The Mass Communications Club ( MCC) at Alcorn State University (ASU) had the opportunity to visit the news station WJTV Channel 12 in Jackson, Mississippi.
On January 23, 2020 at 10:00 am, the Mass Communications Club toured the news station and learned about its inner workings. They had the pleasure of having WJTV Marketing Director, Chris Roebuck, as a tour guide.
Roebuck greeted the students as they entered the building. First, he showed them Studio B. Studio B is an open room where broadcasting takes place in front of the green screens, commercials are filmed, and production meetings are held. The anchors and reporters often have meetings in the studio to watch the previous newscast and receive feedback while taking notes on what to improve upon.
Afterwards, Roebuck took the students into the main studio where they met Andrew Harrison, who is a weekday morning co-anchor at WJTV. He informed them on how to read the teleprompter, showcase lighting techniques, and how to properly sit at the desk. He then let the students try it out for themselves.
Harrison explained to the students inquiring about how the news station get its news, “We get emails to the newsroom, probably about 400 to 500 a day. You can wipe out what emails won’t be useful based on the headline. Depending on who the email is from you can tell what news story would be good to use.” He then discussed the type of news stories there are and when the news station will use them.
Next, the students met Jacob Lanier who is the weekday morning meteorologist for WJTV. He informed them on how to work the control panel for the weather by showing them how to work the clicker and certain graphics. Lanier explained how he makes forecasts and how he doesn’t read from the prompter but simply describes what he sees on the screen. The students then had the opportunity to stand in front of the green screen and look at the weather from the monitor.
Afterwards, Roebuck led the students to the editing booth where they met Candace Coleman, who co-anchors the weekday morning show with Harrison. Coleman explained to the students what her day consists of by stating, “I’m a morning anchor so I get to work at 3:30 am because our show begins at 4:30 am and lasts until 7:00 am. I do my makeup here and I make sure I’m on set by 4:20 am to start the show. I’ll do cut-ins periodically, so I’m typically done around 9:00 am with my on-air duties. We have a morning meeting at 9:30 am every morning with everyone in the building and come up with story ideas and discuss who will cover what story. Lastly, I work on my weekly Cool School’s segment which highlights Central Mississippi schools.”
For more information concerning The Mass Communications Club contact Ms. Myrtle Hedrick at (601) 877-6290 or myrtle@alcorn.edu.