It was my work experience with The Portsmouth News in Summer 2009 that instantly made me realise I wanted to be involved with journalism, media or editing for a career. During that fortnight I was lucky enough to have over 22 of my articles and features published, some of which can be found online.

 

Here’s a snippet…

Holiday is Ruined after Getting Salmonella at Cafe 

The News had learnt late in the previous evening that the local hospital was seeing visits to the A&E department from many customers of The Tenth Hole, suffering severe bouts of food poisoning. The News Editor asked me to visit the cafe with a photographer and speak to the owners and customers.

The paper was then contacted by an actor who had visited the cafe, who was put through to me. After speaking with the actor I learnt he had had to see a specialist in New York while he was holiday in New York a few days afterwards, as a result of contracting food poisoning at The Tenth Hole.

Throughout my work experience I was keen to out myself out there and volunteer for as much to do as possible. This article meant a lot to me as the News Editor had asked me specifically to cover it; it was given a page 4 lead, and started on the front page.
 
 
This was an article that took a couple of days to finish as I had to wait for Declan to become available to speak with me after school, and we had some trouble arranging a photograph at a convenient time for the family.
 
However, it taught me that not all articles can be rushed out as soon as possible, and my patience was rewarded as it also became a page lead. (I enjoyed that online they spelt my name ‘Jeffica’ though!)
 
 
This was my first dabble in Sports News (ish). The News prints three different versions of their daily paper, each one tailored for a different area, although mostly the same paper in large. This was a page lead in the Gosport edition of The News.
 
During this fortnight I also interviewed bands, marathon runners and local councilors, as well as attending a high-profile court case, and running features for the entertainment section.
 
When I returned this summer, I unfortunately could only stay for one week, but I managed to gain even more experience in the field. Moreover, it was encouraging to hear that a handful of reporters I remembered from the previous year had moved on to nationals, bbc or itv.
 
Another one of my articles written when I returned can be found here: Cyclist has Two Bikes Stolen in Three Days
 
Doing work experience at The News was an excellent experience, and one that I thoroughly enjoyed. I found it to be a great paper, with very kind and motivated reporters who all made me feel very welcome, something that I didn’t necessarily expect as a ‘workie’.