Saturday, April 30, 2011

A REPORT ON ONE MONTH INTERNSHIP AT ALL INDIA RADIO, NEW DELHI


All India Radio the world’s largest news broadcast service organization was more closely observed and understood by me in its operational Head office from the New Broadcasting House, Parliament Street, New Delhi, India; during my month long internship program in News Service Division (NSD) in April 2011.

Being a student of Audio Visual Communication, I opted to do my internship there as per the requirement of the Makhanlal Chaturvedi Unversity, Bhopal for the partial fulfillment of my master degree. The internship was divided in to four weeks program, intending each week for different section or unit of All India Radio. It all took place under the able guidance of Ms. Pushpinder Kaur, Officer on Special Duty, assisted by Mr. Bhat of IT Unit. Who were behind the scene from the very beginning of our internship and designed the module for its smooth function.  We were divided into small groups of two members. The program commenced from 1st April to 29th April. It went from Monday to Saturday in day shift, beginning from 9:30 am to 3:30 pm.; however, Sunday was given off.

1st April was the first day of the program, introduced by two senior personnel (retired) from All India Radio, Mr. S Robert and Mr. R C Saldi, who dedicated their time explaining the importance of Radio in Mass communication. They differentiated the medium of Radio in to spoken language, which goes straight to the listeners. Therefore, they took classes on the style of language used in Radio for Reporting and Editing respectively.

Following day I was placed in Election Cell along with Jose Jacob, where we met the in charge Mr. Naqvee. He explained the need of election cell in AIR. When there is election in India in different states that time the cell is most active. They gather information from the correspondents placed in the election area. The information collected together and made it into a book to place it in archive for future reference.

After Election Cell it was General News Room (GNR), the place where exactly the bulletins are prepared. This is divided in to different desks like English, Hindi and Regional languages. This section is headed by an Editor in Chief, assisted by panel of language editors. Their sources are agency copies, reporting unit, regional, foreign and special correspondents, as well as numerous TV channels. All the stories are put in to approval pool, the in charge goes through and shares the prominent ones in the finish pool, and then other editors do their job. This is a place where all are active to prepare a bulletin, considering the importance the headlines are made with the help of a supervising officer, before the bulletin goes on air, the DG NEWS comes to verify and makes necessary changes if needed. I was given the opportunity to be there in the console room with the production assistant, attached to the studio, when the Mid Day News was on air. It was a rare time and memorable experience to watch the readers when the bulletins were broadcast live.

Coming week was the time for Reporting Unit; it was a good time to meet the senior correspondents, whose voice I usually heard in the bulletin. Here, the group is responsible to go to the press conferences, collect information from Press Information Bureau and monitor the TV news, along with going to different ministries and party offices. Besides that they ask the correspondents to file a story or give a voice cast according to the importance. It was a good exposure for me as I was asked to go to different places for reporting which include Jantar Mantar on the last day of the Anna Hazare’s fasting against Corruption. I also went to Hotel Lalit in Barakhamba Road to attend the Young Women Achievers Awards 2010-2011; Dhyan Chand Hockey Stadium to repot a felicitation ceremony organized by the Sports Ministry. Besides these I attended a press conference in Left Party office with regard to Election in West Bengal. Thanks to Mr. Vinayak who helped in reporting and filing the stories.
  
Third week was to learn the technical aspects used in news broadcasting in All India Radio. First two days I went to the Dubbing Studio meant for recording from TV, over the Phone or simply recorded the voice casts. Next two days I joined in the Editing cell, the assistant editors editing the dumped bytes in Dalet software. Every day for a Mid Day News at least 8-9 voice cast are prepared. There is a compiling editor who checks before it is broadcasted. Last two days of the week I was placed in News Feature Unit. Ms. Sarita Brara was the head of the unit who asked me to hear the previously broadcasted audio files on different themes. I learned the way they prepare a news feature, like recording bytes from the people and edit it with the scripted voice cast. This news feature is broadcasted as capsule in Mid Day News in English and Hindi.

Last week was a practical week, we gathered in a group and under the guidance of Mr. R C Saldi and Mr. S Robert we did the practical exercise in Reporting and Editing. Mr. S Robert introduced how to make use of the Government websites and with the provided information to file a story. That day from the PIB site we took the background information of Jaitapur Nuclear Power Plant and filed a story; it happened to be the first headline of the Mid Day News. Next day once again Mr. S Robert took us to the news room and helped us to prepare a mock bulletin of 10 minutes. I recorded the mock bulletin and edited in the website cell with the help of the members there. Last second day, on 28th April a debriefing session was organized by Ms. Pushpinder Kaur with the senior officers of AIR. They encouraged us to be a good journalist and at the same time asked the feed back to do some important changes in coming internship program to help the student in a specific manner. 29th April was the last day of our internship, we with our guides met the DG NEWS AIR, who evaluated our program and handed over the certificates. With a hot cup of coffee the program came to an end.

Overall the entire one month internship program gave me an experience of production of Radio News. From the field where the news generates to how it reaches to the listeners, was a key factor I learned in those days. It was a good time to learn when the guides were with us, but similarly difficult when I was left alone to do in my own way. My internship was totally restricted to the news section only, had I given a chance about the various other programs broadcasted in AIR given me more insight. Also I missed the Current Affairs & Talk Show preparation; though it was planned in the schedule could not actualize due to certain reasons. All were cooperative in their dealings; I liked the way they maintained our attendance register. I take this chance to thank my institute (NISCORT) for arranging and providing a rare opportunity to have my one month internship program in All India Radio, New Delhi. The one month program has given me a self confidence to critically judge the news in different angle. It will definitely help me to go ahead with the journalistic skill to reach the news to the people, with out bias, the way it supposed to be.
  


 

2 comments:

  1. Its amazing to go through you text..
    now i am also thinking to work as intern,,. please tell me the selection procedure.. how u reach there?? do you have any jack or what??
    i am waiting for your reply.. please reply fast.

    Gcsbjmc@gmail.com

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  2. An internship is a temporary position with an emphasis on on-the-job training rather than merely employment, and it can be paid or unpaid. If you want to go into publishing, you might have to take an internship before you are qualified for an actual job. I have done my summer internship reports with the help of to this url Internship Project Reports, which has more than a thousands of topics.

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