The award-winning Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism is seeking applicants for three paid summer internships.
The interns will report on investigative stories and may use other skills, including photography and data analysis and visualization, to produce investigative coverage.
The internships will begin in June 2014 and end in August. The internships may be extended.
Eligibility is limited to undergraduate and graduate students who are enrolled, at the time of application, in the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Journalism and Mass Communication, where the nonprofit and nonpartisan Center is based.
Pay is $10 an hour. The schedule is about 40 hours per week and is flexible.
The application deadline is 5 p.m. Monday, Dec. 16, 2013.
Interns are provided office space in Vilas Communication Hall.
Interns receive intensive training and experience in interviewing, researching and writing. They work with the Center’s staff and partners at Wisconsin Public Radio and Wisconsin Public Television to produce high-impact investigative journalism on government integrity and quality-of-life issues.
Interns also assist mainstream and ethnic media outlets around Wisconsin in investigative coverage. Some travel around Wisconsin may be required. Access to a vehicle and a laptop is required.
In-depth, investigative and computer-assisted reporting skills are preferred. Web, audio and video skills are desirable.
Reports are distributed by WisconsinWatch.org, the Center’s Web site; public radio and television; and news organizations around the state.
Applicants must submit the following in electronic form to Executive Director Andy Hall at ahall@wisconsinwatch.org:
- One-page letter describing why you’re qualified for the job.
- Resume including work and journalistic experience, awards, GPA and two references.
- Up to five examples of published or broadcast work. Students who want to do photos, videos or other multimedia should provide portfolios.
- One story pitch, no longer than three paragraphs. A pitch is not a topic. It should summarize the story in a single sentence, and explain who is affected by the situation, why the public should care, and how you plan to get it done.
Questions may be directed to Hall at ahall@wisconsinwatch.org, 608-262-3642, or in the Center’s office, 5006 Vilas Communication Hall.
The Center strives to increase the quality and amount of investigative reporting across Wisconsin and to train the current and next generations of investigative journalists while creating a replicable, collaborative model for local investigative journalism. The Center is guided by its values: Protect the vulnerable. Expose wrongdoing. Seek solutions. It focuses on government integrity — particularly the role of money in politics and policymaking — and quality of life issues of importance to the people of Wisconsin, including the environment, justice system, education, economic issues, health and public safety.
Over the past three years, stories produced by the Center’s staff, interns and classroom collaborations have received 17 Milwaukee Press Club awards, a citation from the Dane County chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness, and twice has been named a finalist in the student category of the Investigative Reporters and Editors Awards. In 2012, the Center’s collaboration with the UW-Madison journalism school won the Associated Press Media Editor’s first Innovator of the Year for College Students award.
The Center’s former interns are thriving in journalism and related fields. They have worked for news organizations across the nation and around the world, including the Green Bay Press-Gazette, WisPolitics.com, Voice of San Diego, NBC, Appleton Post-Crescent, The Nation, Yakima Herald Republic, Forbes and The Associated Press.
More details about the Center’s journalistic and financial operations are available at: https://wisconsinwatch.org/about/
The nonprofit Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism (www.WisconsinWatch.org) collaborates with Wisconsin Public Radio, Wisconsin Public Television, other news media and the UW-Madison School of Journalism and Mass Communication. All works created, published, posted or disseminated by the Center do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of UW-Madison or any of its affiliates.
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