Before the tragic events on Monday morning, I travelled out with Sarah Harris to do a political piece on the election snub of education policies.
The report card system of determining which party had the better policies, saw Beattie get a B+ and Libs/Nats a D

Following that quick interview, we dashed over to the Gabba for Leigh Matthews’ final press confrence of the year.
All media outlets were there, with most of them running with the whole ’2006 season in review’ angle.
Matthews was easy to interview and gave worthy grabs for the cameras.

Other assignments this week included going to the Australian Cricket Teams training session at Alan Border Field and interviewing star batsman Mike Hussey.
The press confrence was full and all the networks ran the story as the Ashes Test Series countdown begins.

Yesterday was my biggest day as I went to Australia Zoo.
Nine has pulled out of sending their anchors to present LIVE from the shrine, avoiding overkill unlike Seven & Ten.
The atmosphere at the Zoo is……hard to explain, the place is very quiet both in the Zoo and outside in the car park where the shrine has been created.
[Will explain the story angle in person]

Today, the election coverage is shaping up to be the big story of the weekend.
Reporters will be stationed in the tally room and others with the political leaders.
Nine is televising the LIVE debate today, which will dominate the bulletin.

The League finals is another big one, with particular focus on the Broncos as they try to stop their horror run of finals slump.

I have also briefly touhced on the technical side of the news making process.
Repoters spend endless time on the machines, sorting through vision and finding the appropriate grabs.

It’s been a sensational week in the National Nine Newsroom, a great learning experience and it has ensured that this is most definitely the profession I want to be in.

Yes – I was in the National Nine Newsroom when the first reports came through about the tragic death of Steve Irwin.
The newsroom was abuzz with phone calls, meetings…word spread like wild fire.

The News flash went LIVE out of the QTQ9 Studios before any other network, after all Channel Nine is ‘still the one’ for news.
Despite news coming through the wire that Irwin was dead, these reports were unconfirmed, so the COS played the safe option of describing Iriwin’s condition as ‘gravely ill.’

Confirmed reports eventually came through that Irwin was dead and Nine broke the story immediately.
There were a total of 4 news breaks within half-an-hour.
News reporter Matt Dunstan was sent out on the next plane from Brisbane to Cairns, to cover the story from the location of Irwin’s death.
Other reporters were sent out to Australia Zoo, were Nine opened their news bulletin.

A Newsflash then came out of TCN9 (Sydney) with their anchor Mark Furgeson, but it was the Queensland newsroom that broke the story first.

The main news story was Irwin’s death, but with such a tragedy happening to a great Australian, other stories do a emerge such as tribute & legacy pieces.
Reporters had new assignments to do in very minimal time as video staff were tracking down old file footage of Irwin to put in their stories.

It was a very eventful day but it was fascinating to watch the newsroom react to possibly the biggest news story (so far) in 2006.

Its fair to say that the last few days have been the darkest in the shows 15 year history – AND I WAS THERE TO WITNESS IT.

The internship course at Nine runs for Two weeks but is split; One week with the ever-popular ‘Extra’ program, then the final week in the newsroom.

I have been on Extra before to help them out with stories but to go out with the reporters in the car and see how they package their stories after they get back to the studios has been a very benefical, insightful and enjoyable experience.

The big news story of the week, as documented in the Courier Mail, was the ‘axeing’ of Extra host Rick Burnett.
I’ve always liked Rick as a host, and he was always friendly to me while working at Nine
He will, no doubt, be missed and it will be interesting to see how the ratings go – post Rick Burnett era.

The other reporters, cameramen production team are great….very welcoming and do make feel part of it all.

Once the stories are shot and interviews complete – the story will then be cut up and put to air within 1-2 days.
The turn over for stories is amazing and the reporters seem to handle having to do 3-5 stories a week.

So far i’ve seen stories such as:
Summer Fashions
Debt Clearing
Dieting
EKKA toy recall
Shane Webcke Farewell.

Today I also did vox pops in the Queen Street Mall asking people if they feel unsafe about going to the Mall after the 2nd stabbing in a month.
The responses from the public was great, with many people argreeing that one persons’ madness isnt going to stop patrons going through the mall.
And so they should!

Ten seems to have the right attitude when it comes to recruiting.
As a journalism student it’s great to know that large organisations like Ten are constantly on the look for fresh, young and talented journalists to join their newsroom.

Ten has signed four Uni graduates who completed their internship program in the newsroom.
This is absolutly huge, as graduates are a chance of gaining employment, straight after Uni.

I managed to have a very insightful chat with Ten News reporter, Sharon Marshall.
I’ve never spoken to a TV reporter in such detail like I did with Sharon.
She was very encouraging, understanding and showed great interest.

I believe it’s fantastic that established journalists get out into the community, attend functions and share their experiences with the public!

Sharon explained that the atmosphere at Ten is great, mainly due to excellent management.
It seems Ten is the place to be with many reporters ‘jumping ship’ from rival networks, the most recent being Jane Hodgkinson from Channel Nine.

So it’s very encouraging to know that television stations…well, Channel Ten anyway are interested in signing up new talent, fresh out of Uni…and hopefully JSCHOOL!!

Well Done Sharon Marshall and Ten News!