New York Day 34: Double the learning

Today ended week 5 of my internship at the Grio. I was finally able to go over my writing with Alexis today. She gave me some good, DETAILED advice. I again, appreciate her for doing that. She really want's me to get it. She mentioned before, "I know you're the editor of your paper and..." Me being the editor in chief of the Panther means absolutely nothing. Lol, being the president of something means nothing if you're not willing to learn. There's always something to learn!

I for one, do not have an issue with criticism. I have a problem when people aren't criticizing me actually. I don't want to slide under the radar as an intern, student, employee or anything of that nature. So I appreciate her for being so thorough with me! Then she went over the partner content that I posted on the website. She didn't really have to edit much! Hooray! Then she gave me the biggest compliment today! She mentioned that she's glad  she doesn't have to tell me to do thing's more than once! That's a compliment! That means I'm listening and applying myself! You want your superior to say thing's like that!

Another cool thing that happened today, Adam (Deputy Editor) FINALLY approved of my story pitches! Lol, not that he's never approved of them before. I mean, he would still use my stories, but I don't ever recall him saying that my story pitches were really good (like he did today). It made me feel like I made a break through! Lol

After theGrio, we went to CBS Studios. We met Tanya Dunham and Randall Pinkston. They gave us a lot of advice on how to do live shots and how to piece together a broadcast story. We'll be reading from a prompter Sunday, so I hear, so I'm definitely excited about that! They told us how to be compassionate to people and build strong/genuine relationships. They also told us that it is important for us to be well-rounded. I'll leave you with a few exerts of what was said during our meeting:

• ·     READ ABOUT HISTORY, POLITICAL SCIENCE, ECONOMICS
• ·      LOOK AT BLACK ENTERPRISE, WALL STREET JOURNAL, BUISNESS SECTION
• ·      STUDY YOUR GROUND, SO YOU CAN GROW!!!!!!!
• ·      You’re tying to establish a relationship with the victim. “Excuse me, I’m sorry this happened to your family.” 
• ·      Multiple sources are always good.
• ·      If it was easy, it wouldn’t be called work.
• ·      Take time with people, write ‘THANK YOU’ notes to people you interview!
• ·      If you do a good job, PEOPLE WILL REMEMBER YOU and that’s when you’ll know you’ve done a good service.
• ·      When you use a  sound bite, you want to evoke emotion. It should go beyond 5W’s. Don’t use something somebody can find.
• ·      Stand up’s are used to say what you can’t show
• ·      Stand ups are to connect one part of the story for another part of the story
• ·      A Stand up close will summarize what you should be looking forward to
• ·      1^st 30 seconds, last 30 seconds, after interview is over is when you get your BEST SOUND BITES!!!