Looking Back

I've had a few days off now that my internship is over to sit and think about the experience...

And overall it was a good one. I accomplished exactly what I wanted to...I got a look inside a non-University operated station. And I saw EVERYTHING.

I saw how paid reporters go about contacting sources. I saw what an experienced Rolodex should look like...and wow. Soooo many contacts. I saw different preferences for both questioning subjects and writing stories. Every reporter does it differently...

I saw what it's like to work with a true union photog. And in some cases it was exactly what Greeley warned about. In others, it was fun. But ps...don't ever think about touching their cameras...even if they do still shoot entirely with tape.

I saw how easy it was for an experienced producer to sit down, stack an hour long show...sometimes two at once...and manage to write teases, vo/sots and extra pieces that came of the wire. All of the national news we did came down from our FOX, CNN, and AP wires and since FOX didn't have a nightly news report...a producer condensed it all to put it out on our show. Talk about an amazing feat of choreography...producers would also make amazing event planners.

I got to see how an independent web crew worked to put a website together. It's one thing to write print versions of all the stories and important vo/sots, and to post weather. But it's an entirely different thing to build a website that "works for you." Ours had so many helpful features from a gas tracker, to special recipes, to a job posting site. They even had a google map representation listing garage sales in the area with small blurbs people sent in on what they had to offer. Working with those guys let me see a different side of convergence. And they gave me a little inspiration for when it comes to starting a website of my own.

But that wasn't all I saw.

I saw the politics of the newsroom. The MU kU rivalry...rediculous. There was one person who refused to shake my hand when he found out I was attending Mizzou.

I saw furloughs, I saw layoffs, I saw people take pay cuts. I was there in the middle of their health insurance change over from one program, to a cheaper program. I saw contract negotiations. Everything I wouldn't have gotten to see at KOMU. And it was a sobering reality.

But I'm all the better for seeing it.

Because now I know what to expect from a real job. And that was my goal in this internship.