Interning South of the Border

By Aniela | Published: Thursday, 24th June, 2010

Well, despite dreading our required week long print internship, I have to say I have been thoroughly enjoying the experience.
As many of you know, having worked in broadcast media previously, my preference for reporting has been directed towards television and/or radio however the traditional style of news reporting has opened my eyes up to further career possibilities.
For the last four days I have been working alongside a team of four journalists, one court reporter, two sports reporters and an editorial writer at the Tweed Daily News. Opportunities for publication have been endless as the paper is published daily Monday to Saturday.
First day was a little slow, despite arriving early and with numerous story ideas. Although the COS and other journos appreciated my concepts they alerted me to the fact that the yarn would only work if a local angle could be found. So, most of Monday was spent searching the web and reading the local newsletters and community papers for ideas and angles. Thankfully Colin, a fellow intern from Griffith Uni, was in the same predicament as me.
Not one to give up, a quick drive up to Twin Towns proved beneficial, allowing me to write a couple of entertainment briefs for Tuesday’s paper.
My second day as intern was very productive. I was sent up to the local shopping centre to conduct a news poll, take photos and interview locals on a postage matter. On my return to the office the COS asked me to write up a story incorporating the quotes from locals and also asked me write a softer, side story to accomodate the main yarn. Come Wednesday page 9 of the TDN was devoted to my stories, complete with byline. Woohoo!!!!
Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday were spent conducting interviews and researching two other stories. I was diligently working away trying to meet the 5pm deadline when the COS turned to me and said she liked the angles so much she was going to put them off until Saturday’s paper as it’s a bigger edition and I could write longer articles. Stories done and handed in – here’s hoping they won’t be subbed too much!
Went with the photographer this morning to shoot photos for one of the stories. Next photo shoot booked for tomorrow afternoon.
Of course today, the Labor leadership battle was the main talking point. COS liked my suggestion of carrying out another news poll with the locals. Tweed residents more than happy to chat about Australia’s first female PM so their comments and pics will feature tomorrow.
Still one more day to go but I have another two story ideas worth chasing. Hopefully the COS will be impressed and include them in Saturday’s paper or possibly even the editions early next week.
TDN team have been very welcoming and helpful. A real camaraderie here which is refreshing to see.
Like other Jschoolers I too was surprised that the journos rarely leave the office and conduct interviews over the phone.
I guess that’s a sign of experience and confidence….and being ruled by deadlines!

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My time at the RBH continues.

By David Douglas Stuart | Published: Wednesday, 23rd June, 2010

I’ll start this rambling post by saying that I’ve really been enjoying reading other Jscholar’s entries. And I really enjoyed reading the Newsbytes story by a certain Mr Stilianos today.

I last posted after my first enjoyable day at RBH.

Tuesday morning I arrived after a quick pit stop at a chain coffee shop with faux African décor. I wanted a large coffee to help me through the day. After a series of journalistic questioning it seemed apparent that the large-sized coffee had the same amount of coffee in it as a small coffee- it just had more hot milk in it. The larger the coffee, the weaker it became. Hmm, interesting logic. So I paid extra for an extra shot to maintain the optimal coffee:milk ratio. Are we really evolving?

But I digress!

I came into the office with my jumbo sized wallet-breaking coffee to find a sheet resting on my desk. It was the reply from a local camera club president about a member who had recently taken out a Silver Medallion for his photograph of a humming bird snapping at a unsuspecting bee. I wrote that article up pretty quickly and included a plug for the camera club.

Then I chased down (on the phone) a veteran junior swim coach who has coached numerous Olympic and Commonwealth greats. He swims a few kilometres in the ocean every morning as the sun beams across the horizon. I wrote the skeleton and a bit of flesh on this gentleman, but it still requires a little more work.

Next I was given some PR clutter to spin into journalistic copy. Easy. “Next task please!”

One of the other journalists had an appointment with the State Transport Minister. I was invited along for the ride. The basic story was that a $3.8 m bus stop had been approved in North Lakes. The Translink people turned up with their shiny shovel. Local MP Dean Wells was there in his suit. A photograph was taken with the two politicians- one with the shovel and the other with the first draft plans rolled up securely under an arm. If you have a chance to see the photograph, you’ll notice the lighting from the left hand side is particularly awe-inspiring. Yes, the photographer asked me to hold a flash.

Back in the journo-mobile and I was given a pile of Media Releases to spin into “briefs”. It’s like a spring roll. Lots of useless bits and pieces all rolled together into a presentable package. But I have now established myself as a rather efficient spring roll chef.

The editor congratulated everyone. Deadline has passed without incident. We were all given early marks.

FFWD>>
WED 9am

I arrived at work with a coffee from local one-of-a-kind coffee shop that was bitter from over-extraction. At least I didn’t have to pay for the extra heat that was used.

It was a quiet morning as the heavy rain kept us inside- we were supposed to be doing VOX POPS! I don’t mind the street polls. The rain persisted and the cameraman put on a weatherproof jacket and we headed to Redcliffe Parade to ask the people if they believed enough was being done to stop hooning. This street poll will compliment an article done by fearless former RBH journalist Crystal Davies. One gentleman told me that he was on the side of the hoons before waddling off into the distance in his faded tracksuit pants. AV, the senior journalist who was accompanying me, later told me that I needn’t bother asking people if they wished to be involved because they’d ignore me if the answer was no. Sage advice.

