The course of TV Journalism at the School of Advanced Journalism lasted four weeks. Trainers Dumitru Marian, Dorin Scobioala, Oxana Iutes and Andrei Cibotaru revealed to students the secrets of TV journalism and especially the hidden side of this type of mass media – the life behind the screen and how TV reports are being “born.”

Students learned about the working process at a TV outlet – from planning meetings to the appearance of a material: identification of topics, writing, shortening, editing and arranging materials for a newscast. For that, the course involved work in the mode of a TV editorial office.

In the first week, students learned to use a camera and a video editing program. Guided by trainer Dumitru Marian, they learned to correctly focus the camera for a video shooting, found out about different types of shots, video formatting and video capture, how to prepare a caption for a news story or report on TV, and learned about the role of special effects in journalistic materials.

In the second week, Dorin Scobioala spoke to young journalists about television news stories, reports and interviews. He revealed to them several secrets from the inner workings of television – about the dress code for TV reporters, what a stand-up is and how it is done, how reporters should present themselves in front of a camera. During the course, students learned the structure of a TV report. Now they know what intro, beta and synchronization are.

The third week began with viewing and commenting of TV news stories and reports together with journalist Oxana Iutes, who also taught students about the processes and elements of TV journalism. Together, they identified news topics, wrote and edited materials. Oxana drew their attention to the fact that for every TV reporter fieldwork is essential and that sometimes news topics can be “born” there. The journalist also underlined that a reporter who works on television should be not only curious, but also correct in the work they do.

The course culminated with five “hot” days – Newsroom TV. Guided by trainer Andrei Cibotaru, students worked in the mode of a real newsroom. Since the very first day students acted as true reporters. They equipped themselves with microphones, cameras, tripods and applied the knowledge they obtained during theory lessons.  

Every morning at 08.30 students attended a meeting where they suggested topics for newscasts. After intense fieldwork, they wrote and edited their own reports, and at 17.00 they watched the newscast that they produced. Students say that the most difficult thing was meeting deadlines – it was a true television resistance test. And future students managed to submit video materials on time.

Petru Garciu, one of SAJ students, said that during this course he understood how important workday planning is for a journalist. “I got some unforgettable feelings. Tight schedule and production of video materials in a very short time made me perceive television journalism differently. The most important thing that I learned is that when you do fieldwork, you should be well-documented and write news differently than other colleagues,” Petru added.

“TV journalism has been the most restless course so far and one of the most challenging. During these weeks we managed to learn how to choose interesting topics and convince sources to speak in front of a camera, and do it all before the 17.00 newscast. We had amazing trainers, who taught us what a good video material should be like, so that viewers could understand what we wanted to say even without sound…,” student Liliana Croitor said.

In the end, trainer Andrei Cibotaru gave some advice to future reporters. He wished them patience, much work, perseverance, courage and trust in their own forces. Andrei urged young journalists to “steal,” in the good sense of the word, the profession from the best journalists of our and other countries.

Next week, the School of Advanced Journalism will conduct a course of Visual Journalism. For seven days, students will be learning everything about the design of print media.