From the first moment I knew that Four Rivers, my school, required all 11th-graders to do a one-week internship, I was fairly sure I was going to try to do it at The Recorder. I have always been fascinated with language and writing, and with people and their stories, and if you add those things together you get journalism.
The Recorder is my local paper, so it made sense to me. I had no idea what to expect going into it, but I had not doubt that it would be worthwhile.
The first thing that I did when I came in Monday was go right across the street to the Franklin Superior Court to watch the beginning of jury selection for the trial of accused murderer Lewis Starkey III. I watched reporter Joshua Solomon take notes and tried to keep up.
That very much set the mood for the rest of the week. Every day was a new and exciting experience, or at least a somewhat familiar experience but in a new context. That is one of the things that I loved the most about my experience at The Recorder; there was always something going on, and I never felt like my presence wasn’t needed or respected.
On Tuesday I followed reporter Grace Bird as she met with two of the town clerks from her beat (the western part of the county), as well as Nancy Dole from Nancy L. Dole Books and Ephemera in Shelburne Falls. This was a great opportunity not only for me to get to see what kinds of questions reporters need to ask of people but also to hear a number of incredible stories about the area.
Wednesday I accompanied staff photographer Paul Franz to a variety of places and learned more than I ever could have imagined about lighting and about professional photography in the past. This is the sort of technical knowledge that I have little use for now, but will likely come in handy some time when I am not expecting it.
I returned to the Starkey trial on Thursday with Dave McLellan in order to hear the opening statements. I was there from 9 a.m. until the lunch break at 1, but I would have stayed for the rest of the trial if it wasn’t scheduled to be so long.
Even though trials are open to the public, being a reporter gives you the responsibility of showing up in court and reporting on what is going on. That requires a lot more than just watching the trial, but it still gives you an opportunity to be right where the action is happening for a good long time.
When I was not out and about during the week, I was in the office writing about some upcoming arts events and trying to get people to give me comments about them. It was a pleasure tracking down people so that I could hear what they have to say about their art, and it was very informative as to the diverse art community that exists in the Pioneer Valley.
Overall, the biggest thing I learned this week is that people want to hear, and they want to be heard. Reporters you see on TV are generally reporting national politics, or are investigating crime and scandal and that sort of thing. In those cases, nobody wants to talk to the reporters.
That is not the way it is with local news. Every single person who I interacted with, or who I saw a reporter interact with, was thrilled to have their story be heard. People truly want to tell their stories, and the rest of the community wants to listen. That is the entire reason the paper exists: to inform, but more importantly, to connect.
Noah Pitcoff, a junior at Four Rivers Charter School, spent last week observing and working alongside The Recorder’s staff.