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Written by: Judy Chicoine|

On Wednesday, November 28, our journalism class took a field trip to the Hartford Courant to dig a bit deeper into the field of journalism.  We wanted the inside scoop on “America’s oldest continually published newspaper”.  The Hartford Courant began in 1764, and was created by Thomas Green. He later passed it on to his friend, who died and passed it on to his wife.  The onset of the tour brought us to a glass enclosure that contained the enormous printers that spit our hundreds of papers. Our tour guide mentioned that they produce about 160,000 papers each week. Their main day for paper sales is Tuesday.

We received the opportunity to witness journalism behind the scenes up close and personal.  The Hartford Courant not only produces newspapers, but it also produces Fox news.  The news station itself is smaller than it appears.  They have a large work space which is filled with varying amounts of employees at different hours during the day. They are constantly updating the information on their website, and are continually searching for information to add to their next newscast. Our tour guide explained to us that they repeat the same segment for their entire newscast because they obtain new information from people they interview, or information from the scene.

Have you ever wondered how your favorite television show makes it to your screen? The Fox news crew receives the show from the satellite, downloads it, and broadcasts it at the right time. They follow the same process for commercials.  As you can see, being a journalist has its ups and downs, and although you get to meet new people and be on television, there is a lot of hard work that goes on behind the scenes. Journalists work long hours for little pay, but it’s a fun and exciting career!