Learners out to save lives

Published August 8, 2009

AN initiative to help save young lives on the roads was launched in Townsville yesterday.
Leighton Contractors' Youth Drive Safe program offers Townsville secondary students the chance to win one of 125 packages, each consisting of five hours of free driving tuition, saving around $300.
The initiative aims to create safer roads and communities by offering young learner drivers the essential practical skills and knowledge before gaining their driver's licence.
The first three Townsville students to win packages were Townsville State High School students Jamie-Lee Sard, Thomas Reaston and Kyle Pace.
Northern Regional Traffic Co-ordinator Inspector Brian Cannon said road deaths were tragic and three of the 10 fatal crashes in the region this year had involved young drivers. He said he supported the initiative and it was vital for young drivers to use all their practice hours in their log books.
``Realise at the end of the day it's you who will be responsible for your driving behaviour, you need to know your limitations and the limitations of the vehicle you are in," Inspector Cannon said.
The students said the free lessons would help to teach them to be aware and in control of their actions while driving.
``I think it's a really good idea and opportunity for young drivers to get lessons and to learn how to drive safely," Jamie-Lee said.
``It'll be easier to get my Ps when I'm finished getting all my hours up," Kyle said.
``I don't know anyone who has had an accident, but I know they do happen, you see them on the news every night. It is something I'm afraid of," Thomas said.
Inspector Cannon said young Queensland drivers were twice as likely to be involved in crashes as other drivers on the road.
He said inexperience, speed and alcohol were the main causes of crashes involving drivers under the age of 24.
Main Roads Minister Craig Wallace officially launched the program.
Mr Wallace said he knew firsthand the pain road crashes caused after his best mate was killed in an accident when he was only 22.
He said he was proud Townsville was the first regional area in Queensland to have the Youth Drive Safe initiative.

By Bessie Blore.

Third time's a charm...

After only three days of work at the Bully I already think this is the most rewarding, challenging and worthwhile subject I’ve taken at university...

My third day ran incredibly smoothly and I feel that I used the trials of last week to launch the day off to a good start. I went in with the mindset that I was going to work harder than ever to complete each story to a high standard and as quickly as possible...and I had decided that in order to make sure every word I wrote was read and critiqued as fairly as possible, I was going to have to ensure my stories were complete before Linda wanted to check them... this meant coming up with full and fabulous lead... something I had struggled with over the last two days of work.

The day began with a 9am appointment with the photographer and a trip to Castleton to cover a story on IGA raising money for Camp Quality via an auction of footy jerseys. This photographer this time was Scott, a man I had briefly met a few months before hand via a photojournalism subject at uni. For the story I interviewed the NQ area manager of Camp Quality, IGA’s promotions manager and a family who had a daughter with leukaemia. I was set guidelines for the stories length and angle by the chief of staff in the newsroom, a woman I had not worked with before but who was very direct in how she wanted the story and I found her directions helpful.

The most challenging part of this story was interviewing the mother of the child with leukaemia as she seemed quite distressed to be talking to the media about something so personal, few of her answers made sense and I had to continually prompt her and re-ask questions in a different way to try and get anything worth quoting... I found this to be a big learning curve, as most other people I had interviewed were fairly media savvy and knew their answers before the questions were asked.

While writing the story I struggled with the lead again, but I made sure I completed it before I showed Linda and the only change that was made before printing was the addition of a full stop in the middle of a sentence and the removal of one quote... success at last!

The next two stories I wrote for the day were career profiles for the Career One section of Saturday’s paper... they are written from questionnaires that we send out to different companies/businesses...or just everyday people who know who have interesting jobs or stories to tell. The stories are more like advertorials as they are basically a way for companies to get their name out there for free... but I really enjoyed writing them as it was a chance to be much more creative than with the regular news stories I’d done in my time so far.

Again I found the lead the most challenging part of writing... but I persisted on finishing every detail before Linda checked the stories and she made little change to anything I had written.... And she said I’d done a great job with both of them... I was quite pleased!

Linda told me I was to find some people of my own to write career profiles on, but it is hard because I’m not from Townsville and I don’t have many contacts here... but on Monday night I went to a business meeting for my partner’s work and met a lot of local business owners and have since recruited many of them as talent for me to write stories on... again I feel like I’ve accomplished something that is usually very much outside my comfort zone.

