{"id":406,"date":"2003-12-10T08:45:04","date_gmt":"2003-12-10T08:45:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tommangan.net\/printsthechaff\/?p=406"},"modified":"2003-12-10T08:45:04","modified_gmt":"2003-12-10T08:45:04","slug":"on-unpaid-interns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tommangan.net\/printsthechaff\/2003\/12\/on-unpaid-interns\/","title":{"rendered":"On unpaid interns"},"content":{"rendered":"

An interesting thread at Testy Copy Editors debates the pluses and minuses. <\/a> Speaking for the defense, Pam says: <\/p>\n

I arrange unpaid internships for my copy desk. I will agree that many shops misuse interns. But that doesn’t mean the concept itself is no good.
\n


\nThe interns I’ve worked with have all been in school, paying tuition and getting college credit for their work here. I arrange their schedules around other classes, and ensure that they fulfill their individual j-school’s requirements. (Which vary, since we’re dealing with more than one university.)
\n


\nWorking with interns is work. These people, by definition, do not have the skills to be a regular part of the desk. Every task I give them involves teaching, sometimes a LOT of teaching. And, because an internship should be about exposure, I make sure my interns get to participate in, or at least observe, a range of newsroom projects, from writing briefs to attending the page 1 budget meeting. Each of these activities involves pre- and postsession teaching, explaining and expanding.
\n


\nThe only one being exploited for cheap labor is me. But each year I go to HR for more, because I think it’s important for those of us who are established to help those who are coming up. And once in awhile, there will be a real talent in the bunch. Seeing that oh-so-young spark is rejuvenating. Not testy. But rewarding<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Wayne responds: <\/p>\n

Pam, it sounds as if you’re providing excellent training for your interns. Supervisors (and nonsupervisors) who train staff members, no matter the status, age or experience level of the worker, are to be commended.
\n


\nWe need college-age students to get a taste of copy editing — eager prospective reporters as much as prospective desk workers. All should become better pros sooner because of this.
\n


\nI’ve worked with talented 20-year-olds who benefitted greatly from paid or unpaid internships. They asked frequent questions of the full-timers around them and learned from seeing their mistakes corrected by full-timers. Some, by the end of their internships, were as valuable or even more valuable than the weakest old-timers.
\n


\nBut when these best of the best completed their internships, the full-timers left behind were again shorthanded, awaiting the next intern to train on their time while cleaning up their work.
\n


\nThe dozens of unpaid interns I’ve seen in previous jobs tended to have either affluent families or large scholarships. Their financial support enabled them to work for free — an impossibility for many students. But that’s the way the world works, I guess.
\n


\nYes, unpaid internships could work if structured as well as your paper’s, Pam. The time they require of the intern must be sufficient for training. Desks must be fully staffed so that time exists for the continual training by co-workers and the frequent fixing of problems before deadline.
\n


\nWe’ll have to set aside the issues of equal opportunity and assume current and prospective full-timers aren’t suffering because of internships, though.
\n


\nI wonder how many papers have the staffing to make unpaid internships beneficial. I’ve seen multiple papers take advantage of students and full-timers in this way, even in times of fuller staffing than exist today. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An interesting thread at Testy Copy Editors debates the pluses and minuses. Speaking for the defense, Pam says: I arrange unpaid internships for my copy desk. I will agree that many shops misuse interns. But that doesn’t mean the concept…<\/p>\n

Read more →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tommangan.net\/printsthechaff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tommangan.net\/printsthechaff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tommangan.net\/printsthechaff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tommangan.net\/printsthechaff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tommangan.net\/printsthechaff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=406"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tommangan.net\/printsthechaff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tommangan.net\/printsthechaff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=406"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tommangan.net\/printsthechaff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=406"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tommangan.net\/printsthechaff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=406"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}