First Week of Interning

I experienced my first week as an intern at WKBN First News. My classmate, Nate Dodd, and I were excited, yet nervous to go in on Monday morning and begin our first day as interns. When we arrived the executive producer, Maggie, met with us and gave us packets with important information that we would need throughout the summer, such as phone numbers and script formats. Then we logged onto computers and were introduced to ENPS, which is a news wire program. At first it was a little confusing, but once I used it for awhile I got the hang of it. Not only does ENPS allow you to access news, but it also allows you to send messages to co-workers and look at rundowns for the different shows.

Throughout the week I was got to meet multiple employees and I got to know two of the reporters really well. On my first day I went out with Roxann. We went to an elementary school that had raised $5,000 for the Make-a-Wish Foundation in order to allow a local girl, who is sick, go to Disney World. Being out on this story was a great experience because it was great to see all the kids and how excited they were that they had raised enough money.

On Wednesday I got to see the downsides of being a reporter. I went out on a story with another reporter, Dan, but we didn't have much luck. We were unable to get any interviews because no one really wanted to talk, including the police. We had no footage, no interviews, and were pressured for time so Dan ended up calling the producer and we were assigned another story. However, we were in the complete opposite direction so we had to drive about 45 minutes to cover this other story. We ended up getting the other story and got back to the station with plenty of time for editing. Although it was sort of stressful, I'm glad that I got to experience it because I want to know all the ups and downs of each persons job in the business so I can figure out what I want to do.

Then on Friday I went out with Roxann again to downtown Youngstown. I've never been there before and it was great to see because it really is a nice part of the city. She was doing a story about "Party on the Plaza" which is an even the city holds every other Friday in the summer. While she was getting some footage she explained to me how it is very important to hold your shot for more than a few seconds. I also got to sit in and watch her edit the package, which was really neat. Although the editing program they use is different than what I'm use to, I think it's something I could learn just by playing around with it.

Overall, my first week as an intern has been very exciting and I look forward to learning more. So far, I haven't felt overwhelmed, which is good, and I feel like this is something I could actually do and be good at. My overall goal with this internship is to gain as much experience as I can and hopefully figure out what exactly I want to do in this business.