After more than two-and-a-half years of studying at a university in Germany and at Fort Lewis College, I wanted to work. And after one exchange semester last year in Durango, I decided I wanted to stay longer in this piece of paradise. Also, I wanted to gather some experience in journalism, my field of study. So I applied for an internship in Durango – and I got it.
It was quite a change to wake up every day at the same time in the morning, sitting four hours in the office and work, have a one-hour lunch break and then work four more hours until 5 p.m. But why should I complain? This was what I wanted. I finally learned routine.
Most of the time during my internship, I was doing the briefs – the short announcements about happenings in the community – for the Local, Business, Education, Outdoor and other sections. Since this part of my internship, I have much more respect for the people typing these announcements. My work at these included working with the newsroom software, receiving calls, writing announcements and deleting spam or advertisement emails.
The part of this work I enjoyed the most was the research for the history column, “And the West is History,” which includes articles about Durango from 100, 75, 50 and 25 years ago and is published every day. It was interesting to read the old articles; during this work, I got more of a feeling about Durango’s history. The old articles showed me how journalism has developed since then. In the articles from 100 years ago, many things happening in Durango were considered newsworthy, which we would think of as unsurprising events. For example, I found an article about three airplanes that had been flying over Durango. This was the whole news. In the 75-year-old articles, I realized a change in the topics: In 1941, World War II was the No. 1 topic. The articles focused more on international and national topics and less on local news. So it was harder to find articles about Durango around 75 years ago.
After some weeks working at the public announcements and writing down the events in the community, I suddenly realized that local journalism is the best way to get to know a new town. Sometimes when I was walking through town, I would stop in front of a building, realizing that there is an event happening that I wrote about. I got a feeling about which topics are important in Durango, which problems and issues the town is facing and what kind of people live here.
During the whole time, I would attend the reporters meetings. At these, I could see how editors and reporters are working together and planning the next day’s newspaper. Also, I realized what you have to consider as a journalist when you are writing an article, taking a photo and publishing a story. I learned that online and print often require different ways of presentation. I was impressed by how much effort the Herald staff puts in to improve in working online and social media. Even more, I was impressed that though online click numbers seem to be everything, they have always emphasized: We write for the readers.
What interested me the most was writing about criminal trials at the courthouse. I had already written court reports when I was working at a newspaper in Germany. Yet, there were many differences. The German court system is a lot different from the U.S. system. In Germany, there is no jury – only a judge who decides if a defendant is guilty or not and what penalty a guilty defendant deserves. Also, there are no objections. I still remember the first objection I witnessed in the Durango courthouse: “Objection, asked and answered.” Most of the cases I saw in German courts were absurd – but in the court in Durango, I witnessed trials about crimes that were so bad that my stomach turned.
In the courthouse, I also realized one of the biggest differences between German and U.S. newspapers. In Germany, the newspaper usually doesn’t publish the defendant’s full name – sometimes they use pseudonyms or just call her or him “the defendant.” The purpose behind this: The criminal’s re-socialization after his jail time shouldn’t be hindered by the media’s coverage about him. The Herald instead publishes the full name, a mugshot of the defendant and sometimes even the address where the crime occurred and also sometimes where the defendant lives (if they were at the same place).
The same with the DUIs I typed in at the end of each month. The full name, address and all the details of the penalty were published. I was surprised, impressed and a little bit shocked. It took me some time to understand why this was so. My explanation: The newspaper works for the readership and the community. Thus, its duty is to report and record everything in the community.
For 10 weeks, I was typing in the public announcements the Herald received from the people of the Durango area. During this time, I would still have enough time to write one article each week, keeping me busy. Most of them were about lectures, some of them about trials at court and one about an exhibition opening.
Overall, my time spent at the Herald taught me one thing especially: patience. These 10 weeks were useful for me – no doubt!
One thing I would have liked is writing more articles. In German language, there is an expression: “Sich durchbeißen.” I couldn’t find an English equivalent for this. In English, the translation might be “to bite (yourself) through something.” If people “sich durchbeißen,” they are struggling with something but won’t give up until they have completed it.
These three months were great, gave me more journalistic experience, taught me a lot and yes, sometimes they were tough.
“Sich durchbeißen” was worth it – and this internship was a great experience.
Thomas Feiler is a student at the Catholic University Eichstaett-Ingolstadt, Germany, and worked as an intern at The Durango Herald from Jan. 10 until April 1.
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