Good Morning Illini is a show where I’m sitting in the anchor seat most of the time. It’s something I love doing of course, being in front of that camera with all smiles for a 30 minutes.
But last week, instead of 30 minutes, I just had about three, give or take. Whether it was Orri Benatar, Erica Finke or Jose Zepeda, every time in our A-Block, it comes the time for me to throw it over to our UI7 News Correspondent. However last week, instead of throwing it over to one of them, my fellow anchors threw it to me for my first UI7 Newsdesk.
Newsdesk is different from GMI, and after doing it I really have an appreciation for the type of hours I recall seeing each of them spending producing their own segment. While it was a new experience for me on GMI, I was at least familiar with the elements that go into it, thanks to previously providing content for UI7 Newsbreaks and news updates.
What was probably the hardest thing to do was actually producing this content for me. It’s not the best kept secret that my editing/behind the scenes skills aren’t the sharpest (I’m striving to be like you Maddie Rice!) but I feel like I was able to work through the stress it was causing me the night before the show. But, getting fully immersed back into everything that was going on around the Champaign area was a refreshing experience!
In the segment I talk about a growing issue in the Illini Student Government over the passing of a resolution demanding that the University divests its business with three companies involved with the defense spending of Israel. The Students for Justice in Palestine, who’ve been pushing for such a resolution for years, were disappointed when the Student Body President Connor Josellis vetoed the resolution. However, the whole resolution may be nullified this Wednesday by the Student Judiciary Branch because of reported voting issues during the resolution that student senators had with their iClickers.
It was a politically charged Newsdesk, and my next story dealt with the announcement that the University’s chapter of Turning Point USA will be hosting Ann Coulter to speak at Greg Hall’s auditorium, the home to all media students and anyone who takes Journalism 200. Along with the speech Coulter will have a meet and greet with the attending students.
I wrapped up my story with a bill introduced to the Illinois State Government, banning the use of Native Americans or their likeness as a mascot until they meet specific, layered, school-wide mandatory education and training on indigenous culture and traditions, as well as written consent from a Native Tribe and the State Government to renew the right to use said mascot every calendar year.
Doing Newsdesk was a nice change of pace. Since on GMI my major focus is letting my personality come to the forefront, but for news desk I got to go back to talking about hard news, which is something I don’t really get to do as in depth when I’m doing a normal GMI segment.