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The award-winning Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism is seeking applicants for a full-time multimedia internship for the summer of 2020.
The multimedia intern will create photojournalism, video stories, graphics and/or data visualizations to support the production of our investigative stories. The intern will also assist with the digital production of stories, including sourcing visuals and building stories on our website, WisconsinWatch.org, using our WordPress platform.
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.
Pay for the internship is $12 an hour. The full-time summer schedule is about 40 hours per week for 12 weeks and is flexible, running from June through August. The application deadline is 5 p.m. Friday, April 3, 2020.
Interns are provided office space in Vilas Communication Hall and can use their own laptops and cameras, or use the Center’s gear.
Some travel around Wisconsin will be required, so having access to a car, or the ability to rent a car is preferred, but the lack of either will not exclude anyone from the internship.
We especially encourage members of traditionally underrepresented communities to apply, including women, people of color, LGBTQ people and people with disabilities.
If you have just some of the skills listed below, or others we failed to list, please consider applying for this position, especially if you are a candidate whose experience includes working with diverse members of the public. We are a small, nimble organization that makes the best use of the skills of our staff and is dedicated to developing them.
About the multimedia internship
The multimedia intern will work with the staff of Wisconsin Watch, the Center’s news outlet, and media partners to produce high-impact visual investigative journalism on government integrity and quality of life issues. The intern will receive training and coaching from Wisconsin Watch’s news team, including the digital and multimedia director.
Preferred skills include experience with photojournalism and/or videojournalism and multimedia production. Web, audio and data viz skills are desirable, but we can tailor the internship to make the best use of your talents, and provide training in other areas. Experience with Photoshop, Adobe Premiere, Photo Mechanic, and/or Wordpress is desirable. Bonus skills include animation and graphic design.
The multimedia intern will assist Wisconsin Watch’s digital and multimedia director in creating and procuring visuals for all of our reports, as well as producing visually appealing web presentations of our stories. The intern will also help with reporting and story production as needed by the editorial team, and assist the public engagement and marketing teams as needed.
Wisconsin Watch is working on a number of ambitious projects including Narrow Margin, an investigation of voter suppression, disinformation and voting system integrity in the 2020 election in Wisconsin; an investigative podcast examining police and prosecutorial misconduct in Wisconsin; and News414, which will deliver news via text message to residents of 18 underserved Milwaukee neighborhoods. In addition, the Democratic National Convention is happening July 13-16 in Milwaukee, and may require visual coverage for Wisconsin Watch.
To apply for the internship, applicants must submit the following in electronic form to digital and multimedia director Coburn Dukehart at cdukehart@wisconsinwatch.org:
- A one-page letter describing why you should be selected for the position.
- Resume including work and journalistic experience, awards, GPA and three references.
- A photo or video portfolio, ideally on a personal website that showcases your work. Please include a selection of portraits, or images including people. If you don’t have a website, send a selection of digital files in a Google folder.
Questions about the internship may be directed to Dukehart via email or by calling 202-271-8228. Or stop by the Center’s office in Room 5142 of Vilas Communication Hall.
About the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism
The Center began operating in 2009. It increases the quality, quantity and understanding of investigative reporting in Wisconsin, while training current and future generations of investigative journalists. Its work fosters an informed citizenry and strengthens democracy. The Center is guided by its values: Protect the vulnerable. Expose wrongdoing. Explore solutions. It focuses on government integrity and quality of life issues such as the environment, education, the economy, health, and the justice system.
Our multimedia journalism digs into undercovered issues, documents broken and failing systems and puts findings into regional and national context.
The Center collaborates with Wisconsin Public Radio, Wisconsin Public Television, news organizations across the nation, and the UW-Madison School of Journalism and Mass Communication.
Wisconsin Watch’s reports are published on WisconsinWatch.org, the Center’s website; and are made available for free to print, online and broadcast news organizations through our own distribution plus a nationwide partnership with the Associated Press. Since 2009, the Center has produced nearly 380 major news reports that have been cited, published or broadcast by more than 890 newspapers, radio and TV stations and news websites in Wisconsin and nationwide, reaching an estimated audience of nearly 99 million people.
Stories produced by Wisconsin Watch’s staff, interns and classroom collaborations have received professional recognition, including 77 Milwaukee Press Club awards, a national Sigma Delta Chi/Society of Professional Journalists award and a Regional Edward R. Murrow Award.
The Center’s 48 former interns and fellows are thriving in journalism and related fields. They have worked for news organizations across the nation and around the world, including the Wall Street Journal, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, The Telegraph, Business Insider, Vox, The Progressive, Better Government Association, Institute for Nonprofit News, Public Radio Exchange, Wisconsin Public Radio, WisContext, WisPolitics.com, NBC, Appleton Post-Crescent, The Nation, The Associated Press and others.
The Center embraces diversity and inclusiveness in its journalism, training activities, hiring practices and workplace operations. The complex issues we face as a society require respect for different viewpoints. Race, class, generation, sexual orientation, gender and geography all affect point of view. More details about the Center’s journalistic and financial operations are available at: https://wisconsinwatch.org/about/
The nonprofit Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism (wisconsinwatch.org) collaborates with Wisconsin Public Radio, PBS Wisconsin, 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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