Is there even anything for me in Journalism?

Still cannot get a job.
So it’s off to plan B… back to school.
I applied for all different courses across Melbourne and got accepted in Masters.
Let’s see how I go from here.
Bring on March 2015.

The First Internship

So I have had no luck and starting to give up hope, that was until I received this email.

 

Success! finally. This internship was the one I never thought I would get, But it’s in NSW. I replied almost immediately — note to other journalists, keep email notifications on your smartphones. So I’m off to NSW.

Day 2.

• In the morning, i sat down and looked at the news gathering side of things.
• The senior journalist looks at the filing cabinet for todays stories or events that all the other journalists have been following over the weeks and places them on their desk.
• I pictured it too be much like radio— which it was in a way.
• Planning form editor- everything for that day gets disbursed.
• In the morning I checked all the twitter feeds, with #wagga, press releases from emails, Facebook and checking the paper.
• One of the senior journalists checks the obituaries for important people like premiers or mayors or something.
• Set a goal to do 2 packs and a VOS
• It was country cup day in Wagga. I looked at the events guide to see what was going on that day. ABC and the advertiser. You can always look at political things that affect rural towns and expand from there.
• We pick the type of shots we want to go with the story- always explain to the camera men the stories, so they can also do their own shots, and then they put it together.
• Spelling errors: Woman and Women.
• Looked on the events page, new refurbishing to the Resource recovery centre
• On  the ABC- the federal government was targeting rural areas, exploring new ways of reducing greenhouse gas emissions. — home power saving program in order to reduce energy.
• The journalists go out to their designated areas around the riverina district, they call the day before to line up interviews, otherwise it’s just too hard.
• Today Ben had a look at some of the bulletins I wrote for my stories.
• ## there will always be only (((()))) 4 brackets when talking to the editors on the page
• ##Always write a little description of the clip, so not only can the camera men when editing can locate the clip you have chosen, but the editor can see what kind of shot you have chosen so it flows.
• ##Jump cuts— always make sure that the types of shots flow.
• ##you always have to have context to what you show— write to pictures.
• EG: I did 2 stories today-
• 1. on the new bus for the Fire brigade- so I was writing to pictures, although when saying “The new RFS bus will transport frier’s to and from the blue mountains (old footage of the firey’s fighting a fire they previously had in the Blue Mountains))
• I got used to the software today— not used to it but a little more familiar.

Story 2

• SECOND STORY: CAR ACCIDENT

 

• We got called out to a car accident, but they weren’t sure whether it would be still there or not, but we jumped in the van straight away to go and check it out. As we were on our way, we were trying to determine the location of the accident in Forrest Hill where the caravan was tipped over.
• We found out from a ‘tipped caller’- making friends with people around the area- and the police being called out to the scene. When on the scene a spokes person (fire brigade) They said it was a nasty accident, the NSW ambulance were there, it involved a 4WD and lost control off speed.
• We directly linked this car accident to the ‘Stone the crows’ festival that happened just that week, where many people from out of town came with their caravans to watch racing.
• All the journalists have towns that they individually look after, so there is a diverse range of stories across the towns, and allowing those local districts to have their stories heard.
• The editor decides the stories, so Ben will always have the first and last say about everything.
• We double checked our sources for yesterday on NSW traffic updates, which confirmed it happened in East Wagga Wagga at 11:09am this morning,and all the westbound traffic was affected.
• Both were taken to hospital for checks- is what they told us.—fireys
• I went out with the senior journalist and there were already 2 people to interview on the scene, where she told me the fireys already know what they are being called out for so they are almost always happy to comment on the camera. But highway patrol don’t usually talk to the journalists.
• It is really a sink or swim environment.
• Getting shots of the scene- don’t get too close to police men and when going onto the highway you need to wear a high-visibility vest at all times.
• You get all the shots and then you come back- get all the information you can but all the shots are the camera mens job.
• Ben determines what is newsworthy or not, you must consult with him before going on a job and agree with the angle you are going for. Real news: murders and drugraids.
• Sometimes when the cameramen go out the shots are rubbish, you will then have to go back out and do it again- or you simply cant use the footage.
• We were the first journalists on the scene- and was told there was only 1 person injured and taken to hospital with minor injuries
• When reporting on car accidents, it was important to make sure that we say ‘the ambulance loaded her in’ not ‘she was loaded in’. —-de humanising.
• With the same story, the senior journalists connected the car accident to the new road toll figures for the easter weekend- organised an update a few days before, then did a piece to camera in front of the police station.
• She uses the bit of paper to remember, then it’s normally 4 takes before you get it right.
• ALWAYS WRITE TO THE FOOTAGE- CHOOSE THE FOOTAGE YOU WANT TO USE AND THEN WRITE TO IT, PUT IT ALL DOWN THE BOTTOM.
• don’t use the word after. *****
• 4 pars and 30 seconds- is a written RVO- which is about 1 grab and 45 seconds.
• (()) these brackets are used for the editor- everything that are in these brackets will be read by the editors about your piece- you could put anything in these brackets just make sure you label everything.
• THINGS YOU NEED TO PRACTICE- WRITING FOR BROADCAST FROM PRESS RELEASES.
• The tip off you get for most breaking stories come from the police scanner, but sometimes we will miss a story that happens overnight and we read about it or watch it the next day.
• It is really important to develop good relationships with police officer because then they will be more inclined to speak with you and give you the information you need.
• I need to practice writing to press releases— I made a note of this myself because the industry gets a lot of press releases from police media and other organisations such as the RFSA and court reports.
• The car accident was classified as breaking news.

