media and communication at muhlenberg college

You’ve attended the internship information sessions led by faculty and students.  You’re pursuing an internship for spring or summer.  You’ve been to the career center.  Now what?

Muhlenberg students have an opportunity to attend the 9th Annual Lehigh Valley Collegiate Career Expo (LVCCE) on Wednesday, February 17, 2010.

For more information visit www.lvcce.org and take a look in particular at the For Job Seekers resources, where you’ll find more reasons to do an internship, ideas about how to prepare for job interviews, interview etiquette, negotiating salary, and other valuable guidance.

There is no admissions fee for the Expo, but students must bring a resume to enter the event.

Dr. Pooley, the director of the Media and Communication Honors Program, introduced a crowd of about fifty to Jessica Clark, at the annual honors lecture Tuesday night.  The well-attended talk was the first Clark has given on her soon-to-be-released book, “Beyond the Echo Chamber: Reshaping Politics Through Networked Progressive Media” Clark’s talk covered the range of high impact media strategies–new and emerging–being leveraged by a growing progressive media sector.  Clark’s message about the potential impact of progressive media on the political landscape opens up a new range of possibilities for students seeking careers in media and communication.  She encouraged students to develop their communication competencies across multiple platforms, gain diverse production experience, and develop skills of collaboration and engagement.  ”The jobs are out there,” Clark said, “but you have to be nimble and creative.”  Clark also emphasized, contrary to many public pronouncements of the “death of journalism,” that we are witnessing “a story of journalism mutating, not dying.”

Reminder: The department’s annual Visiting Honors Lecture is TONIGHT! Jessica Clark, director of the Future of Public Media project at American University’s Center for Social Media, will deliver a public talk on networked progressive media:

“Beyond the Echo Chamber: Reshaping Politics Through Networked Progressive Media”

• Miller Forum, Moyer Hall
• 7pm
• Reception to follow
• Free and open to the public

In less than a decade, a new breed of progressive media projects—from the Huffington Post to Air America to Brave New Films—have captured huge, nontraditional audiences, and helped to shape public debate and policy discussion. In “Beyond the Echo Chamber,” Clark discusses the political potential of social networks, new video platforms and citizen media.

Clark directs the Center for Social Media’s Future of Public Media project at American University. She is the author, with Tracy Van Slyke, of the forthcoming Beyond the Echo Chamber (New Press, 2010). Clark has been researching, creating, writing and fighting for independent media for more than a decade, at outlets and organizations like In These Times, LiP Magazine, The Media Consortium and the Independent Press Association. She blogs at www.buildtheecho.net.

The Internship Information Session organized by the Communication Club on November 9 was so successful it makes the front page of this week’s Muhlenberg Weekly.  Read the whole article here.  More great leadership from the Communication Club!  Congratulations to Com Club’s president, Lisa Siciliano, and the students who organized and presented on the panel:  Catherine Schwartz, Cathie-Marie Roca, Ethan Feinstein, and Rachel Albert.  Each student shared insights gleaned from their internships in public relations, marketing, and journalism.

The department’s annual Visiting Honors Lecture is Tuesday! Jessica Clark, director of the Future of Public Media project at American University’s Center for Social Media, will deliver a public talk on networked progressive media:

“Beyond the Echo Chamber: Reshaping Politics Through Networked Progressive Media”

• Miller Forum, Moyer Hall
• 7pm
• Reception to follow
• Free and open to the public

In less than a decade, a new breed of progressive media projects—from the Huffington Post to Air America to Brave New Films—have captured huge, nontraditional audiences, and helped to shape public debate and policy discussion. In “Beyond the Echo Chamber,” Jessica Clark discusses the political potential of social networks, new video platforms and citizen media.

Jessica Clark directs the Center for Social Media’s Future of Public Media project at American University. She is the author, with Tracy Van Slyke, of the forthcoming Beyond the Echo Chamber (New Press, 2010). Clark has been researching, creating, writing and fighting for independent media for more than a decade, at outlets and organizations like In These Times, LiP Magazine, The Media Consortium and the Independent Press Association. She blogs at www.buildtheecho.net.

Starting last December, I began working on my resume with a family friend who works at CNN in New York City. Especially in the field of Media and Communication, the importance of connections is priceless. You’ll be surprised how far a few friendly emails can take you; that contact can be a genuine help in getting your name out there! She personally placed my resume on the desks of some of CNN’s top producers, which lead to interviews and my ultimate offer for a position as an intern with Showbiz Tonight, an entertainment news show that airs on CNN’s sister network, HLN.

