It is so true for a beautiful place like San Diego, for newly dead because of its calmness & peacefulness, and for newlywed because of its damn romantic feel.
Talking and learning about one’s experiences is always interesting. And that’s what I hope you’ll find in this article full of my newly acquired understanding and experiences of three weeks’ internship in ABC10 News, San Diego.
This was the very first time I’ve visited the USA. I came for a month via the US-Pakistan Professional Partnership Program for Journalists. We 20 journalists landed in Washington DC and stayed there for 3-4 days, then moved to our placements separately and in the form of small groups. One of our fellows and myself were sent to one of the most beautiful cities of The United States, San Diego, California.
The very first thing I started enjoying as soon as we landed was the pleasant weather of San Diego, as it was much too cold in Washington, DC, too hard to bear for most of us. While enjoying the weather and renowned recreational places of this city, we joined ABCS10 News for three weeks. We were placed in the News room in particular but we were allowed to visit and to learn about most of the other departments as well. So I tried to avail myself of this golden opportunity to its fullest. I visited the studio for live news shows and for interviews too. I had the opportunity to work with the programming department and have come up with some promo writing.
In addition to writing, I also came up with few promo voice-overs, myself. Giving voice overs and writing are both my specialty. I even got to write 2-3 articles for ABC10 News’ official website while I was working with the web team. But they’ve actually found my writing more prone towards magazine and conversational type. They guided and helped me to write more straight for the news channel’s website. Well it was my actual learning and I’ve learned a lot from that practice. I practiced for three days on a single story and finally they uploaded it on their site. I felt so good that right then I started writing another one. Besides writing, I’ve also observed panel producers working for their news shows in the master control rooms (MCR).
Luckily they don’t have much crowding of people as we have in our MCR’s, because of a more systematic and computerized network. Besides all, another interesting part was when I went with reporters on their different beats. In this way, I’ve not only gained some journalistic experience, but also I got to explore many new places of San Diego. The time I had was too short; I wish I could have more time to take it all in.
Traveling and visiting new places means learning not just about places, but about the people and culture as well. Let me share my observations about journalism practice over there, about people and particularly about their culture.
During my stay in the US, I was recalling one of my teacher’s words, she said to me just before leaving my country, “My dear, you’ll find Americans very nice people”. She was right! Yes, indeed I’ve found Americans very cooperative, friendly, courteous, and openhearted people. Particularly, people of California are very lovable; sweet is the word for them without any exaggeration. People of ABC10 News are even sweeter and very accommodating.
As for the culture, of course it’s quite different for me but not contradictory to my expectations, as I’ve read and heard about Americans in my six years of university life. The culture of US is bit open as compared to ours, in terms of meeting new people, expressing your feelings and emotions, which is again appreciated, and in a few other things too. People here hang out a lot; they are lucky enough to have two days off in a week. Back in our country, we get only one day a week off and we work a lot, although Americans too work a lot, but I think not more than us. We are true workaholic people and it’s not necessary for us to hangout every weekend like Americans; although after seeing it in the US, it’s really quite encouraging.
Everything is very scheduled here, in a very proper way, from daily routine to law, from personal life to professional. I really like their culture of family life, although not very different from ours. Another appreciated thing is that they respect women a lot and that is what every religion teaches us; it’s good too that they practice it. In our country people regard women a lot too but if I tell you plainly, I wasn’t expecting this freedom and valuing of women in America.
While talking about their practice in journalism, at first I got surprised by how they focus so much on light issues like rescuing people and even animals, etc but soon I’ve noticed that this might be because fortunately they don’t have such horrible issues to cover as we do in our country. So they have to cover something in the name of news and secondly they somehow don’t exaggerate their dark side issues. It’s not about the news channel or developed or developing country but about the nature of issues and stories they have to cover. So these guys are very lucky in this sense too.
Another great thing is that they are truly unbiased in their reporting and strictly follow the journalistic rules, and almost follow all the journalistic writing techniques. This is also a part of their culture to honestly say. They are honest almost in everything I’ve come to know in my short time period there. Besides that, I’ve find them more active people as compared to us, as in office, they do most of their work by themselves, they even don’t have office boys and channel drivers. When reporters go for reporting, they don’t just drive themselves but they also do their own camera work, meaning it’s a one-man show. On the flip side, our reporters go with a driver, along with a camera man, which means three people go out to cover a story, compared to just one.
Oh, how can I forget another interesting thing to share that I really loved? The way people decorate their desks with family photos and with cards and other interesting/personal stuff. It’s nice.
As a last note, I would like to share that everything I’ve learned and observed here will definitely help me out in my future career. The new techniques regarding article writing in particular, will surely help me out. I really enjoyed working with the person in charge of web media, Luke Smith. I’ve also observed their anchors while they were conducting live shows; so as an anchor, myself, those observations will remain with me whenever I’ll go on-air in my country. I would like to thank my host Joel, who hosted me very well not just in office but he also took me out to watch a soccer match and for lunch. So I am thankful to him as well.
Thanks to all the supportive people of ABC10 News, and thanks to USEFP and ICFJ to provide us with this opportunity to come here via US-Pakistan Professional Partnership Program for Journalists.
“I thought San Diego must be Heaven on earth…It seemed to me the best spot for building a city I ever saw.” -Alonzo Horton, builder of New Town, site of current downtown San Diego, 1877
The article was written in March 2014
