Elaine McMillion

BSJ, 2009
Interned with washingtonpost.com

“I’ve always loved in-depth feature writing and that has translated to a visual side. It’s really not that much different – it’s just that now I’m holding a video camera instead of a pen and pad.”

How did you find the internship opportunity at washingtonpost.com?
I started looking for a summer job in November or late October of the fall semester of my senior year because I just figured it would take that long to find something. Rather than looking through search engines of job searches, I actually just went to websites of places that I was interested in and saw what they had available. I literally applied for almost every position that was available at washingtonpost.com.

Why do you think you got the internship?
In late December they [the editors] emailed me back and asked if I was interested in doing an interview. I did a conference call interview, and they told me they would be getting in touch with me before the New Year. I wasn’t expecting to hear from them for two weeks. Well, John Temple and Nanya Friend sent in recommendations as soon as I did the interview. They [the editors] called me back the very next day and said we got great recommendations for you; we don’t want to pass this up. We want you to come work for us. Of course I was like, yes!

What did you do at washingtonpost.com?
I was a documentary video intern. I shot, edited and produced video content for the website. I produced more than 12 videos for washingtonpost.com for both the documentary video department and the Metro news video department. I also worked on the “Voices of Power” weekly web show where I shot, edited and produced interviews with Obama’s cabinet, including Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis. Some of my projects required overnight coverage, such as an Iranian-American protest that had to be shot, edited and produced for the next day. Some projects had a week long timeline, which allowed me to go back for second interviews and shoot more footage.

As a news-editorial major, was The Washington Post a dream job for you?
It’s just like the New York Times or Chicago Tribune—yeah, you could call it a dream job for sure. But I think it’s really cool that instead of working at the paper [The Washington Post], I actually got to experience online media. I’ve done the newspaper internship before and they were a lot of fun, but I’ve never gotten to experience how big of a difference online news is.

What do you see as the differences between print and online news?
The biggest difference is the multimedia. Also, the website is constantly being updated. I sat right beside the man who’s in charge of doing “Day in Photos,” which is one of the most popular photo galleries at washingtonpost.com. I saw him constantly moving to get those photos up. I think it [online media] is drawing a young crowd of people who are creative and are interested in keeping newspapers alive in some way, shape or form.

Who did you work with or who were your mentors at washingtonpost.com?
Everyone there was very helpful, especially my multimedia senior editor, Ben de la Cruz. I also was really impressed with two girls who are not much older than me, and they produced a piece about this dentist in rural Virginia. [While still in school working on] “West Virginia Uncovered” we watched it a thousand times – we thought it was great! Professor Temple would show it to the class, and we would talk about why we thought they did the things they did. As a senior in college, I thought the people who shot this have got to be in their 40s and has been doing this their entire life. I ended up meeting the two girls who did it and worked with them. Now they’re up for an Emmy. It was just great to work with young people and see what they’ve accomplished already. It just inspires you to keep going.

You have several of your own accomplishments -Scripps Howard Foundation Top Ten Journalists Award, co-creator of the “West Virginia Uncovered” multimedia project and now washingtonpost.com intern. What keeps you motivated?
Actually, what keeps me going are the stories that I hear from people. When I hear a good story, or I see something that’s breathtaking, or I use a new camera that has beautiful picture quality, I want to keep going. With all the new technology out there, there’s no reason to stop.

What was the most rewarding aspect of your internship?
This sounds so silly, but putting the video credit at the end of your video. You work so hard on this video, and you’re trying to make it look good. Once it’s approved by an editor, you stick your video credit with Washington Post on the end of your video, and it’s yours. No one can take that from you. You’ve produced this for The Washington Post, and that’s huge! I couldn’t believe that I could type my name in the search bar at washingtonpost.com and something I did came up.

What was the most challenging aspect of your internship?
One of my biggest challenges was wondering what was going to happen after the internship.

What are you doing now that your internship is over?
I finally know what I want to do with my life and that’s documentary work and documentary films. I’ve always loved in-depth feature writing and that has translated to a visual side. It’s really not that much different, it’s just that now I’m holding a video camera instead of a pen and pad.

McMillion is currently working as a multimedia intern for the Charleston Daily Mail. She plans to attend graduate school in the spring.