Monday September 14. ‘Twas a long time ago now. But probably the most important day of my internship. It started as normal. Not much happening, then we were scheduled to go out and do the vox (surprise!). Before I go out Stuart pulls me aside and asks me to ask 100(ONE HUNDRED) people if they think Premier Anna Bligh is doing a good job. Yeah. Fun.

So I go out, do the normal Vox, the photographer leaves me and I ask 100 (well actually 200 since a fair few didn’t want anything to do with it) the yes or no question, I was just supposed to get a tally and comments only from people who actually wanted to. I had it down by the end, I could spit out ‘Hi I’m from the QT, we’re just asking today if people think Anna Bligh is doing a good job’ (the amount of people who gave me a blank look until I said ‘You know, the Premier’ was astonishing…)

Two hours later I was filled with pride and satisfaction when I put the 100th vote down. The results were a particularly incredible 51 to 49 in favour of the Premier’s job performance (although, off the record, the yes’ were rather apathetic and the no’s quite vocal, but I guess thats how elections are won, comfort in incumbency and apathy.

Get back to the office, write it up, present it to Stuart, he pretty much changes everything and melds it with a wire story (the galaxy poll had come out saying Labor suck etc. Oh and I think I’m a brilliant writer but Stuart made everything sound so much better) And that was pretty much my job for the day.

Come in Tuesday, pick up the paper. I have a bylined page four lead WITH a front page pointer AND web content. Get that into ya! Was quite proud of that.

So that was the high light of the week. Everything else was pretty run of the mill. I did a follow up story on a guy who rode from Cairns to the ‘Swich for Cystic Fibrosis, two 60th anniversary’s and a 100th b’day, of which only the 100th has been published (the worst one too, she didn’t talk and her only relatives were two nieces who knew almost nothing about her…) but they’re in the advanced stories and are nice filler pic stories that could be published down the track.

I felt a lot more in with the group in the second week, I could join in on jokes it was a lot nicer feel. Probably the most interesting thing to see was an armed robbery happened at 3.30 at Amberley Post Office, a man and woman with revolvers, real Bonnie and Clyde style. So that had to be front page, redoing the whole paper at 4pm, with the front page lead not being properly finished till deadline, it was great from the outside and it didn’t seem to be too bad for the team either (they thought the story was great, as soon as it was reported that the only customer was a pregnant lady who had to dive on the ground you could just see Stuart’s eyes light up). Another funny one was watching Stuarts reaction to a speeding charge as Peter revealed the details. ’200km/h.’ ‘Yeah.’ ’22 year old girl.’ ‘Yeah!’ ‘L Plater on her own.’ ‘Yes!!’ (Complete with fist pump)

The interview was pretty interesting, he’s 34 from the UK, moved out about 5 years ago and this is his first editor job and he’s been at the QT for 6 months. He’s genuinely excited and I don’t think this is the only paper he will edit, and he had some great views on Australian papers and newspapers as a genre. Guess I should write that profile soon.

So all in all, a great two weeks, I enjoyed it. But. I think working as a journalist and an internship are rather different. I hope it translates.

Dictated not read.

So, the last day of the first week. Day Cinco. The ol’ Friday at the mill. The last dip at the swimmin’ hole.

So I turn up and to my delight I am once again joining Felicity at the court house! It is quite cool even just getting in. We have a council parking permit that lets us park in loading zones and any metered parking without paying. How cool is that!? We waltz right in, through security, Flick distributes QT’s to the security guards (who whenever we go past are doing crosswords. Crosswords have such a different skill set to just having a great vocabulary. I hate them.) and we get straight into Mag 1. District Court is closed today (I don’t know why, I thought justice never slept but apparently the like a long weekend) so its just Mag’s today. It’s going pretty slow, not much cracking but it’s still fun (now, I don’t mean that as sick and sadistic, it’s just interesting).

By midday every thing’s pretty wrapped up with a few things deferred until 2pm particularly a burglary of a Donut King where a three guys allegedly stole the safe from the store (good work dudes..) so we go back to the office, give Stuart the debrief and Felicity’s got other stuff to do during the day so I get to go back to court solo(!!!) at 2. Heck. Yes. So when we get back Chris gives me a list of 40 schools to call about Air Conditioning. That’s a lot of calls but I think I’m just about over my fear of telephones now so its good practice. About half of them answered, the other half were ‘busy’ but thats what you get I guess, I’m calling them back Monday.