First story

• First story: The Court Case

 

• Went along with one of the journalists to cover a story about a couple who murdered an elderly man- went to the local courts in Wagga. Learnt how to do some court reporting and bow whenever you enter a court room (which i didn’t do).
• Watching one of the journalists working on this story, I asked questions about children and using the names of children inside a court case— you can never do this to anyone under the age of 16. All others however, which is something I didn’t know because I was weary about contempt of court, but in any court case (EMAIL STEINER ABOUT THIS) or even call Liam, it is okay to name the accused only after they have been charged. —- is it only if they are making their verdict?? The jury shouldn’t be reading the paper anyway.
• In court reporting you don’t usually work with a judge meaning it’s very rare that a judge would communicate with you personally, but because there was a press release that indicated the wrong day, today the judge began talking. —the paper said the hearing was on Monday but it was actually Wednesday.
• The journalist began asking questions to the judge and police officer on the scene telling the journalists that the second court case will be on Wednesday. The judge told us that in the last proceeding bail was not applied. You can publish any names of victims unless there is a suppression order on the names by the judge. You can walk into the court and pick up a list of all the names and cases on in the next couple of weeks. To confirm the names we rang police media to clarify the names.
• You can interview the lawyers and court staff.
• Working on Monday was weird because I was working on a public holiday- journalists work all public holidays and don’t get paid for it. Journalists also don’t work on weekends. Also another thing that the camera men work in the editing suites too so we pick the footage that we write too and then the camera men edit it. They work under journalists direction.
• I learnt a lot about court reporting today, and that it is so important to keep close relationships with police media, and around the area. —
• 23 year old women and 25 year old man— we had to double check the police with this one.

Day 1

 

• Very quick researching skills, writing bulletins (describe what happened and what I was doing wrong))
• Gathering stories: Wrong information/ given the wrong names from the ones printed in the paper. We have to wait until Wednesday for the next Court case, because it was postponed-
• we got from police media best to wait until the court case to unveil the names of the murdered couple go through White pages to find out the names of the victims because they were locals
• The RVO’s — no clips, but you can have grabs – no piece to cameras or voiceovers. Just the presenter speaking. (google just to double check correct term) reads all the way through with no clips. do a separate blog post on all RVO’S AND PACKS -all industries call them different things))
• When writing scripts:
• (()) the brackets mean that it is hidden from the prompt so the presenter doesn’t read it out- they are notes for the film editors/camermen when editing your clips together
• When putting together a piece always put your best picture first and 2nd best picture last to keep people interested in the story
• The software they use is called Dalet plus—- sort of like Audacity/ pro-tools—- so Dalet/ Final-cut pro
• There are no fancy editing techniques, no transitions or anything like that, everything is simple and straight forward.
• Always read your stories out loud, they need to sound the way you talk, KISS
• Always keep the intro to 1 par::: an RVO should be 4 pars, a grab, another par depending on the clip.
• You are writing to pictures, so when developing the story, you look at the footage first, and then you write the stories depending on what footage you get. you always tell the story through the pictures, the words will follow with additional information.

