I’ve been asked a lot recently — by friends in the U.S., by American friends in Costa Rica, by Costa Rican friends in Costa Rica — why I’m continuing my internship at PBS MediaShift while studying abroad at la Universidad Nacional.
It’s a two-pronged answer, one answer more honorable than the other.
Non-profit newsrooms, and the organizations that fund them, stand to gain a great deal by knowing the impact of their reporting on local communities.
But impact is not easy to compute, according to a recent report from the Investigative Reporting Workshop (IRW) at American University’s School of Communication in Washington, D.C.
“There is a discussion that has been going on now for a few years … There’s still not a complete consensus,” said Chuck Lewis, co-author on the study. He is the founding executive editor of the non-profit IRW, the largest university-based reporting center in the country.
Today was my last full day in Liberia, one of the bigger cities in Guanacaste, the northwest region of Costa Rica.
I had a great time climbing volcanoes, touring the clubs and dancing/singing with ticos.
But one the best, worst parts of my first week here: Spanish.
Read the rest of the post here.
UPDATE: July 22
I misspoke in the original headline, “Learning Spanish, poco por poco.” The saying is, “poco a poco.” Clearly I’m not learning Spanish as quickly as I thought. h/t to Paige Jones for pointing out the error.
I’m continuing the tradition of blogging about my internships for the American University Career Center. First TIME and USA Today Tech, now PBS MediaShift.
I had the pleasure to secure an internship at PBS MediaShift this summer!
Amy Eisman, my “Writing and Editing for Convergent Media” professor, first told me that Mark Glaser, executive editor of MediaShift, was searching for an intern to work on their weekly podcast, “Mediatwits.”
Though I wasn’t initially selected after the three-step application process (resume and cover letter, exercises, and then an interview), Mark did hire me to come on as an editorial intern to blog and edit the site for the summer.
A few weeks later, Mark’s first pick for their podcasting intern had to go, and he promoted me to work on the podcast as well with double the pay.
Photo by Scott Beale/ Laughing Squid
I had the pleasure of interviewing New York Times Public Editor Margaret Sullivan on Friday.
The majority of our conversation focused on her column after the massacre in Newtown, Conn. and journalism’s prerogatives in breaking news situations, the subject on my upcoming maiden piece for PBS MediaShift.
But the end of our conversation turned to American University, where I currently study:
SULLIVAN: Are you a student at American?
ME: I am, yeah.
SULLIVAN: Ah, that’s great. I understand they have a good program.
And that’s that. Maybe the School of Communication can take that to the bank?
Check in soon to see the full piece on how America’s newsrooms handle breaking news.
Zach C. Cohen 