Throughout my internship here at 10News, I have tried to become familiar with the “television station lingo.” I now know that “b-roll” is video footage and a “white balance” balances and adjusts colors for a video camera, but the words Digital Correspondent still had no meaning. So in order to find out exactly what a Digital Correspondent (DC) is, I looked to KGTV’s South Bay DC, Joe Little.

With technology constantly changing, it is important for a newsroom to be able to react, adapt and improve on a constant basis. Advances in technology such as fast laptops and light weight cameras have created new positions in the newsroom, one of which being a DC.
                                                             
A DC is a shooter, reporter, writer and editor all in one! Working by himself or herself, the DC is free to go wherever the story goes. DCs are the “wave of the future.” In contrasting DCs with traditional reporting, they are cost efficient and provide instant news to our community.

A DC has ownership of everything they do. If a story goes well, they get all of the credit. However, if something goes wrong, they are the one to blame. Another downside of being a DC is it gets lonely and there’s also a safety concern.

When asking 10News DC, Joe Little, what he would recommend to someone who might want to pursue a career as a Digital Correspondent, he replied, “Be a sponge!” He noted how important it is to learn everything, talk to everyone and really respect all of the skills involved with being a DC. “Be pushy, take classes and actually APPLY the skills,” Little stated.

Here at 10News, a typical workday for a DC involves arriving somewhere between 8:00 and 9:00 am. At 9:00 am, the newsroom meeting starts and stories are assigned. Immediately after being assigned a story, the Digital Correspondent starts making phone calls and driving to the site to interview and film. The story must be submitted by the Digital Correspondent’s deadline, being the evening news.

According to Joe Little, the most challenging part of his profession is, “Staying on point.  Staying sharp.  Keeping your mind straight on your story.  We sometimes collect information from several different sources, at the same time, under deadline, and it’s done while traveling from place to place.  It gets very, very stressful some days.  If we don’t stay focused, we could slip up, get information incorrect, mislead the public, mislabel someone, or just screw up royally.  Under the most stressful circumstances, we still have to perform at a high level.  That is one of the most challenging parts of this job.”

Although it is uncertain how technology will advance in the future, one thing is certain…Digital Correspondents are here to stay!

Submitted by 10News intern, Ashley.

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