Finding Your Fit: The Importance of Internships

Internships are an invaluable way to learn the life of a journalist. If executed strategically, an internship may also lead to your first job. The experience you gain and the contacts you make will get you that much needed boost to reaching your goals. Not only is this your opportunity to do the job at a limited capacity it’s also your chance to ask specific questions and see the newsroom in its entirety. If you learn how the newsroom functions as quickly as possible, your career will flourish. Take the opportunity to learn the duties of each person at the station for a complete understanding of how the newsroom operates. Sit, take notes, ask questions, absorb.

This means, if you’re logging tapes at the assignment desk be sure to have a conversation with the stringer that captured the video. The district police should know you by name from your daily beat check calls in which you also engage them in small talk. You’ve formed a relationship with the technical director after requesting station cameras are brought up at a specific time. You’ve sat in the control room and have a basic understanding of how it and the technical team function. You’ve listened as the satellite coordinator held two conversations at one time while turning in your ‘feed’ request. You’ve written teases and scripts for producers and you’ve edited video. You’ve participated in morning and afternoon meetings and you’ve scheduled an individual meeting with the news director.

After you’ve gained a better understanding of each position you can focus on what interests you. One thing you know for sure, if it's a position in the newsroom outside from engineers, directors, and coordinators, you will have to write. If you’re not practicing your writing every day, start now. And by writing I don’t mean just rewriting a newspaper article to broadcast style. That’s just step one. I mean rewriting that same article a minimum of three different ways.

Say you’ve just landed a job as the new staff writer or producer. Great! You get your copy and it's a reader. You knock it out. Then video comes in, so you’ll need to rewrite it to the video and

make it shorter. Cool. You get that done. Now the executive producer wants to use it for a teaser so you now need to rewrite it again and get it down to maybe 15 seconds. That’s a prime example of one story being written three ways. Breaking down a reporter’s package into a VO/SOT and a reader are good ways to practice because that will be a part of your daily job function. 

I cannot stress enough the importance of mastering the skill of writing. Let's say you’re working the morning show and you were assigned a story that was done at 6:00AM and 6:30AM. Nothing will irritate your executive producer more than you simply copying and pasting the same script into the next show. You will get called out for it and it will not be good. You also want to be mindful of not getting a reputation of being lazy and undependable. Even as an intern. The moral of the story is you need to practice your writing every, single, day.

I completed an internship every summer of my undergrad years and even while earning my master’s degree. Before leaving the station for the day, I would print a copy of the entire newscast. I would then compare what aired to how I’d written the story. Having scripts is also a good way to practice your speech for those looking for on-air positions. Record the newscast and record yourself reading the script. Get comfortable with the sound of your own voice. Then compare your delivery to the newscast.

I was the assignment editor throughout my journalism career which means information on breaking news, updates, daily assignments, and changes that occurred throughout the day were all coming from me. I tried to write all of my emails, notes, messages, and any form of communication relating to news of the day in broadcast form. When I got information from news affairs, I’d write it out as close to a script as possible because I knew that would help my coworkers especially in breaking news situations. I was pulled to the side on several occasions by coworkers at every station I’ve worked for thanking me for what I thought was simply doing my job.

As an intern, you’ll more than likely be assigned a job and an area. Master that and grow. If you’re on the assignment desk and you want to write, ask a writer or producer if you can sit with them after you’ve completed your work. While I was working in Chicago, we had an intern on the assignment desk that wanted to be a reporter. She told everyone who would listen about her goal as she should have. The problem was she didn’t want to do anything other than field produce so she could make her audition tape. When she was asked to log tapes, make beat calls, review press releases (all things a reporter will do) she balked and did the bare minimum to complete the task. In short, she was not allowed to complete her internship. I don’t know what happened to her or her career.

It should be a goal of yours as an intern to get to the station early and stay late. Your goal is to absorb everything that you can. If you’re with a reporter when they’re writing you should be writing. Ask questions afterwards. If you're with a photographer, you should be taking notes while they’re editing. Ask questions afterwards. Notice how you’re first observing, trying things on your own, then asking questions. Remember these people are at work and have a job and a deadline. Do not disturb their work and give them space especially in a breaking news situation.

In breaking news, you should literally be a fly on the wall, ready to assist when asked. You will be told what to do directly in that situation. Your job is to do it quickly and correctly. Be present and persistent but not pesky. Be observant. Read the room. A lot of times you will learn more simply by watching and listening. 

At the end of your internship you should literally know everyone who works your shift from stringers to technical directors to producers to the news director. You should have formed relationships and have at least one contact that you can use as a reference. If you don’t, you did it wrong.