Roland Hancock is working as an intern for the Bronx Press, prior to starting a master's degree in journalism later this year. Here he shares his experiences, and shows some of the differences between writing the news in the UK and the US.

Welcome to local news, US style. Welcome to the Bronx Press/Riverdale Review, possibly New York's smallest local weekly, and the most extraordinary paper I've even worked on.

I've been interning here for a month now, and man, it's been an interesting ride. Local news happens here much the same as it does in the UK, some of it intricately orchestrated by politicians, some of it accidental, the vast majority of it lying somewhere in between. It's just that here the pageant of local politics, crime and life is so much more colourful, so much more diverse, so much more interesting (and terrifying) to a very bewildered Englishman.

Even stories which look commonplace on the surface and defy all rationality on closer inspection. Take the recent case of a certain Senator who filed a lawsuit trying to block City funding for a proposed specialist school in the area. Reasonably interesting story with its feet firmly rooted to the ground, right?

Except that the school in question is a high school (14 - 18 year-olds) set up for 'Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Questioning teens' (clause 21 certainly does not apply here). Add to this the fact that the Senator in question is a barely concealed closet homophobe, and you have your story. Bronx style.

This strain of the extraordinary extends to all aspects of the news here, including crime. Stabbings, rapes, assaults are unfortunately all too commonplace to make copy here. Million dollar drug busts, multiple homicides, and gun running are the only good stories.

Read on...