Class 11 Summer internship at NDTV

Between 21st May and 9th June, 2017, two students, Mirambika Mukherjee and Akshat Sharma attended office at NDTV for a fifteen-day internship, to be introduced to electronic journalism. Our job at NDTV was to work as shadows, which means to work under experienced journalists and learn about what they do by observing them through the day. We worked for a prominent show called India Matters under show producers, Ms. Martina Roy and Ms. Priya Thuvassery.

We were warmly received by Ms. Roy on the first day of our internship. We were shown around 'our workstation' for the next fortnight. We were then introduced to the team. We also interacted with some college students studying mass-communication and journalism and who were also interning like us. We instantly struck up a friendship!

To get us started, we were shown a few episodes of the programme, 'India Matters. We were then given the task to try our hands at a transcript some new episodes.

For the next few days, we were assigned transcription work for the upcoming episodes of the show. We gradually got familiar and work became lots of fun. We were taught to work on sophisticated machines, ingest tapes and work on metadatas. We worked through the technicalities about which we had previously no idea!

Another job we enjoyed doing was sorting tapes as per lists provided to us. Our self-confidence took a big leap as we worked on detailing scripts, offering our inputs and suggestions.

We would be taken to the editing room to watch the final versions of the upcoming episodes too. In our meetings with Ms. Sutapa Deb, senior reporter and anchor of India Matters, we gave our suggestions and feedback, which she intently listened to and appreciated.

We worked as Production Assistants for an episode of India Matters-'Save The Sea Cow'. It was heartening to see our names in the credits! The link for the episode on youtube is - http://www.ndtv.com/video/shows/india-matters/india-matters-save-the-sea-cow-458891

On one of the days, we got an opportunity to go out for a shoot to a certain drug rehabilitation centre. It was a new experience as we witnessed live interviews being taped, conversations with the children etc. It was very exciting.

Much to our dismay, the last day of our internship soon came along! I thought of putting together my new skills by conducting an interview Martina maam! She happily obliged and talked about her journey at NDTV. Her feedback on our performance there and her guidance on how we can pursue journalism as a career were invaluable. We met many colleagues, including Mr. Rahul Atri, Vice President-HR etc, before leaving.

Working at NDTV, a prestigious media house , was a dream come true! It was a wonderful experience and all the days we returned home from the office, though exhausted, we felt a feeling of fulfilment.

Working in regular office hours, we got a hands-on experience of a professional work environ where we hope to be, in the future.

I would like to thank School with all my heart to have entrusted us with such an opportunity which taught new things in a novel way. We hope to pursue careers in journalism and leave our School proud!

Mirambika Mukherjee.