Department of Media, Culture, and Communication

Internships - Media, Culture, and Communication

Information for Employers

Our students have established an outstanding reputation as interns for leading corporations, small entrepreneurial entities, and non-profit organizations. We ask employers to think of interns as individuals to mentor. We expect that the students do not displace regular employees, but work under their close observation.

Guidelines

We welcome professional development opportunities directly relevant to the study of media, culture, and communication. In order for listings to appear on our internship page, opportunities must meet the high standards of the department and will be activated at our discretion. Interns must have a supervisor, a physical office space to work in, and may not telecommute or be asked to use their own personal equipment such as their own laptop or camera. Students may not work on commission, may not be asked to promote products on campus, and may not replace a position normally performed by a paid staff member. Postings will not be approved if submitted with a personal email address (i.e. gmail, yahoo, hotmail) or without a valid company address and phone number.

Please note: We often have more than 200 employers seeking interns; therefore, we cannot guarantee applicants or send an email blast for each individual posting. It is up to students to review postings and to decide which positions to apply for.

How to Post an Opportunity

If you would like to post an internship specifically for students in the NYU Department of Media, Culture, and Communication, please complete our internship posting form. Be certain to carefully format the text, including attention to line breaks, bold font, and bullets. The text will appear in the format in which it is submitted. After you submit the form you will receive an email asking for verification of the submission. Once verified, it will be reviewed by our staff. If the position is approved,  students will be able to view your listing via our department's password-protected online database.

It is best to post your opportunity approximately 6-8 weeks in advance of the traditional academic semester. Your posting will remain visable to students until the end of the semester's registration period. 

Additional Recruitment Resources @ NYU

Our database is mainly accessed by students in the NYU Department of Media, Culture, and Communication. Students in our department primarily study the socio-political aspects of media. In addition, consider posting your ad through:

NYU Wasserman Center for Career Development
133 East 13th Street, 2nd Floor
Tel. (212) 998-4730 | Fax (212) 995-3827
careerdevelopment.employers@nyu.edu
  • If you are seeking students with news writing and news editing experience, contact:
Craigh Barboza
Career Services Specialist
New York University
Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute
(212) 998 3837
Craigh.Barboza@nyu.edu

Credit or Pay?

Increasingly, recruitment of interns has become competitive. With this in mind, we recommend that employers offer some compensation to interns. It is up to the individual organization to determine what amount of compensation will be offered to the student. Compensation is not only a recruitment tool, but allows students to focus on their course-work and internship experience while relieving some of the financial burden of studying and living in NYC. If the internship is paid, the student can choose whether or not they want to register for academic credit.

Our internship course allows students to earn academic credit for internships related to our program of study. The course is designed to provide Media, Culture, and Communication majors with the opportunity to gain quality, career-related experience. Our goal is to encourage students to apply the critical thinking and theoretical concepts learned through coursework within a professional work environment.

In order to earn credit for an internship our students must be  junior, senior or graduate level, and must register by the end of the drop/add period. Typically, this period is within the first 3 weeks of the semester. Students can choose to earn either two or four credits per semester (not to exceed 6 during their academic career) based on how many working hours are spent at the company (see chart below). Please note that these are MINIMUM hours worked, i.e. students can decide to work as many hours as acceptable under federal employment law and earn only one credit.

Credit to Hours Worked Ratio
2 credits= 90 hours worked
4 credits= 180 hours worked

Students handle the registration process with their academic advisor to intern for course credit.

Registration Process

It is our students' responsibility to register for internship credit. 

Step One
Students determine if they are eligible to intern for credit and, if so, how many credits they would like to take towards the internship. See the eligibility requirements.

Step Two
Students register by submitting an Internship Registration Form. This form has a section that the employer fills out and a section that the student fills out. Since an original signature is needed from the employer, ideally students should plan to meet with the supervisor in person and complete the form together. It is designed to create an opportunity for the student and employer to discuss goals for the internship and facilitate a clear line of communication in terms of expectations.

Step Three
Students may either fax the form to the attention of "Media, Culture, and Communication Advisement Staff" at 212-995-4046, or bring it to the department front desk at 239 Greene Street, 7th Floor. Once the form is approved, the internship will be added to the student's course schedule. 

Registering for a credit-based internship is considered an academic undertaking. Students are asked to read through an Internship Guidelines Packet and understand the evaluation standards for the course including the portfolio assignment required of students receiving academic credit for internships.

How Students Are Evaluated

Students who earn credit for their internships are asked to complete a research portfolio. We consider the portfolio the centerpiece of the internship. Students are asked to conduct an in-depth analysis of the company including a weekly summary of media produced there. Depending on the company, this could be a description of the news stories produced, journal articles written, press releases made or press kits assembled, marketing events organized, new talent recruited, etc.

Among other research methods, we strongly encourage students to read the company web site and annual report, decipher the ownership structure of the company, and conduct informational interviews with key people at the company. Please be as accommodating as possible to make their experience educational.

Finally, we ask that the company complete our intern evaluation form. Students can either email this to their supervisor or bring in a hard copy of the form. Some companies also choose to write the student a general letter of reference that they may present on future interviews.

Contact

NYU's Wasserman Center for Career Development offers a broad range of university-wide employer services. Students with questions about interning for course credit need to speak with their assigned academic advisor.