Introspection — due Friday, Aug. 8
August 1, 2008
Hey Scholars!
This will be our final blog posting, as some of you are finishing your internships TODAY. Hard to believe! (But I will send out a few more e-mails to our group.) My question is a simple one: What do you know now re: journalism or your job/paper or yourself that you wish you had known at the start of your internship?
Signed,
Your Career Coach-with-the-emphasis-on-career!
This is easy. Relax. Stop stressing.
Thanks to some of my fellow Chipsters and some late night phone calls, I’ve been able to “jam out” (one of our favorite sayings in the Bulletin newsroom) daily stories without stressing so much. Prior to this internship, I’ve only worked for weekly publications and on the second or third day, I panicked. I don’t think it would be possible for me to just relax in the beginning. It was definitely a learning experience. But looking back, I know I spent too much time worrying about sources/deadlines/the pressure of working for a daily. I think we talked about this process a lot through our blog. It’s all about time management and being organized. Making calls as soon as you get into the office. Prioritizing. But most importantly, doing my best and not stressing about what I don’t have control over.
I hope everyone’s internship was as beneficial as mine. I noticed one of the questions on the CQ evaluation form is about whether this internship increased or decreased my interest in journalism. Definitely increased. Thank you Colleen, John, everyone at Chips Quinn. I can’t thank you enough for this opportunity.
See you guys in Nashville!
I wish I would have realized how quickly internships go by. I think I could have planned my story load better or the time span my enterprise piece better.
Even though I had heard from past Chipsters who worked at The Providence Journal that I would be working hard and writing lots of stories I hadn’t expected to get so much out of the experience. I have actually seen my reporting, interviewing and writing improve over the last several weeks. I’m more confident and I know that this is what I want to do, even if it’s in a different form.
I definitely agree with Mimi. though — I wish I’d known the summer would be over so soon. It’s going to be really hard going back to school and not writing stories on a daily basis. Other than that I really think that the orientation prepared me really well for the internship. My fellow reporters and editor reiterated a lot of tips and bits of advice that various speakers an d Colleen had already given us. I can’t thank everyone enough. I’m really excited for Nashville.
Looking at my work from last summer and comparing them to the stories this summer it is exciting and fascinating to see my progress and change. While producing my stories for this summer I didn’t realize how I used I had improved my stories by always thinking in sequences to tell the story. I found this to be most helpful when I didn’t have time to plan out a story in advance. Getting into a story and interview with “wide, medium, tight” viewing helped to make my editing later transition a lot smoother.
I wish I had know at the start of the internship to get out of my seat more and collaborate with others in the newsroom for story ideas, get their opinion about what I had so far or just talking to be friendly. I wish I had known it is perfectly fine to get up and move about the newsroom. It comes down to being comfortable in the newsroom and to get comfortable you need to talk to people and make yourself known.
I now know that producing video stories is something that makes me professional and emotionally fulfilled. I don’t mind the some times hectic work hours when I know I can just as easily take the Friday off. I now know communication with my editor is essential for my career. I learned making friends in the newsroom is not only beneficial for my social life but career too, the friends I made in the newsroom may hold managing positions in the future.
I think I agree with knowing how long I was going to be here. I took on the full 12 weeks because I just wanted more money (let’s be honest, here), but had I been here for 10 weeks, it would have absolutely flown by. I’m in my 10th week right now, and I’m in disbelief that I’m nearly out of here.
One of my goals was enterprise, and I failed at it. Though I did take several stories and make them my own, I did not budget enough time to truly find a story, pitch it, and write it. That being said, I have developed many ideas for my school newspaper and for the newsletter that I edit. Being on a staff where every second of every day counts, I’ve learned how to utilize my time to be the most efficient I can be.
I wish my interviewing skills were as developed in the beginning of the internship as they are now. I have a feeling some of my stories could’ve been better with a good conversation like interview as opposed to the ‘fire off a bunch of questions and get answers’ approach I had before.
One thing I did accomplish at this internship was being able to pitch stories to my editor. Some panned out well, others not so much. I also was able to push myself to get creative in finding sources for different stories and researching data. My writing speed did increase, for often on Metro I’m given stories very close to deadline or that have to be turned around quickly for the web (especially police stories). I probably will still keep pushing myself to get faster, though now I have better techniques to improve. I also enjoyed working on multimedia (video, blogging) and I plan to continue to try and incorporate more of it with stories in the future (some of our reporters actually do video with nearly every story!).
