RAI Corporation Internship Program

The month I spent at RAI Corporation has been great both from a professional and human point of view:  I got really involved in the news-making process and my ideas and suggestions have alwasy been encouraged and taken into consideration; even when I didn't take an active part in the work, I had the chance to assist the editing process, interviews and stand-ups.  It has been really interesting, instructive and a lot of fun!

Everyone at work has been extremely supportive and helpful and the work environment, in general, is very friendly, open and stimulating...that makes it a true pleasure to spend the day at the office.

Right from the beginning I became really close to the other interns:  we decided that we were gonna make the most of NYC...and we really are!!!!!

~Alessandra

Where am I? It‘seems like I’m still in Italy; probably just because I spend all my days in the office speaking Italian. But when I go to the roof everything change. I can barely believe to what I see. I’m in New York actually, the city of my dreams, and the Empire is just shining with his wonderful lights in front of me. It’s been a month, maybe more, and the only thing that I can say about that is AMAZING! I’m working alongside the journalist that usually admire from my house, watching Tv news, and it’s really interesting to discover all the little things that happens in the backstage.

And now let’s start speaking about the other interns.... I really hate them. They are such boring people…

Don’t worry my dear friends, I’m just kidding…I’m just working too much (arriving at 10.30 am every morning is really tiring) and I’m freaking out! I really love you and there is no better group that I could imagine to spend three months with in this amazing city.

I really can’ stop singing the famous Alicia Keys song Empire state of Mind....

“Newww Yooorrrkkkk, concret jungle where dreams are made of

There's nothin' you can't do

out of Neww Yooorrrrkkk

These streets will make you feel brand new

Big lights will inspire you

Let's hear it for New York, New York,

Neeeew Yooorrrkkkk”

Ok...I have to be honest. I sang it once when I was in a karaoke place with all my colleagues.

I’m really out of tunes and everybody was making fun of me, but in the end, who cares?

I’m living one of the best experiences in my life and that’s a good reason to tolerate something like that....

~Francesco

It has been more than a month since we got here and it seems like yesterday.  Every day I'm having the chance to take a closer look to the television and movie world, which are the fields I'm most interested into, doing research and writing technical and thematic reports, learning how to judge these products under different points of view.  It helps a lot understanding what people like to watch and why, that's important to learn how to provide a better service.  Everybody's nice and I definitely like the atmosphere.

~ Amalia

TV shows are my biggest passion.  Being here gives me the possibility to deal every day with the American Television's listings and thanks to my job I'm always updated about the upcoming tv shows:  I can observe them from the debut and understand the reactions of both critics and audience.  I think that what I'm doing here is like a little taste of how I imagine the ideal job of my life.  The second week that I was here I articipated in the preparation of the special for "Quelli che il calcio" about the football match Rome - Catania and being inside the studio during the live was full of great emotion!  Not bad as a beginning!

~Elena Z.

Monthly Report? Wow, time goes by too fast!  And if looking for an apartment in New York can be daunting (by the way, watch out for water bugs!!), everything else is very exciting.  I get to work on all kinds of stories, and assist during interview and editing.  Not to mention the work environment...between the wonderful colleagues and the stunning views, I must say, interning for Rai Corporation is really great!   And New York, well...New York is so beautiful under the snow....but boy, so cold!

~Elena T.

This is my first time in New York and I found this city amazing!  People are as weird as nice! I'm enjoying the city as much as possible!  I was here during the blizzard and it was really incredible. Visiting a deserted new York was really special, there was snow everywhere!! It was like being in a movie!  The job is nice, sometimes a bit boring and sometimes very interesting.  People in Rai Corp are friendly and helpful.

~Fabio

New York is a really interesting and crazy city.  Every time I walk in the street I think, why don't cars hit one other?  They go so fast!  And they never hit a bicycle?  If I live in New York, I will never go on a bike, it's so dangerous!  America is the country where all is possible, cigarettes are even sold in the pharmacy.  Another strange custom, that I don't understand.

~Saul

Most of the poeple think that they can control what happen in their lives.  How pretentious is it?

This city can teach that it doesn't exist a right way to do something, just your own way.  There are way too many people with too many different, beautiful, unspeakable stories to tell in this city.  But through different paths they all got here.  And they are all contributing to the growth of this beautiful city. 

And may we will as well.

~ Stefano

I've always heard from people New York is the city that never sleeps, but i'm just realizing it's true.  Try to walk on the streets in the middle of the night and you'll feel like in the middle of the day:  restaurants, fast foods, pubs, cinemas, supermarkets....whatever you want it will be there for you anytime.  Subway it's open 24 hours a day and will take you home save and saftey at 5am, after a night spent with your friends in the other side of the city.  Skyscrapers and their lights will guide you everywhere in Manhattan as a sort of compass. 

New York never leaves you alone!

~Carolina

I still remember an afternoon of nine years ago - on September 11, 2001 - when I was a teenager, just 16 years old, ready to enjoy the last moments of a summer spent playing soccer every day in my dear hometown, Salerno. It was an afternoon like many others: I was watching TV after lunch when I saw my brother coming in the living room to tell us the news. My father, my aunt and I were completely speechless looking at the terrible images of the terrorist attack against the Twin Towers at the World Trade Center, the symbol of the United States’ economic power. My brother Marco was able to see when the second airplane crashed into one of the towers and he realized that this was not a movie. Everything was real. After an hour watching the breaking news on TV, we witnessed the death of about 3.000 innocent lives. Since that day, year after year, I grew up dreaming of New York, hoping to live in this city and in this huge country, the United States of America, which has been shaping most of my dreams and hopes. Nobody could have predicted that on September 11, 2010 - nine years later - I would have been in New York City working as an intern at Rai Corporation to cover the anniversary of that tragic and historic day. The commemoration took place along with the rallies against the project to build a Mosque a few blocks from Ground Zero, and I helped a RAI cameraman to cover those rallies. That evening, I went to my cousin’s house in New Jersey from where I saw two lights up in the sky. I immediately understood what it was about: the Twin Towers were living again thanks to a “Tribute in Light” shining in the dark. My first (american) 9/11 was going to end along with those lights set for just one night, the night before a new dawn.

