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• Vol 5, No. 1
• Vol 4, No. 2
• Vol 4, No. 1

Internship Adventures in Cyberville

Evonne (Von) H. Whitmore, ICIG Head
Kent State University
ewhitmor@kent.edu

It was a dark and stormy night. Actually, it was at the end of a long workday three springs ago. The sun was shining brightly. There was not a cloud in the sky that is except the dark one hanging over my head. I had answered what seemed like thousands of emails from interns in the field: students inquiring about internships, and perspective employees requesting more information about our program. Despite making considerable headway, there was still not a silver lining in sight because my in - box remained half full. That's when it hit me. There had to be a better way to distribute information about our program. But what could it be? Longer tape for voice mails? A larger in-box for emails? More clichès?

Three years and several iterations later, the answer to the "better way question" has worked really well. I developed an informational internship web site for prospective and current interns and employees. Of course, nothing beats face-to-face communication. But if your students are like mine, often the first contact about internships may be through a phone call or email. An internship web site can serve as an invisible office assistant.

In addition to the application and FAQ sections, my site provides information such as: course pre-requisites, internship requirements and suggested resources. Although not a panacea, the web site has certainly helped with a lot of the routine, repetitive aspects of advising interns.

For instance, the web site automatically notifies me when students apply for internships by allowing them to post online applications once they have lined up potential employers. Internship reports and supervisor evaluations can also be securely filed online as well. Of course, what works at Kent State may not work for your university and your students. Here are some things to consider if you are thinking about developing an internship web site using the 5 Ws and H model:

• Who will be responsible for maintaining the site?

• What will be the content?

• When will it be available to students and employees?

• Where will the site be housed?

• Why should the site be developed?

• How will the site be secured?

Sound intriguing? In future columns I'll elaborate on how I developed my web site and internship listserv, and offer tips based on my experiences. Be sure to check out the next issue of the newsletter to learn more. If you have similar or other examples of how to handle internship and career issues we'd love to hear from you, too.

I met many new people this summer in Kansas City during ICIG's co-sponsored panels and business session. So, I'm sure there is a lot of useful information out there from which we can all benefit. There's always a better mousetrap.

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The Road to Toronto Goes through Atlanta

Marian Azzaro, ICIG Vice-Head & Program Chair
Roosevelt University
mazzaro@roosevelt.edu

We're going to Toronto; by way of Kansas City and Atlanta. Seems like a rather indirect route, but we are on our way and we need your help.

We had a terrific program in Kansas City. For those of you who were there, you know it. ICIG Head Alan Kirkpatrick and Vice-Head and Program Chair Evonne Whitmore did a great job of programming a slate of ICIG activities. From joint panels to mini-plenaries, we had something going every day of the convention. After their great work last year, I must confess I feel somewhat anxious about stepping into the programming role for Toronto. Fortunately, as our Head now, Evonne has promised to stay with me and keep me on track.

And, of course, there are the many great panel ideas that we brainstormed in Kansas City. Well, brainstorming is one thing, but programming is another.

Now it is time for programming and here's where you fit in. Our programming conference is scheduled for early December in Atlanta. That's where Evonne and I will take your panel ideas and turn them into real panels for the Toronto convention. As you can see, our programming deadlines are approaching so now it is time to turn those brainstorming ideas into actual proposals. Please consider this a formal call for proposals.

Remember those great panel ideas. Whether it was international internships, internship assessments, ethical issues for interns, or new developments in career planning for journalism and mass communications students, this is your opportunity to add dimension to the idea and submit it as a formal proposal. We need to receive all formal proposals by Monday October 27, 2003. That's less than two weeks away so don't delay.

For all proposals, please include the following details:

• Suggested Panel Title

• Suggested panel Type (Research, PF&R, Teaching)

• Possible Panel Co-Sponsors (Other AEJMC divisions or interest groups that might share an interest in this topic)

• Summary Statement of the proposed session content (a short paragraph or two)

• Suggested Panelists or Speakers

• Key Contact Person for this panel.

All panel proposals should be emailed to Marian Azzaro at mazzaro@roosevelt.edu by 10/27/03. Proposals should be submitted as text in the email or as an attached Microsoft Word document.

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ICIG Research Offers Chance to Study the "Crossroads"

Rosanne Pagano, Research Chair
University of Alaska, Anchorage
rpagano@jpc.uaa.alaska.edu

What do media managers want in a new hire and how can pre-professional training, such as an internship in journalism and mass communication, help develop those marketable qualities?

