I tried to make the most of my 'make it yourself internship' today. I followed around Scott, an anchor who usually does the 5 and 6 p.m. news but today had to do the noon broadcast too. He said he usually is out in the field reporting and making packages all day and then comes into the office to be an anchor. This made me really happy, I thought anchors were just figureheads and that is why I no longer aspired to be one, but to find out he does more journalism 'get your hands dirty' work than most, I got inspired.
Also, when I was hanging out with the producer I told her I wanted to write, she gave me this thing on pre-owned home sales and I wrote it thinking it was just practice for her to see if I could actually write. It was 24 seconds, she loved it and aired it unedited.
I also thought about what my internship paper will be about and after shadowing a producer for a while today it showed me how much of a platform a degree is. It's like anything, you learn the basics and then you do what you will with them. AP style and proper grammar only go so far in the real world. Not to say that UMaine won't bring me leaps and bounds but the feeling I got was that once you know the basics you take on your own style and there are NO hard and fast rules, everything is fluid, especially in such fast moving careers.
On a separate opinion only note:
Tommy Thompson, republican presidential candidate for 08 came to the studio today for a program filming.
It was interesting to see a candidate but he was scary. He was literally yelling at the audience at points, not only that but he also guaranteed that there would be a bird flu epidemic. Bush has scared us enough, in my opinion.
He also pulled more statistics out of thin air than I have ever seen before in my life, and whenever asked about a subject he would say "I'm an expert." with more arrogance I've witnessed in a long time.
I know New Hampshire and I can confidently say NH wont like him and therefore the rest of the country probably wont either.
I know, this isn't really about my internship but seriously, you should watch the broadcast of this when it goes to YouTube in mid-June.
8.5
