Behind the Scenes at ABC7 News

By Miranda Andrade

 This last Wednesday, we had the wonderful opportunity to visit the ABC Channel 7 Newsroom and see what it is really behind the scenes. On this visit we got the chance to take a tour of the ABC Channel 7 news building with one of the most famous woman broadcasters, Cheryl Jennings. Prior to the tour, I hadn’t thought a lot about the amount of effort needed in either preparation or execution of a newscast and when we arrived at the newsroom, I was shocked. Right when we walked in the door, there were rows of desks full of people researching and gathering information for new stories. We came at the perfect time, which allowed us to see watch the live 11 AM news from inside the control room. In that room there were screens covering one big wall allowing the director and producer to see all the different videos that they are able to queue up. The director was also in charge of the sound from every clip and telling the anchors when they were going to be up on screen. In my opinion this was one of the hardest jobs that I saw. After the show, we got to speak to a couple of the anchors who were very excited to meet with us and tell us about how they got to where they were and what it really takes to be a news anchor.

Even though this channel is so successful, broadcasting is a dying medium because of the role the internet now plays in our lives. Due to our constant use of technology, it is no longer necessary to watch a two hour newscast because all the information we could ever want or need is at our fingertips. Another side effect of the over use of technology is that attentions spans have grown smaller and people are less likely to pay attention to full news stories. However, Channel 7 is evolving in order to communicate better in this day and age. Many of their stories are now under two minutes in order to keep viewers’ attention. There is also a larger trend in incorporating social media, such as Twitter and Facebook, into broadcasts while also creates a more interactive show. With these improvements, this news channel can continue to compete in this evolving world.