Internships

In the middle of January, like the rest of my class, I’m off to do an internship.  Some “on the job” training in a newsroom.  In my case the Dominion Post.

I am terrified.  For lots of reasons, some about me, some about my perceptions of the paper.  So I emailed them today to check in and check the start-time, and to introduce myself.  Also, at the suggestion of my tutor, told them I was going to the Parihaka Peace Festival the three days before the internship started, and would be keen to write about it.

I thought there were a number of ways to do this – a historical piece about Te Whiti o Rongomai and his influence as a leader of passive resistance on Martin Luther King and Gandhi. 

Something about the success of the festival – I’ve been to all three so far, people from all over the world increasingly heading there.  I’ve watched films that have rocked my brain, heard speakers who have made me examine something a little differently.  Listened to gorgeous music underneath the most beautiful mountain I’ve ever seen, Taranaki.

Or I could have interviewed some of the people there happy to talk about it, and found out why several thousand people head out to Taranaki to hang out together in summer for three days.

Sadly though, no luck with pushing the ideas – turns out it’s not hard news enough for what I’ll be doing there, as a baby journo.  I might have to blog about it instead 😉

Which reminds me – I’d love to hear any ideas anyone has for stories over the next month or so.  I reckon people out there probably know about things that we should be reading about in the Dominion Post.  Let me know – anonymously or openly – I’ll do my best to think up a way to write it.