Becky Bereiter, news director for DITV

By Matt Hauge

Up early for her 9:30 a.m. Italian final exam, UI senior Becky Bereiter cut her shower short when she heard the scream of sirens near her South Johnson Street apartment. She headed for the kitchen window to investigate.

Bereiter had heard correctly—the crews were right outside. They were putting out the fire in her car.

Trying to comprehend, she wanted to race out to them, but stopped, realizing, “Becky, you’re in a towel.”

And that was only the beginning. After she finished the Italian test, she got a call from KWWL’s Jessica McAninch, who wanted to set up an interview in Cedar Rapids concerning an internship application Bereiter had submitted.

Bereiter, who had no car, could not make the trip and had to make other arrangements. She spent that night working on a paper for her gender and media class without even a wink of sleep.

Her phone rang again the next morning. It was McAninch. She would be in Iowa City for a story on a casino and wanted to stop by Bereiter's home to conduct the interview.

The future of Bereiter’s internship now rested on the half-hour interview in her living room after an all-nighter and the tragic demise of her car.

“When it rains, it pours, but I lived,” said Bereiter. “It tests your character.”

For Bereiter, the spur-of-the-moment interview was just another example of how quickly her career in Eastern Iowa television news has blossomed. She took her first courses in broadcast journalism a year ago after taking introductory reporting and writing during her sophomore year.

The introductory reporting and writing class presented Bereiter with a dilemma.

"I cannot write for print to save my life," she said.

When the journalism school announced a new pilot program that combined the broadcast writing and reporting classes into one semester, Bereiter decided television news might be for her.

By the middle of that semester, she knew she had made the right decision. One of her teachers, UI adjunct instructor Cliff Brockman suggested she intern with KGAN in Cedar Rapids.

"They're very short-staffed on the weekends," said Bereiter. She was quickly able to move out into the field and produce stories that aired on KGAN’s weekend at 5 and 10 or 6 and 10. The station sent some of her work to KDSM in Des Moines, where the Fox station used it for its 9 pm newscast. "I like to think I was a vital part of the team."

She spent her weekends putting together her own stories for KGAN until the end of her junior year when she discovered that KWWL was seeking interns. The latter station offered a paying internship and was the Eastern Iowa market's most-watched station.

Bereiter quickly saw the advantages of her KGAN experience.

"I was trained with another intern who had no experience. It was kind of awkward," she said.

Bereiter, armed with a strong reporting and editing skills, was quickly allowed more freedom from her new employers.

"Within a day, I was by myself again," she said. In the field, Bereiter was able to hone her skills, covering more important news stories than she would have reported on during her weekend shifts.

“I had the best summer of my life,” she said.

Real life challenges, however, awaited Bereiter in the field. Microphones failed. Batteries died during the opening moments of interviews.

"The tripod," said Bereiter, "has always been a source of difficulty for me."

These experiences proved to Bereiter that the studio and classroom are worlds apart.

"It's not a newsroom," Bereiter said "You need to know what that chemistry is and how it works."

Bereiter’s internships have given her the opportunity to see local broadcasters in action.

She has learned to turn bland material into solid stories from KWWL’s Jason Mortvedt and to navigate oceans of information to find what matters to viewers from another KWWL reporter, McAninch.

Jon Okerstrom, KWWL's assistant news director, who is responsible for hiring the handful of interns spread among the station’s three newsrooms, believes the demands placed on interns will grow as the job market becomes even more contentious.

"As the job market becomes increasingly competitive, the internship market is going to become that ways as well," he said. He added that students from schools, such as the UI, that allow them to work in a realistic newsroom have the advantage and it's imperative that they communicate that experience to an employer.

"You put the resume tape in the machine and you know within thirty seconds" he said.

Bereiter sees the value of experience every day in her present position as news director for DITV, the nightly news broadcast produced entirely by UI students. So far, she has appreciated the efforts of her entire staff.

"They are just impressing me everyday with how much they're growing," she said. "It's making my job much easier as well."

Bereiter said DITV will keep developing and her goal is to ensure "every single news piece that we air is something that students really need to know."

Bereiter plans to graduate in the spring. After that, she hopes to stay in Eastern Iowa and work within the market from which she has gained so much experience.