Internship Reviews, Football Journalism, Internship Scheme — August 5, 2010 12:26 — 0 Comments
“I would recommend the Football FanCast internship to anyone with aspirations of becoming a football writer”
I was pleased to get the opportunity to write for FootballFanCast.com during my three month internship there and felt that I learned a great deal writing football opinion blogs for them.
As a graduate of the University of Brighton where I acquired a BA (hons) Degree in Sport Journalism I had long had an interest in writing about the beautiful game, but initially found it difficult to get a break in the field.
Whilst on the job hunt I came across SN&CK Media’s football writing internship, so I applied immediately and was lucky enough to be chosen. During my time writing for FootballFanCast.com I learned a lot about the media and football writing that I did not know previously, and I believe it will hold me in good stead for the future.
Blog writing was fairly new to me as I was allowed to express my opinion quite freely, whereas in previous work placements I had mainly written more news and quote pieces. As a football fan I appreciated giving my two penneth worth on the sport.
Also, it was always nice to receive feedback on my pieces (sometimes good, sometimes bad) which not only helped me gain a sense of debate and community with my readers, but they also helped give me ideas for any future blogs that I may have written. For example, after writing a blog about players who Tottenham should and shouldn’t sign many of the comments I had received were dead against a Michael Carrick return (an idea which was mooted prior to the opening of the transfer window), so I wrote a follow up blog discussing the pros and cons of Spurs re-signing their former midfielder from Manchester United.
As a Chelsea fan like many others fans I could sometimes be found guilty of being biased, but after writing blogs about many teams I soon learned how to empathise with other fans and see things from their point of view as well as learning how to take my Chelsea hat off and criticise my club if it was warranted.
One big advantage of the internship was finding out how many reads each article got in weekly read reports and each intern filled out their individual intern plans to monitor their numbers.
The read reports were useful as they helped to provide a gauge on what sort of articles worked for you, what ones did not and how you can improve on what you had done previously. Aside from being useful for an analytical purpose, it is always nice to know when you have had a good week and that people are reading your work.
Before my internship I had not had much experience in the importance of the social media and how networking sites can be a useful tool to build up a readership to follow your work, but as it stands I have a growing number of followers on Twitter (currently around 600 people). My followers have been useful in helping me compile my blogs, particularly regarding lists as I debated with several of the Twitter users discussing which players should be in a Chelsea all-time British XI and a foreign XI also.
It was also a pleasure to work with my fellow interns, who I’m in contact with on my Twitter and Facebook accounts. I often discussed with one or two of the interns in particular in regard to ideas for articles and it was useful to help each other spot an angle on a story. We often read each other’s work and provided buddy feedback for a particular intern on a weekly basis, it also helped give me a sense of the other interns’ style and I feel as we all learned something by reading the work of the others.
Spotting a story was something I became quite adept at during the internship as after a number of weeks I had gained a feel over what sorts of stories could do well for me and also gave me a freedom in what I decided to write about supported by our editor, who helped us develop the best of the ideas we came up with.
As well as suggesting articles for myself to write about there came a point when we also had to nominate a few blog ideas for a chosen intern to write about. After reading the other interns’ work I learned how to spot a story which would suit their style as well as giving them a challenge and was always pleased to see if a story I gave to someone did well when the read reports came out for that particular week.
During the internship it was always comforting of having the support of Martin Crawford (Chief Editor), Tom Jones (FFC employee), Niall Coen and Sarah Kennedy (MDs of SN&CK Media). Even though I was away working on my own most of the time I had the feeling and pride that I was part of a team and found it easy to approach anybody in the team regarding any questions or problems, particularly Martin and Tom who we were in contact with on a regular basis.
As an internship it was a very rewarding time, the support involved was excellent and the praise received helped to encourage and help me grow as a writer. I would recommend the FootballFanCast.com internship to anyone with aspirations of becoming a football writer and wanting to learn about the business.
Anthony Williams
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