Next: back to the office to put the names and comments in electronic form and then into the CyberNews system.

Then it was time for the news meeting where we sat around the table discussing possible stories- much like the JSchool ones, but much quicker. Another interesting point is that males and females of the human species are not referred to as dudes and chicks but men and women, respectively. The editor asked me if I had been overseas recently. “I went to the Philippines earlier this year,” I told her. “Well, can you write a travel piece?” “Sure can”.

I was given some more PR stories to spin including some school newsletters. And then I started on my travel piece.

The news database on the computers goes back many years and is pretty amazing. I found an interesting set of letters to the editor. They were about 15 years old and followed a series of events in the local community where the crows were getting a bad wrap. Some residents didn’t understand why they had to put up with the native birds’ incessant harking. Why were the bloody things protected? This is where my father came in. He recounted this demonising of the crows to a friend, “S.J. Wilson” who was visiting from Sydney. S.J. was notorious for taking the piss and had made himself a reputation for, among other things, getting himself in trouble for taking knitting needles to an international cricket match. So, in his tradition, he penned a sarcastic letter to the editor at the Redcliffe & Bayside Herald that read like this:

Get rid of the gecko

AS a regular visitor to your beautiful shores I am disturbed to note
the relentless onslaught of geckoes.
These unsightly, noisy, quarrelsome creatures have infiltrated your
homes.
I must cut my holidays short. It is one thing to suffer the
troublesome bleatings of crows at day.
It is quite another to be subjected to the narcotic shrieking of these
creatures by night.
Will the council initiate an eradication program? Does the Peninsula
want tourists or geckoes?

S J Wilson, Glebe, NSW.

 
Ah, my father was amused to see it in the paper the following week. But not all readers were amused:

Keep geckos

GET rid of the gecko? What then, S J Wilson (Jan 22)?
Shall we round-up all creatures which don’t fit in with our
pleasure-seeking pursuits? Should we start a mass eradication program
of all our native wildlife because they make a noise or displease us
in some way?
Where shall we start? Geckos, frilly lizards and goannas aren’t much
use, they only eat insects. Koalas, wallabies and kangaroos don’t do a
thing for some people.
How about those raucous parrots and birds which wake us early in the
morning. Noisy little blighters. I love them!
Get real, S J Wilson! Give me our native wildlife any time. Take us as
you find us or don’t take us at all. Stay home with your funnel web
spiders found in almost every backyard, as was the case when I lived
at Glebe Point many years ago.
Leave our geckos alone. We love the little monsters.

D Shaw, Clontarf.

It was not long until my father decided to chip in:

Wild solutions

A solution to the Peninsula’s wildlife problem: a crow bar and a gecko blaster.

Brendan Stuart, Margate.

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Internship Day 3

By Gill | Published: Wednesday, 23rd June, 2010

Today at Quest flew past with lots to do and a whole new perspective on the office dynamics – the editor has a great rapport with his journos and they regard him with affection. Got four stories done and a funny vox pop with a photographer with a sense of humour and some press releases to work through and a feature house description. Miss the sense of belonging that we have developed at Jschool and guess that one day if we are fortunate to be employed in the journalism environment we will hopefully have that again. Have lots to learn and so little time – first impressions are important and can often be misleading. Great to read the other blogs – off to celebrate my son’s 22nd birthday – missed out on his 21st :)

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Internship – Day 3

By Joshua | Published: Wednesday, 23rd June, 2010

I think I might have left the wrong impression with my last post, it seems to come across as if I’m bored – well I’m not. It’s actually been great and very productive so far.

So far I’ve sifted through a few press releases to make proper stories out of (always requires effort) and make them seem like they’re not just free PR.

Had a chat with Gavin, the Managing Editor as well, and he straight away told me that to get a journalism job I should “go bush”, which, if I’m being honest, is my worst nightmare, but I think I’m coming round to it. I have a fear of being left in the middle of nowhere.

Also today I’ve just been out for a Vox Pop, questioning shoppers at Aspley and Newmarket, “What do you think can be done to prevent animals being left (i.e. dumped) in shelters?” Of course, that wasn’t the actual question, just my way of putting it here.

Now, let’s see what else I can do ; )

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Day two..

By Hannah | Published: Tuesday, 22nd June, 2010

So this week my flu decided to come back in full force, and I spent most of the day coughing and spluttering at my desk in the corner. I can’t tell whether Julian, the editor is sorry for me or concerned for everybody else..

But, the newspaper stops for no one and my story writing continues. I get assigned another three stories today, so that seems about the average. One of them is a press release and the other two have to be built from scratch based on a sentence of information, so i guess their confindence in me must be okay. Or they’re just short on journalists.

I’m really enjoying this environment, and finding it alot less stressful than newsbytes. It’s still full on, but not as confronting, so i think Desley and John prepared us well for this.

