The Interning Experience

I've been at WKBN for about two months now and it's not only been a great learning experience but also very eye-opening. I'm really starting to get the hang of ENPS and I think it's a great program because it's pretty much an online rundown that everyone can access and edit. The anchors and reporters can type their stories right into the rundown and it appears on the teleprompter.

I've also been learning a lot about the job of a VJ. I don't think the public really understands how much work a reporter actually does. Sometimes when I go out with reporters the people we are interviewing or filming are pretty surprised to find out that there's no real camera man, just the reporter. Ever since the merger with WYTV, only a few of the reporters that have been there for a long time have their own camera men. I've also been learning a lot about writing scripts and trying to improve my writing. After we went out on a story I came back and wrote my first VOSOT and showed it to the reporter to see what he thought. I learned that I need to cut down my story and make it much more tighter and concise. However, ever since then I really have been improving my writing.

Although I find the job of a reporter to be exciting and interesting, I do have doubts on whether or not I could actually be a reporter. I'm not the type of person who can knock on a strangers door and ask them if they want to talk on camera, especially if it invloves the death of a family member. Some of the stories we go out on do involve some type of crime or murder and I'm not going to lie it can be scary at times. One day we were sent to a house where a woman was murdered just 5 hours prior and all we knew is that one person was arrested. We had the address and that was it, no further information.

So even if I can't be a reporter I feel like I have plenty of other options. Nate and I got the opportunity to intern in the promotions department the other day and I felt like this was something more along the lines of what I would like to do. They create all the promos for the station and work on special feature shows such as a "Movie Review," and "Sunday Morning with Dee." I'm hoping to keep in contact with some of the promotions people so when I begin working on my capstone project they can give me feedback.