Work experience.

I finished my work experience at a local paper on Thursday, and thought I'd share what I've learned with you good people. I enjoyed it a lot, and got to experience first-hand what our lecturers have been trying to drum into us for months.



To set it up, I emailed Alan Geere, editor of the Essex Chronicle - one of the most widely circulated local papers in the country, but that's only because Essex itself is a big, wide, orange place - and asked him (along with a cringe-inducing covering letter) if I could get his reputable establishment to babysit me for a week or two. He said yes. Sorted.

I started straight after we broke up for Easter. I was a tiny bit nervous, not only because I'm a neurotic mess, but also because I realised that a full drivers license is probably a useful thing for a reporter to have. Never mind, too late now. Thankfully, despite what every single film and TV show ever made would have you believe, journalists are actually pretty alright and didn't seem to mind driving me around when the occasion called for it. Anyway:

Stuff I did

NIBs
100 - 150 word pieces about pretty much anything. Charity events, someone finding a badger in their fridge, the Labour party club hiring burlesque dancers, marathon runners, things like that. Most of them came from press releases that I was instructed to chop down in order to eliminate all of the boring, irrelevant shit that you will invariably find in a standard press release.

Sometimes I'd ring the press officer to find out a little bit more. Sometimes I'd ring them and ask if I could book a photo. Sometimes I'd just not bother with either of those at all, and rewrite the press release without doing anything else - which is admittedly lazy - but I only did that on my first day. I don't stand by my actions.

Essentially nibs were just filler to keep me busy because I was too much of a newbie to do much else, but if I did them then the reporters were free to focus on their proper stories rather than having to pause and bang out a few of these too.

Vox pops
I did so many. Too many, some might say. I wouldn't say that because I enjoyed it for the most part and it gets you away from your desk.

On my first day, I was sent out to town to do a lovely vox pop about trains and their changing ownership. The public were receptive, erudite, eloquent and responsive.

Nah, that's a massive lie. The public were none of those things. Some of them were alright though, and after a bit of perseverance I got what I came for and returned to the office to write up my findings. As it turns out, no-one really knows or cares that much about trains, but they sure do love an opportunity to bitch about them if it presents itself. I was such an opportunity. One lady bent my ear off about her traumatic train tribulations for half an hour, then when I asked if I could take a picture of her to go with those fleshy quotes, or even get her name, she laughed at me and walked off.

You blonde prick.

On Thursday I was sent out again to do another vox pop, and a 100-person survey about 'Big Society' to find out what the good people of Chelmsford thought about it. A builder on a ladder leered at me on my way into town. I made him fill out my survey. Justice was done.

The first woman I approached that day thought that her privacy was in jeopardy by me asking her four, impersonal, yes or no questions. It wasn't the best start. If I'm honest, it was a bit tough asking people about a topic that I did not know or care about minutes before I was sent out to gather opinions on it, and also because when you mention government most people glaze over.

After three short hours and eight laps of the town centre, I managed to find 100 people to do the survey and returned back to the office victorious, albeit a little bit broken.

On the following Tuesday I was at it again, which involved boarding the new Park and Ride bus. This was a blessing because speaking to people on the bus meant that I had a captive audience. They weren't doing anything else, and it would be awkward as shit to refuse me when there's nowhere else to go, right? Right.

I did my final one the day after about the census. It was a gloriously sunny day which made taking a decent photograph a colossal pain in the arse, something that I never realised was a problem before. Half of the people who I interviewed in the blazing sun were ginger, which intrigued me.

Interviews
I wrote a piece about a guy who was running the London marathon in memory of his mother-in-law and interviewed him over the phone to get some extra information and quotes that weren't in the press release. I spoke to him for about half an hour, and asked if I could book a photo with him and his brother-in-law in their running gear. It ended up as a page 2 in last week's Chronicle.

I wrote another bit about a local musician and spoke to him for ages about his life, influences and why he plays the saxophone. I wrote 500 words on him and it's going to be published this week at some point.

Shadowing
I shadowed Sophia, one of the reporters there. We went to the local hospital on a lead that there'd been some sort of diarrhoea-projectile-vomiting-outbreak that had closed off the wards to all visitors.

Luckily for us, it had, and a BBC photographer told us who we should talk to. We spoke to a doctor about the symptoms of the illness and the reasons why the public should stay away. By the end of it, Sophia had what she needed for her story.

Following a lead on some story about buses, we walked 2 miles up a shitty bit of motorway to get to a godforsaken patch of no-mans-land that the Park and Ride called home. That was possibly a mistake, but it was still experience.

Stuff that I've learnt, in summary:
Most of the following nuggets come naturally to those with common sense. I don't have any of that. If you don't either, then read on:

• Learn to drive before you head off to uni, where you'll find yourself eating Iceland's "Meaty" sausages (grim) and have no spare cash to pay for lessons, insurance, etc, and have no guarantee of an instant income after graduation either. If you don't drive, get used to the idea of walking for miles for a story or accepting lifts and feeling like a burden.
• Practice your shorthand. It's easy to forget about it now, but out on a job you'll be screwed without it and you'll miss vital bits of information in your struggle to get it all down. If someone bitches about being misquoted then your longhand notes will offer absolutely no legal protection.
• If you're sent in to town to do a survey or vox pop, be prepared to lap the place for miles before you can find an adequate number of unassuming innocents to pounce on.
• For every person that says "I'll talk to you, but I don't want any quotes attributed to me." (Incredibly useful) or "I don't speak to the press." (Sorry, what?) there are at least ten other charming people who are willing to have a chat and will allow you to photograph them.
• Smile like a lobotomy patient when you're trying to do a vox pop. People are much easier to approach when you're doing it with a grin.
• If you're timid about talking to people on the phone then man up because four hours of the day will be spent interviewing people, speaking to the public or trying to get press officers to bend to your will.
• Before doing an interview, write the skeleton of your story to see where the gaps are and to get a good idea of what you'll need to ask them. Write a few of your questions down to refer to.
• Always take the name and number of the person who's calling. It's obvious, but I still kept failing at it. Telling the person next to you that 'Matt wants you to ring him back' is on the same level as saying, 'Hey, it's just me' on voicemail. Unforgivable.
• If you walk past an accident or disturbance don't be scared to ask the police what's going on. Say who you are and why you're asking and they might give you a lead.
• Always ask people to spell out tricky names because it's not worth having to make a guess at it later when the editor asks you later on.

To conclude
I genuinely enjoyed my time at the Chronicle and I'd like to return in the summer if I can make myself useful. I feel like I've picked up a lot and believe that absolutely everyone could benefit from doing a week or three at their local paper. The advice you get from people who actually do this as their job is priceless and practical experience is worth a lot more than theory. Don't wait until your university forces you to do work experience as part of your course. I know you don't get paid, but if you get anything published you can use it to start building your portfolio. If I can sneak a couple of bylines into the paper, anyone can.

Also, if nothing else, doing nine-to-five, five days a week made me truly appreciate the doss that uni is. Eight hour weeks; how I love you.