My Online Journal

Kristin Giannas

ABC News/ Nightline

Journal Entry 1

"With the sagging economy, Americans are spending thousands on plastic surgery...will going under the knife help land a better job?" "American held hostage...military searches for one of their own." "Shaky footing? Obama's policies sliding..." It's 11:35pm on Monday July 20th. A smiling Cynthia McFadden appears on screen as the infamous NIGHTLINE graphic fades out. She greets the viewers and proceeds to introduce the lead story for the evening. It's an in-depth piece on the extremes some people are willing to go to land a job, "all the way to the operating room," she says, "tonight Sharyn Alfonsi..." McFadden effortlessly reads the anchor intro from prompter as a producer in the control room waits for the que. TAKE PKG. For the next 7 minutes and 15 seconds, Sharyn Alfonsi's package rolls, and ABC viewers across the nation meet Ed Smith and Maria Dicarlo, two Americans who have decided to go under the knife in hopes of getting a job. After Alfonsi's sign-out, Cynthia McFadden is back on set, with the tease, "when we come back, we turn from the economy to war and the small town american being held hostage by the Taliban..." We're back. Live. The show makes a turn from economic troubles at home to problems overseas. McFadden shares a statistic with viewers- the number of casualties in July are now at 30. For the next four minutes we are transported to Hailey, Idaho, a small town united in grief over the recent capture of Bowe Berg-dahl, a 23-year old soldier serving overseas. Next on Nightline's rundown, a "Sign of the Times" segment by reporter Jeremy Hubbard. It's a fun and entertaining feature that highlights the life of the boombox. Four minutes later, we're back on set and McFadden reads the last tease of the night, "is President Obama loosing support when he needs it most? Coming up in tonight's closing argument." In the "Closing Argument" segment, McFadden voices over graphics that show the findings of ABC's poll, "49% of Americans approve of how he is handling healthcare," "approval rate once 79%, down 16 points to 56%" It's now 12:05pm, and the camera is set to a wide shot on the anchor desk. Cynthia McFadden is on set and after yet another successful show she says, "From all of us at ABC news, Goodnight America." "Nightline" on ABC News is a weeknight network broadcast that does away with headlines and goes in depth on a few issues, or just one. It's 30 minutes long and begins at 11:35 p.m. The late night newscast is unique- it's a one-anchor show, with Cynthia McFadden, Terry Moran and Martin Bashir sharing the week. For example, last week Martin Bashir anchored Thursday and Friday, on Wednesday the 15th, Terry Moran, and on Tuesday Cynthia McFadden was behind the desk. In my opinIon having one anchor personalizes the 30-minute show, and saves valuable time in the rundown for the in-depth packages that make up the show. There are no anchor chats or tosses and from a production standpoint, no switching of camera angles or flashy graphics. It's very cut and dry. A standard graphic is inserted before a segment-package. For example, the "Playlist" graphic that opended the four-minute feature on Jason Mraz, which aired on Friday, July 17. As for the content that makes up the show, "Nightline" contains longer format as well as news of day pieces, (like the feature on broadcast legend Walter Cronkite that aired Friday). What's great about "Nightline" is it's not only something viewers watch on broadcast television. The show's content is available online, via ABCNews.com, facebook.com (http://www.facebook.com/ABCNewsNightline) and even twitter. Being a college student who has a crazy schedule, I typically don't catch World News with Charlie Gibson at 6:30pm. However, I am usually always home to see "Nightline" at 11:35, (especially if its Monday night and I'm already glued to the t.v. watching the Bachelorette). A podcast that features the complete show from last night's "Nightline." The future of primetime and broadcast television as a whole is changing. "Nightline" breaks the mold of typical nightly news and informs viewers in a unique and powerful way; "Nightline" is a program that I believe, will have a great influence on the future of television news broadcasting.

Journal Entry 2

Every news station records their shows. We call these the "airchecks." The 11's aircheck usually keeps recording after the show, so the airchecks usually have ABC's nightline, which starts at 11:35. For my online journal, I've been picking airchecks at random, and watching nightline. This entry will be a response to ABC's nightline on Thursday, March 4. Nightline: March 4, 2010 TONIGHT ON NIGHTLINE, THE HORDERS, OUR CAMERAS GO INSIDE THE BIZARRE LIFE OF PEOPLE WHO CANT THROW ANYTHING AWAY... AND HIGH FLYER; HE CIRCED THE GLOBE 360 TIMES OVER. ROCK STAR OF THE SKIES. TONIGHT WE GET ALL THE PERKS WITH THE MAN WHO MAY BE THE WORLDS MOST FREQUENT FLYER... STARS ON SALE, IS TONIGHT'S SIGN OF THE TIMES. Okay ABC, are you that crunched for content? Hoarders is your LEAD? Hoarders? You know A&E has an entire SHOW devoted to HOARDERS. If viewers are that interested in the disease, they can watch A&E's hit reality show. This is NOT a lead for a national news program like Nightline. Moving forward, the show starts off with a feature on an 82 year old pack rat. About a minute into the package, you see ABC's all-knowing reporter, dressed in a blue stripped shirt and suit jacket, standing in the man's garbage dump bedroom. He asks the hoarder the question on all our minds, (sarcasm) "why is it that you have a hard time parting with things? Can you explain that to someone?" No Mr. Reporter, can you explain to viewers why you pitched such a ridiculous story to your producers? At least find an interesting, newsworthy angle to the played-out story of a hoarder. Two minutes in, (yes this is a rather long package) the reporter says in his tracking (narration), "there's a hit TV show about this disease, it's a breakout hit, and the networks number one program, A & E's 'Hoarders'." REALLY!?! At this point, I was insulted. Viewers don't like to feel like the reporter thinks they're incompetent. After the lead package airs, the anchor leads into the second story of the night, "a man with a different type of obsession...he likes to fly...one of the world's most frequent of flyers." Perhaps ABC is too busy paying off their interviewees instead of investing in enterprise story telling, (on March 18th, in an Orlando courtroom, it was revealed that the Casey Anthony family was paid $200,000 by ABC News). The only timely hook in Nightline's second package was George Clooney's movie, "Up in the Air" which hit blueray on March 9th. Other than that, I feel there's a lot more important things that viewers need to know about. Overall, I feel the producers behind Nightline's March 4th's broadcast should be written up. This show was a waste of airtime, time that could have made a difference in the world. The power of television broadcasting was not utilized. Producers could have picked stories with a message, a purpose. If I could give this show negative stars, I would.

Journal Entry 3

This will be my third journal entry

Journal Entry 4

This will be my fourth journal entry