In the fall of 2010 I will attend Texas A&M Commerce and major in journalism.

Journalism is one of my favorite subjects because I’ve always loved writing and informing people of things around them. On Thursday, March 18, my newspaper class along with the journalism class went on a field trip to the Tyler Morning Telegraph, KLTV 7 News Station and KETK 56 News Station. As a thirdyear student in the subject, that was my third time attending the field trip. Basically I could already pinpoint where we would be led and what would be shown and said to us. However, this year was different because I’d never been to KETK 56.

Our trip started out at the Tyler Morning Telegraph headquarters. We were led upstairs into the editorial newsroom where we first spoke to the editing manager. He explained how journalism is practiced everyday whether people know it or not and told us about his position. After talking to him we spoke with the assistant editing manager who told us about the Web site and how it is produced. From there we were led downstairs into the printing room where we saw how the paper is made.

When that tour was over, we went around the block to KLTV 7 and were led into the newsroom where the filming takes place. We got to play around with the green screen and meet Chief Meteorologist Grant Dade. When we left the newsroom, our guide took us to the reporting room where we saw Danny Elzner. Next, we went to the control room and saw how everything took place behind the camera. Before we left the station, we got to watch Grant film his weather report.

We took a break from touring by eating lunch outside at Cheddar’s until about 1:30 p.m.

Finally, we made our last stop at my favorite news station, KETK 56. Our tour guide at that station was a Bullard alum, Phil Kuchinsky. Nearly every room we went into was hard to fit all of us, so we were really cramped. First, we went into the audio room and saw all the sound equipment and graphics. Then we went into the next room which was the master control. There were so many knobs and different buttons I was afraid to move in case I accidentally hit one. From there, we went through a small checkered hallway that made me feel as if I was in Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory. It led us into the sports control room and then we headed to the editing room where we saw the equipment used to edit everything.

Next we went into the reporting room and met Jennifer Kielman and the other reporters hard at work on their stories.

Finally, we finished the trip by standing in the newsroom and watching Crystal Kobza film promos and Scott Chesner film the forecast.

This year’s trip was different from the others, not only because we went to KETK for the first time, but because I got to experience the difference between working on a newspaper and working on screen for a news station. It made me realize what I might have in store for me after college.