{"id":221,"date":"2010-07-03T13:29:37","date_gmt":"2010-07-03T20:29:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.ups.edu\/studentlife\/?p=221"},"modified":"2013-03-20T08:08:09","modified_gmt":"2013-03-20T15:08:09","slug":"a-newsroom-intern-in-a-newspaper-downturn-discovering-the-importance-of-conversation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/studentlife\/2010\/07\/03\/a-newsroom-intern-in-a-newspaper-downturn-discovering-the-importance-of-conversation\/","title":{"rendered":"Discovering the Importance of Conversation"},"content":{"rendered":"

Welcome to my blog, where I will do my best to entertain you with tales of my newsroom internship. I\u2019m working at the copy and design desk for The News Tribune (Tacoma\u2019s premier daily newspaper) this summer. You may be wondering why in the world I\u2019d want to intern in a newsroom during such an uncertain time for print journalism. Well, I\u2019m not 100 percent certain of why either, but I do<\/em> know that I believe newspapers are crucial watchdogs for our society, (hopefully) producing well-written stories with credible sources and keeping readers informed about local, national and world news. Newspapers are often accused of not adhering to these ideals, but I can assure you that despite extreme budget cuts and rapidly transforming job duties, newsroom employees are striving to create a paper chock full of good journalism (or as full as it can be with the copy sandwiched in between an inundation of ads).<\/p>\n

Do you sense a hint of resentment? Well, you could say that the reporters I chat with are rubbing off on my attitude. However, I\u2019m trying to stick to The News Tribune president and publisher David Zeeck\u2019s advice, \u201cDon\u2019t be bitter; be perceptive.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although it\u2019s tough to not become overwhelmed by feelings of nostalgia for the press\u2019s better days (yes, even I remember these!), the future is unavoidable and has already revamped newspapers in a multitude of positive ways. Think multimedia stories and of-the-minute news available online. The increasing technology behind the traditional newspaper may be unfamiliar (and at the moment, revenue-zapping), but I do not think there is an end in sight for the field of journalism. Resentment over the poor state of the newspaper industry aside, there is a palpable sense in The News Tribune newsroom of working for something bigger; a sense of serving a higher purpose.<\/p>\n

News Tribune Editor in Chief Karen Peterson wrote an inspiring column a few weeks ago about summer interns, which you can read by visiting http:\/\/www.thenewstribune.com\/2010\/05\/30\/1206169\/spark-of-summer-interns-returns.html<\/a>. I hope the keen comments provided by a couple of my fellow interns make you feel significantly more hopeful about the future of journalism. They did for me.<\/p>\n

As far as my actual intern duties go, I can be found doing anything from watching my mentor crop a photo of the Tacoma Rainier\u2019s beloved mascot Rhubarb for local news column \u201cThe Nose\u201d to working on print and web page design, but during a great deal of the time I am having conversations. I\u2019ve talked to reporters, editors, photographers, human resources and upper management. Our conversations have ranged from mundane to hilarious to serious. I\u2019ve realized that everyone has a story to share that teaches me more about them, and in turn, about being a journalist.<\/p>\n

As I reflect on my days and nights at The News Tribune thus far, I can recall a large number of conversations that have made an impression on me. So, TNT employees, if you\u2019re reading this, thanks for taking the time to chat with me! Because talking is really what my newsroom internship boils down to: learning through conversation.<\/p>\n

In fact, isn\u2019t conversation what journalism itself is all about? I frequently hear editors debate about which stories are better \u201ctalkers.\u201d The \u201ctalkers\u201d often make it onto the front page, but more importantly, the talkers provoke conversation amongst readers. Furthering the depth of this idea of conversation, the reporters write their stories based on conversations they had with interviewees. And finally, the act of reading a news story itself is sort of like conversing with your reporters; really, the degrees of separation between the reader and the subject of the story are not innumerable. When we think of stories as conversations, they become more approachable. Perhaps staying informed about current events is not as impossible as it sometimes seems. I\u2019ve come to the conclusion that part of the solution to keeping up with the news involves having more conversations.<\/p>\n

The future of journalism is ever-changing, yet in this time of great uncertainty for print media there operates a dedicated mass of underpaid, overworked reporters and editors, striving to deliver not only the daily news, but often quite a bit more. Being a small part of this daunting task has made for quite the summer internship, and I can truthfully say I\u2019ve enjoyed (almost) every minute of it.<\/p>\n

Keep reading for upcoming stories of my printing press tour, page design ventures and get-togethers with local reporters!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Welcome to my blog, where I will do my best to entertain you with tales of my newsroom internship. I\u2019m working at the copy and design desk for The News Tribune (Tacoma\u2019s premier daily newspaper) this summer. You may be … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-221","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-rose-thompson-11","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/studentlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/studentlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/studentlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/studentlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/39"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/studentlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=221"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/studentlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3663,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/studentlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221\/revisions\/3663"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/studentlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=221"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/studentlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=221"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/studentlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=221"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}