My Internship at Zhongshan Daily Newspaper

One way to escape from a sense of uselessness is to experience something you've never experienced before. For a restless girl like me, the desire to be useful has long been in a state of unfulfillment. Recently, however, my internship at the Zhongshan Daily Newspaper has offered me a chance to get involved in a job that I've been admiring for a long time. Just think of it...the opportunity to get in touch with all sorts of interesting people and the excitement of seeing your name in the newspaper...­and that's just the beginning! There's still a lot more to be explored.

Three of us from GDUFS worked at the Zhongshan Daily Newspaper as interns. All three of us were quite intimidated on the first day. I, being the oldest of the three, tried to appear calm but failed from the start. I misread the time and arrived almost an hour early! "Better early than late", I tried to console myself. When the three of us had all arrived, we set out to gain acceptance from the authority of the Zhongshan Daily Newspaper. We were then distributed into different sections; both Su and He were placed with the Zhongshan Business Newspaper section, while I was placed with the Overseas Edition of the newspaper. By the way, all of us were given a card to get into our offices, which demonstrated a high security awareness of the people here.

The best way to feel like you are a part of a large association is to join in group activities. This time, the opportunity came in the form of an aerial shot. To tell the truth, when the words "aerial shot" first rang in my mind, I was thinking of flying 3,000 kmoff the ground and shooting pictures from the sky. However, it turned out to be the opposite. Each of us was handed a bright yellow T-shirt and were told to gather together on a big playground for a shot from the plane. The place was a flat ground in front of the statue of Sun Yat-Sen in the SunYat-SenMemorial Parkand the time was at scorching noon. Despite the heat, everybody was actually in high spirits. People were joking and laughing as if they were at a party. The one who directed the whole group was also light-hearted and said with a sense of humor, "It's really nice to see everybody in healthy blackness." But what really inspired the whole group were the words spoken by one of the leaders of the group, "Each person here will be offered a 50 yuan high temperature subsidy!" It's really nice to have a leader who knows exactly what the employees want. Finally, the plane came and we were waving towards it with big smiles on our faces, wondering what the picture would be like.

Of course, my internship was not all that easy. If I was asked to have an interview tomorrow, I would have one day to write an interview outline with all the questions and preparations for the next day and hand it to my superior-dear Ms. Lu-for reference and guidance. Early the next day, I would set off for the interview and write n article about it as quickly as possible. As Ms. Lu said, "Newspapers has to be quick and faithful." This means within several hours the article had to be finished and handed to Ms. Lu for revision. Sometimes, revisions had undergo a series of processes with titles, punctuation and paragraphs all under severe examination. As a green hand, you can imagine my nervousness for my first interview and article. However, thanks to Ms. Lu's patience, everything went smoothly.

This whole experience is really just a start. There's still a universe of things to be learnt about journalism and interviewing. But just as one of my interviewees said, "Personality is always more important than money." How to be a good listener is what I'll try to apprehend in the days ahead as I continue my internship, which will undoubtedly be a source of enlightenment.

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