Students and faculty internship directors know that questions like these are at the heart of developing worthwhile internships. Your answers, in the form of incisive research, are sought for consideration by the Internships and Careers Interest Group for presentation at AEJMC's 2004 convention, Aug. 4-7 in Toronto, Canada.

Information on the 2004 Call for Research Papers will be issued by AEJMC in late December. The uniform postmark date for paper submissions is April 1, 2004. Please consider marking your calendars now.

Scholar-to-scholar research presented at the 2003 convention included a study of how undergraduates process persuasive messages about internships. Another paper examined issues surrounding hiring and educating journalists for the convergent newsroom.

ICIG is eager to attract theory-driven and empirically based research that builds on our dedication to advancing knowledge while helping shape media industry practice, professionalism and management. Because our group focuses on students as learners as well as students as prospective employees, inquiry into internships and careers is a crossroads that generates some of the most important and intriguing research questions around. Consider a short list:

• What makes a top-notch internship? Do students, faculty and field mentors agree on those qualities? Should they? Why?

• Accrediting standards tell us that schools should advocate and encourage participation in internships and other pre-professional experience beyond the classroom. But in an age when students increasingly are stretched between home and school, who has time for an internship − often unpaid? How can internships be made more attractive to more students?

• How should student interns be evaluated and should assessment be different than in other courses? Why?

• And speaking of assessment, how are journalism and mass communications programs using internships to gauge outcomes?

I know you're already adding ideas of your own. Please let us hear from you! We welcome your papers and look forward to showcasing your fine work in Toronto. Please send questions to me at afrp@uaa.alaska.edu And please consider volunteering to review paper submissions. Thanks!

I look forward to hearing from you and serving as research chair.

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Discovering what PF&R is all about

Rachele Kanigel, ICIG PF&R Chair
California State University Monterey Bay
Rachele_Kanigel@csumb.edu

Last summer, at my second annual AEJMC convention, I peeked into the Internships and Careers Interest Group business meeting, curious about what the group did. I walked out the PF&R chair.

PF&R? "Professional Freedom and Responsibility," I kept reciting like a mantra, afraid that someone might test me. "But what does that really mean?" Taking my new job seriously, I decided to find out.

First, I checked out the AEJMC Web site. The elected Standing Committee on Professional Freedom and Responsibility, I learned, "is particularly concerned with freedom of expression legally and intellectually, ethical issues among media educators and practitioners, media criticism and accountability, diversity/inclusiveness affairs, and professional relationships between educators and media professionals."

Further poking around on the Web site revealed that ICIG has co-sponsored PF&R panels on war, terrorism and trauma; contracts, unions and agents; race and sex in communications education; and media convergence. Clearly, this is a group that taps into the vital issues of our day, the stuff that makes journalism and mass communication education so practical, so immediate, so real.

Now my job is to entice all of you to suggest programs and panels for the 2004 convention. To get your minds going, I'll throw out some ideas in each category.

1. FREE EXPRESSION: While media professionals are in the business of free expression, most reporters have to check their personal politics at the door when they go to work for a news organization. Last spring a San Francisco Chronicle technology reporter was fired after getting arrested at an anti-war protest. Other reporters have lost their positions for getting involved in gay rights and pro-choice activities. Is there fodder here for an interesting panel?

2. ETHICS. Internships and careers raise a host of ethical issues. What should interns do if they're asked to do something they feel is unethical? Do media organizations treat interns in an ethically responsible manner?

3. MEDIA CRITICISM AND ACCOUNTABILITY. As journalism educators and internship coordinators, we're all concerned about lining up internships and jobs for our students. But should we be assessing the quality of the media organizations we send students to, as well?

4. RACIAL, GENDER AND CULTURAL INCLUSIVENESS. This is clearly a touchstone issue for ICIG. Many media organizations have created internships exclusively for ethnic and racial minorities. Yet most of the nation's newsrooms still don't look like the communities they serve. What's not working? What else can be done?

5. PUBLIC SERVICE. How can AEJMC and ICIG help media organizations become more responsive to the public?

I look forward to seeing these or other ideas fleshed out in proposals for panels ICIG can sponsor in 2004. See you in Toronto!

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Grading Internships: Getting Away from the "What I Did Last Summer" Essay

Catherine Winter, ICIG Teaching Chair
University of Minnesota Duluth
cwinter@d.umn.edu

A lot of departments at my university offer students credit for internships. When I was asked to coordinate internships for our fledgling journalism program, I checked in with other internship coordinators to get ideas on how to place students, how to supervise them, and how to grade them.