I think I’ve been able to handle everything they’ve thrown at me so far, which seems to be about the same as they’d give to a newbie journalist (with far more training). No nervous breakdowns for me yet:)

I haven’t had to write a single property advert or do a vox pop (one of the other journalists did it.. no idea why??) and they seem to steer clear of writing re writes of minister statements. I’ve done event and schooling briefs but even that requires the kind of research I’d been putting into the stories. It’s a better experience overall than I was expecting. It’s a really great way to learn without pressure from nasty politicians hanging up on you.

Julian always has something to throw my way and regularly asks me if i have enough to do. It seems like they really make an effort to work with their interns and train them and it makes for a great atmosphere.

Both days that I’ve walked in and out, Julian and Nick (the editors) have made a point of saying hello/goodbye and thanking me for my help (even though I feel like it should be the other way).

It’s kind of funny now thinking about how nervous I was on Monday morning and how unnecessary it was! They couldn’t be nicer and more accomodating.

I’m going to post often because, I read and re read last years posts about the internships looking for hints on how not to destroy my chances at a career. So here’s hoping that someone from next year comes along and reads this and realises it isn’t doomsday already:D

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Work experience update

By Gill | Published: Tuesday, 22nd June, 2010

Well, after feeling really useless this morning, my day improved with being given more to do – working on two stories but unfortunately have to wait for this boy to come home from school and this lady to return home – but that is all good as can at least contact them after hours!! Have learn’t about ’slugs’, the pressures of deadlines and the importance of contacts and media releases.
The editor has been really accommodating and has an open door – no knock- policy and the importance of sourcing stories cannot be over-estimated!! Thanks so much Nat for all your words and warnings – they were a great help :) Hopefully another editorial meeting tomorrow will yield more to do.
I guess that from the point of view of the host paper, they are very accommodating in hosting us for work experience as their deadlines and stories don’t wait.
Here is looking at tomorrow and the rest of the week with optimism!!!!

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Work Experience

By Gill | Published: Tuesday, 22nd June, 2010

Work experience – I am desperate!! It is 11h12 and am not sure what to do – are going in to a meeting and hopefully will get something.

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Mountains and Molehills.

By Hannah | Published: Monday, 21st June, 2010

Day One:

Dear Avelima Eliepa: You must have been a hell of an intern because expectations today were higher than I thought they'd be. Not write the front page kind of high, but much higher than these blogs and Desley's advice had me believe

For anyone unaware, Avelima graced Pine Rivers Press with her presence the week before me and she left quite the impression. Desley will be proud.

I turned up early (and nervous), to be handed off to a nice older guy who quickly told me even if it felt like it, he wasn’t ignoring me he was just on deadline. Aah, journalism.

By twelve o’clock, I’d been handed two stories (which quickly turned into three), the local school briefs and two press releases to turn into short stories.

So the very first thing I get to do is to interview a little old lady about rug making. I get handed the contact info and pretty much get left alone to write.

When it comes to ringing her, I have to call about 4 times to finally sort everything out. This is pretty much the most intimidating part because I hate calling people. But, luckily, I get over it and realise there’s a difference between calling people from an office with your own landline and calling people from your bedroom while you’re wearing pj’s.

So, story numero uno polished and filed and I’m off to write another story. This one is about artists moving to the ‘burbs and so Quest likes it and I get to write two different versions and interview different people for different newspapers. I feel pretty accomplished at this point.

At one point there’s a guy shooting a giant green toy gun near my desk. I’m not totally sure how I’m supposed to react to that so I decide to blend into the wall as best I can. Coincidentally, the wall has a picture of another guy stomping on the desks in a green firefighting suit. The editor was not lying when he said it’s pretty casual (although, I think he may have been lying when he said this week was all about me doing whatever I wanted).

p>

My editor wondered on over and assigned me another story for tomorrow and he encouraged me to bring in some softer stories (the homelessness one didn’t fly) tomorrow, so this definantly wasn’t what I was expected. I’ve gotten three bylines and will have more tomorrow so all my nervous googling was unnecessary.

Hopefully the rest of the week turns out the same..

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My first day at the RBH.

By David Douglas Stuart | Published: Monday, 21st June, 2010

I spent last week as an intern at ABC’s Stateline. It was a fantastic experience. I worked with K McL on a story about high-voltage powerlines going through the property of some chilled-out owners in the Sunshine Coast Hinterlands.

Anyway, this week I was going back to my roots. I was brought up in Redcliffe you see, so it was only fitting that I’d do some work experience with the Redcliffe and Bayside Herald.

So I turned up in my latte-stained suit (hey, it’s only a small stain and only JC seems to notice) and my bag filled with notes and electronic equipment. The building wasn’t hard to find and neither was the editor. She was extremely friendly but after sitting me at a desk with a computer, notes and what looked to be a horseshoe, stacked up, had to run off quickly because of some technical glitches with her computer. So she introduced me to the other journo and took off telling the other journo to set me some tasks.

The first job was to finish off a half-finished article about Redcliffe’s miraculous rise in townhouse and unit prices despite the state doing poorly. It was written by some student who had spent last week at the RBH. If it was a hip-hop project, we might call it a “colab”. After filing that one of the journos asked me if I’d seen some notes on my desk about drafted changes the Bill that deals with neighbourhood disputes. The notes were nowhere to be found. “Well, it just so happens,” I started, “that I filed a similar story for Newsbytes.com.au” I told her as I grabbed the mouse from her hand and brought it up on her monitor. “That should give her some ideas,” I thought to myself. To cut a long story short, I was asked to rewrite this story. Hey, we should all do our part to recycle.

