Interning at Nightly News
Posted: Wednesday, October 10, 2007 7:36 AM by Sam Singal
Filed Under:
Internal affairs
By Cate Cauguiran, USC
Editor's note: We asked the summer interns to write about their experiences at 'Nightly News.'
It’s 2 o'clock in the morning.
It’s my last day at Nightly. I was the last intern to come into the program, and the last one out. That night, I had two hours to pack before my flight back to Los Angeles, where I would begin my senior year at the University of Southern California the next day.
Finally, I placed the finishing touches on my piece. After having spent the last seventeen hours putting together a two-minute news segment - breaking only to help with the evening newscast.
I left the newsroom with one of those lump-in-the-throat feelings, so I swallowed hard, smiled and walked out of the revolving doors with Nightly News fleece in hand and four basic lessons in mind.
Timing
It is everything.
When I commented how an interviewee spoke fast as I was logging it in real time, I was told, "Well you better type faster."
The news waits for no one, but that is the best part. They don't call it the "Rundown Routine" for nothing.
I could always count on a daily dose of cardio at 30 Rock.
Connections.
A professor told me "it’s not who you know, but who knows you... then it's what you know." The statement speaks for itself.
However, connections aren't always professional. During my internship I was able to encounter some of the most talented people in the business, not only through observation but in my conversations. As an intern I thought I could either keep my ‘I'm-so-in-awe-of-you distance’ or not. I chose not. The rewards were exponential.
Among the many people I encountered, I made a great connection with producer Maria Alcon, who unconditionally took me under her wing in making sure I learned and applied every one of these lessons I listed here. At the end she was not only one of my greatest mentors, but a good friend.
The journalist, the storyteller
Everyone has a story. This is something that can be considered common knowledge to all, but is most certainly fundamental knowledge to a journalist. At a Nightly Intern meeting with Ann Curry, she expressed this lesson with an unexpected but perfect example.
I asked her about her reporting on the current situation in Darfur, particularly about her interview with Sudanese President al-Bashir. I recalled the moment when the Sudanese president told her that the genocide "did not exist." Al-Bashir's "did not exist" comment came after Ann's visits to a refugee camp where she encountered a young woman who was raped and a young man who was blinded by the Janjaweed.
My activist heart repeated, "did not exist?!" slower and much more sarcastically.
To which Ann replied, "first and foremost, he is human" and that no matter what he may and may not have done he still has a story to tell and that we as journalists are the storytellers.
There is no such thing as a dumb question.
If there was one thing I was taught during this internship was "always ask questions."
Though the majority of my questions in my first few weeks consisted of how to get around the 5th floor maze, I asked, all the time.
"Where can I find..." "How does this work..." "Why did you do that?"
One day I asked the right question. And that led me to the Waldorf Astoria where I was able to sit in on a live interview. Not just any, Ann Curry's interview with former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.
As an International Relations and Journalism major I was as excited as a teenage boy first in line for a Nintendo Wii.
Wrapping it up.
My eight weeks at Nightly News certainly gave me the award for best "how did you spend your summer vacation?" answer.
Recalling my first day sitting outside with my bought-off-the-street bagel in hand, Rockefeller Center was not glamorous, nor did it hold the aura that most prospective journalists have. It was tease, more of here's a glimpse of your maybe future ten years from now.
Leaving was different. Rockefeller Center still was a tease, but like mom always said, it's what's inside that counts.
This internship taught me the practicalities and the day-to-day components of a newscast, but it more than anything it instilled a passion in me that I feel part of the industry has lost to business and popular culture. My innocence can be attributed to youth, but as a song lyric says, "maybe only in our blind beliefs can we ever find the truth." I know that I am not alone in my goals, and if we are the new wave of journalist in the ever-changing media then we can change it.
My internship was in all senses a positive reinforcement. This was what I wanted to do. These were the people I wanted to be.
Every single person I encountered at Nightly--producers, correspondents, production crew and desk assistants helped me to build my foundation upon my passions for the journalism industry. They made me realize the importance of what it is be a journalist.
To be there those who cannot be. To be a voice for the voiceless. The advocate against ignorance by reporting not just America's stories, but also reporting unheard stories to America.
Ann Curry said one thing I will never forget.
"We need warriors. So please, join me, join the fight"
And that I intend to do.
