I feel like I get it right about 7.5% of the time. The other 92.5% of the time I feel like I’m getting it all wrong.
It was easier to get things closer to right when there was someone in the newsroom who could offer suggestions, edits, and improvements. But we’ve been without a news director for about a month now.
Now, I’m in the newsroom at 6 a.m. with the task of filling the newscast, essentially choosing what news the people of Western Alaska are going to hear about that day. I know people can decide whether or not to tune in and I also know their access to other news outlets has expanded immensely since the proliferation of television and the internet.
But people listen to KNOM. That, I do know. When I’m shopping around town I hear the 4 o’clock needle drop being broadcast. I hear my coworker Laura reading the weather when I’m hitching a ride in someone else’s car. And if I’m lucky, I hear the STD spots written and produced by Maddie and voiced by myself. Really, they’re quite good, and probably account for over half of what I feel like I’m getting right here at KNOM.
But back to the news. Not only do I control what stories we run from around the state, but I also control what stories I choose to pursue. And that’s when things get tricky. More often than not I’m covering less contentious stories like what the City Council or Port Commission are up to or how the Nome- Beltz wrestlers did at their recent tournament.
But this isn’t exactly Pleasantville. Nowhere is, really. Every state, every region, every community has their issues, and many times those issues are newsworthy. So we do what we’re supposed to and we cover them.
The most recent story I pursued was an important one, which means it was even more important to get right. Because of that, I sought advice from Laura, my fellow newsie, but I also made sure to have an Anchorage-based editor who has been doing this far longer than I have give it a few read-throughs.
For all the help I received, I’m grateful. But I still somehow managed to get some things wrong. I spent most of the day it aired on the phone with local listeners , statewide news outlets that had picked it up, and officials involved in the story tweaking my errors and second-guessing my choices regarding the details I chose to leave in.
Needless to say, it was a tough day. I can recognize I’m better for it, learning with each mistake I made.
And maybe, just maybe the amount that I get right next go-around will bump up to a whopping 8%.
