Our Virtual Classroom: Journalism Ethics During A Global Pandemic.
Voices of University of Arkansas Students Spread Across the Nation
April 23, 2020
Question of the Day: For today’s poll, on polleverywhere.com, we will shift back to looking at the business side of journalism during the global pandemic. We have seen how economic pressures have affected the industry, especially the part concentrated on producing local news. And hopefully we have learned that journalists hypothetically stand a better chance of meeting ethical standards when they have the financial support to concentrate on their journalistic mission. A crucial part of that business is enlisting new generations of journalists to join in that greater mission.
Today’s lecture will delve into the state of the journalism business for those hoping to enter the field. This poll will seek to find out how our changing economy is affecting your search for a job or internship. For the purposes of this poll, I would like to hear about whatever job search you have been conducting: in journalism, advertising-public relations, or some other field. As always, I will be fielding extended comments by e-mail.
Here’s the question. Since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, my employment prospects have:
______________________________________________________________________________________________________
Since the onset of the virus, my employment prospects remain in the planning stages as I concentrate on completing school. This upcoming fall, I will be getting my master’s at the University of Arkansas, so I haven’t had too many employment prospects.
Mary Green
______________________________________________________________________________________________________
The coronavirus has hurt my job prospects economically. I was in the final rounds of an internship for this summer that was cancelled. I was extremely lucky however to receive a different internship offer. This internship is in the marketing and sales field and will be done almost entirely online. I was hoping to work the job I had last summer, being a ziplinee tour guide, again this summer, but they are currently closed because of the pandemic. I feel lucky to be able to make any money this summer even if I will lose some of the experience that an in-person internship would have given me. I am excited for my internship this summer and so glad I am able to do it remotely from Kansas as I have many friends who have lost their internships.
Courtney Sakmar
______________________________________________________________________________________________________
I think it is safe to say that every industry is being affected economically by the pandemic besides grocery stores and liquor stores. My internship this summer is at a summer camp and is unrelated to journalism. However, they still haven’t made a call as to whether camp is still happening or not. So as of now, I still have my internship, but who knows what will happen. As for a journalism job, I still haven’t received an offer for anything in the fall and my expectations are low of whether I will get a job or not. Stay tuned!
Macey Charboneau
______________________________________________________________________________________________________
Earlier this semester, I got into the Journalism/Communications track of The Fund For American Studies. I would have taken a class at George Mason, stayed in the George Washington dorms, and been matched with an internship at an outlet in D.C. A few weeks ago, the program was moved to a virtual, remote one for obvious reasons. The internship director said he thought he could still find me a virtual internship with some outlet, but he wasn’t able to find me anything prior to the date by which I needed to decide whether to do the program or get a full refund. I decided I couldn’t risk not getting an internship at all after spending thousands in tuition and program fees just to take an online class I can’t even get credit for here. I realized that in these times, the more prudent thing for me to do would be to try and work for money this summer. I have been interviewed for another (paid) summer internship, but the outlet has no idea yet when they will be able to start it. All they know is that they will not be able to start in June.
Sarah Komar
______________________________________________________________________________________________________
I selected “Remained the same – I have a longer-term job lined up” because luckily I found a job since I’ve been home from school. I started applying and interviewing as soon as the pandemic became such a large concern nationwide and have found a job with an IT staffing company in Northwest Arkansas. To my benefit, most Northwest Arkansas companies need additional IT efforts currently since so much consuming is being done online. This makes my future company’s workload more than usual, causing them to need more manpower. I feel very grateful to have found a job with everything going on because I know a lot of people who are struggling to find something during this time.
Tristan Winters
______________________________________________________________________________________________________
The coronavirus has not only affected me in terms of prospective internships, it has also affected many of my friends. Most of my friends could not find internships and those who could were cancelled other than one of my friends, and hers was simply moved to online work. However, I believe that in such a special circumstance, this issue and inability to work in an internship capacity will not set us back in terms of job opportunities in the future. I believe it gives us as students time to develop and sharpen skills needed for the workforce, or to take classes needed for our majors, etc. I believe in the end things will work out for those of us in college, although we are not necessarily working with internships this year.
Katie Beth Nichols
______________________________________________________________________________________________________
Today’s poll hit home for me. I previously had five interviews for internships all across the country for this summer. Last summer I interned at KNWA/Fox24 in Fayetteville, and this was going to be my chance to see what it is like to be a journalist outside the state that I have lived my entire life. When the pandemic hit many of my prospects cancelled the programs before I even heard back. I am devastated and battling with how to continue my development without an internship this summer.
Heidi Kirk
______________________________________________________________________________________________________