NUJ Work Experience

Today is my first day of work experience at the National Union of Journalists.

The huge offices are at 308 Gray's Inn Road, near Euston Station.

I've been an NUJ member since October 2007, shortly after starting my postgraduate journalism degree at Westminster University.

So far I've met the editor Tim Gopsill, and much of the staff in various departments.

I've been given my own desk, folder and e-mail account.

I am avid to learn more about both The Journalist and the NUJ, and am pleased to say I will be writing pieces for the magazine over the next couple of weeks.

So any NUJ member will be able to read what I write.

I will also be helping with Campaigns and with the website.

Every Monday I will blog on my work experience until the second week of February.


Background:

This will be the first time I have done work experience at a magazine, as opposed to a newspaper.

Before starting my degree, I completed work experience at the Bucks Herald in Aylesbury and Swindon Advertiser.

I enjoyed both of these- and learnt a lot from working journalists.

At Swindon, myself and another work experience student did vox pops with a digital camera and notepad.

We also went to interview offenders at a local community service project and wrote up copy.

I was lucky enough to go to Swindon Magistrates Court, good preparation for my News and Features module.

As regular readers of my blog will know, I have reported from both Harrow Crown Court and Harrow Magistrates Court.

I also carried out a telephone interview regarding the 2006 Swindon Mela, an Asian festival.

Aylesbury enabled me to build on my skills writing copy, and I followed a journalist on his city centre beat.

I also proofread the paper and set up an interview for a journalist.

I will be carrying out my NUJ work experience for the next four weeks.

After this, we will be working on a magazine project and taking part in Westminster News Online, a university-based web site.

Other work experience:

Other students on our course are carrying out their work experience at newspapers like The Independent and radio stations such as Radio Jackie.

Some will be doing work experience in Easter, and I am currently trying to find an online placement for three weeks in mid-April.


This post can be seen at http://brennybaby.blogspot.com/ (although I have altered some of it to make it more relevant to this blog).