I agree with others, I wish I has spent more time connecting with other reporters outside of those immediately close to me. For example, in my job in Waco I will be covering the county beat (after a stint on night cops) and I had spent no time with at all with the county reporter here at the Statesman. He did sit down and chat with me some, though I could have learned more if I had connected with him earlier in the summer. It just shows you that you never know who could be a valuable connection. I also wish I had been able to pull off an enterprise story I had pitched, but my sources would not come through, and I haven’t quite managed the balance between the daily grind and working on longer in-depth pieces.
I am constantly growing, and I know all that I have worked on in this internship will benefit me in my internship. I too have enjoyed all the advice and tips that we’ve gained from Chips and this little web group. It’s been fun hearing all of your progress, and I’m excited for all of our futures!
I realized during and at the end of my internship that I’m very capable of dealing with a variety of news, feature and special interest stories. At first I was concerned about being rusty after a year of being editor-in-chief and having to delegate more than write, but I came to find early on that reporting is kinda like riding a bike…you never forget how and being an editor really helps you know what to mistakes to avoid (I know, I know; not really the same, but still)!
This was an amazing summer and apparently I’m a news magnet! Nice to hear from editors when you’re just a little intern covering a cops shift you didn’t expect! Really though, despite the challenges, this summer has confirmed my desire to be a journalist and continue to grow as a reporter.
With time comes improvement, and you’re always in a state of improving!
Filed from Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn
My internship ended yesterday and I’m riding the same emotional rollercoaster that I involuntarily rode each time I’ve covered a Washington State Legislative session — a whopping two of em’ — and the final gavel brought the year to a close. It’s a great adrenalin letdown. All the sudden there’s nothing more to do. Nothing to worry about tomorrow or next week. And every petty disagreement doesn’t matter anymore — I’m gone.
Honestly, there were moments this summer when I downright dreaded going to work. Times I hated work, that I couldn’t wait for the internship to be over.
But now, after it’s over, I’m not unsure those feelings were entirely appropriate. I question whether I let my frustrations interfere with work. I wonder if I picked the right battles to fight.
To be sure, I worked — and got worked — hard. Today ,which was my last day, was the end of nine consecutive days of work. And while that was the lengthiest stretch I pulled, there were plenty other long days, long weeks, accompanied by the fatigue that is inevitable with that sort of work regiment. As an important point of admission, though, I did buy into this sadism — I volunteered to come in on days off. As an intern, I figured I should rise to the challenge presented.
To do that I filed an awful lot of stories. An average of two stories a day. Sometimes (mostly on weekends) I would only submit one. But other times I’d file as many as three stories a day.
I learned to pound out copy. Fast . Which is one of the best professional skills I’ve picked up. But does the need for pounded copy also allow for good reporting, or does it merely indicate a large news hole and a need for content?
Personally I think (yes, I know “personally” and “I think” used in conjunction are a redundancy) good reporting requires… well, good reporting. And time. When a reporter is required to file twice daily, the reporting often suffers. Not every stone is unturned and not every angle is pursued; sometimes the job switches from newspaper reporter to stenographer. But given the current state of the newspaper business, that is what can be expected — at least in some quarters.
Even larger newspapers are seeing their newsroom resources stretched thin
Despite all the aforementioned detractors, I question whether I made the most of my internship. The amount of work I was expected to produce was the same everyone else at the paper was expected to produce: Every reporter was expected to write two stories a day. And this was, after all, where I was assigned to go, and there are no reasons to believe that previous Chips Quinn interns had any less on their plate. Also, does the broader umbrella of “what’s good for journalism” in a normative sense necessarily apply to an internship offered through Chips Quinn? I’m not sure, actually, since this was meant to be a summer of growth, and growth — copy cranking — I experienced.
Instead of answers, all I have now are self-reflexive rhetorical questions. I excepted the opposite to be true at this point.
It’s easy to forget the big picture when you’re doing an intense internship. Between stalking polygamist families and chasing down politicians at the state capitol, I didn’t have a lot of time to ask the big questions. Why am I doing this? What exactly about what I do as a reporter makes me satisfied? What are my long-term goals and what does what I’m doing now have to do with them?
Without a firm conception of why you are on overdrive (chomping down your lunch from a tupperware container in a parking lot before you have to get out of your car and source your second story of the day or working the graveyard shift for the third week in a row) it’s easy to get discouraged or upset when you inevitably get tired. Keeping in mind the big picture will let you point to some larger purpose when you’re stuck in that daily grind and help you get through those inevitable rough patches with a little more sanity.