Students rally on difficult assignment
Every year, Senior Lecturer Peter Downie gives the Journalism Advanced TV Production class assignments suited to their interests and abilities. In an effort to find out what capturing a major event live entails, he and his Concordia students found themselves on the Washington Mall early on Saturday, October 30, surrounded by hundreds of thousands of Americans at the John Stewart/Steven Colbert Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear.
“When I arrived that morning I asked a volunteer how many people they were expecting,” he recalls. “She said estimates were between 150 000 to 300 000. And then she added ‘and that’s not a Fox News estimate.'” Downie knew he’d brought JOUR 421’s 18 students to a media extravaganza.
The students had been divided into two production teams for the year-long course. Each team develops, shoots and produces a 20-minute news package every three weeks.
Getting to the mall had been a logistical test. Since students were travelling on their own time and their own resources, all decisions had to be made collectively with respect to everyone’s individual situation. “We spent three weeks thinking about how we would travel, what equipment we would need, where we would stay and the interviews we would conduct,” explains Downie. “And we had to be prepared to throw it all up in the air to adjust to the circumstances on the ground.”
The uncertainty of TV reporting in such an immense, uncontrollable situation is precisely the value of this type of experience for students. People miss meetings negotiating their way through a crowd of that size; the roar of that crowd in response to another event might interrupt a split-second opportunity for an interview; shots are missed and planning live reporting with so many variables is nearly impossible.
“I think some of them loved it, and some of them didn’t, but that’s also a valuable discovery,” says Downie. In the past, students have reported live from downtown Montreal, or worked on longer, feature-style reports. This was the first time a class had travelled together to cover an event of this magnitude. Students had to negotiate live reporting during a one-time opportunity while being far from home with limited equipment and supplies.
“I try to teach them how to think critically about the reporting they see,” says Downie, adding that the experience helped them better understand the pressures and challenges of covering such a mammoth event.
“We usually spend our time thinking about how to frame a shot or get good sound,” he says, reflecting on the controlled atmosphere of a studio. “When you’re in the field, you’re forced to negotiate with the world to get good TV.”
Related links:
• Concordia Talks 'Live' From Washington D.C.
• Concordia Department of Journalism