Presenting the latest research findings on vampire-jumping spiders and donning a head-to-toe suit in order to document a day in the life of an urban beekeeperare just some of the assignments students of UBC’s Graduate School of Journalism’s Class of 2013 have had during their summer internships.
And the summer is only half over.
Professional internships are a requirement of the j-school’s two-year program, as they offer students the opportunity to put to the test what they’ve been taught in class, to not only conduct themselves as professional reporters, but be treated as such.
Moreover, internships teach students how to best serve the readers, viewers or listeners of a particular media outlet.
As Hayley Dunning, whose round-up of behavioural research discoveries — including those of vampire-jumping spiders — recently appeared on the online edition of The Scientist, put it: “Considering your audience in everything you do has become a very important concept to me.”
Dunning is no stranger to scientific research; she already has a Masters degree in Earth and Atmospheric Sciences from the University of Alberta. But during her internship, she said, “I’ve had to read some quite detailed and specialized scientific papers and come up with questions and resultant articles that people can understand,” but also from which they can “get something a little deeper.”
Heather Roy has also been learning how to find and report stories about science, but for a different audience: viewers of Discovery Channel Canada’s TV show Daily Planet. And who better to learn from than the show’s hosts, Ziya Tong and Dan Riskin?
Guðrún Jónsdóttir reporting for CBC
“Ziya is teaching me how to research and write broadcast segments and Dan is willing to talk about any subject [I’m] interested in,” said Roy. Most of the stories she’s currently working on will air in the fall on Ziyology, the Daily Planet segment in which Tong interviews scientists about their work.
Some students, such as Guðrún Jónsdóttir (pictured), will consider the needs of multiple audiences over the course of 12 weeks. Jónsdóttir, who kicked off her summer with a brief stint at UBC Public Affairs and is currently working for the national broadcaster of Iceland, RÚV, just wrapped up three weeks in the CBC Vancouver radio studio, where she interned for The Early Edition.
And while suiting up in beekeeper gear to report in Southlands, a neighbourhood Vancouverites more commonly associate with horse stables and palatial homes, was memorable, her proudest moment to date was when CBC decided that her story on so-called “smart fur” would be of interest far beyond the local B.C. audience. It subsequently ran on As it Happens, which is broadcast across Canada as well as in certain cities in the U.S..
“When they played it, I was not referred to as an intern,” she said, but rather, “a full-blown producer.”
UBC journalism graduate Shannon Dooling and former IRP fellow interned at New Hampshire Public Radio.
