Hey COM people! I hope you’re all enjoying your summer breaks before heading up to Boston for the school year!
For me, this summer has been great so far – a major part being because of my internship. I’m interning at News 12 Long Island for the summer (you may be familiar with the station if you’re from the island or the tri-state area). Working at a TV station isn’t as glamorous as you may think, like getting up at 2:45 AM for an 8-hour workday. But nonetheless, it’s been such an amazing experience. Even though I’m only interning three days a week for ten weeks, I’m still learning and doing more than I could have imagined.
Here’s what my work week consists of: On Tuesdays I get up nice and early at 2:45 AM to be at the studios by 3:45 AM. I work with a morning reporter, Erin Colton, on whatever the big story on the island may be that day. We’re out of the studios by 4:15 AM to go on site to wherever she’s live-reporting, which she does on the half hour between 5 AM – 8:30 AM, and then again at 11 AM. Wednesdays are my shorter workdays, and during that time I work under producers and production assistants doing anything necessary to have the live shows at 3 PM, 5 PM, 7 PM and 10 PM ready. That includes pulling tape, teleprompting, working with the news station’s program ENPS (hey you broadcast journalism students – you’ll be getting your fair share of ENPS in your broadcast classes later on!), and anything else I can do. I also get to sit in on the live show at 5 PM, which is really cool to see! Another full workday on Thursdays (but with normal work hours of 9-5), and I work with another reporter, Ken Grimball. My days with him are very different than my days with Erin, since Ken does more feature stories and creates news packages. With him I’ve been able to practice stand ups on camera and get camera and writing experience, which I really appreciate doing.
As you may know, COM students are strongly recommended, if not required, to partake in at least one internship while in college. The benefit from interning at more than one location, aside from the obvious advantages interning has to offer, is that it shows you how different companies in the same industry run. Last summer I interned at Fox News, which is one of the most well known cable channels in the country. Now I’m interning at News 12 Long Island, a regional news station. As you can imagine, the two are very different in almost every way. But having both of these experiences under my belt makes me more well rounded in my future industry, and I’ve truly learned so much by trying these two different places to intern.
I’m really glad I’ve been able to spend part of my summer working and learning all about this exciting industry. Maybe you’ll wind up interning at a News 12 Network too one day! Enjoy the rest of your summer vacation!
