The road and the radio
The car’s packed. The iPod is charged. The cooler is full of drinks and snacks. And the road is clear.
I’m Detroit bound.
This experience has been incredibly unique. Completely on a whim, I applied for The Oklahoman’s newsroom internship, hearing it was a tremendous opportunity, but never really knowing what Oklahoma City entailed or what news it brought. Sure, it had the devastating Oklahoma City bombing and loads of tornados rip through it that made national news, but other than that, I was clueless. With a few dailies and a weekly under my belt, it was time to tackle a paper that was sent out to more than 250,000 people everyday.
Ten weeks later, I feel like a pro.
I’ve covered city council, cops and courts, national health care reform protests, debates, U.S. citizenship ceremonies and in-depth feature stories that helped me truly dive into peoples’ lives, digging deeper and deeper with every experience. I have city officials on speed dial and felt the relationships I created were genuine. The Oklahoman, at least in my two months, doesn’t baby or treat you like a newbie. You’re a reporter. The trust is there and they faith you can produce. This isn’t a college newspaper or small little daily that says, “Eh, give it your best shot and we’ll see what comes of it.” You’re brought here for a reason. They’re not just hopeful for you, they expect you to produce.
You’re a part of this team. It’s the fourth quarter and The Oklahoman’s down by 1. With four seconds left on the clock, the ball is inbounded to you.
The game is in your hands — what are you going to do?
That’s how it should be. Every idea I pitched came through and was turned into a story. I’m proud of our intern class because I felt that as if a day never went by without hearing a least one praise about one of us working hard.
It’s been a pleasure, guys and gals. Time to exit stage right, but keep in touch and keep showing your talents.
Time to hit the road.
Bullock Proof
- Photo by Paul Southerland, The Oklahoman
Social networking, table for two, please.
Tweeting on Twitter? Taking over the world? Please, no.
Tweet, tweet. Tweet, tweet.
Did you hear something? That sounded an awful a lot like someone screaming in pain from social networking ruthlessly taking over their lives. Oh, it was just someone updating their status about life or sharing a TwitPic of a cute little puppy.
My mistake. But wait, isn’t that kind of the same thing?
As you can probably tell, I’m not exactly the spokesperson for Twitter, or social networking, by any means. I’m generally concerned that intimate relationships/friendships are drastically depleting every single day. With texting, emails, Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, AIM, Google Chat and every other form of virtual communication, face-to-face contact is becoming a thing of the past. Funny too this comes from someone who didn’t live that long without a computer-based world, isn’t it? What really got me was an instance that took place a few weeks ago at a bar back home in East Lansing. A friend of mine wanted to approach this girl he knew from a class but couldn’t muster up enough courage to do so. What did he revert to? Texting. After an hour-long conversation via BlackBerry Messenger, he ran into her at the bar and began to talk there. Is this world we’re living in pathetic or simply a means to an “in”?
Girls, is this not creepy? Or is it a way to make things happen?
Sure, it doesn’t always work out that way and it’s not always in regards to picking up someone of the opposite sex. But whatever happened to approaching a girl and getting shot down like old times? That’s the world I want to live in. Ha!
