Busy weekend

Yesterday I went to the BBC, and though sadly I wasn't able to get a job there, I did tour the television centre with a few other interns. It was a really nice place and the tour guides were good as well. I did pretty well in the category of history, as I correctly guessed when the BBC was established (1922, a total guess), and I was the only one, even though there were other young Brits in the group, that correctly guessed what happened in 1953 that made it the first time more Brits tuned into TV rather than radio. It was Queen Elizabeth's coronation, of course. One guy even said "moon landing," but I'll let that slide because he wasn't American. I've really picked up a lot of English history in the two months I've spent here, which I obviously enjoy, being a history major and all. I'm very close to being able to name all the monarchs in successive order, at least since Henry VIII, to add to my presidents list.

I also got to see part of the BBC newsroom and one of the studios where they tape all kinds of shows, and at the end of the tour they have an interactive television set where volunteers can take part in a 30-second newscast or be a contestant on a mini quiz show. Naturally, I volunteered to read the news like the good little broadcast journalist that I am.

We also went into one dressing room and learned how spoiled Jennifer Lopez is. She actually had to fly in two of her own white couches because the ones they had there weren't up to her standards. Plus, she is the only person besides the queen to be driven up directly to the studio entrance, because she didn't want to walk 40 meters to the door like everyone else.


Today I am going to Kempton Park, which is the racecourse that I did my historical feature on in the paper. They gave me two free tickets to the reopening of the course, which is the least they could do for giving them good publicity. I now see that I get a two-page spread in next week's sports section of all (except one small article) my writing, which is really cool.


I've gotten one offer from a production company to intern there. It's a company that makes corporate videos, campaign videos and video news releases. I'm a little cautious about taking on this one, just because I feel like I'm selling out to the 'other side,' i.e. PR. But then again, I'm not really selling out because they're not paying me, I'm working there for just a month, and really this is just a means to an end that might help me with the skills I want to use in regular journalism. Apparently there are lots of former broadcast journalists working there. My internship program director said there are a few other companies interested, so I am going to wait to see what they have to offer before I make my decision.