The past two weeks I have been in the news department and it has been nothing less than chaos! My first day I worked the assignment desk, which I enjoyed more than i thought i would. I never realized how hands on the staff was behind the scenes. I had always thought that stories were just assigned, I dint realize that every reporter got the opportunity to pitch their own story if they had one. The morning meeting were sometimes my favorite because after each story was pitched, there would be a discussion on what different angles we could use and why that story would be important to our viewers.

My experience was different from what other interns might experience because I got to cover a breaking news story on four different days. The live shots and the quick turnovers needed left little room to do any standup on my own, but I got to learn a lot just by observing and taking mental notes. Melanie made sure that she explained each task she was doing and gave tips on how to make those task easier and more effective.  I am not disappointed that I didn’t do stand-ups because I think I am coming out of this department with an experience that trumps getting myself taped on camera.  I learned a lot about script writing and how important it is as a reporter to avoid “journalese” as Mark calls it. It is best to just tell the story as if you were telling it to a friend.

The main thing I wanted to accomplish while in the news department was to write and edit my own package, and that is exactly what I did. I have never really used Avid before and I wanted to learn how to take all those clips and arrange them in a way that complimented the script and the story being told.