Sunday, December 17, 2006
Shout-It-Out December 17 December 23
(Editor’s Note: EMGR created” Shout-It-Out!” for anyone who has a need to go off-topic in the posted subject. It should still be a media topic...meaning about newspaper, radio or TV. A new “Shout-It-Out!” will be posted each week for you to comment or reply to a comment made in that week. All weeks will stay active if you feel you need to comment further on a previous week. All the usual rules still apply as to language, personal courtesy and appropriateness. Any off topic remarks from another thread, maybe moved to “Shout-It-Out!” for that week. )
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35 comments:
Why does it so often happen that the story being read by an anchor doesn't match the video that's running on the screen? I'm talking about when the video for the wrong story is being shown. What is going on? These mistakes happen all the time these days, and it isn't just limited to one station.
It happens because: a) there are a lot more video elements to news shows these days, and b) there are not enough employees at any local station to properly put the news on correctly. Workers are being asked (told) to crank out much more product in a shorter amount of time with improper staffing. Mistakes happen.
The above poster has it on-the-money.
The new automated systems look great on paper and in the company demo but in practice, it leaves a lot to be desired. '
The attempt has been to cut staff down so much and let the computers do the work. So you might have just one or two running the whole thing. Still not enough hands. The Ignite System, which is being used at some stations in Erie, has been problem plagued.
In fact everywhere it has been installed, it has created a sloppy and frustrating product for the anchor's themselves.
Technology is great but it still needs enough hands to make sure it can do the job it was designed for.
to add to the above anonymous... when you are dealing with a computer instead of physical tapes (which require more staff) you're dealing with a file name. It can easily be mis-typed or the computer brings up a different story with a similar title. this system doesn't work well in news which moves too fast. when somethiing goes wrong with a tape, you lose a story... when somthing happens to the computer, you lose the show. it's a terrible situation.
A lot of times the employees are being asked to do two or three tasks at once. It isn't like it used to be where you had time to actually match the video to the news copy in front of you.
I will not slam any one station on this. Like the above posters noted these mistakes are happening all over the place.
This isn't just an Erie issue. It really isn't easy to go and shoot a story or two, come back by 10pm and then have to not only edit your story but the entire newscast.
You do the best you can with what you have. The employees are not to blame. Technology has made management (owners) believe much more can be accomplished with much less.
Look at the Miami TV market. Several of the NBC/Telemundo properties Master Control operations are being run out of a regional switching center...in ATLANTA GEORGIA!
North Coast... Alan had mentioned something similar to me the other day.
Jack, just a point of clarification - no station in Erie uses the Ignite system. WSEE uses Parkervision, or PVTV, an older version of the Ignite system. I'm not sure what systems (if any) are being used at the others.
Part of the problem, as an earlier poster mentioned, is the use of digital files instead of physical tapes. A single letter out of place anywhere along the path of putting the video in the system to actually putting it on air will cause the computer to not callup the correct video (or any video at all). A human being can distinguish a typo and make a correction - a computer cannot. As the old computer saying goes - GIGO - garbage in, garbage out.
Tonight while watching The Simpsons I noticed that the Fox Network originated audio was about 5x louder than the Fox 66 originated audio.
Anybody bother to look at a VU meter at Fox 66?
Thanks for clarificatio. I thought they had upgraded to Ignite as KHON and KOIN had.
North Coast...
I got your message but the email that you received was not for you.
Can we get any worse an anchor than Dan Wells? That boy is terrible. How many times in one half hour show can he blunder words? And I thought Belmondo was bad. Maybe Dan needs to go back to Reading 101. By the way, what’s up with that hair, does he have stock in Pennzoil or Quaker State. Ease off on the oil slick.
Between Dan Wells and Brian Newdorf, weekends on Action News are like watching Action Nerds 24.
WJET has some good people, why don’t they have Sarah Arbogast or Kim Thomas anchor when “Radio Voice” Belmondo takes off. Come on Lou B. & Lou G. give us a break.
checking for typos of course is up to the human naming the video file, but put together the fact 6 different people are editing under intense pressure to do a lot in a short amount of time...it's really hard to avoid.
No one has mentioned the NABET Christmas Party yet where people from all the stations come together and be merry... I was exposed to a new perspective on some of the topics we read on EMGR.... and had a good time :)
It seems that awhile back, someone was having some extra Christmas cheer by posting that certain WSEE people were singing naughty Christmas Carols at the WSEE party. Not true. Glad I edited that post for the worst.
Also some are not always who they say they are but that is ok. I get most of them and those that do slip through make the person look like an ass anyway.