After that I was given some Real Estate (sic) copy to write! Yay! Stunning vistas! Convenient living! All the amenities at your fingertips! I looked through the previous week’s paper and had a good laugh at one house with a heading that read, “Grabbing You’re Attention”. It’d certainly grab Desley’s attention. And Anthony’s. I fired off about four of them.

“Finished, next task please!”

“Dave, we’ll get you to do some briefs and straps.” That sounded like it was a breach of the workplace health and safety regulations. But it wasn’t. It just involved going through the community events and writing some copy to introduce the events. The straps were only a couple of pars and were plonked up the top of the newspaper. The briefs were about five pars and ran down the side. I got the hang of that art pretty quickly- kind of like journalism’s answer to fingerpainting.

All this typing was making me hungry. “Can I eat at my desk?” I asked the other journos had had since stumbled in. “Yeah, of course you can,” one started, “my keyboard is full of crumbs. So I ran out to get my lunch.

When I came back I couldn’t get back into the newsroom. I hadn’t been given the secret code. I still haven’t. But fortunately a lady saw me struggling with the door and let me in. “Oh, a man in our newsroom!” She seemed genuinely pleased. It hadn’t occurred to me, but all the other journos were ladies. They were all very friendly and easy to get along with.

“Do you like sport?” one of them asked me. “I can,” seemed like an interesting response for me to try. So I did. I now had a new task. This involved taking a page of ambiguous and jumbled prose about a lawn bowls game and transforming it into three coherent pars.

After wrestling with that task I threw in a few story ideas and they are now being chased up. It’s goingto be a great week even if it isn’t as fast-paced as Stateline. But we will be interviewing Rachel Nolan tomorrow, so that should be fun.

Looking forward to hearing how everyone else is going.

Signing off. DDS.

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Internship – Day 1

By Joshua | Published: Monday, 21st June, 2010

Is it normal for there to be press releases on Mondays that aren’t helpful in any way?

So yes, that’s been my main annoyance today. I’ve been trying to find something to write about all day but haven’t found anything of interest to this area yet.

Actually, I just spoke to my friend Kyren at lunch who offered the idea of writing about Kevin Rudd being in town, though of course I’m writing for the North West News, so unless K-Rudd decides to swing it on over to Everton Park or Ferny Hills, I’m stuck. Then she noticed it was time for school to finish, and said I should just look up the school times and write about them … yes. Actually, I realised that was so stupid I laughed – for over ten minutes.

Oh well, today hasn’t been a complete waste of time. I’ve written up an article on a press release from Energex about a pool pump of all things that supposedly reduces electricity use during peak times by only letting pool filters work during off-peak.

Now I’m trying to chase up a father of two from Everton Park who has designed the world’s first “ear mufflers” for young children.

Bring on tomorrow.

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Unexpected end to week of internship

By Natalie | Published: Saturday, 19th June, 2010

My week of internship is over and all up it’s been a good learning experience. I’ve written some briefs, some property ads, vox pops, three stories and helped out with other stuff.

I went and watched the Lord Mayor did up some dirt out at Wacol – very exciting amidst the trucks and dust of a busy intersection! There was only us and someone from the Satellite but got to check out the Lord Mayor’s ‘media watchdogs’. They thought they were pretty cool.

I noticed that the journalists in the office spent most of their time on the phone, either chasing people or doing interviews, only going out once or twice to do interviews. Shorthand will be really useful for doing phone interviews in a busy office where you can’t use the speaker and record.

Yesterday after interviewing the editor, Alan Welburn, for my assignment I got some unexpected feedback from him. He said, amongst other things, that I had exceptional talent and if he had a job on offer I wouldn’t be leaving the office without it. All day yesterday I had been questioning whether I was cut out to do journalism and so it was great to get feedback like that. It’s funny, what Alan sees in me I struggle to see in myself. I guess that will just come with confidence. I made sure to ask if he would be a reference for me in the future, I couldn’t let that get away, I might need him!

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2 1/2 days at the Ipswich News

By David | Published: Thursday, 17th June, 2010

So I’m in the middle of the third day of my internship at the Ipswich News, and I’ve run out of things to do for a bit. It’s probably time to write this blog post then as I won’t get home until at least 7pm.

My first day (Tuesday) was pretty slow, as there was only one journalist in the office. I’d been told not to bother coming in on Monday as almost no-one would be here and I wouldn’t have much to do. (Naturally, instead of taking the public holiday off like any sane person would I went into 4ZZZ to do the news bulletin so I could make sure this rumour-busting story went to air).

But anyway. On Tuesday I got to go out with Brent, one of the journalists, and a photographer, to meet a man who discovered a new supernova from his backyard observatory. I took notes during the interview and wrote a story as if it were to go into the paper, which I will ask Brent to give me some feedback on.

The rest of Tuesday was pretty slow, but Brent gave me a couple of media releases to turn into 3 or 4-par stories (“briefs”). Last week I’d found some story leads, mostly for “what’s on” stories, from the Ipswich City Council website so I turned them into briefs as well and emailed one to Brent because if people were going to book for the event before the deadline it needed to go into this week’s paper.

