Professional Project Review

I recently watched a KCTV5 story over the Missouri Board of Education's progress of Kansas City Public Schools. The scope of the story was to highlight the progress students in Kansas City, Missouri have made; test scores of the students are rising and they plan on keeping the momentum going.

The news story starts out with a stand up which I thought was interesting seeing as how most stories start with an interesting clip or soundbite to grab the audience's attention. The beginning stand up broke down why the rising test scores were a big deal and used the Kansas City Neighborhood Academy as an example. I think they used that academy as an example because they scored at full accreditation level. Following this was b-role of students at the Kansas City Neighborhood Academy doing paperwork. I thought the b-role matched well with the emphasis of the story and the shots they used were all in focus and steady.

The story was told through facts, a press interview with the superintendent and an interview with who I believe is a teacher in the school district.

One element from this story I would apply to my own stories is a stand up. They're a good transition and put a face to the voice the audience hears. Something I've learned that is in this story is J & L edits.

I think that one thing the journalist did well was match the b-role with what they were talking about. For example, when they were talking about Kansas City Neighborhood Academy,  they showed footage of students from the academy working and did a stand up right outside the academy.  However, an improvement they could make to this story is adding names to the people they interviewed. There was no lower third in any of their interviews and it made me question the credibility of those being interviewed since I didn't know who they were or how they were associated.

Overall, it was a good news package and very informative. My only major issue with it was the missing lower third in the interview. The voice over was solid and audio levels seemed to be consistent and at the right volume. The story also had 2 interviews. I'd give the news package a 9/10.