When I was advised to do my work experience at the Trail Daily Times, I never expected it to be quite like the way it turned out. I arrived thinking that I was going to sit back and watch everyone do their job and try to press a few questions in here and there.
I was overwhelmed when I found out I would be making an article and photo for the front page instead.
My first interest was photography, and I thought that would be the angle they’d put me on. I learned briefly afterwards that there was much more to capturing an image for the newspaper than taking a snapshot and heading back to download it.
Right away I was asked to take a photo of Trail in motion. Lucky for me, my first project was right outside the building.
Taking the photo was the easy part, but after learning that I had to do a small interview with the workers to get a full detailed caption for the paper I realized there was a lot more to a simple photo in a paper. I had to have the facts and I had to have the answers to every question a person was going to ask,
By the second day I was given numerous tasks to tackle. These tasks involved walking around Trail to scope out some newsworthy activity, as well as gathering information from people I was unknown to.
Later, I was given plenty of subjects to write about. Unfortunately, it ended up with me making a lot of calls, and not coming up with an acceptable amount of facts to create a suitable article.
By the last day a part of me really never wanted to leave. Ever since working there I’ve been motivated to get more involved with the town and I’ve been given a different perspective of the town I once thought lacked events.
Living in a small city like Trail doesn’t always give the chance to prosper big news, but I give the reporters credit for digging into Trail and acquiring the information that people have a hard time grasping.
The Trail Times keeps people involved in the community’s activities, and provides awareness of all the upcoming events. It gives a chance to people who want their voice to be heard to be, as well as present the truth about rumored situations.
I found working at the Times an inspirational experience. Not only have my views and feelings towards the town have changed but also I’ve learned from the writing tasks I was presented.
The first day there I knew that journalism was a possible career choice to consider for my future. I thank the Trail Daily Times staff for their friendliness as well as for giving me this opportunity to experience a career possibility.
Jen Grieve is a J.L. Crowe Secondary student taking part in the Work Experience Program.