Rosemary McCarthy

“Hot town, summer in the city. Back of my neck gettin’ dirty and gritty.”
- Lovin Spoonful

It was hot and sticky in Boston – record breaking temps and high humidity. This was a relief to many there because the spring had brought unrelenting, torrential rains and floods and this was better than that.

Oh well, I could take it. I come from there and know the drill: Expect to look like a wet mop for one reason or another whatever you’re doing.  Keep rain gear in the car. Relish the cool breezes when they come and get to the beach as often as possible. Be assured there is a Dunkin Donuts every two blocks and they know how to make iced coffee.

I was one of a cadre of journalism educators sent to broadcast newsrooms this summer. The Radio Television News Directors Foundation sponsors the program to get classroom types back into the field.

I was sent to Boston to New England Cable News, http://www.boston.com/news/necn/
It’s a highly respected, independent presence in a No. 5 market where the audience is demanding and news-savvy and the media environment is vibrant.

NECN is a regional 24-hour, cable news station with bureaus in New England’s major cities. It’s clever and strategic in its partnerships with major newspapers, local radio, and other cable outlets. Its web presence is robust.

The station, launched in 1992, is young in years according to some but it is managed and staffed by career veterans, mid-career professionals and proven young talent.
(More from the NECN website below.)

It was a great place to be. I spent time with reporters, producers, anchors and videographers at the assignment desk, in the control rooms and edit bays—in the field and in morning meetings.

I also wrote with the morning crew starting at 4 a.m. for seven morning newscasts and the noon. After this, students, I will hear NO WHINING about an 8 a.m. class.

After four weeks in a major city television newsroom here is some of what I can say without doubt:

* Reporters, producers, videographers and editors do all the things you are learning right now. Yes, they do them more quickly, more skillfully and with a higher level of sophistication than you can yet, but the basics are the same. You can get there if you choose.

* Speed, accuracy, good sources, general knowledge and abiding curiosity are essential.

* The serious, committed broadcast journalists I met prefer doing the good work of solid TV news to the frenzied, sensational fare produced by many other television stations. Many have chosen to work at this smaller outlet in a major market rather than at the network affiliates because the mission is not sacrificed to ratings and ad sales.

I’d like to think that changes in the marketplace and in the media landscape will produce more such outlets—that the current broadcast model, like the current newspaper model, will by necessity give way to something new and better. And I’d like all of you to work in such a place.

What I can’t figure out is how this change will occur in this country at this time and who has the will to make it happen. The economic imperatives seem insurmountable to me.