Many other departments here require the student to turn in an essay at the end of the internship explaining what the host company was like and what the intern learned. The host company also provides an evaluation; the intern's grade is based partly on that evaluation and partly on the essay.

I thought long and hard about whether I would require essays from interns.

I can see the value of having students reflect on their growth during an internship. And I thought it would be useful to have something concrete to evaluate when coming up with a grade for the student.

But I'm not a big fan, in general, of essays due at the end of a term. In classes, I prefer to use smaller assignments that build on each other and that offer students many opportunities for feedback.

I also knew that many students considered internship essays annoying make-work. I wanted an evaluative tool that would be more useful to the students.

I finally decided that I would dispense with the essay and would instead require that students put together a resume and clip file. When the internship is over, we meet to go over these items.

It seems obvious that a journalist should keep a clip file, but many students don't do it. I suppose I shouldn't be surprised. I don't have a single clip from the first internship I had after college. I had no idea I'd need them. It surprises me, too, to see how much work the students' resumes still need. They find our time discussing those items to be quite profitable.

Now that the interns are submitting clips and resumes, I base the grade on those items, our discussion about the internship, and what the host supervisor says on intern evaluations at the middle and end of the internship. I like this system better than requiring an essay, but I'm not entirely happy with it. I still never feel I know as much as I should about what's gone on during the internship to give a grade that accurately reflects the student's work.

I'd love to hear from ICIG colleagues. How do you grade your interns?

I'd also like to propose a panel for the AEJMC convention in Toronto next summer on how to evaluate interns. If you've got other teaching panel ideas, please send them my way. Here are some other thoughts to get your creative juices going. Comments on these ideas and other teaching panel proposals would be most welcome at cwinter@d.umn.edu.

• Creative Internships. How can we develop internship opportunities in small towns with few news outlets?

• Real World Ethics. Many ethics textbooks focus on big picture issues (Should we publish the names of rape victims?) rather than the smaller, daily issues that will actually come up for our students as they begin their careers (Can I accept this sweatshirt?). How can we help our students prepare for the ethical challenges they are most likely to face at internships and on the job?

• Journalism for Non-Journalists. This idea was sparked by a recent thread on the Small Programs (SPIG) email list. What are some ways of engaging students who are taking journalism classes but don't intend to be journalists?

• Classroom Assessment in the Journalism/Mass Comm Class. We know what we're teaching. How can we figure out what they're learning? End-of-semester evaluations can help us improve our teaching, but by then it's too late for the students who just took the class. Using classroom assessment, we can get feedback from students on the effectiveness of teaching methods before it's too late to change.

• That's Not Funny. How can college newspaper advisors help students with the humor page? We don't tend to share their ideas about what's funny. But we can't afford to ignore the humor page, because it's the source of so many complaints from readers. Our experience is in journalism, not comedy writing. How do we take on this challenge?

• "It Looks Fine to Me." Improving peer editing. Peer editing can be useful, both for the editor and for the person being edited. But many students are reluctant to offer suggestions, or they offer poor suggestions. How can we train our students to be good peer editors?

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Strategies for Preparing a Contingency Plan for Internship Programs

Nancy M. Somerick, Ph.D., Professor and Director of Internship Program,
School of Communication, The University of Akron
nmsomer@uakron.edu

Even the most organized internship programs can be disrupted by unanticipated occurrences. To avoid disruptions, plan for surprises. Put the plan in writing, and disseminate the plan to everyone with a need to know about how you intend to deal with adversity.

The plan will be a work in progress because you will continue to add strategies for dealing with difficulties. This article presents an example of some problems that can be encountered in internship programs andÝ some solutions to those problems. For example:

• What would you do if an intern's supervisor wanted to change the intern's already agreed upon responsibilities?
  ÝÝÝ To avoid this potential problem, in the placement confirmation letter that you send to the internship supervisor and to the intern, state that you reserve the right to review and approve any change in the intern's position description.

• What if the intern's supervisor, who is your contact for the intern's assessment, does not work directly with the intern, and therefore, cannot provide a valid, informed assessment of the intern's performance?
  ÝÝÝ One answer is to have the intern prepare a report each week that indicates the professional quality responsibilities that have been performed. The report should be signedÝ by the person who most closely and directly supervises the intern's performance, and a copy of the report should be given to the supervisor of record. In addition, the intern should requestÝ that the supervisor of record obtain feedback from the person who supervises the intern most closely.

