and I definitely owe her a favor because if she hadn't have done that I would have to wait until tomorrow to finish it. My package is finished! HOORAY!! :)

Total hours to this date: 33 hours and 35 minutes