A DAY IN THE LIFE OF A TELEVISION NEWS REPORTER

by William Jaspersohn ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 30, 1981

To show kids what goes on behind the scene they see on their screens, Jaspersohn's photo-journal takes Dan Rea, a reporter for Boston's WBZ-TV, through a day's work that begins with a phone call before he's out of bed. Could he come in early? The assignment editor has just heard a police radio call about raiding a warehouse for stolen goods. Soon Dan is at the newsroom--a ""hive of activity""--and then at the warehouse with a photographer. (""Sure enough, just as the deputy said, there are the stolen goods."") Back at the station, the film is developed and Dan's one-minute script completed; and then, after a dinner break, it's off to Framingham where union workers have walked off their jobs to protest the high cost of gasoline. Between trips, Jaspersohn shows Dan on some of his previous stories: at a 5 a.m. pier fire, a community meeting, and--""surely the biggest live shot for Dan""--a rooftop spot for the Pope's Mass on the Boston Common. For Jaspersohn's audience, there are shots of the two-man video camera crew, one of the station's four $100,000 vans full of broadcasting equipment, others of Dan on top of the van for his closing ""stand-up"" comments, and many of Dan dashing about with his stories, Jaspersohn's prose doesn't snap and crackle, but it's sufficiently trim, especially as the backstage photos will be the main attraction. And if the content of Dan's stories seems less than world-shaking, it's no doubt an accurate representation of the news projected on local TV.

Pub Date: April 30, 1981

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Little, Brown

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1981

Categories: NONFICTION