Two 0′clock comes round and I go down to the courtroom, the guards know me now so they give me some pointers. I sit in on the Donut King thing, and then rape, which had a mention this morning, had another mention. It was quite detailed, probably not the best place to go into it but if the allegations are true, it’s not brilliant. So I take down everything said and head back. We still have Vox’s to do (one for the QT, the other for the Ipswich ‘Tiser) and as generous and loving as they are they’ve left them for me to do.

Get them done (riveting question for the ‘Tiser, What is your favourite breed of dog, Vox’s be damned, seriously.) and go back and write up the alleged rape. Flick looks at it with me and there isn’t anything drastically wrong with it (I did forget to say what court house etc. and I didn’t get the prosecutors name) but its a bit late to put in and it’s nothing big yet. There’s another mention on Tuesday which I’m going to follow up. Look forward to it.

Much prefer court to anything else I’ve done. Except maybe sport, but the QT sport section is pretty… meh. So I’m having a good time. Hopefully more next week! I’m not getting bylines yet.. And I don’t know how many I could get from courts next week, but it’s good experience I think and maybe it is more valuable than a couple of stories about dogs and the weather published on page 15.

So, Days Dos, Tres and Quattro today (still going Spanish, I think its sinco tomorrow? after that I’m gone). Lets start at the start of the spot where I ended at the end of the last blog and not start at the start of my internship because that’s where I started last time, at the start, and I don’t wish to repeat myself.

So, this day I didn’t do too much. I think. I went out to do the vox, the photographer had another stop to make at the community art gallery. A charity art auction going on there on friday night she had to take a piccie of, and I got given the press release from the people and asked a few questions(wasn’t expecting it at all so it was quite useful to have a press release. It was a charity, they wouldn’t lead me astray right?)

So we go outside the gallery to the Vox and the first ‘victims’ we get happen to be a reasonably famous (the photographer and I had no idea) artist in the area and her husband. So I got to ask her a few questions about the auction, right place right time, and she has an exhibit coming up on the 19th. Free story idea. Local, feel good, relative, timely, it’s all there! I guess it’s just about being lucky…

So we get back to the office, I smack out the Vox, do this little bit on the auction. So because of my amazing typing/writing ability I’m done pretty fast. I ask Melanie who sits next to me (I’m not entirely sure on her yet… I think she’s an aquired taste and I don’t quite have it. Hope she doesn’t read this, I’ll be killed.) if she has anything for me half jokingly. She chucks a photocopied Chronicle piece at me, about a lady who has a gas-fire power station proposed across the road from her house at Laidley and she ain’t happy. She says call the reporter, get her contact details. So, I call The Chronicle(by the way, they’re the APN Towoomba paper so we kinda cross over a little) and the reporter was out. I use my amazing journalism prowess and hit up whitepages.com. And I got her info. Damn it feels good to be a gangster.

So after sitting looking at the phone on my desk for about 10 minutes, hoping that it’ll spontaneously combust so I don’t have to use it (note to self – work on telekinesis skills) but alas, no success. So I bite the bullet, pick it up, plug in the number and hold my breathe. And she picks up. She’s nice, I’m nervous. I thought I was doing really well until Mel asked me to get a photo op. I panicked a tad. I asked her and it was all fine but I messed up and let her go without her proper address and mobile number. I had to call her back. I got the details, arranged the op and feel like I’ve rescued it. First thing Mel says after I get off the phone – “You need to cut the nervousness bull s*** or nobody’s going to speak to you.” Fatality.

Went out, got the photo, talked to her a bit, came back, wrote it up, put it in the Advance Basket. Cool. So, I realise this is getting pretty long, I actually really like this blog kinda thing but I never usually have much to say. I know John is probably the only one still reading and he’s shaking his head at the terrible style. It’s new journalism John, embrace the future. So I’ll give you a rest, go get a coffee and then we can go to day three.

