My third week of the KYW internship began with a bit of fatigue, as I had stayed up till eleven at night binging The Boys rather than getting my eight to ten hours of sleep. Nevertheless, I munched on my Wawa breakfast sandwich to get some energy and drove over the Ben Franklin Bridge from the burbs of Jersey to bustling Philly, and arrived twenty minutes early to the towering Audacy headquarters. 

   Luckily I wasn’t the only one who had overslept, since many other students and even presenters were also exhausted, having stayed up late watching the first game of the Phillies in the World Series (go Phils!). This fittingly tied into our two lectures, which were about digital/social media and sports journalism.

   The first presentation of the day came from the likes of Micheal “LA” Levay and George Miller, two well versed journalists in social media and photojournalism. We learned about creating engaging graphics for social media posts and the bad part of algorithms and marketing. If people regularly consume articles and posts that spread fake news, they go down a political rabbit hole with more extreme content and not get a correct picture of what is going on. 

   During our second presentation, from sports journalists Eliot Shorr-Parks and Olivia Reiner, we learned the importance of establishing credibility and creating a brand through social media. It takes a long time to establish journalistic style while also gaining a following, and it’s important to share your personality through social media to help the audience connect.

   Another important thing I learned was how to not let criticism and negativity bring you down. As journalists gain a following, it’s only natural to get hateful replies on social media, and it’s best to block them out and not read into them.

   After these presentations, we met with our class about starting our scripts. My class met with Tom Rickert (because Hadas was sick), and it was interesting getting to hear the stories of a larger portion of our Newstudies group because of having two classes. We learned about the importance of pyramid writing and finding the most important pieces of your interviews to concoct your script.

   I’m looking forward to revising my DECA script and recording my report at the KYW headquarters during our next session. It’s going to be exciting to record in their new high-quality studio and hear my report on the air! I cannot wait!  

   Thank you for tuning in, and be sure to read next time on KYW with Kaitlin!