Experience of internship at PPI
Sohail Aziz
I had heard word “internship” much before I took admission in the University but I was unaware of its importance till I passed a year watching my seniors striving to get internship letters from department and then finally going for internships to gain experience of work in different fields related to Mass Communication.
My subject teacher Mr Sangi was ready made guide for a piece of advice. He very logically suggested me to go for an internship in print media as it was to build my base in the field of journalism.
I was confused as print media is a vast field. Like every other student, I also wanted to join some reputed organisation but I was unaware how to make an access.
Soon, my confusions and tensions were removed. Sir Sangi suggested a tablet of advice and asked me to join a news agency. He referred me to work at Pakistan Press International (PPI) as an intern.
Initially I was like “News Agency…. Mmmm okhay, lets see!” crcumstances left me with no option but to swallow that tablet.
Hence without wasting a single moment, I shifted to Karachi to join my internship at PPI. On the first day one of senior student of my department accompanied me and took me to the office of PPI. As I was unaware of its location and she had already been an intern there, so her presence made many things much easier for me.
She introduced me to the Bureau Chief of PPI Mr Naseer Aijaz. I was given a very amicable response and was granted internship.
I found atmosphere and everything very calm. I liked my work place. Perhaps many of the students would have not found such a palce.
I was assigned a place to work in the news room, which contained about 21 computers, a television set, two fax machines, an IT room, offices of Bureau Chief and Editor were also incorporated in it.
I formally joined PPI on June 22, 2009. On the very first day of my internship, I reached office at 10am and soon after an hour, the Bureau Chief also arrived. He called me in his office and told me the timings I had to work during my internship. He gave me an identification user name, so that I could file my news stories with that ID.
He than told me the format of filing news stories at PPI, which was only used for that specific news agency. Further, he told me about how to make an intro by giving me example of accident news and pointed out some basic things that I had to mention in every news story. He like a teacher taught me every major and minor thing that was to help me filing my news stories properly and prove me as a successful journalist in future as well.
Then he introduced me to news editor of English section Mr Nawaz and asked him to accommodate me for work. Mr Nawaz very gently guided and made me learn some of the basic journalistic skills to file a news story. He told me each and every thing, all compulsions and obligations that are to be followed by professional journalists.
Starting from commas, he corrected all my mistakes of capital letters, headlines, hyphenated words, abbreviations, usage of exact terminology and format of making different kind of news categories like sports, weather etc.
On my first day, I wrote /edited 13 news stories, which was a large number for a beginner who did not even, had sense of making simple news of an accident.
I was treated very officially and professionally. A strict check was kept over my punctuality. Everyday I used to come at around 11am and left at 7pm. Mr Nawaz used to give me raw Urdu and English news reports that were faxed by PPI correspondents from all over the country and I made news stories out of them.
Often it happened, when Bureau Chief himself gave me some reports and checked them after I had made news out of them.
Mr Nawaz never ever showed any kind of irritation or anger over his face, even some sometimes he had to rewrite all of the stories I had made, still he very patiently pointed out my mistakes and told me the correct way.
Throughout my internship, I was scolded only once by the Bureau Chief and that too on making a very silly mistake just because of my negligence and lack of concentration. But after that, I never made any such kind of mistake and always collected a voice of appreciation over my work.
Once, he gave me result gazette of SSC Karachi Board and asked me to make news out of it. When I filed my news, he checked it and directed the IT department to replace news of result made by him with my detailed piece.
Next day when I saw that news published in The Daily News International, there were no limits of my joy. Similarly, when I saw my first news story published in another newspaper, I was like on top of the world.
Then every day I checked newspaper and when I saw stories filed by me published in the newspapers, I felt happy, proud and charmed. It all gave me more energy and eager to learn and work with more enthusiasm.
I got a very cooperative staff of reporters, who guided and helped me out when ever I asked them. I was made to do reporting on phone by calling Chhipa Welfare Service and some other occasional incidents for coverage of protests and processions.
Day in and day out, I kept on working at PPI and gained experience of four weeks. With every passing day, I drank lots and lots of journalistic knowledge from the fountains of PPI. It raised my confidence and gave me something that I never had before, Experience!
On the last day of my internship, July28, 2009, Mr Nasir Aijaz granted me an Internship Certificate of working at PPI as a Sub-Editor for duration of four weeks. I gathered some golden tips by having a chat of more than an hour with him.
My experience of internship at PPI gave me a lesson that we should not run after big labels blindly because all that glitters is not gold. May be I would not had learnt so much even if I had worked at any big or famous newspaper.
I am thankful to my subject teacher Mr Sangi for true guidance and let me explore myself at PPI.
My experience taught me that, merely having a degree does not count much until one has sufficient experience of work because what we study in books is different than the actual field of practice.
Working at PPI, no doubt made me learn a lot. I was blank when I went there but now, I feel myself confident enough to stand and say that I am a Journalist.
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