Radio News Reporting Project #4

Good Morning Bloggy Friends,

I hope you're having a nice day so far. I can't believe it's already Wednesday. I'm excited because I'm starting my new internship today as an editorial intern at City Paper, one of Philadelphia's weekly independent newspapers. My main responsibilty will be to contribute to the Listings/Agenda section of the paper which features artistic events happening weekly throughout the city. I did end up having to make a tough decision between a few other positions I was offered, but this was one of my top choices. Most of my work experience is in radio and television, so I wanted to take on an internship in the print medium to expand my future employment potential. This paper is right up my alley because the stories are usually artistic, conversational and just plain fun. I'm thrilled to be a part of it.

Before I head to the office in Old City I want to share another of my Radio News Reporting projects from last semester. This is the final project we were assigned to do on our own. Our instructions were to create a mini-doc which was between two and three minutes long, had at least two actualities (interviews) and three soundbites. I had recently read an article about a new study that revealed red meat intakes should be reduced even more than previous research suggested. I knew I had found the right subject when ideas immediately starting popping off in my head.

For interviews we had to have at least one professional, so I chose a dietitian on Temple's campus named Julie Rhule. She was extremely kind and cooperative. She knew her stuff so well that I was in and out of her office in less than five minutes. We talked about the reasons red meat has garnered such a bad reputation in recent years and what types of foods people can eat to supplement the minerals lost when avoiding it. I decided to use two of her soundbites in my final package. The second interview I chose was my friend and Philadelphia Theatre Company colleague, Sarah Blask. She has been a vegetarian since she was nearly eight years old. I thought it would be interesting to talk to a long-time vegetarian to see how things, such as food options and information, have changed throughout the years. She gave a splendidly candid interview which counted as my third and final soundbite. Score!

My final job was to research the topic further, finding enough information to accompany the soundbites I had acquired. I was happy with the final product. Besides a few glitches, I thought it came out rather well and I enjoyed having the opportunity to bring awareness to what I feel is an extremely important subject. I got good feedback from my teacher and my classmates.

Final Grade: 91/100

I hope you have a great day. It's bright as can be in Philadelphia. I love it. I'll chat with you soon.

Love, Josh