On Wednesday I met Shannon, who was back from leave and who is the acting Editor. She and Brent gave me a couple of media releases to turn into briefs – in fact one of the releases was one of the stories I’d already written the night before, so that was handy.

Shannon asked me to compile a list of events happening for the school holidays. This is where my blogging experience and my looking for stories really paid off – I already knew where to look to find quite a few events, and after about 90 minutes I emailed her a really big list of events. Apparently Quest head office says this sort of list has to go into each paper so I was able to save the journalists a lot of work by getting that together.

Shannon was OK with me making outbound phone calls to chase up details, so that was useful – I did have to check some details in a couple of badly-written media releases.

Once I’d finished that, I dug deeper into the council website, and the Ipswich-related RSS feeds I’d put into my Google Reader account, and found ten different activities that I turned into briefs. Shannon told me that they are often short of briefs so what I was doing was quite useful. (Also, if you don’t know what an RSS feed is you MUST learn – click here to read the Wikipedia article and click here to get a brief rundown on why you should use it. Having this info at my fingertips and being able to quickly turn it into stories has been quite well appreciated, as far as I can tell).

I also wrote a bigger story on Wednesday, about the Australian Local Government Association launching its State of the Regions 2010-11 report. Of course I didn’t read the whole report but I had to grasp the main features of the Executive Summary, grab some figures from the appendix for the Moreton West region and do some quick Googling to confirm the sorts of industries that are “knowledge-based”. While this isn’t as rigourous as the sort of phone-calling and fact-checking Desley makes us do, it still needs a fair bit of knowledge to pump something like that out in 30-40 minutes so by the time I left on Wednesday I was feeling pretty confident.

On Thursday morning the Queensland Times, a local daily in semi-direct competition with the Ipswich News, had a story about a report on an incident when a boy was almost hanged at a local high school. I followed up with the Education Department and got their statement emailed to me. Since the story will be old news by next week I focused on the angle that Ipswich principals and teachers will be attending statewide safety training, and mentioning that staff from Laidley SHS were involved in planning new safety procedures for the Education Department.

Also in the morning, I went out to a child care centre that’s getting a makeover for free courtesty of a local hardware store. I wrote another dummy story and asked Shannon if she would take a look at it, but she ended up saying since she had been too busy to write up her version of the story she’ll probably use mine with a few changes (mainly adding direct quotes).

I’ve also written four more briefs, and three longer pieces for the real estate section: a property profile for the House of the Week and two stories based on media releases from home loan companies.

I think the thing that’s helped me most of all is being able to write the briefs they asked for, which gave the staff the confidence to hand over a few longer pieces for me to do. If you’re going to an internship next week, I suggest you immerse yourself in lots of little local events, write lots of little three-or-four par stories about them and have them ready to present as you go in.

It’s been a good week so far.

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Internships!

By Avelima | Published: Thursday, 17th June, 2010

Surprisingly enough, I have not been asked to get anyone’s coffee. I was rearing up my coffee making skills last week thinking that that was all I would be doing, but I was wrong.

I was also having nightmares about editors screaming at me, telling me that my love affair with capital letters and apostrophes were going to get me in jail.

Ok so maybe I was being a little over-dram, haha. Anyway the editor Nick Crockford and the staff of the Pine Rivers Press are and have been ridiculously nice to me. I haven’t been made to feel like “THE INTERN” (not once) but more like another staff member.

The sub-editor Julian said to me “It’s nice to have someone to help out,” which is probably why I’m not doing coffee rounds as they only have two journalists. But to sum up my days here so far, I’ve mainly been doing fillers – woohoo, community notices and writing up a few stories of my own.

I also know a lot about the area so they have been asking me stuff about my old school and what-not. But it’s quite fun, the only thing that I am not keen on is the sitting at your desk from 9-5 in front of a computer. But other than that I have been having heaps of fun. If anyone is looking to intern (no, Im not talking to you Jschool kids) I defs recommend PRP. :D

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First day of internship over – before its even really begun!

By Natalie | Published: Monday, 14th June, 2010

My first day at internship has been somewhat of a non-event really. I arrived at the Milton office promptly at 9am and the first thing the editor said to me was, ‘you didn’t have to come in today’. I don’t know why he didn’t tell me that when I spoke to him on Friday, but oh well.

I got a computer and sat down, logged in, and was given the task of ringing round the local police stations to find out if anything exciting had happened over the weekend, to write up for their police news. But as luck would have it the long weekend had been extremely quiet. All of the local crims had behaved themselves so there wasn’t anything to write about!

And that was the only task I was given for the day, despite asking for more. The paper goes to press tonight and so all last minute pieces were being written, so I was kind of redundant really.

So I spent my time scouring the internet for story ideas that could work, and then running them past the editor. I now know why Desley has been stressing to go to the internship with story ideas – it may be the only thing you get to do!! Although the editor said I’ll be going out with reporters and then going out by myself, I’ll just have to wait and see if that happens. I hope so, but in the meantime I’ll have to think up my own news.

I was sent home at 2pm, which made for a short working day, but as there wasn’t a hell of a lot to do it kind of made sense really.

