Summer Media Internship

The resume/cover letter and interview process is difficult no matter what the field is. It seems like the process undergoes a facelift every couple of years. Maybe most of the students who focused selling themselves in their cover letter were following a lead that professionals told them to follow five years ago. Things have changed. As far as interviewing for a journalism position, I’ve experienced that either the work speaks for itself or its all about who you know. That’s where I see it stands right now. Graduate students need some guidance when it comes to the job application process. A degree and experience isn’t enough.

see attached article from today’s (Sun) NY TImes

Sorry to have been out of touch for a few weeks.  Hope your summers are going well.

I´m in Ecuador. I am interested in the ue of machinery here. I want to play with taking photos that express the enviornmrnt here butwith no people in the photos. I am interested in the agriculture here and the food. I am also doing reasearch on medicinal plants that are found in the amazon jungle. ultimatly I am producing a photojournalist essay on experience here.

I’m going to avoid using the word “blog” because it’s a term used to denote a medium, and thus has no significant ethical strings attached to it. Penthouse is a magazine and The Economist is a magazine. They are the same medium, does that mean they have the same standards? I don’t think so.

What’s much more important than the medium is the function. News websites should have the same standards as newspapers because they’re (ideally) striving toward the same goal: disseminating accurate information. The goals of the NYT web-only articles are the same as those in the paper edition, so yes, they should both meet the same standards. Those standards have been created to ensure the veracity of articles, so why not carry that over to web-only articles? Why should there be more lax standards for an article because it isn’t set on paper?

The real difficulty in this situation may be negotiating the quick turn-around time of web-only articles and today’s “Information NOW!” culture, with the slower, more methodical process typical of print articles.

I have had many internships starting with the high school I went to, City As-School, up until now as I get ready to exit college and those which will probably continue after graduation.

The key for me is that I get out equil advantage as that which I contribute. My survices should not extend past those activities which contribute to my learning experience. Many internships think that you are there to work as apposed to learn. While you are working, it is not a job, the exchange of survices should be an equil one, a friendly one. The Brooklyn Paper wanted me to intern not because they are saving much money, but because they want to contribute to a young journlists experience in the field and perhaps gain a fresh perspective. The internship values what I contribute as I value the real life experience and byline. 

I have felt in past internships that I wasn´t learning enough about what I wanted to learn, or for the purpose that I was there.  In this case it becomes very difficult to continue. In fact one should not.