DAVID CULVER TAKEAWAYS:

Mary Perez:

I really enjoyed David Culver's conversation with the class tonight. It was nice to get a different perspective of how to create and deliver a broadcast story. Several of my biggest takeaways were:

1) Characters are everything in the story

2) A story can be successful by the way you deliver it. Your tone must be engaging and relatable. 

3) A broadcast news reporter’s job is to both inform and entertain. You have to cater to the audience.

He really gave me hope for the future of reporting stories. 

Grace Ries:

My takeaway from David Culver’s discussion was that as a journalist you have to be flexible. You also have to have a strong intuition and ability to gauge where people stand on issues. If you can learn to hone in your skills in both those areas you will be able to take full advantage of opportunities when they pop up. Timing is everything. 

Isabelle Caplan:

I was surprised at how much work David had to put in for his stories. Usually when I see anchors and reporters on-air, I assume they're just reading a story that was already written, but David has to pitch story ideas, conduct interviews, and pick out what to include in his reports, often without a lot of direction. He seems very hardworking, which is a characteristic that is probably very important in a job that forces you to produce new material on a daily basis.  

Katerina Papas:

Each speaker we’ve had has been inspiring in different ways.  I found David Culver inspiring in the sense that he has a clear drive and is currently accomplishing his goals while staying motivated towards his future.  As a jaded college student, the future has always seemed like an imaginary far-away land—and the question of what are you going to be when you “grow-up” has slowly become “what are you going to do in a couple years.”  The fact he has taken something he loves—telling stories—and made it his profession is extremely inspiring.  His outlook on broadcast journalism as “telling stories” gave me a whole new prospective on a career that I used to (as in, my whole life up to two hours ago) think of as news accompanied with pretty faces so people pay attention.  His stories were moving and I was really interested by how personal he lets his job become.  I really enjoyed him visiting our class!