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Notes from a FREE,FREE PALESTINE !!!! march

By Gill | Published: Saturday, 5th June, 2010

Huge steel balls wrapped in wool and the colourful lights on the casino building were the backdrop for a demonstration against Israeli action under the banner of ‘Justice for Palestine’, Tuesday night. Searching in the milling crowd before the speeches, I looked for John Blue and found him already recording, immersed in journo mode. Em arrived a bit later and they feature in lots of my photos!

Dave J, it was an interesting crowd and I think there were quite a number of your ‘usual suspects’ present too; the small crowd was a mix of young ethnically clad whites, a few traditionally dressed Muslim women, a band of young, dark-haired men sporting the checker-patterned kuffiya and waving the Palestinian and Turkish flags, and quite a few slim, ‘hippie-ish’ older people with the slightly resigned, watchful air of seasoned activists. There were parents with small, pram-bound children too and some teenage boys.

We live in a global village and the ‘cause’ is common to all nationalities – the speakers consisted of an impassioned Irish orator, two Brits, a Jewish grandmother and a heavily made-up, black-clad Australian lady. Those who bore an ethnic resemblance to traditional Palestinians and Turks wore kuffiyas and stood in the background, waving Palestinian and Turkish flags – one with a leader / martyr?? – Dave, maybe you know who this is ? They came to the fore when the march started and led the FREE, FREE PALESTINE!!!! chants.

Many of the updates from the Free Gaza Movement were sent to the outside world via twitter.

Fervent civil rights proponent and educator David Alberqueque seemed to be in his element as the initial announcer, encouraging passersby to join and sign petitions abhorring recent Israeli actions; he does not belong to any of the organisations represented and said that he was angry at the government for their double speak. He felt those leaders who spoke on Anzac day were being hypocritical and insulting the vets with their continued support of the aggressors(!)

The men and women in blue stayed in the background, making no attempt to blend in but stood closed with folded arms as they kept an eye on proceedings.

Red-lipped, hajib adorned Kathryn Z (heavy kohl, doll!) of Justice for Palestine took the mike and made an impassioned plea for action. She introduced the speakers – none doubted her sincerity or commitment to the cause as she said, “We will never, never accept the obscene, criminal brutality the Israeli state has inflicted on the Palestinian nation for 62 years.”

As expected, most speakers addressed the crowd as ‘comrades’ – the socialist movement was well represented; many of the speakers had firsthand knowledge of the Gaza problem, having ‘recently returned from a feeder trip.’

David Ford, CFMEU member and newly elected Amnesty international president for Qld and NSW, referred to the apartheid being practised by Israel and alluded to the revelations of ‘Australian story’ to embed the Australian apartheid connection.

Short, tousle-haired speaker (?) addressed the crowd in his thick, Irish brogue, dropping the odd expletive in his heart-felt tirade to applause from the crowd. He referred to the martyrs from the latest atrocity and decried colonialism, racism and Zionism.

An older, petite, jeans clad Jewish peace activist spoke and apologised to the crowd that her facebook contact had been unable to confirm protest action in Israel due to the time zone difference – social media to the fore again!

Next up was an Aus/ English politician, also just returned from Gaza – she asked for sanctions against Israeli connected companies, Motorola being the one I remember.

Phil Mansour, well-known Brisbane singer/ songwriter completed the speaker’s bill, active as a dervish as he roused the crowd. He too seemed well informed, having also ‘just returned from Gaza’. Looked him up on Google and think some of his music is good.

At the end of the speeches and a fiery call to action, the small, vocal crowd unanimously decided to march in unsanctioned protest action – the police patrolled alongside, low profile- the loud, chanting refrain of “FREE, FREE PALESTINE!!!!” echoed through the streets of downtown Brisbane. Pedestrians, motorists and commuters waiting for their ride looked on in awe, some clapping in support. It was interesting to see random people join the small swarm of chanting marchers; a big guy with a dagga-fronted t-shirt dropped in for a while. How good is it that people can embark on a really peaceful march without any fear of harassment?!!

I really enjoyed walking backwards and filming the march with my camera – found out afterwards that I had lots of light flare from bright halogen lights but otherwise some was really clear – only walked into a lamp post once!! Apart from a sturdy photographer who battled to stay in front, John, Em and I seemed to be the only reporters – maybe the others were waiting for the real-deal one on Friday?

The united body of marchers meandered up Creek – the sturdy photographer was a goner –and left into Ann and peacefully petered out after a short closing speech- the sudden cessation of activity seemed to bring an anticlimax to the evening. Some left for another protest event organised at QUT gardens and the socialists surreptitiously handed out messages about Greek workers – thanks John Blue and Em!

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The district of the man with the purple heart

By Gill | Published: Wednesday, 2nd June, 2010

Went with Dave San and John Blue last month to sit in while John interviewed an elderly, purple heart decorated war vet. He lives in a slightly run-down block of flats, all rooms honey-comb screened to keep the world outside.

He is a gracious, eloquent, lonely man with an interesting life story, estranged family and a few conspiracy theories to boot! He was once the PR man for Australian actor Tony Brady and has the biggest collection of videos / DVDs I have ever seen, cramming the walls of his small room and overflowing from boxes in the community room.

