Broadcast
Journalism
My approach to broadcast
Video editing is my enemy. Growing up in the age of YouTube and iPads, I watched a ton of videos when I was young. In the Introduction to Journalism class, I quickly found out Premium Pro video editing is harder than I imagined. Our first assignment was a minute and a half video with pre-recorded interviews and B-roll. Sounds simple. Well, my perfectionist self spent one whole class period — 48 minutes — on 15 seconds of content. I couldn’t get a tiny audio bite perfectly cut.
During my sophomore year, it was no surprise I stayed away from broadcast. I felt like I had more control when writing and piecing together an article. To put it simply: I knew how to write, I didn’t know how to video edit.
That perspective changed last summer at Medill Cherubs at Northwestern University, a month-long summer journalism program, when my friend pulled me back into video editing. Shockingly, this time I knew what I was doing. I relearned basic Premiere Pro and taught my friend. By the end of the program, I had two published videos on the Cherubs website and a new found appreciation for broadcast journalism, which I plan to explore in college.
Bridging the gap to Nixa multimedia
Nixa has three journalism departments: Wingspan, EagleAir and Yearbook. Our three departments don’t have much overlap but there is one place we all publish content — our website. When I became editor-in-chief I wanted Wingspan to work with broadcast because we were covering similar stories about club sports, local events and popular teenage trends.
In the magazine
After planning the first edition, I reached out to the broadcast communications person to find overlapping stories. We chose our school’s new cell phone policy and ended up creating a glancebox on our spread with information on where to find the broadcast story. That practice has become common in Wingspans.
On the website
The Wingspan team has also begun creating multimedia packages. It started with our school’s fall musical Beauty and the Beast. I worked with two broadcast members and a Yearbook staff member to create a package, dividing the work to match each of our specialties.
While multimedia packages are rare, we do them for what I’d call special stories. They're inspiring pieces. For example, a staff writer worked with three broadcast reporters to put together a package covering Angelman Syndrome Awareness Day because a Nixa Spanish teacher had a 16-month-old daughter who had Angelman Syndrome.
As someone who loves consuming video content alongside written articles, I’m proud to say we’ve succeeded in our efforts to combine our work with broadcast’s, and we’ve set a precedent to collaborate in the future.
Doing multimedia contests at MSU
In my first year as editor-in-chief, Nixa Journalism began a tradition of bringing together journalism departments to compete in a Nixa only on-site contest at Missouri State University.
Everyone gets split into groups, EagleAir and Wingspan reporters. Groups are given a topic like courage or dedication and we put together an entire multimedia package (written article, photos, video and infographics) in a couple of hours.
While interviewing MSU strangers is a blast, the bigger priority is the connections among the teams. This competitive tradition is filled with joy, but also influences the way Wingpan works with broadcast.
Medill Northwestern Journalism Institute
When I first learned about Cherubs, I read, watched and listened to every piece of content published on their website. The videos were most memorable because they pulled the viewer into what it meant to be a cherub: lessons, traditions and everyday life.
When I became a cherub, those videos prompted me to attend the broadcast Sunday club, bringing only a few loose ideas and my good friend Rachel Yuan.
I knew the most effective way to peek future cherubs’ interests was to make them feel connected before they ever arrived on campus. So, I jumped back into video editing with Rachel and a desire to help incoming students. We created two broadcast packages, which ended up on the official Cherubs 2025 website.
Cherubs Soccer
After walking two miles carrying bags filled with video equipment, the official work started.
Rachel and I wanted to document a few cherubs competing in a soccer festival. Having never documented action like this, it was exhilarating.
Our biggest challenge was trying not to get hit by soccer balls from other matches. Filming what was ahead of me while constantly checking off to the side was chaotic. To combat this issue, Rachel and I found a good rhythm taking turns recording.
Overall, the best moment was when the cherub team began dancing. Instantly, I knew we’d just got our outro shot.
Evanston Eats
This was the first video I made since freshman year.
Rachel and I wanted to appeal to future cherubs and hoped to get it on the official Cherubs website. But we also wanted an excuse to go to local cafes.
While this wasn’t a hard hitting news piece, it was relevant to future students. We did run into an issue when one of the cafes couldn’t give us permission to film inside since the manager was gone. After waiting 40 minutes for the manager, we ended up just using shots from outside the building. Next time, I know to reach out to the establishment owner before I show up.