Each year for three months we welcome a new byline into our paper: our newest intern from the University of Regina.
This year Denise O’Byrne comes to us from the School of Journalism and Communication. Originally from a farm near Wilcox, Sask., Denise will be here until the end of December.
What does a student hope to gain from us, besides some articles to include with job resumes later?
The students are treated and paid as regular reporters, given assignments and expected to meet deadlines.
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However, editors and fellow reporters offer encouragement and ideas on how to approach stories and provide feedback.
We hope to nurture creativity towards stronger leads, clearer writing and more color, while continuing to emphasize solid factual reporting. While we do assign, we also want to help the intern identify and offer original story ideas or follows.
The stories can come from a variety of places: news conferences, scrums, annual meetings, phone interviews or visits to farms.
Learning other skills such as feature writing for Western People, photography, layout and editing are also included. We emphasize research, proper grammar and spelling, sacred quotes and strong ethics.
Teamwork is also a priority we hope to share with the student. Reporters seek help from peers on who to contact and where to research a story, gather input on angles to cover, gain feedback and help on such things as an elusive lead or clarifying certain statements.
Being an agricultural paper, we try to expand the knowledge of agriculture for the student through the terminology that appears. We also show how a weekly paper must offer more background and a fresh perspective to our readers to provide something they’re not getting from daily papers or broadcast journalism.
Welcome to our paper, Denise, and may it be a rewarding experience.