As we were standing on the pavement outside the building reflecting on the massive amount of information that John had received, a large, grey-haired lady suddenly spotted Dave; the pleasure of recognition lit up her face and beaming, she rushed bustling towards us. In her haste, her thighs rubbed together in tight, elasticized nylon pants as she hurried towards us.

Unencumbered by social norms, she flung her arms around Dave, kissing him joyously as she enveloped him in a close embrace. She turned her attention to me, greeting me demonstratively and wrapping me in a binding hug with a warm, wet kiss to the neck.

Greeting rituals exhausted, she produced two watches, one silver and one gold coloured – both perfectly in time at 16h07 – but with date and month out of kilter. She simply asked us to sort them out; we tried unsuccessfully to correct them with the delicate manual winders before offering our apologies and giving them back.

She spoke excitedly, childishly, eager and uninhibited; not needing the personal space barrier for her comfort – she stood close, her mouth not quite closing and I was aware of her amazingly shaped lower dentures as she talked.

Abruptly, she changed focus and drew our attention to a helicopter visible in the distance atop a hospital roof, telling us that the helicopter takes people up there and drops them down into the street … something about a lift too, before she headed off amiably down the street towards a distant figure, happily lost in the theories of her world.

John, thanks for sharing, it was so great to have been there and seen you guys at work and Dave, you are a gent to welcome the unsolicited embrace of a happily disturbed elderly lady!!

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By Jackie Yap | Published: Friday, 28th May, 2010

Tonight is my middle sister’s high school graduation. Last night was my little sister’s birthday. I hate to be cliché, and yet it’s sad how it’s true: They grow up so fast. It’s very saddening for me to be bedridden, and a continent away from them during moments such as these.

Last year, likewise, I missed important dates: birthdays, congratulatory awards, mother’s day, father’s day; the list goes on.

I have really nothing to convey with this post other than the fact that I am immensely proud of my siblings, and that in less than 3 weeks I will be home and showering them with gifts, praises, and hugs, and the routine insult and tease or two.
Happy graduation and happy birthday. Mahal kita.

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Tim streaks ahead at Noosa Half Marathon

By Gill | Published: Wednesday, 26th May, 2010

Hundreds of runners, from the elite to the general public, took part in the sponsored Noosa running festival based at Noosa Sound on Sunday morning.

The scenic route takes the runners along Noosa Parade through to the café and green precincts of Gympie terrace as it winds along the Noosa river.

Clear skies saw the 21km runners set off just after sunrise in perfect weather on the fast and flat two lap course.

Alexandra Headland’s professional triathlete 22yr old Tim George led at the turnaround and was a popular local winner in a time of one hour ten minutes and 50 seconds. Pleased with his time, the friendly, relaxed part-time QUT Brisbane law student commented cheerfully on his psychedelic yellow Mizuno shoes; “It’s a bit hard to find a singlet to match!” he said.

“I really enjoyed the crowd support and they let me know the gap distances along the way,” he said. He is an athlete to watch, having won the Men’s Open Elite race at the Mooloolaba Triathlon at the end of March.

In the women’s race petite, blonde Brisbanite Clare Geraghty won in an emotional finish with a time of one hour 14 minutes and 18 seconds. The 24 yr old former dancer is successfully rebuilding her running career following injury, having last won this race in 2006. She was very happy with her time.

Enthusiastic friends and family members crowded the funnelled finish line, voicing support and encouragement as the announcer called the runners home amid music and clapping. A fantastic army of volunteers assisted and did everything from marshalling to pace –setting to help make the USM organized event a huge success.

Most runners were elated at the finish, achieving personal best times and running because they can.

Speaking at the finish, mates and seasoned runners Pomme and Dave said they run for personal satisfaction and to keep fit. Pomme has run for about 20 years and Dave for the last four after an injury induced interval. Both were happy with their times and the event.

Angelo and Elane, sporting the South African flag, did their first Noosa 21km race and have been in Australia for five years. They really enjoyed the run and crowd support.

Husband and wife James and Tammy came down from Gladstone to do their second Noosa 21 km. Both commented happily on the great atmosphere and said the kids at the refreshment stations were fantastic in cheering the runners on.

Lisa Pringle, media manager for the sponsored event, said participants in the three events – 21.1km, 10km and 5km run/walk numbered about 3000. “Because of the change of date, we had no Tanzanian runners this year. The numbers across all events are up from last year with many running the race as training for the Gold Coast Marathon in July,” she said.

The colourful running festival was part of the Noosa Winter Festival which also featured swimming and cycling events.

