Internship Experience

I am fortunate that I got a chance to learn the tricks of journalism from a leading media publications like Citizen Matters. I interned in the Chennai chapter of Citizen Matters for a period of two months.

Citizen Matters serves as a knowledge exchange with insightful reports on critical urban issues, ideas and solutions for cities, diving deep into issues which affect our quality of life, including water, commute, public safety, air quality, governance, education, environment, local economy and more.

I worked in the capacity of student reporter where I had to write long form feature story (1200 words ) on civic matters pertaining to Chennai. My other responsibilities include promotion of their articles on social media platforms, organising their monthly RWA call ( Chetpet ) and curating information about active RWA's, citizen activists located in Chennai.

The internship experience was surreal as I was placed in best hands. I was working under the supervision of senior reporter Laasya Shekhar and editor Satarupa Sen Bhattacharya. Both of them helped me a lot while I was working on my stories in ideation, finding sources, editorialization of stories etc.

Through this internship, I got an idea how long form journalism works. I got a close outlook of all stages a written piece goes through before it gets published. Most Importantly, I got acquainted with a host of citizen activists, bureaucrats and corporation officials ( from low ring employees to executive officers) as I was working on my stories. These sources will prove to be handy if in future I plan to explore the municipal/civic beat in Chennai.

I did the following stories as part of my internship:

• Plight of burial ground workers of Chennai

• How the second wave of Covid -19 impacted the MSME's in Chennai .

• The wedding guide in Chennai .

My author page :
chennai.citizenmatters.in/author/swaminathans