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.

After reading the article and several different people’s perspectives on it, there are a couple of different things to consider. First and foremost, this post, written by Corey Kilgannon, was for a blog. As journalism becomes more and more digitally based, the lines that separate “real” journalism and what constitutes a blog (or as most people think of it, opinionated, colorful stories with large aspects of factual information) will slowly disintegrate.
In my opinion, a family will be sensitive about what a reporter says regarding the recently deceased pretty much no matter what. For an opinionated blog, it’s best to just say what you want to say. Furthermore, I don’t think Kilgannon was trying to attack the jazz artist, Hank Jones, at all. I felt that he wrote this post out of respect for a legend, and tried to show his other fans what he might have been like in his final days.
On the other hand, I wonder if this post have been so controversial had the blog not been written by a NY Times reporter (and I am assuming for the NY Times blog page). When you are already affiliated with a news source that prides itself on being such a strong force in journalism, anything you write will be expected to adhere to the same strict standards. As a journalist, perhaps you forfeit your right to write off of opinion, even if it is for a blog.
The other aspect that must be taken into consideration is that Kilgannon did not break into Jones’ apartment. He was let in by the landlord, Manny Ramirez. I’ve noticed a few different people in this class put a lot of blame on Kilgannon for not asking permission from the family to enter the apartment. In reality, no journalist wants more blockades to creating a story. If a police officer let me pass through yellow tape, I would not ask “are you sure, officer?” Kilgannon was offered an exclusive window into Jones’ life in a creative way that is certainly indicative of the NY Times’ style. No, it is not enough to make assumptions about his entire life and perhaps saying that he was reclusive was a bit far-fetched. And yes, he probably ought to have shared what he had found with the family before it ran to print. But I do not believe that Kilgannon is at fault for entering the apartment and starting to take notes without asking the family first. If people want to point the finger at someone, it should be Ramirez.

Though many students seem to start discussing new topic already, I have some comment on the article about paid internship.  I agree most of the students’ saying that there should be more paid internships to train journalists of future.  About ten years ago, when political and economic crisis happened in Finland, the government cut budgets for all departments except for education.  Now the educational level of children in Finland is incredibly high.  Raising and training younger generation should be the one that the older must not cut the cost but spend money most.

On the other hand, I am now an unpaid internship and very happy to work there.  one of the reasons is because I do not think that I deserve paid internship yet.  Though I am fortunately assigned many kinds of tasks, such as press release, store blog, and translation of documents, I still do not feel doing good enough to be paid.  Internship should be the opportunity that interns, especially college students, realize the difficulty to earn money.  Interns are usually highly motivated, and some of them are very skilled from the very beginning.  However, paid workers have done what they have to do for long tim and been trusted that they could do their job by their bosses.  This difference between full-time workers and interns should be obvious.

What I am saying here my be too idealistic, but internship must not be the object of cutting expenditure but starting point to become independent financially.

It’s sad to understand that companies do abuse their interns for free labor. I don’t think that I feel that at my internship…yet. I’m extremely comfortable, but I do see when I’m asked to cover stories too much, my budget gets too too tight. And being that I work it’s okay, but sometimes it gets a little out of hand when the internship starts hitting your wallet hard.  Oh the joy of getting experience.

To fine employers for internships could sway them away from taking them on no? Then how will we get that “experience” that we supposedly need to much to make it in this world!  Oh man.  It’s like supporting the lesser of two evils. I just don’t know which way to turn.  I’m happy I have an internship, yet I fully empathize with this article.

I like this part:

“If you’re a for-profit employer or you want to pursue an internship with a for-profit employer, there aren’t going to be many circumstances where you can have an internship and not be paid and still be in compliance with the law”

It’s just like I said in the first post where if someone is making money off of your labor, there’s no possible circumstance where it’s ok for you not to get compensated.  And apparently it is illegal too.

It’s nice to know there are specific criteria about how an unpaid internship can be legal.  Below is one-

“that the employer “derives no immediate advantage” from the intern’s activities”

It backs up the previous point.  Also, the way it’s described is like a vocational school (a.k.a. an apprenticeship) which is the only way it seems appropriate, and even then there should (and with trade jobs, usually is) some form of compensations.

I also agree with this point fully:

“While many colleges are accepting more moderate- and low-income students to increase economic mobility, many students and administrators complain that the growth in unpaid internships undercuts that effort by favoring well-to-do and well-connected students, speeding their climb up the career ladder.”

It’s hard for low (myself) and middle income students as it is, but to ask that we give more time to a project without making any money is absurd, and sometimes impossible.  For all the students who have yet to pay their own bills, that may be a non-issue, but if ‘they’ really want us to get a college education they need to find a way to make it more realistic for everyone.

There still is and always will be a certain amount of ‘sucking it up’ to get where you want to be.  Some simply won’t be able to make it, and they will never see the results.  That’s just how our society works sometimes.  Right now we’re set in the direction of this becoming (or has it already become) the norm, and most colleges require it.  That doesn’t make it any easier; for anyone on that path, good luck.