PORTSMOUTH, Va. (WAVY) – I have been interning at WAVY for a little over a month now and have learned and seen so much. I have had the pleasure to experience other departments and it has been incredible.
I got to take a trip with Adrienne Mayfield who is WAVY’s Investigative Producer and although it was such an emotional experience, it was extremely gratifying to witness the making of a story that can, and I believe will, change many lives.
I could say so much about Adrienne but I will say this. SHE IS AWESOME.
She is like a superhero. She is a force to be reckoned with.
Moving along…
I have been spending a lot of time at the Assignment Desk and assisting the web department with writing online stories.
I would call the Assignment Desk the “HUB” of the news station. It’s the central location that typically births the beginning of many news stories.
I have taken many inbound calls while at the desk and there were a few calls that I felt would lead to a news story and to my surprise they did.
There have been days where I have left WAVY, arrived home to unwind, put on channel 10 like I always do, and saw a story come up that I personally have touched. That is a surreal feeling.
It was so gratifying to see the end result of something that started with a phone call. I know that I am at the right place because I want to continue assisting with stories of substance and importance and hopefully one day, be the one delivering them.
Speaking of stories of substance, I had the pleasure to go out with one of WAVY’S newest anchors Hayley Milon and I can’t rave enough about that experience. When we left the station a man was in despair about his living situation, but by the time we returned, the same man had a new home to move into.
This literally occurred because of Hayley’s dedication, journalistic integrity, and persistence. Hayley showed and explained every single step she made while I was in her presence.
If I wanted to learn, she wanted to teach me. I even got to practice my first “track” with her in which she provided me with feedback.
When I left at the end of my shift that day, I realized that I need to take the necessary steps to be able to change someone’s life as she did that day.
Reporter Lauryn Moss has also shown me tons about reporting. While reporting from the Virginia Beach Oceanfront during the busy 4th of July weekend, Lauryn critiqued my reporting skills. She helped me practice a stand-up and we also conducted “MOS” interviews. MOS stands for MAN ON STREET.
MAN ON STREET interviews are exactly what they sound like. You literally pick random people to ask if they would like to go on camera to do an interview with you.
Lauryn was right there next to me every step of the way showing me how to do this. She was such a great teacher.
The biggest lesson I learned from Lauryn during this experience was, always ask an open-ended question.
You never want to ask questions that will allow the interviewee to simply respond with a yes, or a no, or a one-worded answer.
I’ve also been working a lot behind-the-scenes running the cameras and prompter during a live newscast.
Luckily, I am way calmer, cool, and collected these days and was able to handle the experience.
Running the camera or prompter during a live show is similar to driving on the interstate at a decently high rate of speed.
Have you ever been driving and although you were completely paying attention and adhering to the speed limit (of course) you suddenly realize you just zoned out for a second at 65 mph?
This is probably a terrible analogy but it completely makes sense to me. Working a live show is extremely intense.
There is no room for error. You are running a live television show and if you don’t pay attention for a second, it could be disastrous.
You are like Beethoven conducting an opera. Your anchors, reporters, and everyone else involved are depending on you to keep the show running properly.
Moral of the story, pay attention.
I have about a month left of this internship and greatly look forward to learning so much more during this experience.