Enough rest! Let’s go. Wednesday morning. Rock up, not much is cracking. Have a news conference, I say the Artist idea, pretty much all I got and Stuart(editor) seems reasonably interested, its just not timely enough since it doesn’t start till the 19th. Maybe next week I’ll give her a call. So I come out of the press conference with a couple of follow up things from Stuart with pretty astronomically improbable results. I think if I had actually pulled something out of the bag he would’ve offered me a job there and then. First one was calling EQ. Second was calling Federal Parliament regarding spending. So Education Queensland was about the flying teachers thing, when is it coming to Ipswich. Ring them up. No idea, they refer me to the press release which says it’s having a trial at 10 Schools up north. Can’t tell me anything more than that. But I had rung a State Government agency!! Next, Federal. So this one is about the printing allowance changes. Stuart wants numbers on the local members and how much they’ve used/abused the last few years. Now this is a rookie story that I’ll be shaking my head at for a while.

So first call in, I get through to a girl who says “Yeah I’ll get look into it for you, what number can I contact you on?” I don’t know my number. I quickly grab someones card near me and adjust it to my extension. Man I’m good. I hang up feeling great, I may get something here. Look back between the card and the phone… Realise I’ve stuffed it up. Damn. I call again, I get a different operator, puts me through to a guy who says I’ll need an FOI… So I’ve stuffed up big time.

We go out and do the Vox, I come back and I have a sticky on my screen telling me to call a guy about printing allowances!! What the!? I still haven’t found who put it there or if someone rang for me but it was what I needed. So I call him. He’s out to lunch, It’s 12.30 so I figure it’s reasonable. Try him again at 2. He’s not in. And 3. And 4. Oh well, can’t win them all… On top of that we had to do another Vox since the last one the story relating wasn’t going in. Huzzah…

I’ve developed an addiction for the NewsWire but. It’s amazing fun sitting watching the AAP stories tick over. Even better is ducking out for a while and coming back to 20 new stories waiting for you to read. And it looks like you’re hard at work. I race home to make my touch game (Won 3-1, I scored one and set up the other two) and end up going to bed at 9pm. That’s the earliest I’ve been in bed since high school I think. Damn it feels good to be a gangster.

OK, this is going a little long. One day. Bear with me. If anyone but John is reading this still, Kudos to you, rest assured I have read all your blogs as well. John, if you’re not reading… I’m not paying $15k for you to not read my stuff, You wanted blogs, you got it.

So this morning, walk in and barely sit down when Felicity comes over (she was off the first few days and at court most of yesterday so we haven’t really met) and says ‘Adrian? Wanna come to court today?’ to which I replied ‘Sure.’ So off we go. Not too much happened, but I love it. I reckon I could do it. Court or Sport. Like really, right up my alley. Don’t have to have news ideas! Best. Job. Ever! Alas, I only got a half day there. We went back to the office for lunch and I got nabbed to do the Vox and help a photographer before I could go back with Flick. Damn. Damn. Damn. But, when we first got back we went in to see Stuart, Flick backed me up that I was awesome so he was keen for me to cover the Mags the next few days (Yesssssssss) so hopefully that comes to fruition. I dropped many positive hints about it. I really liked it .

So, you are up to date with the exploits of Adrian Demack at the Queensland Times. Cool huh. Oh so I forgot to tell you my articles. On Wednesday I got the worst possible thing for an intern. A page two picture story… without a byline. Noooooooooo! On the art auction, guess they needed to fill space… Bah, at least it was published. Oh, AND, the power station story, the council made a decision on the lead up pipeline the day it was going to publish so the correspondent had to put that in so we had a shared byline… So nothing ideal but I’m having a good time. Better than I thought I would. And this is a 1500 word blog. Can anyone beat that? Damn it feels good to be a gangster.

So, My first day. I rock up. Editor isn’t there. CoS isn’t there. Today is their first day in their new office so everyone is at their new desks unpacking, either lovin or loathing their new position in the space. I sit down and read todays QT. I read it from cover to cover (front to back mind you). I’d even started doing the SuDoKu(by started I mean sit there for 5 minutes looking at the page and then putting one number in. News Conference is called. In we go.

It goes around the table for a while. Gets to me, I have no ideas (of course…) so I sit in silence. It’s OK, I’m just watching for now.

Oh, and at the conference I get the Vox Pop Question. Hard. Hitting. Stuff. Brace yourselves. Are you looking forward to Summer? And I’m gonna bust that thing wide open.

But the Vox wasn’t till later. Firstly I went with Kate and Damian to Ipswich State High. Apparently the QT had given them a bit of a bad rap recently and they were holding an ‘Exo Day’ (short for Excellent… *groans*) so we gave them a bit of positive spin for a change.

