Seeing the Bigger Picture

By Maria Zamudio
Special to chipsquinn.org

Posted: Nov. 9, 2007

Maria Zamudio

I was headed to China in May as part of a radio news-reporting class I was taking at the University of Illinois.

I arranged and confirmed my first interview in China in April, nearly a month before I was set to leave. I was excited.

I thought about my trip – and I also thought about where I would be headed after my trip: to my Chips Quinn internship at the Springfield News-Leader.

I was a little worried about moving to a new state and finding sources. But I reminded myself that if I could set up an interview in a country as foreign to me as China, and with someone who was willing to talk about the sensitive topic of Chinese politics, then finding sources during my internship would not be a problem.

To my surprise, my challenge during my internship was not lining up sources or finding story ideas. It was getting my editor’s attention.

On the second day of my internship, I met with my editor to discuss the paper’s expectations of my performance and my own expectations. I had only one: to get feedback on my stories. I wanted to tackle my weaknesses from Day One.

I was assigned to the Business desk. My editor also assigned me to cover a small community in Southwest Missouri, where growing numbers of Latinos are moving to work in the meat-packaging industry.

In May, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) conducted an immigration raid in the community. The paper had a hard time covering the story. Because of my fluency in Spanish, my editor assigned me to report on the community.

Finding story ideas and sources was the easy part (well, getting people to go on the record was a little challenging).

Then came the hard part: shaping the information into stories and getting them published.

The paper was undergoing many budget cuts. My editor was in meetings all the time and her main priority was getting stories for the next day’s paper.

I didn’t want to bother her. I knew that she was busy. At the same time, I needed her comments and feedback to get my stories published.

My frustration grew. My career coach was one of the most important people in my internship. She kept me calm and gave me valuable advice. Best of all, she believed in me.

I realize that every experience brings something new to learn, and my time at the News-Leader was no exception.

During my internship, I learned not to take things personally and I learned to have more patience with myself.

I thought I was a poor reporter and writer because some of my enterprise stories took a long time to get published. I lacked confidence in my skills.

Yet, a lot was going on in the newsroom that had nothing to do with me, and I hadn’t understood that. In my next job or internship, I plan to learn more about the situation around me before I jump to conclusions.

I also plan to be more persistent not only with sources but also with editors. The newsroom is like a big factory. Everyone is dependent on at least one other colleague, and often several colleagues, to get the job done. In order for things to run smoothly, everyone has to be accountable for his or her actions.

As I look back, I’m especially thankful for three experiences. First, I am part of an amazing family – the Chips Quinn family.

Second, I was able to meet accomplished and wonderful people at the paper and in Springfield; they helped me grow as a person.

Third, my internship gave me an important glimpse into the politics of a newsroom and taught me how to better assess and handle situations that might arise in the future.

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