Failing future journalists

[sinklair]

25-66 (and I suspect the other 2 stations in the Flint-Saginaw TV market) are making it very difficult for college students to get their foot in the door. We used to have a pretty good internship program that resulted in us giving J-school students some real experience and a demo reel. The program resulted in nearly every intern getting a job right out of college, including some that we hired for entry-level positions for hard to recruit positions like producers. But no more.

In their “infinite” wisdom, the In Over Her Head News Director and the HR Director/Party Planner haven’t had interns in nearly two years. They blame COVID. But this lack of an internship program began well before COVID. And there are other station groups that have found ways to provide a “virtual” internship experience for college students hoping to learn directly from professionals.

It’s an embarrassment that the managers in charge of this project are just too damned lazy to do their jobs.

[km1125]

You should also blame the schools that are supposedly teaching journalism. They're really teaching "journalism" at those schools.

[sinklair]

Km: all the more reason why internships are an important part of the process. No matter how good the journalism/broadcasting program, it doesn’t match real life experience. Too bad management at local TV stations don’t realize the benefit.

[km1125]

You should also blame the schools that are supposedly teaching journalism. They're really teaching "journalism".

You obviously never went or your teachers didn’t care.

The period goes inside the quotation marks. Inside.

Fixed it, without putting the period inside the quotes, which is stupid. Those folks (the "always inside the quotes" folks) never took a logic class in their life.

[sinklair]

Km: ignore the trolls. Or even better, make them a “foe” and their posts are hidden.

[Dudley]

Why ignore him when he sucks DICKHEAD!

[Herm]

25-66 (and I suspect the other 2 stations in the Flint-Saginaw TV market) are making it very difficult for college students to get their foot in the door. We used to have a pretty good internship program that resulted in us giving J-school students some real experience and a demo reel. The program resulted in nearly every intern getting a job right out of college, including some that we hired for entry-level positions for hard to recruit positions like producers. But no more.

In their “infinite” wisdom, the In Over Her Head News Director and the HR Director/Party Planner haven’t had interns in nearly two years. They blame COVID. But this lack of an internship program began well before COVID. And there are other station groups that have found ways to provide a “virtual” internship experience for college students hoping to learn directly from professionals.

It’s an embarrassment that the managers in charge of this project are just too damned lazy to do their jobs.

Did Sinclair hire interns at 25?
Barrington stopped bringing in interns in 2009. The FCC started giving stations shit for eliminating paid workers but still bringing in interns to work for free.

[sinklair]

Herm: yes, Sinclair allows interns — but with rules where they can essentially shadow others so they aren’t creating material for use in air (AKA an unpaid employee) and are getting a benefit (like college credit toward a degree and a creating a demo reel for use in applying for jobs).

25-66 had one of the better internship programs because the interns actually learned different parts of the newsroom both in front and behind the camera (reporting, producing, photography, editing, anchoring) and had to speak with different departments to understand how the business end of broadcasting worked (sales, creative services, production, promotion). We were able to get a good crop of interns because we weren’t just putting them on the Assignment Desk to answer phones like some big market internship programs.

That sadly all ended when the In Over Her Head News Director took over...