On Wednesday, March 22nd a group of College of Media students, including myself, travelled down to the ABC7 studios in Chicago. We were able to watch the 11am newscast with Judy Hsu and Terrell Brown as anchors and Tracy Butler as the meteorologist. As soon as the newscast started, we heard that there was an act of terrorism in London. The newscast was interrupted by ABC’s national correspondents who cut in to every local newscast to share this breaking news. They cut in a total of two different times and during each cut in the anchors and producers of the show had to work together to rearrange the script and cut out stories that would no longer fit in the newscast. The atmosphere of the newsroom was very stressful while this was going on because they had to be ready at a moment’s notice when the national news was going to give the newscast back to the local stations. After the newscast, Judy Hsu, a University of Illinois Journalism alumni, gave us a tour of the entire building. We were able to meet with the director and the producer in the control room to learn about some of the new technology they have implemented and where the technology is going in the future. We met with the social media coordinator who gave us some insights as to how ABC7 is using various social media platforms to engage with viewers and gain new ones. Overall, this visit was such a valuable experience where I was able to learn so much about reporting, television and journalism as a whole. The station and Judy offered great advice for how to break into the industry after graduation, and the main piece of advice was to not wait until after graduation, start working or volunteering at stations now. I asked them about what direction they saw journalism as a whole heading in considering the many attacks on news by the current presidential administration and they said that this is such an interesting and important time to be a journalist and it is more important than ever to keep delivering the truth and to be completely correct and honest in our reporting.

Below are some pictures that were taken of us with Judy Hsu and Rob Elgas (both University of Illinois alumni), Terrell Brown and Judy Hsu at the desk during the newscast and Tracy Butler. I am wearing the white and black striped sweater.