Chronicling my day and telling stories is kind of boring, which is why I haven't blogged in a while. For the sake of the worldwide demand for short and simple reading, I'm numbering this blog post. These are little things aspiring journalists should take into consideration before immediately accepting their internship offer.
The Hardships
1. Eye damage. After staring at a computer monitor or TV at least 40 hours a day, natural light no longer seems natural.
2. Email glut. I would estimate that I've gotten over 10,000 emails since my Turner account was created a little over three weeks ago. It just occurred to me today after meeting with my supervisor about a mistake I made due to missing an email that I should create search folders. That will hopefully take care of missing pertinent emails in the future, but there's still the problem of having to individually delete all the emails. It takes a long time.
3. Shortening attention span. Ad-libbing a Wires editor from my first day, CNN is an ADD factory. My struggles with movies more than an hour long and books without pictures or video I developed over the past year have worsened.
4. Working on a breaking-news schedule. It's not college. You can't skip or cram or take a break for a few hours when studying gets boring. There's no such thing as a slow CNN employee, and that applies to a person's walking, talking, mental, and email response speed.
5. News is consuming. I had a dream the other night that I went into work and the oil spill had been stopped two days before, and I felt dumb and out of the loop. Unfortunately, in real life I was completely in the loop and the outlook's still very bleak. Regardless of how great it would be for the well to be capped, dreaming about not knowing huge news two days after it occurred was the equivalent of realizing I was naked at school.
6. Business casual attire. Dress code means looking nice every day, and looking nice means getting hit on. Make-up and clothing that conservatively makes it clear that Ihave breasts attracts lonely public transportation riders, streetwalkers, and Target shoppers by the masses. My favorite was a 60-plus man on the MARTA wearing a cowboy hat who said he thought he'd met me somewhere in the state of N.C. He said he was in the port business and asked for my number to talk about Wilmington. Girls, beware the daytime prowlers when androgynous clothing isn't an option.
The Perks
1. The name tag. Not only does it say "CNN" to feed into my self importance, it also always has to be on your person to activate the elevators and get through most doors. It comes with a retractable clip so it's difficult to lose or misplace. I've never had anything of daily importance physically attached to me. It's the next best thing to a reconstructive surgery for a marsupial pouch my dad keeps pushing me to get.
2. Personal TVs. Everyone has one in the newsroom, sometimes multiple. While it seems it would be a little inappropriate to watch Southpark or FOXNews, there is quite a bit of CNN content to have droning in the background or watch when you have downtime.
3. No fatal mistakes. You can piss people off by the thousands, destroy reputations, and embarrass yourself nationally, but no one's lives are really in your hands. At least with what I'm doing. Having once considered a career in the medical field, I'm relieved college chem broke my spirit and caused a life plan reevaluation.
4. Complementary coffee. Freshly brewed multiple times a day and only a few steps below Dunkin Donuts. I've also had free ice cream, cake, bagels and Chick-fil-a. It's nice when I can save my PBJ for the next day.
5. Everyone's nice. Beyond my department in which incredibly successful journalists will walk me through edits and encourage me with story pitches, small talk buzzes everywhere. I suppose it's inevitable with a business that runs on communication based in the South.
Pretty sure I hit everything important.
The Perks
1. The name tag. Not only does it say "CNN" to feed into my self importance, it also always has to be on your person to activate the elevators and get through most doors. It comes with a retractable clip so it's difficult to lose or misplace. I've never had anything of daily importance physically attached to me. It's the next best thing to a reconstructive surgery for a marsupial pouch my dad keeps pushing me to get.
2. Personal TVs. Everyone has one in the newsroom, sometimes multiple. While it seems it would be a little inappropriate to watch Southpark or FOXNews, there is quite a bit of CNN content to have droning in the background or watch when you have downtime.
3. No fatal mistakes. You can piss people off by the thousands, destroy reputations, and embarrass yourself nationally, but no one's lives are really in your hands. At least with what I'm doing. Having once considered a career in the medical field, I'm relieved college chem broke my spirit and caused a life plan reevaluation.
4. Complementary coffee. Freshly brewed multiple times a day and only a few steps below Dunkin Donuts. I've also had free ice cream, cake, bagels and Chick-fil-a. It's nice when I can save my PBJ for the next day.
5. Everyone's nice. Beyond my department in which incredibly successful journalists will walk me through edits and encourage me with story pitches, small talk buzzes everywhere. I suppose it's inevitable with a business that runs on communication based in the South.
Pretty sure I hit everything important.
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