“So, you’re on TV, right?”
It’s a question I often get after telling people what I do on the weekends. To be specific, I produce the Saturday and Sunday morning newscasts. But unlike reporting or other on-air talent, most folks don’t know what producers actually do. Hell, I hardly knew until I became one.
My friend and colleague Brandon Blue created this short NATPKG/Documentary about the broadcast classes at Iowa State University. Journalism courses 306 and 354 create a weekly news program I-State News and take turns running different equipment and producing the show.
Brandon did a great job with this piece!
Early morning today!
Since producers are on vacation/getting married, they’ve been doing some shifting, and I ended up working with just Chris Ludlow, the morning Executive Producer. Continue reading
I was photography today, but I did more in-house stuff.
KCCI News Director Dave Busiek and Kevin Cooney looked at the stories Addison and I had edited the night before. It’s amazing how much is learned from listening to Dave for five minutes (he’s been a news director for a long time). Continue reading
Thursday was Internet day. I hung out with Tad, the Internet specialist (he has an official name which escapes me right now). Tad spends all day at the systems updating the web with stories. Continue reading
If you’re a college student, you’ve been there – an internship interview. I had one a couple months ago over the phone with CBS News. I had applied to their internship program in NYC a few days prior to receiving a phone call from their intern coordinator. Continue reading
This was forwarded to me by one of my professors regarding ABC News’ recent decision to lay off a number of employees and move toward the use of multi-functioning journalists. The following was written to my professor by Stephen Coon, a former coordinator of the Electronic Media Studies department of the Greenlee School of Journalism: Continue reading
This might sound weird, but I’ve been thinking about something on a near-daily basis: the use of the word “media.”
In a dictionary, you’ll find that “media” is a plural form of the noun “medium.” Standard use of the word “media” would require a matching plural verb. As the Merriam-Webster online dictionary states that the word is the plural form of “medium.”
But why do you hear people saying, “The media is ruining this country,” or, “The media is reporting a shooting”? I’ve noticed this a number of times. The Iowa State Daily recently published a special article called “The Top Ten News Stories that Changed Our Lives.” They referred to the media as a singular term multiple times. Author Dan Brown refers to media as a singular term in both The DaVinci Code and Angels & Demons. I always get the temptation to refer to the news media as a singular unit – the media. So what is right?
Patricia T. O’Conner (who began at the Des Moines Register) and Stewart Kellerman met as editors at the New York Times and keep a blog about grammar. They discuss how “plurals with Latinate endings take a beating in English, and tend to become Anglicized over time.” Apparently the words “data“, “agenda,” “opera,” and “insignia” are the same way! O’Conner and Kellerman predict that the word will eventually evolve and become a singular term, like “data.”
My verdict: Stick to the plural form for academic, professional, and preferably journalistic writing. Although the word will be fine to use as a singular term in speech, I think it’s best to play it safe for the time being and use the word as a plural term. Until someone proves me wrong, that’s what I’ll be doing!