Evolvement of reporting, evolvement of a student

I took the internship at the Iowa Statehouse to better myself as a reporter. With the internet booming, and print ad sales declining, newspapers and magazines are taking an extreme hit. If you want to be a reporter these days, you're pretty much out of luck if all you can do is write and conduct interviews. This internship was probably the best step I've taken so far towards making myself a better candidate for present day reporting jobs.

The Iowa Statehouse during the Legislative session is constantly filled with people. Reporters, students, professors, legislators, lobbyists and more fill the rotunda every day, with conversation and ideas being exchanged everywhere. This made it very easy for me to meet plenty of Iowans from all over the state and connect with them on a professional level. I was able to improve my communication skills as well as interact with people that are necessary to work with when covering politics.

I also became a reporter that is able to use audio and video to tell a story, something I was unfamiliar with before. Upon starting work there I had dabbled here and there with audio and video recordings, but had next to no real experience in them. I will leave this internship however, decently well versed in both technologies.

My daily activities during session were always filled with both audio and video capturing. I filmed debate in the Senate Chamber, press conferences, bill signings and interviews with Capitol visitors as well as recorded audio of 17 different senators and various breaking news pieces with legislators and guests at the Capitol. All of the media I captured also needed to be edited and publicized, which improved my familiarity with professional public relations and information distribution. My newfound familiarity with these mediums will make me much more marketable in the journalism and communications fields. Publications cannot rely only on writing skills anymore and my ability to do more than one thing will make my career search much easier in the long run.

I've had to become a much more capable job candidate this spring. This to me was the most important part of my internship. It's not just getting the internship that counts. It's what you do with it while you're there. It's always easy to settle for what's easy, but it's important to make sure you aren't selling yourself short by doing so. If I've learned one thing this semester, it's that learning never stops. This internship has made me the most flexible reporter I can possibly be up to this point, and I plan on ensuring that my education in that field continues for a long time.