Reflections on Super Bowl XLVIII coverage
Covering Super Bowl XLVIII was a challenge in planning and execution. For the first time, I was in a position of organizing and planning coverage tasks for several people during a major event. Although I spent only a week in the New Jersey and New York area covering the fanfare, I also worked exclusively on the planning of our digital coverage for the week prior to our departure.
In many ways, I can compare the experience to my time in Beijing covering the 2008 Olympics. The difference, this time, is that I was responsible for organizing people other than myself to create content.
The most difficult day for coverage was the day of my arrival, simply because it was extremely cold and no new content had been gathered. Although it stayed cold throughout the trip, huge volumes of content began to emerge on Tuesday with Media Day.
Held in the Prudential Center in Newark, NJ, Media Day was jam-packed with big celebrities from sports and entertainment even before the players arrived. It was my first opportunity to take out my new camera — a Cannon T3i purchased for this trip – and snap photos of the craziness.
Frustratingly, cellular services became jammed the moment the players came out for their one hour of availability. Although some pictures got through, many of the videos I recorded for Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr and Facebook were delayed in sending until I could reestablish a connection.
In addition to the social media component, I wrote several news stories about what the players during Media Day.
From that point forward, it was no longer difficult to find content to write for our website or to fill our one hour AppCast – a loosely produced digital-only show that showcased our sports anchors taking questions, doing live interviews and chatting about the Super Bowl-related events of the day.
Each day I worked with a producer back in Denver to coordinate content for the AppCast, often including stories I had gathered. Then, during the show, I took part as a field producer either helping to guide the talent through the hour or finding interviews and bringing them to the live location.
I covered other press conferences with the team throughout that week in addition to press conferences about security and the halftime show. I also tagged along with reporters’ interviews of the mayor of Denver and the governor of Colorado to cover them for digital platforms.
The non-football highlight of the trip was a tour of One World Trade Center where we went up to the 102nd floor with the business who will be turning that level into an observatory attraction. Views of Manhattan at sunset were fantastic, with buildings casting shadows and golden skies over the Statue of Liberty. Those were some of my favorite photos from the trip and was undoubtedly one of my favorite stories to write.