On May 29th, 2024, FDHS’ Journalism course hosted a guest speaker to help students learn more about jobs, school, and even life. Logan Burridge, a news producer for News 2, shared the hardships and advantages of his job in front of 8 students.
Burridge has only been working in the news business for 3 months but has already shown beyond a doubt that he has the skills to grow in the industry and produce quality news stories. Before he decided he wanted to become a news producer, Burridge originally went to college for biology at Anderson University. But soon, he transferred to Trident, and then USC, where he switched from engineering to being a media arts major. After college, it was an incredibly stressful time for him as he was still trying to figure out his path in life while applying to many jobs. Burridge described that he applied to around 50 jobs, all around the country, in all fields before he became a news producer at News 2. His job involves with camera movements, doing full screen production, adding text on screen, and designing the news show with graphics, videos, and live shots. When asked if he would like to be in front of the camera, he stated that behind the scenes is his comfort zone for now, but his end goal is to become an executive producer at CNN. Fort students listened carefully to Burridge to his engaging public speaking skills, and Junior Braedon Coker from the English 4 recalled how “he talked positively and the way he talked about his job was very engaging and professional.”
Intrigued by Logan Burridge’s story, the students began to ask about the benefits and challenges of his job as a news producer. Burridge works a morning shift with one other producer and typically likes to organize the newscast by starting with crime stories, then press releases, then politics, and starts locally and goes nationally. Regarding politics, he expressed, “It’s nice having an unbiased opinion to show the world” and stressed he has to provide information about both candidates. Being unbiased is an important skill for a news crew to ensure public safety, equality, and credible news. The structure for Burridge’s news shows creates a natural flow of ideas and help eases into stories with different tones. While news producers have the freedom to design a new show, Burridge shared that assistant managers must approve all designs and ideas through morning meetings. On slow days, he uses a website where anyone on his team can post any research or news that anyone can use, which helps, especially on weekends. Burridge noted that working on weekends can make you a better producer because you are not as busy as on the weekdays, so you must be creative to fill the news time. He also said that it is important to push yourself in the news, and be able to adapt easily to change, to become a more reliable team member. Slow news days are one of the many challenges in his industry, and some others include making sure the news shows do not go over or under time, do not have overlapping content, and that there is a shortage of news producer today. These shortages are increasing, but news companies are trying different strategies to recruit and maintain their producers who exit the field and leave the remaining employees with more work and stress. “Communication is key” Logan explains, as this is how you overcome the challenges, help teammates, consult with managers, and communicate with the news anchors. Plus, communication skills are needed when writing emails, reading press releases, and working with public information officers to fill up a news show.
As mentioned before, Burridge went through a considerable journey when trying to figure out what to do after high school. If you are currently conflicted about colleges or career paths, you can do your research and figure out what you might like to do or you can go into college undecided and take introductory classes. For Burridge, finding jobs in his last semester of college was extremely stressful, but he soon found the journalism career path that suited him. He stated that there is a career path for everyone, so find out what you are passionate about, so you can work to make it happen. Burridge shared that it is also important to not fall behind in your college coursework or be afraid to change your mind with your college major. Burridge explained that for any aspiring news producer, iMovie can start a video editing career, and using Premiere Pro (an Adobe video editing program) is a good software to learn to help you build up your editing skills for the news industry. He also pointed out that to be in the field having strong writing skills is helpful as well.
To conclude, Logan Burridge had a strong impact on the young journalists and English students who listened to him speak in Mrs. Bronk-Lutz’s classroom. Junior Andrew Smith from the English 4 class elaborated saying, “He kept good eye contact with the people he spoke to and it was cool to talk about new information for college.” As an undecided rising senior, Smith learned about how to decide on colleges and career paths and think about news producing as a career. Most importantly, the students also learned from the guest speaker that it is okay to transfer colleges or change majors to best figure your life path and to not have anxiety about it. Lastly, Burridge had also discussed citizen journalism, a topic that Mrs. Bronk-Lutz’s students have been studying recently.