Introduction: Week One

Hello everyone,

If you don't know me, my name is Kristen. I've recently completed my first year of journalism school.

As part of the program I'm enrolled in, I'm taking part in two internships over the next few months. So, to follow in the footsteps of some classmates of mine, I'm starting up this blog to write down my thoughts. That way I can at least reference something when I have to hand in an essay about the whole experience.

And who knows, maybe I'll continue this thing even once the internships are over.

Let's cut to the chase, shall we?

Week One: 

My first internship is at one of the oldest weekly newspapers in Saskatchewan - The World-Spectator.  The first issue ever printed dates back to 1884. Believe me, I've seen the original printing plate. It's pretty darn cool.

Monday: I wrote my first article on the local Relay For Life team. I was also given three other assignments to set up interviews with for the remainder of the week.

Tuesday: I wrote my first column, which I suspect is probably mediocre. It's a column that explains why I chose journalism - I figured I had answered the question enough times that it wouldn't be difficult to write Anyway, I'll try to figure out how to post that column and the rest of my articles on here.

I also took a stand-up photo for a local business donating money for a playground project at the elementary school.

Wednesday: Wrote an article about the tree nursery being shut down at Indian Head as well as an article about a benefit being held for a woman with an uncommon muscle disorder.

Thursday: Revised the article about the tree nursery as I had spoke to additional sources, wrote up a short story on the gala taking place in June for the centennial of the armoury hall as well as a piece on the high school drama club's success at the Saskatchewan Drama Association Region 1 Drama Festival.  (It's not as dramatic as it sounds.)

Thursday was a long day for everyone at the office. Not only are there only two reporters on staff, besides myself, but everyone in the building is dedicated to putting the paper together during the week. Often the staff stays late on Thursdays to make sure the paper is ready to go on Friday, just in case a last minute story pops up on Friday morning.

Friday: The final touches were made on the pages. It was a short day because the paper goes to the press by early afternoon.

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The amount of work that goes into this paper is tremendous.

Through the magic of InDesign, the paper comes together throughout the course of the week. (A big shout out to print lab instructor Mark for teaching us how to use the program during the last semester. It's really coming in handy!)

The benefit that comes with this is that no one else can crop your picture or cut your article for space on the page. If room is needed for an article, we are able to make room for it. Word limit isn't really an issue. (Judging by the length of this introduction post, it's pretty clear that I'm grateful for the lack of a limit.

We also are able to just write our articles onto the page itself. We're able to shape the page how we want it as we're writing the article.

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It was the middle of the week when I was sitting at my desk and I began to feel slightly overwhelmed. I honestly think that I had done more in the past three days than I had all semester during school. Now, that may or may not be true but  I distinctly remember complaining to family and friends about how stressed I was with school work.

If I were in possession of a time machine I would go back and visit myself in February and just laugh. Actually, that's not true. If I had a time machine, I would make much better use of it than travel back a few months. Maybe go into the future or something.

The point is, the real job is a lot different than school. I have a feeling that when I go back to school, the pace is going to feel considerably slower than what I've been used to.

I'm also pretty excited about some upcoming stories I'm going to work on. Sometime in the near future, I'll get the chance to explore the potash mine.

I'm sure I'll tell you all about it!

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Sidenote: I'm planning on posting my work here on this blog. If it isn't available online, I'll see what I can do to get a version of it on here. 

Feel free to comment or ask questions about anything I've brought up here, or what else you'd like to know about.

Cheers,
Kristen