One big lesson that arose from my third day was to check every detail of my work scrupulously. Today I received an email from Linda saying that my leukaemia story was printed with the incorrect phone number in it and that the paper would have to print a correction... I checked my notes and it turns out that the phone number error was just a typo... but it is a big lesson to learn. Linda said, “A good lesson learnt early on means you won’t make the same mistake again. It is all a learning process”.... and I think so far Linda’s wise words are the best thing I’ve learned since being there.

(NB: I will try to post the stories I have had published here over the weekend... I just don’t yet have electronic copies to put up.)

Going back for seconds....

My impression of the second day of my internship at the Bully...

* It was not as fun as the first.... The second day was much more what I imagined the first day to be like, with me being overwhelmed and rushed and feeling completely useless...
I felt that Linda expected me to know so much more, but at the same time I don't think that is at all what was bothering me...

*I actually struggled with writing the stories I was set to write a lot more this time... At first I was set a story on a triathlon that is going on in Townsville next month, I rang the people and did the interviews over the phone. I knew the article was the go in the careers section of the paper, but I still imagined I was doing a news style article... I wrote around 400 words but couldn't write a good lead so I left it open for Linda to throw some ideas at me to see how she wanted the lead... when she came over to look at what I had done, she didn't read the article I had written and instead changed the entire idea of the lead, which changed the whole angle of the story and meant everything had to be re-written, which I struggled with because it made me feel that I didn't even know which quotes she thought were important as opposed to which quotes I had thought important to guide the flow of the story... and this meant that I came off looking like someone who couldn't do what they are supposed to be doing for a living...

*As well as writing that story, I was to arrange a time for the photographer to go and grab a photo of the people in the story for a day early the next week...it proved very difficult as the people who were to be in the photo were hard to organise, the photo was to be of office people at the beach and they required transport, the photographer was not there for me to speak to about possible good photo ideas, after I made the first book and arranged everything Linda said she'd rather the photo be taken somewhere else which meant the people in the photo had to be contacted again and re-organised and then transporting the people possibly clashed with the insurance policies of the newspaper....and I felt like screaming! Because again I came off as looking like the person who didn't know what was going on....when I was doing the best I could in a situation where I was the middle-middle-middle man (answering to the people in the story, the photographer and my boss)...and a situation I had never been in before...

*In the afternoon I had to go to Stocklands with the photographer and do the Vox Pop and "5 Minutes With" and "A Guys View" for the youth liftout section as they had someone sick and needed a fill in.... I'm not the worlds biggest fan of the youth liftout section... so I wasn't entirely proud of my work...but it was a hell of a lot easier than the triathlon article and more than anything it was good to get out of the office and get into more off the cuff interviewing.... I was working with Suz again, the same photographer I worked with last week, and we had an absolute ball together. We seem to get our jobs done really quickly when we work together and have fun doing it at the same time as we both know exactly what it is we need and exactly what it is the other needs...and things just seem to flow well when I'm doing a story with Suz... I hope I get to work with her again next Friday!

*Writing the articles for the youth liftout was a lot easier (and I think they turned out a lot better than my other work) for a few reasons... 1) My brain loved having a break from the Triathlon article 2) I wasn't putting as much pressure on myself because I don't have a very high opinion of the writing style of the youth liftout, even though that sounds awful (I'm sorry!) 3) Because I didn't have to answer to Linda, who I feel is a very talent journalist and I hate seeming like I'm letting her down....

*I also wanted to reflect on why I was anticipating that Linda would be difficult to deal with.... it was because over the phone she seemed like someone who had very little expectations of me...for example telling me things like needing to have a medical certificate if I have a day off and not just skipping the internship for an extra shift at work etc... When I felt like I didn't need to be told those things because I am an adult who has worked in the "real" corporate world before...another reason was that I found out she is the person who fired their intern after 3 weeks... an infamous story among JCU Journalism students.... however when dealing with her at work I think she is a very professional person. She is excellent at saying what she wants and expects out of a story, she's great at constructive criticism and hasn't ever purposely made me feel like I wasn't able to do something... she's an excellent writer and it a very scrupulous editor... and I admire her very much... I don't want to let her down! And that stresses me out!

