Executive Internship: October 2006

Wednesday, October 25, 2006

Week of 10/23

A. This week at the News Herald I worked more on and finished my second project with the dress code policy for Bay County students. I found how hard it is to get in contact with anybody from the schools. I added another entry to my blog on Rutherford's homecoming last week. I have also been working on my next blog for the site. I've also learned that there is a sense of competition in the news room, but its always friendly! The guys here are funny, I say guys because that's all there is. Sometimes there is the one lady, but I only see her every other time I come in. lol
There's one thing I have a hard time remembering about internship--time sheets! We all have to have them but we have to get them from class. Hopefully I can do some major catching up this week because I really need to.

3. Ask your mentor about in-house training opportunities. Give some examples.

B. The News Herald doesn't really have any in-house training opportunities. They do have customer service training where reporters are sometimes sent to regional workshops. There they learn skills and techiniques with writing and editing.

Thursday, October 19, 2006

Week of 10/16

A. It was cool this week, I finished my first article on classroom blogs and then set up a new blog on the News Herald's site. I've learned a little on how to form an article, what to include and what not to include. On my blog I wrote a entry on the dresscode and had a good amount of peole view and comment. I may be getting more out of this internship than I thought I could. I first started out thinking they were just going to have me run around and maybe write something here or there. I haven't had to run and get anything so far, but I did get to shadow the reporters. Tony took me out with them to Gulf Coast Community College to do a story on the segways that are now being used on the campus. Hopefully once I get more experienced with the reporting process I get to go on more assignments. As for the work habits of the people here at the News Herald, it's usually pretty chill there hasn't been any sense of urgency or anything that have been a big deal. I'm sure they have troubles, but they are well handled without any fuss.

2. Ask your supervisor/Director of Human resources about entry level positions that are available in the company an what academic traning or experience they are looking for in filling those postions. ask them for the top 10 things they are looking for in a prospective employee.

B. As far as entry levels go there are inserters and entry level reporting. You must be 18 years of age or older for any of the positions offered at the News Herald. The inserters are the people in the mailroom who put the advertisements in the paper and get it out in the mornings. The hours are crazy and there are no academic requirements for this position, only physical. The other entry level position that they offer would be the entry level reporter. For this position there are college graduate requirements. The only things that they look for in a prospective employee would be what most companies do look for: dependability, a good work ethic, and the ablibity to work in a team environment.

I found that I need to work on my note taking skills. All I do is type now so when it comes to having to write something down, it takes longer. lol

Tuesday, October 17, 2006

~Brainstorming~

Just a little bit of typing I did on my first day of internship

When my class had to start thinking about where we all wanted to intern, I actually had interests in the medical field so I wanted to try and intern somewhere at the hospital. However, I had the oppurtunity to interview with somebody from the News Herald. I landed the internship and couldn’t wait to see what it was like. I’ve already experienced television production, but now I get to see how our newspaper comes together and the kind of people that produce it.

From this internship at The News Herald, I hope to gain experience on this side of communications and just to get the feel of an actual newsroom. I don’t really write much so with the writing skills I do have, this would be a good way to improve them from writing stories to brainstorming for a new layout of a site. I would like to accomplish maybe actually have something I write published or contributing to the website and hopefully be a help. Interning at The News Herald would definitely expand my horizons. By this I mean, even though I want to pursue physical therapy, I’ve taken up on learning about computers, working around television production, and now getting to inern at The News Herald. Real talk!

Wednesday, October 11, 2006

Week of 10/9

A. This week at The News Herald I am in the process of gathering and organizing information to use for my project on classroom blogs. I decided to start off with this topic instead of my other of the new uniform dress code because I use what I am getting from this article for help and because it hasn't been discussed as much. I went around to get insight from fellow students of ComTech on how they use the site for their classes and also found how they felt it was good help or convenient for them.

I’ve observed in the newsroom that whenever people come in to work, they get right on it and are reasonably busy until it is their time to leave. Even though there is serious work going on, they keep a light atmosphere by socializing and being humorous with each other. The newsroom here consists of a single female staff, the rest are guys.

1. Ask your mentor to describe the different benefits offered to the employees by the company.

B. Here at The News Herald the employees are offered several benefits by the company. They are offered Dental Health Care, Eye examinations, 401k for retirement, Health insurance, life insurance (including accidental death or dismemberment), worker’s compensation, paid vacation and sick leave. As for education benefits, they are sometimes invited to participate at conferences and workshops. So they pretty much cover most of what you would need if you were to work here.