The Challenges I Face as a Traditional Journalist.

I am severely intimidated with the world of news video. I was, however, also extremely intimidated by radio and the sound of my own disembodied voice before completing the audio portion of the slice class, but now I feel significantly more comfortable about that area.
Like many, I have never been comfortable in front of a camera. So how am I supposed to deliver news while bogged down by own insecurities?
For my whole journalistic career I have relied on words and sentences to be my channel of information to my audience. I have learned how to compose complex ledes, interview my sources and then chop their quotes in exactly the right place to make my story.
In video I’m worried I won’t be able, or won’t know how, to do this. I am a lot more fluid in my writing than in speech, but I want to be able to send a strong message to my video audience just as I have done with my reading audience.
I believe this is where my insecurities in front of the camera stem from. I understand that I am a good writer, but do I look good on camera, do I sound good on camera? These I don’t know. In writing you just have to worry about whether your words sound good to your reader, but in video you have to worry about whether your words sound good, your voice sounds good, and if you look good, too. I’m worried I’ll get overwhelmed by the vanity and lose the real message of news and reporting.
I do, however, love the technology aspect. I don’t know how to use a lot of it, but I am very willing to learn. I agree with the whole goal of the course in the fact that journalism majors should be prepared for all different areas of the profession, so I am excited to get to work with this equipment. From both Nina and Jeff I have heard that the equipment and software we’re using is not the most up-to-date and flashiest out there, which is a little frustrating, but I think I’ll be able to get past that.
Also, I don’t watch a lot of television, nor do I get my news from television or from video clips online. So I am very inexperienced in terms of what to expect in news reports and video. I have no basis for comparison for my own projects that I put together, so I will need to listen and watch closely to the videos we watch in class.