DQ #2: Were you surprised by anything your first week or two? Disappointed? Delighted? What you expected? Didn’t expect? How did you handle? Still wonder how to handle? What’s the news, something you can share w/ each other and talk about?
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-- Deadline: Monday night
( A few of you have fallen thru the cracks.... hope it’s not serious… )
The newsroom I’m working in is in a period of transition right now as the editor of our metro section left my second week on the job. My direct editor is currently acting metro editor, which means she’s always busy. Luckily, I’ve found some pretty awesome folks as go-to people who have helped me get some good breaking news stories as well as some more feedback and career advice in general. The only complaint/disappointment I have is that since I’m an intern, a lot of the other reporters use me for their grunt work and rarely even give me a contrib line. Once again though, I’m an intern, so I don’t plan on complaining about it. It’s one of those things you take in stride until you’re more fully integrated into the newsroom.
If you’re not from Texas, you probably don’t care about this, but the Legislature will likely go into a special session in July. I’ve been talking to one of the legislative reporters and am hoping to get at least a couple stories out of the mix since I ultimately want to end up in a political reporting job.
The newsroom I’m working out of, from what I’ve been told and seen, is focused mostly on producing quick news. There is for more feature stories here but the objective is to get things on the website fast. So these first few weeks I’ve been getting used to working the phones and getting things on the website the same day. I’ve covered morning traffic and crime shifts where you keep updating the story as more information is available. I’ve also done some man on the street reporting for reporters who need it quick before their story goes online. I’ve also written some stories for the communites around here about high school kids but mostly that.
I wouldn’t say delighted or disappointed at what I’m doing but just like Juana said, I’m just an intern here. I can place myself over other reporters here who have already proved themselves. What I think I need to do and probably other interns too is put up with this grunt work and show that we are reliable enough to do more than just grunt work. I’m sure it’ll come with time. What I’ve been trying to do here is when I have a simple assignment I try to do more with it than they would expect. I do this to show that I have the ability to craft more complicated stories.
Things are looking well for the rest of the internship. Nothing incredible to report so far. Although I am excited because I just got this assignment to write about local Chrysler dealerships in the area and how they’re dealing with some of the closures and the whole mess.
My car and mapquest are my best friends for this internship. I depend on Mapquest everyday for directions and I am getting to know the city from all the driving I have been doing. So far everything has been great. It’ s been challenging, stressful, hectic, tiring, and fun all rolled into one. My photo editor is keeping me busy with a good range of assignments: sports, news, features, portraits.
Everyday is challenging because I don’t want to screw up. I have been doing a pretty good job so far, but sometimes when driving home from a shoot, I will start to think about how I could have done things differently. “I should have done this or done that.”
I was surprised by the freedom I received to work on stories I wanted to do. That was really great. With that being said, I was a little under worked. I expected to being doing more than I am so I asked for more. I’ve been keeping pretty busy lately but there’s still downtime during the day.
In the first couple weeks, I have been pleasantly surprised by the level of work we are assigned. I thought Id be writing alot of stories that other reporters didnt want, but I’ve been able to cover alot. I have plenty of clips and… I got a front page story on Monday! I had to make changes to the story a gazillion times with my editor it turned out really good though, better than it would have been otherwise....
I would like to share that you all should check your story’s online version because today I had the horrifying experience of the uncomplete version of my story (notes and all) accidentally being posted :( . I had to make some phone calls and make sure it was changed. I couple of people had seen it and posted unflattering remarks lol but it was early enough that I dont think alot people saw it. It was still frustrating though because my name was at the top.
Anyway, all in all. Things are very well. I’m learning a lot and actually find I’m able to do more than I thought.
Andres and Juana I was in the same position last summer and I hated it. What I ended up doing was getting to the newsroom earlier and pitching the stories I wanted to do before they gave me those bad ones which I would do occasionally. My editor was really cool about it, I don’t know how yours are but it might be worth a try.