*I’m finding the internship very challenging because working at a newspaper was never really what I wanted to do and has never really been of high interest to me, so I am trying to view the experience a great learning curve... but it is a struggle... sometime I feel like it’s really not the place for me, so much so that I am resentful that I was placed at the Bulletin when I specifically asked Lindsay Simpson (when I thought she was taking this subject) if I could be at City Life or Duo.... but if I go down that line of thinking then I will ruin the rest of my experience there by being negative...and it’s only week two...so I will return this Friday, and every Friday for the next 11 weeks, with a smile and an open mind.... and try to learn as much as possible while I’m there!

Creating my personal brand...

What am I good at?

Creative writing, photography, arguing a point, sticking to a project I love, reading, exploring, creating, doing things my own way, being punctual... I am brave... I am relentlessly enthusiastic and passionate when I love something..

What am I not good at?

Retaining information on topics I'm not interested in, sticking to projects I'm not interesting in, spelling, sticking to deadlines, having to do things for someone else that I don't agree with... I am cynical when I don't love something... I will procrastinate (terribly!) when set a task I'm not interested in...

What do I want to be known for –

...professionally?

Being reliable, the best (or up with the best) at the what I do, willing to give anything a try (I would like to be known as someone who can be called on at late notice and always pull through, someone who can do what is asked of them, someone who will try their best each and every time...) Be eminent for: writing, art & photography. Charismatic, accessible, skilled and efficient... being individual and offering something that is uniquely me. Enthusiastic.

...and personally?

Being reliable, loyal, loving. Be eminent for: writing, art & photography.

First thoughts on the first day...

I just wanted to do a quick post, before I get into the good stuff over the weekend, to reflect on my feelings of how the first day of my internship at the Townsville Bulletin went....
* I was nervous... so nervous of being late that I got there 40 minutes early and read a book in my car for half an hour...
* Linda and all the other staff were nicer than I anticipated... (not sure why I didn't think they would be... will mull over this over the weekend)
* I got sent out to do a story on the launch of a Driver Training program... at first I thought I was going out with a Journalist to cover the story and then I realised I WAS THE JOURNALIST... So it was just me and the photographer and she thought I was a pro... when I told her it was my first day, my first real story EVER she took pitty on me and got right in there initially pointing out who all the officals were for me and telling me background info on people so I knew who to go and speak to... I was lucky becuase the launch had organisers there specifically to be a go-between for the officals and the media, so they asked me who I wanted to speak to and would go and grab them for me... but then after the formal speaches I was on my own.. and I felt pretty confident from the first few little chats with people that I could go and speak to anyone.. it definitly helped that I was able to introduce myself as "Bessie from the Townsville Bulletin"... after years of being "Bessie a student from JCU"...and I don't think anyone guessed that I was still a student, which really validated me. I felt like I had completed a real job, which I had!
The photographer told me I had done a good job and I found it really interesting being able to follow the photographer around after I'd done my interviews, althought I don't think Linda would be impressed if I told her I had followed the photographer around... even though I really thought I had enough for the story!
* Going back the newsroom and writing the story was the hardest part of the day... but luckily I wasn't feeling too precious about what I had written. I was actually really appreciative of having Linda rip it apart and show me how it should be done... I will definitly learn better that way.
* I am really worried about having to do more than 1 story a day... Linda said by the end of the internship I should be able to do at least 4 stories a day! I only finished the 1st one by 3.30 and the subs start at 3.....and I had lots of help from Linda to get it right...
* I was a bit annoyed that it was straight news peice that I had to do today, as my passion is in features and photography... and I know my work won't show my full potential becuase I do struggle with hard news... but I tried my hardest today, Linda was incredibly helpful, interviewing such important people by myself (and having the Bully just throw me in there) was very liberating and I enjoyed it so, so, so, so, so much!
* The other girls in Advertising-Features were all really friendly and seem pretty keen to have me help them with their upcoming stories... they have a few monthly liftouts coming up and have told me to try and come up with some stories ideas based around their general topics... so that is exciting!
* I think I felt better by the fact that Tara and Ryan were there as well...thought I only saw them for our tour for the first hour of the day... but I didn't feel like I was the only intern in the building...so that somehow in the back of my mind made me a bit more confident...
* Overall it was new and very exciting... and I CANNOT wait to grab the paper first thing tomorrow morning and see if my story is in there! :) [Mum and Dad will definitly be sent a copy to stick on the fridge!]