Here’s what I saw while interning at The Realm News

I’m an ND2 student at Moshood Abiola Polytechnic (MAPOLY) where I’m studying Mass Communication.

Some months back, I was presented an opportunity to intern with The Realm News and I’m glad I took it.

Due to how last year’s pandemic lockdowns influenced the office culture especially in a city like Lagos, I worked from home most of the time. But that didn’t make my learning process any harder as I enjoyed immense support from my industry supervisor.

I now know how to monitor news on social media. I was also allowed to manage The Realm News’ Instragram account which I grew by 18 per cent within two weeks.

During the internship period, I wrote a news story about the rising cost of “pure water” sachet in Shomolu and other areas of Lagos.

I went to a pure water factory where I interviewed workers about the reasons for the price hike. I then embedded their responses into my report. I also spoke with retailers and consumers.

I asked at different locations for their prices. I had to contact some by phone and via the internet as I could not travel to their locations and make it back on time before my story deadline.

After gathering everything I needed for the story, I wrote it and sent it to the editorial team which reviewed and published it.

I also got an introduction to a an open source content management system (CMS) called WordPress. I learnt that many popular news platforms use this CMS to publish content. We also had a look at Google Analytics which can be used to measure content and general website performance.

I intend to use this knowledge to boost my career and I’m thankful to everyone at The Realm News for making my stay worth the while.