• What if an intern's supervisor leaves the organization where the intern has been placed, and a new supervisor is named?
  ÝÝÝ In a placement confirmation letter that you send to the internship supervisor and to the intern, state that any change in contact information needs to be conveyed to you immediately and in writing, Then, if a new supervisor is named, send a copy of all relevant file documents to that person and call the person to introduce yourself, to provide an orientation about your internship program, and to see if the newly named supervisor would like additional information about standards or procedures relevant to your program.

• What if an organization where an intern has been placed is going out of business, and, therefore, cannot provide the intern with professional quality work or with a sufficient number of clock hours so that the intern can earn the academic credit that had been previously agreed upon?
  ÝÝÝ The answer to this question may depend upon when the organization is going out of business. If this happens at the beginning of the academic term, every attempt should be made to place the intern with another organization. If the organization is going out of business toward the end of the term, ask the supervisor to assess the intern's performance and consider assigning the intern to an alternative type of project - such as a research project that would be closely related to the original placement. (For example, if the intern had been placed in healthcare communication, the intern could use primary and secondary research to determine the entry-level expectations for recent graduates who are seeking employment in that area. Then, you could combine your assessment of the intern's work on that project with the original supervisor's assessment to provide the intern with a letter grade for the work that has been performed.)

• What if an intern is not meeting the academic requirements and/or the professional work requirements of the internship program?
  ÝÝÝ First, contact the intern and open a dialogue about the perceived problems. Provide suggestions about how the problems can be resolved. If the problems continue, discuss them with the intern's supervisor. If the problems are still not resolved, without identifying the intern, request advice by taking the matter to the academic unit's director or to an internship advisory board that is made up of faculty members in the appropriate academic unit.

• What if a community crisis (such as a train derailment with potentially harmful toxic chemicals), or a weather-related crisis (such as a blizzard) closes the intern's school and sends students home so that they will not be exposed to a dangerous situation?
  ÝÝÝ Interns should not be placed in a dangerous situation, and they should follow the same attendance requirements as other students. Therefore, interns should not be required to report to their internship placements. However, they should call their supervisors to let them know about the school closing. This policy and procedure should be explained in writing as an attachment to the placement confirmation letter that is sent to each intern and supervisor.

ÝÝÝ These problems and suggested strategies are some examples of the numerous potential difficulties that can be experienced by all internship programs. Once a contingency plan is in place to solve these problems, they can be dealt with in a consistent and timely fashion.

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Pumping Up Circulation

Mark Nordstrom, ICIG Newsletter Editor/Webmaster
Lincoln University
nordstro@lincolnu.edu

Having taught web page design I am embarrassed to admit that this page contradicts some of the principles I taught. If you're a former student, try not to give me too much grief over this. There are some ways to compensate and I'll get to that, but first I want to write something about the newsletter.

It seems that I can't be a member of an organization without doing its newsletter. That's been going on for decades now. I've created lots of newsletters and I've learned that the circulation is crucial. It's just as important to get text in front of people as it is to make it worth reading. A printed newsletter uses manual terrestrial delivery - the post office carries it to you. It's in your hand and you at least glance at it if you never read it. This newsletter relies on another terrestrial system, the Internet, to bring electronic text to you via a hyperlink that will bring you here. I've got to get you to click through.

A mass media lesson learned long ago that still stands today is that sex and violence create circulation. So I'm now fulfilling my promise that if you log on here you'll find sex: 35-year-old pictures of the former wife of a former California state legislator, 33-year-old pictures of the governor of California. And you'll find violence: 19-year-old pictures of the governor of California.

In return for the thrill you receive, I'd like you to take a moment to comment on what form of newsletter circulation you like best. Send an e-mail to nordstrom@lincolnu.edu and express yourself. Say anything about the newsletter you want to, but please, be sure to tell me what you think about that circulation thing.

I know you've been waiting to learn about the compensations I promised in the first paragraph. If you want to print a single one of these articles, you can't do it with your browser because it's all one page. You can, though, highlight the part you want and copy it into a word processor and print it. Takes a little more time, but it saves the extra time we'd have to spend making all those separate pages. It's also easier to archive these single-page newsletters. Sorry, I hope it's not too much trouble. You have to select the picture in a second step, separate from highlighting the text, and copy it to the new document too - if you want the picture. Thanks for logging on and thanks for reading.

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