ABC Trip

Last Week, the ART Network class took a field trip to the local Sarasota ABC affiliate station. Initially, I found the people who greeted us to be extremely pleasant and friendly, and those feelings and ideas of these people grew more as the day went on. It was a nice atmosphere, and most of the employees we saw and spoke to seemed to be happy with their jobs. That was actually something that really impressed me, I think I would have a difficult time putting on a happy persona, not for a lack of trying, but I felt nervous just watching the employees work, and I can't imagine how stressful it could be actually doing the job.

I learned a lot of things about broadcasting, and the "news" in general. What goes on in the station is a surprising, incredible, and quite convincing display of smoke and mirrors. My favorite part of the visit was when we entered the floor and watched the anchors deliver the news live. It was amazing to watch them report the events, go on a commercial break, start chatting with us, and quickly going right back into reporting-mode within mere seconds to continue delivering the news. Another thing that really impressed me was the fact that the station was a technical goliath. There was a room filled to the brim with multiple screens, arranged in a system for broadcasting. 1 large screen at the very top of the wall, and at least 16 smaller screens beneath it. The top screen was the live screen, the current image being displayed to the world. The rest were playing various running videos, arranged to enter the live screen, a mouse-click away from being broadcast to the public. And only about 5 or 6 people were in charge of operating this whole process.

The whole experience was very interesting and enjoyable, but I don't think I'd be able to deal with the stress if I were to enter a career in video broadcasting.

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