There is a good side to using digital media - when everything is entered correctly (as it ususally is) it's right there, available to play almost instantaneously. No cueing of tapes, no rewinding, no tapes jamming in a machine, no head clogs. When the digital systems work correctly, and they usually do, they are a much more efficient and quality medium to play video. Also, there is no human variable - no tape guy who is a little slower than the guy who was running tapes last night, or the guy who thinks they should be cued 15 frames back further than everyone else does, just 'cuz. I dearly wish that people didn't have to lose jobs because of these systems, but they do have SOME advantages. (Though not many!)
And yeas, the NABET party was a blast!
Ahhh, I see Sarah Arbogast on Action News at Noon today. She did a very good job. She is a natural and on top of that very pretty.
I thought Sarah did pretty well anchoring this morning, also.
I used to work at WJET and last I knew, they are still using tapes for their newscasts (Betacam SP). Sometimes, someone may mislabel (or not label at all) the tapes and can make for a hard time for the person who is loading tapes to figure out. Also, the person loading tapes is usually not someone from the newsroom. Could be just about anything most coming down to human error.
"Action Nerds 24" LOL. Thanks for that! That's hillarious! : )
By the way, Dan Wells is the son of Casey Wells, of the Erie Convention Center Authority.
Erie needs to get a female sports reporter!
I was watching Good Morning Erie w/ Trina Orlando on Jet where they were talking about HDTV sets. They had someone from Best Buy and Trina asked him what do you need to get the most from your HDTV? If I was on from Best Buy I'd answer her question with this response. "Uh, you know it might help if any of the Erie stations in town would actually start broadcasting some of their programs in HD." Sheesh, someone needs to state the obvious.
I would like to hear more about the NABET Christmas party.
Good point. Best Buy missed a best opportunity.
Jennifer Mobilia's outfit this morning.... ummm... nice muffs! That was possibly the ugliest clothing worn on-air in this market since some of the "Star Trek: The Next Generation" outfits worn in the early '90s. And the Rob Wilson lighting in the key didn't help at all. Yesterday pleather, today fake fur. I can only wonder what tomorrow will bring...
As my wife would say, "Who dresses these people ?"
More seriously, do they (men & women on-air talent) get to pick out their own outfits ? Does the station give them a clothing allowance as part of their compensation, or is there a tradeout with a local store for advertising credit ?
In the old days, MJ or JK would call on the red phone if they didn't like the clothing, makeup, lighting, or a hundred other details. And yes it would be fixed by the time of the next newscast. KF & EJ would make sure it didn't happen again.
Nowadays with absentee ownership, who is minding the store ?
I've got to hand it to the ETN's Lisa Thompson for the fantastic cluster of stories Thursday on Missi Meely and her birth mother Laurie Thompson. I was glued to the screen on GoErie.com as Lisa took us through the sequence of events that led to the discovery that Laurie and her husband Chuck were Missi's birth parents.
Most of all, I'm happy for this family that they found each other in such a miraculous way.
I was moved by that story as well when I read it in the paper. Very good writing.
What are muffs? More importantly, what are Mobilia muffs? Are you being dirty?
I thought JET-TV didn't air suicides? According to Cambridge Springs Police, that "shooting" in at Spring and Center Streets Saturday morning was a suicide. What happened to those "safeguards in place to see that such an unfortunate incident would never happen."
Was the suicide outside on the street or inside a home? That makes a difference.
Outside makes a it public and a threat to public safety...That would make it news.
Inside a home in private setting makes it a family issue and outside the normal news interest of the community unless it was a person of broad notice.
I did not see the story myself so I can't answer the question
the "shooting" in question appears to have happened inside the privacy of the man's own vehicle... posing no threat to the public whatsoever. it seems to me wjet has a double standard when it comes to airing their own news stories. what was the effect this person's suicide had on the general public that made it even worth thinking about putting on the evening news??? lou baxter better doublecheck the "safeguards" at wjet when he returns to work from the holidays...
Action Nerds 24 at it again!!! Go Belmondo go.
Even though it happened in the "privacy of the man's own vehicle," it happened on a public street, in full view of anyone unfortunate enough to happen by.
To me, that's news. I;ve no probloem with reporting it as a suicide. The report I saw did not mention the person's name. Again, I see nothing wrong with WJET's actions.
Street closed....police tape all around....dead man in a vehicle. Sounds like a story to me and JET had some great video of the scene. The poor guy killed himself in a way that became very public....seems like news. JET was sensitive and didn't report the victims name...that was nice.
A scene like that can easily be called a shooting until police do an investgation, so it's natural for a station to cover something like that, especially so public. You need permission from police to run a name. By then you would know if it's a suicide or not, so a name should never run.... JET did fine.
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