Sixth Week (July 7- July 11)

Is it really already the sixth week of my internship? I'm having a hard time thinking that it's starting to come to an end very soon.

Again, I continued to work on putting stories on the AP wire, and I also continued to work on my research project.

A little sample of what I've done is to read and analyze particular stories on the site. For example, CBS published a story about how the HPV vaccine, Gardasil, may be causing health problems for young girls. It discussed the dangers of complications due to the vaccine, the safest ways to go about vaccination, and the concern about the age of the vaccine. It hasn't been readily available to the public for long, so many are worried it will cause problems for girls and no one will know for many years. I was able to look into the interactive parts of the website, including photos of the drug, and a quiz on how well I understood different medications. Then, I took notes on what I thought was done well with the story, and what I thought could be improved. Some of my notes included how the interactives should have focused more on HPV since it was the center of the story and that extra information was difficult to find. These are just some of the observations I will flesh out in the report for my boss.

One disappointment I have had is that I am not doing many of my own clips. Seeing as that I'm going to be graduating in less than a year, I would like to know if writing is something I want to make a career out of. Unfortunately, writing doesn't seem to be a central focus on CBSnews.com. While some employees occasionally do write their own clips, more often it is stories taken from the AP and infused with information from local affiliates. However, my boss did say he would work with me to start writing soon, and I am very much looking forward to jumping in to some reporting soon!