You’ll NEVER believe what these college interns are doing to get ahead…

Trista Thurston
tt531411@ohio.edu

As a student in the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism, one must attain an approved internship before graduation. That in it itself makes a lot of sense: it’s important to have real-world experience. The only way to truly learn to do something is to just do it. In this highly competitive job market, it’s also near impossible you’ll land anything without some sort of experience.

What if you don’t have the proper training yet, though?

In my personal experience as an intern, no one takes the time to teach you the expectations and ethics of the newsroom. They expect you to know these things. You’re a student, after all. You’re there to learn, yes, but you’re thought to have the basics down. AP Style? No problem. Need me to tweet? Sure.

What if you’re a freshman or sophomore, though?

You haven’t yet had those important classes about ethics and law. You don’t know what you can and can’t do. You don’t know what you should or shouldn’t do.

And today’s journalistic climate encourages this. We, as students and as job seekers, are told we need experience, and as much of it as we can get our hands on. 

We also encourage journalists to forgo deeply considering the possible ethical dilemmas of a story for getting it out there first. An online-first mentality means that there are no true deadlines. The only real prize is getting unique content out there as quickly as possible, as is the entire purpose of click-bait.

from foullanguagecomics.com

Click-bait is described by The Washington Post as "those headlines that start with ‘You will NEVER believe…’ that are shared by your friends or promoted by advertisers”. They do not have any true journalistic value. Their goal is to generate as many clicks as possible, and there for more ad revenue. 

This is changing the way media is consumed. Rather than taking the time and effort to read an article, click-bait allows readers to consume small nuggets of information. 

Perhaps click-bait can draw in consumers to read “much better, sort of more substantial content,” according to assistant professor at George Washington University’s School of Media and Public Affairs, Nikki Usher. She says that there is room for both fun and serious articles.

So, how do we prevent this?

First, honesty is probably the most important aspect to making good ethical decisions as an inexperienced intern. Being honest with yourself and what you’re able to do and be honest to your editor in what you’re willing to do are key, as stated by Mel Coulson at a panel for journalism interns.

An intern shouldn’t be afraid to speak out because they are inexperienced or they do not have seniority. Their fresh perspective is probably one of the very reasons they landed the position.

Therefore, if something strikes the intern as questionable, it doesn’t hurt to just ask for help. Maybe the senior opinion writer is uncomfortable, too, but doesn’t want to offend their long-time editor. 

To often, we may be afraid to ask for help lest we prove our ignorance. This is a dangerous mindset. This industry is ever-changing and we have to adapt and learn to report accurately, fairly and effectively.