Interning at News 12 Interactive

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By Lauren Sarakos
SBU J-School Reporter

Like most Stony Brook students, I began my search for a summer internship at a Stony Brook-sponsored career fair. There I spoke to a representative from News12 Interactive (the branch of the News12 family that runs News12.com and channel 612) and expressed my interest in a summer internship position. After a series of e-mails and a phone interview, I began my internship at News12 Interactive in late May.

My first task was to do a Web site check of all the top stories on News12.com. The Web site covers not only Long Island but also all seven of the News12 regions: Long Island, Westchester, Hudson Valley, New Jersey, Connecticut, Brooklyn and the Bronx. The top stories on the Web site are variations of the packages shown on television, written by the staff of News12 Interactive. Each morning that I worked, I read through every top story in each region, checking for spelling and grammar errors. I also checked the videos that are linked on the page with the print story to make sure the right video appeared.

My next task was to update the What’s To Do portion of the News12 web site for each of the seven regions. The What’s To Do page allows users to read user-submitted posts regarding events that will take place in their area. To make the posts appear on News12.com, I had to edit and submit them using a system called the Content Management Application, or “CMA,” in the world of News12 employees. Using the CMA system, I edited the user-created posts, making them grammatically correct, and checking that they included all the necessary information (date, time, location, contact information, etc.). To make things such as hyperlinks, bold font and paragraph breaks appear on the Web site, I learned to use special HTML coding. Updating the events page was a time-consuming job. Some mornings I would sign on to CMA and find five pages of events waiting for me to edit and post. It is surprising how little information people include in their posts and how atrocious their grammar and spelling often is!

I was also responsible for cutting the packages for feature stories and posting them onto the iO Box, channel 612. Channel 612 allows Cablevision subscribers to watch stories that have run on the News12 morning, noon or 5 p.m. broadcasts without sitting through the whole show. Every News12 broadcast includes a variety of feature stories with top news stories. My job was to use the editing machines to cut only the feature story from the whole News12 broadcast. Then I added in effects such as an opening and closing, created picture transitions, and adjusted the sound quality. Next, I used a transcoder to copy the feature clip from the editing machine onto the CMA system. Once in CMA, I created a short title for the feature and posted it on channel 612.

Other tasks I was assigned changed from day to day. In the first month, I spent time shadowing News12 Interactive writers and watching them use reporters’ scripts to write a Web-friendly story out of a package that was primarily made for television. I also watched them cut packages from the News12 broadcasts, transcode them and post them on the News12 web site along with their print stories.

After watching for a few days, I was able to write a story of my own and post it online with its video.

Other days, I cut weather reports from the television broadcasts and posted them both online and on channel 612. I helped one writer with a project for the launch of the News12 My Town web site by calling public officials and getting News12 workers added to their media distribution lists.

One of my final tasks required me to do some research for a News12 Long Island segment called “Illegal on Long Island.” My research focused on resident identification cards that the city of New Haven, Conn., was issuing.

I also worked with the promotions manager on a few projects for News12 Interactive and News12 Traffic and Weather. One project involved looking up Web domains and contacting the people or companies to which they were registered. Other projects had to do with logging promotional footage of background images or celebrity appearances. In another project, I traveled to local gas and train stations and asked people to give their opinion of News12 Traffic and Weather on camera.

Overall, my experience at News12 Interactive was both informative and beneficial. The people at News12 Interactive were always more than willing to help me and were a pleasure to learn from. I learned not only about an online media outlet but also about broadcast media and how the two relate. I received substantial responsibilities that enabled me to learn things unlike what I would be taught in an ordinary classroom.

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