Quite a few of Oxford's journohacks embarked on placements in the Fleet street. From The Hedge Fund review, through the Economist's Intelligent Life to daily newspapers in Rupert Murdoch's empire, many got a taste of how it is to be a real journalist. Oxford Media Society has asked a couple of them to describe their experiences at the publications.
Tamsin Meakin, Christ Church - The Daily Telegraph
I spent three weeks working at The Daily Telegraph on the online fashion desk and the daily business desk. The paper has just launched a new fashion website so much of my time was spent helping with its construction; it could be quite laborious work but it meant I picked up lots of transferable technical skills. My time with the business desk was a steep learning curve but incredibly interesting. I was lucky enough to be given articles to write for the website and the paper which meant I felt I could make a tangible contribution. Everyone I met at the paper was very welcoming and keen to ensure that all of the interns were kept busy and useful - not photocopying and making tea!
And here are some of Tamsin's articles:
Tamsin also contributed to other financial publications, such as The Hedge Fund review.
Harry Phillips, Magdalen - The Sunday Times
I had a great time on the News Review desk: the people with whom I worked were at once formidably talented yet easily approachable. They made me feel very much part of a team as I carried out tasks ranging from translation of a German article about AIDS, phone interviews, research into tantric sex and the writing of short news pieces. The best thing was the nature of the section meant that if ever I didn't have anything to do, I could always read the day's papers for ideas. I liked that this counted as work.
Harry was one of this year's Rupert Murdoch scholars from the News International Placement Scheme. Other students on the placements were:
News of the World - Georgia Linday, Sarah Ventress
The Sunday Times - Marie Henderson, Rebecca Ratcliffe
The Times - Hannah Chambers, Izzy Boggild-Jones, Nithya Natarajan
The Sun - Oxford Media Society's own Tom Rowley
Camilla Turner, St Catz - The Observer and The Intelligent Life
This summer I spent a week at the News Desk of the Observer (which I got by writing to them asking for work experience, attaching a CV and some cuttings). During the week, I attended various meetings (politics, news and editorial meeting), carried out news trawls, assisted the science editor with some research about dot com entrepreneurs investing in space and researched and wrote an article about funding of Russell Group universities. Overall, I had a very enjoyable week.
Camilla's contribution to The Observer:
I also interned at the Economist - at their quarterly arts supplement Intelligent Life. I was supposed to do it for 5 weeks but resigned after three as it was basically unpaid secretarial work e.g. answering the phone, sorting post etc. I would not recommend interning at quarterly magazines.
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