Arrival in …… Rural Australia

Came to NSW to suss out the area. Had a meeting with my guidance councillor before my departure from Melbourne about what they would expect from me.
But yes here I am, 2 days early so I could catch up with some of the local stories, go to some of the popular dining places and meeting with locals.
I don’t really know what to expect when I walk through the doors. It’s in a small country town but I suspect that the Prime building would be pretty huge.
I have never worked in a commercial news room, or even seen one- except on the movies. I know that i will have to go in with a few story ideas, just in case they decide to throw me in the deep end. I have to present myself well also- but what do they normally wear. I’m afraid they might stick me in front of a camera to do some reporting but I don’t think I’m that confident. I would like to help with locating stories and learning more about breaking news stories. I am good with the research but sourcing a breaking news story would be amazing. I would also like to help with final cut pro, I think it would be a busy and loud environment- especially fast paced. All I know is that I’m terrified, This is the real deal and if they don’t like something they won’t sugar coat it for you.

running coffees, going out with the news team, equipment, industry softwares, writing stories, editing. You name it.

Let’s see how we go.

No we don’t want the liability

Hi Kathleen,

‘Thank you for expressing your interest in an Internship with Prime Television. I will forward you request on to our Network Director of News and will notify you should we be able to assist you. 

If we are unable to assist you with a placement please visit our website at www.primemedia.com.au as journalist positions that become vacant are frequently are advertised here. 

Prime Media Group values your privacy and any personal information that we have collected from you will be used only to assess your application. 

Kathleen, Once again, I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your interest in Prime Television and wish you every success for the future.‘

These are all the responses I kept getting from a reverse range of places I applied for. This one at Prime 7 was one of them I was really keen for….but commercial stations never take interns. I think i need to apply somewhere smaller, although it would be ideal.

 

The pen is mightier than the sword

So i have decided I want to do something in Politics, maybe be an assistant… anything to get me in. Although what party should I go for, and how exactly is it going to look on my resume?
Kathleen O’Connor
Female
21
Interned for the Greens… does that then mean I’m siding with the Labor party?
HOW TO put on your resume that you have worked for the Greens but still have an objective view on stories? That should be ‘how to’ that comes up when typed into Google.

I have some contacts in my little book of all the people I know in the industry already that could help me out. Ingrid-ABC-

I have already covered some journalistic bases with radio and online. But a journalist could be anyone with the already established term, ‘citizen journalism’. I should be specialising in something, some sort of department to then share my knowledge through words. Politics I think would be my specialty. Not defined as yet to a specific department in politics but I think by doing an internship in Australian politics will help me to figure that out.

I have made many attempts to contact local members of parliament and apply for an internship. (how did I go about writing it and pushing that I have insurance because they don’t normally take interns). After researching their offices, some of them had contact emails although most of them had phone numbers for me to contact them on. I called around to ask for the best person to speak to in regards to an un-paid internship, and all of them gave me a contact email address.

As I emailed them, basically selling myself to people I haven’t even met, I either got no email back, an automatic response or ‘yes Kathleen we would like to thank-you for applying and we will let you know.’

It was so hard trying to sum up everything I have learnt over the past couple of years over a 1.5 page resume and a cover letter. I wanted them to at least meet with me, give me an interview even if they weren’t interested.

Nothing came of this, even when kindly writing in my emails that I will give them a courtesy call in a week just to see how things were going. I mean I know they are busy with elections and public relations work but I got absolutely nothing.

So i decided, yes they will have to meet me. I had decided that because my main strength is an outgoing personality that, that was what was going to get me an internship.

I’m going in.

Different shades of black

I think my hands are starting to bleed from all the individual cover letters I have written for each application.

From online publishing and social networking to a whole range of useless volunteer work, I started with signing up my email to job sites such as ‘Seek’ and ‘Jobrapido’. Some advertised internships, and by some I mean very little, most of what they advertised was way out of my league.

Senior Journalist wanted at the Australian Broadcasting Network, you should have at least 50 years experience in the industry. Being as I have worked in radio, online and so many print articles, I have an itch for more broadcast experience. Even though I am a confident speaker, put a camera in front of my face and I look like Abbott after the ‘shit happens’ comment- stunned and just stupid.

An MP’s political assistant or more broadcast. Time to make some more phone calls and send some more emails. I swear i’m becoming more stubborn and cocky. I’m talking myself up that much I’m actually starting to convince myself that I’m that amazing at everything.