Immediately after we were storming towards RAAF Base Amberley. We’d been requested to attend from the Defence PR with no explanation at all. The guards didn’t know, it all seemed very secretive. I was hoping for a missle launch or a jet fighter unveilling. I was disappointed. They had detected high levels of heavy metals in a run off creek. Which ran into the Bremer River. Which runs into the Brisbane River. So yeah… I guess.

The funniest thing about the RAAF story was watching the TV journos. Three orange women in not quite attractive dress try to get their footage. Before the press conference one gave the other the name of her fake tan place. They ‘loved the smell of fake tan’ and her’s looked ‘really good’. Enough to make you sick and giggle at the same time.

So back to the office, Kate had a billion stories to write so she gave me a tiny crappy story to do, I don’t entirely know what for but it wasn’t for tomorrows paper and I can’t see it ever being in a paper.

So then Peter, the fill-in CoS/ Editor / Big guy realised we hadn’t done the Vox yet. So off rushed Damien and I to Ipswich Riverlink (shopping centre) to do it. Damien had been doing it for 5 years so he had an eye in for this thing. He sounded like a lion on the hunt. “Aim for the weak, young people or old people and just rush in and ambush them so they don’t have a chance to get away.” A direct quote. So we did, I won’t lie and say I did it alone, Damien was a fair bit of help, at least for morale, but we got the six required and got out of there in 30 minutes.

Getting back to the office its about 4.30pm and Zane (JSchool Grad) had just got back from court after a big day covering a father who allegedly (yeah, I got this defamation stuff down) bashed his 21 month year old. That was front page. I ended up leaving about 5.30. It was interesting. Unorganised. Weird. And everyone was saying that so it just reinforced the fact.

Another thing I discovered. Journalists don’t really believe in Lunch. What a bummer…

Excerpt from News Ltd Style Book Third Edition

CLICHES

These should be avoided (like the plague).

End Except.

Get it? Get it!? ‘Cause it’s a cliché! I think it was the brackets (or parentheses, much similar, if not identical, to the ones enclosing this phrase) that threw me.

So, a little literature joke for you. It’s right up there with Harry Potter. Hi oh! I’m kidding, I’m Gen Y, I love Harry Potter.

I don’t wish to be controlled at the best of times, let alone be forced by social conformity to show kindness to complete strangers. If I don’t know you, do not expect to be greeted by me. If I wish to know you, you’ll know.

What gets my goat the most is just the fact that displaying animosity to people is now socially frowned upon. I long for the days when you could glare at people and have them glare straight back. Now if you decide to shoot someone a hostile look, you’re just as likely to get shot with a 9mm as a disgusted look.

Manners, as a whole, are quite outdated. Like ‘Thanks’ for instance. It acts as a conclusion to a transaction or interaction. If I’m served a coffee and just walk away without saying ‘Ta’ I do feel a little bad. And I shouldn’t! I paid for it. I was under the assumption when I handed over my $3.62 that it had covered all costs, including guilt of making a person do something for me, even if it’s their job. Ahh, humans are fickle things.

So, I was quite hostile at the start. I don’t really wish to stare people down and punch people in the face. I just find it interesting these ‘manners’ are hammered into us as children and, although they are completely unnecessary, society would be very different without them. How would you suck up to cops when pulled over without calling them ‘Sir’? How could nagging your parents have worked as a kid if you didn’t have a one syllable word to drag out and last 10 seconds (Plleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeease?!) I’m still not smiling at you. A smug smirk of superiority perhaps, but no smile.

On an unrelated note, I swear they get the dumbest people for Are You Smarter Than A 5th Grader. I shouldn’t watch quiz shows, stupidity irritates me far too much. Well, at least not quiz shows on Network Ten. Damn Rove McManus and his electric personality. That said, I don’t remember any of those questions in Grade 5. Must be changes in the syllabus.

But really, so far I have learnt a completely different way to approach news writing, not necessarily a more favoured way but definitely more professional and efficient. Teeline  Shorthand is surprisingly adaptable. Ancient history, not always my favourite topic, has been quite well presented, and we are only a month in.

My cohort has for the most part been quite impressively… fun. I have enjoyed joking and learning with them. I am looking forward to the rest of the year and of course the adulation that comes with my inevitable success.