For a list of results in each event, please see www.usmevents.com.au

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Excellent advice in abundance- The MEAA Student Industry Day

By Crystal Davies | Published: Friday, 21st May, 2010

Free advice from respected journalists, a free lunch, and free membership to the MEAA yesterday: absolutely priceless. Puns aside (and cliché’s condemned), the speakers at yesterday’s Media Pass Student Industry Day gave an inspiring insight into the profession of Journalism.
To call Journalism a profession is in fact misleading. As one of The Courier-Mail’s political reporters Patrick Lion said, “Journalism is not just a job, it’s an obsession.” For anyone who is not even a little obsessed with the wonderful world of news-gathering, the most repeated advice to come out of yesterday’s forum was probably daunting. To get your foot in the door you need to be willing to start at the very bottom. Patrick Lion certainly lived that advice, beginning as an advertorial writer for The Courier-Mail in 2003. And look where he is now.
But to have that willingness means to have a good attitude; as they say ‘attitude is everything’, especially when it comes to trying to impress the heroes of the newsroom. (If you think they are heroes only because they will be writing your pay cheque, it’s time for an attitude check.)
Hedley Thomas of The Australian was another distinguished speaker to give his precious time up yesterday. Diligent. Relentless. Analytical. Cynical. Remember those four qualities. They are certainly the qualities Thomas would have needed while uncovering the unforgiveable misconduct of Dr Jayant Patel. Although Thomas is considered an “Investigative Journalist”, he humbled the title. “All journalists should strive be “investigative”, even when doing the smaller stories.” It’s about going deeper into the story, no matter how trivial it may seem. Perhaps a better word for obsession is passion.
ABC’S Bernard Bowen, The Courier-Mail’s Craig Johnstone, and Seven’s Rob Raschke came to answer the crucial questions on what they look for in a potential employee: good attitude; the right skills; publication; acceptance of criticism; professionalism; the ability to ask great questions; a clean Facebook page; and an eagerness to learn. Oh, and you also need to be able to write a good story. (But hopefully that is common knowledge.)
One thing that I might add is, as aspiring journo’s we should consider every unpaid moment and effort, every full stop and comma (correctly placed) as an investment towards our future.

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Journalism is a cold harsh war

By Jackie Yap | Published: Friday, 21st May, 2010

Disclaimer: Please be advised that I’ve only had about 10 hours of sleep for the past 3 days. If this post sounds like incoherent babble, it’s probably because it is. Bear with my first post. I pray for your souls when you read this. May your retinas not be burned completely off your eyes and its sockets for this piece’s sheer unreadability and its completely off-the-wall metaphors. It is also 3am. My bad.

straight from the cold into a warzone (photo courtesty of google.com)

Today was a long hard day. So hard, in fact, that it felt like the eventual end of a war. All right, I suppose I’m embellishing in just the slightest.

Although it might not have been perceived as one to the outside world, it was still rather warlike in terms of the length of the lectures and the amount of information being shot at us like bullets from a rogue AK-47. Albeit the speakers were interesting and insightful, and the information shared was more helpful than harmful by all intentions—

Well, yes. Perhaps not a war. But let us call it a battle just for kicks.

Nevertheless, warlike or not, for those on the inside, it was just an amazingly long day.

For the majority of you reading this and obviously confused of what might have transpired on what will surely be marked as a historic day for us all – today was the Media Alliance’s Student Pass Day. A day in which JSchool, among other educational establishments, was gifted with the opportunity to be on the inside; to hear about the life lessons of a number of accomplished journalists; to learn from some of the best in the industry.

We were anything but disappointed.

I shall go ahead and liken today’s audience (myself, included) to a group of new recruits – green with naivety, despite our overflowing enthusiasm – whilst the various speakers on the panel will be akin to veterans, the experienced oldies, showing us the ropes of the journalism world.

What we heard today, instead of cold hard facts, were genuine words of encouragement and thought; like seeds of knowledge being passed down from one generation to the next in the hope of growth and maturity. Matters discussed, rather, taught, were of those relating to the ethics of journalism. “The Code,” some call it.

The advice given was like gold. I shall now proceed to sum it all up to a point. Please do remember to take what is written with a grain of salt. As, of course, this is me. And me, being me, am paraphrasing in my own “special” (see: retarded) way:

12 Easy Ways on How to Survive the Journalism World War:

1. Write, write, write.

2. Start from the bottom, and work your way up. Even the most menial jobs can turn into the most amazing opportunities. How do you think privates become promoted to sergeants?

3. Write.

4. Don’t be fussy. Experience is experience. You can’t afford to be fickle with who you work for, so why bother? In other words: Never piss off your commanding officer.

5. Write more.

6. Social media can be your best friend and worst enemy.

7. Internships aren’t necessarily monetarily beneficial in the beginning, but they can pay off in the long run. Nobody’s really in the army for the money, after all.

8. Write some more.

9. Protect your sources (to a degree?). This is debatable. However, speaking on my own behalf, I would say protect them.

10. Are you writing yet?

11. Make connections with the right attitude and the right amount of talent. Nobody really likes the talented rebel who can’t conform to rules and regulations, no matter how skilled they are. Skills can be learned. Talent can be moulded. Attitudes? Not so much. If you can’t cut it, you’ll be booted from the corps.

12. No, seriously, are you writing yet?

Despite it all, complete exhaustion not withstanding, it was a very productive day. Completely worth it. It also didn’t hurt in the slightest that the Walkley Media Forum that followed was very enjoyable (inclusive of a rather interesting panel, and an all the more interesting discussion on the ramifications of social media and one’s responsibility towards it). I think I might’ve enjoyed tonight’s free canapés and lemon, lime and bitters a bit much as well.

I’d say today was a win for all the young journos of the future. But you know what they say – the battle might be won, but the war isn’t over. It just means we have to get to it. I’m rather looking forward to my future as a journalist. I’m going to be one, or die trying.

But let’s hope it doesn’t come to that. I’m enthusiastic, but geez.

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