The first day I set foot in the Time Warner building, I was naturally nervous. But the more days I worked, the more comfortable I became with the friendly staff and the intern jobs, which included printing scripts for the show’s anchor, greeting and briefing show guests, finding footage for the Production Assistants, logging and assisting with interviews, and helping the writers with research. Each day, I attended the morning meeting in which Dave Levine, Senior Executive Producer and head of CNN Entertainment, lead the staff in planning the day’s show, and I was encouraged to participate. Watching a show come together from scratch was amazing.

A few weeks into my internship, what began as a relatively normal day turned into an experience that I will never forget. When both Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson passed away on June 25, Showbiz aired live at 11 pm to keep up with the coverage. Although the other intern and I were told we didn’t need to stay, I had no intentions on leaving. I couldn’t help but stop to look around every once in a while and realize that I was here, at CNN, the day MJ died. And I helped report on it!

I also shadowed staff members in multiple departments, including the woman who helped me with my resume, in order to learn about each step of creating the show. When an employer encourages you to ask questions or ask to work with particular people whose jobs you are interested in, always go for it! In doing so, I not only got to know the staff members better and learn more specifics about writing, editing, and producing, but I was able to do more work myself. By the end of my internship, I had teleprompted for the show multiple times, edited my own voice-over video clips, gone to workshops with big CNN names like Soledad O’Brien and one of the head writers for Anderson Cooper: 360, and, finally, got to wave to an international audience during the taping of my last show.

Working towards a career in journalism, this internship was valuable in that it taught me a different type of journalism than I had ever worked in before, not to mention introduced me to some amazing people! I even returned to Showbiz this semester to do an interview assignment for one of my writing courses; after encouragement by all the staff members to keep in touch, I asked Dave Levine if he would be willing to do an interview and, despite his busy schedule, he agreed. It felt incredible to be sitting in the office of the head of CNN Entertainment, asking him questions about a picture of him with a pigtailed Britney Spears on the wall. From the day MJ passed away to the day I interviewed Dave Levine, this internship has helped to show me that I really am on the right track in my aspiring career path.

The Alumni Office is hoping to renew anold tradition of hosting department receptions for alumni during Homecoming Weekend.  Dr. Jansen and Dr. Taub-Pervizpour were happy to be on hand on a beautiful fall morning to catch up with Media and Communicaiton graduates Rosalind Newsholme ‘07 and Elizabeth Kelsey ‘04.  Rosalind is in her third year of law school at Dickinson and Liz works on Capitol Hill.

…The Communication Club!  A pumpkin designed by Lisa Siciliano, Ben Rosen and Cathie Marie Roca won Best in Muhlenberg Spirit and $100 during Homecoming Weekend.  Congratulations!

The Communication Club continues its efforts to provide members first hand exposure to some of the Lehigh Valley’s most prestigious and cutting edge communication firms.  Most recently, club members visited Altitude Marketing on October 22 where they learned about the firms diverse services, including PR, web design, international advertising, and marketing campaigns.

Club members had a chance to ask Altitude professionals about best practices and career advice.  Rachel Albert, president of the club, described the visit as “extremely informative.”  “We really appreciated the experience to talk one-on-one with professionals.  It was especially great to learn more about careers in public relations and communications, and see how an agency runs on a daily basis.”

See the agency’s press release covering the event for more details.  And if you’re not attending Media and Communication Club meetings, now’s a good time to get involved!

Thinking about an internship but not sure how to find one?

Too busy to think about an internship or just not sure its for you?

If you answered “yes” to either question, you should attend an internship information session with  Professors Kahlenberg, Ranieri and Sullivan, Tuesday, November 3, at 7 p.m. in Seegers 110.

This session will provide juniors and seniors with timely and practical guidance on why to do an internship, tips for finding internships that match your interests and needs, and how to apply for internships following college and department guidelines.

With the unemployment rate reaching a twenty-six year high, college graduates entering the job market today face exceptional challenges. The competition is fierce. New graduates must compete for scarce jobs with experienced professionals whose jobs disappeared in the recent waves of layoffs.

How can you prepare for this challenge?

In the field of media and communication, internships are a must! Even in good economic times, many employers will not consider applicants for entry-level communication positions unless they have successfully completed one or more internships in the field. Some supervisors of prestigious internships will not even consider applicants for internships who have not already had previous internship experience. In the current economic climate, you need to do everything you possibly can to prepare for what is ahead. In addition to the resume building work experience that internships provide, they can also help you to network with professionals who can provide you with letters of recommendation and future job leads. Sometimes internships can even lead directly to job offers.

Because of the exceptional economic climate that our students are now facing, the Media and Communication Faculty is taking extraordinary measures to encourage and facilitate internships. We urge all students to seriously consider adding an internship to your spring schedule.