My First Day on the Job: Student Bessie Blore's news reporting debut

This is a post submitted by one of my communication interns, Ms. Bessie Blore on her blog entitled "Bessie at the Bully" (Short for Townsville's daily newspaper, Townsville Bulletin) that I have decided to feature here. She talks about her experience of working at the Bulletin (Australia) on the first day of her internship. A delightful story written with passion and zest. The strength of this post comes from the honesty of the writing. Congratulations Bessie! Proud of you.
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I just wanted to do a quick post, before I get into the good stuff over the weekend, to reflect on my feelings of how the first day of my internship at the Townsville Bulletin went....

* I was nervous... so nervous of being late that I got there 40 minutes early and read a book in my car for half an hour...

* Linda and all the other staff were nicer than I anticipated... (not sure why I didn't think they would be... will mull over this over the weekend)

* I got sent out to do a story on the launch of a Driver Training program... at first I thought I was going out with a Journalist to cover the story and then I realised I WAS THE JOURNALIST... So it was just me and the photographer and she thought I was a pro... when I told her it was my first day, my first real story EVER she took pity on me and got right in there initially pointing out who all the officals were for me and telling me background info on people so I knew who to go and speak to... I was lucky becuase the launch had organisers there specifically to be a go-between for the officals and the media, so they asked me who I wanted to speak to and would go and grab them for me...

but then after the formal speaches I was on my own.. and I felt pretty confident from the first few little chats with people that I could go and speak to anyone.. it definitly helped that I was able to introduce myself as "Bessie from the Townsville Bulletin"... after years of being "Bessie a student from JCU"...and I don't think anyone guessed that I was still a student, which really validated me. I felt like I had completed a real job, which I had!

The photographer told me I had done a good job and I found it really interesting being able to follow the photographer around after I'd done my interviews, althought I don't think Linda would be impressed if I told her I had followed the photographer around... even though I really thought I had enough for the story!
* Going back the newsroom and writing the story was the hardest part of the day... but luckily I wasn't feeling too precious about what I had written. I was actually really appreciative of having Linda rip it apart and show me how it should be done... I will definitly learn better that way.

* I am really worried about having to do more than 1 story a day... Linda said by the end of the internship I should be able to do at least 4 stories a day! I only finished the 1st one by 3.30 and the subs start at 3.....and I had lots of help from Linda to get it right...

* I was a bit annoyed that it was straight news peice that I had to do today, as my passion is in features and photography... and I know my work won't show my full potential becuase I do struggle with hard news... but I tried my hardest today, Linda was incredibly helpful, interviewing such important people by myself (and having the Bully just throw me in there) was very liberating and I enjoyed it so, so, so, so, so much!

* The other girls in Advertising-Features were all really friendly and seem pretty keen to have me help them with their upcoming stories... they have a few monthly liftouts coming up and have told me to try and come up with some stories ideas based around their general topics... so that is exciting!

* I think I felt better by the fact that Tara and Ryan were there as well...thought I only saw them for our tour for the first hour of the day... but I didn't feel like I was the only intern in the building...so that somehow in the back of my mind made me a bit more confident...

* Overall it was new and very exciting... and I CANNOT wait to grab the paper first thing tomorrow morning and see if my story is in there! :) [Mum and Dad will definitly be sent a copy to stick on the fridge!]

How my students are learning via Blogging

This semester I decided to embark on an experiment with my Communications Internship students. I asked them to create their own blogs, a sort of reflective journal of their experiences while gaining job experiences at various communications organisations throughout Townsville (Australia).

Interestingly, prior to this only one of out a total of ten interns had already started a blog! This was surprising to me since with the explosion of 'citizen journalism', one would have thought students would have replaced writing in notebook journals with blogging away on the Internet. Wrong! They were facebooking and twittering but they rarely created exposes on a variety of topics - which is the essence of the blogospshere.

The idea of integrating web 2.0 technologies into teaching is not a novel concept. I had entertained the idea of setting up chat room discussions for my public relations class but was too bogged down with the tedious task of teaching three subjects and coordinating PR subjects taught at JCU satellite campuses in Singapore (and Brisbane) to be bothered.

My attitude to using technology in this way changed when I went on holiday in the United States during the Australian winter break (July 09). I met with a wonderful friend from Trinidad and Tobago, Dr. Sacha Joseph- Mathews with whom I had studied when I was reading for a Bachelor of Arts in Media and Communications at the University of the West Indies (Mona, Jamaica). Sacha is now a Professor of International Business at the University of the Pacific in California.

She invited my participation in a meeting she had with a senior staffer at UP responsible for educating and assisting academic staff on integrating web 2.0 techs into teaching. The meeting was an eye-opener. I learned that the technologies were less cumbersome and hard to figure out than had anticipated. I learned that one could record the introduction to a lecture on Skye using a regular web came.

Yet to try it but I will. We discussed using face book as a tool and setting up discussion boards and wikis and having students interact with each other. I had the experience of that in New Zealand when I was teaching Assistant for a subject called "Politics and the Media". Yet, at that time, I felt so daunted by the technology that I don't think I went on the discussion board more than two times! LOL!

One of the more interesting concepts that Sacha and I were exposed to in that meeting in California was the potential of the blog as a real learning tool. This caught my attention since I already operated a blog and wondered how I may integrate this into the process. Simpler than I thought!

I required of my interns to write a 'reflexive journal' (to be graded) of their experiences at their various jobs, and what better way to do this in the 21st century than on a blog!. This way, I thought the students could not only reflect on their working environment and say what they were learninga nd how it was improving their journalism skills, but insert samples of their work, and become their own citizen journalists. They also have the extraordinary opportunity to bypass editorial rules and really act as their own editors on their own newspapers, e.g the blogs.

A few of my interns have already started their blog and they look fantastic! I look forward to reading their inserts and watching them mold these blogs into their own world of creativity. It is wonderful when students get their own voice and the beauty of the web 2.o technologies is that it lends that freedom to explore. I am glad I am a part of this process.

Although I already have a blog, Talking Politics at:http://www.hume.johnson.wordpress.com/ - I have decided to start another blog which is specific to communications. My best friend and busines partner Dr Nickesia Gordon, a Communications Professor at Barry University (Florida) and I had already created a media training business, so I thought our communication interests could collide here! Our blog can be found at : www.thecommunicationexperts.blogspot.com The business is called - The Communication Workshop. Feel free to read our posts as we delve into the widest range of topics relating to communication - organisational communication, strategic communication, business comunication, oral communication, interpersonal communication; inter-cultural communication, political communication as well as public relations and journalism broadly speaking

We also hope that our blog will become a reputable resource for those interested in careers or information in the media and communications industries. So until we blog again, remember "if you cannot become your best, you cannot be happy" (Les Brown)!