Back to School (And By School, I Mean Reporting)

This past Friday, I began what is going to be the slew of day-long reporting shifts known as TV2. Reporting shifts are an essential part of the TV2 course here at UF, making sure that each and every student enrolled gains knowledge, experience, and most importantly notoriety in the newsroom. It's a way to ensure that everyone gets antiquated with a newsroom setting, its stories, its deadlines, its staff, and its newscasts.

I was EXTREMELY nervous for my first shift, almost as nervous as I was the first time I stepped into TV20's newsroom back in May. I knew who my critics would be (news directors, TV3's, and more experienced TV2's alike), and my biggest downfall was that I was having the WORST lapse in creativity and was lacking a decent enough story idea for the 9:30 a.m. morning meeting.

My solution? Advancing events in the community for Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. day the upcoming Monday.

What?

I knew I could do better than that, but surprisingly, it worked and was my initial assignment...

Until a train crashed in Dunnellon and the 6 p.m. editor had my photog and I rushing out the door with our equipment and a very, very vague press release from Marion County Fire Rescue.

Ashley and I were rushing down 13th Street, taking some random, local route brought to us exclusively by the lackluster piece of application technology known as Google Maps (although still way better than if Apple Maps and MapQuest had a lovechild), with our equipment and searching for the track in which this literal train wreck had occurred earlier that morning.

En route to our destination, we passed by a large SUV that had overturned and had a shattered windshield as well as a roof that was crushed in alongside some FHP officers, a fire rescue truck, and a tow truck. We called back into the newsroom and asked our producer if she wanted any footage of the wreck, and surely enough, we found ourselves making a U-turn to head towards the accident.

Upon arriving at the scene, one FHP officer told us to keep on moving along. Therefore, no footage. Back to square one of finding the derailed train.

We drove a few more miles and sure enough, there it was all along the left-hand side of the road-- nine cars overturned, coal spilling out of every nook and cranny.

Ashley and I quickly set up our equipment, seeing as more and more reporters were either already reporting from the scene or starting to come around for their stories.

I recorded a quick stand-up, just in case our project ended up turning into something more than what was asked of us (it didn't, but look at how great this picture is!).

After the stand-up, I conducted my interview with a man who showed up to the accident. He was a self-proclaimed "railroad enthusiast," and had worked around and researched the history of railroading for 35 years. He was also a former employee of the railroad company that owned the derailed train for 10 years, and he was able to provide a lot of great insight for the newscast since the railroad crew members wouldn't talk to us.

I knew right then and there, driving back to the station, that if I could handle something as impromptu as this, that I could handle any assignment that came and is going to come my way, and needless to say, this girl's nerves were calmed beyond belief.

But then again, this is just the beginning. Until next time...