Week 11 of Internship

Today I was based in the Newsroom. The first story I was given was on a RC helicopter competition being held over the weekend. I was given a media release and flyer for the event and that was it. This is definitely a change from the last few weeks because I did not know who I would be interviewing until I got out to the location. Usually I know exactly who I am interviewing because I am doing a phone interview and so I have to personally chase up the talent myself. In this instance I went out to the location with a photographer and basically asked around, “who has a good story? Who would make for a good interview?” I quickly found out that one of the “pilots” was from Sydney, which seemed a long way to travel for a toy helicopter competition.

Thankfully the guy was atheistically pleasing as well so the photographer and I thought the profile would work best if he was the subject. While I was only suppose to interview one person, another competitor obviously felt that his opinion was also worth sharing and kept answering questions that I was not directed at him. Fortunately the photographer caught on and she was able to distract him for long enough so I could interview the talent. By the time my interview had completed and photos had been taken, 45 minutes had passed!

Once I was back in the newsroom I was very concern about my story, I had not taken a voice recorder because I wanted to fasten up my writing pace. The real problem however is that the piece had to be a profile on one competitor but the information provided by the event co-coordinator was more informative about said event….go figure. In the end, I had to put some quotes in by the coordinator in order to get all the essential information in. Fortunately I found that once I started writing the piece came together very smoothly.

Once that story was compete, sorry complete, I was sent the media release about an event being held at the local RSA. The ceremony involved the presenting of blazers to RAR soldiers are going to compete in Cambrian Patrol in the London. The Cambrian Patrol is basically the commonwealth games of the Army. Once I had done up my questions I found that I had about an hour to kill until it was time to run out and do my interview

I headed out on my second story to the Townsville RSL, a lot more relaxed. But then when I walked in the door there was that moment of confusion, looking around the room who was looking at me and the photographer, with no idea who I was suppose to talk to. Luckily the events head chief made his way over to us. I asked him if there was anyone I could talk to who was going over to compete in the competition, and he introduced me to the right fellows. The interview went fine, the only problem was when more then one person was talking and I had to scribble down as much as I could catch from each guy.

After the interview and photos were done, I didn’t feel at all worried about the story until I got back to the news desk. The usually “where do I start?” question popped up and while I was writing the story I was definitely struggling to met my supposed length. In order to over come this I simply included some in-direct quotes, and then the piece came together fairly quickly towards the end.

However, once I had told the Chief of staff that my stories were done and in - she told me (after reading them) that I needed to work on me leads. She said that because they were picture stories the should be fun and bubbly "silly." This surprised me. I suppose with all my focus on feature writing over the past year I had forgotten the difference between hard and soft news. These were soft news stories but I was writing them like hard news - cold, sterile facts - bam bam bam. Needless to say it, going back to the computer and re-doing the leads seemed particularly painful. I had to re-ring one of my sources (whose contact was on their email) and basically re-interview him. I must admit I was pretty embarrassed that I had to do that, but at least it made me understand the story content better.

Another rookie mistake I made, and I don't even know why I did it, was failing to get the contact information from the people I interviewed! Something that has only been drilled into me from day one at JCU!! I have no idea how I managed to forget the devastatingly basic journalist tactic. In the end though, I managed to make do with the quotes I had and made the stories work. So my verdict for this week is, news journalism is alright but I know where my passion lies, so I am looking forward to returning to feature writing next week! :)

Week 10 of Internship

Well unfortunately I was not able to go into the Bulletin last week because I was sick, but I mostly made up for that this week. Over the weekend I worked on a feature article for Savvy titled "Naturopathy vs Modern Medicine." I had conducted an interview with a Naturopath last year for writing assignment, so I was so happy that I was able to use that material and actually get it published! The interview had been taped, so I did a re-transcript (because I lost the last one) and then went from there. To ensure that the piece was balanced, I also decided to interview on of my friends who is studying medicine. As she is a busy girl, I had to email her the questions. Usually I would never do this - but my questions were quiet complex and the did need a little digesting time before being answered. I knew that if I were to ask her the questions in a typical interview I would have received far less articulate and thoughtful answers. Fortunately, she answered my questions brilliantly - the next challenge however was piecing it all together.

It is very easy to form a solid story when you have only interviewed one person and the theme of the story is obvious. In this instance however, I had two voices to work with and a number or subjects to explore. I also knew that I could not favour one for of medical treatment over another, so I had to end the story on neutral terms. I got the basic crux of the story done on Monday, and I decided not to look at it again until I was in the office on Friday. Fortunately that break had allowed me to return with fresh eyes. I was able to re-arrange the paragraphs and rewrite the ending so that the story flowed better.

Isis has also given me two 'filler' stories that will most likely be used during the Nov/Dec period when "all stories just dry up and this isn't much happening" as Isis said. I got most of one story done, but still need to contact another performer for some quotes to through in. Both articles are about open mic nights - just held at different venues - one is at the Riverside Tavern and the other is hosted by the folk club at the Bellview hotel. So I will just be working on these pieces over my last few weeks.

Isis was absolutely loaded with stories on Friday, so at 1:15pm she asked me if I could do one of her interviews which was slotted in at 2pm. The story was on a hip-hop duo Koolism, who are headlining at the Full Noise festival next weekend. I quickly read through the media release, myspace page and bio. I scribbled down my questions as they came to me and then re-wrote them in a more cronilogical - linear order. I continued chipping away at another story until 2pm hit and then I rang Dan - the Dj behind Koolism. The interview went great - 15 minutes which is more then enough for a 600 word article. Once I produced the transcript I had the age old predicument or "Where the hell do I start?" In these instances, I find that you just need to start writing - you can change the lead and structure later - but you need to just start forming the body of the story. I found that the article came together quiet easy once I begun.

Linda informed me two weeks ago that a one of the requirments of my internship is to produce three news articles, so next week I will be in the newsroom. Now, I am not going to lie - I am not looking forward to next week! News really isn't my passion at all, but since I am there...and since I have to do it anyway....I will....and hopefully I will do it well. Until next week fellow bloggers!