Weeknight newscast premieres tonight

By Jennifer Medina
Staff Writer

Another news source for USC students will hit the airwaves today, as Annenberg News premiering at 7 p.m. on Channel 62 through the Trojan Vision network.
The entirely student-run newscast will aim to provide viewers with information while student workers gain experience.
Annenberg News will air nightly Monday through Friday and will cover campus issues, events, sports and politics along with local, national and international news, said Marina Perelman, an executive producer of the show and a senior majoring in communications.
"Our goal is to satisfy all of the above," she said. "We are part of the real world. You can't close your eyes back to something just because you are a student."
Perelman said the show will tie news back to USC by getting student opinions and interviews with experts at the university.
Students workers said they want to make the newscast as professional as possible.
"We are a living, breathing newsroom," said Jake Milstein, an executive producer of the newscast and a junior majoring in English. "At the end of the day, somebody has to make the decision about what will lead at seven," he said.
All of those involved think being part of the newscast is an opportunity for experience.
"This is a wonderful opportunity for practical, day-to-day experience," said Geoffrey Cowan, dean of Annenberg School for Communication. "It will teach them how to write, report and produce news."
Students agreed that such experience will be valuable in the future.
"This is something that has real world application for television news," said Brian Decloux, a sports anchor for Annenberg News and a junior majoring in broadcast journalism. "
The newscast is similar to Trojan Vision News, the nightly show that aired last year. Annenberg News is funded by the Annenberg School for Communication.
"Under the auspices of the journalism department, we have support from the school, we have access to students and we have access to a beautiful new facility," said Beth Maharrey, adviser to the Annenberg School, who was last year's adviser to Trojan Vision News.
Serena Cha, a former executive producer at KCAL 9 and other local television stations, was hired to help with the newscast.
"I thought a better way to improve the state of television journalism was to come to school and teach them," Cha said. "There have been some disturbing trends in local news and I am hoping to work with students who have fresh ideas, are idealistic and think that they can change things."
Both Milstein and Perelman are entering the endeavor with caution.
"For the first week, we are going to be low-key," Perelman said. "We are going to keep it as simple as possible."
"Right now we're trying to get to the air and we'll grow from there," Milstein said.
The newsroom will open every day at 9 a.m. to brainstorm for daily story ideas before taping the newscast at 6 p.m.
"There are a ton of fears with this," Perelman said. "You could work (really hard) for the script to be ready at 5:30 p.m. and you take it to the technical room and something could happen that you have no control of. It just doesn't sit and it can't air the next day because it will be old. It's not easy, it's really not easy. You have to thrive (for) that."
Thanks to additional funding from both the university and the Annenberg Foundation, a state-of-the-art newsroom and studio were built for the news program. The newsroom has 17 computers equipped with AP Newscenter program, two video feeds from CNN and CBS and six Electronic News Gathering cameras. The AVID Corporation donated six AVID non-linear news editing equipment.
"This is highly professionalized. There was no newsroom last year," Cowan said.
The newsroom will also be used as a teaching facility for students enrolled in broadcast journalism courses.
"I think the facility will take on a life of its own," Cowan said. "When you create an enterprise like this, new opportunities will be created - things we haven't even thought of."