Paolo Massa

www.paolomassa.blogspot.com

Today NYC, it’s different. Here, wearing a watch or using a Gps doesn’t make any sense. You don’t have to be on time because the Big Apple is always there for you. Everywhere it’s time to party. Movies start at 3 pm and in the end, after a kilo of peanut butter popcorns, you still have the whole day in front of you. On the other hand, at 3 am you can go shopping: rush hours in the middle of the night! Having a drink with friends and your plastic bags full of fresh fruit and vegetables is nothing else than daily life. Concerts in the dawn, shops and museum in the night. New York is not anymore the city that never sleeps, but it’s definitely the city that sleeps just when it wants.

- Giulia Dedionigi

It’s Tuesday afternoon. As usual, train R is going to drive me home. In my bright and small apartment in Brooklyn where I’ll eventually bite what remains of a Magnolia Bakery’s chocolate chip muffin. It seems a long journey to me, today. I keep reading My Life in France although it deals with French costumes and culture and to a first-time newyorker sounds dramatically ridiculous. Never mind. The train has the hiccups, as it keeps stopping and going. Page 68 and the Strand bookmark falls on the floor. It is then, that I realize that we are stuck in a gallery. It’s 6.45 pm. I keep reading but time never goes by. But not everything was perfect. Madame Brassart had crammed too many of us…I cannot concentrate. People around me pretend not to care about the waiting. The Chinese girl keeps hugging her boyfriend and the little kids are laughing jumping from a seat to another. “Hey everyone, I want to inform you that something happened close to 36th street stop. We don’t know what. No idea. We cannot communicate. We are stuck here. It can be for ten minutes, it can be two hours – or the whole night. Be patient”. Facial expressions change. Kids start crying and screaming. A man asks for getting outside and walk. "No way, we don’t know how many you are. Nobody has to get lost." Keep reading, it will move soon – I try to convince myself. But not everything was perfect. Madame Brassart had crammed too many of us…A woman wants to exchange a slice of pizza for a seat. The guy in the corner takes his earphones off. It’s 8.05 p.m, the train moves. After few minutes, I’m not eating only a muffin but a big pasta plate. It has been an unforgettable day after all, even if not everything was perfect.

~ Laura Battini

 

Perhaps because I had time to spend my fantasy on much longer swims.

Perhaps because New York lets me dream.

Enjoy!

Teodora

By Janet Lawrence

RAI’s New York office, located in the AT&T building at 32 Avenue of the Americas, is a brick, art deco high rise; its towering antenna is visible throughout Soho. Stepping onto the 25th floor, you are greeted by Italian-American receptionists, the gatekeepers to this island within an island. From here, America falls away and Italy begins.

I pursued an internship at RAI because I wanted to spend the summer speaking my second language while fulfilling the summer internship requirement for my masters in journalism. As an intern at RAI, I have been working in the news production department. Until a week ago I assisted Gerardo Greco, the foreign correspondent for TG2, helping produce one or two packages per day. The stories focus on American culture--stories that portray peculiarities and peccadilloes particular to America. I’ve been told that TG2’s demographic is a slightly younger crowd, interested in entertaining stories, rather than hard news—they adore these color stories from the United States. The deadline for each day’s story is 2:30 PM EST, as TG2 airs at 8:30 PM Italian time.

One of these peculiarities was the story on Debrahlee Lorenzana, the New York banker who alleges she was fired for her curvaceous appearance and revealing clothing. For the story, I did research, accompanied Greco to the Williamsburg Chase branch where Lorenzana works, conducted man-on-the-street interviews, and assisted writing the script. For Italians, dressing in a provocative manner is hardly newsworthy—and it is certainly not a punishable offense, so it was the responsibility of the foreign correspondent and the production team to provide an Italian audience with extra information that might seem obvious or redundant for Americans. For this piece, and for most pieces, as the resident American, Greco called upon me to contextualize these peculiarities. And this is the job I most enjoy at RAI—decoding aspects of American culture for an international audience. The story then loses its New York Post-quality sensationalist shine and unpacks the interests and concerns of a country in a post-feminist society. It becomes a story that demands an understanding of women’s liberation, sexual harassment in the workplace, the American obsession with lawsuits, the rise and fall of political correctness, etc. Thinking about these things while I assist the journalist and producers to compose the piece—and having my ideas included in the script-- is the most rewarding part of the experience.

In the last week, I’ve been working with Giulio Borrelli and I certainly look forward to spending this final month with his production team to experience their unique way of developing a story. With the explosion of the exposed Russian spy ring on the American imagination, we scrambled to keep Italians updated with the latest, from Anna Chapman’s sexy-spy mystique to the deportation of the group back to Russia. We delved into the depths of Russian spy movies to collect images to accompany his scripts, rich with allusions to James Bond thrillers and Cold War dramas.

As for what I will take with me, it has certainly been instructive on how il mondo lavorativo works in Italy. From the language to the friendly staff to the espresso breaks, I feel as though I am in the bel paese. As far as gaining an understanding of how American broadcast news works, I’m not sure that my experiences will translate. But I don’t mind. I got an incredible international experience this summer without having to find a subletter, and for that, I’m grateful.

"From their experience or from the recorded experience of others, men learn only what their passions and their metaphysical prejudices allow them to learn"

~Aldous Huxley

Posted by: Tansy