This is the end of my second week and they’ve really been keeping me busy. I do get a lot of those “intern” stories, last night I covered a senior beauty pageant.
But they’ve also let me work on stories that I want to write. Right now I’m working on a story concerning undocumented students in North Carolina. In this state they’re not allowed to enroll in community colleges, even if they’re paying out-of-state tuition. I’m supposed to interview a recent high school graduate who’s spending the summer working in the fields before he goes to Mexico to continue his education. Sounds great but since he’s not from the county, he’s from a neighboring county my editor isn’t very keen on the idea so I have to find a more local anecdotal source. It’s been really hard cultivating the sources I need for this story since the paper doesn’t really cover the Latino population. Good thing is last years Chipster did and she’s been pointing me in the right direction. I’m hoping to do some narrative with this story or at least try.
It’s a small newsroom, but the good thing is they let me take my own pictures and produce a video about every other day. So it’s been non-stop work which I love. The videos aren’t my best work but there’s one or two I like. Everyone is really nice and friendly in and outside the newsroom. It’s really beautiful and scenic, but I miss the city. Sorry I know I’ve been out of the loop.
If you’re not from Texas, you probably don’t care about this, but the Legislature will likely go into a special session in July. I’ve been talking to one of the legislative reporters and am hoping to get at least a couple stories out of the mix since I ultimately want to end up in a political reporting job.
Juana—WE CARE! wwe care about your getting a chance—hopefully—to do legislative stuff… remember the watchword about legislative/ pppolitical writing --- make it clear and accessible! Number one job is to translate for and connect the info to the audience. Keep us posted.
just like Juana said, I’m just an intern here. I can place myself over other reporters here who have already proved themselves. What I think I need to do and probably other interns too is put up with this grunt work and show that we are reliable enough ...
Guys—this is probably the most important thing about an internship—for you do the “grunt work” gladly, willingly, enthusiastically, and most of all, as exceptionally as possible, so that the “grunt work” becomes a kind of proving ground. If that happens, the bigger stories will follow. It’s all about building trust in your abilities… Anyone have a “I turned a grunt story into a cool story” experiences?????
. It’s been really hard cultivating the sources I need for this story since the paper doesn’t really cover the Latino population. Good thing is last years Chipster did and she’s been pointing me in the right direction. I’m hoping to do some narrative with this story or at least try..
Really interesting stuff… fact that there’s not a lot of latino population coverage means maybe you can make serious inroads in that area! The undocumented story sounds really interesting… we would love to hear about your narrative approach. Is there a big Hispanic population there? Any other possble story ideas bubbling up from that? Keep us posted!
I would like to share that you all should check your story’s online version because today I had the horrifying experience of the uncomplete version of my story (notes and all) accidentally being posted
wow ... this is great advice. This is yet another potential pitfall of the instant-posting age. Jaz—what did learn from the “gazillion"-fold editing of the story??? would be interested to hear.
My newsroom surprised me. My trainer gave me a two-day introduction to everything and then I set off. First they had me do briefs for the wire, and sent me to a simple press conference. After that, they threw me out there.
The only downside is that there isn’t much opportunity to do any video. So, I’m gonna do some on my own. I also got stuck for a second trying to figure out the news that the wire looks for. I’ve always looked at national news and localized it or written a national story on a national level. But, now I have to find local happenings and nationalize them.
The newsroom I’m in surprisingly has a lot of photographers and not enough photo assignments. Since the photographers have so much down time, they spend a lot of time editing their photos and learning new ways to do things in Photoshop. So that has been good for me, as I basically was not taught Photoshop in college. Now I can do enough to get by, thanks to the help of my co-workers. I must admit I was quite disappointed with 0-1 assignments per day on average, but have realized that the extra time has been beneficial in that I am better learning computer programs. Maybe things will get more busy in terms of actually taking photos, but if not, I am very interested in design and the graphic designer is helping me learn Illustrator, which is cool!
Also, the other photographers are very helpful and have given me lots and lots of useful advice and guidence.
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