Insights from a UTS Journalism Intern at Guardian Australia 2022

Adele Horin Prize Winner and UTS Journalism/Law student Stephanie Tran is interning with Guardian Australia from March 2022.

Image of girl with long dark hair smiling at the camera

Stephanie is the 2022 winner of the Adele Horin Prize. She is studying a Bachelor of Communication (Journalism)/Bachelor of Laws at UTS.

In 2021, she was a finalist for the Walkley Student Journalist of the Year award and the winner of the Democracy's Watchdogs prize for student investigative journalism for her "State Capture" investigation. Stephanie has written extensively about political donations and hopes to dedicate her career to public interest investigations.

Here are Stephanie's insights from the first week and last week of her internship with Guardian Australia in April/May 2022.

First week at Guardian Australia

At the end of my first week at The Guardian, I still can’t believe how lucky I am. Learning from and working alongside some of Australia’s most respected journalists that I’ve admired for years is truly a surreal experience.

I was fortunate enough to train alongside the cadets, including last year’s Adele Horin prize winners Rafqa Touma and Natasha May. (You can read about their internship experiences here.).

Throughout the week, we underwent an intensive practical training program with AAP journalism trainer Richard Lawson. From writing engaging introductions to effectively conveying complex information, we were taught the basics of what makes a well-written news story.

Here are some key takeaways from the training sessions:

Look for the human angle in stories: people care most about how the story affects them, so where possible, try to bring in the stories of those affected by an issue.
As journalists, we need to be across the news cycle: read widely, engage with agenda-setting morning news, current affairs programs, and breaking news on Twitter.
News writing should be specific, emphatic, and concise: where possible, use fewer words rather than more, avoid long clunky sentences as they will bore the reader.
Introductions should draw the reader in and keep them wanting more: let the facts come first and try to keep introductions to one thought. The aim is to orient the reader and make them want to read on.
When interviewing sources, be a human first and a journalist second: it’s important to establish rapport and let our humanity come through to make sources comfortable with opening-up

Ducking in and out of training sessions and conferences while finding time to research and write stories and juggle uni classes has been a little hectic, but I’m looking forward to what the next few weeks bring!

Final week at Guardian Australia

The Guardian’s coverage of the election is incredibly diverse with articles on climate change, cost of living, government integrity, pork-barrelling as well as local issues. Over the past few weeks I have been fortunate enough to spend time with the news, environment, investigations and data teams.

The mentorship and support I’ve received from journalists as I moved between the different news desks has been incredible.

The morning news conferences are definitely a highlight. Guardian journalists from across Australia gather in news rooms and over zoom at 9 am every morning to discuss the stories of the day. It's been such a joy to work on stories about issues that I’m passionate about.

Some of the stories I've been working on are about issues ranging from the lack of ambulances in NSW, the destruction of koala habitat and election pork-barrelling.