Interning at my local, small town newspaper this summer has been an amazing experience, and taught me a lot about what it's like to work in a journalism field. Although the experience was mostly what I expected, there were some aspects of the job that surprised me, for example:

The "Newsroom" is an illusion

Sure, there's an office space were occasionally we all congregate, but for the most part when you work at a local paper there are so few people on staff that the office is generally pretty deserted since everyone is out getting their stories.

You're privy to everything going on in town before everyone else

It might go without saying that when working at a local paper you know all the goings on in the town, but truly the amount of information you get is beyond what I had even considered. Some of the juiciest tidbits are stories that we decide to not pursue, but still, I feel so in the know.

There isn't much time to craft your piece

The turnaround between news breaking and an article getting published is actually very little time. Unless a piece is a profile or based off a press release, the story is usually written within an hour of the event taking place

There is no such thing as time off

As convenient as it would be for the news to sleep when you do, thats not the case. Weekends, holidays, late nights, they're all fair game, and your expected to be on call whenever possible.

You hear a lot of conspiracy theories

The amount of emails I get from people trying to "shed light" on some major town scandal is unbelievable. I think I've heard more conspiracy theories in my three months on the job than I have in my whole life.

You have a lot of freedom

Sure, the editors go through your work with a fine tooth comb, but your piece is still entirely your own. You decide the angle, who to quote, and what voice to use, and that is something that is incredibly empowering -- woohoo for freedom of speech.