Reflecting on My Time as a Digital Intern for NBC4

By Alim at NBC4Dean’s Intern Teta Alim at NBC4-Washington

When I started my internship at the digital desk for NBC4, I was really nervous. This was my first time writing for a hard news outlet; most of my previous experiences came from music journalism. So when I had my first goals meeting with one of my editors, I knew there were three things I had to do: have at least 50 bylines, write faster and shadow people in app development.
Now that I’m nearing the end of my internship, I can confidently say I’m a faster writer; and give me a couple more weeks, and I can definitely hit 50 bylines. Not bad for someone who’s only there nine hours a week! I’ve learned to comfortably and accurately write two stories a shift.

While my shifts were very short, I knew I had to take advantage of any opportunity to be involved outside of the digital team. I jumped at the chance to help out at a televised spelling bee and do social media for the USA Science and Engineering Festival. Doing social media at the festival was so much fun because not only did I get to learn about cool new things in STEM fields, I got to learn how to tweet or post on Instagram in a way that would engage viewers but also represent NBC4. It helped me learn that there are a lot of different sides to a news organization: community outreach and social media are just as crucial as web stories.